It’s Trump/Putin. Or Is It Putin/Trump?

BUSTED!

Trump knows nothing about Russia (true, to a large extent), but it turns out he knows about Russian disinformation. Even quotes it. Although it’s literally impossible that Trump could have gotten that information anywhere but from the Russians. He quoted what turned out to be deliberate misinformation from a Russian publication called ‘Sputnik’.  And it made its way into his campaign speech.  How he got fed and used this this information is something he’ll have to explain.

Let’s let Kurt Eichenwald tell the story:

This false story was reported only by the Russian-controlled agency (a reference appeared in a Turkish publication, but it was nothing but a link to the Sputnik article). So how did Donald Trump end up advancing the same falsehood put out by Putin’s mouthpiece?

This is not funny. It is terrifying. The Russians engage in a sloppy disinformation effort and, before the day is out, the Republican nominee for president is standing on a stage reciting the manufactured story as truth. How did this happen? Who in the Trump campaign was feeding him falsehoods straight from the Kremlin? (The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.)

The Russians have been obtaining American emails and now are presenting complete misrepresentations of them—falsifying them—in hopes of setting off a cascade of events that might change the outcome of the presidential election. The big question, of course, is why are the Russians working so hard to damage Clinton and, in the process, aid Donald Trump? That is a topic for another time.

For now, though, Americans should be outraged. This totalitarian regime, engaged in what are arguably war crimes in Syria to protect its government puppet, is working to upend a democracy to the benefit of an American candidate who uttered positive comments just Sunday about the Kremlin’s campaign on behalf of Bashar al-Assad. Trump’s arguments were an incomprehensible explication of the complex Syrian situation, which put him right on the side of the Iranians and Syrians, who are fighting to preserve the government that is the primary conduit of weapons used against Israel.

I’m pushing the Fair Use limits, so I’ll stop.  But it can no longer be denied: Vladimir Putin and his propaganda machine are conducting oppo research (demonstrably false oppo research) for Donald Trump, who is now using it in his speeches.

Gee, what interest could Putin possibly have in creating a President Trump?