Yet another example of Fox News covering for Trump and the GOP, and acting more like a cheerleader and ally, than a real news organization. Also, yet more examples of Trump and his lieutenants being in bed with and beholden to Putin. Putin did everything he could to get Trump elected and was hoping for a big payoff for his efforts. Treason was running through the highest levels of the Trump administration, including Trump. Yet, the GOP and their base turned a blind eye to all this so they could have power, control, own the libs and more tax breaks for the obscenely wealthy. They would sell out our entire country to get their way yet strut around like they are real patriots. They are just the opposite, they are treasonous and adversaries of our democracy!

Trump Said He Might Have Let Russia “Take Over” Parts of Ukraine. Fox News Edited It Out. – Mother Jones https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/03/trump-ukraine-hannity-fox-news-russia-take-over/

#GOPHatesDemocracy
#GOPLovesPower
#GOPInBedWithPutin
#TrumpWasPutinsBitch

"Last week, Donald Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that he could have stopped the invasion of Ukraine by allowing Russia to “take over” parts of the country.

“I could have negotiated. I could’ve made a deal to take over something,” Trump said in a radio interview Monday. “There are certain areas that are Russian-speaking areas, frankly, but you could’ve worked a deal.” The Daily Beast reported last week that Hannity left those newsworthy remarks out of excerpts of the interview that he played that night on his primetime show.

What seems most notable here is that Trump is explicitly saying he might have given Russian president Vladimir Putin something the leader has sought since 2016.

The deal Trump said he could’ve “worked” sounds a lot like the “peace plan” that Konstantin Kilimnik, who the Senate Intelligence Committee described as a “Russian intelligence officer,” pressed on Paul Manafort, then Trump’s campaign chief, in a secret meeting in August 2016 at a New York City cigar bar. The two men continued to discuss the plan until 2018, according to Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Manafort famously gave Kilimnik some of the Trump campaign’s polling data to pass on to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who was known to be close to Putin. What gets less attention is what else happened in the same meeting. Kilimnik also asked Manafort to seek Trump’s support for a plan to end fighting between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists, along lines highly favorable to Russia. The idea was to create an autonomous republic in Ukraine’s east, giving the Kremlin sway over a valuable industrial area, along with continued control of Crimea, which Russian troops seized in 2014. Kilmnik later said in an email to Manafort that the plan needed only “a very minor ‘wink’ (or slight push)” from Trump if he won in 2016.

Remember: Russia was helping Trump through its hack and leak of Democratic emails. (Kilimnik himself “may have been connected to the hack and leak operation targeting the 2016 U.S. election,” the Senate Intelligence Committee report said.) The Trump campaign—both Mueller‘s investigation and the Senate’s found—worked to capitalize on Russia’s leaks. That makes Trump’s comments especially interesting. Andrew Weissmann, a Mueller deputy who prosecuted Manafort, later wrote that the plan for an autonomous republic outlined to Manfort by Kilimnik was the “quo” Putin wanted for the “quid” of assisting Trump against Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton..."

Our Greatest Presidential Scandal: Spies, Money, Media, Trump. How Our Enemy Swindled Us. - YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4nyFMBu3JA&t=1016s

The unbelievable history of the KGB cultivating Trump, Trump cultivating the FBI, and helping. TRUMP win the 2016 election.

#GOPInBedWithPutin
#TrumpIsPutinsTool

Fox's abuse of its viewers, our democracy and journalism in general, has gone on long enough. Since our government has proven impotent at defending our democracy against Fox News' attacks, at least have these lawsuits stepping up to chop Fox down to size. Murdoch has damaged democracy in Australia, the U.K. and now America. There has to be a price for profiting off destroying democracy and our country. Putin couldn't have asked for a better ally in his war to destroy our liberal democracy and their has to be accountability for Murdoch's actions!

