As concerned and thinking progressives I am sure that all of you have read the latest news reports concerning Russian cyber meddling. It seems that Putin has directed his cyber hackers to break into the computers of Burisma, the Ukrainian Gas company which once employed Hunter Biden and is at the heart of Trump’s lie about 2016 hacking being done by Ukraine and not Russia.
The fact that Russia has hacked the computers of the Burisma will not surprise any progressive, or anyone else who is fair minded about election meddling that Putin carried out in the 2016 election. The nature of Putin’s cyber screwing even looks to be the same: hack into the Burisma computers, rifle the emails, and look for anything that can be used to support Trump and his claim that Hunter Biden was corrupt, father Joe was protecting him, or that Ukraine hacked the DNC computers in 2016.
No, none of this is surprising. What is surprising is that not one Republican politician seems to be worried that Vladimir Putin, a career Communist KGB officer and the absolute dictator of Russia for the last 20 years, is doing all of this to help Donald Trump. Why?
In 2016 Putin could have chosen to help any politician. He wouldn’t help Hillary Clinton, of course. He hates and fears Clinton for her effort to put sanctions on Russia after his Ukrainian proxies grabbed the Crimea for force. And if he had wanted to help a conservative candidate he could have picked almost anyone: Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, etc. But he very consciously and carefully chose Donald Trump.
So the questions remains: why does Vladimir Putin keep helping Donald Trump to win and stay in power?
Certainly Trump seems to be going out of his way to help Putin. We can all remember that humiliating performance Trump gave during the Helsinki on July 16, 2018 when Trump declared to the world that on the question of who cyber screwed the 2016 presidential election he didn’t believe America’s own intelligence community. They said it was Russia. But Trump categorically said no. He just would not put the blame on them. Why? Because Vladimir Putin said Russia didn’t do it. And that was good enough for Trump. So Trump obviously trusts Putin much more than the CIA, the FBI, the National Security Advisor, Naval Intelligence, Army Intelligence, all the rest of America (outside of any wearing a MAGA hat) and the entire free world.
I believe that Trump has a natural affinity for tough guy dictators and authoritarian politicians. I believe that he is a failed builder who desperately wants to score a big hotel success in downtown Moscow. I believe that Trump does not care what Putin does to Ukraine or to Syria or to Iraq as long as he keeps helping him to political battles at home. And…
I believe that Donald Trump is beholden to Putin and is controlled by him.
The basis for this belief is rooted in the fact that ever since Donald Trump was nearly wiped out by his signature failure, the collapse of the Taj Mahal Casino in 1991, he has never enjoyed a financial success of any kind.
We know from a leaked documents that between 1985 and 1994 Donald Trump lost almost a billion dollars in his various businesses. And this was during the time when he owned multiple casinos. How in the hell someone manages to lose almost a billion with casinos I don’t know (gambling casinos are the only business I know in which your customers actually expect to lose money to you and don’t have a right to get upset with you about it).
The huge losses from his casinos, as well as other properties, robbed him of his wealth (which was always mostly his rich daddy’ money) and make it very, very difficult to borrow large sums of money. Billing himself as the, “king of deb"t”, Trump was cut off from the borrowed money that Trump has always depended upon and sent him looking for cash where he could.
It’s my belief (as well as that of others) that in a desperate hunt for cash Trump got involved with various Russians of questionable character who had lots of money and wanted to move it around and park it in mysterious ways (Russian billionaires, for instance). And of course, Vladimir Putin, the undisputed heavyweight champion dictator of Russian politics, knew all about this. And he could be very revealing about it all if it so pleased him. But what really pleases him is having Donald Trump under his thumb and being able to get him to do things that help Russia and Putin.
Trump under the thumb, or bootheel, of Putin is something we will be writing about in the Progressive Assault blog over time. Stand by for more explanation, starting with Trump colossal failure as a casino owner (again, losing money by running a casino - who knew you could do that!)
Regardless of what happens in the Senate trial Trump will be around for at least a little while longer. But not Vladimir Putin - he’s going to be around for a long time. Maybe even forever.
Only days ago president Dimtry Medvedev and the entire Russian government announced that they were stepping down in a move to reorganize the entire leadership of the country. The move is seen by everyone as a way to allow Putin to remain in power, perhaps for as long as he lives. citation
And as long he is in power you can expect him to continue helping his favorite American to succeed.