World leaders spoke out about the death of Alexei Navalny, who was obviously murdered on the order of Putin.
One prominent figure said nothing: Donald Trump. Trump has boasted about his friendship with Putin.
Donald Trump, the frontrunner for the GOP presidential nomination, was silent following news of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s death on Friday. Instead, his campaign referred a reporter to a statement that didn’t reference Navalny or Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“In just three and a half years under Crooked Joe Biden, the World has experienced Misery, Destruction, and Death. America is no longer respected because we have an incompetent president who is weak and doesn’t understand what the World is thinking. I am the only one who can bring Peace, Prosperity, and Stability like I did during my first term. America will be respected and feared (if necessary!) again,” Trump said in the vague statement posted to Truth Social.
Nikki Haley blasted Trump.
“Putin murdered his political opponent and Trump hasn’t said a word after he said he would encourage Putin to invade our allies. He has, however, posted 20+ times on social media about his legal drama and fake polls,” Haley said on X, formerly known as Twitter, several hours after Navalny’s death was first reported.
“Putin did this. The same Putin who Donald Trump praises and defends,” Haley wrote in a social media post reacting to the news earlier Friday morning.
“The same Trump who said: ‘In all fairness to Putin, you’re saying he killed people. I haven’t seen that,’” Haley continued, referring to comments Trump made in 2015, when he pushed back against the notion that Putin had killed journalists. Trump also praised Putin’s leadership, describing him as “a strong leader.”
Be sure to watch the CNN documentary NAVALNY tonight at 9 pm EST and midnight. It won an Academy Award as Best Documentary of 2023.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
His hatred for humanity , his blindness to all , his absence of empathy , the list could go on ad infinitum .
What petrifies me to the almost point of paralysis is that 63 million other Americans ( ?) feel the exact same way to select, not elect, him again .
As we saw with Reagan , George H.W. Bush and his son George W. Bush , and now Trump , Republicans eschew elections and prefer selections .
I know I am sort of comparing apples to oranges, but the Jews coming off the ramps of the cattle cars were also selected .
Marc
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Trump has been a Russian asset for a long, long time:
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/11/19/trump-first-moscow-trip-215842/
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After Trump went bankrupt, Russians bailed him out, and he engaged in money laundering for Russian mobsters. This is the only thing that kept him solvent because he is a lousy businessman:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/1/9/1618540/-Was-Donald-Trump-bailed-out-of-bankruptcy-by-Russia-crime-bosses
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This! He’s been laundering Russian mob money through his flea-infested second-rate hotels at least since leaky Rudy extirpated the Italian mob in New York.
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I have long wondered what kompromat the Russians have on Guiliani. He has ruined himself in the service of Trump, which is in turn the service of Putin and Russia. Must be pretty good. I suspect that the scene from the Borat film gives us a clue:
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If you are an undercover Russian agent and you want to trap Rudy the Brown-Nose Reign Dear, well, it’s pretty obvious how you can do that.
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Trump launched his new sneaker line. It is incredible that he’s found time in his busy schedule to sell sneakers. This has never happened before in a presidential campaign.
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/02/17/politics/trump-sneakers-pay-millions-new-york-trial/index.html
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So, what did Russia and its international war criminal leader, Tsar Vladimir, Putin’s handler, get for spending billions of rubles to get Trump elected? Well, here’s a Partial list. Putin’s investment in his dog Trump paid off handsomely.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/17/politics/trump-soft-on-russia/index.html
NB: this list soft-pedals Trump’s actions in the interests of Russia rather than of the United States and its allies. It fails to mention the consequences, things like our allies the Kurds being slaughtered because Trump decided, over the objections of his Secretary of Defense and his Joint Chiefs, to withdraw from Northern Syria, leaving it to Russia and Assad. This piece of traitorousness, alone, should have gotten Trump impeached, tried, and thrown into prison for the rest of his vile life.
That the US intelligence services did not long-ago nail Trump for all this has to be the greatest intelligence coup (on the part of Russia) and the greatest intelligence failure (on the part of the United States) of all time. For four years, a Russian asset sat in the oval office (well, when he wasn’t golfing our upstairs watching TV and inhaling cheeseburgers and Adderall).
