Posted on 12/22/2015 6:52:20 AM PST by conservativejoy
Donald Trump has hired an attractive young woman to spin the news in his favor. But it's a difficult job, especially when a cold-blooded killer endorses your candidate. On CNN on Thursday night, Katrina Pearson attempted to soften the impact of the Russian president's endorsement of,or high praise for,Trump for U.S. president.
"This wasn't an endorsement," she said. "This was simply just a powerful man recognizing someone in the United States running for president who is also a powerful man. It was not an endorsement."
That "powerful man" in Russia is a former KGB spy whose regime is murdering innocent people in Ukraine and Syria. It is the same regime whose terrorists in Eastern Ukraine shot down a Malaysian airplane and killed almost 300 people.
Putin said about Trump, "He is a very flamboyant man, very talented, no doubt about that . He is the absolute leader of the presidential race, as we see it today. He says that he wants to move to another level of relations, to a deeper level of relations with Russia. How can we not welcome that? Of course we welcome it."
It certainly sounded like something approaching an endorsement.
Trump provided a statement to ABC News saying, "It is always a great honor to be so nicely complimented by a man so highly respected within his own country and beyond." Trump went on: "I have always felt that Russia and the United States should be able to work well with each other towards defeating terrorism and restoring world peace, not to mention trade and all of the other benefits derived from mutual respect."
Highly respected? Does Trump not understand how the Kremlin manipulates the media and eliminates opposition political figures and independent journalists?
Trump's reaction was more embarrassing than the news that "Bolshevik Bernie" Sanders, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, had honeymooned in the old Soviet Union. Based on his praise for Putin, who ran one of the successor agencies to the KGB before he became Russian president, Trump may turn out to be another billionaire more comfortable with the policies of the Democratic Party.
During the 2012 campaign, in the final presidential debate, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney called Russia "a geopolitical foe." President Obama mocked him, saying Romney was stuck in the past. The Obama/Hillary Clinton policy was the Russian "re-set," which was supposed to increase trade and political cooperation with the Putin regime. Instead, it set the stage for Putin's invasion of Ukraine. Before that, in 2008, Russia had invaded its former Republic of Georgia.
Trump seems not to understand how the Obama/Clinton Russian policy failed.
In the current campaign, Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) has been strongly critical of Putin, calling him a "gangster" and "an organized crime figure who controls the government and a large territory."
That territory is growing.
As a businessman himself, Trump should know that property rights are not respected in Russia and that most of the important business is concentrated in the hands of Putin's former KGB associates and cronies. That makes his comments about developing a trade relationship with Putin even more incomprehensible.
Businessman Bill Browder, who ran an investment fund in Russia called Hermitage Capital Management, was forced to flee Russia after his assets were stolen. His lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, was tortured and murdered, and his death has become an international symbol of human rights violations in Russia.
The evidence shows that Putin and his group of former KGB officers are looting Russia, consolidating their power, and eliminating through torture and murder anyone who gets in their way. Browder's book, Red Notice, tells the story in detail. His website, Russian Untouchables, names the names of the Russian officials involved in the case.
A film that was shown on December 15 at the Newseum, "From Russia with Cash," explains how Russian government figures seek to steal and launder their money abroad through real estate transactions involving shell companies.
Pearson told CNN that Trump's acceptance of the Putin endorsement was made "in the context of fighting terrorism, fighting ISIS in the Middle East." She said, "Vladimir Putin has stepped up. Many people do respect him for that, including Americans who may not like Vladimir Putin but they like the fact that he's stepping up and taking action against ISIS."
Pearson is a victim of the Russian propaganda operations being waged in the U.S. and other countries by such Kremlin outlets as Russia Today (RT).
Putin has "stepped up" to save the long-time Soviet/Russian client state of Syria. The other guest on the show, radio host Ben Ferguson, pointed out, "Putin is propping up Assad. You should understand that, so should Donald Trump." But Trump apparently does not.
What's more, the evidence indicates that Putin's military has been targeting anti-Assad pro-Western rebel groups, not ISIS. In fact, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond says pro-Assad military strikes have allowed ISIS “to seek advantage on the ground." He said, "The majority of Russian air strikes continue to target Syrian opposition forces."
ISIS itself has confirmed in one of its own publications that Russia is mainly targeting other groups, declaring that Russia is bombing "the allies of America" and that its intervention in Syria has "confused American analysts, think tanks, intelligence, and policy-makers."
