Saturday, September 24, 2016

The Siberian Candidate's Apparatchik



Reports that U.S. intelligence officials are investigating communications between Carter Page, one of neo-fascist demagogue Donald "Rump" Trump's foreign policy advisors, and senior Russian officials should not be a great surprise. After all, Rump's former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, represented the pro-Kremlin former government of Ukraine, and his military advisor, General Michael Flynn, has close ties to Russia's military leadership. That doesn't even cover Rump's presumed financial entanglement with Russian oligarchs and financiers, or his stated admiration for the Russian autocrat Putin, or Russian intelligence's hacking of the DNC to embarrass Secretary Clinton on the eve of the Democratic convention.

With Page, however, there are reports that he's sought to cut back-channel deals with Russia that would undermine U.S. policy, specifically a promise to lift economic sanctions if Rump were to be elected. Page, who was identified by Rump last March as a member of his "foreign policy team", heads a company that arranges oil and gas deals with Russia and Central Asian countries, and who would financially benefit from warmer relations between Russia and the U.S. On Russian soil, Page has also made critical comments about U.S. foreign policy and had praise for Putin.

Rump's candidacy has been called a "clear and present danger" to this country, and the growing web of his and his aides' connections to our Russian adversaries has to be exposed thoroughly and quickly so that voters can assess the national security calamity that would follow with his election.

(photo: Rump wears another furry animal on his head)

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