Ukraine is again collecting dead civilians and body parts after the Russians launched a strike on a busy train station where thousands of people were trying to flee the onslaught of invaders. Ukraine said at least 50 people were killed and 100 injured in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, by the impact of the missile which reportedly had the Russian words ‘For children’ written on its side.
Source: ‘Evil that knows no bounds’: Russians strike busy train station
The Real Nazi of Eastern Europe
Pointing to historical timelines, history professors are highlighting how Putin’s decisions are relatively similar to the same ones German dictator Adolph Hitler made during Operation Barbarossa, the mission he led when the German army invaded the Soviet Union.
Ten years in the making of an agreement signed just weeks before an election smells of a scam. One needs to ask what Morrison actually sacrificed in order to gain this politically advantageous signing at such a fortuitous moment. The Indians are known for their bargaining skills and ability to take commercial advantage. They are one of the few countries currently refusing to criticize Putin and are not employing sanctions against Russia. Furthermore, they are happily buying their cheaper oil and so offering indirect and questionable support in their war against Ukraine. Morrison is rewarding India a nation for its questionable ethical and contrarian stance to ours and his associated media propagandists are supporting him in this less than perfect moral stance. he’s indirectly siding with Russia. In fact he directly sided with Putin at the last Climate summit in Glasgow.
The Morrison government has hailed the agreement as a significant step in its efforts to diversify export markets and reduce Australia’s economic dependence on China.”This is an economic agreement that has strategic might to it,” Mr Tehan said.
Source: ‘Historic’ trade agreement with India signed after decade of negotiations – ABC News
It appears that Vladimir Putin’s aides have misinformed him about the war, fearful of his reaction.
Hitler was around politically for quite some time before being written off in a bunker. That seems to be a problem that democracies they simply don’t have the laws to deal with would be fascists. Trump is currently opening the door for Putin and promising him a “deal” and there isn’t anything America can do. If Trump wins in 2024 he will abandon NATO.
Even on the day Putin sent his armies into Ukraine last month, Trump called him a “genius” and “very savvy” for having invaded. Since then, as images and stories of Putin’s slaughter have emerged, Trump has criticized the invasion, but still has not been critical of Putin personally. After losing the 2020 election by 7 million votes nationally and 306-232 in the Electoral College, Trump became the first U.S. president in more than two centuries of elections to refuse to hand over power peacefully. His incitement of the 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol, a last-ditch attempt to remain in office, killed five people, including one police officer. That day’s violence also injured another 140 officers and led to four police suicides. Nevertheless, Trump remains the dominant figure in the Republican Party and is speaking about running for the presidency again in 2024.
It was the third time in recent months Putin has blasted the so-called “cancel culture”. Which is exactly what Trump, Tucker Carlson, and the Republican party have blasted for several years.
But something new seems to be happening, and Vladimir Putin is responsible. Don’t get me wrong. Democrats and Republicans won’t join hands and sing Kumbaya anytime soon. Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy will continue to ambush Democrats every chance they get. Expect bitter battles over background checks, immigration reform, civil rights protections and Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation to the supreme court. Trump won’t stop telling his big lie. Your Fox News-obsessed Uncle Bob will remain in his hermetically sealed alternative universe.
The Russian TV editor who interrupted a news broadcast to protest the Ukraine war said on Sunday she acted out of dissatisfaction at propaganda disseminated by Vladimir Putin’s government, and said she had turned down an offer of asylum in France despite fearing further retaliation. Republicans in Washington have expressed concern that Carlson has veered too close to defending Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Marina Ovsyannikova, who describes herself as “a patriot”, was fined 30,000 roubles ($280) by a court in Moscow last week for the “spontaneous” act of rebellion in which she appeared during the live newscast with a sign saying “No War”. On Sunday, she told ABC’s This Week she needed to speak out after watching her employer, Channel One, spread “lies” about the Ukraine war.
Source: Marina Ovsyannikova, Russian TV protester, decries Putin propaganda | Ukraine | The Guardian
Fox News figured out how to mine the best output of the online lie-generation machine long ago. It was just a matter of time until Putin did. For the moment, most Republican voters say they oppose both Putin and the invasion of Ukraine. But those same folks also used to be pro-vaccine. That changed after months of being caught in the QAnon-Fox News feedback loop. But even if Carlson and company can’t convince their audiences to love Putin and hate Ukraine, this situation has already done immense damage. Every day, Russian troops are murdering and kidnapping Ukrainians in this unprovoked war — and using American-made propaganda to justify it.
