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dontmeantobepoliticalbut · 1 year

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Donald Trump on Monday reiterated a belief that sent shockwaves through Washington in 2018 when he first famously described it while standing next to Vladimir Putin.

The former president was roundly denounced by both Republicans and Democrats at the time for denigrating the work of America’s intelligence community and in particular for taking the word of Russia’s president over his own Director of National Intelligence.

But on Monday he proved that his beliefs were changed little if at all by the wave of criticism he received at the time with a post describing members of the intelligence community, presumably including the CIA, NSA, FBI and cybersecurity agencies, as “lowlifes”.

“Remember in Helsinki when a 3rd rate reporter asked me, essentially, who I trusted more, President Putin of Russia, or our ‘Intelligence’ lowlifes[?]” wrote the former president on Truth Social in a Monday morning post.

He continued: “My instinct at the time was that we had really bad people in the form of James Comey, McCabe (whose wife was being helped out by Crooked Hillary while Crooked was under investigation!), Brennan, Peter Strzok (whose wife is at the SEC) & his lover, Lisa Page. Now add McGonigal & other slime to the list. Who would you choose, Putin or these Misfits?”

It’s an example of the kind of comment that will gin up excitement and agreement from Mr. Trump’s hardcore base of supporters but will alienate potential allies in Washington as he pursues a third bid for the presidency.

Mr. Trump is likely to face a cadre of Republican rivals for the 2024 GOP nomination including, potentially, former CIA director Mike Pompeo who could very well take issue with his former boss’s words during the campaign.

The former president was loathe to acknowledge the conclusion of US intelligence agencies that Russia meddled in the 2016 election — apparently on his behalf, or to Hillary Clinton’s detriment — throughout his four years in the White House.

The involvement of Russia in the election sparked a years-long and politically damaging investigation into Donald Trump and his inner circle, headed up by special counsel Robert Mueller of the Justice Department, which eventually resulted in no criminal charges for the President (though others were convicted of unrelated charges in the course of the probe).

Mr. Trump has long held a grudge against the FBI and Justice Department for that reason, a feud which spilled back into vocal maligning of the agency’s personnel and mission last year after FBI agents raided his residence and resort at Mar-a-Lago and seized documents including materials marked classified which he had retained without permission.

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seagull-astrology · 10 months

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C196 Dithering John Durham

U.S. Attorney John Durham may wait until after the 2020 presidential election to make his conclusions public on the Ukraine-gate scandal because as his ascendant shows, Aries 30, he needs to get his ducks all set up in a row. This meticulousness borders on procrastination and indecision — aka who can he afford to hurt more — is further shown by Venus in Aquarius in the tenth house — a constant…

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#Aries rising #Hourglass Pattern #John Henry Durham #Line of Culture absent #Line of Efficiency trine #Line Of Personality Opposite 2 #Line of Vitality absent #March births #Robert Mueller #Ukraine Gate Investigations

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simply-ivanka · 4 months

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Trump knew Epstein. He admitted it.

-The photos of them together are from before 2003.

-In 2004 Trump not only barred Epstein from Mar-a-lago estate, he also placed a bid on property (and won) in Palm Beach that Epstein was looking to purchase.

-In 2005 Trump revealed Epstein secrets to PBSCO investigation.

-In 2006, two of Epstein’s victims confirmed they knew Trump had barred Epstein from his estate in mar-a-lago.

-In 2009 Bradley Edwards (Prosecutor on the Epstein case) made a public statement that Trump was the only individual who helped in the prosecutions against Epstein.

-Per victim testimonies on the newly released Epstein/Maxwell documents reveal that Trump was not seen on Epstein’s island or anywhere with Epstein.

-The newly released documents show that the FBI withheld victim evidence in 2009 and in 2014.

-Who was the President in 2009 and 2014?-Obama.

-Who was the FBI director in 2009?-Mueller

-Who was the FBI director in 2014?-Comey

-Who led the Russia Collusion Hoax against Trump?-Mueller and Comey.

