Tag Archives: Vladimir Putin

national news

Mueller is not ‘harming the country’

Donald J. Trump does not get it.

He keeps yapping about the “rigged witch hunt,” which is how he describes the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller into Russian meddling in our 2016 election.

He said over the weekend that the Mueller probe is harmful to the country.

Oh … my.

No, Mr. President. The harm to the country has come from the Russians who hacked into the Democrats’ election system. The harm was done by goons who sought to influence the election outcome. The harm occurred — and is occurring at this moment — by the discord that continues to tear at the fabric of our electoral process.

The president is going to meet very soon with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin. He promises to bring up the meddling matter with him. Putin’s response likely won’t be reported fully; Putin and Trump will meet privately, just the two of ’em in the room. Nor will we likely know to what extent Trump calls Putin out on the meddling.

With all this as prologue, we keep hearing from the president about the evils of a “rigged witch hunt” that so far has produced multiple indictments, several guilty pleas, witnesses cooperating with the special counsel.

That is not a “rigged witch hunt,” let alone a probe that harms the United States of America. It will strengthen the nation once it’s completed — irrespective of what Robert Mueller concludes.

The harm is being done by those who have corrupted our election system. If only the president could acknowledge the obvious.

International news, national news, political news

Dear Mr. POTUS: Show Vlad the indictment

Dear Mr. President:

I know for a fact that you won’t listen to a blogger from way out here in Flyover Country, although I have moved closer to Dallas in recent weeks.

But that meeting you’ve got planned Monday with Vladimir Putin shouldn’t take place. The Justice Department — run by your appointees — has delivered a 29-page indictment of 12 Russian military intelligence officers; I like calling them “goons,” because that’s what they are … allegedly.

But if you’re going to go proceed with that Putin meeting, you need to take a copy of the indictment, slip it into a manila folder and then hand it to him. Then you need to tell him to answer for the contents of the folder.

Take my word for this, Mr. President: Putin will know what the indictment says. He’ll have read it many times. He’ll know it inside and out.

But you need to hold this killer accountable for the actions of his military brass. It appears clear that if they are guilty of what’s been alleged in the criminal complaint that they acted on Putin’s orders. He’s the top military man in Russia, just as you are the commander in chief in this country.

Are you going to do what you swore to do when you became president, which is protect the United States of America against its adversaries? Or are you going to continue to roll over and accept Putin’s denials that he attacked our electoral system?

You once accused the system of being “rigged” when the media were reporting that your Democratic foe was likely to win the 2016 election. Well, the election (allegedly) might have been “rigged” after all.

But not in the way you thought it would.

national news

‘In this indictment’ becomes key phrase

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein delivered a bombshell of an announcement this week: the indictment of 12 Russian military intelligence officers, charging them with conspiring to hack into our U.S. election system.

Some who are friendly to Donald J. Trump are likely to attach themselves to a statement within Rosenstein’s announcement. It is that “no Americans have been charged in this indictment” with criminal activity.

Yes, the indictment takes dead aim at a dozen Russians. The president is meeting next week with Russia’s president. Trump vows to take the issue with Vladimir Putin. The Russian strongman will deny any involvement. The U.S. president can respond in any one of a number of ways. Many of us are concerned that he’s going to accept Putin’s lie and move on.

But … here’s the problem as I see it with Rosenstein’s announcement: “In this indictment” offers a specific reference to a singular criminal investigation.

Does the deputy AG suggest that with his statement about a lack of criminality by Americans — in this particular criminal complain — that there will be none coming as special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation slogs toward its conclusion?

Let’s just wait this out, shall we?

Uncategorized

So … what about cyber security?

Those nagging, knotty questions about cyber security keep recurring.

Robert Mueller’s legal team has indicted 12 Russian goons for conspiring to meddle in our 2016 election. Vladimir Putin, the Russian strongman, likely ordered it. Our intelligence brass has concurred, as has the intelligence arms of our major allies.

Donald Trump hasn’t yet acknowledged the existential threat to our electoral system. What’s more, the Russians likely are seeking to screw up our 2018 midterm elections, too.

Back to a question I have posed before: Where is our cyber security reform?

About a decade ago, the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, John Boehner, gave my former congressman, Mac Thornberry, a Clarendon Republican, the task of developing a way to protect our nation’s cyber network.

