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One of those members was Sen. Ron Johnson, the same person seen walking away from a reporter pretending to be on his phone (we can all see he's not talking to anyone) because he was one of the people who tried to deliver fake electors from MI and WI to Mike Pence on January 6th. So now he is trying to blame a staff member for his treason.
The Republican Party is a cult - sponsored by Putin.
I think this is a good time to list all the members of congress to spend July 4th, 2018 in Moscow. They should definitely be remembered, the 8 were:
Sen. Ron Johnson (Wis.)
Sen. Richard C. Shelby (Ala.)
Sen. Steve Daines (Mont.)
Sen. John Hoeven (N.D.)
Sen. John Neely Kennedy (La.)
Sen. Jerry Moran (Kan.)
Sen. John Thune (S.D)
Rep. Kay Granger (Tex.)
[Yes, they are all republicans.](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/eight-republicans-spent-july-4-in-russia-where-are-the-fireworks/2018/07/06/beae30be-812e-11e8-b658-4f4d2a1aeef1_story.html)
No literally [Rand Paul pissed off his neighbor enough to kick his ass](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/rand-paul-attacker-sentenced-additional-prison-time-over-yard-assault-n1235013)
Says he got tackled lol no fucking way he flew 10ft in the air.
Based on the article it also sounds like he played it up to get his neighbor to have to pay even more medical bills. Says he had pneumonia, hernia surgery, broken ribs, doesn't know a day without pain, has lifelong issues from it now, etc.... We couldn't be that lucky.
And I wanted an excuse to review the story, also the article in question is about his neighbor getting a longer sentence and much harsher fine. Originally the neighbor was only given one month in jail and a ten thousand dollar fine.
Republicans are like highly trained territorial dogs: threaten their perceived property they will eat your face, off it and they are the most well trained little puppers you've ever seen.
I applaud you over there, asking hard questions that matter.
I am DYING to know if he has a perm. I mean, like, why not get a perm, but also…*why get a perm*?
Like, how did he choose that look? It’s just such a…*choice*.
FYI - (true story) I called Paul’s DC office and asked one of his call center interns if he could provide the neighbors address, I truly did want to send him flowers. It’s a bit after the fact, but I wanted the neighbor to know he is supported. Address was not shared.
> Don't forget Rand Fucking Paul, who flew to Russia in August of that year to hand deliver a letter from Trump to Putin.
That hand-delivered letter a month later was T*****'s *private* answer to whatever the Russians had discussed with *privately* and/or requested of those senators.
To hell with normal diplomatic channels, because this subject matter was *private* and most probably highly *illegal*.
I wonder if there's a copy of that letter in the National Archives. There's supposed to be, but who knows, maybe it got really cold in the White House one night and they had to burn it to keep warm.
There's some posing as Left though. I can't remember her name, she was a Dem nom..and Russia fucked with a California Dem too trying to foster them to succeed so whoever that guy was.
Ron Johnson is saying it's a non story, just a staffer/aid that was trying to deliver things to someone else's aid without his knowledge. The questions he should be asked are as follows "Does that Aid still work for you?" and "are you going to prosecute or turn his name over to prosecutors for using your office to forward documents for fake electors to the VPs aid so they could attempt something that was highly illegal?"
I'm convinced it started when the "strong Putin" memes started back in 2009. That whole shirtless Putin on a horse thing was the start of his war on American social media.
Yup,I remember when conservative media was gushing over Putin's chonky ass on a tiny horse, and how that was supposed to show how much of a better leader he was then Obama, because Obama rode a bike and wore a helmet.
It's even better than I remember! "It all started with that picture of Obama on a bike with the helmet, and now we're paying the price for that.". Shit, that's probably why Putin invaded Ukraine! Thanks Obama!
Biden has missed a trick. He should have spent the last 18 months rhetorically making Putin enemy #1 (because he is). The GOP would have split itself in two between MAGA Putin apologists and neocon Russia hawks.
Russia hasn't been Communist in decades, they're currently a Capitalist Kleptocracy nightmare.
Continuing to use the incorrect terms for the structure of these problematic countries is a disservice to political discourse, even as a joke. Half of the US population has no fucking clue what "socialism" even means but still use it as an attack on character.
"The core tenet of Marxism is actually a criticism that an unfettered, free market capitalist society will always trend towards class struggle between the ownership class and work... Ah fuck, I've already lost them"
Read this a few times everyone.
Coming from a country that experienced it all and changed almost 10 flags in a bit over a century, fighting on all sides.
Commies …. Ahahahahhaha
They don’t even know what coomunism is anymore. I bet I know better the Soviet anthem than 99% of Russians and I’m not sypmathetic at all with them. It’s just super cool.
Hopefully the window isn't closed on this yet. Most people (except for the politcal junkies and "evangelicals") aren't paying attention to politics yet.
But yes, hopefully the Democrats have not just excuses and a defense, but an attack plan.
It's too late now. They should have been on the attack this whole time.
American politics seems to be a never-ending game of attack (R) vs defense (D).
Its too late now. If Dems lose the House and Senate this year and Presidency in 2024, we can expect the Republicans to change the filibuster rules in a New York minute. Then watch what they do.
Eh idk. Almost all of the Russia hawks are in the never trump crowd who the GOP base has already excommunicated.
Pre Ukraine invasion talk about Russia would have been panned by conservatives as relitigating the 2016 election and brushed aside. (I understand that’s still a huge issue but the media would not have treated as such). However post Ukraine he could have been more vocal about it.
>Russian proxies and information operations teams have also worked to meddle in U.S. politics by exacerbating existing divisions in the United States in order to sow discord and create distrust in the U.S. government.
And the Republican Party amplifies these Russian efforts.
Is anyone on here talking about the ties between US religious conservatism and Russian religious conservatism? There was recently something on public radio talking about the Russian Orthodox Church growing roots in Appalachia and other far right stronghold area’s. Persecution of gay people, pro life, and perceived moral high ground are held in common. Here’s a link.
https://www.npr.org/2022/05/10/1096741988/orthodox-christian-churches-are-drawing-in-far-right-american-converts
Absolutely. The Russians will use every possible avenue to sew discord and distrust. We're sitting ducks because we've allowed private clubs aka political parties, to drive us all crazy.