-Who was Muellers key witness during the Russian Collusion?-George Nadler

-Who was recently sentenced to 10 years in prison for Pedophilia/Dozens of imagines and footage of children being sexually abused?-George Nadler

-Who was the Secretary of State under Obama?-Clinton

-Who did Epstein’s victims list on the pedo island?-Clinton

-Who funded the Russian Dossier?-Clinton

-Who fired Comey in 2017?-Trump

-Who praised Weinstein for being a great human being in 2013?-Obama

-Who was Obama’s VP?-Biden

-Who is running for President against Trump?-Biden

-Who received campaign donations from Epstein’s law firm?-Kamala

-Who is Biden’s VP?-Kamala

Research and educate yourself because if you vote for Biden, the victims of Epstein will never see justice for what they have endured.

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cookingwithroxy · 4 months

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The reason this is relevant, and people really should stop and stare at this?

Is because this man was the one who started and headed the investigation into Trump's ties with Russia. If it wasn't for him, the Mueller investigation wouldn't have happened.

Draw your own conclusions from that.

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triple-tree-ranch · 5 months

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Yes, Trump knew Epstein. He admitted it himself.

-The photos of them together are from before 2003.

-In 2004 Trump not only barred Epstein from Mar-a-lago estate, he also placed a bid on property (and won) in Palm Beach that Epstein was looking to purchase.

-In 2005 Trump revealed Epstein secrets to PBSCO investigation.

-In 2006, two of Epstein’s victims confirmed they knew Trump had barred Epstein from his estate in mar-a-lago.

-In 2009 Bradley Edwards (Prosecutor on the Epstein case) made a public statement that Trump was the only individual who helped in the prosecutions against Epstein.

-Per victim testimonies on the newly released Epstein/Maxwell documents reveal that Trump was not seen on Epstein’s island or anywhere with Epstein.

-The newly released documents show that the FBI withheld victim evidence in 2009 and in 2014.

-Who was the President in 2009 and 2014?-Obama.

-Who was the FBI director in 2009?-Mueller

-Who was the FBI director in 2014?-Comey

-Who led the Russia Collusion Hoax against Trump?-Mueller and Comey.

-Who was Muellers key witness during the Russian Collusion?-George Nadler

-Who was recently sentenced to 10 years in prison for Pedophilia/Dozens of imagines and footage of children being sexually abused?-George Nadler

-Who was the Secretary of State under Obama?-Clinton

-Who did Epstein’s victims list on the pedo island?-Clinton

-Who funded the Russian Dossier?-Clinton

-Who fired Comey in 2017?-Trump

-Who praised Weinstein for being a great human being in 2013?-Obama

-Who was Obama’s VP?-Biden

-Who is running for President against Trump?-Biden

-Who received campaign donations from Epstein’s law firm?-Kamala

-Who is Biden’s VP?-Kamala

Research and educate yourself because if you vote for Biden, the victims of Epstein will never see justice for what they have endured.

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1americanconservative · 7 months

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The Trumpertarian

BREAKING: My source tells me Mike Pence was THE LEAKER inside the Trump White House. He was allegedly working with the Mueller team during the Russia probe, Nancy Pelosi on both impeachments of Trump, leaking most of the negative stories that shaped the media portrayal of the Trump White House to the press and most recently - working with special counsel Jack Smith on the January 6th case to try and throw our President in prison. Pence plans to testify at the trial. It's no wonder that he is the man who fired General Flynn in the early days of Trump's presidency... He was in on the FBI's "set-up" and framing of the General. He was secretly working to sabotage President Trump from the beginning which also explains why he is the only former close associate of Trump's who has never been investigated by the FBI. These are all allegations but if true, very DAMNING for the former Vice President and self-professed "Man of God". The people deserve to know THE TRUTH about what this traitor did to us... It goes well beyond January 6th.