Dominion filings show Fox board members knew they were betraying their obligations. Legal action against the board is already underway. | Media Matters for America https://www.mediamatters.org/rupert-murdoch/dominion-filings-show-fox-board-members-knew-they-were-betraying-their-obligations

#FoxLies
#GOPLies
#FoxInBedWithPutin
#GOPInBedWithPutin
#Journalism
#FoxNews

"Recent filings in Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox Corp. reveal the extent to which Fox’s executives and board members knew that Fox News and Fox Business were spreading lies about voter and election fraud in 2020. Since October 2022, at least eight law firms have begun seeking plaintiffs for suits against Fox’s board of directors for breach of their fiduciary duties, with several of the notices for plaintiffs noting the revelations from the Dominion lawsuit as well as the ongoing $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit by Smartmatic, another election technology company attacked by Fox.

In March 2021, Dominion filed a defamation suit against Fox for the false claims the network pushed after the election suggesting Dominion machines supposedly changed or deleted votes to sway the election in President Joe Biden’s favor. The most recent filings to become public in that lawsuit detailed how members of Fox Corp.’s board of directors understood that the network was damaging the brand and the bottom line for Fox’s core business.

As Yale Professor Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld explained to CNN’s Oliver Darcy:

The filings, he said, showed members of the Fox Corp board had failed to act to prevent misconduct by Fox executives, and warned the disclosures will result in “likely” shareholder lawsuits, a possible SEC investigation into “deceptive practices of the board for conspiring to conceal known misconduct with material adverse impact,” and the potential loss of insurance protection for the company’s directors and officers.

Notably, the most recent filing states that Fox Chief Legal and Policy Officer Viet Dinh — who is “the highest-ranking lawyer in the entire corporate structure” — admitted during his testimony that Fox executives had a duty to “prevent and correct known falsehoods.”

Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch knew that well. After watching former President Donald Trump’s campaign lawyers Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani push voter fraud lies at a press conference, Murdoch told Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott, “Terrible stuff damaging everybody, I fear. Probably hurting us too.” Murdoch confirmed “us” meant “Fox News.”

The Specter of 2016 - McGonigal, Trump, and the Truth about America by Timothy Snyder https://snyder.substack.com/p/the-specter-of-2016

#GOPInBedWithPutin
#TrumpInBedWithPutin
#PutinStole2016ForTrump

"We are on the edge of a spy scandal with major implications for how we understand the Trump administration, our national security, and ourselves.

On 23 January, we learned that a former FBI special agent, Charles McGonigal, was arrested on charges involving taking money to serve foreign interests. One accusation is that in 2017 he took $225,000 from a foreign actor while in charge of counterintelligence at the FBI's New York office. Another charge is that McGonigal took money from Oleg Deripaska, a sanctioned Russian oligarch, after McGonigal’s 2018 retirement from the FBI. Deripaska, a hugely wealthy metals tycoon close to the Kremlin, "Putin's favorite industrialist," was a figure in a Russian influence operation that McGonigal had investigated in 2016. Deripaska has been under American sanctions since 2018. Deripaska is also the former employer, and the creditor, of Trump's 2016 campaign manager, Paul Manafort.

The reporting on this so far seems to miss the larger implications. One of them is that Trump’s historical position looks far cloudier. In 2016, Trump's campaign manager (Manafort) was a former employee of a Russian oligarch (Deripaska), and owed money to that same Russian oligarch. And the FBI special agent (McGonigal) who was charged with investigating the Trump campaign's Russian connections then went to work (according to the indictment) for that very same Russian oligarch (Deripaska). This is obviously very bad for Trump personally. But it is also very bad for FBI New York, for the FBI generally, and for the United States of America.

Another is that we must revisit the Russian influence operation on Trump’s behalf in 2016, and the strangely weak American response. Moscow’s goal was to move minds and institutions such that Hillary Clinton would lose and Donald Trump would win. We might like to think that any FBI special agent would resist, oppose, or at least be immune to such an operation. Now we are reliably informed that a trusted FBI actor, one who was responsible for dealing with just this sort of operation, was corrupt. And again, the issue is not just the particular person. If someone as important as McGonigal could take money from foreigners while on the job at FBI New York, and then go to work for a sanctioned Russian oligarch he was once investigating, what is at stake, at a bare minimum, is the culture of the FBI's New York office. The larger issue is the health of our national discussions of politics and the integrity of our election process.

