Exactly! The Times and other media outlets need to hammer away, day in and day out, on the mortal threat Trump poses to democracy and the rule of law. That’s not being in the tank for Biden; that’s being in the tank for the principles that allow an independent press to exist in the first place.
Thank you for this thoughtful piece, Margaret. I like it when you probe the mindsets involved, because that's what spawns the journalism. I think the MSM's primary mental scaffolding is politics, as opposed to civics. Civics is about our rights and responsibilities as citizens. Does the Times think of itself in those terms? If the paper recognized its responsibility to help uphold democracy, a nonpartisan duty we all share, it would free them up to defend our democracy more vociferously.
As you know, Margaret, I’m a huge fan. However, I fear that because of your personal connection to Kahn, you are far too kind to him. As an experienced journalist, he should have been prepared for Smith’s provocations. For him to say that the Times’ priorities are determined by polling numbers and that “democracy” was therefore number three is simply unacceptable. Without democracy, there is no NYT. Period. If he doesn’t that protecting democracy is protecting his franchise, he needs to get another job.
It truly is befuddling. These are clearly bright people devoted to a thriving free press. One of the presidential candidates and his political party/cult of personality would love to see the end of a free press. At the very least, self interest should dictate that the Times cover Trump et al as the existential threat to freedom they are.
And how can Kahn say, with a straight face that the Times is basing its coverage priorities on public opinion polls—which ones?—and it’s absurd not to acknowledge that the focus on “immigration” is driven largely by bad faith right wing media. Why should any objective news outlet take their lead from them? It’s all very frustrating.
Unfortunately, in today’s America, every company is focused on the bottom line…making money. This includes news organizations. When money trumps facts and the purpose of a free press, Americans are not served well by news media. But, that’s okay. NYT just lies to itself to sleep at night. The arrogance of rich, successful people in America forcing THEIR belief system on us, has become so very tiresome.
Especially for the powerful, side-by-side tweets from The Guardian and The Times - reporting the same facts so differently. It's all about the spin...and I know spin, because it's part of my job as a fundraiser. I frame "We failed to meet our fundraising goal" as "We're almost there! Help push us over the top!" I frame "We can't afford our current rent and have to move somewhere cheap" as "We're streamlining to make your donation go farther!" So I recognize The Times' game: spin negative for Biden, spin positive for Trump.
Spin isn't evil in and of itself. It's just a tool...and you can use a hammer, for example, to build a hospital or to kill someone. But when you spin positive for someone whose goal is to be a dictator, you're using spin to destroy democracy.
I have to conclude that The Times is beyond redemption at this point. Just like James Comey and everyone else who comes in contact with Trump, the publisher and editors have allowed him to devour their souls in small bites. When you run stories like "Trump Family Trial Style," fergawdsake, you might as well just change your name to the New Trump Times.
A clear example of the Times inexplicable anti-Biden bias is it's coverage of Trump's worsening performance in Republican primaries. I've written many times directly to Joe Kahn, Nate Cohn, Ezra Klein and the political polls reporter about this "oversight". The Times couldn't have been more engaged in trying to get Biden replaced by the Democratic party but asked on weak polls.
There's nary a peep about Trump's declining support among Republicans. I would agree that the Times core business interests are at the core of its bias.
Below are Republican primary results in key states, including this week's Indiana primary where Haley has not been running for 8 weeks!
13.2% of the vote in Georgia (or 78,000 votes).
17.8% of the vote in Arizona (111,000 votes)
3.9% of the vote in Florida (155,000 votes), 14.4% of the vote in Ohio (161,000 votes). On 12.8% of the votes in Wisconsin (77,000 votes).
16.6% of the votes in Pennsylvania (158,000 votes).
So well put! I gave up on the NYT during its coverage of the Afghanistan withdrawal when it focused almost entirely on the chaos and all but ignored one of the largest humanitarian evacuation efforts in human history and what it took to accomplish.
