“We assess that President Vladimir Putin and the senior most Russian officials are aware of and probably directing Russia’s influence operations aimed at denigrating the former U.S. Vice President, supporting the U.S. president and fueling public discord ahead of the U.S. election in November.”
I find it very useful, HCR, that you are now becoming a target of trolls and hacks to such an extent. I know that those of us who read and appreciate your letters number in the thousands, but we are not exactly a massive voting bloc, so your carefully researched and informative posts have clearly raised some hackles because when faced with facts--the thing that we historians use to analyze the past--it is very hard to defend the indefensible. So instead, people resort to the usual silliness: ad hominem attacks and gaslighting. Keep it up. It's obvious that the Russia situation--which has been in the picture for those of us (New Yorkers) who were aware of Trump's corruption long before he ran for president--is the third rail. He might be too deranged to be a Manchurian Candidate, but he is definitely a "useful idiot."
Thank you, Dr. Richardson. I have read many of these items over the past four years, but all laid out, tied up in a bundle, and coming from a credible source means more than you'll ever know.
I think it's apparent that Trump has been a conduit for Russian money laundering for years, primarily through Deutchebank. It is also apparent, by Trump's attitude towards Russia, Putin in particular, and his resistance to any financial disclosure, that Trump is fully aware of this.
There is a Russian intelligence asset at the top of the US government. Trump is Putin's puppet. And not only Trump. The Republican Party is now the party of Trump. Putin knows he is free to manipulate the American body politic through any number of methods. I believe QAnon is a product of Moscow.
The coming election, I believe, is the most consequential election in our history. We must all participate.
I am sad that trolls have invaded this arena, a place where I knew like minded people gather to intelligently discuss the news of the country. I will ignore them and hope others will too. We have too much else to wade through to waste time responding to troll garbage.
And, I am sad at the news in general. Scary to think about all the different avenues of chaos that tRump and his thugs have created. Little fires everywhere, and amidst them all is the number 200,000. :-(
So Rob Rosenstein neutered Meuller from the start by forcing him to limit himself to possible criminal issues and stopped him following up on National Security Issues which would have produced juicy fruit. All the time he was making out to be the last line of defense protecting the prosecutor. He was in reality Trump's most subtle defender....indeed an extreme rarity and they should show their appreciation! Thereafter, Trump neutered the CIA and the FBI so there is no way that they would dare to go after him again.
Since when could the politicians stop or limit the FBI's investigations? It is indeed uncanny that, given the "Barred" state of the DOJ, it is now up to the States (Democratic ones only, of course) to defend the traditional constitutional role of the Federal Government! What a reversal of history! While the others are nostalgically looking backward and striving towards their utopic vision of a level of State power that has never existed.
Only a massive in-person vote against this 21st Century Benedict Arnold will enable the investigation of his betrayal to come to any just conclusion as the FBI must have a non-political policeman at its head who knows his job and serves the Constitution and not the President.
One minute into this new day and already filled with such despair that nothing, not even all of this, will make any difference. We are so whiplashed and numb at the same time. We keep naming the whirlwind but cannot stop the destruction. Thank you, Heather, for staying on this in a factual way. A real gift.
The simple fact is, he's deeply compromised and because of that, he's become a traitor. Every time he opens his mouth, he lies. The Russians know he lied, and they know the truth he is covering up, whatever it is. All they ever had to do 30 years ago was tell him they had all his lies, and all the facts, and would keep gathering them. They didn't even have to say "maybe we'll let them out." He knows what they have on him and knows if it ever got out it would destroy him. He'd destroy his own country to prevent that. That's why he's a traitor.
Once Trump's treason is proven in court, every last one of them can be arrested and charged with conspiring in his treason. That's how the conspiracy laws work. One bad act by one member, all guilty.
How interesting that the party that has always sought to find traitors conspiring against America IS the conspiracy.
