Let's be clear - the GOP is the party of Putin

[samsingh]

trump is a servant or slave.

The other CPAC and GOP members are evil followers.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. McCONnell came out hard for sanctions. . . . nt

[Salviati]

2. Let republicans defend republicans...

... don't do their work for them.

[samsingh]

4. repugs get away with their treachery because we forget what they do

[Bernardo de La Paz]

7. Let Republicons sweep inconvenient facts under carpets; not us, please

Sorry you don't like the reality. Nothing this complex is black & white except to people who indulge in binary thinking.

Better that the whole picture be kept in view rather than selective redaction of facts to fit a comforting narrative.

[orwell]

17. He is only doing the minimum...

...because the turtle has done the political calculus.

McCONnell has done far more lasting damage than Drumpf. His manipulations of the filibuster rule and treacherous, disingenuous, stacking of the Supreme Court and the lower courts will have a much longer transformational effect on our society. He knows they don't have the votes, as do all CONS, but now he has the SC as a firewall. So much for "activist judge" canard.

He does not deserve even faint praise.

Where is the full throated endorsement from anyone on the CON side to President Biden's actions and the performance of the intelligence community. This was historically given in times of war, especially a war that could escalate into a superpower conflict.

The new, "focus group tested" official line is something like "Of course we should all support Ukraine, but this wouldn't have happened with a strong leader in the White House." This is something akin to the line "East Asia has always been at war with Oceania...". Doubleplusgood!

The sudden CON support for Ukraine is a pivot due to electoral exigencies. The unspoken reality is that among the "shock troops" of the Con 5th column there is great admiration for the "great christian white hope" embodied in authoritarian Putin. There are very few on the CON side who have been consistent in their defense of Democracy. Liz Cheney comes to mind.

The CON party and proletariat have been completely taken over by Russian influence, Kompromat, and active measures and it is about time we all realize it. This is a battle for the soul of the nation. We need to pick a side. Liz Cheney did. Sometimes decisions ARE black and white.

Truth is the first casualty of war for a reason...

[Bernardo de La Paz]

20. Good post. Yes, decisions most often are binary, but the reality motivating them is not.

The CONs and the Qonned and the Qonners have been taken in by Putin's embrace of the Russian Orthodox Church. That embrace has about as much validity as tRump's flag-humping.

[orwell]

21. There is one former NSA analyst...

...who posits that this split between the Russian Orthodox Church and the newly empowered Ukrainian Orthodox Church is what led to Putin ultimately deciding to go into Ukraine.

I don't know if Putin truly believes in the ROC or is only using religious symbolism to consolidate his power in Russia, similar to the CON and Drumpf playbook in the US. I tend to think most of these leaders, such as McCONnell do everything based on political calculation.

I have faced death twice in my life. I can assure you that in those moments, things become extremely binary. I have lived my life trying to understand the viewpoints of others and normally seek more knowledge and embrace nuance. This is starting to feel different. This is starting to feel binary.

Unfortunately we have the luxury of discussing this while safe in our homes.

This is not a luxury that is shared in Ukraine...

[samsingh]

3. after allowing putin to steal the 2016 election for trump

[CentralMass]

6. When article impeachment for with holding military aid to Ukraine were brought against

trump McConnel laughed it off.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

8. Indeed he did, and as OP says, GOP is the party of Putin now (more or less, not 100%). . . nt

[mitch96]

14. "GOP is the party of Putin".... yup the Govt Of Putin.... nt

[texasfiddler]

10. McConnell was OK with trump refusing to help Ukraine via blackmail. Screw him.

That was the whole point of the first impeachment.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

11. Yes. . . . nt

[UpInArms]

13. Moscow Mitch is Putin's

Bitch …

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/8/16/1879519/-Moscow-Mitch-and-his-200-Million-Russian-sugar-daddy-Oleg-Deripaska

Friday August 16, 2019

This week’s most interesting story in the never-ending Russia scandal is the story of #MoscowMitch and his selling out America in order to gain $200 Million from Oleg Deripaska for an Aluminum plan in his home state of Kentucky.

We already know that during the 2016 Election when President Obama and his National Security Team came to the Gang of Eight in congress to notify them about the Russian attack on our election, and asked them to make a joint bipartisan statement warning the public of theri interference it was McConnell and Paul Ryan who refused, and then threatened Democrats if they went on to make a statement about it on their own.

The Washington Post reports that during that briefing McConnell “made clear to the administration that he would consider any effort by the White House to challenge the Russians publicly an act of partisan politics.”

McConnell also questioned the veracity of the intelligence, according to the Post, based on information from unidentified officials present at the September briefing.

On Monday, McConnell said he had the “highest confidence” in U.S. intelligence agencies.

But McConnell would not answer reporters’ questions about the Post’s account. He passed up the opportunity to deny that he torpedoed the administration’s request for a bipartisan pre-election statement calling out the Russians.
To this very day McConnell has not explained why he objected to the bipartisan statement and why exactly he would’ve had any reason to doubt what the FBI, CIA, NSA, DNI and DHS were all saying at the same time. James Comey and James Clapper where both physical present for this briefing and McConnell was like “nuh uh, it didn't happen.”

For that alone, he deserves to be permanently called #MoscowMitch, but more recent reports show that it’s much worse than that.

Perhaps the reason Mitchy was so Bitchy is because he has a SuperPac that has accepted $Millions from Russian owned interests

The Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC run by Sen. McConnell’s former Chief of Staff, received a total of $3,500,000 ($2,500,000 in 2016 and $1,000,000 in 2017) via Access Industries and a subsidiary with US and UK citizenship who owns Access Industries and donated to Sen. McConnell’s 2016 Senate campaign vehicles.

Blavatnik’s Access Industries made many of its billions from Putin’s decisions about its Russian oil partnership. He is also a long-term business partner of Kremlin-linked Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska at RuSal, in which he is a major investor, as well as Viktor Vekselberg, who is entangled with Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen through his U.S. family office Columbus Nova.

[KPN]

16. Given two blocked impeachments of TFG

under his leadership, who gives a crap? In that light, most likely he did so primarily to shore up his party and it’s ideology — not out of commitment and loyalty to free and functioning democracy — in Ukraine or here.

[uponit7771]

23. When it benefitted him politically, Moscow Mitch isn't against Putler

[RKP5637]

5. Absolutely!!!!!!!!!!!!! K&R!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! n/t

[vlyons]

9. I don't think that it's so much that they follow Putin,

but that they follow money and power. They see the Trump voters as an easy resource to harvest. Stupid agrieved white racists evangelicals, who want to maintain their privilege.

[paleotn]

12. Their interests coincide.

They desperately want to turn the US into a pseudo democratic kleptocracy run by them and only them. It's like when your neighbor buys a shinny new car and you think...damn...I gotta get me one of those.

[mucifer]

15. repubs are very good at propaganda. their minions will believe now they were always against russia

[ffr]

18. Correction. Putler.

[Hugin]

19. It is time to revisit "Citizens United".

As foreign influence has played out exactly as described.

[samsingh]

22. completely