Vlad Is Busy Man

[SHMIV]

Apparently, Putin manipulated a Trump win, here in the States:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/poli ... /95230696/

(I was going to post the WahPo link, but I've hit their monthly pay wall)

Now, it seems he's busy unseating Merkel:

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/741 ... ficial-cia

I'm hesitant to believe this, of course. But, my general position on conspiracies being what it is, I can't discount the possibility of it, either. Supposing that there is truth to this, it's kind of scary to think that Moscow has that much power in the world. On the other hand, on a worldwide scale, if Putin does have that much influence (which, again, I'm hesitant to believe that he does), it's interesting to think that he would use that influence to sway national elections in such fashion to place people in positions of power, who are more nationalist in nature, as opposed to globalist.

Myself, harboring no ill will to Germany, I would like to see Merkel unseated. The German people would be better off, Europe would be better off, and I think that the world would be better off, too.

As long as Putin is playing King Maker, maybe he can influence France towards Marine LePen (sp?). I wouldn't want her running things here, but I think she'd be great for France, for the time being.

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[smltooner]

I agree, that everyone would be better off without Merkel.

[Reverenddel]

You mean, "Putin who has more backbone than the CURRENT president?" Sure. Whatever, He probably got tired of dealing with (expletive deleted), and said

"Dis eelection moost end so I have REEEEL mahn to negotiate." (Drinks vodka for breakfast).

[SHMIV]

Lol, yeah, that Putin.

John Bolton suggests that this whole thing is a false flag:

http://thehill.com/homenews/309897-bolt ... false-flag

That sounds a bit more probable to me. I mean, we've been hearing the Dems hollering about Russian hacking for months. Now, suddenly, conclusive evidence that Russia influenced the election, which, by the way, lends very nicely to the notion that Trump is about to be an illegitimate President? Right... That's just a little too convenient.

Consider, though, even if Russia was behind those hacks, that means that Hillarys server, which absolutely, positively, without a doubt, was in no danger of being hacked by the Russians, actually got hacked by the Russians. That exposes some hubris and incompetence, at the very least. Plus, there was all that content from the DNC.

That aside, Putin didn't have James Comey reopen the Hillary case, nor did he have anything to do with Weiners indiscretions. Putin had nothing to do with Bills penchant for raping women, or Hillary covering up those rapes. And Putin didn't have anything to do with Hillary sending Americans to their deaths in Benghazi, or the Clintons complete absorption of the Haiti funds. The Clintons, and other Democrats, pulled off all their crookedness on their own.

Really, though, if Putin is behind the exposure of Clinton corruption, he did us a favor. Although, even so, I don't know how much of a difference that really made, when one considers that Trump had the message, knew how to deliver that message, and campaigned tirelessly to get the message out. Plus, all the other factors.

This whole thing is silly.

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[jdonovan]

I find it seriously hypocritical given all the elections and governments around the world that the USA has screwed with, that we are suddenly over the moon, when someone might have done it to us.

[Swampman]

As an infamous racist once said, "The chickens have come home to roost!"

[jmax]

I was told first that it was Comey that cost the Hildibeast the election, then it was racist with males, that moved to the uninformed un washed masses, no one mentioned that she did not visit critical states like Wisconsin and Michigan, that she has the personality of nurse Cratchit or a bad case of drizzles an drips after eating spicy foods, abandoning men in harms way, colluding with the press, no real ideas on helping the country improve and being a class A liar. Now it is the Russians hacking the elections, well I'll be dipped that must be why she lost.

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[SHMIV]

Seems that not everyone in the spy community is on board with the CIA assessment:

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN14204E?il=0

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[WRW]

The thin reed... Russia released Clinton e-mails and not Trump e-mails? Maybe nothing from Trump was worth reading. Perhaps. Could be.

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[Swampman]

Guessing they'll be working for Obama until he leaves office and they're replaced.