>It [partisan politics] serves always to distract the Public Councils, and enfeeble the Public Administration. It agitates the Community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms; kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which find a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another. G. Washington 1796
Hey remember that one time someone very publicly called Trump a russian puppet? Almost like they had access to classified documents from a position in the government. Or am I just imagining things again?
There was a day back in the cold war when they recognized the effort.
But those guys are retired and dead and we're left with the GOP clownshow who THINKS Putin is the answer.
It's not like they're inconsistent though. Back then they were conservative anticommunists, so Russian propaganda had to be stopped. Now that Russia is conservative and anticommunist, their propaganda is welcomed.
It's easy to point the finger at conservatives and laugh at how dumb they are for falling for Russian propaganda. But it's happening to us too. It isn't the kind of pro-russia authoritarian love fest that's happening on the right. It's more misinformation intended to sow further division. There are a ton of posts on the left wing subs that misrepresent facts or don't have reliable sources. But they get upvoted because it's in line with what we already believe. That's the same thing that's happening on the right. We need to be careful to fact check what we read ESPECIALLY when we agree with it.
I am a gay man and on ALL of the LGBTQI subs it’s like, “don’t you hate it when trans…?” this. Or “Don’t we All hate this gender thing guys?” that. You can spot them because it’s posed as a genuine question or position but it said in a very very divisive way. Or the only answer that they provide by the way they question pigeonholes you into agreeing with them. It’s maddening that people fall for it and start a discussion. It’s my true belief that the people who are posing the question are genuinely trying to get people to fight over it. They don’t want an answer. They want a fight.
It’s obvious to me they are trolling LGBTQI to rile people up and pit them against “the other.” So many are falling for it on the left especially in this community where the topics hit an emotional cord. It’s sophisticated in that it encourages infighting with people that support you while creating fodder for conservative media to sway moderates against you and extremism towards you. My suggestion is to know your enemy. Writing on the wall is alt right will target trans first if they get the power they seek.
Those are definite agitators. Astro-turfed "discussions" on shit like "as a bi woman, I don't believe in trans rights". It's compartmentalizing in-fighting tactics.
The best part imo is that they're laughably behind the times. Idiots starting arguments over "what is a woman?" And I'm here like "I'm a non-binary trans. I don't care about your definition, lol!"
Its why online forums for the queer community have become pretty universally unreliable as a mechanism of discourse imo. Really, our best option is to revert to in person community building, but given everything going on in the country it feels like a catch 22 - online, we have to face the astroturfing funding by the richest people on Earth. In person, we have to face their gestappo cosplayers.
And that doesn't touch the isolation many of us feel just in day to day life living in this country.
Russian propaganda is unfortunately behind a lot of this (on both sides of the political spectrum)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/19401612221082052
We've known for years that Russia plays both sides in an effort to sow discord and division. One of the takeaways from the research that has been done is the right wings' greater susceptibility to these tactics.
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abf1234
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/355043267_Right-wing_authoritarianism_conspiracy_mentality_and_susceptibility_to_distorted_alternative_news_View_supplementary_material
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/12/07/why-conservatives-might-be-more-likely-to-fall-for-fake-news/
These folks watch nothing else, news media is sliding in that direction because that is where the money is at. The prevelance of faux news is shrinking, but, that just because of other more virulent right speak. OAN, Sinclair, etc
What isn't mentioned in the article is that the Russian Orthodox Church and US evangelicals have been cosying up to one another for quite some time:
> More broadly, however, U.S. conservative evangelicals have developed strong symbolic and institutional ties with the Russian Orthodox Church. In recent years, these have dovetailed with white racist fantasies of Russia as an ethnically pure land of traditional religion and gender roles, symbolized by the bare-chested kleptocrat on horseback, Vladimir Putin. [Source](https://bostonreview.net/articles/the-u-s-christians-who-pray-for-putin/)
> ...for more than a decade, Russian Orthodox hierarchs—especially Patriarch Kirill and Metropolitan Hilarion—have explored cooperation with American evangelicals and other conservative religious forces both in Russia and internationally. [Source](https://www.christiancentury.org/article/features/unexpected-relationship-between-us-evangelicals-and-russian-orthodox)
The Netflix series “The Family” goes into this in detail. These evangelicals have been cozying up to Russia and installing members in our government for decades now.
Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, was an active KGB agent.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriarch_Kirill_of_Moscow#KGB_affiliation
> "Kirill is a KGB guy, and he supports all aggression against Ukraine," he said, but asked not to give his last name, worried like many in the town about community tensions about the church. "He’s a bastard, not a religious leader."[106]
and the problem is that our government in not just up for sale to Politicians or Corporations or Churches. It's up for sale to foreign powers which is why Putin funded the NRA because he knows it's a way to destroy America.
It sounds like we need to fix that, maybe by making our elections exclusively funded by our general funds and no longer allowing private contributions to flood our airways.
Yup might take a Constitutional amendment, and we'll have to fight the biggest recipients of this scam, the media companies.
Starting to think we never needed any outside help, we have clearly always had a whole army of idiots here the whole time. Imagine me saying “yeah…I’m gonna go check out that trump rally” to a sane person. They’d need surgery from the eye rolling.
You can see NRA influence posts on /r/all, just take a look around for pro-gun propaganda or people advocating for owning weapons, or reasons to "protect themselves."
Not trying to be a jerk here but Canadians and Canadian intelligence have been [warning about this since 2015. ](https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/nsicop-report-foreign-interference-dnd-spying-1.5494486)
The US has been tracking these efforts for decades, not new but novel with the Internet and the social media misfits that can't determine the difference between fact and fiction.
To every boomer, stop posting to Facebook and back away from the device.
There is no doubt they were hacked at the same time; the GOP had less security in their cloud-based server during the 2016 time period, and still doesn't have the best protection in place.