I recently finished reading U.S. Grant's memoirs, and I was struck by the similarities between press coverage during the Civil War and in today's climate. The Confederacy had a huge advantage when it came to public opinion because the Southern Press (much like Fox News and the right-wing media bubble today) basically served as a propaganda machine for the institution of slavery and the Confederacy as a whole, while the Northern press never ceased to find things to pick apart in the Union and its war effort. Grant went as far to say that the press did more for the Rebel cause than the Rebel soldiers themselves. What he said here speaks volumes and echoes today:
“Battles had been fought of as great severity as had ever been known in war, over ground from the James River and Chickahominy, near Richmond, to Gettysburg and Chambersburg, in Pennsylvania, with indecisive results, sometimes favoring the National army, sometimes to the Confederate army; but in ever instance, I believe, claimed as victories for the South by the Southern press if not by the Southern generals. The Northern press, as a whole, did not discourage these claims; a portion of it always magnified rebel successes and belittled ours, while another portion, most sincerely earnest in their desire for the preservation of the Union and the overwhelming success of the Federal armies, would nevertheless generally express dissatisfaction with whatever victories were gained because they were not more complete.” — Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant, page 364
I agree that attempts to come to power and destroy democracy need to be written about as part of this election campaign. I also think this needs to be supplemented by thoughtful articles on why some ordinary people vote for such politicians. In my experience in 30 years as a machinist it partly comes from people feeling powerless and looking for the tough sounding guy to cheer on.
The tough-SOUNDING guy as opposed to the guy whose policies will actually help. That's where we are today, and there's a real chance Trump will be re-elected because of it.
Margaret, as usual you see clearly what has happened and is happening, and you describe accurately and in detail what you see. Often you respond to the reality by proposing actions. reactions, responses or questions that are amazingly on point and helpful to the circumstance and to your readers. As always, I thank you.
What a great piece! I've been reading the NYT since I was 16 years or so old. Trust it completely, except lately, maybe the last year or so, I've noticed a change that's disturbing. Now I know why due to you. The NYT is basing its lead stories based on polls and have been more negative on Biden. What is that about? They seem to be trying to move our country to an authoritarian government where the entire government staff are all Trump supporters. News for the NYT. Trump will destroy you. You must know that. On top of that, everyone who reads about politics knows that polls are almost always wrong this far out, and besides that, getting news from polls is what you think people will read is crazy. The NYT is read world-wide, and if you are losing readers, it's because you are using Polls to tell you what to write about. The NYT used to be smart, now I feel they have dummed themselves down. Good luck with that. I'm now just scanning the NYT and reading the Washington Post, Bulwark, Politico and the Atlantic. Oh, and please get yourselves some good op ed writers. How about you Margaret?
Excellent advice, but won’t be followed. I think it’s pretty obvious—as you tactfully hint—that money is driving a lot of this. I’m sure the NY business community hates the Biden administration, for the same reasons other business groups do (no tax cuts, support for workers/unions, environmental regulations, etc), and the NYT doesn’t want to alienate them.
Good Morning to All: In response to Steven Beschloss's Substack this morning, I decided it is time to write a narrative about dictatorship. It is what I know best and can contribute to this conversation.
Towards the end of Steven's message on 5/10, he wrote:
If Trump is convicted in his hush money/election interference case, we can expect more Republicans and other fence-sitters to abandon him. Recall a February Reuters/Ipsos survey which found that 51 percent of Republicans claimed they would not vote for Trump if he’s a convicted felon. That number may ultimately be overstated. But it’s a reminder that November’s outcome remains in the hands of voters, even if the courts don’t hold Trump accountable and top Republicans continue to spread disinformation and telegraph to voters their unwillingness to support our democratic project.
The key words are the "November's outcome remains in the hands of voters." Yes, we need another seven-million voter-advantage that mirror's the Biden lead in the 2020. However, this lead did not change Trump's lies, violence, and the insurrection. He did not accept the outcome of that election and he again will not accept or swallow the results in 2024 if he looses. Most of us already know this. What that means is still unknown.
