For the entirety of Trump’s time in office, he has ridiculed the claim that Russia intervened in the 2016 election. He called this the “Russia hoax” and has attempted repeatedly to discredit the government intelligence agencies that reached this conclusion. He portrays himself as the victim of a “deep state” conspiracy to undermine the legitimacy of his election. He even tasked Attorney General William Barr to launch an investigation of the perpetrators behind the “Russia hoax” and to see that they are punished. And he has fired leaders of the intelligence agencies who might resist his views.
The Senate Intelligence Committee, controlled by Republicans, released a report this week supporting the conclusion that Russia did interfere in the 2016 election, specifically to help Trump and hurt Clinton. The committee was unanimous.
The New York Times reported:
A three-year review by the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee unanimously found that the intelligence community assessment, pinning blame on Russia and outlining its goals to undercut American democracy, was fundamentally sound and untainted by politics.
“The I.C.A. reflects strong tradecraft, sound analytical reasoning and proper justification of disagreement in the one analytical line where it occurred,” said Senator Richard M. Burr, Republican of North Carolina and the panel’s chairman. “The committee found no reason to dispute the intelligence community’s conclusions.”
The endorsement by Mr. Burr’s committee comes at a key moment for the intelligence agencies. Not only has Mr. Trump moved in recent months to install a loyalist in the top spy position, but Attorney General William P. Barr has also blessed a broad review of possible misconduct by investigators examining the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russia, apparently including work by intelligence officials…
“The case is closed,” said Senator Angus King, independent of Maine. “I don’t know how you could have a much more credible source than a three-year study by a bipartisan committee that came to a unanimous conclusion…”
Senators said their inquiry found that intelligence analysts who worked on the assessment were “under no politically motivated pressure to reach specific conclusions.”
“All analysts expressed that they were free to debate, object to content and assess confidence levels, as is normal and proper for the analytic process,” the report said.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Amazing this is still even remotely a debate.
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This is EXACTLY what has astonished me most. It’s so freaking obvious.
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Isn’t it astonishing that all these Senators and Congresspeople and even the Attorney General of the United States never have had the sense to ask themselves why Vladimir Putin would expend enormous resources to make Donald Trump the U.S. President? This is either breathtaking idiocy or traitorousness from people who are themselves compromised. But here we are.
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They didn’t ask themselves why he”d do that because as far as they’re concerned, he didn’t.
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They are not that naive. They know that the Russians did this as well as you and I do. They don’t care because having an utter moron in office who champions killing government off enables them to get away with looting to their heart’s content. They have been able to use Trump’s presidency to deliver to their fat-cat donors everything they want. Get rid of regulations requiring that waterways polluted by industrial operations aren’t used by migratory birds? Done. Reduce inspections in meat factories? Done. Privatize services in National Parks? Done. Relieve industry of having to monitor and fix methane leaks? Done. Allow developers to develop land without having to do assessments of impacts on endangered species? Done. Weaken emissions criteria for coal-burning plants? Done. Reduce by-catch limits on dolphins and whales caught in fishing operations? Done. Eliminate ability of native peoples to fight oil and gas pipelines through their territories based on the dangers presented to drinking water? Done.
And so on. By NOT LEADING, Trump has allowed the vandals to run amok, and all this is worth a lot of $$$$$$$ to their corporate sponsors. U.S. Representatives and Senators should, like NASCAR drivers, wear suits with their corporate sponsors’ logos on them.
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MAGA: Moscow’s Asset Governing America
Trump: Vlad’s Asset Orange
Can’t you just see Vlad sitting in the Kremlin and saying, “I know. Let’s give them that idiot, Trump. We’ve got the goods on him–the tape, the money laundering, and much, much else–so he will be–how shall I put this?–cooperative. He will divide the country against itself, alienate all its allies, undermine NATO, and screw up every part of the government that he touches, just as he did his businesses and personal life. Imagine this completely ignorant, pompous ne’er-do-well would-be playboy moron who ran through his Daddy’s money and had to come to us to bail him out running things in the U.S.! What a disaster! This will be hilarious!”
And he’s been laughing his head off ever since.
What he couldn’t have suspected, however, is that not only the U.S. Congressmen and Senators whom his oligarchs have compromised via financial arrangements but, indeed, almost the entire Repugnican Party, would get completely behind Don the Con, the ultimate reduction to absurdity of the American huckster.
I just hope that our intelligence and military services long ago developed the good sense to keep IQ45 in the dark about matters of importance to our national security. Lord knows how much the Moronavirus trumpinski orangii has compromised us, aided and abetted by Barr, McConnell, Matt Gaetz, and a bevy of other dancers at the Trump Limbo Party. How low, how low, how low can we go.?
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The folks in Moscow started developing Trump a long, long time ago. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/11/19/trump-first-moscow-trip-215842
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Long before Jefferson Beauregard “Ku Klux Cuckoo” Sessions, Stephen “Not-so-Bright Bart” Bannon, and Stephen “Goebbels” Miller discovered Trump as the champion to carry their racist anti-immigration agenda forward. What a confluence of interests! Moscow and the Racists. Two streams of sewage forming a mighty river of it.
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You have to give it to Putin. He’s an extraordinarily bright man. He has played an entire American political party and 40 percent of the American electorate for complete fools.
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Judo training. Get your opponent off balance. Capitalize on that.
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The case is closed, but the opportunities for debinking have not, given that:
“Mr. Trump moved in recent months to install a loyalist in the top spy position, but Attorney General William P. Barr has also blessed a broad review of possible misconduct by investigators examining the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russia, apparently including work by intelligence officials.”
This sure sounds like Trump and Barr and Trump’s newly appointed loyalist will collaborate, likely with Fox News, to vilify both houses of Congress for issuing this report.
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Debunking or debunking. It does not matter much in the larger scheme of things.
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Let me be clear. One might think, given the posts above, that I am some sort of Russia-baiter. I’m not. It’s incredibly important that the U.S. and the West generally have good relations with Russia, and I have profound respect for the Russian people and for their incredible cultural gifts to the world. The consequences of poor relations there are too awful to contemplate in a world with, for example, hypersonic nuclear missiles. But what we don’t need is a U.S. president who is a Russian asset. That’s crazy.
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The point is, this won’t hurt Trump or the GOP in the least, because McConnell will see to it that Trump is proven to “never have known nor cooperated with” Russian agents regarding the election. He won’t care because he’ll never be held accountable for it.
What this should do is force the American people to push for campaign fraud investigations going forward, but Teflon Don won’t suffer from this at all. He’ll just claim innocence like he always does.
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Of course. Trump is Putin’s pansy.
Russian OPS are everywhere on the internet.
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