You know, Bolshie Bob. He's been pushing that line about Obama and Clinton trying to surround and isolate Russia politically (Ukraine's Orange Revolution), economically (Sanctions) and militarily (NATO). When I called him on it he told me I was a capitalist tool and never wanted to talk to me again.
Both these pieces sound like they originated in Russia, written by master KGB-trained propagandists. They are out to torpedo Clinton, and support Russian policy in Syria. Extremely well thought-out and effective (and completely disguised) Kremlin propaganda. The more recent piece invokes the great Liberal bugaboo, McCarthy, to defuse the investigations going on in Congress right now. The other also tries to exploit traditional Liberal suspicions of Israel and their support of the Palestinian cause to cast doubt on the Clinton "hawkishness" in the middle east. The older article was a campaign piece designed to help Trump.
...the Democratic Party’s continued demonization of Russia and implicitly put the Democrats on the side of escalating New Cold War tensions, such as military support for the fiercely anti-Russian regime in Ukraine which seized power in a 2014 U.S.-backed putsch overthrowing elected President Viktor Yanukovych.
"U.S.-backed putsch". Can you imagine Obama and Clinton actually masterminding a coup in order to surround and isolate peace-loving Mother Russia? Can there be any doubt where that originated? Manafort did PR consulting work for Yanukovych. Stone worked for the other side (and Wikileaks, too, by his own admission!). It's likely some of the others had business dealings with the Russians, Tillerson certainly did--big money and oil stuff. They were doing in E Europe exactly what we are accusing the Russians of doing here and in W Europe: manipulating the local politics. Except the Trump gang wasn't working for their country, they were in it for the money. Maybe there wasn't anything treasonous involved, or even illegal, but they sure have been working overtime to cover it up.
These pieces reflect the new agitprop style coming out of Russia, not hard core ideological stuff dripping with Cold War Marxist cliches. It's cleverly aimed at Liberals, designed to instill unease and second thoughts in them by appealing to traditional lefty tropes. Not only do American Liberals start questioning their own side, American Conservatives get to feed their Benghazi Bullshit Great Liberal Conspiracy Paranoia, too!. Great stuff. Subtle.
I don't think there ever was any actual collusion with the Russians on the part of the Trump WH or campaign, I just think they got played for fools by Putin and when that is established to everyone's satisfaction their followers will claim victory and desperately attempt to distract us from the cover-up. They expect we'll be so happy to learn Trump and his gang weren't actually traitors or spies that we'll conveniently forget they were on Putin's payroll, working with the Russians to advance Russian goals--like forgiving them for their Ukraine aggression and lifting those pesky Obama economic sanctions. Yeah, remember the sanctions? Is it all starting to come clear now?
It's a lot like the President's taxes. There's probably nothing in there that's against the law. But just because he's not cheating doesn't mean there isn't a lot of stuff there he doesn't want anyone to see. But that's another story, for another time.