(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Putin and His Enablers, Part Three [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-09-09 We conclude our examination of Americans who are sympathetic to and/or supportive of Vladimir Putin and Russia’s government. Part One is HERE. Part Two is HERE. JOSH HAWLEY Insurrection, racism, appeasement: Call it the Hawley Trinity Don’t look to Hawley for help [in supporting action against Russia]. His public two-step about the Russian threat — amplified by countless tweets and television appearances — has clearly provided aid and comfort to Putin and hard-liners in Russia. Yes, even as he now hypocritically complains that the sanctions President Joe Biden has announced are “not enough.” You can see the deadly results, as the video comes in from Ukraine. “By now the cast of Putin’s useful idiots is familiar,” wrote Charlie Sykes, a one-time conservative talk show host. He included Hawley in the group. “Josh Hawley seeks to be Putin’s new favorite pet,” was the headline on a column by Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post. U.S. Missouri Senator Hawley calls for end to U.S. aid to Ukraine [Nov. 2023] Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley said the United States should cease sending aid to Ukraine nearly two years after Russia invaded the country. Senator Hawley said Congress should instead divert the same resources to Israel amid conflict in the Gaza region. “Ukraine is not an ally, to start with,” Hawley said. “Israel is an ally and longtime partner of the United States, and they are facing an existential threat as we speak.” While neither Ukraine nor Israel are members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Jay Sexton, a history professor and director of the University of Missouri’s Kinder Institute, said it’s inaccurate to claim that Ukraine is not a U.S. ally. From 2022: Here are the 11 GOP senators who voted against the Ukraine aid bill Rand Paul Josh Hawley: “It neglects priorities at home (the border), allows Europe to freeload, short changes critical interests abroad and comes w/ no meaningful oversight,” Hawley said. Mike Braun Eight other GOP senators voted against the package: Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.), John Boozman (Ark.), Mike Crapo (Idaho), Bill Hagerty (Tenn.), Mike Lee (Utah), Cynthia Lummis (Wyo.), Roger Marshall (Kan.) and Tommy Tuberville (Ala.). EVANGELICAL LEADERS AND CHRISTIAN NATIONALISTS IMPORTANT: I do not wish to generalize here. Many Evangelical Christians are appalled at the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and many of them find Vladimir Putin to be loathsome. But their leaders don’t always feel that way, and to be honest, many Evangelicals admire Russia. ABC (Australia) April 2022 While many white evangelical leaders oppose Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, televangelist Pat Robertson recently said Putin was “compelled by God” to invade the country in order to precipitate the coming apocalypse. In 2015, Franklin Graham (son of Billy Graham, leader of post-war American evangelicalism) visited Putin and Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, in Moscow and told the Russian press that “millions of Americans would like [Putin] to come and run for president of the United States”. Though Putin had just invaded Crimea, in 2014 Graham nonetheless applauded his efforts to protect children from “homosexual propaganda”; Graham moreover held that the importance of protecting Christianity was sufficient “justification” for Putin’s decision to strafe Syrian cities by way of support for Bashar al-Assad’s bloody civil war… In fact, Putin is not seen as a “deep state” autocrat but as a leader who is advancing religious freedom globally against the tyranny of secular government. He’s also seen as standing up for the Russian people, who were robbed, on his telling, of their rightful place in the world by the collapse of the Soviet Union. Both moves look right to America’s white evangelicals, who feel beleaguered by a secular government within an increasingly secular, multicultural society, and who are seeking an ally in their struggle for freedom to be Christian. The key word here is freedom. Christian nationalists are enamored with Putin, even if they oppose Russia, new research from Northeastern professor says To measure how favorable Christian nationalists were toward Putin and Russia, [Professor Sarah] Riccardi-Swartz and her colleagues used data from the Public Religion Research Institute’s 2018 American Values Survey, the Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel from 2021 and the 2022 National Addiction and Social Attitudes Survey. The data captures Christian nationalist sentiments during Donald Trump’s presidency, post-Trump and after the Ukraine invasion based on responses to a series of survey questions. The study found that in 2018, respondents who indicated that America was or still is a Christian nation tended to score higher on favorability of Putin. Meanwhile, those who still believe the U.S. is a Christian nation, the most extreme category on the study’s Christian nationalist scale, were also the most likely to be favorable toward Russia. In 2021, the results were largely the same: As respondents scored higher on Christian nationalist measures, they were more likely to be favorable to Putin. To Russia, With Love: Christian Nationalists’ Have A History Of Backing Putin’s ‘Pro-Family’ Agenda Speaking to the America First Political Action Conference in Orlando Feb. 25 [2022], [AZ state] Sen. Wendy Rogers (R-Coconino) celebrated the actions of Vladimir Putin, Russia’s autocratic president, and called for more tanks to roll over Ukraine. AZ Mirror, a state-based news website, reported that Rogers “also raised eyebrows with inflammatory social media posts about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, some of which included well-established antisemitic tropes. She said Zelensky, who has become the global face of resistance to Putin’s invasion, ‘is a globalist puppet’ for George Soros and the Clintons. She added that he, French President Emmanuel Macron, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ar­dern and Canadian Prime Minister Jus­tin Trudeau ‘all report to the same Satanic masters.’”