For me personally, McGonigal's arrest brought back an unsettling memory. In 2016, McGonigal was in charge of cyber counter-intelligence for the FBI, and was put in charge of counterintelligence at the FBI's New York office. That April, I broke the story of the connection between Trump's campaign and Putin's regime, on the basis of Russian open sources. At the time, almost no one wanted to take this connection seriously. American journalists wanted an American source, but the people who had experienced similar Russian operations were in Russia, Ukraine, or Estonia. Too few people took Trump seriously; too few people took Russia seriously; too few people took cyber seriously; the Venn diagram overlap of people who took all three seriously felt very small. Yet there was also specific, nagging worry that my own country was not only unprepared, but something worse. After I wrote that piece and another, I heard intimations that something was odd about the FBI office in New York. This was no secret at the time. One did not need to be close to such matters to get that drift. And given that FBI New York was the office dealing with cyber counterintelligence, this was worrying

The reason I was thinking about Trump and Putin back in 2016 was a pattern that I had noticed in eastern Europe, which is my area of expertise. Between 2010 and 2013, Russia sought to control Ukraine using the same methods which were on display in 2016 in its influence operation in the United States: social media, money, and a pliable candidate for head of state. When that failed, Russia had invaded Ukraine, under the cover of some very successful influence operations...The success of that propaganda encouraged Russia to intervene in the United States, using the same methods and institutions. This is what I was working on in 2016, when a similar operation was clearly underway in the United States..." There is much more to this article, click through to read more!

Part 2
The GOP is so dirty!! They have colluded with Russia to steal elections and destroy our democracy--neither Putin or the GOP have any use for democracy. They've created unwarranted investigations, as the House GOP is about to start more, they've weaponized the Justice Dept. even as they falsely claim that Democrats did that, they worked with a high-ranking Justice Dept. official, who just so happened to be on Putin's payroll, to "steal" the 2016 election from Hillary, and they all worked together to steal the 2020 election. They are guilty of treason among other heinous crimes against our country and democracy! They don't care about governing or helping our country, they only care about seizing power anyway possible and lavishing tax cuts and gutting regulations on their donors/benefactors. When is their base going to wake up to how shamelessly they have been manipulated and used to destroy our country and democracy!

Opinion | Barr is the one who outrageously politicized the Justice Department - The Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/01/30/justice-department-barr-dunham/

#GOPLies
#GOPInBedWithTheRich
#GOPInBedWithPutin
#GOPHatesDemocracy
#GreedKillsDemocracy
#GOPGreedy

"...Joyce White Vance concurred:

"Three responses are warranted, although sadly none is likely to hold Barr accountable.

Jaw dropping reporting. Lots here including an explanation of why Durham's colleague resigned: under pressure from Barr to release an "interim" report damaging Clinton & the FBI as the election drew near, Durham had a draft prepared that wasn't factual."

First and foremost, Attorney General Merrick Garland should have the spine to remove Durham for gross misconduct. Moreover, any report issued should remove the names of those exonerated in court or who were never charged. They are victims of a political smear, which Garland should not enable by allowing baseless allegations to circulate publicly. Don’t hold your breath, however. Garland has shown little willingness to revisit the department’s conduct in the prior administration. (As an alternative, the inspector general could investigate Barr and Durham.)

Frankly, Garland erred in never conducting a top-to-bottom review of politicization during the Trump era (including Barr’s politicization of sentencing recommendations and the department’s misrepresentations in the U.S. Census case). Instead of prioritizing the department’s outside reputation over the need to remove the stench of corruption, Garland should have gotten to the bottom of the Barr/Durham debacle long ago. (At the very least, it would have preempted the false MAGA narrative that Democrats have been the ones engaged in misconduct).