I've said for awhile this chain of events is starting to sound like a John le Carre novel. Other implications should be noted. For example, why did Rosenstein limit the scope of Mueller's investigation to criminal offenses, when there was at least some evidence the Russians were involved? I don't want to sound like that Senator in The Manchurian Candidate who could never get the number of Communists in government right, but maybe we should start asking, given the very real possibility that the Russians have penetrated our government, exactly how far that's gone?
The other thing that gets me is that if Hilary Clinton had done 1% of what it seems Trump has done, she'd be serving life at Gitmo.
Thank you, HCR. Wake up Americans. Wake up Democrats. The Republican right wing and all their enablers (including now gutless Romney as well as Putin) are burning down the country’s house while you continue to play chess by the rules. I admire Biden’s discipline in sticking to uplifting messages on the campaign trail, but Ron - if you’re reading this - give him some take down lines to use in the first debate. It’s not going to be a real debate. So, one Dem above the rest of us has to be ready for “VICIOUS”-tRump’s word. And, it’s not in Biden’s nature to be nasty. What do you want to wager the Hunter Biden report will be leaked by the Prez during the debate? Putin calls are Trump’s debate prep. Oh, American voters, please make the Orange living nightmare end with your collective Vote Voice . Yesterday, I began reading BidenHarris position papers, and we have a lot of work ahead of us to restore our government and country and stop the dying. Back to my work as Citizen Campaign Volunteer. ❤️🤍💙
This comment doesn't directly pertain to today's post, but it does pertain to ways in which the GOP is undermining the election and I want Heather to have this information. I live in the UK. My USA votes are cast in Chattanooga, TN, where I lived immediately before moving abroad.
The day after Justice Ginsburg died, I began getting repeated online advertisements for services to help me renounce my American citizenship. This would not help the GOP with 2020. But expats are believed to generally vote for Democrats. Playing on the distress of the moment to get us to renounce would remove us from future elections.
Then my absentee ballot arrived via email. It is sized so it does not fit on letter-sized paper. I have a couple of reams of that, which I carried back from visits to family specifically because ballots and tax returns must be printed on that paper size (until this particular ballot) and American paper sizes are different from what most of the rest of the world uses.
The ballot requires USA legal-sized paper which isn't available here and wouldn't fit in my printer. Taping and trimming letter-sized sheets would invalidate my ballot.
I've asked what to do, but I think I know the answer. I'll have to find a printer that is open in these times (the UK just tightened restrictions due to entering its second wave of the pandemic) and can print on oversized A3 paper, then trim it down to American legal-sized 8.5x14 inches. This requires an extra trip into town and extra potential exposure in the pandemic.
The GOP controls local and state government where I vote. Need I say more?
How can people keep defending President Treason and consider him an equal to Joe Biden? The first movie about the Mueller Investigation will be a comedy, Dark Money style. President Treason and his revolving door of loyalists have made America an idiocracy.
Clever, accurate and often witty postings are no substitute for the hard work necessary to win an election. Enough books have been written and there has been enough pontificating by the politicians and pundits. If you have credence in what you read here and elsewhere, it is time to make phone calls, send postcards and emails, knock on doors and do the physical, in addition to the intellectual, work necessary to win your State's electoral votes for Joe Biden. Call your precinct leader today and volunteer. (Voter registration in Florida ends on Oct. 5. Vote by mail ballots will start arriving this week. Get a move on!)
This letter was like a gut-punch. It crystalizes the danger to our democracy and to our way of life, and the importance of getting out the vote for Democrats. Yes, you may say the Dems are bad too. But they won't be bought by Putin or KJU.
As usual, Heather, I send my deepest thanks for your excellent (and no doubt, exhausting) work on behalf of Truth. I know I speak for all here when I say you have a seamless way of connecting the dots during these days when there is just a firehose of information (and disinformation) assaulting our senses. It is hard to even keep up with, let alone decipher and digest. Without your excellent recaps and deeper dives, I would be totally at sea.
"Satan may be winning a bunch of battles right now, but make no mistake, God wins the war."
As written we can all agree on that statement, right? But the disagreements will occur if we try to discuss which battles Satan is winning and what war will God ultimately win.
Thanks again Heather for pulling this together on a daily basis. And thanks to the regular posters here. I look forward to your post daily, as well.