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bitter69uk · 2 months

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“Why does everybody think I’m so wild? I’m not wild. I happen to stumble onto wildness. It gets in my path.” Cookie Mueller

"Cookie looked like Janis Joplin-meets-Jayne Mansfield, a redneck hippie with a little bit of glamour drag thrown in. She never led a safe life, unsafe was her middle name. She lived on the edge, always." John Waters

Born on this day 75 years ago: vivacious bad girl, writer, go-go dancer, advice columnist, art critic, drug dealer, globe-trotter and avant-garde New York scene-maker Cookie Mueller (née Dorothy Karen Mueller, 2 March 1949 – 10 November 1989). She’s a fiercely charismatic presence in early John Waters "gutter films" like Multiple Maniacs (1970), Pink Flamingos (1972) and Female Trouble (1974). Her close confidante, photographer Nan Goldin would describe Mueller as “the most fabulous woman I’d ever seen ... She was the starlet of the Lower East Side: a poetess, a short-story writer, she starred in John Waters’ early movies. She was sort of the queen of the whole downtown social scene.” (Unsurprisingly, Goldin has an eye for vivid detail. In the wrenching 2022 documentary All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, she recalls that the first time she met Cookie in Provincetown in the 1970s, Mueller was wearing vintage Springolator heels held together with safety pins!). I highly recommend investigating Mueller’s wry and elegant autobiographical musings like Walking Through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black or Garden of Ashes (recently reissued) – or Chloe Griffin’s excellent 2014 biography Edgewise: A Picture of Cookie Mueller. Pictured: portrait of Mueller by Bob Berg.

#cookie mueller #bob berg #john waters #lobotomy room #bad girl #go go dancer #cult cinema #cult movies #cult film #lgbtqia #nan goldin #baltimore #punk #walking through clear water in a pool painted black #garden of ashes #pink flamingos #multiple maniacs #female trouble #queer

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starseedpatriot · 10 months

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For those who think Trump shouldn’t be POTUS in 2024 because he didn’t fully “drain the swamp” in his first term, allow me to offer some perspective.

Do you remember what it was like in 2017? Do you remember how many people were still completely brainwashed by the TV?

If Trump arrested Deep State actors as soon as he showed up, it would have been chaos, civil war, mass civilian casualties, legitimate threat to NATSEC, breakdown of society, etc.

At the time, a small percentage of the population even knew about the Deep State, let alone believed it was a real thing. Trump and his supporters were mocked relentlessly back then for talking about the Deep State, and now it’s widely recognized as a reality.

A large percentage of Americans believed the MSM at the time that Trump conspired with Russia. On top of that, Trump was hamstrung by the Mueller investigation. If Trump went scorched-earth on the Deep State during this time, it would not have worked. The Leftists were already emboldened to riot due to the BLM insanity. It would have been ugly.

We were on pace to handle it in Trump’s 2nd term, and then they released C19 on the world, the bio-medical police state was implemented, mail-in ballots were sent out en masse, the steal happened, and everything changed.

However, Biden’s disastrous term pretty much confirmed Trump was right about everything, and the American People got a quick 4 year dose of full-blown Orwellian totalitarian dystopia.

This caused a significant portion of the People to wake up to the realities about corruption and degeneration of society that Trump was talking about. The Left, the media, the corporations, all of the elements of the Deep State went completely batshit crazy, exposing themselves to the People.

Now add the optics of Biden weaponizing the DOJ to go after Trump over nothing, and all the sudden, if Trump went after the Deep State in his 2nd the public would not only understand it, they agree with him.

Then add additional layers, like that Biden admin and their Deep State affiliates are 100% responsible for the war in Ukraine, as they are trying to defend their illegal offshore proxy they created via CIA color revolution in 2014. Funding and arming nazi military forces and dragging the US/NATO into WW3 with nuclear superpower Russia and China waiting patiently in the shadows.

Why will Trump drain the swamp on his next term? Because the People get it now. They see what he was talking about. They had a front row seat to witness it for the last 7+ years.

Trump now has the political ammunition and the global support to do what is necessary and rid the world of the Deep State. And equally as important, the Deep State have lost control of the narrative because of the parabolic takeover of citizen journalism thanks to Elon’s introduction of free speech on Twitter.

Trump didn’t have all this going for him his first time around. Now much more of the world is awake, and more of them will continue to wake as WW3 and nuclear destruction looms over us all.

