Hillary was a strong proponent of sanctions against Russia, and willing to stand up to Putin. She would be formidable.

Trump has demonstrated weakness towards Russia, and kowtows to them so he can get money to cover his debts,

Or sell more condos to looters?

I read a few years ago that they had their eyes on various weak puppets and Trump emerged as the strongest (weakest?) of them. And that they had no specific policy goals other than to sew chaos and weaken the West. In this they have certainly succeeded.

The way they stir up politics through targeted trolling suggests Trump would probably be the easiest to keep that ball rolling. Seems to be working.

I’m not sure the Russians wanted Trump, as much as they didn’t want Hillary.

I wanted to see what happens when a billionaire with zero political experience is added to the mix of politics,. Ever since Romney tried to run for president. Maybe the Russians where curious too.

Just saying. Not all reasons have to be Deep Throat, Cloak and Dagger , Game of Thrones stuff. Could just be that the Russian’s are curious about how a Donald Trump presidency would affect/effect on the world. Russian’s are people too.

trump had been doing business with the Russians before he ran in 2016 & Putin was better at the art of the deal than trump. Putin already had him p-whipped, knew that he was an idiot, & knew that he had him under his control. Who better to have as US president than a man who is willing to defend your every move & does your bidding with NO questions asked??? Seems like a NO brainer to me!!!

The Russians prefer Trump because he is a chump and they know how to deal with idiots like him.

I think the question starts with a bogus assumption. It assumes the Russians worked “ardently” against Hillary and for Trump. All they really did for sure was take out some ads on social media. That doesn’t meet the definition of “working ardently” to me. Ardently implies strong emotions involved with the effort. The ads on social media didn’t rise to that level to pretty much anyone. I challenge the OP to show me one of those ads or tell me how it swayed millions of voters away from Hillary. I suspect anything Russia did was done from the perspective of seeing what they could do, not that they wanted any particular result. I suspect we have done similar things in Russia as well as other countries.

Here’s the ASSUMPTION Russia and Trump have worked together for YEARS !
VALID

About half the Steele dossier, paid for by Hillary, comes from sources close to the Kremlin. Yes, I know Christopher Steele is the go-between, but I don’t think the Kremlin would have given this propaganda to Hillary to smear Trump if there wasn’t some sort of definite alliance.

Trump has been tougher on Russia than any President since Reagan—and Obama / Hillary with their Russian Reset deal one of the friendliest.

Obama and Hillary favor regimes like Cuba, Syria, Iran, which Trump has worked against and for Israel. Obama opposed the Keystone Pipeline and Fracking—Trump stood for energy independence. Even in their campaigns there is no logic to the premise,

@Yellowdog Your point is . . . ?

the premise isn’t logical.

The phone call Trump made TO a couple a Fridays ago to Putin was rolling his and panting, do you think Trump was creaming in his Jeans ? ?

TRUMP has borrowed money from Russia for years
”the premise isn’t logical.” shows you don’t want to and just cannot understand he is a thug from 40 years ago and today !

@Yellowdog “Trump has been tougher on Russia than any President since Reagan”

Ahahahaha! Good joke.

“Obama opposed the Keystone Pipeline and Fracking—Trump stood for energy independence.”

Oil from Canada ran through the US to be transported off and sold overseas at the profit of a Canadian corporation. How, exactly, does that help energy independence for the United States?

To create chaos in the West.

Trump questioned the need for NATO and suggested that some members were not worth defending. What more could Putin want?

How many of you believe that Russia didn’t work against Hillary, or merely dabbled in an effort to ensconce the fool?

@filmfann does that mean that questions like this support Russia’s efforts?

I see no actual efforts of Russia to support Trump. In fact, your BELIEF that there is some connection, may be a part of Russian disinformation and programming.

Hillary and Obama/Biden have dubious relations to Russia and Putin that at least go back to the sale of Uranium One. There is a lot more actually THERE that you might want to look at, rather than some of your own deceptions about Trump. You keep saying that Russia helped Trump win the election, over and over ad nauseum as if you say it enough it will be believed. But factually, it is not there.

Wasn’t the definitive conclusion of Mueller’s report that Russian interference in the 2016 election was extensive and intense? Wasn’t that conclusion reached by EVERY INTELLIGENCE AGENCY IN THE FREE WORLD. Isn’t the consensus UNANIMOUS that the Russians worked to enthrone the fool and disparage Hillary?

The attempts to interfere with the election is nothing special. Russia tries to interfere everywhere in American politics.

I don’t doubt for an instant that we have done such things. In fact, I insist that we have. But the Russians would be fools not to exploit so cheap and handy a method to mess us up. My question is why Trump? To which the answer pretty much speaks (lies) for itself.

@seawulf575 @Yellowdog can either of you provide a statement from a credible source that the Russians did not exert great effort to enhance Trump’s efforts and torpedo Clinton’s?