Source: Putin’s Invasion of Ukraine Exposes the Fox News-QAnon Feedback Loop | The Smirking Chimp
when MAGA turned MARA “Making American’s Russia’s Advocates”
list of far-right MAGA Republicans who have vigorously defended and even praised Russian President Vladimir Putin is a long one, ranging from former President Donald Trump to “War Room” host Steve Bannon, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson and QAnon supporter Lauren Witzke (the Delaware Republican who ran against Sen. Chris Coons in 2020). Bannon has praised Putin for not being “woke,” and Witzke recently said, “I identify more with Putin’s Christian values than I do with Joe Biden.”
NPR reports that on Wednesday, President Biden called Russian dictator Vladimir Putin a “war criminal” for the first time. The report notes that this outburst is unusual for Biden, who prizes personal diplomacy and must know that such a charge would make it more difficult to negotiate with Putin down the road. When reporters pressed Biden on the matter, the president said, “I think he is a war criminal.”
Source: US would be on firmer Ground declaring Putin a War Criminal if George W. Bush had been Tried
Speaking For Putin
A key champion in the Russian media of Vladimir Putin’s illegal attack on Ukraine served up a troubling threat on Monday: This war will go beyond Ukraine. State television host Vladimir Solovyov is well-known as a fanatical pro-Putin propagandist and a top cheerleader for the war with Ukraine. He claims the Russians are acting in self-defense and liberating a Ukraine that poses an existential threat to Russia. Last month he railed against sanctions imposed on Russia, perhaps because they affected his ownership of villas in the Lake Como region of Italy. This week, he said that the sanctions should be answered with nuclear strikes, exclaiming, “I still think that those who took our money should be told, you have 24 hours to unfreeze our funds, or else we’ll send you what you know we’ve got. Your choice. Tactical or strategic, take a pick. You took our money, you’re the thieves, our talk is short with you: a bullet to the head.”
Source: Top Putin Propagandist Says the Ukraine War Is Just the Beginning – Mother Jones
Mother Jones’ David Corn obtained a March 3 memo produced by a Russian government agency and distributed by the Kremlin to Russian media outlets instructing broadcasters to use as many clips of Fox primetime host Tucker Carlson as possible.
So you need our Oil……. Dictators are all the same but their supporters Israel, US, and Australia seem not to be as consistent. They pick and choose which dictatator they favor.
Saudi Arabia on Saturday put 81 people to death in the largest mass execution in the kingdom modern history. The number put to death surpassed that of the January 1980 mass execution of those convicted of the seizure of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, which saw 63 people beheaded.
Source: Death penalty: Mass execution in Saudi Arabia as 81 people put to death
Putin loved Trump he was doing his work for him. Trump would have certainly supported the invasion as he did Israel’s illegal occupations. Israel even branded part of the Golan Heights after him and Trump loved it.
The only other bit of strategy Trump has suggested came on Saturday, when he mused that the U.S. should bomb Russia with planes disguised as if they came from China.
Source: Trump Refuses to Condemn Putin Despite Sean Hannity Begging Him To – Rolling Stone
Buying an electric car, though, and pressuring Congress to pass legislation to green our electricity grid, improve mass transportation, and discourage gasoline vehicles, would actually over time devastate oil prices and leave Putin with fewer resources to launch attacks on his neighbors. Using significantly less gasoline would cause oil prices to fall and deprive Putin of his bonanza. We’d produce less earth-wrecking carbon dioxide. And we’d save lots of money on gasoline. We can save ourselves in three different ways all at once with electric vehicles and electric commuter trains.
Source: EVs are Freedom Cars: When you Fill up your Car with Gasoline, you’re Helping Putin Destroy Ukraine
Beyond political conjecture, however, there is something deeper at play here. The way Putin frames Russian state violence is very similar to the rhetoric and word play Israel has been using in its wars against the Palestinians and Arab states for decades.