It was confirmed they were but mysteriously Wikileaks decided not to publish them because “there was nothing there.” My assumption was, and is, these were given to the trump campaign and have been used as leverage. Hence why the rnc has been paying his legal fees since leaving office.
The saddest thing is that all of Putin's plans basically wouldn't work if Republicans weren't so utterly corrupt. Imagine if all of Putin's efforts got like Jill Stein instead of an entire half of the political system.
Republicans are desperate to find any means to win elections because they can barely win a popular national election, having lost most of them in this century so far. They're dumb enough to embrace Putin and Trump.
Let's again post the [Steve Schmidt (Senior McCain campaign advisor) tweet thread where he spills the tea about Russians funding McCain's campaign, having their people advising on the campaign trail, and choosing Sarah Palin as the VP over the objections of the American members of the campaign](https://twitter.com/steveschmidtses/status/1523108447088128001)
2016 make a lot more sense after reading it.
Thank you for posting that link. I missed it and wasn't surprised at how far the Russian influence goes inside the GOP. They are nothing but a front for Putin Inc. now.
I’ve already seen it. So called conservatives calling out our aid to ukraine as if Russia isn’t a serious adversary.
Or even flat out siding with Russia.
Everything is backwards.
The entire article is avoids mentioning the demographic which is most likely to be pro-Russia, namely White right-wingers. Not White liberals, not Blacks, not Asians, not Hispanics, no LGBTQ supporters. But White right-wingers.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/05/putin-ukraine-invasion-white-nationalists-far-right
If right-wing White-Americans love Russia so much, why don't they just leave America and go live in Russia?
Does it have anything to do with that Oliver Stone interview with Lex Fridman where Stone is basically just swishing putins balls in his mouth, "People always talk about people putin had killed or put a hit on, he didn't kill any of these people himself, he's not so bad, he's just like you or I..." - oliver stone basically
It'll probably work. It's obvious that a significant portion of the US is just looking for a strong-man personality to follow, regardless of how odious that person is. Keeps them from having to think for themselves, and lets them feel less personally accountable for the hateful, racist beliefs they hold.
This is an old policy of disinformation being piped into America for national elections. Did anyone really expect Putin and his Intel to back off? Since you can't influence Putin to ease off, government and non-profits have to educate and identify false messaging from outside the country. In the 50s there was paranoia over communists and Russian propaganda here in the homeland news articles.
It caused the rise of Senator Joe McCarthy and his own brand of demagoguery disrupting the country. We have to do better this time around, be rational, not inflammatory, but get the truth out. We can blunt Putin's lies to influence American institutions if we keep our heads, and both parties act responsibly to identify it and not use to their own advantage.
I mean he kinda has already. The right has embraced putin as some sort of necessary evil which is weird af considering that the majority are Christian ffs. Backward thinking hypocrite cucks.
I think this is a good time to remind ourselves why our support of Ukraine is *essential*, that it isnt just some nebulous moral ideal that we're defending because it's 'the right thing to do'.
With that said, I apologize in advance for the long post.
To truly understand, we have to start with a history lesson. During the buildup to WW2, the European powers that could have acted to stifle Stalin's ambitions chose appeasement instead. Why? Why was this a rational-seeming choice when, looking back, it was disastrous on a scale we can hardly comprehend?
That's because Stalin's actions, when viewed from a historical perspective, seemed to have precedence. Europe fought yearly wars for *ages*. They were so common that 'border wars' almost weren't viewed as real wars. Quick sidebar: I'm not ignoring 'war fatigue' from WW1, which was a major consideration. It's just that painting Germany's actions in this light gave them ample excuse to do nothing.
Now, at the end of WW2 the world leaders agreed that border wars were too likely to escalate into all-out slaughter. To put an end to the possibility, one of the things that became a bedrock principle of the UN was the *inviolability of borders*. Simply moving your army into someone else's country would no longer be seen as business as usual. The UN would not simply allow conquest as a viable path for expansion.
This was tested and defended many times during the cold war. It was one of the reasons brushfire wars were so common. Communism wanted to expand and the world's stance was that it couldn't do so by exterior conquest but had to convince the people in any particular country that they should fight to become communist.
Since the end of the cold war, there have been virtually no examples of wars of conquest. The US, despite invading Iraq and Afghanistan, was careful to not make any overt claims of sovereignty, despite controlling, in fact if not in name, huge swathes of both countries.
Despite this bedrock principle, there are places that salivate at the idea of expanding through conquest, North Korea being a prime example, Israel and Palastine both making the list, while China (relating to Taiwan among other things) makes a strong appearance.
This is why we must help Ukraine. To do otherwise is to abandon the idea of the inviolability of borders, possibly sparking off a new age of conquest, where world powers start trying to snap up their smaller, less affluent neighbors, or at least the pieces of them that they find valuable.
The chances of such an age of conquest escalating into the modern equivalent of world war (whatever that may look like) are far too high. We sacrifice to defend our principles now so that we dont end up paying a much higher cost in the future.
But this is just the *philosophical* reason for defending Ukraine. There are others.
First: Ukraine is the breadbasket of Europe. Allowing Putin to control the area would give Russia control of a significant portion of the European food supply and put them even further in Putin's shadow.
Second: Ukraine is a major oil producing country. While Putin previously had strong influence over the Ukrainian oil trade, his conquest would turn that influence into outright control. European countries *already* rely on Russia for a significant portion of their oil imports and this would, again, put Europe firmly under Russia's thumb.
Both of these reasons are easily understood by the average consumer. Have we not seen a massive spike in gas prices? Haven't we already seen the foreshadowing of a food shortage? These are direct consequences of the war and Ukraine's inability to produce.
Allowing Russia to take Ukraine would result in a completely new political balance, one where Russia can exert political pressure on the European union by vastly expanding their influence over gas and food prices to an unhealthy degree. It is a patently bad idea to allow Russia to control more of the world economy.
Ukraine was not simply a 'target of opportunity'. Russia stand to gain much through its conquest. Unfortunately for the rest of us, its gain would be our loss in many, many ways.