Second, Barr and Durham should face disciplinary action just as coup architect John Eastman (coincidentally on Thursday) was charged with 11 counts by the California state bar for “violating a variety of attorney ethics rules in multiple episodes, court cases and other conduct,” as CNN put it. Unless and until attorneys such as Barr and Durham face accountability, the threat of professional disgrace and the loss of their law license, other lawyers will be tempted to engage in such shenanigans.However, Eastman, Jeffrey Clark (facing bar proceedings) and Rudy Giuliani (suspended from practice in New York) have sadly been the exception to the rule of sloth and passivity from state bars. Scores of attorneys who signed onto frivolous lawsuits after the 2020 and 2022 elections (including challenging Kari Lake’s defeat in Arizona) have yet to face any penalty.

The list of attorneys who participated in the effort to overturn the 2020 election but as yet have faced no consequences (Kenneth Chesebro, Cleta Mitchell) is far too long. (And none of the members of Congress who signed onto the utterly baseless Supreme Court brief seeking to disenfranchise millions of Americans has been taken to task.) State bars need to do their job to restore integrity to the legal profession.

Finally, Congress should be investigating Barr and Durham’s gross misconduct. You can be sure, however, that MAGA Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee and the “weaponization of government” select subcommittee won’t be interested.

Two options remain, however. Senate Democrats can take up the matter, hold public hearings and demand answers from Garland as to why he has not cleaned house already. In addition, Democrats on the weaponization subcommittee should press at every hearing to investigate this matter and, when Republican witnesses are called, demand they respond to the facts regarding Barr and Durham.
...
In sum, just as Garland seeks to hold accountable political leaders who threatened our democracy, he must hold his own department lawyers’ responsible for misconduct. If not, an inspector general, state bars and congressional Democrats should do the job.""

Part 1
The GOP is so dirty!! They have colluded with Russia to steal elections and destroy our democracy--neither Putin or the GOP have any use for democracy. They've created unwarranted investigations, as the House GOP is about to start more, they've weaponized the Justice Dept. even as they falsely claim that Democrats did that, they worked with a high-ranking Justice Dept. official, who just so happened to be on Putin's payroll, to "steal" the 2016 election from Hillary, and they all worked together to steal the 2020 election. They are guilty of treason among other heinous crimes against our country and democracy! They don't care about governing or helping our country, they only care about seizing power anyway possible and lavishing tax cuts and gutting regulations on their donors/benefactors. When is their base going to wake up to how shamelessly they have been manipulated and used to destroy our country and democracy!

Opinion | Barr is the one who outrageously politicized the Justice Department - The Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/01/30/justice-department-barr-dunham/

#GOPLies
#GOPInBedWithTheRich
#GOPInBedWithPutin
#GOPHatesDemocracy
#GreedKillsDemocracy
#GOPGreedy

"House Republicans are right that politicization of the Justice Department has been a jaw-dropping abuse of power. They’ve got the wrong culprit, however. As a blockbuster New York Times article made clear, then-Attorney General William P. Barr and special counsel John H. Durham engaged in unethical, abusive manipulation of the Justice Department in pursing the baseless conspiracy theory that the intelligence community had conducted a witch hunt of then-President Donald Trump in connection with Russian manipulation of the 2016 election.

The Times reported that “the main thrust of the Durham inquiry was marked by some of the very same flaws — including a strained justification for opening it and its role in fueling partisan conspiracy theories that would never be charged in court — that Trump allies claim characterized the Russia investigation.” Durham brought two baseless cases, both resulting in acquittal. When Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s thorough investigation debunked their entire theory, Barr tried to pressure him to keep it under wraps. Then, as he did with the Robert S. Mueller III report, Barr publicly mischaracterized and trashed the report.

Durham also used a grand jury to pry into the record of major Democratic donor George Soros. Moreover, while supposedly operating independently, he met frequently with his pal Barr, in violation of the basic precept that a special counsel must operate with a high degree of independence. (From the Times article: “Mr. Durham visited Mr. Barr in his office for at times weekly updates and consultations about his day-to-day work. They also sometimes dined and sipped Scotch together.”)