Trump said it himself. “We are in a position to that now because Pandora’s Box has been opened. People will say ‘now we get it’”.

The Left are right; if Trump wins 2024, it WILL be a “Retribution Presidency”.

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dontmeantobepoliticalbut · 1 year

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Newly-appointed special counsel Jack Smith is moving fast on a pair of criminal probes around Donald Trump that in recent months have focused on the former president's state of mind after the 2020 election, including what he knew about plans to impede the transfer of power, people familiar with the matter tell CNN.

Though he remains in Europe recovering from a biking accident, Smith has made a series of high-profile moves since he was put in charge last month, including asking a federal judge to hold Trump in contempt for failing to comply with a subpoena ordering him to turn over records marked classified.

Since Thanksgiving, Smith has brought a number of close Trump associates before a grand jury in Washington, including two former White House lawyers, three of Trump's closest aides, and his former speechwriter Stephen Miller. He has also issued a flurry of subpoenas, including to election officials in battleground states where Trump tried to overturn his loss in 2020.

Smith takes over a staff that's already nearly twice the size of Robert Mueller's team of lawyers who worked on the Russia probe.  A team of 20 prosecutors investigating January 6 and the effort to overturn the 2020 election are in the process of moving to work under Smith, according to multiple people familiar with the team.

Smith will also take on national security investigators already working the probe into the potential mishandling of federal records taken to Mar-a-Lago after Trump left the White House.

Together, the twin investigations have already established more evidence than what Mueller started with, including from a year-long financial probe that's largely flown under the radar.

"Mueller was starting virtually from scratch, whereas Jack Smith is seemingly integrating on the fly into an active, fast-moving investigation," said Elie Honig, a former federal prosecutor and senior CNN legal analyst.

Smith also won't be constrained in the same way as Mueller, who deferred decisions on whether to charge Trump because he was a sitting president.

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While Trump lambasted Smith's appointment on social media, some of the former president's attorneys think it could've been worse, according to people familiar with the matter. Those lawyers maintain the former president is unlikely to be indicted, according to two sources familiar. They also believe Smith's appointment is a good thing because he is "not emotionally attached" to the original case and can look at it "dispassionately and factually," one of the sources said.    

"The fact that they found a guy who has been Europe for the past several years, without his brain marinating in the soup of January 6th coverage, that's a good thing," the source said.   

But others on Trump's team are concerned that Smith's appointment signals a more aggressive stance from Attorney General Merrick Garland, characterizing him as a "hit man" who is likely to bring a prosecution, people familiar with their thinking said.

On Friday, the Justice Department's approach in the Mar-a-Lago case hit a small bump, with a federal judge declining to hold Trump in contempt of court and urging DOJ and Trump's team to work out a resolution as investigators attempt to make sure all national security records are back in the possession of the federal government.

Behind the scenes, in separate sealed proceedings related to January 6, Smith has already told the federal court he is in charge of the investigation, according to some of the sources. And while Trump lawyers on the January 6 probe have not been in touch directly with Smith at this point, according to some of the sources, they anticipate they will eventually speak with him once he returns to the US.

It's unclear how long Smith may continue to work before deciding on any charges in either probe. While both investigations may result in charges within months, Smith could still spend time organizing and expanding his team, and continuing to pick through information that's been collected, according to people familiar with parts of the probe.

"It could well be that Jack Smith moves more quickly than Merrick Garland would and forces a decision to Merrick Garland's desk more quickly than it might have otherwise," said Honig.

COMPARISONS TO MUELLER

According to a handful of people familiar with the probe, there is still work to be done to centralize all the moving parts of large prosecution teams under the new special counsel's office.    

Smith is expected to set up a physical office for the two investigative teams away from the downtown Justice headquarters, as Mueller did for his probe and as did John Durham, who is nearing the end of his examination of 2016 Trump-Russia investigation.

According to several people familiar with his appointment, Smith will operate more like a US Attorney -- managing an existing team of career prosecutors already working on the cases, and signing off on evidence they bring him -- rather than as a de facto-department head like Mueller, who tapped several lawyers from outside the Justice Department to pursue parts of the Russia investigation from scratch.  

