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Well... He's been in deep with the Russian Mob for a long time. But he's been in with La Cosa Nostra for much longer...

As anti-Trump as I am - I'm more of an "Emoluments", or 'faithfully execute the LAWs' - guy. In fact, I think that the Russophobia and anti-Russian hysteria are part of a New Cold War drive - connected to "Nuclear Primacy", "winnable" Nuclear wars, and a related MIC build-up. There's also been a concomitant rise in a new McCarthyism - attacking Jill Stein - for instance.

We've seen a shifting-goal-posts situation of late. First it was "hacking", and now "meddling" and then "collusion". I'm sure that Putin had a preference - but he didn't declare it in the quite the way that Netanyahu did. And we have such a long history of stealing elections (foreign AND domestic) that it seems like the pot calling the kettle - "black". The lawyer and NRA activist cited - seem to have rights to political speech - under the 14th amendment, at the least.

Russia isn't threatening us - we're threatening THEM. Encircling them with bases... Overthrowing Ukraine (using real live NAZIs...) These are aggressive actions. Professor Emeritus Stephen Cohen of Princeton and CUNY can lay this stuff out, more succinctly than myself. To the extent that Trump is putting the brakes on the rush towards war... It may be the one area where I can support him. Diplomacy was all but abandoned during the Obama/Clinton years - replaced by the drive for sanctions. To his discredit - Trump has ratcheted those sanctions-up - based on a case (the Skripal "poisoning") that is presumptive, circumstantial and frankly makes little sense.

https://youtu.be/JHZXVWUxxDU
https://youtu.be/1oelJ0xN5AM
https://original.antiwar.com/mcgovern/2018/06/07/still-waiting-for-evidence-of-a-russian-hack/