Remember The Manchurian Candidate? The story centers on a Korean War veteran who is part of a prominent political family. He’s brainwashed by communists after his Army platoon is captured, and when he returns home, he becomes an unwitting assassin in an international communist conspiracy.
I’m beginning to see uncomfortable parallels with that fictional plot.
I’m loathe to give credence to the longstanding assertion that Trump is a knowing Russian asset–after all, it’s improbable that this pathetic bundle of ego and ignorance is a “knowing” anything. A recent article from the Kviv Independent does make that case, however, the author writing
Questions about U.S. President Donald Trump’s possibly shady relationship with Russia and the country’s security services have long swirled, even culminating in a special counsel investigation during his first term in office.
Though that investigation found evidence of “extensive criminal activity” by Trump, his associates, and some of his family members, it found no evidence that he was working for, or had ever been recruited by, Russia’s security services.
Yet despite this, the topic refuses to go away — most recently in a viral Facebook post from a former Kazakh security official that claimed Trump was recruited by the Soviet Union’s spy agency, the KGB, in 1987 and given the code name “Krasnov.”
Craig Unger, an American journalist and writer who has written two books on Trump’s connections to Russia’s security services and the Russian mafia stretching all the way back to the 1980s, says he is “absolutely certain” that the U.S. president is a Russian asset.
You can click through and read Unger’s arguments, but just as the central figure in the Manchurian Candidate was unaware of his brainwashing, I think it unlikely that Trump is consciously pursuing his pro-Russian, pro-Putin, anti-American rampage.
That, of course, doesn’t make his actions any less destructive. And it does raise a question about the operatives he is installing in various agencies of the federal government. Among the clowns, predators and preening incompetents, there are clearly some who are knowingly–and purposely– acting as Russian agents. Talking Points Memo recently reported on one of them.
Before Peter Marocco was selected to dismantle America’s entire foreign aid sector on behalf of President Donald Trump, he was an official with the State Department on a diplomatic mission.
During Trump’s first term, Marocco was a Trump appointee tasked with promoting stability in areas with armed conflict. In 2018, he made a two-week trip to the Balkans in what was advertised as an effort to counter extremism and strengthen inter-religious dialogue.
American diplomacy is carefully prescribed, identifying both the people officials should meet and those they should avoid. On that 2018 visit to the Balkans, Marocco secretly met with officials, including Milorad Dodik, whom the American government had determined were off-limits: Bosnian Serb separatist leaders who had been working for years to undermine the American-backed peace deal and to promote a Christian Bosnian Serb state….
At the time, Dodik was under U.S. sanctions for actively obstructing American efforts to prevent more bloodshed. Dodik has since described himself as “pro-Russian, anti-Western and anti-American” in a meeting with Putin. Nevertheless, Trump has named Marocco to a senior post at the U.S. Agency for International Development, where he’s attempted to halt dozens of programs. Former colleagues describe his agenda as “overtly militaristic and Christian nationalist.”
Trump has made Marocco the director for foreign assistance at the State Department, and deputy administrator of USAID — the two agencies that previously rejected him. “And unlike last time, Marocco is now without strictures and answers to few in the executive branch besides Trump himself.”
Immediately after the inauguration last month, Marocco drafted the order shutting down all of USAID’s programs and freezing foreign aid. He’s led the efforts to place nearly all of the agency’s staff on administrative leave, though the courts have temporarily lifted many of those. Much of USAID’s work has not resumed, according to interviews with dozens of government employees and nongovernmental organizations, despite the State Department’s claim that waivers allow work involving “core lifesaving medicine, medical services, food, shelter and substance assistance” to continue.
The article has much more detail about Marocco’s past activities–all of which raise the question why he has been empowered to orchestrate the Trump administration’s foreign aid policy.
TPM also reports that Rubio and Marocco have now
completely ended nearly 10,000 aid programs — including those they had granted waivers just days earlier — saying the programs did not align with Trump’s agenda. The move consigns untold numbers of the world’s poorest children, refugees and other vulnerable people to death, according to several senior federal officials. Local authorities have already begun estimating a death toll in the hundreds of thousands.
It hardly matters whether Trump is a knowing Russian asset….