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When Trump just decided on his own to withdraw from Northern Syria, he abandoned our allies, the Kurds, who had helped us defeat Isis there. That’s how he thanked them. This was so appalling that Trump’s Secretary of Defense, James Mattis, resigned over this. It was a traitorous and evil act.
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cx: Tsar Vladimir, Trump’s handler
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I highly encourage readers of this blog to read those articles that I posted, above. There is a story there. It’s a story RIGHT OUT IN THE OPEN FOR ANYONE TO SEE. But it’s useful, from time to time, to brush up on it. Here’s the working title:
MAGA: Russia’s Asset Governed America
The sick little Chekist murderer of Navalny and of so many, many, many others, including babies and grandmothers in Ukraine, got what he paid for. But too bad, so sad, Traitorous Donnie. If you think you can escape justice by taking your Trump plane, that pigsty in the sky, to Sochi and live happily ever after in a dacha there, remember this: You and Putin are peas in a pod. Neither of you cares a microbe on a hair of a rat’s tushy about anyone else but himself. Did you see what Putin did to the Putin toady Carlson last week? Well, your usefulness to Tzar Vladimir the Defenestrater has run out.
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Oops.
MAGA: Moscow’s Asset Governed America
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It is time to put this career con man and traitor and liar and serial predator behind bars and throw away the key. Oh, and to bankrupt, really bankrupt, his corrupt criminal enterprise.
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The first thing Biden should have done in office was to appoint someone interested in having justice prevail as head of the DOJ. Then, the first thing THAT AG should have done is appoint a special prosecutor to detail Trump’s decades of service to America’s enemies.
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My beloved country: How many times, in how many ways, does Trump have to tell you that HE WORKS FOR THE OTHER GUY.
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Trump & Putin = TrumPutin
Vlad Begins Where Don Ends
SCOTUS Nils What 14 Amends
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HAAAAA! Sooooo funny!
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Did you see that Trump took time from his busy schedule to hawk “Trump sneakers.” They range in price from $200-399.
The man has no dignity.
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It’s so funny that Trump considers himself a social superior to his own supporters GIVEN THAT the man is such a lowlife. A scumbag knuckle dragger. No decency. No taste. He’s like all the other mob bosses, with the possible exception of Meyer Lansky. Dumb as dirt. No culture, no class.
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The Russian endearment diminutives for Vladimir are Volva or Total Scumbag Piece of Shit
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Oops. I meant to type Vova for the first of these.
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–Bobbie
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Here’s is more detail from Heather Cox Richardson regarding PART of the story that I told above about Moscow’s Asset Governing America (MAGA). As with everything from Dr. Richardson, this is edge-of-your-seat reading, extremely important, and DEEPLY informed.
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/february-17-2024?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=20533&post_id=141783935&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=3ljjp&utm_medium=email
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Let me repeat:
That the US intelligence services did not long-ago nail Trump for treason has to be the greatest intelligence coup (on the part of Russia) and the greatest intelligence failure (on the part of the United States) of all time. For four years, A RUSSIAN ASSET SAT IN THE OVAL OFFICE (well, occasionally, when he wasn’t golfing or upstairs watching TV and inhaling cheeseburgers and Adderall). Lord knows how much damage was done. We won’t ever know the extent of it. Fortunately, Trump is stupid and ignorant of how anything works. If he weren’t an imbecile and an ignoramus, things could have been much worse. If he wins the presidency again, this could be calamatous.
And Trump has dragged an entire American pollical party, just about, down into the treasonous slime he has so long inhabited. We it wise up and redeem itself? That’s an interesting question.
But it won’t happen until they wise up to who Trump really is.
How many times does Trump have to tell them who he is, that he works for the other guy?
This test is even easier than was the “person, woman, man, camera, TV” test that the brainless Trump thought was an IQ test. BTW, he obviously did not remember that list, for it would be impossible to tell from three pictures of people that the first would was supposed to be a generic person but that the second and their were supposed to be identified by gender. It could be man, woman, man, camera, TV or woman, woman, man, camera, TV or person, person, person, camera, TV. ROFL.