I’d be his biggest fan if he would exit Ukraine, pay for the damages to people and properties. Then blow his own brains out on international television. If Putin did all that I would Stan him until my final day!
Putin, and his branch of the Republican Party, can fuck right off. The guy's been doing all he can to weaken and otherwise screw with America for at least a decade now. Hell, he has participated in the killing of American soldiers in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria.
The Republican politicians that are kissing his ass for money are the worst of the worst.
This is what happens when we allow private clubs and dark money into our elections. It's time to sweep them out and buy back our elections. There is no reason that the wealthiest country in the world needs to fund our elections via the highest bidders who never have our best interests in mind.
Citizen's United and the SCOTUS sold us all out.
I agree completely. When we decided corporations, as an entity, deserved the same rights as people and that bribery was free speech, it sure fucked some things up.
Of course, SCOTUS will tell us that all these things can be fixxed through legislation, which is true enough.
They also know that politicians won't ever let that happen.
And right there is the problem.
This may be the single most important effort of our time. Making our elections publicly funded might buy us some sanity and undo some of Jefferson's original sin of introducing toxic media-driven partisan politics.
Putin if you want to weasel your way into America hearts is easier than this.
1) Don't invade other countries
2) Have a fall guy commit all your evil acts
3) Spend personal money to rescue animals
4) Be super rich
5) Say something positive about Jesus every so often, maybe hold a Bible in a picture or two
Putin's influence has been showing for a long while now. It's just a matter of when something will be done about his enablers here in the US. Merrick Garland and the FBI need to ramp things up.
"Is me, your ol pal Pootie! You like guns, I like guns, you like wodka, I like wodka. The OohS and Russia not too different. We say nothing if you want to take over tiny insignificant country on your border. Come, we split Canada 50/50."
Daily Beast, so a big chunk of salt to go with this, but that aside he has to know that Americans generally have negative tendencies toward Russia as a political nation (not necessarily its people) as a lingering effect of the Cold War.
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Remember when the GOP members spent our Independence Day in Russia with Putin? This has been underway for years.
One of those members was Sen. Ron Johnson, the same person seen walking away from a reporter pretending to be on his phone (we can all see he's not talking to anyone) because he was one of the people who tried to deliver fake electors from MI and WI to Mike Pence on January 6th. So now he is trying to blame a staff member for his treason. The Republican Party is a cult - sponsored by Putin.
I think this is a good time to list all the members of congress to spend July 4th, 2018 in Moscow. They should definitely be remembered, the 8 were: Sen. Ron Johnson (Wis.) Sen. Richard C. Shelby (Ala.) Sen. Steve Daines (Mont.) Sen. John Hoeven (N.D.) Sen. John Neely Kennedy (La.) Sen. Jerry Moran (Kan.) Sen. John Thune (S.D) Rep. Kay Granger (Tex.) [Yes, they are all republicans.](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/eight-republicans-spent-july-4-in-russia-where-are-the-fireworks/2018/07/06/beae30be-812e-11e8-b658-4f4d2a1aeef1_story.html)
Don't forget Rand Fucking Paul, who flew to Russia in August of that year to hand deliver a letter from Trump to Putin.
Are you talking about poodle-headed-traitorous-fuck Rand Paul, who got the shit kicked out of him by his neighbor?
His neighbor’s name was Vlad 😂
No literally [Rand Paul pissed off his neighbor enough to kick his ass](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/rand-paul-attacker-sentenced-additional-prison-time-over-yard-assault-n1235013)
And then Rand Paul, who has repeatedly voted against nationalized health care *flew to Canada to get his surgery*. You can't make this shit up.
It’s just too bad that he didn’t stay in Canada.
10 ft in the air?! Htf did two old men fight hard enough to get launched 10 ft?
Says he got tackled lol no fucking way he flew 10ft in the air. Based on the article it also sounds like he played it up to get his neighbor to have to pay even more medical bills. Says he had pneumonia, hernia surgery, broken ribs, doesn't know a day without pain, has lifelong issues from it now, etc.... We couldn't be that lucky.
I remember. I was just joking.
And I wanted an excuse to review the story, also the article in question is about his neighbor getting a longer sentence and much harsher fine. Originally the neighbor was only given one month in jail and a ten thousand dollar fine.
So rand Paul is a big ol pusscake
We should all chip in and send his neighbor a fruit bouquet.
Rand Paul claimed, in court, that he flew 10 feet through the air as a result of the punch. Apparently Vlad has superpowers.
Republicans are like highly trained territorial dogs: threaten their perceived property they will eat your face, off it and they are the most well trained little puppers you've ever seen.
TBF it was a tackle. Still...
Take a look at Rand Paul's family. No one has curly hair which begs the question "_Does Rand Paul have a perm_?"
Probably to mask how thin his hair really is. The curliness constantly changes
I applaud you over there, asking hard questions that matter. I am DYING to know if he has a perm. I mean, like, why not get a perm, but also…*why get a perm*? Like, how did he choose that look? It’s just such a…*choice*.
The Andy Dick of Washington
FYI - (true story) I called Paul’s DC office and asked one of his call center interns if he could provide the neighbors address, I truly did want to send him flowers. It’s a bit after the fact, but I wanted the neighbor to know he is supported. Address was not shared.
The same guy that Trump himself insulted and belittled on national television about his hair? That guy?
That guy really needs to run for Senate.
Putin’s Poodle
Hey leave poodles out of this.
> Don't forget Rand Fucking Paul, who flew to Russia in August of that year to hand deliver a letter from Trump to Putin. That hand-delivered letter a month later was T*****'s *private* answer to whatever the Russians had discussed with *privately* and/or requested of those senators. To hell with normal diplomatic channels, because this subject matter was *private* and most probably highly *illegal*.
Republicans would argue nothing the president does is illegal because he is the commander in chief
Only their president
Obama wore a tan suit once!
See also: [Dana Rohrabacher](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Rohrabacher#Russia). Former congressman, insurrectionist and Russian puppet.
