Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/02/20/nancy-pelosi-guesses-out-loud-why-donald-trump-keeps-licking-putins-boots-video.html
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Alternatively (and these obviously need not be mutually exclusive), Jon Stewart thinks it has to do with the the new global reality of “wokeness” vs “unwokeness”:
…now, they think the battle is “woke” versus “unwoke”, and in that fight, Putin is an ally to the right – he’s their friend. Unfortunately, he is also a brutal and ruthless dictator, so now they have to make Americans a little more comfortable with that.
That doesn’t really explain Trump though, because Trump doesn’t actually care about that stuff. He’s not ideological, and he’s been obviously beholden to Putin since before he was elected. (Which would also put it before the Republican “war on woke.”) Trump generally loves authoritarians (and covets their power), but his relationship with Putin is more personal.
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Trump has had all manner of very dodgy transactions, and Russia is no exception. I’m going from memory, but weren’t the Trump properties suspected to be a funnel for Russian money laundering? (i.e. overpay a cutout for an overvalued $B condo, the cutout gets ‘clean money’. Throw a kickback to the developer to keep it all ‘legal’).
I suspect that Russia has a comprehensive dossier, complete with endless signed and countersigned receipts. So thorough, detailed and - importantly - accurate that if it ever gets released Trump and everyone connected to him will go to jail for life. Something so comprehensive that his current legal troubles would be a distraction from the main event.
So the only thing he can do is dance to the tune like a bear on a bicycle. Being Trump, that means blustering, bullying and bullshitting as loud as possible for as long as possible.
If you see Jared and Ivanka relocate to Dubai then we’ll know the shit is about to hit the fan.
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My money is still on pee-pee tapes.
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Yes. They were never built, but like everything he does, it was a transparent grift.
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She’s a very smart woman.
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Ketchup-flavored boot polish.
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Putin, “I am 5’ 7”."
Trump, “I am 6’ 3”."
Putin, “Then why are our hands the same size?”
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There was the Florida mansion that T**** bought for $41M and sold a few years later to a Putin cutout for $95M. The property was overvalued by 2x according to local assessment and was “chop shopped” to shell companies by the Russian buyer.
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It was “financial”; financial, okay!!! Get your mind out the gutter!.. oh, er… were you implying the relationship was “financial”…? Ah-hem… 
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That’s because this obvious lie feeds into the MAGA narrative that Trump is so tough that Putin is intimidated by him, whereas Biden is a doddering pushover.
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Sure Trump doesn’t care about woke v unawake, but one of his very few actual skills is judging which of a bunch of (frequently conflicting) messages a crowd responds to and “woke sucks” is something his crowd responds to, even if they (and he) have no real idea what “woke” is (other then “bad”).
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I agree that there are financial shenanigans Trump wants to keep hidden. I also believe there’s another reason for his attitude toward Putin. In his tiny narcissistic mind Donald is convinced that super-powerful, manly Putin respects him, admires him, even sees him as an equal. If DT were to have a live interview with VP, I’m sure Putin would ridicule him publicly as he did Tucker Carlson. The Donald might feel betrayed and get angry (“But he was my friend!”). However I wouldn’t be surprised if afterward Trump, like Carlson, would continue bouncing at Putin’s feet begging for a doggie biscuit.
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…even if they (and he) have no real idea what “woke” is (other then “bad”).
Woke is bad, m’kay?
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Well yeah, he’s playing to that crowd to some degree now (though the thing is, most Republican voters aren’t really into the whole “anti-woke” thing - it’s not really done much for DeSantis, for example), but Trump was bootlicking Putin before it was a thing (for either Trump or even the Republican party).
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What do you think Nancy was going to say before she paused and rephrased?
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If it doesn’t come to light soon, I hope history at least eventually brings out what leverage he had on Trump.
That and Ghislaine Maxwell’s, something that explains his warm regards (“I wish her well”) towards her.
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Kompromat video?