Mueller also had his own set of legal advisers akin to a shadow Justice Department appeals and policy team. Smith likely won't have the same set-up -- with lawyers from throughout the Department assisting as needed, according to multiple people familiar with the office's development.

Garland already turned to a long-time criminal appellate section leader, Patty Stemler, who retired earlier this year from DOJ, to advise as a consultant on the January 6 investigations throughout this year. 

Others from Stemler's former unit and other sections are likely to shepherd cases and policy issues as needed, in a departure from Mueller's soup-to-nuts approach of preparing for thorny Constitutional issues and appeals in the Russia investigation, some of the sources said.

A spokesman for the Justice Department didn't provide any comment for this story. 

CIRCLING TRUMP 

Publicly released court filings have already made clear Trump is under investigation for the mishandling of national security secrets after his presidency.    

But the other investigative team, looking at efforts to block the transfer of power from Trump to President Joe Biden after the 2020 election, had even a year ago been given the greenlight by the Justice Department to take a case all the way up to Trump, if the evidence leads them there, according to the sources. Work that's been led by the DC US Attorney's Office into political circles around Trump related to January 6 now will move under the special counsel.

Partly led by former Maryland-based federal prosecutor Thomas Windom, DOJ has added prosecutors to the January 6 team from all over the Department in recent months. Windom and the rest are also expected to move over to the special counsel's office. Some, like Mary Dohrmann, a prosecutor who's worked on several other Capitol riot cases already, appear to be reorienting, according to court records of open Capitol riot cases.   

Another top prosecutor, JP Cooney, the former head of public corruption in the DC US Attorney's Office, is overseeing a significant financial probe that Smith will take on. The probe includes examining the possible misuse of political contributions, according to some of the sources. The DC US Attorney's Office, before the special counsel's arrival, had examined potential financial crimes related to the January 6 riot, including possible money laundering and the support of rioters' hotel stays and bus trips to Washington ahead of January 6.

In recent months, however, the financial investigation has sought information about Trump's post-election Save America PAC and other funding of people who assisted Trump, according to subpoenas viewed by CNN. The financial investigation picked up steam as DOJ investigators enlisted cooperators months after the 2021 riot, one of the sources said.

In interviews with people in Trump's orbit over the past several months, some of the DOJ focus has been on the timeline leading up to January 6 and Trump's involvement and knowledge of potential events that day, according to a source familiar with the questioning.

Trump allies have consistently maintained that nothing Trump did related to the election and January 6 itself amounts to a crime. They have also suggested that if Trump were to ultimately face an indictment, the bar to prove he committed a crime is extremely high, and that a jury would hear he was getting conflicting advice from different lawyers. For example, Trump allies point out, White House Counsel Pat Cipollone told Trump that Vice President Mike Pence couldn't block the election certification on January 6, while Rudy Giuliani and others believed he could.

Even earlier this year, federal prosecutors were specifically asking witnesses whether there was a plan to steal the election and for Trump not to concede, according to a source with knowledge of the questions posed during this stage of the DOJ criminal probe.  

The DOJ probe has evolved significantly since that time, but sources familiar with testimony before the grand jury in recent months have told CNN that prosecutors are still focused on the core question of whether there was a plan to steal the election and Trump's understanding about the relevance of January 6.  

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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 2 months

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Mike Luckovich ::

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

February 10, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

FEB 11, 2024

A key story that got missed yesterday was that the Senate voted 64–19 to allow a bill that includes $95.34 billion in aid for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan to advance a step forward. In terms of domestic politics, this appears to be an attempt by those who controlled the Republican Party before Trump to push back against Trump and the MAGA Republicans.

MAGA lawmakers had demanded border security measures be added to a national security supplemental bill that provided this international aid, as well as humanitarian aid to Gaza, but to their apparent surprise, a bipartisan group of lawmakers actually hammered out that border piece. Trump immediately demanded an end to the bill and MAGA obliged on Wednesday, forcing the rest of the party to join them in killing the national security supplemental bill. House Republicans then promptly tried to pass a measure that provided funding for Israel alone.