Worst of all:

Mr. Barr and Mr. Durham never disclosed that their inquiry expanded in the fall of 2019, based on a tip from Italian officials, to include a criminal investigation into suspicious financial dealings related to Mr. Trump. The specifics of the tip and how they handled the investigation remain unclear, but Mr. Durham brought no charges over it.
Their conduct was so egregious that several career prosecutors quit rather than participate in (to borrow a phrase) the witch hunt. In the end, Barr conceded there was no there there — but only after the 2020 election.

Former prosecutors reacting to the Times report were outraged. Andrew Weissmann tweeted, “This is all about the Trump weaponization of the DOJ — but we know that the House Rs won’t give a damn about it.” ...

The GOP, the Rich and corporations want power. They couldn't care less about democracy or American sovereignty. An oligarchy looks just fine to them. Putin would love to have them working

Russiagate: The Opposite of a Hoax
https://politicususa.substack.com/p/russiagate-the-opposite-of-a-hoax#details

#GOPHatesDemocracy
#GOPLovesPower
#IlliberalDemocracy
#TheRichRWannabeOligarchs
#GOPInBedWithPutin
#GOPInBedWithRich
#GreedKillsDemocracy

"Now Timothy Snyder*, a Yale professor...put the Russia story in badly needed context

*Full thread by Snyder:

In April 2016, I broke the story of Trump and Putin, using Russian open sources. Afterwards, I heard vague intimations that something was awry in the FBI in New York, specifically counter-intelligence and cyber. We now have a suggestion as to why.

The person who led the relevant section, Charles McGonigal, has just been charged with taking money from the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. Follow this thread to see just how this connects to the victory of Trump, the Russian war in Ukraine, and U.S. national security.

The reason I was thinking about Trump & Putin in 2016 was a pattern. Russia had sought to control Ukraine, using social media, money, & a pliable head of state. Russia backed Trump the way that it had backed Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, in the hopes of soft control 2/20

Trump & Yanukovych were similar figures: interested in money, & in power to make or shield money. And therefore vulnerable partners for Putin. They also shared a political advisor: Paul Manafort. He worked for Yanukovych from 2005-2015, taking over Trump's campaign in 2016.

You might remember Manafort's ties to Russia from 2016. He (and Jared Kushner, and Donald Trump, Jr.) met with Russians in June 2016 in Trump Tower as part of, as the broker of the meeting called it, "the Russian government's support for Trump"

Manafort had to resign as Trump's campaign manager in August 2016 when news broke that he had received $12.7 million in cash from Yanukovych. But these details are just minor elements of Manafort's dependence on Russia.

Manafort worked for Deripaska, the same Russian oligarch to whom McGonigal is linked, between 2006 and 2009. Manafort's assignment was to soften up the U.S for Russian influence. He promised "a model that can greatly benefit the Putin government."

While Manafort worked for Trump in 2016, though, Manafort's dependence on Russia was deeper. He owed Deripaska money, not a position one would want to be in. Manafort offered Deripaska "private briefings" on the campaign. He was hoping "to get whole."

Reconsider how the FBI treated the Trump-Putin connection in 2016. Trump and other Republicans screamed that the FBI had overreached. In retrospect, it seems the exact opposite took place. The issue of Russian influence was framed in a way convenient for Russia and Trump.
...
It is entirely inconceivable that McGonigal was unaware of Russia's 2016 cyber influence campaign on behalf of Trump. Even I was aware of it, and I had no expertise. It became one of the subjects of my book
...
I had no personal connection to this, but will just repeat what informed people said at the time: this sort of thing was supposed to go through the FBI counter-intelligence section in New York, where tips went to die. That is where McGonigal was in charge.

The cyber element is what McGonigal should have been making everyone aware of in 2016. In 2016, McGonigal was chief of the FBI's Cyber-Counterintelligence Coordination Section. That October, he was put in charge of the Counterintelligence Division of the FBI's NY office.

We need to understand why the FBI failed in 2016 to address the essence of an ongoing Russian influence operation. The character of that operation suggests that it would have been the responsibility of an FBI section whose head is now accused of taking Russian money.