No surprises here. And then there’s Pete Hegspeth, yet another idiot who is charge of our military. Rubio is simply an educated clown with no spine, morals or sense of duty to the law or the country; typical Republican.
One is forced to ask: “How long will it take before the boobs who voted these swine into office come to realize that they just undid what 80+ years of post-WWII efforts to make the world safer and less hungry?”
Will they really ask the right questions of themselves and FIX the problem, or will they try to figure out how to raise chickens in their condos? The whole world wonders.
BTW, the Canadians are now presenting a new attitude toward the United States. “Elbows up” is a hockey term for when you slam your opponent into the boards and stick your elbow in his face.
This is the largest WTF moment for the country since Pearl Harbor. But what will the answer be? Who and how many will step up and do the right thing and actually defend our Constitution against all these domestic enemies?
I’m wondering; those who can and do move out of this country to escape Trump and his Russian ties, are they welcomed as immigrants from their enemy country? America is no longer the global leader of anything but the MAGAs and we who are their victims. Are they safer in a foreign country and do they have plans to return if Putin’s puppet can be removed; will any of us live long enough to know those answers which don’t really matter to our personal survival without the return of our years of Social Security investment to pay our day-to-day bills and without anything resembling actual medical care?
Will we be notified of the losses or just surprised to learn they are gone? A recent news item on my cell phone warned of government takeover of the banking system is in our future; something I have been concerned about before that notice. One of my most helpful bankers assured me not long ago that my bank system is “too big to fail”…where have we heard that before. I let it slide to maintain the friendly service I have received for years. How does Putin deal with Russia’s banking system to give us a clue as to what probably lies in wait for us in our near future? Does he allow a banking system for citizens?
“It hardly matters whether Trump is a knowing Russian asset….” How deeply buried in our banking system is Russia at this point?
Piggybacking on JoAnn’s banking comment, our banking system is about as corrupt as it gets. Jamie Dimon has run the largest bank in the US, and investigative agencies and banking regulators claim he runs it like a mob boss. I lost count of the number of his felony counts. Had Obama done the right thing after the bankers destroyed the economy again, we’d have a nationalized banking system, but he was a fraud owned by Citibank.
The real target is the Federal Reserve, the nation’s bank. Our founders had plenty of experience with the Bank of England and the Rothschilds in London, but they specifically excluded the Federal Reserve. The corrupt money changers got their way, but it wasn’t very democratic. I definitely support canceling the Federal Reserve and nationalizing the entire financial system. Banking is a fraud by design.
As for Trump being a “Russian stooge” or “Putin’s puppet,” I would look at yesterday’s video of the congressman’s confession about the corruption in Washington by the uniparty. As DOGE keeps digging, a massive demonstration of fraud and corruption will be pinned on the uniparty; some would call it the “establishment.” Do you think the establishment, including many of our network news agencies, will be running hit pieces against Trump and his toadies? Keep that in mind!
Also, I’m reading one of Whitney Webb’s books, “One Nation Under Blackmail.” Vern should read it in his spare time since she has indicated most of the culprits are Republicans but not exclusively. Bill Clinton is an exception.
I’m not in far enough to touch on the current state of affairs but let’s say that Epstein is in the introduction and is a pivotal figure in this book. She started with the run up to World War 2 and how our intelligence agencies used the mob often. It reads like the Godfather with figures like Miles Lansky and Lucky Luciano. Imagine that Allan Dulles and his brother are also part of the Deep State. If anyone thinks Epstein and Maxwell were independent outliers operating exclusively on their own, think again. How many of the johns have been imprisoned or even charged for sex crimes in the US or the world? Epstein had friends in very, very, high places.
p.s. Donald and Melania were long-time friends of Epstein and Maxwell.
We humans are like icebergs, mostly unseen, unfathomable, and impossible to reach the bottom of. When we organize into pods, from families to governments, like the formerly united States of North America, they all have that same quality, and the number of people in each pod and the number of relationships they have with other pods make that unknowable nature exponentially greater.
That’s reality.
In our case, we had progressed to the point where the complexity of running the Executive iceberg was approaching the limits of human cognition.
What we call that is a version of bureaucracy.