At stake behind this fight is not only control of the Republican Party, but also the role of the U.S. in the world—and, for that matter, its standing. And much of that fight comes down to Ukraine’s attempt to resist Russia’s invasions of 2014 and 2022.

Russian president Vladimir Putin is intent on dismantling the rules-based international order of norms and values developed after World War II. Under this system, international organizations such as the United Nations provide places to resolve international disputes, prevent territorial wars, and end no-holds-barred slaughter through a series of agreements, including the United Nations Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the U.N. Genocide Convention, and the Geneva Conventions on the laws of war.

Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, deliberate targeting of civilian populations, and war crimes are his way of thumbing his nose at the established order and demanding a different one, in which men like him dominate the globe.

Trump’s ties to Russia are deep and well documented, including by the Senate Intelligence Committee, which was dominated by Republicans when it concluded that Trump’s 2016 campaign team had worked with Russian operatives. In November 2022, in the New York Times Magazine, Jim Rutenberg pulled together testimony given both to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation and the Senate Intelligence Committee, transcripts from the impeachment hearings, and recent memoirs.

Rutenberg showed that in 2016, Russian operatives had presented to Trump advisor and later campaign manager Paul Manafort a plan “for the creation of an autonomous republic in Ukraine’s east, giving Putin effective control of the country’s industrial heartland, where Kremlin-armed, -funded, and -directed ‘separatists’ were waging a two-year-old shadow war that had left nearly 10,000 dead.”

But they were concerned that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) might stand in their way. Formed in 1947 to stand against Soviet expansion and now standing against Russian aggression, NATO is a collective security alliance of 31 states that have agreed to consider an attack on any member to be an attack on all.

In exchange for weakening NATO, undermining the U.S. stance in favor of Ukraine in its attempt to throw off the Russians who had invaded in 2014, and removing U.S. sanctions from Russian entities, Russian operatives were willing to put their finger on the scales to help Trump win the White House.

When he was in office, Trump did, in fact, try to weaken NATO—as well as other international organizations like the World Health Organization—and promised he would pull the U.S. out of NATO in a second term, effectively killing it. Rutenberg noted that Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine looks a lot like an attempt to achieve the plan it suggested in 2016. But because there was a different president in the U.S., that invasion did not yield the results Putin expected.

President Joe Biden stepped into office more knowledgeable on foreign affairs than any president since Dwight Eisenhower, who took office in 1953. Biden recognized that democracy was on the ropes around the globe as authoritarian leaders set out to dismantle the rules-based international order. He also knew that the greatest strength of the U.S. is its alliances. In the months after he took office, Biden focused on shoring up NATO, with the result that when Russia invaded Ukraine again in February 2022, a NATO coalition held together to support Ukraine.

By 2024, far from falling apart, NATO was stronger than ever with the addition of Finland. Sweden, too, is expected to join shortly.

But far more than simply shore up the old system, the Biden administration has built on the stability of the rules-based order to make it more democratic, encouraging more peoples, nations, and groups to participate more fully in it. In September 2023, Secretary of State Antony Blinken explained to an audience at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies that the end of the Cold War made people think that the world would inevitably become more peaceful and stable as countries cooperated and emphasized democracy and human rights.

But now, Blinken said, that era is over. After decades of relative stability, authoritarian powers have risen to challenge the rules-based international order, throwing away the ideas of national sovereignty and human rights. As wealth becomes more and more concentrated, people are losing faith in that international order as well as in democracy itself. In a world increasingly under pressure from authoritarians who are trying to enrich themselves and stay in power, he said, the administration is trying to defend fair competition, international law, and human rights.

Historically, though, the U.S. drive to spread democracy has often failed to rise above the old system of colonialism, with the U.S. and other western countries dictating to less prosperous countries. The administration has tried to avoid this trap by advancing a new form of international cooperation that creates partnerships and alignments of interested countries to solve discrete issues. These interest-based alignments, which administration officials refer to as “diplomatic variable geometry,” promise to preserve U.S. global influence and perhaps an international rules-based order but will also mean alliances with nations whose own interests align with those of the U.S. only on certain issues.