@stanleybmanly that is a typical liberal tactic….try to prove a non-existent thing. I have stated numerous times that in my opinion their efforts were weak and didn’t seem to be focused at entirely interfering in our election. Here’s a challenge for you….can you provide a statement from a credible source (read that as not a left wing nut job website or CNN which is sort of the same thing) that the DID put forth great effort? In my mind, taking out some social media ads isn’t great effort. And more specifically, as your original question put it, it wasn’t ardent effort.
And no, the conclusion of the Mueller investigation was not that the Russian efforts were extensive and intense. The terms used were sweeping and systematic. Most of the efforts actually started in 2014 and 2015. But that was all basically social media ads. Again…that seems pretty weak for effort. I suspect their cyber warfare folks could do much, much worse as could ours, if we chose to interfere in some other country’s elections.
I still don’t acknowledge the hacking of the DNC computers as being a Russian effort. The only evidence of that conclusion comes from a private company that was hired by the DNC to do the investigation. The FBI and other intelligence agencies were specifically denied the opportunity to do the investigation. And then the hardware was destroyed so no one could do any other analysis. That amounts to destroying evidence so that only your story will be viewed. If a foreign government is conducting what amounts to cyber warfare on our country, the proper investigators would be the FBI or the NSA. Of course no one wants to bring that up because, well, it would look bad for the DNC.
So here’s your question: can you show any credible source that will show how much the Russians swayed the election?

They thought he would be more a pragmatist and less an ideologue. And in that regard they are correct.

@seawulf575 Does sweeping and systematic translate in Russian to “weak and unfocused” in Russian or any other language in “your opinion”?

If so, what is your opinion worth?

What is my opinion worth? About the same as yours.

@seawulf575 Your opinion seems to be paid for by “Putin’s Chef” !

@Tropical_Willie aren’t you closer to Russia than me? I’m right wing…I’m not espousing socialism…you are. Doesn’t that make you much more likely to be working for Russia? Besides, if Russia was seeking to stir turmoil in our nation, isn’t it the Dems and the left that are stirring all the turmoil? It isn’t the Repubs or the right. So aren’t you doing Putin’s work?

You sir are must closer to dictatorship and the use of death squads (and Putin’s Chef is trying to destabilize the USA and and well; we have a destabilized President you love).

@seawulf575 Your opinion is a carbon copy of your employers. And please don’t pretend that you believe Russia a land of leftist ideology in 2019. Even YOU can’t possibly be so ignorant.

Frankly speaking, anyone who honestly believes that Russia in 2019 is anything close to socialist or communist is choosing willful ignorance.

@Darth_Algar I find that funny since I had another liberal jelly try to correct me when I said they weren’t socialist or communist.

And?

And I find it funny that someone that has your same political slant tried correcting me to a view of Russia that you say can only be from someone being willfully ignorant.

Who claimed that ignorance is confined to the right?

@seawulf575

Same political slant? See, the problem here is that you assume (as you always do) that two distinct individuals who maybe share a broadly similar outlook must be in 100% agreement in all things. Which is flat out ignorance.

@seawulf575: You don’t know what my political slant is. You know I am pro choice. Other than that, you really don’t know and shouldn’t assume.

Ahhh…I see. So, @jca2 you AREN’T a leftist? You aren’t a Dem? How about you, @Darth_Algar…you don’t have a left leaning slant to your thinking and politics? Go ahead…deny it. I will gladly throw it right at you every time you type something that disagrees with you.

@seawulf575: I’m all over the place with my thoughts about politics so if I were you I wouldn’t try to waste time making assumptions or “catch me” with anything.

Believe it or not, one can be a Democrat and still not lean far to the left on everything, just like one can be a Republican and not lean far to the right on everything.

I must agree with what @jca2 just said.
Recently, there was a news item that claimed that something like 50% of Democrats and 66% of Republicans were actually Moderates (Centrists, middle-of-the-roaders, whatever you want to call them.)

@seawulf575

I never denied that I have a left-leaning political slant. What I denied, you obtuse simpleton, is that everyone within a certain political slant is going to be in agreement in all things. Left-right – it’s a pretty broad spectrum and there’s proverbial light year of room within that spectrum.

@Darth_Algar
You continue to amuse me. You make a supercilious statement about how anyone who honestly believes that Russia in 2019 is anything close to socialist or communist is choosing willful ignorance. That sounds just like so many liberals, I can’t even start to tell you. Yet I found it humorously ironic that it was another liberal jelly that made the comment.
And now you all are trying to make degrees of liberalism. It looks like you and the others are trying to distance yourselves from your own words. So there are differing views of liberalism.
So let me ask…when was the last time you considered that a conservative might not be the classic picture you have in your mind? When was the last time you gave any credence at all to the idea that someone might not find Trump repulsive yet be a decent person? I’ve seen your comments, so don’t bother trying to play innocent. And you certainly don’t come down on others like @stanleybmanly or @Tropical_Willie when they make those broad brush generalizations. Apparently you agree with them.

You are a “Broad Brush Generalization” for lame brain agitator;
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.are you working for Putin ???

@seawulf575

Are you this obtuse by nature, or do you work at it?

We probably shouldn’t be so hard on him. Even if the only plausible explanation for him is as a Russian operative, can you imagine the assignment of polishing up a turd like Trump for sale to even a gullible American public?

Yes, the conspiracy theory is in full swing. But I notice that while I get accused of being obtuse and being a Russian operative, neither of you have actually even made an attempt at addressing my statements. To me, that says I am spot on in my assessment. Thanks.

You have BS statements so . . . .
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Your opinion of yourself is far beyond your actual worth.

We shall all see what his opinion amounts to. He hasn’t noticed that THIS is a shade beyond the usual manufacturing of email or Benghazi fluff. This is exactly the sort of “exoneration” one might anticipate from the stable genius.