Is it possible the Russians are finally
getting what they have always wanted since the end of World War II,
seventy-one years ago? A friendly tool, a "useful idiot,"
in the White House of the United States of America? Let's look at the
evidence.
Russia Interfered in the US Election
According to Factcheck.org 16 U.S.
Intelligence agencies and at least three private security firms have
all concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. Presidential
Election by releasing hacked information.
This conclusion was based on the
methods, techniques, and software used by the hackers.
By October 7, 2015 U.S. intelligence
agencies were sufficiently confident of their conclusions to release
the following statement:
"The U.S. Intelligence Community
(USIC) is confident that the Russian Government directed the recent
compromises of e-mails from US persons and institutions, including
from US political organizations. The recent disclosures of alleged
hacked e-mails on sites like DCLeaks.com and WikiLeaks and by the
Guccifer 2.0 online persona are consistent with the methods and
motivations of Russian-directed efforts. These thefts and disclosures
are intended to interfere with the US election process. Such activity
is not new to Moscow—the Russians have used similar tactics and
techniques across Europe and Eurasia, for example, to influence
public opinion there. We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity
of these efforts, that only Russia’s senior-most officials could
have authorized these activities."
The Russians Wanted Trump to Win
If the Russians were just interfering
in a U.S. election to cause confusion and demoralization that would
be bad enough. But now we learn the CIA believes the Russians were
specifically trying to swing the election for Trump and that is an
order of magnitude worse.
Evidence for this conclusion includes
the fact that hackers only released information on the Democrats and
no information on the Republicans although it now appears they had
both.
Trump Wants to Do Favors for Russia
These conclusions are not 100% certain.
Intelligence assessments almost never are. But if we find
corroborating or supporting evidence these intelligence conclusions
become much more believable.
Did trump ever say anything during the
campaign that would make the Russians want him to be president? In
fact he did, several times.
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He strongly hinted that he would be
willing to consider dropping the sanctions against Russia put in
place after they invaded the Crimea in 2014.
He suggested the U.S. might not defend
some NATO allies.
He suggested we should give the
Russians a free hand in Syria.
At one point Trump even asked the
Russians to release Hillary's emails if they had them, suggesting he
would not be too upset about Russian hacks if they were advantageous
to him. He later said he was just being sarcastic when he made this
statement.
He praised Putin repeatedly, at least
once calling him a better leader than Obama.
All of these points can be quickly
verified with an internet search. For a couple of them see:
Trump Wants to Make Money from
Russia
But why would Trump want to help
Russia? Is their some reason why Trump would do favors for Russia?
In 2007 Trump said "Russia is one
of the hottest places in the world for investment," and that he
planned to "be in Moscow at some point."
In 2008 Donald Trump, Jr. Said "In
terms of high-end product influx into the U.S., Russians make up a
pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets,"
he said at a conference that year, according to news reports. "We
see a lot of money pouring in from Russia."
There is documentation of numerous
Trump efforts to launch real estate projects in Russia which seems to
be a longstanding goal of his.
Is it too Late to Stop the Russian
Candidate?
None of this constitutes certain proof
but we almost never have certain proof in life. We even convict
people of capital crimes and execute with less than certain proof.
For most things in life we only require a "preponderance of
evidence" – a showing that something is more likely true than
not.
So now let's put together the pieces of
the Trump-Russia puzzle:
Trump has made a lot of money from
Russia and he would like to make a lot more.
As president, Trump will be in a
position to do favors to Russia to get support for his money-making
schemes. As shown above Trump has even told us, and Russia, publicly,
what some of those favors are likely to be.
Russia seems to have noticed Trump's
offer of a deal. They responded to Trump's statements by supporting
him and releasing hacked documents that would help him get elected.
So now, finally, the Russians have what
they want. After working against U.S. interests all over the world
for a lifetime they have finally found a "useful idiot," a
man so obsessed with making money that he will close his eyes to the
danger Russia poses and give then a free hand to do what they will.
This is a reason American voters should
have rejected Trump at the polls in every state back on election day.
This is a reason the presidential
electors should still consider carefully before they vote on December
19.
Copyright © 2016 by Joseph Wayne Gadway