I find it very useful, HCR, that you are now becoming a target of trolls and hacks to such an extent. I know that those of us who read and appreciate your letters number in the thousands, but we are not exactly a massive voting bloc, so your carefully researched and informative posts have clearly raised some hackles because when faced with facts--the thing that we historians use to analyze the past--it is very hard to defend the indefensible. So instead, people resort to the usual silliness: ad hominem attacks and gaslighting. Keep it up. It's obvious that the Russia situation--which has been in the picture for those of us (New Yorkers) who were aware of Trump's corruption long before he ran for president--is the third rail. He might be too deranged to be a Manchurian Candidate, but he is definitely a "useful idiot."
Thank you, Dr. Richardson. I have read many of these items over the past four years, but all laid out, tied up in a bundle, and coming from a credible source means more than you'll ever know.
I think it's apparent that Trump has been a conduit for Russian money laundering for years, primarily through Deutchebank. It is also apparent, by Trump's attitude towards Russia, Putin in particular, and his resistance to any financial disclosure, that Trump is fully aware of this.
There is a Russian intelligence asset at the top of the US government. Trump is Putin's puppet. And not only Trump. The Republican Party is now the party of Trump. Putin knows he is free to manipulate the American body politic through any number of methods. I believe QAnon is a product of Moscow.
The coming election, I believe, is the most consequential election in our history. We must all participate.
Thank you, HCR, for your letters.
I am sad that trolls have invaded this arena, a place where I knew like minded people gather to intelligently discuss the news of the country. I will ignore them and hope others will too. We have too much else to wade through to waste time responding to troll garbage.
And, I am sad at the news in general. Scary to think about all the different avenues of chaos that tRump and his thugs have created. Little fires everywhere, and amidst them all is the number 200,000. :-(
So Rob Rosenstein neutered Meuller from the start by forcing him to limit himself to possible criminal issues and stopped him following up on National Security Issues which would have produced juicy fruit. All the time he was making out to be the last line of defense protecting the prosecutor. He was in reality Trump's most subtle defender....indeed an extreme rarity and they should show their appreciation! Thereafter, Trump neutered the CIA and the FBI so there is no way that they would dare to go after him again.
Since when could the politicians stop or limit the FBI's investigations? It is indeed uncanny that, given the "Barred" state of the DOJ, it is now up to the States (Democratic ones only, of course) to defend the traditional constitutional role of the Federal Government! What a reversal of history! While the others are nostalgically looking backward and striving towards their utopic vision of a level of State power that has never existed.
Only a massive in-person vote against this 21st Century Benedict Arnold will enable the investigation of his betrayal to come to any just conclusion as the FBI must have a non-political policeman at its head who knows his job and serves the Constitution and not the President.
One minute into this new day and already filled with such despair that nothing, not even all of this, will make any difference. We are so whiplashed and numb at the same time. We keep naming the whirlwind but cannot stop the destruction. Thank you, Heather, for staying on this in a factual way. A real gift.
The simple fact is, he's deeply compromised and because of that, he's become a traitor. Every time he opens his mouth, he lies. The Russians know he lied, and they know the truth he is covering up, whatever it is. All they ever had to do 30 years ago was tell him they had all his lies, and all the facts, and would keep gathering them. They didn't even have to say "maybe we'll let them out." He knows what they have on him and knows if it ever got out it would destroy him. He'd destroy his own country to prevent that. That's why he's a traitor.
Once Trump's treason is proven in court, every last one of them can be arrested and charged with conspiring in his treason. That's how the conspiracy laws work. One bad act by one member, all guilty.
How interesting that the party that has always sought to find traitors conspiring against America IS the conspiracy.
For 4 years, failure to follow the money!!!
I've said for awhile this chain of events is starting to sound like a John le Carre novel. Other implications should be noted. For example, why did Rosenstein limit the scope of Mueller's investigation to criminal offenses, when there was at least some evidence the Russians were involved? I don't want to sound like that Senator in The Manchurian Candidate who could never get the number of Communists in government right, but maybe we should start asking, given the very real possibility that the Russians have penetrated our government, exactly how far that's gone?