Donald Trump cannot deal with reality, and has a typical cult-like leadership mentality. Jim Jones, also thought of himself as God, and he amassed a following of about 900 individuals. He ordered them all to drink Kool Aid laced with poison and they all perished. Trump's followers, of which over 800 have been convicted of crimes and many are now in prison, have experienced the same level of coercive mind control as the people who followed Jim Jones. With his "us-versus-them mentality" most of the Trumpers are now in a state of blind loyalty. The dark and dangerous world of mind manipulation was first used in totalitarian countries about 100 years before - Germany, Austria, Italy, Russia, China, and so on. The Holocaust is the best-known example of brainwashing. Hitler converted an entire country into mass murderers using slogans of hatred toward others - just like Trump. Brainwashing is defined as telling lies over and over until it is perceived as the truth. Once converted, a person has little or no independent thought. Over six million people were tortured and killed in Germany. In Russia, Stalin murdered over twenty million humans. Donald Trump's threatening behavior, disturbing words, and his duplication of Putin/Hitler's leadership methodologies echoes other treacherous historical crises and mass murders. This is not a coincidence, it is learned behavior combined with a long list of personality disorders. He learned it from Putin who spent his spy years in East Germany.
Trump is caught up in a complex web. He truly believes that "only he can fix America," without grasping the basic concepts/events that formed the United States. He talks about re-writing or scrapping our Constitution, but his many-sided destructiveness over-rides the true meaning of how a democratic country operates. The only option then is a dictatorship.
A dictatorship can be defined by a list of words: tsarism (Russia), despotism, autocracy, totalitarianism, oppression, Nazism (Germany), and domination. The word that jumps out to me is "oppression." Can you envision the United States having: (1) No public media. All tv channels and newspapers are government and dictator-controlled. All sources of information are inhibited. (2) No independent enterprise. MicroSoft, Walgreens, Utilities and all other corporations are privately retained by the dictator who receives a large percentage of the profits. and (3) Security services are combined (CIA, DIA, FBI, and others) into one organization controlled by the dictator and like the gestapo report on private citizens, arrest and imprison innocent people, and instill fear. Anyone not loyal to the "leader" may be murdered: poisoned, shot, thrown out windows in tall buildings, etc.
A vote for Donald Trump is a vote for a dictatorship. He has openly admitted to preferring this form of government without an inkling of what that means. Our entire Congress would operate from fear and there would no longer be a two party system. Trump has already amassed a group of people - gangsters - who threaten anyone (and their families) who opposes him. The askew aptitudes of the Supreme Court judges already has demonstrated proclivities and partialities toward Trump, and other judges have also succumbed to delivering asymmetric justice. Many across the U.S. have lost faith in our system of justice. And during the Trump impeachment, many Republicans voted our of fear of Trump's revenge. Gonzales (R) Ohio voted to impeach. Then due to death threats, he refused to run for re-election and hired 24 hour protection for his family.
Trump sold his soul and our country to the Russians decades ago. Trump followed Putin's example in his role-out of a meticulous PR campaign, similar to what happened in Moscow after the bombing of several apartment buildings - a maneuver to perpetuate apprehension and terror. It resulted in a national sense of emergency and instilled fear. The financial scandal surrounding Yeltsin was pushed to the sidelines, and Putin was thrust to the frontlines. The blame was assigned to the separatist rebels and Chechnya independence fighters, but in the "unofficial" word on the street, Russian people said these bombings were like the Stalin purges. Putin has been compared to Stalin, and he appears to appreciate this assessment. "Could Putin's security men have bombed their own people - hundreds died in these bombings - in a cynical attempt to create a crisis that would ensure Putin took the Presidency?" (Putin's People, by Catherine Belton). This type of deception is widely known in Russia and other dictatorship countries. It reminds me of Trump still saying the 2020 election was stolen.