… While most Americans have no problem seeing Putin as the villain in this situation, a stubborn remnant of extreme Christian nationalists insists on looking at the Russian dictator as a champion of the Christian faith, a man who stands firm against the decadent, secular, LGBTQ-friendly policies of the West. “White evangelicals once saw Russia as an existential threat to traditional gender roles and sexual morality, but over the past three decades, they have forged a partnership in a global family values movement that not only embraces sexual and gender traditionalism but sees these practices as a solution to demographic changes around the globe,” wrote Bethany Moreton, a professor of history at Dartmouth College and author of the forthcoming book Slouching Towards Moscow: American Conservatives and the Romance of Russia, in a recent Washington Post opinion column. STEVE BANNON Former Trump Adviser Steve Bannon Backs 'Anti-Woke' Vladimir Putin Steve Bannon, former advisor to ex-President Donald Trump, said Americans should support "anti-woke" Russian President Vladimir Putin because of Putin's long history of anti-LGBTQ politics. Bannon praised Putin several hours before the Russian leader launched an invasion of Ukraine. His commendation followed accolades for Putin from Trump and other conservatives. "Putin ain't woke. He is anti-woke," Bannon said to private military contractor Erik Prince during the Wednesday broadcast of War Room, Bannon's show on Real America's Voice, a right-leaning media network. The Sinister History Behind the Right’s Putin-Mania Bannon, who has spent the year since his eviction from the White House supporting proto-fascist movements throughout Europe, neatly elucidated the importance of this alliance in a 2014 talk at the Vatican. Traditionalists “believe that at least Putin is standing up for traditional institutions, and he’s trying to do it in a form of nationalism—and I think that people, particularly in certain countries, want to see the sovereignty for their country. They want to see nationalism for their country,” he explained during a question-and-answer session following his speech. “They don’t believe in this kind of pan-European Union, or they don’t believe in the centralized government in the United States. They’d rather see more of a states-based entity that the founders originally set up, where freedoms were controlled at the local level.” The “Judeo-Christian West,” he concluded, “really have to look at what he’s talking about, as far as traditionalism goes—particularly the sense of where it supports the underpinnings of nationalism—and I happen to think that the individual sovereignty of a country is a good thing and a strong thing. I think strong countries and strong nationalist movements in countries make strong neighbors, and that is really the building blocks that built Western Europe and the United States, and I think it’s what can see us forward Bannon, exemplar of white supremacy and champion of traditional values. The NRA NRA Was 'Foreign Asset' To Russia Ahead of 2016, New Senate Report Reveals The National Rifle Association acted as a "foreign asset" for Russia in the period leading up to the 2016 election, according to a new investigation unveiled Friday by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. Drawing on contemporaneous emails and private interviews, an 18-month probe by the Senate Finance Committee's Democratic staff found that the NRA underwrote political access for Russian nationals Maria Butina and Alexander Torshin more than previously known — even though the two had declared their ties to the Kremlin. The report, available here, also describes how closely the gun rights group was involved with organizing a 2015 visit by some of its leaders to Moscow. Reminder: Maria Butina’s Deep Connections to the NRA Maria Butina, now a member of the Russian parliament, is in the news again, giving an interview defending the Russian military’s killing of Ukrainian civilians by suggesting Ukrainians were bombing themselves. As a reminder, here is a brief overview of her deep connections to the National Rifle Association. In April 2019, Butina pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to act as a foreign agent in the United States after an indictment detailed her alleged involvement in an effort to utilize a “guns right organization” widely understood to be the NRA, among others, in an effort to influence American politics on behalf of the Russian government. A 2019 U.S. Senate Finance Committee minority staff report titled “The NRA and Russia: How a Tax-Exempt Organization Became a Foreign Asset” concluded that “the NRA, its officers, board members, and donors engaged in a years-long effort to facilitate the U.S.