Ex Gov George Pataki just said on CNN, that they have seen NO evidence of US humanitarian

[Hortensis]

18. I'm reminded, Putin DESPERATELY needed a Republican takeover of congress

to as much as possible stop U.S. assistance to Ukraine. He needed it to stave off possible ultimate defeat in both Ukraine and of his dreams of restoring the Russian hegemony. Possibly a personal existential need as well.

Putin STILL needs the Republicans to block as much U.S. assistance as they can. And people in and out of office, like jumped-to-power Marjorie Taylor Greene and media folk like Tucker Carlson and Glenn Greenwald for the right and left respectively, push for that in and out of congress while parroting Russia's propaganda distribution here in the U.S.

We still don't know what hooks Putin has had some influential RW decisionmakers hanging from all this time, but to me all this is also a reminder that they exist. Russia's been famous for decades for heavy use of blackmail in foreign policy and warfare. There's no reason to think they're not still compromised and/or willingly colluding.

It's also a reminder that Russia and Putin's authoritarianism are admired by authoritarian voters, on the left as welll, but especially among the highly authoritarian MAGAs, themselves famous for admiration of dictators.