Source: Want to understand Putin’s invasion? Look at Israel’s occupation
Once a KGB thug always one, but one isolated, and on steroids who needs treatment not compromise. Poisonings, assassinations, incarcerations will continue if nothing is done. 40 million people could find themselves in a Russian version of Nth Korea or East Germany along with the already 144M Russians already living that experience. Putin is unable to trust anyone so he’s got his finger on the nuclear red button. Who in Russia will do away with him, save the Russian people and the wider universe?
Major international news outlets including the BBC, CNN and Bloomberg will suspend operations in Russia in response to a new law criminalizing news reports that contradict the Kremlin’s version of the war in Ukraine. On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a bill into law that criminalizes spreading what the government deems to be fake news, The Associated Press reported. Under the new measure, a statement as simple as referring to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine as a “war” rather than a “special military operation” could constitute criminal disinformation, according to The New York Times. Punishment could include fines or up to three years’ imprisonment, with 15 years possible if authorities decide a report had “severe consequences.” International news organizations that have announced they would be temporarily suspending operations in Russia include:
Source: Major News Outlets Suspend Operations In Russia Following Anti-Journalist Law | HuffPost Latest News
John Howard, Tony Blair and George Bush do have a lot to answer for and Putin has brought that into relief. Bullshit is bullshit and they were all a parties to it when they invaded Iraq “to save us”.
It might well be said that the US-led Iraq invasion in 2003 was a product of its own mental disease, the product of ideological and evangelical madness, accompanied by a conviction that states could be forcibly pacified into a state of democracy. Where there was no evidence of links between Baghdad and al-Qaeda operatives responsible for the attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, it was simply made up.
However, here in Australia Crikey’s political editor focuses on left-wing’s John Pilger as if he were Putin’s major supporter. There is something odd about Keene’s personal animus against Pilger whose body of work will go down in journalistic history. It’s Keene who seems to be lost and can’t see the forest for a tree. Keene is. somehow in a moment of madness, suggesting Pilger has jumped the gutter and landed in the Conservative’s media camp. I see his Crikey article as one man’s self-serving, personal vendetta of which he won’t be so proud of in in his work’s body in years to come. However when Keene is long forgotten people will still be reading and watching Pilger.
Conservative media have been praising Russian dictator Vladimir Putin since the Obama administration, and that behavior has continued even after Russia began its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. American right-wing media coverage of Putin has been so over-the-top that Russian state-backed media have used some of it for their own propaganda.
The Morrison’s employed their Besties who were revealed to be QAnon members as far back as 2019.
The ABC’s Four Corners has delayed airing a program about the prime minister’s connection to a QAnon figure, but much of the detail is already on the public record.
While the International Criminal Court in The Hague is being called on to open an investigation into potential war crimes committed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in Ukraine, QAnon followers around the globe are praising him and casting him in a positive light. Though it might sound macabre, adherents of the bizarre and all-encompassing conspiracy movement believe that a major global crisis such as the current one is intrinsic to something they call the “Great Awakening,” a prophecy that forms the crux of the massive conspiracy that claims top Democratic leaders will one day be arrested for running a global sex trafficking ring.
Source: QAnon followers are casting Putin in a positive light | Salon.com
One Man’s Legacy, Putin’s threat of a nuclear winter.
Kyiv: In a dramatic escalation of tensions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin has ordered Russian nuclear forces put on high alert in response to what he called “aggressive statements” by leading NATO powers. The directive came just minutes before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed a delegation from Kyiv would meet Russian representatives on the Belarusian border for peace talks, and as Russian troops drew closer to the capital, Kyiv, a city of almost 3 million people.
This is a Capitalist Democracy where any notion of a greater good is built on myth of great men as being the drivers of history.
Trump praised Putin for four years, made excuses for his Crimea invasion, and tried to extort Ukraine’s president while holding hostage $391 million in aid.
Source: After 4 Years Of Helping Putin, Trump Claims He Was Tough On Russian Dictator | HuffPost Latest News
Full Steam ahead on RENEWABLES
and
In the meantime STOP the embargo on Venezuela sending oil to Germany
End the strangulation of Venezuela and tankers full of LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) from the South American nation could cut Putin’s pipeline noose from around Europe’s neck. So there’s your choice, President Biden: Is maintaining Trump’s embargo of Venezuela so important that you will continue to let Germany fund this invasion?