Trump began traveling to Russia in 1987. He became entangled with Russian business men who were all later found to be KGB operatives. This is a period when Trump was buried in debt and at the same time, the KGB was searching for new ways to transfer black cash into the U.S. instead of just bank transfers. Bayrock Group, formed with all KGB men as a real estate firm, was housed one floor below the Trump Organization at 725 Fifth Avenue in New York. They offered Trump multi-million dollar real estate deals and bailed him out of another bankruptcy. He was hooked. Both Trump elder sons have confirmed that the Trump Organization has received about $100M from Russian banks. (www.businessinsider.com).
Republican voters across the U.S. think they are supporting their political party - the same party as Abraham Lincoln. Instead, they are voting to instill a man who has been compromised by Russian KGB/FSB and who will turn our nation into a Putin-owned and operated dictatorship.
Also in Putin's People, Belton states: "Even as Trump ramped up his bid for the presidency, the same Russian network stepped up its courtship of him... In a letter to Michael Cohen, Sater (Bayrock) boasted that they would build a tower in Moscow that would be Europe's tallest building and would bring Trump a $100M licensing deal. Sater promised to leverage all of his Kremlin connections to get it done. The letter said he would get Putin on this program, and we will get you (Trump) elected." (ibid) The rest is history, except the role of William Barr in squashing the Mueller Report. Twelve Russians were arrested, but nothing changed and Trump was elected to the presidency with enormous Russian "behind the scenes" support, cyber attacks, hacking, propaganda, and misinformation fed to the American public.
Since 1993, I have saying to anyone who would listen that the Cold War did not die. In Putin's People, (Revenge of the KGB, page 479) Catherine states: "Putin's security men reveled in Trump's victory. To many, it seemed like revenge for the Soviet collapse. 'While the West was playing James Bond . . .we turned our attention to gaining respect... When the West thought the Cold War competition was over, they lost respect for their opponent (Russia). Now they are waking up to this again."
This upcoming election is critical. If Trump wins, we all loose.
Exactly! The Times and other media outlets need to hammer away, day in and day out, on the mortal threat Trump poses to democracy and the rule of law. That’s not being in the tank for Biden; that’s being in the tank for the principles that allow an independent press to exist in the first place.
This is one of your best pieces. Thank you. It helps me find language to discuss on a local level the responsibilities of the media.
Thank you for this thoughtful piece, Margaret. I like it when you probe the mindsets involved, because that's what spawns the journalism. I think the MSM's primary mental scaffolding is politics, as opposed to civics. Civics is about our rights and responsibilities as citizens. Does the Times think of itself in those terms? If the paper recognized its responsibility to help uphold democracy, a nonpartisan duty we all share, it would free them up to defend our democracy more vociferously.
As you know, Margaret, I’m a huge fan. However, I fear that because of your personal connection to Kahn, you are far too kind to him. As an experienced journalist, he should have been prepared for Smith’s provocations. For him to say that the Times’ priorities are determined by polling numbers and that “democracy” was therefore number three is simply unacceptable. Without democracy, there is no NYT. Period. If he doesn’t that protecting democracy is protecting his franchise, he needs to get another job.
I try to say things in a way that might be heard. But I take your point.
Good on you! Here’s hoping they don’t let good advice go by the wayside.
It truly is befuddling. These are clearly bright people devoted to a thriving free press. One of the presidential candidates and his political party/cult of personality would love to see the end of a free press. At the very least, self interest should dictate that the Times cover Trump et al as the existential threat to freedom they are.
And how can Kahn say, with a straight face that the Times is basing its coverage priorities on public opinion polls—which ones?—and it’s absurd not to acknowledge that the focus on “immigration” is driven largely by bad faith right wing media. Why should any objective news outlet take their lead from them? It’s all very frustrating.
Unfortunately, in today’s America, every company is focused on the bottom line…making money. This includes news organizations. When money trumps facts and the purpose of a free press, Americans are not served well by news media. But, that’s okay. NYT just lies to itself to sleep at night. The arrogance of rich, successful people in America forcing THEIR belief system on us, has become so very tiresome.
Another great column.
GREAT column! Thank you so much, Sulliview.