-based activities of Maria Butina” and Russian government official Alexander Torshin. In 2014, Butina joined Torshin, who has since been sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department, at the NRA’s annual meeting in Indianapolis, getting facetime with top leaders including CEO Wayne LaPierre. x Here is convicted Russian spy Maria Butina in photos with: 1. Former Sheriff David Clarke 2. Scott Walker 3. Rick Santorum 4. Wayne Lapierre 5. Bobby Jindal 6. Donald Trump Jr. pic.twitter.com/rqy0VEB1fC — The Intellectualist (@highbrow_nobrow) September 6, 2024 TRUMP JUNIOR x Junior is asked how to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He says to cut off all aid to Ukraine, which his dad would’ve done a long time ago. He then says Zelensky and other leaders are becoming billionaires stealing aid and don’t care about their soldiers or their country. pic.twitter.com/YjvPOuV5vC — Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) January 12, 2024 MORE UGLINESS FROM THE HARD CORE RUSSIA FANS IN THE HOUSE x Here are the 9 House Republicans who voted tonight against a resolution condemning Russia for the abduction of Ukrainian children. Marjorie Taylor Greene Andy Biggs Eric Burlison Warren Davidson Clay Higgins Thomas Massie Matt Rosendale Chip Roy Tom Tiffany Vote them out! — Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) March 19, 2024 JACK POSOBIEC Jack “Pizzagate” Posobiec is the charming individual who, at a CPAC Klan meeting, called for the death of American democracy and who vowed that January 6 was only the beginning (implying that the next insurrection would be more successful). He’s also a ferocious supporter of Russia and an enemy of Ukraine. x This is very concerning @JackPosobiec , isn't this the exact Russian line of propaganda TENET was asked to spread? Wow, word for word. https://t.co/TVoZw5Wl6y — TheRealThelmaJohnson (@TheRealThelmaJ1) September 9, 2024 Jack Posobiec Links to Russian Intelligence-Backed Website [April 2021] One America News Network (OANN) correspondent Jack Posobiec tweeted 28 times over a span of ten months links to a website the U.S. government says is backed by Russian intelligence. Posobiec repeatedly linked on Twitter to the obscure website “SouthFront,” which the U.S. Department of the Treasury named on April 15 in a statement explaining its enactment of sanctions on the Russian government, Hatewatch found. SouthFront, in turn, made posts promoting Posobiec. Southfront also cited Posobiec’s tweets in their posts, as they did in February when announcing that Senate Republicans acquitted President Trump on charges related to his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection. Posobiec has used Twitter to promote Russian intelligence-backed propaganda before, as when he served as a central figure in spreading a hack of Emmanuel Macron’s emails in May 2017, as Hatewatch has previously reported. Posobiec also helped push the lie that the U.S. had bioweapons labs in Russia. (I will not link to his Twitter post on this subject.) LIBS OF TIKTOK (CHAYA RAICHIK) Chaya Raichik is a horrible little asshole who has dedicated her life to spreading hatred against LGBTQ people. (She is UNMARRIED and CHILDLESS. What do you say to that, J.D.?) She has a website, which I will not link to, dedicated to attacking anyone she calls “woke”. This is a summary of who she is: How LibsOfTikTok Is Helping the Kremlin Boost Anti-LGBTQ Disinformation A deceptively edited video posted by the LibsofTikTok Twitter account earlier this month [August 2022] has helped supercharge a Kremlin-backed anti-LGBTQ disinformation campaign. The video, published on August 10, appears to suggest that a Pennsylvania-based therapist is advocating for social acceptance of pedophilia. It’s been used by pro-Kremlin Telegram channels, and even a Russian TV station closely linked to the Kremlin, to push the claim that the West is openly embracing pedophilia and encouraging children to invite them into their homes. The campaign has now spread to countries around the globe and racked up hundreds of thousands of likes and shares. TULSI GABBARD Remember this? Tulsi Gabbard repeats false Hillary Clinton ‘grooming’ claim in new book Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic congresswoman, has repeated a discredited claim about Hillary Clinton that previously saw Gabbard lodge then drop a $50m defamation suit in a new book published as she seeks to be named Donald Trump’s running mate for US president. Accusing Democrats of making up “a conspiracy theory that [Trump] was ‘colluding’ with the Russians to win the election” in 2016, Gabbard claims: “Hillary Clinton used a similar tactic against me when I ran for president in 2020, accusing me of being ‘groomed by the Russians’.” Gabbard ran for the Democratic nomination. Clinton did not accuse her of being “groomed by the Russians”. What Clinton said, in October 2019 and on a podcast hosted by the former Barack Obama adviser David Plouffe, was that she thought Republicans would encourage a third-party bid in 2020, aiming to syphon votes from the Democratic candidate in key states as Jill Stein, the Green candidate, and the Libertarian, Gary Johnson, did four years before. American agents of misinformation: Tulsi Gabbard, Russian propaganda and article 88 Many in the United States and throughout the West have seen through Russia’s attempts to justify the war with baseless claims