Missile Crisis: Trump Warns Russia, Russia Warns Trump

Back in October, mustachioed National Security Advisor and Cold War reenactor John Bolton first warned Vladimir Putin that President Trump is just itching to pull the U.S. out of the Reagan-era Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo now says this will happen in 60 days. President Putin offers to respond by ramping up Russia’s missile development. This would be a good time to refurnish your fallout shelter.

More:

“Trump Hits Replay on the End of the Cold War,” Mark Gongloff, Bloomberg

Related:

“Nuclear War Experts: ‘John Bolton Is an Asshole,'” Matthew Gault, Motherboard

Song: “Russia, Russia (Lay That Missile Down),”  written by Tom Paxton, recorded by Prescott Reed (we don’t know if he’s the balalaika player). 1958.

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Firehose of Falsehood

Obvious lies make great propaganda. Carlos Maza explains. A Vox video.

More:

“The Russian ‘Firehose of Falsehood’ Propaganda Model,” Christopher Paul, Miriam Matthews, RAND Corporation

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Blueberry Hill

Blueberry Hill,” written by Vincent Rose (né Vincenzo Cacioppo), with lyrics by Larry Stock and Al Lewis, performed by noted crooner Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, 2010.

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Mad for Vlad, Trump Invites Putin To Washington

President Donald Trump so enjoyed his successful Helsinki meeting with Vladimir Putin that he’s sent a message to the Russian strongman inviting him to the White House this fall. Great, another damn sequel. Perhaps Russian oligarchs could use the occasion to hold a GOP fundraiser in DC — it wouldn’t be the first for some of them.

Mr. Putin may be welcome at the White House and the Trump Hotel, but he can forget about addressing a joint session of Congress. Maybe he can pop across the Potomac to visit his fans at the NRA instead.

Donald Trump Jr. Met With a Russian to Get Dirt on Hillary Clinton

Donald Trump Jr., promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton, met with Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya during the 2016 campaign, reports the New York Times. Brother-in-law Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort, then Trump campaign manager, also attended the Trump Tower meeting on June 9, 2016, soon after Donald Trump clinched the GOP presidential nomination.

Junior has replied that the meeting with Ms. Veselnitskaya was about something else. And besides, he added, her campaign dirt on Hillary wasn’t any good.

More:

“Trump’s Son Met With Russian Lawyer After Being Promised Damaging Information on Clinton,” Jo Becker, Matt Apuzzo, and Adam Goldman, New York Times

“Donald Trump Jr.’s Two Different Explanations for Russian Meeting,” Liam Stack, New York Times

“If There Was No Collusion, It Wasn’t for Lack of Trying,” David A. Graham, The Atlantic

“Donald Trump Jr.’s ‘Denials’ of Russian Collusion Are Actually Confessions,” Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine

“Donald Trump Jr. is digging himself a deep legal hole” Zack Beauchamp, Vox

“Trump Jr. Hires Criminal Defense Attorney Alan Futerfas For Russia Probe,” Matt Shuman, TPM LiveWire

“Donald Trump Jr.’s lawyer is a Juilliard-trained trombonist who plays in a symphony and defends mobsters,” Derek Hawkins, Washington Post

 

Updates:

“Russian Dirt on Clinton? ‘I Love It,’ Donald Trump Jr. Said,” Jo Becker, Matt Apuzzo, and Adam Goldman, New York Times

“Read the Emails on Donald Trump Jr.’s Russia Meeting,” New York Times

“Was President at Trump Tower When Son Met Russian Lawyer?” John T. Bennett, Roll Call

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The Trump Campaign Contacted Russia at Least 18 Times

“Michael Flynn and other advisers to Donald Trump’s campaign were in contact with Russian officials and others with Kremlin ties in at least 18 calls and emails during the last seven months of the 2016 presidential race, current and former U.S. officials familiar with the exchanges told Reuters.

The previously undisclosed interactions form part of the record now being reviewed by FBI and congressional investigators probing Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election and contacts between Trump’s campaign and Russia.

Six of the previously undisclosed contacts described to Reuters were phone calls between Sergei Kislyak, Russia’s ambassador to the United States, and Trump advisers, including Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser, three current and former officials said.

Conversations between Flynn and Kislyak accelerated after the Nov. 8 vote as the two discussed establishing a back channel for communication between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin that could bypass the U.S. national security bureaucracy, which both sides considered hostile to improved relations, four current U.S. officials said.”

— “Trump campaign had at least 18 undisclosed contacts with Russians: sources,” Ned Parker, Jonathan Landay and Warren Strobel, Reuters

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Trump’s Mercenary Back-Channel to Russia

Nine days before Donald Trump’s inauguration, the United Arab Emirates arranged a secret meeting between Blackwater founder Erik Prince and a contact close to Russian President Vladi­mir Putin, according to the Washington Post. The January 11th meetup, an attempt to open a back-channel line of communication between Putin and Trump, took place in the Seychelles islands. Erik Prince, who donated $250,000 to the Trump election effort, is still in the army-for-hire business, providing private security services for the UAE, and lives part-time in Abu Dhabi. His sister, Betsy DeVos, is currently Secretary of Education.

More:

“Blackwater founder held secret Seychelles meeting to establish Trump-Putin back channel,” Adam Entous, Greg Miller, Kevin Sieff and Karen DeYoung, Washington Post

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The Usual Suspects, 2017

Chazz Palminteri interrogates Stephen Colbert about an international conspiracy.

“You’re just not listening! I’ve been telling you for like a year! There’s something weird going on between Trump and the Russians!”

Related:

The Logan Act

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Putin Lights the Fires of Revolution

Three members of the feminist Russian punk band Pussy Riot were found guilty of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” and sentenced to two years in prison. The criminal incident in question: On February 21st, the band performed a “punk prayer” protest in Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral as part of the demonstrations following the disputed re-election of Vladimir Putin. Some feel the Church is too politically tied to the Putin regime.

The prison-bound band members are philosophy student and mother Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, mother and Greenpeace activist Maria Alekhina, and artist and computer programmer Yekaterina Samutsevich. To mark the occasion, the band released a new recording (above), and it’s not a statement of remorse. The song is called “Putin Lights Up the Fires”(путин зажигает костры).

More:

“Russian band’s sentencing shows punk’s power,”  Randall Roberts, Los Angeles Times

“Is Vladimir Putin Richer Than Carlos Slim?” Worldcrunch

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