Putin?s Puffy Puppet

The case that our president is under the malign influence of Vladimir Putin is solid. We have seen it demonstrated in public, when he publicly declared that he believed Putin rather than his unanimous Intelligence agencies; in meetings with Putin and phone conversations without note takers or witnesses; and in Presidential mandates that sidestep Congressional oversight. But there is more.

Other Trump actions, even before his election, demonstrated his unhealthy taste for dictators, particularly Putin, whom he hotly defended. When reminded during a Fox interview that Putin is a killer, he said that we are killers too. He sees no difference between a liberal democracy and an authoritarian state.

A few other mysteries require answer during the Impeachment process: was Trump aware that the Russians had hacked Hillary Clinton?s web site when he publicly asked him to "find Hillary Clinton?s missing e-mails?" The Mueller report indicates that he did.

Who suggested to political novice Trump that he employ Paul Manafort, a now convicted felon, as his campaign manager? When Manafort offered his services gratis, did Trump ask what was in it for him? Manafort soon demonstrated who was running him when he slipped into the Republican platform an item to end sanctions against Russia, sanctions unanimously levied by Congress. Manafort was on the payroll of Ukrainian Russian puppet Yanukovych, who had fled to Russia when ousted from power by the Ukrainians.

Who suggested to Trump that he appoint as Secretary of State a man he had never met, Rex Tillerson, an oil executive with an award from Vladimir Putin? Fortunately, Tillerson was more of a patriot than his President, and because of this, he was soon replaced by a more compliant Secretary of State.

Why did Trump appoint as National Security Chief retired General Michael Flynn? General Flynn had been asked to retire early because he was demonstrating some dangerous mental quirks that alarmed the Intelligence Community. President Obama personally warned Trump not to hire this man, but of course he did. Did he know that Flynn was on the payroll of Turkish dictator Erdogan?

Flynn carried out an assignment by Erdogan to urge that an elderly cleric, in refuge in Pennsylvania, be extradited to face trial and death in Turkey. Flynn is now a felon also. But even without him, Trump seems cozy with Dictator Erdogan, despite outrage from Congress and the Intelligence Community.

We can see that every foreign policy option by Trump benefits Russia, not the United States. Putin hates NATO and the EU. He fears a united Europe and one in which the US leads. Trump has somehow done his bidding: alienating us from our long-time democratic allies, disdaining NATO and the EU, and preferring every authoritarian state instead. He has "personal" relations (he thinks) with North Korea, Poland, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and the Philippines.

The latest outrage, one that has finally brought Trump into a much delayed Impeachment investigation, is that he was caught in a phone call to the new young president of Ukraine, the first uncorrupt leader that poor country has had, in which he let him know that the military support money that Congress authorized would not be given until the new president announced an investigation into the Biden family and say that the hackers of the Clinton e-mails were Ukrainians, not Russians. (Putin wants this.) This criminal action by Trump was outed by a distressed whistle blower and then confirmed under oath by others. Trump?s no longer hidden phone calls were revealed as coercion, a shakedown, of a small country?s president.

Trump has now deserted our devoted ally, the Kurds, and after a phone call from Erdogan, has moved our troops from the Syrian border, permitting the Turks to enter and Syria to be divided up between Erdogan and Putin. If Putin wanted to destroy our reputation in the world, wanted to sow domestic dissention and international scorn, he could not have found a better man than Trump, his puffy puppet.

The question now remains: why? What hold do Putin and Erdogan have over him? Is it money for Trump towers, or something worse?

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Contact her at Lfarhat102@aol.com www.globalthink.netglobalthink.net.