In the past three years, the U.S. has created a new security partnership with Australia and the United Kingdom, known as AUKUS, and held a historic, first-ever trilateral leaders’ summit at Camp David with Japan and the Republic of Korea. It has built new partnerships with nations in the Indo-Pacific region, as well as with Latin American and Caribbean countries, to address issues of immigration; two days ago the Trilateral Fentanyl Committee met for the fourth time in Mexico. This new system includes a wider range of voices at the table—backing the membership of the African Union in the Group of 20 (G20) economic forum, for example—advancing a form of cooperation in which every international problem is addressed by a group of partner nations that have a stake in the outcome.

At the same time, the U.S. recognizes that wealthier countries need to step up to help poorer countries develop their own economies rather than mine them for resources. Together with G7 partners, the U.S. has committed to deliver $600 billion in new investments to develop infrastructure across the globe—for example, creating a band of development across Africa.

Biden’s is a bold new approach to global affairs, based on national rights to self-determination and working finally to bring an end to colonialism.

The fight over U.S. aid to Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan, and the other countries with which we have made partnerships is not about saving money—most of the funds for Ukraine are actually spent in the U.S.—or about protecting the U.S. border, as MAGA Republicans demonstrated when they killed the border security bill. It is about whether the globe will move into the 21st century, with all its threats of climate change, disease, and migration, with ways for nations to cooperate, or whether we will be at the mercy of global authoritarians.

Trump’s 2024 campaign website calls for “fundamentally reevaluating NATO’s purpose and NATO’s mission,” and in a campaign speech in South Carolina today, he made it clear what that means. Trump has long misrepresented the financial obligations of NATO countries, and today he suggested that the U.S. would not protect other NATO countries that were “delinquent” if they were attacked by Russia. “In fact,” he said, “I would encourage [Russia] to do whatever the hell they want.”

—

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#political cartoons #Mike Luckovich #Letters From an American #Heather Cox Richardson #history #NATO #alliances #foreign policy #AUKUS #security partnership #democracy #21st century #diplomatic variable geometry

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contemplatingoutlander · 10 months

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House Republicans censuring Adam Schiff says more about them than him

The Editorial Board of The Washington Post rightly calls out the House Republicans for weaponizing the House to punish one of Trump's enemies, after Trump threatened to primary the 20 Republicans who initially voted against censuring him.

Here are some excerpts from the editorial:

Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) became on Wednesday just the third member of Congress to be censured in the past 40 years. The party-line vote reflected worse on the House Republicans who pushed it through than it did on Mr. Schiff. The resolution accuses the former House Intelligence Committee chairman of falsely claiming that Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign colluded with the Russian government. Mr. Schiff responded that Paul Manafort, as chairman of Mr. Trump’s campaign, provided internal campaign polling data to a Russian intelligence operative amid widespread Kremlin efforts to assist Mr. Trump. Experts can debate whether that technically constitutes collusion. But this semantic question is hardly the basis for a censure motion. Contrary to what many Trump supporters claim, the investigation by Robert S. Mueller III never exonerated Mr. Trump. Indeed, the special counsel’s report laid out significant evidence of obstruction of justice. It’s indisputable that Russia interfered in the 2016 election on Mr. Trump’s behalf. [...] After 20 Republicans voted last week with Democrats to table the censure resolution, Mr. Trump wrote on social media that he’d support primary challengers against them. (Mr. Schiff had spearheaded Mr. Trump’s first impeachment and played a leading role on the select committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.) When the resolution came up again Wednesday, this time without a threat to fine Mr. Schiff $16 million, most of those Republicans capitulated. In so doing, they weakened the power of congressional censure as an official rebuke reserved for egregious conduct — and, in the process, made themselves appear to be the wrongdoers. [color emphasis added]

#house republicans #adam schiff #republicans weaponizing congress #trump #house republicans are corrupt #editorial board #the washington post

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whosurisold · 5 months

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The 2 MAJOR players that COULD have ended trump Criminal presidency

Bill Barr interference in Mueller investigation.

