This is surreal. The flood of compromising Trump-Russia news stories suggests the dam has collapsed. There is no more hand waving or coincidence peddling left. The cumulative evidence is overwhelming (detailed only partially below… "Partially", because I can't keep up with the deluge).
CIA Director, John Brennan, apparently was provided with recordings of telephone conversations indicating that Russia was directly funding the Trump/MAGA 2016 Campaign according to the BBC. Full disclosure: The recordings seem to have been provided by intelligence agents from one of the Baltic States (They seem intent on not wanting to go back behind the Iron Curtain). Therefore, we need to acknowledge their potential for self-preservation bias. That said, these were recordings of phone conversations according to the BBC… so… some heavy duty doctoring would be needed to alter them.
Russia Funded Trump 2016
From the article:
A US counterintelligence task force was established by the CIA in 2016 to investigate possible Russian funding of President-elect Donald Trump's presidential campaign, the BBC reported on Friday.
The task force included the FBI, the Treasury and Justice Departments, the CIA, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the National Security Agency (NSA).
On October 15, the task force was granted a warrant by a judge in the FISA court — named after the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act — to intercept the electronic records from two Russian banks that may have been implicated in the money transfer, a senior intelligence official told the BBC. Trump was not named in the warrant, but three of his associates were the subject of the inquiry.
Hmmm…. FISA, FBI, Treasury, DOJ, CIA, NSA and the Director of National Intelligence… but… but… but EMAILS!!!!! Benghazi!!! I'd like to think that everyone in power thought believed that HRC was a shoo in, so why make a fuss. Well, it appears now there are many who, like John Lewis, will remain silent no longer.
Quick Timeline of some Trump-Russia nefarious connections (off the top of my head, so please feel free to augment/tighten/correct)
Trump professes love for Putin's leadership (dreams of being the American Putin) BTW this has become a constant drumbeat but seems like the first thing fishy I remember
Update 1: Trump consistently undermines NATO (An alliance specifically put in place to counter Russian/USSR power)
Trump surrogates force extremely pro-Russia changes to R platform prior to convention (Hmmm… this does not seem like the Republican party I grew up with)
Paul Manaforte ('nuff said)
Hacking/Wikileaks etc. etc.
No puppet, no puppet… you're the puppet (This made absolutely no sense. HRC is an enemy of Putin/Russia. However, Trump's tendency to project his own flaws/misdeeds on others renders this exchange highly instructive for the overall story)
Denying Russian involvement in Hacking (over and over again)
Denigrating our intelligence agencies and agents for pointing out the obvious Trump-Russia connections and worrying about the implications for our sovereignty (another drumbeat)
Tillerson, oil, oil, oil, oil and oil along with money laundering, Russian mob ties and of course more oil plus people that loan money to people like Trump by deifinition live in oligarchical kleptocracies… i.e Russia
Law firm at 1st presser as PEOTUS named #1 law firm in Russia (BTW, has any president ever brought legal representation to a press conference?)
Flynn's frantic phone frenzy before, during and after sanctions
"Sanctions?!… we'll see"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------—
Notice no dossier from Mr. Steele (Hope he is well protected/hidden) Anyway, WaPo had an Opinion Piece Yesterday that is far more eloquent and informative than this one. Please check it out. The basic premise is "Duh, Trump has a Russia problem that is a challenge to our sovereignty and we didn't need Steele's dossier to know this (Stop Obsessing Over Secrets About Trump and Russia. What We Already Know Is Bad Enough.)
Update 2: Wow! The Rec List for the first time, I'm honored.
The preponderance of evidence that Trump and his team are in bed with the Russians is staggering. If this is a nothing burger I'll eat a bug (/Sam Wang). Having dual loyalties is bad enough for any elected government official, but Trump is going to be president, for Christ's sake! Add to this that Trump and his team are in bed with a corrupt and brutal dictatorship that has been our biggest nemesis historically and you have a crisis of scary proportions.
Look, I grew up during the cold war and consistently argued that the USSR was an enemy, but not worthy of all the right wing Republican hysteria at the time... and all the crappy policy that brought with it. Therefore, I am not some commie-hater nor do I have particular animosity toward Russia compared to other countries large and small with horrible governments. But this is a mess.
In the comments, if others could add their own observations on Trump's ties to Russia, I'll try to collate and diary them in a timeline. Just think that if Trump was a mid-level government official who was behaving in this over the top pro-Russian way, he'd likely already be indicted. The mind boggles.
