It’s possibly for the same reason Mark imagined a life in a past he never knew, convenient way to avoid the present.
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Everyone who does not fit Putin’s neat story (Russia is eternal, so Russians can do whatever they want) has to be removed, first from the narrative of the past, and then from those counted as human in present. On Putin’s logic, it does not matter what people believe or how people understand their own past. It is he who decides which souls are bound to which other souls. Other views have no place in nature, because they arose from events which (in his story) should never have happened. His view must govern the past, which requires violence in the present: genocide.
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Gorgeous horse! My go-to videos are art restoration videos (Julian Baumgartner’s videos are my happy place) and currently, Cattle Dog videos; I’m hoping to adopt a Cattle Dog in the near future, since my Kelpie/Cattle Dog cross died last summer, and I’m ready for a new dog.
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Thanks. I’ll have a look at it.
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A lot of answers here. But in short, Russia shifted its clandestine manipulation of the American electoral process to favor the GOP after some disappointing rounds with the Clintons.
I am not sure if you’ll be able to view these from a UK IP address, but PBS Frontline has done some excellent in depth telling of this story:
Putin and the Presidents (2023)
Having said that, it was a lukewarm, far from universal within GOP, gradual cozying up before Trump took office. In particular there was still strong anti-Russia leadership among congressional GOP leaders. The strongest have passed away (McCain) or are on the verge of doing so (McConnell). Presidents with a history of serving legislatively or in the State Dept. generally recognize that any shift in favor from one nation to another can destroy the US’ reputation abroad and we may pay a cost years hence. From 1980-2015 the only Republicans to serve as president were Reagan (who had fully supported the blacklisting of Americans accused of associating with communists) and the Bushes (the senior President Bush having served as the 11th director of the CIA). That is to say, all US Presidents prior to Trump saw Russia, including that under Putin, as a significant threat to the West and a superpower that must be kept in check where ever possible.
Trump was not such a President.
It has become pretty clear that Putin has cultivated Trump and spoonfed his fragile ego since long before the 2016 election - an ego which likely triggered Trump to run for office after being humiliated at the annual foreign press awards banquet in which Obama poked fun at Trump for finally conceding that Obama was, in fact, born in the USA. Carefully timed data leaks helped Trump beat Hillary Clinton. I believe Trump knew full well from Putin what Russia already had in hand, as he openly (in an attempt to seem powerful and/or prescient) called specifical on “Russian hackers” to obtain dirt on Clinton and release it - something that then occurred within weeks. It is simply not believable that Russian hackers were standing by waiting on Trump’s orders to do this. Trump had to have been looped in.
It so happened the Wikileaks also had an axe to grind with her and they were the recipients of data breaches.
Later, when Trump as President tried to enlist Zelinsky in a campaign to harass Biden, Zelinsky refused. This seems to have been the beginnings of the GOP and the conservative press going publicly, full bore for Putin. More so after Putin - the partner who has helped the GOP win elections - invaded a nation led by one who did not.
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I’m so very sorry about your pupper 
I hope you and The Right Dog meet up soon.
I’ve watched lotsa resoration videos from the (UK) National Gallery, and American museums. It’s very satisfying seeing the spirit do its work, en-grungifying the giant q-tips, and revealing the artworks’ gorgeousness below the decades/centuries of grunge. I also enjoy the ones in which artworks are scanned, to discover over- and under-painting, and even the chemistry of paints and substances used in their making.
The Fake or Fortune? series can also be quite good. I esp recall the one re: 3 paintings potentially by L. S. Lowry.
Lowry claimed he only ever used five specific types of paint, including flake (lead) white, so when one of the paintings was found to contain zinc white, it raised questions. They examined photographs of Lowry in his studio, and saw used tubes of both zinc and titanium white. 
It also helped that the painting w/zinc white was in a contemporary BBC docco about Lowry and his work!
ETA to return to our regularly scheduled subject,
(both memes created by your humble narrator)
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I LOVE Fake or Fortune! I’m waiting for new episodes! I was particularly amused by the one about the Dutch forger who had been selling his works to the Nazis and was accused of being a collaborator, and had to convince the courts that no, really, he was a forger, and hadn’t been selling national treasures, but had been duping the enemy instead.
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Send a different journalist…
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Send a
differentjournalist…
Fixed that for you.
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oh, i think Philomena Cunk would be the perfect person to interview putin. or carlson, for that matter.
someone needs to make it so. assuring Ms. Cunk’s safety, first. don’t want to lose her.
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h/t @anon48584343
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Alex Jones
Icke or somebody invented a new term “Mainstream Alternative Media”.
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The American right is reactionary, but what you described isn’t reactionaryism (although it is also accurate).
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