Especially for the powerful, side-by-side tweets from The Guardian and The Times - reporting the same facts so differently. It's all about the spin...and I know spin, because it's part of my job as a fundraiser. I frame "We failed to meet our fundraising goal" as "We're almost there! Help push us over the top!" I frame "We can't afford our current rent and have to move somewhere cheap" as "We're streamlining to make your donation go farther!" So I recognize The Times' game: spin negative for Biden, spin positive for Trump.
Spin isn't evil in and of itself. It's just a tool...and you can use a hammer, for example, to build a hospital or to kill someone. But when you spin positive for someone whose goal is to be a dictator, you're using spin to destroy democracy.
I have to conclude that The Times is beyond redemption at this point. Just like James Comey and everyone else who comes in contact with Trump, the publisher and editors have allowed him to devour their souls in small bites. When you run stories like "Trump Family Trial Style," fergawdsake, you might as well just change your name to the New Trump Times.
A clear example of the Times inexplicable anti-Biden bias is it's coverage of Trump's worsening performance in Republican primaries. I've written many times directly to Joe Kahn, Nate Cohn, Ezra Klein and the political polls reporter about this "oversight". The Times couldn't have been more engaged in trying to get Biden replaced by the Democratic party but asked on weak polls.
There's nary a peep about Trump's declining support among Republicans. I would agree that the Times core business interests are at the core of its bias.
Below are Republican primary results in key states, including this week's Indiana primary where Haley has not been running for 8 weeks!
13.2% of the vote in Georgia (or 78,000 votes).
17.8% of the vote in Arizona (111,000 votes)
3.9% of the vote in Florida (155,000 votes), 14.4% of the vote in Ohio (161,000 votes). On 12.8% of the votes in Wisconsin (77,000 votes).
16.6% of the votes in Pennsylvania (158,000 votes).
21.7% of the votes in Indiana (128,000 votes)
So well put! I gave up on the NYT during its coverage of the Afghanistan withdrawal when it focused almost entirely on the chaos and all but ignored one of the largest humanitarian evacuation efforts in human history and what it took to accomplish.
I recently finished reading U.S. Grant's memoirs, and I was struck by the similarities between press coverage during the Civil War and in today's climate. The Confederacy had a huge advantage when it came to public opinion because the Southern Press (much like Fox News and the right-wing media bubble today) basically served as a propaganda machine for the institution of slavery and the Confederacy as a whole, while the Northern press never ceased to find things to pick apart in the Union and its war effort. Grant went as far to say that the press did more for the Rebel cause than the Rebel soldiers themselves. What he said here speaks volumes and echoes today:
“Battles had been fought of as great severity as had ever been known in war, over ground from the James River and Chickahominy, near Richmond, to Gettysburg and Chambersburg, in Pennsylvania, with indecisive results, sometimes favoring the National army, sometimes to the Confederate army; but in ever instance, I believe, claimed as victories for the South by the Southern press if not by the Southern generals. The Northern press, as a whole, did not discourage these claims; a portion of it always magnified rebel successes and belittled ours, while another portion, most sincerely earnest in their desire for the preservation of the Union and the overwhelming success of the Federal armies, would nevertheless generally express dissatisfaction with whatever victories were gained because they were not more complete.” — Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant, page 364
I agree that attempts to come to power and destroy democracy need to be written about as part of this election campaign. I also think this needs to be supplemented by thoughtful articles on why some ordinary people vote for such politicians. In my experience in 30 years as a machinist it partly comes from people feeling powerless and looking for the tough sounding guy to cheer on.
The tough-SOUNDING guy as opposed to the guy whose policies will actually help. That's where we are today, and there's a real chance Trump will be re-elected because of it.
Margaret, as usual you see clearly what has happened and is happening, and you describe accurately and in detail what you see. Often you respond to the reality by proposing actions. reactions, responses or questions that are amazingly on point and helpful to the circumstance and to your readers. As always, I thank you.