Right after the McGonigal story broke, Kevin McCarthy ejected Adam Schiff from the House intelligence committee. Schiff is expert on Russian influence operations. It exhibits carelessness about national security to exclude him. It is downright suspicious to exclude him now. 16/20

Back in June 2016, Kevin McCarthy expressed his suspicion that Donald Trump was under Putin's influence. He and other Republican members concluded that the risk of an embarrassment to their party was more important than American security.

The Russian influence operation to get Trump elected was real. It serves no one to pretend otherwise. We are still learning about it. Denying that it happened makes the United States vulnerable to ongoing Russian operations.
...
The McGonigal question goes even beyond these issues. He had authority in the most sensitive possible investigations within U.S. intelligence. Sorting this out will require a concern for the United States that goes beyond party loyalty."

The GOP, the obscenely wealthy and large corporations want power. They couldn't care less about democracy or American sovereignty. An oligarchy looks just fine to them. Putin would love to have them working with him to erode liberal democracies in the world so there is no one to stand up to his corruption and tyranny. They see what Putin has and they start drooling.

Russiagate: The Opposite of a Hoax
Don’t be gaslit anymore. Russia is a danger to western democracy. They’ve been working hard to undermine the U.S..
https://politicususa.substack.com/p/russiagate-the-opposite-of-a-hoax#details

#GOPHatesDemocracy
#GOPLovesPower
#IlliberalDemocracy
#TheRichRWannabeOligarchs
#GOPInBedWithPutin
#GOPInBedWithRich

“That rather astonishing discovery of the former FBI chief who seemingly betrayed his country to Russia didn’t happen in a vacuum, though. Globally, this story is quite frankly disconcerting. In the past week, there was a shocking accusation by a whistleblower that MI5 refused to investigate a Russian spy's “infiltration” of the conservative Tory party in Britain, news that "a vast cache of hacked emails shows that, under the leadership of Rishi Sunak, the UK Treasury issued special licenses in 2021 to let the oligarch override sanctions and launch an aggressive legal campaign against a journalist in the London courts." “The UK government helped the boss of Russia’s murderous mercenary army to circumvent its own sanctions and launch a targeted legal attack on a British journalist, openDemocracy can reveal.” Rishi Sunak has been the conservative Prime Minister since October, 2022 when the head of lettuce lasted longer than Liz Truss. He previously held two cabinet positions under conservative Boris Johnson.  Also, the European Court of Human Rights is demanding a response from the British government over a legal claim by opponents accusing it of failing to investigate alleged Russian interference in elections and referendums like Brexit. The thread between all of these stories is Russians-to-conservatives. Now Timothy Snyder*, a Yale professor whose course on Ukraine I am watching on YouTube and highly recommend, put the Russia story in badly needed context (full thread in next toot).

...Don’t be gaslit anymore.

Russia is a danger to western democracy. They’ve been working hard to undermine the United States of America, and Republicans, from leadership on down, have been willing to help them. Those who might be doing so unwittingly certainly have had every opportunity to know better. Those who have simply remained silent are also now complicit.

In 2019, a Senate investigation determined: “The congressional probe into the National Rifle Association’s relationship with Russia shows a U.S. tax-exempt organization working as a conduit to provide Russian officials access to Republicans with the quid pro quo of ‘lucrative personal business opportunities.’”

I pointed out then, “Looking for that quid pro quo Republicans claim doesn’t exist? Here it is, but with the Russians and elected officials of the NRA variety.”

Since then, Russia has spent millions spreading anti-vax conspiracies just to harm small d democracy, including paying influencers to lie and fear-monger about the vaccines.

Republicans and conservative activists mock journalists who bring up Russia because they want to shut down the discussion. But this discussion needs to be had. We all need a government that actually puts “America first” –- but the Republican Party is not currently on board with that most basic and primitive premise of patriotism."

Part 2
There is something very disturbing about these freedom caucus members' support for Putin, attempts to destroy democracy, social security and whole agencies and their funding by Peter Theil and Koch.