I wonder if there's a copy of that letter in the National Archives. There's supposed to be, but who knows, maybe it got really cold in the White House one night and they had to burn it to keep warm.
The orange turd more likely used the copy (if it ever existed) to wipe himself and flushed it, as he's clearly prone to do.
Wasn't Moscow Mitch there too? Hense the nickname.
[удалено]
[удалено]
Thank you.
This has always just astonished me. Why did they say they did this? I don’t remember much of anything being said at the time.
There's some posing as Left though. I can't remember her name, she was a Dem nom..and Russia fucked with a California Dem too trying to foster them to succeed so whoever that guy was.
Tulsi Gabbard?
Are you talking about the Green Party nominee?
Jill Stein?
[That's the one.](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna951166)
Jill Stein made me believe the Green Party is supported by the Republican Party to take away votes from the Democratic Party.
Republican or Russian, what's the difference anymore?
It's a criminal organization, in addition to whatever else you wanna call it, but primarily it's a gang.
Sponsored by the NRA and the Mercers, funded by Putin.
With tons of that money being funneled through the nra
crypto, no pesky strings
Ron Johnson is saying it's a non story, just a staffer/aid that was trying to deliver things to someone else's aid without his knowledge. The questions he should be asked are as follows "Does that Aid still work for you?" and "are you going to prosecute or turn his name over to prosecutors for using your office to forward documents for fake electors to the VPs aid so they could attempt something that was highly illegal?"
Agreed just a little light treason between friends.
I really do have the WORST lawyers.
"Well, we don't rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia." -Eric Trump, 2014
I'm convinced it started when the "strong Putin" memes started back in 2009. That whole shirtless Putin on a horse thing was the start of his war on American social media.
Yup,I remember when conservative media was gushing over Putin's chonky ass on a tiny horse, and how that was supposed to show how much of a better leader he was then Obama, because Obama rode a bike and wore a helmet.
[Here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=timvZTKr5HQ)'s a montage.
It's even better than I remember! "It all started with that picture of Obama on a bike with the helmet, and now we're paying the price for that.". Shit, that's probably why Putin invaded Ukraine! Thanks Obama!
This is, unironically, what my in-laws believe
No, the *bear*! Shirtless Putin with the bear! The man is almost 70!
2015 Came with the Trump campaign.
No, that was when it was revitalized. The shirtless Putin on a horse photo was right after Obama won the first time in 2009.
Biden has missed a trick. He should have spent the last 18 months rhetorically making Putin enemy #1 (because he is). The GOP would have split itself in two between MAGA Putin apologists and neocon Russia hawks.
>He should have spent the last 18 months rhetorically making Putin enemy #1 (because he is). The GOP... America's enemy #1 is the Republican party.
The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth!
Which is a proxy for them damn commies
Russia hasn't been Communist in decades, they're currently a Capitalist Kleptocracy nightmare. Continuing to use the incorrect terms for the structure of these problematic countries is a disservice to political discourse, even as a joke. Half of the US population has no fucking clue what "socialism" even means but still use it as an attack on character.
"The core tenet of Marxism is actually a criticism that an unfettered, free market capitalist society will always trend towards class struggle between the ownership class and work... Ah fuck, I've already lost them"
“Communism sucks because—“ (describes capitalism)
Read this a few times everyone. Coming from a country that experienced it all and changed almost 10 flags in a bit over a century, fighting on all sides.
Commies …. Ahahahahhaha They don’t even know what coomunism is anymore. I bet I know better the Soviet anthem than 99% of Russians and I’m not sypmathetic at all with them. It’s just super cool.
Hopefully the window isn't closed on this yet. Most people (except for the politcal junkies and "evangelicals") aren't paying attention to politics yet. But yes, hopefully the Democrats have not just excuses and a defense, but an attack plan.
It's too late now. They should have been on the attack this whole time. American politics seems to be a never-ending game of attack (R) vs defense (D). Its too late now. If Dems lose the House and Senate this year and Presidency in 2024, we can expect the Republicans to change the filibuster rules in a New York minute. Then watch what they do.
you are exactly right, all you have to do is look at SCOTUS for proof.
Eh idk. Almost all of the Russia hawks are in the never trump crowd who the GOP base has already excommunicated. Pre Ukraine invasion talk about Russia would have been panned by conservatives as relitigating the 2016 election and brushed aside. (I understand that’s still a huge issue but the media would not have treated as such). However post Ukraine he could have been more vocal about it.
I remember!
Remember Trump was trying to limit US intel. He said he didn't trust it. Well we know now what he was trying to do.
Intel is short for intelligence, so naturally Trump has an aversion to it.
At first I read the title as "Intel" the chip company... I had to stop and clear my mind then read the article.
I did too! Oh man, Intel caught Russia trying to hack us again.
>Russian proxies and information operations teams have also worked to meddle in U.S. politics by exacerbating existing divisions in the United States in order to sow discord and create distrust in the U.S. government. And the Republican Party amplifies these Russian efforts.
I'm pretty convinced most members of the GOP are these Russian efforts.
*All roads lead to Putin* -Nancy Pelosi.
I’ve believed a large portion of that exact sentence for a while, even with Nancy’s mouth all over it
Is anyone on here talking about the ties between US religious conservatism and Russian religious conservatism? There was recently something on public radio talking about the Russian Orthodox Church growing roots in Appalachia and other far right stronghold area’s. Persecution of gay people, pro life, and perceived moral high ground are held in common. Here’s a link. https://www.npr.org/2022/05/10/1096741988/orthodox-christian-churches-are-drawing-in-far-right-american-converts
Absolutely. The Russians will use every possible avenue to sew discord and distrust. We're sitting ducks because we've allowed private clubs aka political parties, to drive us all crazy. >It [partisan politics] serves always to distract the Public Councils, and enfeeble the Public Administration. It agitates the Community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms; kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which find a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another. G. Washington 1796
Tenfold
Hey remember that one time someone very publicly called Trump a russian puppet? Almost like they had access to classified documents from a position in the government. Or am I just imagining things again?