Rick
Margaret,
What a great piece! I've been reading the NYT since I was 16 years or so old. Trust it completely, except lately, maybe the last year or so, I've noticed a change that's disturbing. Now I know why due to you. The NYT is basing its lead stories based on polls and have been more negative on Biden. What is that about? They seem to be trying to move our country to an authoritarian government where the entire government staff are all Trump supporters. News for the NYT. Trump will destroy you. You must know that. On top of that, everyone who reads about politics knows that polls are almost always wrong this far out, and besides that, getting news from polls is what you think people will read is crazy. The NYT is read world-wide, and if you are losing readers, it's because you are using Polls to tell you what to write about. The NYT used to be smart, now I feel they have dummed themselves down. Good luck with that. I'm now just scanning the NYT and reading the Washington Post, Bulwark, Politico and the Atlantic. Oh, and please get yourselves some good op ed writers. How about you Margaret?
Thanks, Jerry. I’m better outside looking in, I think, and I did my stint at The Times. I appreciate your kind words.
I know you did your bit at The Times, but they need you back, even if they don't know it.
Excellent advice, but won’t be followed. I think it’s pretty obvious—as you tactfully hint—that money is driving a lot of this. I’m sure the NY business community hates the Biden administration, for the same reasons other business groups do (no tax cuts, support for workers/unions, environmental regulations, etc), and the NYT doesn’t want to alienate them.
Good Morning to All: In response to Steven Beschloss's Substack this morning, I decided it is time to write a narrative about dictatorship. It is what I know best and can contribute to this conversation.
Towards the end of Steven's message on 5/10, he wrote:
If Trump is convicted in his hush money/election interference case, we can expect more Republicans and other fence-sitters to abandon him. Recall a February Reuters/Ipsos survey which found that 51 percent of Republicans claimed they would not vote for Trump if he’s a convicted felon. That number may ultimately be overstated. But it’s a reminder that November’s outcome remains in the hands of voters, even if the courts don’t hold Trump accountable and top Republicans continue to spread disinformation and telegraph to voters their unwillingness to support our democratic project.
The key words are the "November's outcome remains in the hands of voters." Yes, we need another seven-million voter-advantage that mirror's the Biden lead in the 2020. However, this lead did not change Trump's lies, violence, and the insurrection. He did not accept the outcome of that election and he again will not accept or swallow the results in 2024 if he looses. Most of us already know this. What that means is still unknown.
Donald Trump cannot deal with reality, and has a typical cult-like leadership mentality. Jim Jones, also thought of himself as God, and he amassed a following of about 900 individuals. He ordered them all to drink Kool Aid laced with poison and they all perished. Trump's followers, of which over 800 have been convicted of crimes and many are now in prison, have experienced the same level of coercive mind control as the people who followed Jim Jones. With his "us-versus-them mentality" most of the Trumpers are now in a state of blind loyalty. The dark and dangerous world of mind manipulation was first used in totalitarian countries about 100 years before - Germany, Austria, Italy, Russia, China, and so on. The Holocaust is the best-known example of brainwashing. Hitler converted an entire country into mass murderers using slogans of hatred toward others - just like Trump. Brainwashing is defined as telling lies over and over until it is perceived as the truth. Once converted, a person has little or no independent thought. Over six million people were tortured and killed in Germany. In Russia, Stalin murdered over twenty million humans. Donald Trump's threatening behavior, disturbing words, and his duplication of Putin/Hitler's leadership methodologies echoes other treacherous historical crises and mass murders. This is not a coincidence, it is learned behavior combined with a long list of personality disorders. He learned it from Putin who spent his spy years in East Germany.
Trump is caught up in a complex web. He truly believes that "only he can fix America," without grasping the basic concepts/events that formed the United States. He talks about re-writing or scrapping our Constitution, but his many-sided destructiveness over-rides the true meaning of how a democratic country operates. The only option then is a dictatorship.
