Trump's State Of The World

The president of Freedom House writes about how the noxious effects of Trumpism have migrated beyond our borders:

The president’s attacks on the judiciary and the media, his resistance to anticorruption constraints and his unfounded claims of voting fraud by the opposition are tactics familiar to foreign autocrats and populist demagogues who seek to subvert checks on their power. 

Such leaders take heart from Trump’s bitter feuding with the United States’ traditional democratic allies and his reluctance to uphold the nation’s collective defense treaties, which have helped guarantee international security for decades. The president has refused to advocate American democratic values overseas, and he seems to encourage the forces that oppose them. His frequent praise for some of the world’s worst dictators reinforces this perception.

Freedom House ranks the United States in its "Freedom in the World 2019" report in the same league as Mongolia, Croatia and Belize, and below France, Germany and the UK.  MAGA!

The Washington Post is also reporting something sentient humans here and abroad have observed for some time -- that Putin puppet and laughing stock Donald "Rump" Trump is out to wreck the Western Alliance:

As President Trump prepares to deliver his second State of the Union address, the leaders of the United States’ closest allies in Europe are filled with anxiety. 

They are unsure of whom to talk to in Washington. They can’t tell whether Trump considers them friends or foes. They dig through his Twitter feed for indications of whether the president intends to wreck the European Union and NATO or merely hobble the continent’s core institutions. 

Officials say Trump, by design or indifference, has already badly weakened the foundation of the transatlantic relationship that American presidents have nurtured for seven decades. As Sigmar Gabriel, a former German foreign minister, put it: “He has done damage that the Soviets would have dreamt of.”  

European leaders worry that the next two years could bring even more instability, as Trump feels emboldened, and they are filled with fear at the prospect that Trump could be reelected. The situation has left the continent facing a strategic paradox no one has managed to crack. 

“We can’t live with Trump,” Gabriel said. “And we can’t live without the United States.” (our emphasis)

At this late date, to pretend that all of this is pure coincidence, or that the ignoramus simply has no understanding of  how our democratic alliances have functioned for a century, or that he simply enjoys creating chaos, is to ignore what we can see in plain view and are certain investigators are well on their way to proving:  that this compromised POS is being leveraged by Russia to act in its best interests rather than those of the United States and its allies.  As we've said before, we think some of the "what" will be reported by the Special Counsel and some of the "why" will be in the form of indictments issued through the Southern District of New York's investigation into Rump's organization and financing (including Rump's inaugural committee, which is being subpoenaed for documents as this is written).

Herr Gabriel, we can't live with Trump either.

(Photo:  Trump's the only one happy to see Putin -- "Am I doing o.k., boss?")

Morning Links - The Trump Dossier

Here's a small sampling of analysis this morning on yesterday's revelations about alleged compromising information held by the Russians on neo- fascist Putin poodle Donald "Rump" Trump:

-- Nancy LeTourneau has a helpful timeline to put things in context;

-- Steve Benen on alleged exchanges between the Rump campaign and Russian government intermediaries;

-- Steve M. at No More Mister Nice Blog thinks Rump will stonewall and muddle through, with an assist from party- before- country Republicans on the Hill;

-- David Corn (who broke parts of this story in October, but E-MAILS!!) is concerned the FBI is sitting on information about Rump- Russian ties;

-- Charles Pierce on Tuesday's Rump "dungbomb" and the contrast with President Obama's farewell address last night;

-- Martin Longman focuses on the alleged involvement of Rump's consigliere;  and, in a healthy caveat,

-- Lawfare (via LGM) urges we all take a deep breath and let the facts unfold (better unfold fast, intelligence community, before Rump gets his hands on things!).

In the meantime, who does Rump look to for verification that "there's nothing to see here, move along"?  See post below.

Classified Report: Russians Have Compromising Intel On Trump

Surprise!

Classified documents presented last week to President Obama and President-elect Trump included allegations that Russian operatives claim to have compromising personal and financial information about Mr. Trump, multiple US officials with direct knowledge of the briefings tell CNN. 

The allegations were presented in a two-page synopsis that was appended to a report on Russian interference in the 2016 election. The allegations came, in part, from memos compiled by a former British intelligence operative, whose past work US intelligence officials consider credible. The FBI is investigating the credibility and accuracy of these allegations, which are based primarily on information from Russian sources, but has not confirmed many essential details in the memos about Mr. Trump. 

The classified briefings last week were presented by four of the senior-most US intelligence chiefs -- Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, FBI Director James Comey, CIA Director John Brennan, and NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers. 

One reason the nation's intelligence chiefs took the extraordinary step of including the synopsis in the briefing documents was to make the President-elect aware that such allegations involving him are circulating among intelligence agencies, senior members of Congress and other government officials in Washington, multiple sources tell CNN. [snip]

The two-page synopsis also included allegations that there was a continuing exchange of information during the campaign between Trump surrogates and intermediaries for the Russian government, according to two national security officials. 

Sources tell CNN that these same allegations about communications between the Trump campaign and the Russians, mentioned in classified briefings for congressional leaders last year, prompted then-Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid to send a letter to FBI Director Comey in October, in which he wrote, "It has become clear that you possess explosive information about close ties and coordination between Donald Trump, his top advisors, and the Russian government -- a foreign interest openly hostile to the United States."  (our emphasis)

A detailed 35- page dossier that contains background material on the compromising intel (including some "perverted" behavior by Rump while on trips to Moscow and St. Petersburg) has been obtained by BuzzFeed -- you can read it here.

Any wonder now why neo- fascist Putin slave Donald "Rump" Trump is so eager to dismiss intelligence reports of Russian interference in the election? Or why he's dissing the U.S. intelligence community and wants to "restructure" the CIA? Or why he's such a blatant apologist for Vladimir "Vlad the Invader" Putin?

A soon- to- be- President subject to blackmail or manipulation by a hostile foreign country. If this isn't the beginning of the end, maybe we can hope it's at least the end of the beginning for Rump.