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Sessions used his re-election campaign funds to travel to Cleveland for the Convention; Spoke at a Trump campaign event and met the Russian Ambassador at same event.
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So the Russian ambassador is hanging out at Trump campaign events?Comment
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Apparently there was a lunch with 30 some ambassadors including the Russian ambassador.
Still, was Sessions performing official work at a campaign event, or was he there in a campaign capacity?To be a professional means that you don't die. - Takeru "the Tsunami" KobayashiComment
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He's hanging out all over the place, which is his job. That they are covering up no crimes is pretty interesting. This, from this morning's Politico piece by Susan Glasser, encapsulates it:
The Resistance didn’t seem like so much of a joke anymore. “That’s one of the dilemmas in terms of their relationship with The Blob,” the former Obama official said. “They need us to advise them how to actually do things, and, when locked out, they do things incompetently, exposing themselves. Then if they do consult us, then they worry about the leaks and conspiracies.”
"The Blob" is the foreign-policy establishment, which has been consistently wrong across all administrations, and could be indispensable. This is terrible. No matter your spot on the spectrum, IMO.Comment
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Doesn't matter. The context can flip instantly depending on the flow of the conversation, and a thousand subpoenas wouldn't reveal what was said.
In the end it comes down to whether an individual trusts Trump and those in his orbit, or not.Comment
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This political-science prof put together a timeline on twitter that suggests the Russians offered up the DNC emails in exchange for favorable treatment in the platform, re Ukraine, etc. [ame="https://twitter.com/RVAwonk/status/837405299833176066"]timeline [/ame]
Which, well, the timeline jives but I'm unsure that makes sense. The Russians just wanted to fuck with us. Presumably nobody really expected policy outcomes. They would have had incentives to release the emails no matter what. I wonder how Trump perceived his leverage.Last edited by hack; March 3, 2017, 08:55 AM.Comment
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Why would they fuck with us without expecting policy outcomes?Comment
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I mean they didn't expect a hard policy change, and it would have been enough to get a soft perceptive victory even if Hillary won or Trump wasn't open to carrying Putin's water as a candidate or POTUS. Playing a weak hand as best they can, is what people seem to say. It's not as if Russia has a ton going for it otherwise. Declining resources power with major revenue issues; aging population. Apparently having a ton of trouble holding the Crimean peninsula, and young soldiers dying there at a rate that could spell trouble in the future. Basic foreign-policy goal is to retain a seat at the table and a perception that it's as powerful as it once was. So it helps to just fuck with the global superpower, which happens to be one of the few things it does well. Putin wants to be in POTUS' head like Draymond Green wants to be in LeBron's head. That all makes sense to me as a way to understand it. It comes up in the coverage time and again -- Putin had a crappy hand of cards and plays it fairly well. This weeks' NYer piece goes into it some. I'm only a third of the way in, and I've read better on it though. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...e-new-cold-war.Comment
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JMO, but Candidate Trump’s comments about being ambivalent in support of NATO and working with the Russians in the middle east were two reasons that Putin would find him appealing from a policy POV, and entice an effort to tilt the field his way. IDK that Hillary was a mortal foil, but she would support an international structure in which Russia is struggling....leading to your follow-up points, with which I agree entirely.
The fact that we’re even talking so much about the Russians and their third-rate petrostate pisses me off, and proves what a shrewd operator Putin is. This is a country with 1/56th of our GPD; it is shriveled ballbag of the menace that was the USSR, which is why their most effective means of pressuring non-contiguous states (Those that aren’t smaller and poorer than they are anyway) is to hack email accounts and hire teenagers to troll the Comments sections of major websites. They are not the issue we should have our eye on.Last edited by Wild Hoss; March 3, 2017, 09:56 AM.Comment
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Trump has also said that he wants to militarize members of NATO, in accordance with previously made agreements that they spend a certain percantage of their GDP on national defense. That's not necessarily good for Putin if he has aggressive plans.
Agree about Russia being a paper tiger.Comment
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Trump's budget proposes a 97% cut to the EPA's Great Lakes pollution cleanup program, from $300M to a mere $10M (might as well just take it to nothing). Even some Rust Belt Republicans objecting
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Couldn't agree more, Hoss. But there's not much of a choice now. Made our bed and now are lying in it.Comment
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He's not out to pick fights with NATO, or even threaten them though; he's looking for political fissures to pry at. That's how he operates, and that is the door that Trump cracked open, even if just a bit.Originally posted by Hannibal View PostComment
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It does seem like Putin and Russia really see NATO as a big threat. Which is why Trump has said stuff like Ukraine shouldn't be in it, or that it is obsolete, etc. It makes sense from an on-paper Trumpian perspective to bang on other members to pay their fair share, so that's one thing he's said. He's said of ton of other things that suggest the in-reality Trump position is different than the on-paper.Comment
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Fighting a paper tiger is better than tackling real problems..Grammar... The difference between feeling your nuts and feeling you're nuts.Comment
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