General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Overview of the Trump/Russia collusion and timeline PLEASE READ! [View all]The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,656 posts)Based on this and other materials I've read here and elsewhere, I think your conclusion is likely correct. Putin has probably been cultivating Trump for a long time, both directly and through people like Manafort and Lewandowski, and his purpose is to destabilize the NATO alliance in particular, as well as our relations with other countries. I believe he hopes to use the right-wing populism/nationalism arising in Europe to cause rifts within NATO, which depends a lot on the US financially and strategically and it appears that he has been using some of the same tactics there as he (and by "he" I really mean not only Putin but his advisors, like Surkov) has here - sowing confusion and disinformation. He wasn't a high-level KGB officer for nothing, and he certainly knows where a lot of bodies are buried. He also knows how to use non-military tactics to achieve some of his goals.
Trump is Putin's useful idiot. Trump has no clue what's going on. Putin is playing a long game, using Trump's ignorance, greed and narcissism to manipulate him into following Bannon's lead. And Bannon has previously called himself at various times a Leninist who wants to tear down the whole American edifice. I'd call him a nihilist. If you're a nihilist you don't care about the truth; in fact, you want to make ascertaining the truth impossible. If nobody is sure what's going on, and the people have lost faith in previously-trusted sources of information, it's easy for the "leader" to get away with just about anything. Trump has persuaded the low-information voters who support him that only he can "fix" things; as a result at least those people will follow him blindly. Everybody else will just be confused.
Of course, lies have always been the commerce of despots. I am somewhat heartened to see that some people in the news media are catching on (where the hell were they a year ago?) and are starting to call out the lies and to explore the Russian connections. I just hope it's not too late. It took two years for Watergate to catch up with Nixon, but things move a lot faster these days.
These are strange, dangerous days but we can't give up.