Source: Venezuela Can Bring Putin to His Knees | The Smirking Chimp
America’s Leninist’s and Trump’s view of change was to trash the old and rebuild a new Bureacracy in America from the ground up. However first and foremost was to take over the election process itself. Trump never stopped taking Bannon’s advice and still does today. Putin Orban Erdogen all dictators control elections.Thats what saved America in 2020.
On Thursday, Steve Bannon, the former Trump administration official and 2020 election results denier, turned his podcast into a litany of grievances against President Joe Biden, the Clintons, and the other usual targets. Then he called for impeachment and praised Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Source: Putin Invaded Ukraine, and Steve Bannon Says That’s a Good Reason to Impeach Biden – Mother Jones
Hey Morrison you want to shirt-front Putin?
After Hitler invaded the Sudetenland, America turned its industrial prowess to building tanks, bombers and destroyers. Now, we must respond with renewables
Source: This is how we defeat Putin and other petrostate autocrats | Bill McKibben | The Guardian
Several tensions run deep in Russian society: Politics are decided by elections without democracy. A growing number of Russian billionaires have outlandish wealth but no political power. And Putin is a populist without the people.
Source: The Putin Regime Is Straining Under Its Own Contradictions
both GOP’s de facto leader, Donald Trump, and their de facto party agenda-setter, Tucker Carlson, have been out there making their love and support of Putin known. As with every internal conflict in the GOP, the smart bet is the Trumpian wing will win over the traditional conservatives, even though it once again means that Republicans will be siding against America and democracy in favor of the forces of authoritarianism.
8. What is Putin really after? Not just keeping Ukraine out of Nato, because Nato itself isn’t Putin’s biggest worry. After all, Hungary and Poland are Nato members but are governed in ways that resemble Russia more than western democracies. Putin’s real fear is liberal democracy, which poses a direct threat to authoritarian “strongmen” like him (just as it did to Donald Trump). Putin wants to keep liberal democracy far away from Russia. Putin’s means of keeping western liberal democracy at bay isn’t just to invade Ukraine, of course. It’s also to stoke division inside the west by fueling racist nationalism in western Europe and the United States. In this, Trump and Trumpism continue to be Putin’s most important ally.
Source: Eight sobering realities about Putin’s invasion of Ukraine | Robert Reich | The Guardian
In recent days, as Putin has threatened a conflagration, top conservatives and GOP officials have practically pinned “I’m-with-Vlad buttons” onto their lapels. One example: Mike Pompeo, Trump’s final secretary of state and before that his CIA director, had only praise for the corrupt Russian autocrat, describing him as “talented” and “savvy.” Donald Trump, speaking to a conservative podcaster on Tuesday, hailed Putin’s moves in Ukraine as “genius.” Referring to Putin’s invasion of eastern Ukraine, Trump said, “Putin declares a big portion of…of Ukraine. Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful…I said, ‘How smart is that?’ And he’s gonna go in and be a peacekeeper…Here’s a guy who’s very savvy.” Later in the interview, Trump continued to gush: “I knew Putin very well. I got along with him great. He liked me. I liked him. I mean, you know, he’s a tough cookie, got a lot of the great charm and a lot of pride. But the way he—and he loves his country, you know? He loves his country.”
Source: Is It Amnesia or Hypocrisy That Fuels the GOP’s Crazy Response to Putin? – Mother Jones
Trump is the equivalent of a Russian Oligarch living in the US. A completely transactiona manl who works and operates like an ice-berg, only 10% visible, the rest secretive and in the dark. Putin, Kim, have all used DJT to advance their cause as has Israel. Trump runs free while Snowden, Assange have done little or nothing in comparison to the Manchurian Candidate who became President hoping to line the family coffers. He stole secret government files and shredded others including his list of White House visitors.
Former President Donald Trump has continued to praise Russian President Vladimir Putin, even as a full-scale attack on Ukraine looms.
Biden has been wedged by neo-Nazis and a Russian Imperialist in a face-off. Who does he side with. Putin has false flags in place in the Southern Donbass region of Ukraine to justify his invasion. Biden can’t for a moment justify he’s even saving a Democracy.
While Senate Democrats consider a way forward to send Ukraine hundreds of millions of dollars so it can buy new weapons, some of the most influential advocates are neglecting measures to make sure they don’t wind up with the country’s notorious neo-Nazis.
