Image of "Vladimir Putin carrying his buddy Donald Trump" by DonkeyHotey on flickr through Creative Commons
It has yet to be proven. What is known, however, is that the U.S. intelligence community has said Russians hacked the Democratic National Committee email servers, as well as the private email server belonging to Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman, John Podesta.
We also know that the Russians then passed those emails on to WikiLeaks and Guccifer 2.0 -- who made them public.
We now also know that, despite denials from the Republican National Committee, U.S. officials believe the Russians hacked RNC servers but chose not to release those emails. According to an NBC report, officials also "believe, with a high level of confidence that Vladimir Putin personally directed the operation" in an effort to "sway the election in favour of Donald Trump."
Call me crazy but I find all of this extremely disturbing.
I am disturbed that a foreign, and hostile, government can brazenly interfere in democracy.
I am disturbed that a foreign, and hostile, government can brazenly interfere in democracy.
I am disturbed that the American people and Congress -- Republicans, Democrats, Independents alike -- are not screaming bloody murder over this assault on what is supposed to be "a political system for choosing and replacing the government through free and fair elections."
I am disturbed that Donald Trump has been praising Putin as far back as 2007 and, during his campaign, actually suggested that Putin should continue to hack Hillary Clinton's servers until he "finds all her deleted emails."
I am disturbed that Donald Trump himself has well-documented ties to Russia dating back to 1986, that his one-time campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, consulted for Ukraine's ruling party and that there are ledgers showing he received millions of dollars in undisclosed payments.
I am disturbed that Mike Flynn, a retired lieutenant general and Trump's national security advisor, "was paid, in 2015, to join Russian president Vladimir Putin at a gala in Moscow hosted by RT, a state-run media organization that has been accused of acting as a propaganda arm of the Kremlin."
It came out during Trump's campaign that he has a penchant for Big Macs. I wonder how he feels about borscht?
And that Rex Tillerson, who was CEO of Exxon for more than 40 years and is Donald Trump's pick for Secretary of State, has a $720 million deal (on hold since 2014 when Obama sanctioned Russia's oil and gas companies) with Rosneft, which is run by Putin's friend Igor Sechin.
So if you're expecting President Trump to get tough with Russia -- whether it's because of hacking or any number of atrocities they have and will, no doubt, continue to commit -- I don't think you should hold your breath.
But what you can count on is that there's plenty that Putin wants from Trump.
Pretty damn troubling if you ask me -- and we should all be concerned.
It came out during Trump's campaign that he has a penchant for Big Macs. I wonder how he feels about borscht?
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