Is Donald Trump a Russian disinformation agent?

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beneficii
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11 Oct 2016, 1:15 pm

Or is he just an unwitting pawn of the Kremlin?

http://www.newsweek.com/vladimir-putin- ... nik-508635

Recently, Wikileaks dumped a whole bunch of stolen emails out of the account of John Podesta, Hillary's campaign chief. Sputnik, Russia's news agency and mouthpiece for Putin, pounced on the emails almost as soon as they were published, publishing one supposedly sent by Sidney Blumenthal in which he was supposed to have said:

Quote:
Clinton was in charge of the State Department, and it failed to protect U.S. personnel at an American consulate in Libya. If the GOP wants to raise that as a talking point against her, it is legitimate.


A Turkish newspaper also picked it up. Other than that, no news agency had picked up this particular e-mail before Donald Trump's speech in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania last night.

Then Donald Trump gave his speech in Wilkes-Barre where he repeated the passage:



Kurt Eichenwald, senior writer of Newsweek, ended up coming across the supposed email and noticed that the wording of the passage Donald Trump attributed to Sidney Blumenthal seemed very familiar, and then realized that he, Kurt Eichenwald, was the one who had written it! It was in his article here, from last year:

http://www.newsweek.com/benghazi-biopsy ... ges-385853

Turns out Blumenthal had simply sent this article as an attachment to Podosta, but the Russians in their reporting selected the above paragraph from the article, part of which is quoted above, and made it look as though Blumenthal had written the sentences himself. Sputnik ended up dropping the story.

What's funny is that Trump quoted this as though it were true. This all raises the question: Why is Donald Trump pushing Russian disinformation on the American voters?


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ASPartOfMe
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11 Oct 2016, 3:40 pm

Often people sent attachments of articles they agree with.


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Jacoby
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11 Oct 2016, 3:55 pm

It's in Podesta's emails, it's not a made up story and you can look that quote up word for word in the emails. Some of the stuff in the Podesta emails has been attributed to him personally but were actually passages of articles that were sent, people were rushing to dig thru the archive searching for stuff so some may be misattributed.

To blame the Kremlin for this doesn't even make sense, they 'reported' it? So did everyone else that dug thru the Podesta emails aka not the mainstream media but you can look it up yourself. You are believing the Clinton's deflection of blame for the contents of these emails, only to her does the exposing the truth come off as hostile enemy action. Clinton supporters would rather stick their heads in the sand and believe the nonsense that all this trouble Hillary has is because of the Russians.



Adamantium
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11 Oct 2016, 6:40 pm

Jacoby wrote:
It's in Podesta's emails, it's not a made up story and you can look that quote up word for word in the emails. Some of the stuff in the Podesta emails has been attributed to him personally but were actually passages of articles that were sent, people were rushing to dig thru the archive searching for stuff so some may be misattributed.

To blame the Kremlin for this doesn't even make sense, they 'reported' it? So did everyone else that dug thru the Podesta emails aka not the mainstream media but you can look it up yourself. You are believing the Clinton's deflection of blame for the contents of these emails, only to her does the exposing the truth come off as hostile enemy action. Clinton supporters would rather stick their heads in the sand and believe the nonsense that all this trouble Hillary has is because of the Russians.


It's funny that you should say that.

I read the email right after you posted the link and it was immediately obvious that some idiot had found a juicy looking phrase and not read around for context.

It is a made up story in every significant sense.
It's true that there is an email, but it doesn't say what it was reported as saying, or anything like it.

Blumenthal sent a Newsweek story by Kurt Eichenwald that included the phrase that was breathlessly reported as Podesta's by the Russians and the useful idiots in the Trump campaign (including Trump himself). It wasn't Podesta's phrase and it doesn't represent some "truth" that has been revealed.

If you want the truth, you should read the rest of the email.

Quote:
In the end, one thing is clear: This rabid partisanship or unmitigated deception or utter incompetence conflicts with everything this country stands for. Four men died serving their country; it is beyond disgraceful that their memories are used for cartoons and political buttons and television shows all for the purpose of advancing outright falsehoods just to gain political points.

In their refusal to read documents or accept facts over fantasies, Republican conspiracy theorists have damaged this country in ways that cannot yet be fully comprehended.


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cyberdad
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11 Oct 2016, 7:02 pm

He's a willing pawn. Quite happy to use what ever intell he can get his hands on to throw mud at Hillary Clinton.



