Helsinki and a few things to keep in mind

Something seriously weird is going on. Trump has gotten the left to hate Russia and love the CIA.

All this came about in the aftermath of the Trump-Putin summit in Helsinki, Finland. Which appears to have replaced the pitiable plight of the refugee children on the border in the public consciousness amidst cries of “Treason!” “Impeach!” and “Burn the witch!”

For some impeachment would take too long, so away with constitutional niceties!

Congressman Steve Cohen (D, Tennessee) tweeted, “Where are our military folks? The Commander-in-Chief is in the hands of our enemy!”

I wish I could offer a coherent narrative about what’s going on, but so far all I’ve got is some observations I’d like both sides to keep in mind until the next outrage crowds this off the front page.

First of all you Trumpeters, your guy performed poorly at the press conference. Get over it, not even Babe Ruth hit a home run every game.

Trump looked tired, unprepared, and got backed into a corner by a hostile question.
“Who do you believe (about election meddling by Russia), Putin or your own intelligence service?”

With Putin sitting right next to him there was simply no diplomatic answer. If he’d insulted Putin it would have wiped out any possible gains made during the summit.

And why was he off his game?

To understand that one has to consider a couple things. One is that Putin is a stone killer with a resume no American politician has or hopefully could have.

No American politician has ever gone into a basement, wrung information out of a man, then ended his life.
Obama dealt with Putin (“Tell Vladimir I’ll have more flexibility after the election,”) but quite frankly seemed a little naïve in that regard. Trump has dealt with the mob in New York – and understand there is nobody in large-scale construction there who has not, but Putin is the Godfather of the biggest mob around. That has got to be a bit intimidating.

So did the Russians meddle in our election?

Yes. As they have in every election since the founding of the Soviet Union. It’s what they do.

As do we. Most recently and blatantly when Obama made an unsuccessful effort to defeat Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, evidently for no reason other than personal spite.

Who did Russia support? Trumpeters and Hillary-ites each claim Russia tried to hack the election in the other’s favor.

Probably both sides. Hillary has received lots of money from Russia, and Trump has done business there. None of that money is entirely clean.

It is highly doubtful Russia can actually fix a US election – but they can create chaos when it serves their interest.

Trump earns points for one thing which escaped notice though. After criticizing German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the sensible grounds that arranging to get 60 to 70 percent of their natural gas from Russia puts them in Putin’s pocket, he reminded her – and Putin, that we can supply that gas as well and pointed out though the cost would be higher it might be worth it.

The other thing to consider is the position Trump is negotiating from. He has the presidency and so far he has congress. He doesn’t have the media, he doesn’t have the bureaucracy, and it is now obvious the intelligence community first tried to determine the outcome of the election and is now attempting to veto the results.

So put yourself in Putin’s shoes and imagine what he might do with the kind of opportunity this situation presents him.

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