"Is this all a continuation of Trump’s January 6th coup attempt and his desire to convert America from a democracy into a despotic strongman-rule nation aligned with Russia?"

Is the Anti-McCarthy Crowd in the Bag for the Billionaires, Putin, or Both? https://hartmannreport.com/p/is-the-anti-mccarthy-crowd-in-the

#GOPTreason
#GOPHatesDemocracy
#GOPInBedWithRich
#PutinHatesDemocracy
#GOPInBedWithPutin
#GOPOligarchPuppets
#WantTheirSerfsBack

“It's becoming clear now: This is January 6th, Episode II. The Freedom Caucus is demanding debt default, which will spark a ~$15T global financial crisis. COVID was ~$4T. This will only help Putin and his BRICS+/GGC allies.”

Skeptical but curious, I plugged the names of each of the 20 Republicans who voted against McCarthy in the first vote yesterday into a search engine along with the word “Russia.” Here’s what I found about 15 of them:

Andy Biggs voted against legislation to document Russian war crimes in Ukraine, as did Paul Gosar and Scott Perry.

Matt Gaetz, Dan Bishop, Paul Gosar, Ralph Norman, and Scott Perry all voted against suspending normal trade relations with Russia and Belarus.

Dan Bishop, Matt Gaetz, Andy Biggs, Paul Gosar, and Chip Roy all voted against a bill to ban imports of Russian oil and gas.

Those four also voted against legislation to strip Russia from “most favored nation status” by the World Trade Organization.

Paul Gosar and Matt Rosendale both voted against a resolution that reaffirmed US support for Ukrainian sovereignty.

John Brecheen is new to Congress, but when asked by his local newspaper about whether America should support Ukraine against the Russian invasion he replied, “My position is I would not have voted for funding of war.”

Michael Cloud tweeted: “The Biden Admin has ignored a year-long invasion at our southern border but is considering risking the lives of U.S. soldiers to protect Ukraine's border? Ukraine is thousands of miles away.”

Voting against Sweden and Finland joining NATO, a pet Putin peeve, were Michael Cloud, Andy Biggs, Dan Bishop, Lauren Boebert, Matt Gaetz, Bob Good, Ralph Norman, and Chip Roy.

Eli Crane says of the US supporting Ukraine, “This is a war we shouldn’t be involved in,” and it will make the Afghanistan exit “look like child’s play.”

Matt Gaetz tweeted: “Today the House didn't organize. Biggest loser: Zelensky. Biggest winner: U.S. Taxpayers.” He also tweeted: “I’m more concerned with the US-Mexico border than the Russia-Ukraine border. Not sorry.”

Opposing US aid to Ukraine, Matt Gaetz told a CPAC audience: “Why should Americans have to pay the costs for freedom elsewhere when our own leaders won't stand up for our freedom here?”

Paul Gosar tweeted: “Ukraine is not our ally. Russia is not our enemy. We need to address our crippling debt, inflation and immigration problems. None of this is Putin's fault.”

Paul Gosar wrote an open letter to the White House asking President Biden to “refrain from participating in its annually recurring nuclear exercise ‘Steadfast Noon’ in conjunction with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to ‘prevent further escalation.’”

Paul Gosar tweeted: “Putin puts Russia first as he should.”

Mary Miller, Bob Good, Ralph Norman, Andy Biggs, and Matt Gaetz co-sponsored legislation to forbid any further delivery of military equipment to Ukraine.
...
Ralph Norman, who called for Trump to impose “Marshall law” to prevent Biden from being sworn in, first issued a statement on day one of the invasion of Ukraine condemning Russia but then voted “No” on US aid to Ukraine in September and continues to oppose such aid.
...
Matt Rosendale issued a statement saying: “The United States has no legal or moral obligation to come to the aid of either side in this foreign conflict.” He voted against a resolution “supporting the people of Ukraine.” He also introduced legislation blocking any US aid to Ukraine.