Rakshasa72
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11 Oct 2016, 10:53 pm

I think the "Russian Hacker" story was made up to distract people from the content of the emails.

That being said it appears that some of the email contents are being taken out of context by people overly eager to be the first to find the big scoop.

As an example the email that says Hillary hates "ordinary Americans" appears to just be them discussion if they should use the term "ordinary Americans" in a speech. Not that Hillary actually hates "ordinary Americans". However because of the way Hillary acts many people including her own supporters (particularly the Bernie people) probably believe Hillary hates "ordinary Americans".



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12 Oct 2016, 11:40 am

beneficii wrote:
What's funny is that Trump quoted this as though it were true. This all raises the question: Why is Donald Trump pushing Russian disinformation on the American voters?
Rakshasa72 wrote:
...it appears that some of the email contents are being taken out of context by people overly eager to be the first to find the big scoop.

Typical narcissistic behavior----always wanting to be the smart one, the wise one, the FIRST one. He was saying: "Hey, look at me----look what I found-out..."----he hasn't a care, that what he's saying might be erroneous, he just wants to look like "big man on campus".

I've seen lots of people on the Internet, for instance, whom I suspect to be narcissists, quote articles without giving ANY indication, whatsoever, that it's a direct quote from an article, and EVERY indication, that it's their OWN thought, opinion, whatever.
(I'm not saying that Trump was pretending it was his own idea, or whatever, I'm just giving another example of how people quote articles.)




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12 Oct 2016, 6:41 pm

cyberdad wrote:
He's a willing pawn. Quite happy to use what ever intell he can get his hands on to throw mud at Hillary Clinton.


I totally agree. The thing is, he greatly underestimates the former spy master, Putin, who would like nothing more than to have a compliant American President in order to make the USA his b*tch.


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Tollorin
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13 Oct 2016, 4:45 pm

Disinformation is one of Putin favorite weapon.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/29/world/europe/russia-sweden-disinformation.html


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13 Oct 2016, 4:53 pm

He's a useful idiot. Putin has made it very clear, repeatedly, that he'd prefer Trump win the election. And yes, despite the deflections, Guccifer 2.0 has been traced repeatedly to Russia. While this might take press attention off the emails, it is not mutually contradictory with wrongdoing on Clinton's part to point out that some groups have a vested interest in taking her down. Putin's own response to whether or not the Guccifer leaks were a Russian operation was essentially "if they were we did America a service," which amounts to tacit admission.

Why the bromance?

1) Admiration of Putin's strongman image. Trump has a similar relationship with Bibi Netanyahu, both leaders who project an image of masculine strength. Trump has made statements that he views himself as a Churchill-esque "lion," it's a logical outgrowth of that.

2) Financial self-interest. Trump has financial ties to Russian banks going back to when he attempted to build a resort in Russia. That venture failed, but Trump SoHo in New York was financed in large part by those same interests, as were his Phoenix and Fort Lauderdale resorts. He has a vested interest in Russia's stability, Putin's taken notice.


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13 Oct 2016, 6:07 pm

Pravda wrote:
He's a useful idiot. Putin has made it very clear, repeatedly, that he'd prefer Trump win the election. And yes, despite the deflections, Guccifer 2.0 has been traced repeatedly to Russia. While this might take press attention off the emails, it is not mutually contradictory with wrongdoing on Clinton's part to point out that some groups have a vested interest in taking her down. Putin's own response to whether or not the Guccifer leaks were a Russian operation was essentially "if they were we did America a service," which amounts to tacit admission.

Why the bromance?

1) Admiration of Putin's strongman image. Trump has a similar relationship with Bibi Netanyahu, both leaders who project an image of masculine strength. Trump has made statements that he views himself as a Churchill-esque "lion," it's a logical outgrowth of that.

2) Financial self-interest. Trump has financial ties to Russian banks going back to when he attempted to build a resort in Russia. That venture failed, but Trump SoHo in New York was financed in large part by those same interests, as were his Phoenix and Fort Lauderdale resorts. He has a vested interest in Russia's stability, Putin's taken notice.


Putin has wrangled in many of the former Soviet Republics, each headed by a strongman at his beck and call. He sees in Trump an American strongman who he can make his b*tch, an idea which he relishes, as he sees the demise of Russian power with the fall of the Soviet Union as his country's greatest catastrophe, which he blames squarely on America.


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