Trump is a moron. But that’s not the major issue. He is a traitor to his country. And until one political party figures this out and he is tried and imprisoned, there will be no healing, and everything will continue to fall apart.
Yeah, Putin invested well when he bought himself Don the Con.
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cx: second and third
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How much chaos and discord and division can one man sow? Well, we got a taste of this. But four more years would be far, far, far, far worse. It could well bring on Civil War in the United States.
And that is, of course, much to the liking of the evil little Chekist who serves as marionettist to Donnie Destructo.
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cx: Will it [the Republican Party] wise up to Trump and redeem itself after its flirtation with treason?
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CX:
BTW, Trump obviously did not remember that list, for it would be impossible to tell from three pictures of people that the first was supposed to be of a generic “person” but that the second and third were supposed to be identified by gender.
Trump is a terrible liar because he is so stupid. But his followers, also stupid, don’t catch the obvious tells.
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He’s in a sulk because Putin doesn’t want him any more as his action toy.
He’s also in a quandary because he can’t be seen supporting something Biden does.
He has to think about this one, and thinking is not his strong suit anyway.
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Putin has always been quite willing to turn his back on a former friend and associate and often, quite literally, to kill him or her. Like Trump, his only loyalty is to himself. Is Putin done milking Donnie? Hard to say. Definitely not if Donnie wins the nomination and has any chance of winning. But I suspect that Putin, who is much smarter than his The Orange Idiot, knows that despite the polls, there is little chance of Jabba the Trump winning again. Too many people are now wise to him, and the Trumpy the Clown stage show has gotten really, really old. People are walking out of it, literally, these days.
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So far Putin has made one mistake, giving into to the centuries old enmity between Ukrainians and Russian then seeking back the equally old idea that Ukraine belongs to Russia. But the Kremlin whoever reigns there does not worry about losses when it comes to European strategy. And Ukraine may go the way of Finland in 1940, then in 1945.
Russia works differently. That is all that can be said.
Trump has outlived his current usefulness. Putin as many before him in the will therefore ditch a clown. Russia does not make pacts with clowns.
If for some cruel twist of fates and politics Trump does get back into the Whitehouse, he will find The Kremlin have changed the rules, and he will not be able to bluster and tweet his way out of those.
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And, beautifully, accurately said, Determined!
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Thank you
And poor ‘Crawler’ Carson… Putin was so mean to him. Now what will he do (Oh the Humanity!)
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Tucker was asked on live TV about Navalny’s death (murder). His response “all leaders kill people.”
Maybe RT will hire him. That’s Russia Television, the arm of the state.
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A sudden image flashed into my mind of Carlson being pushed under a bus or a subway train and a Presidential Aide or The White House Press Secretary saying, with open arms:
‘What? Carlson, himself said it was ok to do so. Geez Louise, get real people,’
Some folk just do not deserve respect.
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I love “Crawler Carlson.”
But just one slight emendation. His first name begins with an F.
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I think he is sulking because of the half-billion $$$ in fines in NY.
Putin still wants him. He wants him to cut off aid to Ukraine and to cripple NATO.
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I get the impression that Putin has decided Trump is not intelligent enough to grasp the details of the Game that has been played out in Europe over the decades, even centuries.
Europe is witnessing the previously cautious Finland (who wouldn’t with that border?), neutral Sweden, unsettled Germany, very touchy Baltic States and of course Poland gearing up a few notches. To it make worse, even Norway is starting to work on new weaponry. Then the UK, as always is willing to support those and tie down Russia (since we are woefully unmanned in our own armed forces).
Putin has made one strategic mistake that being Europe would cave in at once. And didn’t.
Now he has to rely on the traditional Russian way of a grinding war of Attrition.
This carries its own risks, although European West is limited in its resources and abilities to fight a protracted war it can still give a nasty bite, even if it should then give up, there will have been a cost.
