Russia, NRA, USSR, WFTU

Depth Of Russian Politician's Cultivation Of NRA Ties Revealed : NPR:

I'm old enough to remember when breathless NPR reporting on the superb conditions inside the USSR was a standard -- it was important at that time for Americans to recognize the benefits of the Soviet system, especially for labor -- May Day was an important holiday, a day for "Workers of the the world to unite!".

Connections between the USSR and international labor unions were well known and well understood ... the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) as well as other other union organizations regularly and openly interacted and openly declared their goals to be "communist".

As an aside, I have been attempting to listen to the audio book version of "Enlightenment Now" by Steven Pinker on my travels of the past couple weeks. Pinker is at far reaches of atheist scientism, however because his "rule" is numbers, he finds the fall of communism was a gigantic boon to mans well being.

“The collapse of communism and a recognition of its economic and humanitarian catastrophes took the romance out of revolutionary violence and cast doubt on the wisdom of redistributing wealth at the point of a gun.” (Pinker)

It will be interesting to see how the various leftward forces of socialism and environmentalism shake out on Pinker's paean to "it's the best time to be alive!" Sure we are dying soul-less chemical reactions in an entropic universe, but hey, science shows you how to grab for all the gusto you can in ways never before dreamed in human history!

Just because society threw away the old morals doesn't mean it is that easy to come to agreement on new ones ... as the linked review of the book makes very clear.

The "proper NPR view" on Russia has certainly changed since 2012 when BO chided Mittens that "the 1980's called and wanted their foreign policy back". Mittens mistakenly thought Russia was an adversary, BO had to condescend to let him know they were now wonderful allies (2012) ... and must have still been in 2013 when Russia became a "diplomatic ally in Syria" as BO's "Red Line" on chemical weapons was "enforced" via Assad receiving a stern talking to from the Russians. It was also 2013 when the Clinton Foundations receipts of 10's of millions of dollars resulted in the consummation of the Uranium One deal, providing Russia with 20% of the N American uranium reserves.`

One would need a scorecard to keep track of approved NPR attitude toward the Russian Bear if you assumed they were a "news" vs a political organization. So far, given my assumption  that NPR is an arm of the Democrat Party, it is pretty easy -- interaction with Russia approved by, or benefiting a Democrat? Interaction positive, no problem!

Any form of interaction with Russia by Republican? "Collusion", very likely treasonous.

I'm guessing that since NASA is part of the Administrative State, and since the Administrative State retains it's war footing with Trump, the planned launch of BOistan Astronauts to the ISS this summer will meet NPR's test for legitimate interaction with Russia ... as long as Trump doesn't comment on it!

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The Russian Insanity Summarized

Donald Trump & Mueller Investigation – Embarrassment to America | National Review:

I've covered the insanity of the Urainium 1, Fusion GPS, Clinton, Comey and Mueller gyrations -- the following paragraph is about as good a summary of the tangled web as I have seen.

Even the most febrile conspiracy theorist could not make up such a convoluted story. It is bunk, rubbish, a Babylonian ziggurat of pompous and officious suppositions and confections that, when it is explained in its correct sequence as above and as simply as possible, no sane person could take seriously. One candidate paid for a smear job by a group of foreigners on her opponent, lost the election, and now screams of collusion by the foreigners she has been paying to defame her opponent; the FBI chief who saved her candidacy by not prosecuting her for serious offenses, when fired, after leaking an unprobative and self-serving memo, secures the appointment of a special counsel to investigate her opponent’s relations with the country with which she has collaborated, and that investigation is conducted by the very same mentor of the fired FBI chief who whitewashed her in her latest and greatest controversy (emails), after he and the person who appointed him had whitewashed the losing candidate in the greatest previous controversy of her career (Uranium One). (This leaves out of contention for that distinction the latest allegations that Mrs. Clinton arranged her selection as Democratic nominee by violations of the Federal Election Campaign Act in rigged primaries, as claimed by a former party chairman: the imposing but unfeasible Donna Brazile, who had been such a fervent supporter that — while acting in a journalistic capacity — she passed Mrs. Clinton questions in advance of a presidential debate.)