The other thing that gets me is that if Hilary Clinton had done 1% of what it seems Trump has done, she'd be serving life at Gitmo.
Thank you, HCR. Wake up Americans. Wake up Democrats. The Republican right wing and all their enablers (including now gutless Romney as well as Putin) are burning down the country’s house while you continue to play chess by the rules. I admire Biden’s discipline in sticking to uplifting messages on the campaign trail, but Ron - if you’re reading this - give him some take down lines to use in the first debate. It’s not going to be a real debate. So, one Dem above the rest of us has to be ready for “VICIOUS”-tRump’s word. And, it’s not in Biden’s nature to be nasty. What do you want to wager the Hunter Biden report will be leaked by the Prez during the debate? Putin calls are Trump’s debate prep. Oh, American voters, please make the Orange living nightmare end with your collective Vote Voice . Yesterday, I began reading BidenHarris position papers, and we have a lot of work ahead of us to restore our government and country and stop the dying. Back to my work as Citizen Campaign Volunteer. ❤️🤍💙
This comment doesn't directly pertain to today's post, but it does pertain to ways in which the GOP is undermining the election and I want Heather to have this information. I live in the UK. My USA votes are cast in Chattanooga, TN, where I lived immediately before moving abroad.
The day after Justice Ginsburg died, I began getting repeated online advertisements for services to help me renounce my American citizenship. This would not help the GOP with 2020. But expats are believed to generally vote for Democrats. Playing on the distress of the moment to get us to renounce would remove us from future elections.
Then my absentee ballot arrived via email. It is sized so it does not fit on letter-sized paper. I have a couple of reams of that, which I carried back from visits to family specifically because ballots and tax returns must be printed on that paper size (until this particular ballot) and American paper sizes are different from what most of the rest of the world uses.
The ballot requires USA legal-sized paper which isn't available here and wouldn't fit in my printer. Taping and trimming letter-sized sheets would invalidate my ballot.
I've asked what to do, but I think I know the answer. I'll have to find a printer that is open in these times (the UK just tightened restrictions due to entering its second wave of the pandemic) and can print on oversized A3 paper, then trim it down to American legal-sized 8.5x14 inches. This requires an extra trip into town and extra potential exposure in the pandemic.
The GOP controls local and state government where I vote. Need I say more?
How can people keep defending President Treason and consider him an equal to Joe Biden? The first movie about the Mueller Investigation will be a comedy, Dark Money style. President Treason and his revolving door of loyalists have made America an idiocracy.
Clever, accurate and often witty postings are no substitute for the hard work necessary to win an election. Enough books have been written and there has been enough pontificating by the politicians and pundits. If you have credence in what you read here and elsewhere, it is time to make phone calls, send postcards and emails, knock on doors and do the physical, in addition to the intellectual, work necessary to win your State's electoral votes for Joe Biden. Call your precinct leader today and volunteer. (Voter registration in Florida ends on Oct. 5. Vote by mail ballots will start arriving this week. Get a move on!)
This letter was like a gut-punch. It crystalizes the danger to our democracy and to our way of life, and the importance of getting out the vote for Democrats. Yes, you may say the Dems are bad too. But they won't be bought by Putin or KJU.
As usual, Heather, I send my deepest thanks for your excellent (and no doubt, exhausting) work on behalf of Truth. I know I speak for all here when I say you have a seamless way of connecting the dots during these days when there is just a firehose of information (and disinformation) assaulting our senses. It is hard to even keep up with, let alone decipher and digest. Without your excellent recaps and deeper dives, I would be totally at sea.
You are a treasure.
Someone posted a meme on Facebook that said:
"Satan may be winning a bunch of battles right now, but make no mistake, God wins the war."
As written we can all agree on that statement, right? But the disagreements will occur if we try to discuss which battles Satan is winning and what war will God ultimately win.
Thanks again Heather for pulling this together on a daily basis. And thanks to the regular posters here. I look forward to your post daily, as well.