A race was underway between that piece of reality and the technology of Artificial Intelligence, which had the potential to become the elusive benign dictator that we have always claimed was the more efficient way to govern.
Muskrat sees himself as the instigator of that transition as it arrives and matures. Maybe Putin does too, I don’t know. They are both largely unfathomable.
Even Muskrat knows he isn’t equipped to gather enough political power in a democracy. He’s somewhere on the Asperger’s spectrum, which does not bode well for any political performance, so he did what oligarchs do: he took advantage of the opportunity that came his way and bought his way in. Now he and the fraternity brothers who worship him because they haven’t lived long enough to know any better, are ridding themselves of the obstacles; people in pods who serve or are served by our government.
Where does this volatile situation lead? Like all explosions, it is impossible to know.
Imagine you are a Ukrainian explosive drone programmed to acquire and destroy Russian infrastructure. What will follow the mission that will destroy you in the explosion at your target? That’s impossible to know.
It doesn’t take a lot to get Orange Jesus to salivate. Putin has only to whisper two words in his ear, Trump Moscow. We should change the Constitution to require every candidate for President needs to provide two things: 1)Ten years of tax returns. 2) Proof of an IQ of at least 115. (Note that 115 is the high point of average, so one doesn’t need to be a genius to be President, but should at least be above average. Yes that’s a personal preference, but it’s one I hope most people share.)
Yes, it is impossible to know the future. All we can do is imagine the future we want and then take whatever actions we can to create that future.
trump went to russia to promote the ms universe. his presense in the kremlin was followed and PRd for russias new found freedoms. his capitalist agenda, to get some buisness from the new russian gov. then putin steped in. his need for glamor and attention,yea, russia threw out the carpet and,anything,trump wanted. his past talks to put a trump hotel in red square. fizzled somewhere. but now his glitz and money will be taken more seriously by putin. seems putin doesnt give a damn how many people die over this new attention getting. trump doesnt care how many die for his own needs. this whole takeover is the same as putins cleansing of his courts then his congress. get ready.. the whole deal is money,and power by two low lifes who,could give a shit about America as long as it fills his pockets. the media on the tube its falling all over its self by reporting it, but does nothing to talk about the issues,and putins past and how it aligns with trumps narrow mind. the whole billionaire class is part of this,shit on them too. even right or left,they all are part of this siege to take it all while pushing us closer to a nazi regiem. AI will weed us out, and become the answers to any goverment services as i see it. your privacy is now in the tech sectors silos, your anything private is now matched to trumps new admins scan of whos doin what. lets see musk buy ooen AI and sell it back to the trump admin,after he loads all those files hes taken over into a package to supress any voice. think about it.. musk said hed buy open AI for 85B if it would,turn a profit.. (gardian story bout a montn ago)
This is interesting https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BP7XheUDV/
Our policies in government need to carefully expand to cover the type of behavior/policy that Trump is engaging in. I’m reading a book now called “The Broken Constitution” which is about Lincoln’s time in office before the Civil war. We need very smart policy makers but what good is that if your policies are blocked by MAGA extremists/Republicans in the House and Senate? These idiots don’t even realize the danger of Trump kissing the @ss of Putin. The United States has really shot itself in the foot and needs emergency care.
Groomed by the KGB starting with his first trip to the Soviet Union in 1987. Absolutely a Russian asset.
Russia Russia Russia – how’d that work out for you the first time you tried it ?
You all making up garbage to deflect how absolutely dismal the democrats are – the hole you are digging gets deeper day by day.
It’s going to be a LONG rough road for you for a LONG time.
Becky, you and the rest of the MAGATS are so willing and eager to accept a traitor, a tax fraud, an adjudicated rapist, a convicted felon and a 6-time bankrupted idiot who found a way to bankrupt a casino. Yeah. The hole. What hole, exactly, are you talking about? The one that will suck up your social security and medicare benefits, or the ones in your street when Muskrat tries to privatize everything.
Your politics need some growth and maturity – as does, apparently, your own maturity. Blind people shouldn’t talk about color photos.
Yeah I think we used to call it the muskovian, er’um Moscovian candidate
What I meant to post! Someone made a spectacular little summary of Trump’s money laundering history https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1VkrJKKuL4/