Ok about this whole new Trump/Russia breaking story. First, I find it interesting that allegations contained in the document [the dossier] and copies of the document itself have been floating around Washington for several weeks and no media outlet has reported on it till now - suggests either the allegations are so incendiary that they wanted to be very careful before proceeding - or that there’s a great deal of scepticism regarding the authenticity of the claims made - the MSM wants very badly to delegitimize if not completely undo Trump - the allegations in the document would probably do that - that they’ve been sitting on it for several weeks is interesting.
Secondly, why did CNN decide to run with the story - is a desire to discredit Trump driving these people to increasingly reckless behavior, or has something changed? Did news coming out that the intelligence community had briefed Trump and Obama on the allegations that are out there cause them to jump to the conclusion that the allegations must be real or at least are being perceived as a legitimate threat by the FBI etc etc? Did news that the FBI did indeed receive permission to wiretap some of Trump’s people change things - we already knew they’d ask for warrant back in the summer I think but had been denied - is news that they indeed did eventually get a warrant new? And has someone in the intelligence community leaked info garnered from those taps that seems to lend credence to the allegations? Dunno - and what the hell was Buzzfeed thinking, publishing all the allegations even though they themselves admit they can’t substantiate any of it? The whole ‘whore pissing’ charge has already been revealed to be utterly fake - so kinda looks like Buzzfeed really had a fit of incontinence yesterday that’s really gonna come back to haunt them.
But thirdly, if this story currently has some legs it’s not simply because the MSM dearly wants to destroy Trump - Trump has opened the door to it by the way he keeps talking about Russia and Putin - Putin does not want good relations with America - he may want you to think he does so that he can play you to his advantage, as he’s expertly done to Obama for eight years - but he doesn’t want actual good relations because such would do little for him whereas America the enemy, the nemesis helps him and his kleptocratic oligarchy immensely - and yet Trump keeps talking as if somehow an actual friendly alliance is possible - this is crazy talk - and the more he keeps talking like this the more he lends credence to the idea that he’s Putin’s puppet. I guess one could argue that if you were trying to play Putin this how you might talk - but Trump has been talking this way for a long time - as Jonah Goldberg points out it’s the one Trumpian theme that has not changed at all in the last year and a half - so I don’t see it as credible that it’s part of some grand strategy or scheme that he’s running against Putin.
Nothing about this is good - everyone looks bad and there are red flags fluttering everywhere - American media looks bad, its political culture looks bad, it intelligence community looks bad - and that may be the outcome Putin was looking for - it’s not impossible that all of this was a psyop made to make America look ridiculous, and it’s worked perfectly. Who knows? At this point I don't know if there’s any way this story could turn that would surprise me.