Trump has to be considered in the ranks of the "confused."
In the wake of Trump's gaffe during the recent debate, when he demonstrated ignorance about the nuclear triad, his acceptance of Putin's endorsement may put this businessman in the ranks of official Russian dupes. In effect, the leading GOP presidential candidate has become captive to Moscow's propaganda.
Once the voters understand how Trump has emerged as a stooge of Putin in the presidential race, his days as a serious candidate will be numbered.
"I'm like a really smart person," Trump has said. This is the candidate who accepts praise from Vladimir Putin and returns the compliment, but says he doesn't want Jeb Bush’s endorsement "because he is a low energy person and he does not represent strength, power and stamina, which are qualities our country desperately needs."
It may be too late, considering the damage his comments have caused to his campaign and reputation, but Trump ought to devote some of his own energy to understanding how the Kremlin is waging a war of propaganda and disinformation regarding subjects like the wars in Ukraine and Syria. He should also read businessman Bill Browder's book on corruption in Russia.
Roosevelt also partnered with Russia/ USSR.
The difference is Trump will make nice and then put the screws to them in international affairs to benefit America. The political class will talk tough and then let Putin spread the empire and dominate international events while we recoil into a beta position.
Forecast for the next 12 months: Trump hit pieces, everyday, every channel, 25 hours a day!
Hmmmmm, choice between reset button Clinton or Trump vs. Putin? That’s a really tough one. s/
Note to GOPE “Internationalist:” Reagan won the Cold War.
There are not 10s of thousands of Russian made armored vehicles manned by millions of slave Easter European and Ukrainian conscripts sitting on the Elba River in Germany
You can finally grow up and start dealing with the world as it is, instead of mindlessly clinging to what was.
“But it’s a difficult job, especially when a cold-blooded killer endorses your candidate.
Or, if a foreign leader wants to cripple the chances of a candidate that he thinks would be the most effect by praising him. This writer is dumb enough to take political gamesmanship literally.
Meh. Cliff Kincaid is also totally cool with the NSA listening to every American conversation, because terrorism or something.
I don’t put a whole lot of stock into anything he writes.
Bull Shite. What Putin is doing is eradicating those who are murdering innocent people, in sharp contrast to the Narcissist-in-Chief who is too busy drooling over his reflection to pay any attention to the genocide being conducted by his ISIS bretheren.
Let’s talk about Obama’s love for Castro who cares nothing for his people.
We don’t know, that in economic desperation, what a new Russian leader may do in relationship to ISIS and Islam. What we do know is that our current president is in love with them (ISIS & Islam) and hates Israel. That has to change or we are toast.
Dang! You’re Good!
“Roosevelt also partnered with Russia/ USSR.”
Yep, he did, and it’s VERY DOUBTFUL that we could have won WW2 without that partnership.
It’s a TOUGH WORLD out there, I’d rather be friends with the country that has the world’s largest and most modern nuclear weapon stockpile (and soon have the worlds best conventional military too), even if they whack a journalist or two once in a while. We still have China to deal with, and driving Russia and China into an alliance AGAINST US is probably not all that brilliant of a foreign policy either.
And by the way, while Putin makes some noises about ‘expanding his domain’ a bit locally, I don’t know of a single case where he is trying to DOMINATE THE WORLD as the USSR was doing - the same USSR that THE LIBERALS LOVED, and that FDR teamed up with in WW2.
"Powerful man..."
Red alert! We have been duly warned about powerful men.
For as long as the obola regime is in power, Putin can do/say anything to confuse people for his own gain, because obola’s ‘red line’ is not to be taken seriously.
When Trump is in power, Putin can only act up when Trump/USA lets him (such as when they really fight ISIS, when what they do is to USA’s interests.) When his actions threaten our national security in any way, HE WILL BE STOPPED!
Trump has already presented such an image - when Trump acts to reinforce such an image, Putin and the world WILL take notice.
I'm sure he does.
He also understands how American Democrats manipulate the media and eliminate opposition political figures and independent journalists.
This regurgitation of neocon talking points is risible from someone who supposedly works at Accuracy in Media....the cheese has definitely slipped off Kinkaid’s Graham cracker.
Anyone who’s not a fool knows that Putin would rather deal with Obama, or someone like Obama, than Trump.
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