The New Americana:
One of the biggest problems with political pundits, foreign policy wonks, and politicians themselves is that they don’t take into account the deeper effects of messaging. They think they do. They think they understand the effects of a particular message, but as has been made abundantly clear, anything they thought they knew in the past can be tossed out the window.
Donald Trump is almost certainly not beholden to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Yes, there are plenty of conspiracy theories and a strange number of connections between Trump and Russia, but a direct connection between Trump and Putin is highly unlikely. That’s been the lesser of two theories about why Trump has been saying such nice things about Putin for months. The more prominent theory is since Putin says potentially nice things about Trump (depending on how you read them), his self-centered narcissism compels Trump to return the favor. There’s a little truth to this, but it’s actually much deeper.
The reason that Trump continues to praise Putin is because average Jane and Joe Voter have conscious or unconscious respect for the Russian strongman. Most don’t like him. Most don’t agree with him. Most would be shocked if they did their research and discovered the depth of Putin’s depravity. With all this understood, they still respect him.
The American people view Putin as a strong, albeit evil, leader of his country. The media has hammered us in recent years with stories of Putin outmaneuvering and even bullying President Obama. We’ve been fed the propaganda meant for the Russian people with images of him striding triumphantly on horseback and working out like a prime physical specimen. We’ve seen world leaders condemn him and we’ve watched as he has refused to back down.
I agree with your assessment. Note that Trump’s comment was basically’ Putin has been a much better leader for his country than Obama has been for America. I don’t see how anyone could disagree with that. Even Obama knows he has been outflanked in every direction by Putin. It has to do with a smart person being able to out think a person that is not so smart. At no time did Trump say he ‘admired’ Putin. Would I say the same thing, absolutely. I wish Obama had been half as dedicated an advocate for the US as Putin is for Russia.
How could anyone disagree? By realizing it’s totally a ridiculous statement. The Russian economy under Putin has turned into a total disaster, with annual per capita income dropping from $15,531 in 2013 to $7,742 in 2016.
Twenty-five percent of all Russian men now die before age 55, of alcoholism.
Poverty is rampant in Russia.
It takes over half of the average Russian’s meager income just to buy food.
Russia is currently running on the State’s “reserve funds,” which experts calculate will be totally exhausted by 2017. At that point, the sh-t will hit the fan. Putin will require a means of national distraction and mobilization. I’ll give you three guesses what that will likely be.
Trump’s assertion is complete and total nonsense, by any measure you care to use.
@Greg: Damn, all those things you said about Putin, are you sure you wasn’t looking at Obozo’s numbers? Tell us why Putin is responsible for the life expectancy in Russia, something that evolves over decades, not just a few years.
At least they had a reserve, we’ve borrowed 20 Trillion under Obozo, we didn’t even have a reserve to consume before borrowing.
@Redteam:
No, we have not borrowed $20 trillion under Obama.
@Ajay42302: Almost, just give him a few more months. You kinda missed the point. You got your contract extended. I thought they’d let you go. Is the extension all the way through the election?
@Redteam:
“@Ajay42302: Almost, just give him a few more months. You kinda missed the point.”
No, not even almost.
The point is that again, you join in with your misleading and dishonest cohorts with misleading and dishonest claims.
No, we did not borrow $20 trillion under Obama. Not even almost.
@Ajay42302:
17T is not all that far from 20. But apparently Putin hasn’t had to borrow any if he’s still using his ‘reserve’ (interpret as savings account).
While rushing to be incorrect, as usual, you overlooked the other part of the question. Is your new contract all the way through the election?
I did a little calc: seems as it the real total is about 8 Trillion in 7 years, which is about like 3 Billion per day. Just think how much we could have saved if he had just not sent Moochelle on so many taxpayer paid vacations.
@Redteam:
We didn’t borrow $17 trillion under Obama, not even close. Obama took office in Jan 2009 (let me guess, you need a link to prove that?). There really was a George W. Bush era regardless how painful that is for you to admit.
Your other questions do nothing to erase your ignorant and/or dishonest accusations of our President.
@Ajay42302:
Yes, but your refusal to answer goes a long way toward establishing that you are only doing it for compensation. Kinda like selling your soul to the devil.
I’m still trying to figure out why Trump supporters are outraged that Hillary Clinton momentarily dropped the political correctness and said what she was thinking. I thought they didn’t like political correctness.
And Donald—who has thrown out insults like somebody feeding a bag of breadcrumbs to the pigeons—is SHOCKED that she would say something so insulting. It’s a terrible breach of decorum.
This is political comedy at it’s best. Except half the audience doesn’t detect the irony, and is totally unaware of the double standard.
@Redteam:
Is your question remotely relevant to any aspect of the discussion?
Answer: No.
What does your off topic question have to do with you being exposed as a liar that we’ve borrowed $20 trillion under Obama?
Answer: Nothing
What does it have to do with you doubling down on your exposed lies?
Answer: Nothing
What does it have to do with you again being exposed lying that it was $17 trillion instead of $20?
Answer: Again, nothing.
Why not just admit you were wrong?
Answer: Honesty doesn’t matter to Trump lickers.
@Greg:
Trump has built his entire campaign on inciting violence, racist, homophobic, sexist, xenophobic, neo-Nazi rhetoric, KKK support, that the deplorables following him no longer realize they’re deplorable.
And now they’re all butthurt over being called deplorable! Imagine the gall of someone calling a Hitler follower or a Klansman deplorable? How dare her?
@Ajay42302: Show me links that support this statement. You can never show evidence, only your opinion and lefty propaganda. Put up or shut up. You waste electrons!
@Randy:
An ankle biter with no teeth. How cute.
@Greg:
Donald tells the truth about lying crooked Hillary. She was just trying to make up something and screwed up.
@Ajay42302:
Thanks for relaying your personal experiences. Who would’ve guessed.
@Ajay42302:
I know you’re only saying what you’re being paid to say, but the Klansman are backing Hill. Haven’t you heard?
@Ajay42302: You are all blow and no go. Give us some substance to prove your points. You cannot right. That is why you keep reverting to calling people names.
Russia orders all officials to fly home any relatives living abroad, as tensions mount over the prospect of a global war
Keep in mind, the story is in the Daily Mail. And then we’ve got this, from Reuters:
Putin ally tells Americans: Vote Trump or face nuclear war
Not meaning to try to influence the U.S. presidential election, of course… There’s no reason to think they would want to do that.
Donald Trump, Pentagon differ on Mosul fight’s success
Uh, no, it’s NOT a total disaster. It’s pretty much going according to plan.
Somebody should inform Donald that the generals most likely know a little more about conducting a military campaign than a draft dodger and reality television show host.
Then there’s his buddy Putin—the guy he didn’t know has already annexed Crimea and has been working to destabilize Ukraine.
Russian President Putin plots final assault on Syria, intelligence reports suggest
@Greg:
Now what greg, back to taxes, that worked, not…
Women, not so much….
The campaign has nothing
Donald Trump, 2013
Donald Trump, October 2016.
You can always flip a coin to decide which time he’s telling the truth. Or you can ignore the two contradictory claims completely—as well as the countless other occasions when he has made opposing statements on other questions and issues.