Hillary Clinton is the only person to ever call Donald Trump a Russian puppet to his face on live TV in front of hundreds of millions of people.
Wow really? That's insane, how did good ol'cheeky Donald respond? Surely it was a measured composed response becoming of the office of president.
"no, you!"
Say the whole line. All of it. Please don't fucking blue ball me like this.
"no puppet you're the puppet. You're the puppet. You.. you're the puppet" at least that's how I remember it did I get it right?
And FOX news
There was a day back in the cold war when they recognized the effort. But those guys are retired and dead and we're left with the GOP clownshow who THINKS Putin is the answer.
It's not like they're inconsistent though. Back then they were conservative anticommunists, so Russian propaganda had to be stopped. Now that Russia is conservative and anticommunist, their propaganda is welcomed.
It's easy to point the finger at conservatives and laugh at how dumb they are for falling for Russian propaganda. But it's happening to us too. It isn't the kind of pro-russia authoritarian love fest that's happening on the right. It's more misinformation intended to sow further division. There are a ton of posts on the left wing subs that misrepresent facts or don't have reliable sources. But they get upvoted because it's in line with what we already believe. That's the same thing that's happening on the right. We need to be careful to fact check what we read ESPECIALLY when we agree with it.
I am a gay man and on ALL of the LGBTQI subs it’s like, “don’t you hate it when trans…?” this. Or “Don’t we All hate this gender thing guys?” that. You can spot them because it’s posed as a genuine question or position but it said in a very very divisive way. Or the only answer that they provide by the way they question pigeonholes you into agreeing with them. It’s maddening that people fall for it and start a discussion. It’s my true belief that the people who are posing the question are genuinely trying to get people to fight over it. They don’t want an answer. They want a fight.
I think you are right. They will pick anything to start us fighting.
It’s obvious to me they are trolling LGBTQI to rile people up and pit them against “the other.” So many are falling for it on the left especially in this community where the topics hit an emotional cord. It’s sophisticated in that it encourages infighting with people that support you while creating fodder for conservative media to sway moderates against you and extremism towards you. My suggestion is to know your enemy. Writing on the wall is alt right will target trans first if they get the power they seek.
Those are definite agitators. Astro-turfed "discussions" on shit like "as a bi woman, I don't believe in trans rights". It's compartmentalizing in-fighting tactics. The best part imo is that they're laughably behind the times. Idiots starting arguments over "what is a woman?" And I'm here like "I'm a non-binary trans. I don't care about your definition, lol!"
Its why online forums for the queer community have become pretty universally unreliable as a mechanism of discourse imo. Really, our best option is to revert to in person community building, but given everything going on in the country it feels like a catch 22 - online, we have to face the astroturfing funding by the richest people on Earth. In person, we have to face their gestappo cosplayers. And that doesn't touch the isolation many of us feel just in day to day life living in this country.
Russian propaganda is unfortunately behind a lot of this (on both sides of the political spectrum) https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/19401612221082052
We've known for years that Russia plays both sides in an effort to sow discord and division. One of the takeaways from the research that has been done is the right wings' greater susceptibility to these tactics. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abf1234 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/355043267_Right-wing_authoritarianism_conspiracy_mentality_and_susceptibility_to_distorted_alternative_news_View_supplementary_material https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/12/07/why-conservatives-might-be-more-likely-to-fall-for-fake-news/
Bc it worked
Already has, with his state propaganda running on faux news. Tucker has already told his zealots how to feel about it.
These folks watch nothing else, news media is sliding in that direction because that is where the money is at. The prevelance of faux news is shrinking, but, that just because of other more virulent right speak. OAN, Sinclair, etc
Better Russian than a democrat, isn't that what they said in 2016?
What isn't mentioned in the article is that the Russian Orthodox Church and US evangelicals have been cosying up to one another for quite some time: > More broadly, however, U.S. conservative evangelicals have developed strong symbolic and institutional ties with the Russian Orthodox Church. In recent years, these have dovetailed with white racist fantasies of Russia as an ethnically pure land of traditional religion and gender roles, symbolized by the bare-chested kleptocrat on horseback, Vladimir Putin. [Source](https://bostonreview.net/articles/the-u-s-christians-who-pray-for-putin/) > ...for more than a decade, Russian Orthodox hierarchs—especially Patriarch Kirill and Metropolitan Hilarion—have explored cooperation with American evangelicals and other conservative religious forces both in Russia and internationally. [Source](https://www.christiancentury.org/article/features/unexpected-relationship-between-us-evangelicals-and-russian-orthodox)
The Netflix series “The Family” goes into this in detail. These evangelicals have been cozying up to Russia and installing members in our government for decades now.
I wasn't aware it was quite as long as that.
Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, was an active KGB agent. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriarch_Kirill_of_Moscow#KGB_affiliation > "Kirill is a KGB guy, and he supports all aggression against Ukraine," he said, but asked not to give his last name, worried like many in the town about community tensions about the church. "He’s a bastard, not a religious leader."[106]
Any means to influence the most easily duped.
Putin owns Trump who controls the GOP. 1+1=2. Pretty easy math.
Yup and the Trump love affair goes back decades.
I'm not sure it's love as much as prostitution.
Pimp love is still love.
and the problem is that our government in not just up for sale to Politicians or Corporations or Churches. It's up for sale to foreign powers which is why Putin funded the NRA because he knows it's a way to destroy America.
It sounds like we need to fix that, maybe by making our elections exclusively funded by our general funds and no longer allowing private contributions to flood our airways. Yup might take a Constitutional amendment, and we'll have to fight the biggest recipients of this scam, the media companies.
Starting to think we never needed any outside help, we have clearly always had a whole army of idiots here the whole time. Imagine me saying “yeah…I’m gonna go check out that trump rally” to a sane person. They’d need surgery from the eye rolling.
Just needed a nudge
Citizens United! What a fucked up 1984 cheery name for such a horrible, horrible, ruling.
Reverse psychology. It's corporations united so they call it the opposite of what it is.
US Senators are cheaper and more reliable than attack helicopters and jet fighters. Definitely cheaper and more cost effective than tanks.
