Russia 3 , CD3 DFL

Russian state TV not even pretending anymore as they openly call Trump their ‘agent’ — and joke about offering him asylum

While many in America may joke that Fox News is now state TV for the Trump administration, in Russia there actually is state TV – and they’re not even pretending anymore about the Russian government’s relationship with President Donald Trump.

The Daily Beast’s Julia Davis offered an in-depth look at various instances of Russian state TV’s reporting on the stunning moment when Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov once again met with Trump in the Oval Office and posed for a photo with the U.S. president, standing above him as Trump sat at the renowned Resolute Desk.

“Russian state media was gloating over the spectacle,” David writes. “TV channel Rossiya 1 aired a segment entitled ‘Puppet Master and ‘Agent’—How to Understand Lavrov’s Meeting With Trump.’ ”

Giuliani associate denies hiding Russian payment, asks to stay free on bail

NEW YORK (Reuters) – An associate of U.S. President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani on Monday urged a judge to let him stay free on bail while he awaits trial, denying prosecutors’ accusations that he lied about receiving a $1 million payment from Russia shortly before he was arrested.

A lawyer for Lev Parnas, who is charged with campaign finance crimes, said the payment was a loan to Parnas’ wife, and that it had been disclosed to authorities before his bail was set.

“At no time did Mr. Parnas make a knowingly false statement,” Parnas’ lawyer, Joseph Bondy, said in a filing in Manhattan federal court.

Judge rejects claims by Trump ex-adviser of FBI misconduct

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. judge on Monday flatly rejected a last-ditch bid by President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn to get the criminal charges to which he already pleaded guilty dropped, brushing aside his claims of misconduct by prosecutors and the FBI.

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan ordered Flynn to appear for sentencing on Jan. 28, concluding that the retired Army lieutenant general had failed to prove a “single” violation by the prosecution or FBI officials of withholding evidence that could exonerate him.

Sullivan’s 92-page ruling represented a major blow to Flynn, who has tried to backpedal since he pleaded guilty in 2017 to lying to the FBI about his conversations with then-Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Flynn’s sworn statements in his plea agreement “belie his new claims of innocence,” Sullivan wrote.

Russia and the Republicans: Vladimir Putin’s American subsidiary

The Russians wasted decades infiltrating the left attempting to gain purchase in American political life. There was the Communist Party USA, of course. Established in 1919, the CPUSA grew through the 1930s and boasted a membership of about 100,000 at the beginning of World War II. A hundred thousand! Whoop-de-doo!

Then there were the spinoff lefty parties like the Socialist Workers Party, the Progressive Labor Party, the Workers World Party, the Socialist Labor Party, the Progressive Labor Party — we could go on listing one splinter group after another with “socialist” or “labor” or “workers” in its title. They were tiny groups with memberships that were sometimes less than 100, and they would all deny being infiltrated by the Russkies, naturally. So would the “New Left” groups that came later, like SDS and The Weathermen. Nobody wanted to admit they were under Russian influence. Everything they were doing, from opposing the war in Vietnam to civil rights to fighting for free speech, was being done for completely pure reasons. Continue reading “Russia and the Republicans: Vladimir Putin’s American subsidiary”

Republicans Kowtow To Trump (And Kremlin) In Impeachment Hearings

As Congress debates changes in the articles of impeach-ment, we see on full display how GOP representatives have, for Donald Trump, abandoned any pretense of principle, rule of law and national loyalty.

House Republicans have embraced Trump’s win-for-Trump-at-all-costs philosophy.

Think of them as the kind of cowards who would never jump on a hand grenade, but would instinctively push the person next to them onto the explosive.

Senate Confirms John Sullivan as U.S. Ambassador to Russia

Mr. Sullivan, a close ally of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who had been serving as deputy secretary of state, was confirmed by a vote of 70 to 22.

The Senate on Thursday confirmed President Trump’s nominee John J. Sullivan to be the next United States ambassador to Russia, succeeding Jon M. Huntsman Jr., who resigned in August after a turbulent tenure characterized by sanctions against Moscow and investigations into the Kremlin’s election interference.

Mr. Sullivan, a close ally of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who had been serving as deputy secretary of state, was confirmed by a vote of 70 to 22. His confirmation has been closely watched as one of the key steps needed to pave the way for a possible Senate run by Mr. Pompeo in his home state, Kansas.

In Moscow, Mr. Sullivan will assume a particularly delicate post that is fraught with questions about Mr. Trump’s ties to Russia and his efforts to forge a closer working relationship with President Vladimir V. Putin, despite Mr. Putin’s aggressive actions around the world.

How Trump is aligning the US military with the Russian white supremacist criminal syndicate

Whether you’re a fervent nationalist or citizen-of-world internationalist, this story should inspire some alarm:

Russian efforts to weaken the West through a relentless campaign of information warfare may be starting to pay off, cracking a key bastion of the U.S. line of defense: the military.

While most Americans still see Moscow as a key U.S. adversary, new polling suggests that view is changing, most notably among the households of military members.

The second annual Reagan National Defense Survey, completed in late October, found nearly half of armed services households questioned, 46%, said they viewed Russia as ally.

Overall, the survey found 28% of Americans identified Russia as an ally, up from 19% the previous year.

R Is For Republican — And Russian

Vladimir Putin is brilliant. Without firing a single nuclear missile, without dispatching a team of assassins to murder American leaders, without even sending a nuclear submarine to lurk near our shores, he has managed to inflict significant damage on our country.

Putin must be smiling at his astonishing success. He interfered in the 2016 presidential election and helped into office a narcissistic sociopath who not only admires Putin but also does his bidding. President Donald J. Trump is a would-be despot who, for reasons we may never know, carries out Putin’s wishes — destroying democratic values, exacerbating civic division and, of course, trashing Ukraine.

But Putin’s victory did not end there. Because Trump has completely taken over the Republican Party, so has Putin. His GOP lackeys are going around repeating the discredited propaganda that Putin must have whispered into Trump’s ear: that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 presidential election.

McCarthy’s Pro-Trump Ad Used Stock Footage From Russia

The top Republican in the House of Representatives this week released an ad defending President Donald Trump which includes footage from Russia.

The ad itself has been widely mocked, but now that CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski has identified the stock footage is from Russia, it’s becoming all the worse for McCarthy. Several years ago McCarthy was caught saying he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin is paying Trump.

Here’s the ad from McCarthy:

Here’s Kaczynski identifying the Russian footage:

View the complete November 26 article by David Badash from AlterNet on the National Memo website here.

What is an oligarch?

With the impeachment hearings for President Donald Trump under way, several American diplomats and ambassadors have testified about the influence of oligarchs on the Trump administration.

I am a scholar of international law who has been working in the Soviet and post-Soviet space since the early 1990s. As the impeachment hearings in Washington take center stage and talk turns to the politics of Ukraine, I believe it’s important to understand what oligarchs are and what power they wield.

The history of oligarchs

Over 2,300 years ago, Aristotle coined the term oligarchy as he contemplated the forms of state governance.

View the complete November 15 article by Joel Samuels, Professor of Law, University of South Carolina, on the Conversation website here.

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Mr. Sullivan, a close ally of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who had been serving as deputy secretary of state, was confirmed by a vote of 70 to 22.

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The history of oligarchs

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