In the past I and others have argued that Trump pushing unilaterally for an end to sanctions on Russia is a public effort to set a quid pro quo with Putin, with the expectation of illegal election aid. That's how you should read Trump's call yesterday for Russia to rejoin the G7.
Some apparently don't understand that when a nation commits a war crime and is punished for doing so, and then the leader of one of the nations that pushed for sanctions unilaterally says "nevermind," it means they feel they're getting something back. Sanctions drops aren't free.
It's outrageous that media didn't call Trump's unilateral push to end a key piece of the sanctions regime against Russia a public attempt to curry favor with a nation he well knows is about to help him win a presidential election. The time for us acting dumb on this is long over.
Just because Trump is willing to lie repeatedly about why Russia was dumped from the G7 does not mean that American media is relieved of its responsibility for asking Trump what America is getting back in exchange for dropping a piece of the sanctions it rightfully put on Russia.
The answer to "what *America* gets back if it unilaterally drops a piece of its sanctions on Russia by advocating for Putin's return to the G7" is *nothing*. Absolutely *nothing*. The answer to what *Trump* would be getting is "illegal election aid in 2020." We need to *wake up*.
The perversion of the 2020 election is happening *right now*. Trump has deliberately taken *no steps* to protect America's electoral infrastructure from Russia, even as he is being told Russia is still cyber-attacking us and even as he is *advocating for Russia to rejoin the G7*.
So the answer to the question, "Why does Trump keep telling lies about the basis for Russia being tossed from the G7?" is that if he tells the truth he'll be asked a question he can't answer: "Why, then, should we drop any sanctions on Russia? What do *we* get?"
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(🧵) This thread offers extensive analysis of the historic decision by President Joe Biden—ranked the 14th-best U.S. president ever by nonpartisan historians—not to seek a second term. I approach this analysis as an attorney, political journalist, and Trump biographer. Please RT.
1/ Here is the announcement from President Biden.
2/ He says he will address the nation further on this matter in a few days.
(1 of 3) Sixteen years ago, at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, another experimental writer and I—he a novelist, me a poet—concocted a plan to one day write a personal history that would satisfy two conditions at once: (1) be 100% accurate; (2) cause disbelief and possibly even anger.
(2 of 3) After Iowa, I added a third requirement: I wanted to write a personal bio that *made a point*: that no matter how much we tell others about ourselves in the digital age, we are always incomprehensible to (and in many ways not even human to) strangers on the internet.
(3 of 3) A few years ago, I quietly dropped the fruition of this plan from the 2000s onto my personal website—not knowing when or if anyone would find it. I expected people who hate me would find it first. They did.
Their reaction is exactly as we hoped it would be back in 2008.
(NOTE) I have now updated this report to include information on the possible illegality of the fraudulent Jackson Memo.
(MORE) In Atlanta, Trump told 602 lies in 40 minutes and 12 seconds.
In Milwaukee, the fact that the whole world saw what happened in Butler—and so could call out Trump's lies—cut his rate: it would've been 362 lies in 40 minutes and 12 seconds.
Nine years into the Trump era and Donald Trump is still getting on TV and lying to our faces about every facet of American life knowing idiots and wishcasters will believe him, his words will be aired live by corporate media, and any factchecking will come after people go to bed.
Major media had nine years to figure out how to deny media coverage to people who spread disinformation. It could ban them from its air. It could refuse to carry their words live. It could give 5x the live rebuttal time to those who tell the truth.
And what did it do? *Nothing*.
This sociopath was created by media and media is responsible for him. Every claim he made tonight was false. He knew they were false because he had been told so repeatedly. He *also* knows corporate media needs him for profits—so it'll never do with him as real journalists would.
BREAKING NEWS: Physicians Suggest Trump Could Have Undisclosed Brain Trauma in Wake of His Team's Bizarre Refusal to Release Any Information About His Injury or Its Treatment; Doctors Say Even Getting Grazed By a Bullet Can Have Catastrophic Unseen Effects statnews.com/2024/07/17/tru…
I cannot imagine voting for someone who might have an undisclosed traumatic brain injury, especially when the person has a decades-long history of doctoring, lying about and hiding their medical records. This is an issue that major media should be expending significant energy on.
After the attack, Trump sounded addled—and we've no idea if he has PTSD. Doctors say he would have had multiple brain scans to determine if there were unseen effects from an object traveling at that speed hitting his head. And now all of this is being hidden from American voters?
MAGAs falsely claim the Secret Service wants Trump dead, which is plainly untrue. It's also a *bizarre* claim for MAGAs to embrace, as what do these conspiracy theorists think it would say about what Trump says and does in private—that only the USSS knows of—if it wants him dead?
MAGA is such a deranged cult that you have Trump fans insisting that the one group of people who know what he says and does in private—and what sort of danger those words/actions pose to all of us—thinks he needs to be eliminated. And that does *not* give them any pause. Why not?
Fortunately, there is an answer to this. All MAGAs now hold one of three views: they hate all law enforcement, or they love the idea that Trump plans to destroy our democracy, or they do not believe there was any plot against Trump but wax orgasmic at the idea of him as a martyr.