And there’s the problem of trying to keep all those populations on your side or at least quiescent.
He doesn’t need a Whitehouse and Congress full of clowns to mess up a very careful subjugation hope of ‘Finlandisation’ of all of Europe.
He needs old school, realpolitik operators. Grown-ups.
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A fascinating and sensible analysis, Determined. But I think that Putin the marionettist might still have uses for Donnie Destructo, that Traitorous Child-Man in the Promised Land.
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He might well indeed Bob. If it suited his purpose.
And Trump being the oaf he is if flattered enough will forget what he said this past week.
Either that or Putin will find someone in the US more in tune with the realities of the situation, arrange a social assassination of Trump and replace him.
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So, if Putin decided to release the Golden Showers in Moscow tape, what do you think would be the reactions of the MAGAts? Would they pretend that it is all actors hired by a Biden movie crew? Would Film Denialism become a thing like, you know, Climate Denialism and COVID denialism?
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We can expect there will be some whose heads will spin around and explode.
As for the majority, yes I concur with your estimate. Oh it will be a ‘Deep State’ operation, with actors and AI, and fake news- blah-blah-blah.
Never underestimate the power of Denial in the face of facts or irrefutable evidence.
We have similar groupings in the UK. On the Left there are folk who could not imagine Putin doing anything violent, unless ‘provoked’ by the USA. (Like invade Ukraine).
I don’t know if it made the news in the US, but back in 2018 in the town of Shrewsbury there was a failed attempt to poison two Russian defectors by a serious nerve agent. The rational assumption was that the Russian security services were involved.
But on the Supine Left Oh No! The Conspiracy wheels went into overdrive. And the then leader of the Labour Party Corbyn actually stood up in parliament and said we shouldn’t jump to conclusions about Russia. (As hard-left as I am and that’s pretty hard I despaired of such a bunch of Innocent Angels – that’s the polite version).
They are alive and well on the Right and The Left, so far into Denial, they meet around the other side of the circle
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Determined, we have people here who insisted that Putin would never invade Ukraine. Never. Whatever Putin says.
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Yep.
From the day the Orange Revolution was successful it was a given there would be a Russian Response. Regrettably for thousands of young Russians, the current Kremlin lost sight of the concept of ‘Soft Power’ (well the Russian Version- which is tantamount to a smiling face and a worryingly tight and somewhat metallic ‘friendly arm’ around the shoulder)
And out their western fanboys and girls’ YouTube channels desperately claim that Ukraine will fall ‘next week’ or a similar time scale.
Ironically the UK right-wing press who unlike some of their colleagues in the US defaulted to the traditional position predicted Putin’s collapse on a daily basis. (You can still read headlines in some of the complete desolation of the Russian Army).
Instead we have another hideous grinding war.
Which apparently is no fault of Putin’s Kremlin.
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This war needs to end when the Russian marauders, murderers, and rapists are driven out of every square nanometer of Ukraine, including Crimea and the Donbas. Why? Because Ukraine is a test of the fundamental principle of international law, the principle on which it is based, that the territorial integrity of a UN member state like Ukraine is sacrosanct.
NATO, jointly, should bomb the Kerch Strait Bridge. The UN should send in peacekeeping troops, both land and sea, to stop the transport of Russian military supplies to Ukraine, which is a UN member state invaded by Russia in violation of international law.
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Bob, agreed. The UN should step in to stop Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine. After three years, it’s clear it won’t.
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Whereas all manner of hells and interventions can take place in the rest of the world, Europe is still the ‘Special Case’. Two World Wars showed that when Europe goes to it ‘everyone suffers’ or at least quakes. After all Europe is the place where industrial scale warfare was invented and ‘perfected’. And arguably in terms of population, per square whatever, over the centuries is the most war torn piece of real estate on the planet.
Thus in the days of not just Nuclear but not Cyber Warfare even all-out conventional wars are played out by sets of rules. The cardinal being ‘Talk about doing it, But don’t actually spread it,’ This is done with both side’s fingers poised on triggers.