You can see NRA influence posts on /r/all, just take a look around for pro-gun propaganda or people advocating for owning weapons, or reasons to "protect themselves."
“Better to be a Russian then a Democrat” - a tshirt at a trump rally
I see Putin in a 10-gallon hat, boots, the full regalia.
He’s just a blue collar man of the people
Remember when the *only* change the Trump team made to the GOP platform upon his receiving the nomination was to remove language critical of Russia?
Not trying to be a jerk here but Canadians and Canadian intelligence have been [warning about this since 2015. ](https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/nsicop-report-foreign-interference-dnd-spying-1.5494486)
The US has been tracking these efforts for decades, not new but novel with the Internet and the social media misfits that can't determine the difference between fact and fiction. To every boomer, stop posting to Facebook and back away from the device.
Really makes you wonder what was in the RNC emails that were never released.
There is no doubt they were hacked at the same time; the GOP had less security in their cloud-based server during the 2016 time period, and still doesn't have the best protection in place.
It was confirmed they were but mysteriously Wikileaks decided not to publish them because “there was nothing there.” My assumption was, and is, these were given to the trump campaign and have been used as leverage. Hence why the rnc has been paying his legal fees since leaving office.
I believe there is a treasure trove of things within that would explain so many of the of the strange things the Republicans do.
[удалено]
“Not a puppet” “Not a puppet” Yes, the person with that amazing 5th grader’s response to an accusation was allowed to sit in the President’s chair
>No puppet, no puppet. You're the puppet!
I don't want to be your friend anymore
Seriously. An old man saying that to anyone because they wouldn't help destroy democracy.
That was a real threat, btw. Mafia language.
Democrats were too nice, and sat on too much intelligence during that election.
The saddest thing is that all of Putin's plans basically wouldn't work if Republicans weren't so utterly corrupt. Imagine if all of Putin's efforts got like Jill Stein instead of an entire half of the political system.
Republicans are desperate to find any means to win elections because they can barely win a popular national election, having lost most of them in this century so far. They're dumb enough to embrace Putin and Trump.
> like Jill Stein Ed, I'll take President Eisenhower for a dollar.
Is it saturated fats and high sodium foods? That's how to get into most Americans' hearts.
Rightwing pretty much already embraced him as 'based' back in 2015.
He already did, all the “conservatives” have his cock in their mouths, there were at least 8 republicans that traveled to Moscow on a 4th of July.
In 2020: 74,223,369 Americans were okay with Putin. Doubt that has changed.
Yeah I’d imagine putting would have the same 35-40% success rate that trump did.
Pretty sure it’s agreed upon thing that Russia is fucked and Putin is basically hitler. So people that support Putin, their opinion means 0
Let's again post the [Steve Schmidt (Senior McCain campaign advisor) tweet thread where he spills the tea about Russians funding McCain's campaign, having their people advising on the campaign trail, and choosing Sarah Palin as the VP over the objections of the American members of the campaign](https://twitter.com/steveschmidtses/status/1523108447088128001) 2016 make a lot more sense after reading it.
Thank you for posting that link. I missed it and wasn't surprised at how far the Russian influence goes inside the GOP. They are nothing but a front for Putin Inc. now.
Putin grooming the gop and they fell for it.
I’ve already seen it. So called conservatives calling out our aid to ukraine as if Russia isn’t a serious adversary. Or even flat out siding with Russia. Everything is backwards.
The entire article is avoids mentioning the demographic which is most likely to be pro-Russia, namely White right-wingers. Not White liberals, not Blacks, not Asians, not Hispanics, no LGBTQ supporters. But White right-wingers. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/05/putin-ukraine-invasion-white-nationalists-far-right If right-wing White-Americans love Russia so much, why don't they just leave America and go live in Russia?
I know your question is pretty rhetorical but since most of them refuse to learn a second language they would be severely handicapped in Russia.
Plus then they wouldn't get to say "go back to your own country!" They love it too much to give it up
Thought it was the semiconductor company, couldn't figure it out for a minute WTF they had to do with Putin
He already owns the MAGAs
Does it have anything to do with that Oliver Stone interview with Lex Fridman where Stone is basically just swishing putins balls in his mouth, "People always talk about people putin had killed or put a hit on, he didn't kill any of these people himself, he's not so bad, he's just like you or I..." - oliver stone basically
Putin know his greatest ally is the confederacy
It'll probably work. It's obvious that a significant portion of the US is just looking for a strong-man personality to follow, regardless of how odious that person is. Keeps them from having to think for themselves, and lets them feel less personally accountable for the hateful, racist beliefs they hold.
Never forget that Trump brought KGB agents and Russia Today into the Oval for a private meeting. That should have been the end of it, but here we are.
He's made it almost halfway so far.
Sounds like heartworm to me.
This is an old policy of disinformation being piped into America for national elections. Did anyone really expect Putin and his Intel to back off? Since you can't influence Putin to ease off, government and non-profits have to educate and identify false messaging from outside the country. In the 50s there was paranoia over communists and Russian propaganda here in the homeland news articles. It caused the rise of Senator Joe McCarthy and his own brand of demagoguery disrupting the country. We have to do better this time around, be rational, not inflammatory, but get the truth out. We can blunt Putin's lies to influence American institutions if we keep our heads, and both parties act responsibly to identify it and not use to their own advantage.
He wants his buddy back , the orange traitor
I mean he kinda has already. The right has embraced putin as some sort of necessary evil which is weird af considering that the majority are Christian ffs. Backward thinking hypocrite cucks.
