The Crisis Facing America

Due to Trump's peculiar actions regarding both our allies and Putin/Russia, there has been a lot of speculation that Putin has some kind of hold over Trump. It'd have to be something very dark or a shitload of money since banging a porn star, grabbing a woman's vagina and/or a pee-pee tape wouldn't be enough due to the fact those are already known.

Murder of a homosexual lover? $20B business deal in Russia? IF Putin has a hold over Trump, what could it be?

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/07/trump-putin/565310/
We still do not know what hold Vladimir Putin has on Donald Trump, but the whole world has now witnessed the power of its grip.

Russia helped Donald Trump into the presidency, as Robert Mueller’s indictment vividly details. Putin, in his own voice, has confirmed that he wanted Trump elected. Standing alongside his benefactor, Trump denounced the special counsel investigating Russian intervention in the U.S. election—and even repudiated his own intelligence appointees.

This is an unprecedented situation, but not an uncontemplated one. At the 1787 convention in Philadelphia, the authors of the Constitution worried a great deal about foreign potentates corrupting the American presidency.

When Gouverneur Morris famously changed his mind in favor of an impeachment clause, he explained his new point of view by invoking a situation very similar to the one now facing the United States:

Our Executive was not like a Magistrate having a life interest, much less like one having an hereditary interest in his office. He may be bribed by a greater interest to betray his trust; and no one would say that we ought to expose ourselves to the danger of seeing the first Magistrate in foreign pay without being able to guard [against] it by displacing him.​

The United States was then a comparatively poor and vulnerable country, so the Founders imagined corruption taking the form of some princely emolument that would enable an ex-president to emigrate and—in the words of Charles Cotesworth Pinckney—“live in greater splendor in another country than his own.” Yet they understood that even the most developed countries were not immune to the suborning of their leaders. As Morris said, "One would think the King of England well secured [against] bribery … Yet Charles II was bribed by Louis XIV.”

The reasons for Trump’s striking behavior—whether he was bribed or blackmailed or something else—remain to be ascertained. That he has publicly refused to defend his country’s independent electoral process—and did so jointly with the foreign dictator who perverted that process—is video-recorded fact......

 

How many Russian conspiracy threads must we have?

 

What striking behavior is this you are referring to?

 

My guess is at least the same number of Birther threads.

 

Who are you talking to, dear?

 

Whatever it is it has Dirty Donald captive.Putin says jump, and Dirty Donald says how high and in which direction.

 

The crisis facing America is the proliferation of Trump Derangement Syndrome characterized by OP's such as the above. Can anyone suffering from this mindless condition discern the reality of Trump's energy policies which unleash the full potential of the US natural gas production system resulting in increased supply of natural gas on the global market and the consequent reduction in the price of natural gas and the negative effects of that on the Russian economy from the moronic suggestion that Putin has something on Trump and is pulling the strings like a puppeteer ??

 

Sorry,
President Trump has not been to politicians school.

 

You should write a stern letter to the Atlantic voicing your displeasure and canceling your subscription.

 

I'm not so sure it is a "hold." Trump, in general, admires murderous dictators and goes out of his way to complement them. He did it with Putin. He did it with Duterte. He did it with Erdogan. Once Kim Jong Un started playing ball he even gave him lip service. I think that's even more disturbing than the prospect of blackmail.

 

There you go again.

 

And again we see a suspension of the reality of action in favor of the irrational interpretation of the spoken word. If Trump were in support of Putin he would not be increasing the US production of natural gas or selling liquefied natural gas to Germany consequently cutting off the export of natural gas to Germany from Russia. What kind of a friend does that ??

 

I have to love the "sure he praises Putin and supports some of his goals, but some of his other policies could be seen as tangentially against his goals, so . . . yeah" argument.

If Trump were against Putin, why was it that literally the only change the Trump campaign pushed for in the GOP platform was a pro-Putin stance in the Ukraine? Why did the Trump campaign respond favorably to contacts from Russian assets offering collusion, as with the Trump Tower meeting?

 

Agreed in part, but neither North Korea, Iran nor China hacked email accounts and tried to influence our election.

 

True, and we know for sure that at least that some members of his campaign responded favorably to offers of collusion from Russian assets. I just don't know how much they told Trump himself. It isn't as if he can be trusted with secrets, but we'll see.

 

Not a lawyer, but I'm not sure if accepting "dirt" on Hillary is a crime. Even if it's from the ****ing Russians.

 

The argument goes like this - actions speak louder than words. Trump's natural gas policies are daggers to the heart of the Russian economy. Attempts to portray Trump as pro Russia are ludicrous.

The last paragraph is just silly. Trump supplying military aide (anti tank missiles to Ukraine are the latest). And there is absolutely no evidence of any collusion except perhaps between the Democratic party and Russians on the dumba$$ dossier.

 

Why does your tribe constantly push all of the anti-Russian hysteria? What's in it for you?

 

The Chinese gdp is ~ 30% based on information and intelligence "hacked" from the US and other free world nations. China has been attempting to influence our elections for decades. Russia is a nation in decline with a gdp approximately 10% of ours. China's gdp is approximately equal and may possibly be 3X ours by 2050.

 

It's not a tribe - it's a mob. The mental acuity of a mob approaches that of a 3 year old. But the mob believes that it is the mob of goodness and anyone who questions or disagrees with that sentiment is evil and must be destroyed. The dishonesty, immorality, and now even violence used to that end is justified because those who disagree are evil. You see this on this forum every day.

 

What could he be facing?

It can't be a cash bribe, he has no need for cash.

It can't be something sexual, he already has a massive reputation, multiple wives, grabbing *****, sexual assault accusations, etc.

The only thing I can think of is thatg Putin has a video of him raping little boys.

 

Would need to start a lot of birther threads then. When was the last time you saw one started? I bet if you searched on 'birther' you would find most of the hits would be from Lefties pushing their conspiracy theories that most Trump supporters agree with it.

 

Really? Can you give me an example?

 

This is an imagined crisis, a staged crisis, meant to distract. And likely to lay the groundwork for impeachment or 25th Amendment action against Trump.

 

It's not Marine Corps policy to push hysteria. OTOH, it is Marine Corps policy to protect the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. This includes taking down Nazis, White Supremacists and Russians alike. As for what's in it for me, I've sworn the oath multiple times until retirement.

I, ______, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.​