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There are things here that I agree with. Putin could have preferred Trump without colluding with the Trump. Certainly, Trump's stance that NATO countries should keep their treaty obligation to pay 2% had/has the potential to disrupt NATO, which is a Russian aim. As far as the ME is involved, Russia made such significant gains during the last 8 years, it might now be in Russia's interest to consolidate those gains.
CNN had an hour special on Putin maybe 2 weeks ago. Their overriding thesis was that Putin went through a period where his hold on power was tenuous, and at that time Hillary said things Putin interpreted as helping his opposition. He developed a hatred of Hillary, says CNN's reporting. That was the thesis, no evidence given. Interesting though (along with about 2 minutes saying Putin's personal wealth may be twice that of Bill Gates).
As I've said, I think the most likely reason that Russia had for influencing the election against Hillary (assuming arguendo that they did) was simply that she had a 90% probability of winning and Putin wanted to rain on her parade. I believe that Putin saw her election as inevitable. I think he looked forward to 8 more years of "leading from behind" with Russia making further gains, and simply didn't see any downside to "sponsoring" the leaking of DNC emails. I'd like to see evidence of Russia helping Wikileaks, but I can see that happening without colluding with the Trump campaign. Further, I don't see post-election contacts between Trump world and the Russians as either unusual or ominous. And, I don't think Trump would have called on Putin to release Hillary's 33,000 emails if there had actually been collusion. JMO.
What is fact is that 52% of Democrats believe Russia actually affected the voting machines during the election. They say things like"
for which there is no evidence or even logic.
Finally, Putin has most certainly "undermined our democracy", not by anything done by Russia during the last 9 months, but rather by Democrats seizing upon a "Russian connection" to explain their loss. When you forty-year-old fellows get to be my age, you will look back and see that Trumps "shock" election was a result of people not wanting to tell pollsters that they were supporting Trump, viewing him unfavorably as a person, but still voting for his policies.
There's virtually no one with any credibility that believes Russia wasn't involved in the DNC hack and did not prefer Trump to Clinton. Why this is the case is debatable. It doesn't have to be that Trump was in league with Putin. He clearly is more favorable to striking up an alliance with Putin than any other mainstream US politician of the past 20 years. It could also be that Putin knew he'd be a hot mess as a President, spoke often of reducing America's role in the world, and Putin saw an opportunity for Russia to step into the vacuum. For Putin is forever seeking foreign triumphs to make the domestic audience forget their lives are shit.
CNN had an hour special on Putin maybe 2 weeks ago. Their overriding thesis was that Putin went through a period where his hold on power was tenuous, and at that time Hillary said things Putin interpreted as helping his opposition. He developed a hatred of Hillary, says CNN's reporting. That was the thesis, no evidence given. Interesting though (along with about 2 minutes saying Putin's personal wealth may be twice that of Bill Gates).
As I've said, I think the most likely reason that Russia had for influencing the election against Hillary (assuming arguendo that they did) was simply that she had a 90% probability of winning and Putin wanted to rain on her parade. I believe that Putin saw her election as inevitable. I think he looked forward to 8 more years of "leading from behind" with Russia making further gains, and simply didn't see any downside to "sponsoring" the leaking of DNC emails. I'd like to see evidence of Russia helping Wikileaks, but I can see that happening without colluding with the Trump campaign. Further, I don't see post-election contacts between Trump world and the Russians as either unusual or ominous. And, I don't think Trump would have called on Putin to release Hillary's 33,000 emails if there had actually been collusion. JMO.
What is fact is that 52% of Democrats believe Russia actually affected the voting machines during the election. They say things like"
It wasn't just a hack of the DNC, the Russians were hacking the voter databases.
Finally, Putin has most certainly "undermined our democracy", not by anything done by Russia during the last 9 months, but rather by Democrats seizing upon a "Russian connection" to explain their loss. When you forty-year-old fellows get to be my age, you will look back and see that Trumps "shock" election was a result of people not wanting to tell pollsters that they were supporting Trump, viewing him unfavorably as a person, but still voting for his policies.
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