David Corn at Mother Jones writes—In Helsinki, Trump Shows He Is Indeed Guilty of Collusion:
I’ve been making this case for over a year, noting that “Trump actively and enthusiastically aided and abetted” Putin’s plot against the United States by supporting Moscow’s denial that it mounted information warfare that undermined the election and helped Trump. Put aside the notion of whether Trump or anyone in his crew schemed with Russians on how to pull this off. Once the attack became public, Trump and his lieutenants continuously maintained it was nothing but a hoax.
[And then came Helsinki]
Here was Trump drawing an equivalence between his top intelligence advisers and Putin, the former KGB officer. It was a stunning moment. What more could Putin want? The president of the nation, which, according to its own intelligence and law enforcement agencies, was attacked by Russia, was giving Putin’s denial as much credence as Mueller’s indictments and the findings of various spy agencies, as well as the Republican-led intelligence committees of the House and Senate (which each confirmed the intelligence community’s assessment).
Trump was toiling (and trolling) hand-in-hand with Putin to advance Moscow’s deceit. And here’s a key question: was this performance jointly planned in advance? Both men said they did discuss the matter during their private tete-a-tete. It seems likely—in fact, highly probable—they talked about what they would say on this subject during the post-meeting press conference. (The public cannot be sure of this, because no one else, besides interpreters, attended the session, and no transcript has been released.) Yet the events of the past two years already indict Trump: he has repeatedly aided Putin’s attempt to escape responsibility for the attack. And today, the two men issued respective messages—which might have been coordinated—that each supported and advanced Russian disinformation.
There you have it. Collusion. Trump working with Putin, in the open, to make the Russian attack on the United States disappear. Trump himself has proven the case.
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QUOTATION
“Exactly how lousy with Russian money are Republican and conservative American politicians and political organizations is still an open question. (The same question concerning the Republican president* is as closed as a tomb.) It would explain, to an extent, the supine reaction by the Republican majorities in Congress to the depredations of this administration*. There is no question that the Russian government has an incredibly well-honed instinct for finding American suckers. Vladimir Putin may be the heir to the Tsars and the commissars, but it appears that, in international politics at least, he’s the heir to Bernie Madoff as well.”
~~Charles P. Pierce, Esquire, July 16, 2018
TWEET OF THE DAY
BLAST FROM THE PAST
On this date at Daily Kos in 2004—Coalition of the Shrinking:
Bush started with 32 nations in his 'coalition"—the vast majority which failed to provide anything more than moral support. (Only the UK and Australia provided forces for the invasion.)
But of those 32, four have already left. Spain, Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic. Four more are in the process of leaving—Philippines, Thailand, Norway and New Zealand. Several other nations have pledged to increase their troop levels—South Korea, Azerbaijan and Georgia.
Through it all, the US is struggling to keep the whole effort from falling apart.
Australia's pledge to increase its commitment will bring its troop strength to 880 -- fewer than half the 2,000 troops it had during the war. And only about 250 are in Iraq, with the rest in air and naval support positions nearby, Australian envoys say. For Australia and some other countries, increases are mainly meant to enhance security for their own troops, embassies and personnel.