War<\/a> that Trump had secretly sent Vladimir Putin seven COVID testing machines, possibly dooming hundreds of Americans, I shook my head in disgust. But I didn\u2019t expect much to come of it.<\/p>\nTrump would issue a blanket denial, and his mindless supporters would immediately reduce it to the level of \u201che said \u2013 he said.\u201d A normal person wouldn\u2019t have much trouble of weighing the veracity of Bob Woodward against that of Donald Trump, but Trump\u2019s followers have pretty much abdicated all human skills of judgment. They would dismiss it, just as they have dozens of other stories about Trump, many of them proven, that would have destroyed the career of any public figure who wasn\u2019t a cult leader. Cults are dangerous, and about one third of American voters have been brainwashed into becoming followers of a cult.<\/p>\n
But then something unexpected occurred. The Kremlin weighed in on the story. Per Bloomberg News, \u201cKremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that the tests had been sent, but denied the book\u2019s claim that the two leaders had spoken by phone several times since Trump left office.\u201d<\/p>\n
I had just expected the Kremlin would issue a denial, or more likely, just ignore the story altogether. After all, the Russian disinformation media loves to portray Trump as a brave hero beset by liberals and Jews in the American press. This would have fed right into this narrative. (One Russian outlet today managed to find a way to portray Hurricane Milton as being somehow Jewish! Dot\u2019s funny…Milton doesn\u2019t look Jewish…)<\/p>\n
That was devastating to Trump, and not because I expect the scales to fall from the eyes of his followers. That\u2019s not going to happen overnight. But it struck me as a clear signal that Putin and his mob have written Trump off as a useful asset and no longer expect him to regain the White House. Clear and independent thinking around exactly staples of the Putin regime, but careful analysis and calculation are. They no longer think Trump is useful. Oh, they\u2019ll keep spreading disinformation on his behalf and supporting him because anything that destabilizing to the United States is for the good, but they no longer take him seriously as an ally. (They already reported today that Milton destroyed Disneyland, which will come as a surprise to the City of Anaheim in California). Keep up the good work, Ivan. There will be an extra potato in your paysack this week!<\/p>\n
Now, about the seven calls. There may be tapes\u2014there\u2019s reason to suspect both the FBI and CIA have been monitoring Trump\u2019s calls abroad because of suspicion he is a foreign agent. That\u2019s speculation, of course, but not wholly unwarranted speculation.<\/p>\n
But it was JD Vance who tried to ride to the rescue aboard the epileptic cow he calls a brain, telling reporters, \u201cI honestly didn\u2019t know that Bob Woodward was still alive until you just asked me that question.\u201d Dismissing Woodward as a hack, he went on to say, \u201cEven if it\u2019s true, look, is there something wrong with speaking to world leaders? No. Is there anything wrong with engaging in diplomacy?\u201d<\/p>\n
Well, actually, yeah, there is. Trump is a private citizen, and there\u2019s this thing called the Logan Act. It says, \u201cAny citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.\u201d It was passed in 1799, so if any of the stooges on the Supreme Court are minded to bring up their originalist bullshit, they might consider that the people who passed the Act were either founders or knew them personally. You might think someone running for Vice President with an ailing 78 year old man a heartbeat away from Ayn Rand heaven would know that, yeah?<\/p>\n
Vance clearly thought that was a valid defense. Vance is a moron. But it wasn\u2019t a confession the phone calls took place. The twin enigmas-wrapped-in-a-riddle-wrapped-in-a-mystery, the Kremlin and Mar-A-Lago, have both denied the calls took place.<\/p>\n
But Donald couldn\u2019t resist the opportunity to swan about in his own imagined importance, trumpeting it was “a good thing, not a bad thing,” that he got along with Putin “very well.” “A lot of people think that\u2019s a bad thing,” Trump said. “No, no, that\u2019s a great thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019m guessing those calls did take place. And they didn\u2019t benefit the United States in any way. Hopefully the FBI and CIA are on this, and we won\u2019t have to wait three years while Merrick Garland dithers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bryan Zepp Jamieson October 10th 2024 When Bob Woodward, renowned investigative journalist, revealed in his just-published book War that Trump had secretly sent Vladimir Putin seven COVID testing machines, possibly dooming hundreds of Americans, I shook my head in disgust. But I didn\u2019t expect much to come of it. Trump would issue a blanket denial, … <\/p>\n
Continue reading “Trump and the Seven Calls — What are he and Putin up to?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,1426,602,577,5,450,60,735,385],"tags":[485,2090,197,2089,2088,496,243],"class_list":["post-1670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american-psyche","category-broadcast","category-civil-war","category-climate-change","category-foreign-affairs","category-health-care","category-politics","category-terror","category-trump-impeachment","tag-bob-woodward","tag-covid-testing-machines","tag-donald-trump","tag-logan-act","tag-phone-calls-to-kremlin","tag-vladimir-putin","tag-war"],"yoast_head":"\nTrump and the Seven Calls -- What are he and Putin up to? · Zepp's Commentaries<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/zeppscommentaries.online\/?p=1670\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump and the Seven Calls -- What are he and Putin up to? · Zepp's Commentaries\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bryan Zepp Jamieson October 10th 2024 When Bob Woodward, renowned investigative journalist, revealed in his just-published book War that Trump had secretly sent Vladimir Putin seven COVID testing machines, possibly dooming hundreds of Americans, I shook my head in disgust. 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