A dictatorship can be defined by a list of words: tsarism (Russia), despotism, autocracy, totalitarianism, oppression, Nazism (Germany), and domination. The word that jumps out to me is "oppression." Can you envision the United States having: (1) No public media. All tv channels and newspapers are government and dictator-controlled. All sources of information are inhibited. (2) No independent enterprise. MicroSoft, Walgreens, Utilities and all other corporations are privately retained by the dictator who receives a large percentage of the profits. and (3) Security services are combined (CIA, DIA, FBI, and others) into one organization controlled by the dictator and like the gestapo report on private citizens, arrest and imprison innocent people, and instill fear. Anyone not loyal to the "leader" may be murdered: poisoned, shot, thrown out windows in tall buildings, etc.
A vote for Donald Trump is a vote for a dictatorship. He has openly admitted to preferring this form of government without an inkling of what that means. Our entire Congress would operate from fear and there would no longer be a two party system. Trump has already amassed a group of people - gangsters - who threaten anyone (and their families) who opposes him. The askew aptitudes of the Supreme Court judges already has demonstrated proclivities and partialities toward Trump, and other judges have also succumbed to delivering asymmetric justice. Many across the U.S. have lost faith in our system of justice. And during the Trump impeachment, many Republicans voted our of fear of Trump's revenge. Gonzales (R) Ohio voted to impeach. Then due to death threats, he refused to run for re-election and hired 24 hour protection for his family.
Trump sold his soul and our country to the Russians decades ago. Trump followed Putin's example in his role-out of a meticulous PR campaign, similar to what happened in Moscow after the bombing of several apartment buildings - a maneuver to perpetuate apprehension and terror. It resulted in a national sense of emergency and instilled fear. The financial scandal surrounding Yeltsin was pushed to the sidelines, and Putin was thrust to the frontlines. The blame was assigned to the separatist rebels and Chechnya independence fighters, but in the "unofficial" word on the street, Russian people said these bombings were like the Stalin purges. Putin has been compared to Stalin, and he appears to appreciate this assessment. "Could Putin's security men have bombed their own people - hundreds died in these bombings - in a cynical attempt to create a crisis that would ensure Putin took the Presidency?" (Putin's People, by Catherine Belton). This type of deception is widely known in Russia and other dictatorship countries. It reminds me of Trump still saying the 2020 election was stolen.
Trump began traveling to Russia in 1987. He became entangled with Russian business men who were all later found to be KGB operatives. This is a period when Trump was buried in debt and at the same time, the KGB was searching for new ways to transfer black cash into the U.S. instead of just bank transfers. Bayrock Group, formed with all KGB men as a real estate firm, was housed one floor below the Trump Organization at 725 Fifth Avenue in New York. They offered Trump multi-million dollar real estate deals and bailed him out of another bankruptcy. He was hooked. Both Trump elder sons have confirmed that the Trump Organization has received about $100M from Russian banks. (www.businessinsider.com).
Republican voters across the U.S. think they are supporting their political party - the same party as Abraham Lincoln. Instead, they are voting to instill a man who has been compromised by Russian KGB/FSB and who will turn our nation into a Putin-owned and operated dictatorship.
Also in Putin's People, Belton states: "Even as Trump ramped up his bid for the presidency, the same Russian network stepped up its courtship of him... In a letter to Michael Cohen, Sater (Bayrock) boasted that they would build a tower in Moscow that would be Europe's tallest building and would bring Trump a $100M licensing deal. Sater promised to leverage all of his Kremlin connections to get it done. The letter said he would get Putin on this program, and we will get you (Trump) elected." (ibid) The rest is history, except the role of William Barr in squashing the Mueller Report. Twelve Russians were arrested, but nothing changed and Trump was elected to the presidency with enormous Russian "behind the scenes" support, cyber attacks, hacking, propaganda, and misinformation fed to the American public.
Since 1993, I have saying to anyone who would listen that the Cold War did not die. In Putin's People, (Revenge of the KGB, page 479) Catherine states: "Putin's security men reveled in Trump's victory. To many, it seemed like revenge for the Soviet collapse. 'While the West was playing James Bond . . .we turned our attention to gaining respect... When the West thought the Cold War competition was over, they lost respect for their opponent (Russia). Now they are waking up to this again."
This upcoming election is critical. If Trump wins, we all loose.
Elizabeth, http://www.democrazy2020.org