of genocide, and strongly support the Ukrainian people. However, in many countries some still identify with Russia and engage in rhetoric that supports it. For the most part, at least in the United States, this comes from far-right members of the Conservative ideology, including political commentators like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens, but also political candidates like JD Vance in Ohio and Joe Kent in Washington and Representatives Madison Cawthorne, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Paul Gosar. For the most part, these are Republicans, yet there are those who identify as left-leaning or are registered Democrats who strongly support Putin. One of those is former Representative Tulsi Gabbard… What is of particular concern, however, is the fact that Gabbard’s top-secret security clearance gives her access to sensitive special operations and intelligence information, while she simultaneously operates within a mutually reinforcing dynamic with Russian propaganda outlets. Gabbard has claimed, for example, that the US supports several dozen former Soviet biolabs in Ukraine, which work with diseases like COVID-19, while also accusing the Biden administration of covering this up, claims which are directly based on Russian disinformation. Gabbard’s accusations are in turn rebroadcast by Russia propaganda outlets to further the country’s policy goals. According to The Intercept, Russian media “… featured translated clips of Tucker Carlson or his guest Tulsi Gabbard … attacking the Biden administration” at least four times in the month of February 2022. In the aftermath of her hosting Carlson’s Fox News segment in August, the government of Ukraine placed Gabbard on a list of American citizens who have promoted Russian propaganda. Meanwhile, Alexander Vindman, the former US Army Officer who testified against Trump during the Trump-Ukraine Scandal, called her out on social media for being a liar and “an agent of Russian disinformation [who promotes] Russian aggression and endanger[s] America”. CHARLIE KIRK It’s difficult to think of a more repulsive individual than vile misogynist Charlie Kirk. I often wonder how this mediocre, bigoted junior college dropout ever got a national platform, but the Wingnut Welfare system gave him one. And he delivers an unbroken stream of verbal excrement. CPAC, 2022: From the CPAC stage, Kirk urged his fellow speakers “to call what’s happening on the southern border an invasion,” rather than showing concern about Ukraine, where Russian President Vladimir Putin has been raining down missiles on major cities as Ukraine’s citizens worry about what the future holds — and if they’ll survive to see it. “The southern border matters a lot more than the Ukrainian border,” Kirk said on Thursday. “In fact, I want every Republican leader who comes up on stage the next couple days to call what’s happening on the southern border an invasion because two million people waltzed into our country last year.” It is, of course, patently absurd to compare peaceful migrants coming across the U.S.-Mexico border to the full-scale Russian invasion taking place in Ukraine. It’s also absurd to compare Ukraine’s current crisis to actions Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took to remove the anti-vaxx trucker convoy from blocking the streets of Ottawa, which is exactly what Kirk did in a Wednesday tweet. “What’s happening in Ottawa right now is far more important than what’s happening in Kyiv,” Kirk wrote. THIS IS WELL WORTH A LOOK-SEE Meet the pro-Putin Republicans and conservatives AND IN OTHER NEWS... x Kremlin “documents showed that Kremlin 1st deputy chief of staff Sergei Kiriyenko had directed a network of political strategists to promote American isolationism, stir fear over the United States’ border security & attempt to amplify U.S. economic & racial… — Laura Rozen (@lrozen) September 5, 2024 x Inside Russia's plan to sway the the US election for Trump: — A 277-page indictment. unsealed this week, gives unprecedented insight into the goals, target audiences, tactics and resources the Kremlin is using. This is "Project Good Old USA" 1/11https://t.co/q7AgexVq7e — David Gilbert (@daithaigilbert) September 6, 2024 x Russia is waging a "reckless campaign of sabotage" across Europe, the heads of MI6 and the CIA have warned in their first-ever joint remarks.https://t.co/TPCMP9oUe6 — Deborah Haynes (@haynesdeborah) September 7, 2024 x At the end of Trump’s term, he directed the CIA to send him the materials collected about Russian interference in the 2016 election, information classified at the highest levels. He said he was going to declassify and release it. He did not. The binder has never been found. 1/ — Leah McElrath (@leahmcelrath) September 7, 2024 IN ADDITION, HERE ARE DIARIES AND ARTICLES BY YOURS TRULY YOU MAY FIND ENLIGHTENING: Why is McConnell Getting Away with the Deripaska Scandal? Trump and Deutsche Bank: A Vast Criminal Enterprise Trump and the Mob, Part Two: The Russians The Strange Election of 2016, Part One: The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union and the Emergence of Vladimir Putin The Strange Election of 2016, Part Two: The Shady Businessman and His Russian Benefactors The Strange Election of 2016, Part Three: The Henchmen, the Enablers, and the Dirty Tricksters: Manafort [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/9/9/2268696/-Putin-and-His-Enablers-Part-Three?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/