The UN would have a serious problem trying to get UN troops in. A large number of nations still remembering the abuses of the various colonial pasts are either siding with Russia (because they never ‘benefitted’ from Russian rule) or are sitting back thinking ‘Europeans killing each other. Now they remember how it feels. We’ve got our own problems. We’re not sending our under armed guys into that!’
As for NATO taking part that is currently a distinct ‘Off The Table’. NATO goes first, Russia already on a war footing has the Kremlin playing the Patriotic Homeland card and the border states suffer first. Then if they are invaded up go the stakes another notch.
China is a winner, tips a nod to North Korea, the former decides to settle that Taiwan problem and the other takes up where it left off in 1956.
And Beijing says.
‘OK Washington, try and deal with all three,’
If NATO wants to escalate at all it will be by deep, deep stealth at the edges. Old School.
Meanwhile the War grindings on. The Kremlin with a current tight grip on the populous willing to wear down Ukraine’s will. And old story in the Logic of War.
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Hey, determined, where is the link to follow your blog?
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Thank you for the interest Bob.
I have two:
My main line blog (which originally was to do with Fiction writing but does carry items on current news) is:
writingwritingandmorewritinginspiteofcomputers.home.blog
I also have a hardcore one where I sometimes go to sound off about politics and history:
Is ‘The World As It Is. Not as It Should Be’
politicsandhistory359465094.wordpress.com
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Haaaa! So funny! I didn’t know the part of the story about Corbyn. My lord!!!
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It was a ludicrous sight to see. Particularly in a UK Parliament where the two ‘sides’ sit in opposite rows of benches, and the leader of the opposition’s shadow cabinet team sit with them.
So as Corbyn did his bit, you could see on the faces of some of his cabinet less than the usual automatic support (more like ‘Get me out of here- now!)
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!!!!
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Quite!
Labour’s vitriolic in-fighting is legendary in UK politics, and aside from Tony Blair riding the waves of relief after the UK finally ditched the Conservatives back in 1996, is the reason why Labour Governments are rare and short-lived things.
The end of the May era and Johnson taking over should have been a gift to any opposition party.
But no, we witnessed a massive Conservative Majority (and Corbyn’s side bleating ‘Betrayal’ or for some of course ‘Conspiracy’ and ‘It was all the BBC’s biased reporting’- both sides use that by the way)
By an ionic change of fortune Johnson’s crew were possessed of a special sort of incompetence, which Truss managed to lower the bar on, and thus began the Conservative’s impression of the Labour Party.
But as I say to my wife. ‘It could be worse. Consider what our friends in the USA have to deal with’
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rofl
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It’s either that or….
‘SIGH!!’
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I have seen an outpouring of tweets by people/bots that say Navalny was a CIA agent; there were no demonstrations in Moscow; whatever happened, blame America.
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Well no, there would not be demonstrations in Moscow would there? What goes on there goes on ‘deep’ and in the shadows.
Some of spelling or use of English on social media is shall we say, unusual, (sigh- they don’t train them like the old KGB used to) and of course there are the ranks of the ‘Innocent Angels’ (or Korisne Budale- the Serbian equivalent as used by Tito’s folk in post WWII Yugoslavia for those in the West who denied communist governments were doing anything ruthless.
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Alas, Trump has turned a LOT of Republican “leaders” into Useful Idiots, into Putin’s stooges. And then there are those who do not quite fit the definition, who are simply cynical and self-serving and will ride Trump’s coattails EVEN THOUGH Trump is a Russian asset.
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There are always the snake oil merchants and hucksters looking to make a fast buck one way or another. They can be quite adept at shifting stance too and re-writing their own histories.
Some if they calculate the mood is right might well play ‘The Saviour of The Party’ card.
This idea of Trump’s ‘grip’ is a bit of a Smoke and Mirrors’ thing. The fellow does not have the instinct to change direction or nuance for the long game. He’s there because the collective consciousness born out of The Culture Wars want him to be there.
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They would say the tape was AI. At the time Trump was invited to Moscow by officials, every hotel room was wired. They knew his appetites.
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