tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5598883894140893389.post6258021244314575947..comments2024-01-02T22:01:12.976+00:00Comments on Avedon's Sideshow: In madness and fearAvedonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04702100335744054401noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5598883894140893389.post-19165198201607038152019-04-20T19:25:26.338+01:002019-04-20T19:25:26.338+01:00Unless they still have something we don't know...Unless they still have something we don't know, there doesn't seem to be any strong indicator that "connections" between businessmen and lobbyists and consultants amounts to "collusion". It seems rather obvious that Trump never wanted to be president and didn't expect to win and extremely unlikely in the first place that he would be orchestrating (or even able to orchestrate) Russian interference in our election.<br /><br />It also seems unlikely that crayon drawings of Bernie in speedos or claims that Clinton was "too soft on Iran" or Joy Reid retweets or illiterate claims that "Hillary is a Satan" convinced a single potential Clinton voter to stay at home or vote for Trump.<br /><br />Again, a Democrat had been in the White House for eight years and it was never likely that a Republican would fail to win the office even if the economy had been good, which it most emphatically was not. It was a change election, just as it had been eight years earlier, and people were even more desperate for change. Hillary was undoubtedly the worst candidate we could have chosen, but I doubt any establishment Dem could have won. Hillary never ran that strong in the polls against any Republican (Kasich would have been the sure winner in that race). Her polling tanked immediately after every paper in the US headlined a coming spike in Obamacare premiums. <br /><br />People want to forget this now because during the earlier parts of the primary season, the election maps were bluer than they'd ever been, *as long as Sanders was still in the race*. Everyone felt like we actually had more than a shot at keeping the White House out of GOP hands. No one seemed to pay attention to the fact that the minute Hillary seemed the obvious primary winner, the maps went back to their usual great swathes of red. This was about American voters, not Russians.Avedonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04702100335744054401noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5598883894140893389.post-90515922518567988642019-04-20T02:51:55.567+01:002019-04-20T02:51:55.567+01:00Now that we have much of the Mueller report we kno...Now that we have much of the Mueller report we know: Russian meddling was not a fantasy of Democratic apologists. Trump and his campaign staff were, at least, useful idiots, in Soviet propagandist Willi Muenzeneberg's lovely phrase. Mueller was not able to prove conspiracy because it's not clear that there were agreements between Trump and his campaign officials to break the law, but there were plenty of connections with the Trump campaign, what we colloquially call "collusion."<br /><br />We also now know that Russian meddling in the election was much more extensive than anyone outside of the Russia (and perhaps US counterintelligence) knew; it may actually have swung the election by flipping the critical north midwestern states.<br /><br />It is time to put that argument away.<br /><br />Good coverage of this from a counterintelligence perspective: https://www.lawfareblog.com/what-mueller-found-russia-and-obstruction-first-analysisRaven Onthillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06634556869209594389noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5598883894140893389.post-9658799765581863332019-04-12T04:08:57.964+01:002019-04-12T04:08:57.964+01:00Trump and Russia. A-hem!
https://www.esquire.com/...Trump and Russia. A-hem!<br /><br />https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a25444928/michael-cohen-sentencing-donald-trump-paul-manafort/<br />https://talkingpointsmemo.com/weekly-primers/trump-russia-primer-january-11-manafort-trump-poll-data-russian<br />https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/nyt-report-paul-manafort-owed-pro-russia-interests-millions-before-trump<br /><br />I don't know why anyone claims no connection (aside from Trump, who lies about everything) the evidence is overwhelming.Raven Onthillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06634556869209594389noreply@blogger.com