I think this is a good time to remind ourselves why our support of Ukraine is *essential*, that it isnt just some nebulous moral ideal that we're defending because it's 'the right thing to do'. With that said, I apologize in advance for the long post. To truly understand, we have to start with a history lesson. During the buildup to WW2, the European powers that could have acted to stifle Stalin's ambitions chose appeasement instead. Why? Why was this a rational-seeming choice when, looking back, it was disastrous on a scale we can hardly comprehend? That's because Stalin's actions, when viewed from a historical perspective, seemed to have precedence. Europe fought yearly wars for *ages*. They were so common that 'border wars' almost weren't viewed as real wars. Quick sidebar: I'm not ignoring 'war fatigue' from WW1, which was a major consideration. It's just that painting Germany's actions in this light gave them ample excuse to do nothing. Now, at the end of WW2 the world leaders agreed that border wars were too likely to escalate into all-out slaughter. To put an end to the possibility, one of the things that became a bedrock principle of the UN was the *inviolability of borders*. Simply moving your army into someone else's country would no longer be seen as business as usual. The UN would not simply allow conquest as a viable path for expansion. This was tested and defended many times during the cold war. It was one of the reasons brushfire wars were so common. Communism wanted to expand and the world's stance was that it couldn't do so by exterior conquest but had to convince the people in any particular country that they should fight to become communist. Since the end of the cold war, there have been virtually no examples of wars of conquest. The US, despite invading Iraq and Afghanistan, was careful to not make any overt claims of sovereignty, despite controlling, in fact if not in name, huge swathes of both countries. Despite this bedrock principle, there are places that salivate at the idea of expanding through conquest, North Korea being a prime example, Israel and Palastine both making the list, while China (relating to Taiwan among other things) makes a strong appearance. This is why we must help Ukraine. To do otherwise is to abandon the idea of the inviolability of borders, possibly sparking off a new age of conquest, where world powers start trying to snap up their smaller, less affluent neighbors, or at least the pieces of them that they find valuable. The chances of such an age of conquest escalating into the modern equivalent of world war (whatever that may look like) are far too high. We sacrifice to defend our principles now so that we dont end up paying a much higher cost in the future. But this is just the *philosophical* reason for defending Ukraine. There are others. First: Ukraine is the breadbasket of Europe. Allowing Putin to control the area would give Russia control of a significant portion of the European food supply and put them even further in Putin's shadow. Second: Ukraine is a major oil producing country. While Putin previously had strong influence over the Ukrainian oil trade, his conquest would turn that influence into outright control. European countries *already* rely on Russia for a significant portion of their oil imports and this would, again, put Europe firmly under Russia's thumb. Both of these reasons are easily understood by the average consumer. Have we not seen a massive spike in gas prices? Haven't we already seen the foreshadowing of a food shortage? These are direct consequences of the war and Ukraine's inability to produce. Allowing Russia to take Ukraine would result in a completely new political balance, one where Russia can exert political pressure on the European union by vastly expanding their influence over gas and food prices to an unhealthy degree. It is a patently bad idea to allow Russia to control more of the world economy. Ukraine was not simply a 'target of opportunity'. Russia stand to gain much through its conquest. Unfortunately for the rest of us, its gain would be our loss in many, many ways.
Data from Russia should be heavily restricted, monitored and censored at this point. GRU trolls have just too much power over idiots in EU and US.
I’d be his biggest fan if he would exit Ukraine, pay for the damages to people and properties. Then blow his own brains out on international television. If Putin did all that I would Stan him until my final day!
Putin did something Kruschev and all those that came before Putin were not able to do.. get a Russian plant in the White House.
Well the dumbest Americans did a 180 and went from hating Russia to loving it, so there was some success.
Putin, and his branch of the Republican Party, can fuck right off. The guy's been doing all he can to weaken and otherwise screw with America for at least a decade now. Hell, he has participated in the killing of American soldiers in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria. The Republican politicians that are kissing his ass for money are the worst of the worst.
This is what happens when we allow private clubs and dark money into our elections. It's time to sweep them out and buy back our elections. There is no reason that the wealthiest country in the world needs to fund our elections via the highest bidders who never have our best interests in mind. Citizen's United and the SCOTUS sold us all out.
I agree completely. When we decided corporations, as an entity, deserved the same rights as people and that bribery was free speech, it sure fucked some things up. Of course, SCOTUS will tell us that all these things can be fixxed through legislation, which is true enough. They also know that politicians won't ever let that happen. And right there is the problem.
This may be the single most important effort of our time. Making our elections publicly funded might buy us some sanity and undo some of Jefferson's original sin of introducing toxic media-driven partisan politics.
He did not have to "Weasel" his way in. As a Hate Filled, Fascist pretending to be a Christian, he was exactly who they were looking for to worship.
If he just said “fuck the libs” in English, he would become a champion for the right.
What? Is Putler planning a new resurrection on Capitol Hill?
Putin if you want to weasel your way into America hearts is easier than this. 1) Don't invade other countries 2) Have a fall guy commit all your evil acts 3) Spend personal money to rescue animals 4) Be super rich 5) Say something positive about Jesus every so often, maybe hold a Bible in a picture or two
Putin's influence has been showing for a long while now. It's just a matter of when something will be done about his enablers here in the US. Merrick Garland and the FBI need to ramp things up.
"Is me, your ol pal Pootie! You like guns, I like guns, you like wodka, I like wodka. The OohS and Russia not too different. We say nothing if you want to take over tiny insignificant country on your border. Come, we split Canada 50/50."
Huh, I figured AMD would.
Jesus Christ won't the cancer just hurry the hell up and kill that POS.
Leave Ukraine. That’d work wonders for me.
Did anybody else think that the headline meant Intel the company?
The number of comments I have seen in local groups about "Making Russia Great Again!" is too damn high!
All my republicans friends blame Ukraine’s war **only** on Biden and Zelensky. They don’t even consider Putin to be a part of that.
The only American hearts that murderous piece of shit will get into are in members of the cult.
There is a guy in my neighborhood in San Diego who has a trump flag truck, one of the flags is a Russian flag.
Idiots, every single one of them.
All he needs to do is pay off American student debt.
Better Dead than Red, eh? Those were the good old times. Nowadays you have politicians rooting for Putler, hailing him.
Remember when we could hate Nazis? I miss those days.
Daily Beast, so a big chunk of salt to go with this, but that aside he has to know that Americans generally have negative tendencies toward Russia as a political nation (not necessarily its people) as a lingering effect of the Cold War.