The following is an excerpted summary of an Aug 3, Daily Kos article:
“Let’s review:
- Donald Trump has frequently expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin, viewing him as a “strong” leader who Trump “admires.” Trump has also given wildly differing statements on his personal relationship with Putin.
- Trump has, on multiple occasions, suggested a weakening of the NATO alliance.
- Despite this, Trump previously expressed support for the Ukraine.
- After Trump hired Paul Manafort, a man who had worked for—and may still be working for—pro-Russian forces seeking to destroy the democratic government of the Ukraine, Trump’s position on the Ukraine changed to one that is far more friendly to Russia.
- Trump campaign staff, including former Rumsfeld assistant J. D. Gordon, halted the implementation of pro-Ukraine language in the GOP platform, and insisted on language that was much more supportive of Russia after saying they had to speak directly to Trump about the policy.
- One week after the change was written into the GOP platform, emails hacked from the DNC were released through Wikileaks. Both government and independent investigators have identified the hackers as being associated with the Russian government.
- Donald Trump suggested that Russia might also hack Hillary Clinton’s email server and recover 30,000 emails (which are not “missing,” but were personal emails deleted by a team of lawyers who reviewed the server).
- Trump later claimed he was being sarcastic, but within a week of his request, further hacks took place at the DCCC and the Hillary Clinton campaign. These hacks have also been identified as coming from Russian sources.
- Both Manafort and Trump issued denials that they had anything to do with the changes to the Republican platform, despite the many witnesses and despite having made no objection to the news as it was reported at the time.
- Trump, in an interview, seemed not only confused about the two-year-old invasion of the Ukraine, but gave apparently contradictory indications that, were he elected, he would cede the occupied Crimea to Russia, and that the Russians would withdraw from the Ukraine.
None of that is speculation. Not one word of it is theory”
I am not a conspiracy buff
And I rarely consider this stuff
But I’m now telling you
I’m disturbed through and through
And attention is not paid enough
My problem is not Donald Trump
Who, I think’s being played for a chump
By glib Paul Manafort
Campaign boss man of sort
Who’s receiving, I think, info dumps
Every day Trump is CIA briefed
Secret info that’s not to be breached
I just wonder if Trump
Bragging while on the stump
Without thinking allows much to leak
Why suspect Manafort, you may ask
Of a foreign intelligence task
It’s his Russian support
That condemns Manafort
I don’t trust him, for that and all that
8/04/16