Mitch McConnell inaction during Impeachment trials

BOTH knew #orangeJesus was guilty yet they protected him to retain their power and control.

#democrats #republicans #trumpchumps #donald trump #ivanka trump #doj #democracy #scotus #government #president joe biden #vp kamala harris #ali velshi

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partisan-by-default · 4 days

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When Putin wanted the Central African Republic (CAR) to give him multiple gold and mineral mines in that resource-rich country, the first thing his agent, Yevgeny Prigozhin, did was to buy a radio station and start running propaganda about the benefits of the CAR creating closer ties to Russia.

Similarly, when Putin wanted to put Trump into the White House, he had Prigozhin’s Internet Research Agency — a massive, well-funded troll farm based in St. Petersburg — use swing-state polling and other internal RNC confidential information to send more than 100 million targeted Facebook impressions to swing state Americans.

Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign manager in 2016 and a former employee who took over $10 million from one of Putin’s favorite oligarchs, handed that data off to Russian intelligence, leading in part to his going to prison (Trump pardoned him and is now talking about bringing him back into the 2024 campaign). Twenty-six of Putin’s IRA people were similarly indicted by the Mueller investigation, although American law has not been able to reach them in Russia.

Another example is Russia’s Putin and Hungary’s Orbán: in both cases, they used — just as Trump is promising to do here if he is reelected — libel laws to drive “normal” and progressive radio, newspapers, and TV out of business and replaced them with the equivalent of Fox “News” owned by friendly oligarchs, proclaiming the wonders of Putin and Orbán all day, every day.

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1americanconservative · 2 months

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@simonateba

Today is March 1, 2024, and because you are about to be hit by an unprecedented amount of propaganda and a deluge of disinformation from the left, I would like to state the facts again. 1- Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in 2014 when Democrat Barack Obama was in power. 2. Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022 when Democrat Joe Biden was in power. 3. Vladimir Putin invaded no territory when Republican Donald Trump was in power between 2017 and 2021. 4. Special Robert Mueller concluded that Donald Trump did not connive or conspire with the Russians to win the 2016 presidential election and defeat Hillary Clinton. 5. I hate repetitions but let me repeat that the Robert Mueller investigation did not establish that Donald Trump or his campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities. 6. While in power between 2017 and 2021, Donald Trump did not start a new war, he did not enrich the military-industrial complex. 7. Claims by the mainstream media that Vladimir Putin is blackmailing Donald Trump are false. 8. Claims by the mainstream media that the Hunter Biden laptop was Russia's disinformation are false. 9. The laptop belongs to Hunter Biden and seems to show what appears to be criminal activities. He's like everyone else innocent until proven guilty. 10. Claims that the Russians are AGAIN trying to interfere in the 2024 election to elect Trump are false and seem to be disinformation by the left. 11. Claims that everyone who questions sending billions of dollars to Ukraine for a war they may likely not win makes them a Russian agent or stooge are false and disinformation by the left. 12. Donald Trump is facing four criminal indictments and 91 counts. But indictments are accusations that have to be proven in court. He's innocent until proven guilty. 13. Claims that Trump if re-elected will be deadlier than Hitler and end the presidency and democracy as we know them are unproven since he was president for four years and did not do those things. 14. Yes, Trump often says some outrageous things but he actually acted differently once in power between 2017 and 2021. 15. Claims that Tucker Carlson is a Russian agent because he interviewed Putin are false, he's a journalist who has more influence than many media houses combined. 16. Claims that everything the White House says is true and everything the Kremlin says is a lie is false. They both lie all the time, more often than they tell the truth. 17. I can go on and on, but because you will hear about Russia, Russia, Russia, disinformation, disinformation and disinformation, and election interference by the Russians every day until after the presidential election in 2024, I want you to be prepared and see everything for what it is. 18. Never forget to subscribe to my X because that's what allows me to keep doing this, to go to war every day against propaganda and disinformation, and to hit close to half a billion views here every month.

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