Source: For Senate Dems Pushing Weapons for Ukraine, Neo-Nazis Not Top of Mind
The paper refers to “certain events” that happened during Trump’s trips to Moscow. Security council members are invited to find details in appendix five, at paragraph five, the document states. It is unclear what the appendix contains. “It is acutely necessary to use all possible force to facilitate his [Trump’s] election to the post of US president,” the paper says.
Utilizing Putin’s playbook, Republicans make a mockery of free and fair elections. Putin, for his part, falsified election results and “managed” the electoral process by limiting who – and which parties – could actually stand for elections.
In contrast, U.S. Republicans do their “managing” a bit more obscurely, but even more harmfully for the whole idea of democracy. They are actively engaged in a campaign to disenfranchise voters from ethnicities and geographies that are not promising “hunting grounds” for the Republicans.
Source: Why U.S. Republicans are now adopting Putin-style “managed” democracy | Salon.com
Trump declared in Helsinki, standing next to Vladimir Putin, that he trusted the Russian leader, but not the American intelligence services. By putting his trust in Putin, a former KGB colonel, saying that he took him at his word when he denied interfering in the 2016 presidential election, Trump reiterated his denunciations of American intelligence services.
Trump intelligence chiefs hid evidence of Russian election interference – Raw Story – Celebrating 16 Years of Independent Journalism
Trump’s Role Model was always Putin and he tried to do it like Putin
Those living in the bubble created by right-wing news hear Trump’s lies repeatedly from multiple sources, making them appear credible. This is the underpinning of all propaganda. That firehosing lacks a commitment to consistency and objective reality can seem counter intuitive. But as Masha Gessen of the New Yorker explains, that is because the goal of firehosing is not persuasion but power. The immediate reaction of the media and others to a firehose of lies is to fact-check. That turns the lies into a political fight. What shouldn’t be up for debate becomes a partisan tit for tat. As Peter Pomerantsev, a Soviet-born British journalist and author, wrote about Putin’s information warfare in 2014: “insisting on the lie, the Kremlin intimidates others by showing that it is in control of defining ‘reality.’ This is why it’s so important for Moscow to do away with truth. If nothing is true, then anything is possible.”
The GOP’s Assault on Truth Is About Power, Not Persuasion | Washington Monthly
In any event, it’s extremely unlikely that Putin will agree to reduce oil production in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. That’s not what he wants at all. What Putin wants from Washington is far more comprehensive. He wants the US to rejoin the community of nations so they can deal collaboratively on critical issues like war, pandemic, nuclear proliferation and global security. He wants a reliable partner that will play by the rules, comply with international law, stop the bloody regime change wars, respect the sovereignty of other nations, and lend a hand with global crises.
That’s what he wants. He wants an ally that will respect the interests of others, cooperate on issues of mutual importance, and work to create a more equitable and prosperous global economy.
If Trump shows he is willing to change, then Putin will undoubtedly make every effort to help out. But if Trump continues with America’s go-it-alone approach, there’s not going to be a deal
via Trump asks Putin for help in Oil War, by Mike Whitney – The Unz Review
In America, we make the working poor pay for the excesses of the crooked rich, while in Russia, the wealthy are asked to make sacrifices for the sake of the country. Which approach do you think is better?
via Putin says ‘the rich must pay’ for the corona-virus, by Mike Whitney – The Unz Review
All during the 2016 election campaign (ODT)
The revelation that representatives of the Trump Organization planned to forge direct financial links with the leader of a hostile nation at the height of the campaign raises fresh questions about President Trump’s relationship with the Kremlin. The plan never went anywhere because the tower deal ultimately fizzled, and it is not clear whether Trump knew of the intention to give away the penthouse. But Cohen said in court documents that he regularly briefed Trump and his family on the Moscow negotiations.
ON TUESDAY, Donald Trump made a bold declaration, declaring victory. Only two days later, that lie was proven deadly wrong.
That’s what US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday.
But fast forward to today and we hear reports that far from being defeated, Islamic State has this week captured 700 hostages and says it will kill 10 of them a day unless the group’s demands are met.