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Who Loves Russia? Poland, Missles, Obama, Trump

Our MSM tells us that the Russians love Trump -- always have, helped get him elected, he is in their pocket -- lots of MSM stories on that narrative. Reminds me of when Reagan was totally dangerous buffoon for suggesting that the USSR would be "consigned to the ash heap of history". Gotta love our media -- always certain, frequently VERY wrong. They do however really understand that everyone needs a narrative. Push theirs, block their opposition -- anyone not worshiping at the progressive altar. Simple.

Here we have a quote from a former Czech official decrying Obama's 2009 decision to abandon a missle defense system which included missles in Poland.

Alexandr Vondra, a former Czech deputy prime minister and ambassador to Washington intimately involved in the negotiations with the Americans, said he was surprised. "This is a U-turn in US policy," he said. "But first we expect the US to honour its commitments. If they don't they may have problems generating support for Afghanistan and on other things."

BO was certainly a reliable enemy to our friends and a reliable friend of our enemies.

Here we have an article covering Patriot missles being deployed in Poland, and a quote from Putin.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, however, has called the missile defense systems in Eastern Europe a "great danger." Putin also threatened to enhance Russia's own missile strike capability in response.

I have no doubt that Russia is always happy to cast doubt on our elections by any means possible -- leaking actual emails showing that Democrats rigged their primaries, colluded with the media on the debates,  and colluded with the media to have Trump as their opponent certainly doesn't make our poltical system look "fair and balanced". Those of us not in thrall to "The Party" (TP-D) pretty much knew that already.

My contention is that the Russians fully expected Hillary to win like everyone else. My guess is that they were much happier with that prospect than with Trump winning because of things like the above and the fact that his policies are much more likely to make them have to confront a srtonger BOistan.

No doubt what they are REALLY unhappy about with Trump is that he is certainly going to "drill baby drill", "frack baby frack", and even put in pipelines to transport the oil! As one of the big energy producing nations, Russia HATES competition, and has spent millions of dollars trying to stop fracking.

Their main mission on this front (and ours in reverse) is to make us weaker -- and making it look like our elections can be "manipulated" is a great way to do that. So relative to elections, Russion mission accomplished. Relative to actual interaction on the world stage, not so much.

A little more detail on the whole Russian nothingburger here ... obstruction of "justice" (witch hunt) is really all that remains.

Can't They Both Lose?

Russian Interference Doesn’t Require Trump’s Involvement | National Review:

Football season is close.  When two NFC N teams that are not the Packers square off against each other, my typical hope is that they both lose.  I DON'T wish for them to both have a lot of injuries because I love football, I played football, and I was injured in football -- injuries are part of the game, but I can't bring myself to hope for them.

I can however applaud the Crips and the Bloods shooting each other -- it's pretty much guaranteed to reduce overall violence. If China and North Korea want to get into a shooting war, or China and Russia for that matter, worse things could happen. I STRONGLY suspect that the Rusians, like me and pretty much everyone else in the world -- including Trump and Hillary, assumed that Hillary was going to win.

That is why BO (and the entire MSM) was on record even in late October telling us that any concerns about the elections being manipulated or "rigged" were totally false! He assumed Hillary would win, Democrats would win or come close to winning the Senate, and he wanted to be sure that Hillaries likely "landslide" was duly noted by what he expected to be a much diminished opposition. Hey, the weekend before the elction, Ron Johnson was dead in WI according to polls -- he won by nearly 4 points and I doubt the Russians did it. Ooops.

I think the Russians similarly erred -- they assumed they would get a weakened Hillary, but one that could clearly be purchased as they had done with the N American urainium payoff to the Clinton Fund. Nobody is perfect -- however, damaging Americans faith in our own elections is definitely positive for Russia, no matter who wins. We really don't need any help destroying ourselves, but one can't blame the Russians for doing what they can.

Some Russia-watchers believe that the goal of the 2016 Russian campaign shenanigans was not to elect Trump but to damage Clinton before her election. That would make a certain kind of sense: Putin does not want a President Trump or a President Clinton — he wants an American president so hamstrung by political rancor, personal weakness, and petty venality that American leadership around the world is compromised. Mission accomplished.

Naturally, the Democrats and a whole lot of the Republican party as well as 99% of the folks inside the beltway in DC are more than happy to play into the Russians hands if they can ever IMAGINE it hurts Trump! They have a pretty darned good scam going, and keeping it going is their HIGHEST priority by a REALLY long shot!



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