Thornberry’s all-GOP task force issued a detailed report. Then they were done. They all went back to doing whatever it is they do.

As the nation wrings its hands over cyber security and wonders how it is going to protect its secrets from foreign foes — such as Russia — I haven’t heard a sound from Rep. Thornberry!

Speaker Boehner spoke quite highly of Thornberry’s skill in leading this reform effort, if my memory serves me. Yes, Thornberry is a smart fellow.

But what in the world are we doing to deter the kind of manipulation and possibly decisive meddling that occurred in 2016? Have there been improvements to our cyber network to prevent future interference?

The fellow who used to represent me in the U.S. House of Representatives presumably led the effort to make us safer against such meddling. Didn’t he?

International news

Cancel the Putin meeting, Mr. President

I’ll weigh in with millions of other Americans who believe Donald Trump needs to call off his meeting next week in Helsinki with Vladimir Putin.

Don’t go there, Mr. President.

Here’s the deal. The special counsel has just indicted a dozen Russian military and intelligence officers for conspiring to meddle in our 2016 presidential election. Every high-level spook worth a damn says the same thing: The Russians sought to influence the election outcome; they hacked into Democrats’ computer systems and they attacked our electoral process.

So now the president wants to meet with Putin with no obvious agenda on the table. What is the purpose of this meeting? We don’t know. We do know that there is a gigantic elephant in the room: the meddling and now the indictment from special counsel Robert Mueller.

Trump said he intends to bring the meddling up with Putin. Then he said “don’t expect anything” to come from it. The president doesn’t anticipate a “Perry Mason” moment where Putin admits to the meddling and pleads for mercy.

Trump’s campaign pledge to talk tough with other world leaders has wilted like a flower in the heat when it comes to Putin. He hasn’t challenged Putin any meaningful, tangible, demonstrable way for the manner in which he attacked our electoral system.

The longer he plays nice with Putin and the more he resists taking him to task directly and forcefully, the more culpable Trump looks to the rest of the world.

The meeting with Putin lacks the earmarks of an established agenda with goals clearly lined out. From all appearances, this meeting — on the heels of the NATO meeting — looks like another opportunity for Trump to grovel at Putin’s feet.

The indictments handed down by Mueller in his ongoing search for the truth about potential Russian collusion and obstruction of justice have made such a meeting a non-starter.

Call it off, Mr. President! Return home and start developing a strategy — for once — on how you intend to defend our system against future attacks from hostile powers … such as Russia!

International news, national news, political news

How will we know what comes from this meeting?

Donald J. Trump and Vladimir Putin are set to meet in Helsinki, Finland.

Trump says he’ll bring up the Russian meddling in our 2016 election. Now the question: What will Putin say in response?

How about the bigger question: How in the name of bilateral diplomacy are we ever going to know what Putin says?

The two men are going to meet one on one. No senior aides will be present. Only the presidents’ interpreters will be in the room.

Trump is a liar. Putin is a liar; Putin also is a killer, which gives me pause about the future of the interpreter Putin is bringing into the room with him. The Russian interpreter had better do his job correctly … if you get my drift.

Putin will deny meddling in the election. Trump will have the combined assessment of every intelligence agency at his command that has determined the Russians did attack our electoral system. Is the president going to throw that assessment back at his Kremlin colleague?

Oh, and now we have the indictments of 12 Russian intelligence officials. Robert Mueller has indicted them for their role in interfering in our election. This is a big one, folks. But do you know what? It could get even bigger!

How? Mueller well might be preparing to indict the Americans who were complicit in what the Russians allegedly did.

But … the U.S. president will meet with the Russian president. The proverbial elephant in the room will be the meddling matter. If only we could trust our president to tell us the truth about what he discusses with his Russian counterpart. Vladimir Putin most certainly isn’t to be trusted.

I fear about the certain lack of trust in our president, as well.

International news

This is no way to, um, MAGA

Donald Trump’s mantra that he would “make America great again” has hit another snag.

That’s my view at least.

You see, a great nation’s president doesn’t diss its allies. It doesn’t do the dirty work of disrupting a key international alliance on behalf of our nation’s top adversary. The president doesn’t conflate trade issues with defense alliances.

The president doesn’t open his mouth without knowing what the hell he is talking about.