Byron Donalds voted against US aid to Ukraine.
...
While none of this proves that the anti-McCarthy forces are getting their marching orders from Putin, it does raise some significant questions about their commitment to the continuation of the current form and nature of our government. I think Dave Troy’s idea is worth taking seriously.

Because the outcome he contemplates is something both the rightwing billionaires and Putin could get behind."

Part 1
There is something very disturbing about these freedom caucus members' support for Putin, attempts to destroy democracy, social security and whole agencies and their funding by Peter Theil and Koch.

"Is this all a continuation of Trump’s January 6th coup attempt and his desire to convert America from a democracy into a despotic strongman-rule nation aligned with Russia?"

Is the Anti-McCarthy Crowd in the Bag for the Billionaires, Putin, or Both? https://hartmannreport.com/p/is-the-anti-mccarthy-crowd-in-the

#GOPTreason
#GOPHatesDemocracy
#GOPInBedWithRich
#PutinHatesDemocracy
#GOPInBedWithPutin
#GOPOligarchPuppets
#WantTheirSerfsBack

"Amazingly, it’s the second anniversary of January 6th and we’re still talking about an ongoing attempt to sabotage the American government.

Yesterday, I argued that the Freedom Caucus members and their handful of compatriots voting against Kevin McCarthy for Speaker of the House may have been doing so because the rightwing billionaires who back them want to roll back FDR’s “big government” in America.

Now comes investigative journalist Dave Troy noting that America’s rightwing billionaires aren’t the only ones who want the US government to fail. So does Vladimir Putin.

And most of those voting against McCarthy not only appear to be in the bag for the billionaires but for Putin as well.
...
“Putin and others in his milieu well-remember what Russia defaulting on its debt was like in 1998. Now it seems they feel like it's payback time, as many of them feel that default was something engineered by the US between 1989-1998.”

There’s absolutely no doubt that a default by the United States would cripple our economy and lead to a crisis not seen since the Republican Great Depression.

CBS News reports that Moody’s Analytics’ Chief Economist Mark Zandi says it would nearly instantly wipe out as many as 6 million jobs and destroy $15 trillion in household wealth. Unemployment would rapidly spike to at least 9 percent and the stock market would fall by a third.

But is it possible that’s actually the goal of the anti-McCarthy crowd? And, if so, why or on whose behalf?
...
Back in 2011, the last time Republicans played chicken with our national debt by refusing to raise the debt ceiling, our nation’s credit was downgraded, leading to higher borrowing costs and economic weakness that continued into the 2012 election year, badly (but not fatally) damaging Democrats and Obama’s re-election chances.

Had Republicans not blinked at the last minute and given in to lifting the debt ceiling so the Treasury could pay bills run up by Congress years before, we would have defaulted and the shattering consequences would still be felt today. It’s hard to overstate how much damage it would have done to America, American businesses, and American families.

But are the Republicans fighting against McCarthy really planning a repeat of blocking the debt ceiling only, this time, actually destroying our nation’s creditworthiness? Could they be that psychopathic?

And, if so, are they doing it because their billionaire sponsors think we should shut down most government agencies that support the middle class and the poor, or because Putin is supporting such an effort?

Or both?

Ryan Grim reported Wednesday in The Intercept that when insurrectionist Congressman Ralph Norman was asked if he and his colleagues actually intended to force McCarthy (or any other Speaker) to “shut down the government rather than raise the debt ceiling,” Norman replied:

“That’s a non-negotiable item.”

When asked if he was talking about shutting down the government or actually defaulting on the debt, Norman said:

“That’s why you need to be planning now what agencies — what path you’re gonna take now to trim government. Tell the programs you’re going to get to this number. And you do that before chairs are picked.”

Norman was explaining that if Biden and Congress don’t agree to kill off the federal agencies he and his buddies don’t like — HHS? FBI? EPA? SEC? FEC? — they will destroy America’s full faith and credit in the eyes of the world this summer when we hit the debt ceiling.

Troy argues this is all a continuation of Trump’s January 6th coup attempt and his desire to convert America from a democracy and ally of democracies around the world into a despotic strongman-rule nation aligned with Putin’s Russia:"