It’s understood that members of IS attacked a refugee camp last week, leading to the hostages being taken. Among them are Europeans and US citizens.
via ISIS murderous history: Terrorist group takes 700 hostages
What if Adolf Hitler had come to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1934 with a request for security personnel of the Geheime Staatspolizei sent over to the DC Germany embassy to interrogate Edgar Mowrer, the Chicago Daily News reporter who was kicked out of Germany in 1933 for reporting critically on the National Socialists. Would FDR have lifted his cigarette holder high and taken a slow toke, and said, “Let me think about it, Wolfie”? I am not saying Putin is Hitler, but remember in 1934 the US and Germany were not at war and he was just another European leader who had not yet committed his major monstrosities.
The bizarre episode is causing outrage in Washington, D.C., where there are a lot of officials who have served overseas and who would be in trouble if their enemies over there felt as though the White House no longer had their back. Clearly, simply making the request and publicizing it is Putin’s way of pressuring his critics in the US, like Mike McFaul and Bill Browder. It is like when goons from organized crime visit you and leave behind a bullet on your coffee table.
The episode is also to my knowledge unprecedented. I tried to think of historical analogies.
via Benedict Trump
Nobody knows what happened in Helsinki but Andrew Bolt knows and said so in his editorial referring to the important and specific conversations that occurred (ODT)
The top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said Mr Trump should not meet privately with Mr Putin until Americans learn what happened at their first summit in Helsinki earlier this week.
“Until we know what happened at that two-hour meeting in Helsinki, the President should have no more one-on-one interactions with Putin. In the United States, in Russia, or anywhere else,” Senator Schumer said in a statement.
Even Mr Coats said he did not know what had happened in Helsinki.
Moscow has launched an extraordinary threat to target Australian journalists based on its false belief the Australian Federal Police are investigating the Kremlin-backed news outfit Russia Today.In a statement issued on Thursday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Moscow “reserves the right to take retaliatory measures whenever the rights of Russian journalists are being infringed upon” and threatened “tit-for-tat” measures.
What it actually seems like is a cover up, a smokescreen to promote Murdoch Media. The major supporter of guess who? Yes, Trump but that’s too simple.Trump is in business a multiple failure near bankruptcy, yet making $$$ from Russian investors who have been his bankers and saviors and it’s time to pay up and drop the sanctions. Putin and the FSB are pulling the strings. The rest of the Corporate world will adjust however ordinary people will pay with $$$ & cents they can illaford to lose. (ODT)
via Russia threatens Australia over false AFP investigation into Russia Today
Since being elected president, Donald Trump has vociferously claimed he engaged in “no collusion” with Vladimir Putin’s attack on the 2016 US election and that the investigation of any interactions between him and his associates and Russians was a “witch hunt” or a “rigged witch hunt.” Yet his historic Helsinki summit with Putin—and particularly the unsettling joint press conference they held—provided a clear indication that Trump is indeed guilty of one form of collusion: colluding with Putin to cover up Moscow’s criminal assault on American democracy
Plus
US President Donald Trump has publicly dismissed his own intelligence reports on Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election, saying he preferred to believe Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “extremely strong and powerful” denial.
In a surprise twist to the pair’s much-anticipated meeting in Helsinki, the US President said, after hearing Putin’s side of the story, that he didn’t see any reason to believe Russia had interfered – despite his own spy chief, director of national intelligence Dan Coats, telling him the opposite
via ‘I don’t see any reason why’ Russia would meddle, Trump says after Putin meeting
There are three reasons why it will be difficult for Trump to confront Putin in any meaningful way in Helsinki.
First, he seems to share a mystical affinity with the strongman who rules his nation with apparent impunity.
Second, Trump was the beneficiary of Russia’s meddling. Accepting the existence of election interference
Third, interpersonal conflict doesn’t come naturally to Trump. This may be surprising given his penchant for starting fights. But Trump’s stoushes are usually initiated via media interviews or tweets; rarely does he confront a fellow leader face-to-face. This week Trump bagged German leader Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Theresa May behind their back, only to turn docile when they got in the same room.
The indictment issued against 12 Russian intelligence officers on Friday, local time, offers Trump a simple choice for the Helsinki summit: to aggressively rebuke Putin – both in rhetoric and policy terms – or to look a coward and a dupe in front of the whole world.
via Russia probe: Robert Mueller’s offers Trump a choice – take on Putin or be branded a coward
olddogthoughts 
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