Donald Trump is making a hash out of our alliance with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. He makes a valid point about NATO nations needing to pony up more cash to pay for their own defense.

It’s his style. It’s his clumsy rhetoric. It’s his ignorance of NATO’s very founding that drives many of us nuts.

A president who wants to make America great again doesn’t get disinvited to London by that city’s mayor because of the disgraceful comments he has made about Muslims; oh, yes, the London mayor — Sadiq Khan — happens to worship the Islamic faith.

After the president finishes trashing NATO and uttering preposterous statements, the president is heading to Helsinki, Finland, to meet with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin. The two men are going to meet in a room with no senior aides present; they’ll have their interpreters, that’s it!

What in the world is Trump going to give to Putin? What is he going to tell him? What is he going to demand of him?

And what are we supposed to believe from the Liar in Chief when he comes out of that meeting and delivers his version of what happened behind closed doors?

This isn’t how you make America great again.

International news

How will we know whether POTUS challenges Putin?

Donald J. Trump has let it be known that he intends to confront Vladimir Putin over the Russians’ meddling in our 2016 presidential election.

Great, yes? Hah! Guess again.

As I understand it the only people in the room with the two leaders will be their interpreters.

So, here’s the question: How in the name of international diplomacy are we to know (a) whether he actually confronts Putin or (b) how Putin responds to the inquiry?

Let me go a bit further. What will be Trump’s tone if he brings it up? Will he deliver a tongue-lashing? Will he demand a full accounting for what Putin ordered his goons to do?

OK, so they’ll come out of the Helsinki meeting. Trump will declare that he confronted Putin. The Liar in Chief cannot be trusted to tell us the truth. I know I am not alone in remaining highly skeptical of anything that comes out of the president’s mouth.

I fear that this meeting is going to produce nothing positive for the United States of America.

International news

Which is worse, the Iran deal or the N. Korea non-deal?

Donald J. Trump campaigned for the U.S. presidency vowing to toss aside the Iranian nuclear arms deal brokered by the Obama administration.

He did what he promised to do. We’re now out of the deal, even though our partner nations remain committed to preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

So, what does the president do? He goes to Singapore, meets with North Korean despot Kim Jong Un, declares the North Korean nuclear threat to be over after supposedly extracting a pledge to “denuclearize” the Korean Peninsula.

Except that Kim Jong Un didn’t agree to what Trump said he did. Now we hear that Kim is accelerating his nuclear weapon development.

Oh, and the Iran deal actually resulted in the Iranians getting rid of fissile material it could have used to build a nuclear bomb.

All of this comes from the guy who pledged to make the “best deals” in the history of humankind. He promised to end the “disastrous” deals worked out by President Barack Obama’s team in conjunction with our allies.

However, he didn’t get any kind of deal from Kim Jong Un.

Now he’s headed to Helsinki, Finland, where he’ll meet one-on-one — sans national security aides — with Russian strongman/former KGB boss Vladimir Putin.

What in the world can go wrong with that meeting?

International news

Will Putin follow Kim’s lead in dealing with POTUS?

Kim Jong Un appears to have deceived the president of the United States. He pledged to “work toward” ending his nuclear weapons program, only to be revealed to have accelerated nuclear development at secret sites in North Korea.

Donald J. Trump is getting set to meet with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin. They will meet one on one. Putin has met with four previous U.S. presidents at these high level summits; Trump is a rookie at it.

How are supposed to have faith that the president is going to fare any better with Putin than he did with Kim Jong Un?

I have zero faith. No surprise there, right?

Kim snookered Trump, or so it appears. Pure and simple. The president was waylaid by the young despot, who seemed to tell Trump what he wanted to hear — only to reveal his true character, if you want to call what he exhibits any form of “character.”

The New York Times’s David Sanger has written a fascinating piece on how Trump evolved from “fire and fury” to dismissing the North Korean threats. Read it here.

Kim went from Little Rocket Man to a man of peace, a man to be trusted, a “strong leader,” someone who “loves his people” who love him in return.

Trump hasn’t made such an about-face with Putin. He continues to talk about the Russian president in much the same manner he always has talked about him. Even in light of the Russian meddling in our 2016 presidential election!

This is a frightening time, man!

I’m frightened for the United States. I love my country too much to sit still while the president continues to get handed his head by foreign leaders.