[SHMIV]

Interesting and relevant viewpoint:

http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/12/opinions/ ... _expansion

This is an opinion piece, but given that the writer has some cautious optimism in regard to Trump, I am fairly surprised that CNN lent it's platform to the opinion. The author also doesn't seem to lend much credence to the notion that Putin had any discernable effect on the election, even if he was the mastermind behind the DNC hacks.

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[Swampman]

Let me pose this question - What is it that Putin would probably like to have in a new US president? Predictability. He spent that past 8 years making Obama look foolish. It was easy for him to do and the results were . . . predictable.

Given this, wouldn't you think he would have done everything he could to get Hillary elected? Why would he want a cowboy like Trump in there? He has no idea what Trump will do in any given situation.

Just a thought.

[smltooner]

Makes perfect sense to me, Swampman.

[SHMIV]

That's a good assessment; it would be pretty easy for Putin to take advantage of the United States under Hillary.

But, on the other hand, Trump seems less willing to paint Russia and Putin as a villain, and also seems likely to be inclined to possibly come up with policy that will be equally and mutually beneficial to both countries.

So, keeping in mind that Putin has an interest in preserving Russian greatness, is his end goal world domination, or simply controling his region? If it's the former, I would suggest that Hillary would be preferable, but if it's the latter, then perhaps Trump would be better to work with.

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[Swampman]

I don't believe Putin is intent on world domination. I don't think he believes that is possible given the military build-up China is experiencing.

As for Trump, and how he fits into all of this, Trump is (as I believe Obama correctly pointed out) still in campaign mode. Albeit a toned down version. Trump may have been advised to tread lightly, although he may have missed that advice on the day he was briefed on China.

After his election is affirmed tomorrow, I think we may see the rhetoric ratcheted up some. He may become a little more belligerent towards Russia and China as well. However, think about Trump's business interests. He has to be (or at least should be) thinking about the fact that he won't be president after a time and will need to assimilate back into the business community. If he pisses off foreign governments he has (and does) have business relations with he does two things: 1) he makes it difficult on the people running his businesses while he is in office; and 2) he makes it difficult to pick up where he left off.

Not sure what Trump will do, but he seems to heading in some directions that I would support.

Let me float another far-fetched theory. Trump will step down before the end of his first term because he doesn't have the temperament for the office of president, and he can't stand being away from what he loves best which is business.

[SHMIV]

I don't believe Putin wants to rule the world, either.

Judging from Trump's choice for Secretary of State, I think that Trump is inclined to play nice with Putin and Russia. And, yes, Trump is most definitely thinking about his business interests. Indeed, the fact that Trump has such broad business interests is part of why I'm comfortable with Trump being President; it should help keep him in line. Also, I'm convinced that Trump is more diplomatic than he lets on. He fired a lot of people from his campaign, and they continued to support him afterwards. Further, Mitt Romney, after having met Trump, went from being full anti-Trump to having nice things to say about him, even after he didn't get the Secretary of State position. Actually, the fact that Trump would even consider Romney for the post, speaks well for Trump. It shows that he's not petty, and is willing to put things behind him.

None of us are sure what Trump will actually do, once sworn in; all we can do is speculate. But, yes, he seems to be off to a pretty positive start, thus far.

I doubt that Trump will step down. His temperament is fine. Also, Trump delegates. If he sees that whoever he delegated whatever task to, isn't accomplishing that task satisfactorily, that guy will be fired, and the task will go to someone else. He's not making appointments based on favors, so I don't see being stuck with bad folks over a political arrangement. And, we've already seen that he doesn't keep anyone on staff because of personal feelings.

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[Swampman]

We'll be watching!

[mamabearCali]

You know I don't care if aliens hacked the emails and gave them
To wikki leaks.

First of all that is precisely WHY we insist that our elected officials use secured email accounts.


Second, Hillary, her staffers, and the DNC wrote the emails. They aren't alleging that the Russians forged these. So they don't like that their corruption was exposed. Tough cookies. Your despeicalbe
Underbelly got exposed and now instead of cleaning yourself up
You want to whine that you were exposed.

They are like my 12-18 month olds that poo their diapers then fuss when mommy comes over and makes them lie down and get clean.

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