AP News: Trump campaign’s Russia contacts ‘grave’ threat, Senate says

cannabineer

cannabineer

Ursus marijanus
garybo said:
Without incontrovertible evidence to your statement, "it's just a fictional statement".
Click to expand...
The press is full of such evidence, so long as you steer clear of Murdoch outlets.

Here’s a free sample.

amp.cnn.com

Trump says he would encourage Russia to ‘do whatever the hell they want’ to any NATO country that doesn’t pay enough | CNN Politics

Former President Donald Trump on Saturday said he would encourage Russia to do “whatever the hell they want” to any NATO member country that doesn’t meet spending guidelines on defense in a stunning admission he would not abide by the collective-defense clause at the heart of the alliance if...
amp.cnn.com amp.cnn.com
 
cannabineer

cannabineer

Ursus marijanus
www.pbs.org

Fact-checking Trump's comments urging Russia to invade 'delinquent' NATO members

Trump's comment on Saturday represented the latest instance in which the former president and Republican front-runner seemed to side with an authoritarian state over America's democratic allies.
www.pbs.org www.pbs.org

Speaking at a rally in Conway, South Carolina, Trump recalled how as president he told an unidentified NATO member that he would withhold U.S. help and "encourage" Russia to do as it wishes with allies that do not contribute enough to military spending.

"'You didn't pay? You're delinquent?'" Trump recounted saying. "'No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You gotta pay. You gotta pay your bills.'"

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg shot back with an unusually strong statement saying that Trump was threatening the security of the entire trans-Atlantic alliance.

"Any suggestion that allies will not defend each other undermines all of our security, including that of the U.S., and puts American and European soldiers at increased risk," Stoltenberg said.

President Joe Biden, who is on track toward a rematch against Trump in November, also issued a statement criticizing Trump.

"Donald Trump's admission that he intends to give Putin a green light for more war and violence, to continue his brutal assault against a free Ukraine, and to expand his aggression to the people of Poland and the Baltic States are appalling and dangerous," Biden said.

What did Trump get wrong?
NATO members don't pay to belong and don't owe the organization anything other than contributions to a largely administrative fund. Trump clearly wasn't referring to those administrative payments.

His frequent complaint during his presidency, and now, has been how much NATO countries put into their own military budgets.

U.S. presidents before him raised that concern. In fact, it was in 2014, during the Barack Obama administration, that NATO members agreed to move "toward" spending 2 percent of GDP on national defense by 2024. Stoltenberg also has said members needed to invest more in their militaries.

At their last summit, in Lithuania in July, NATO leaders adjusted that pledge by agreeing to spend at least 2 percent of GDP on their military budgets. No target date was set for meeting the goal.

The 2 percent is a benchmark that each member should spend on its own defense in order to be able to contribute to the joint defense of the alliance. However, the goal is voluntary, and there is no debt or "delinquency" involved.

The countries don't pay the money to NATO but invest it in their own armed forces.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine almost two years ago has given them further impetus to beef up their armies.

What else has Trump said on the issue?
Trump has a history of misrepresenting NATO or suggesting that the United States might not honor its commitment to allies. Former national security adviser John Bolton said in a memoir that Trump was close to pulling the U.S. out of NATO in 2018.

Trump spoke that year about NATO as if it were a business going bankrupt until he came along. "I went to NATO. And NATO was essentially going out of business 'cause people weren't paying and it was going down, down, down," he said.

He also bemoaned that Americans were "the schmucks that are paying for the whole thing." U.S. defense spending, while well above 2 percent, has actually been decreasing for years.

While Trump's hectoring of allies to spend more on defense during his presidency might have spurred some into doing so, Russia's invasion of Ukraine has been a greater catalyst in pushing them to make much larger investments.

When has NATO come to an elly's defense?
On the ground, NATO has helped to keep peace in the Balkans and helped to provide security in Afghanistan after a U.S. led coalition invaded the country. The U.S. triggered NATO's common defense clause, known as Article 5, for the first and only time in the alliance's history after the Sept. 11, 2001 attack.

Even during his presidency, Trump threatened not to come to the aid of allies who might be under attack if they had not paid their dues.
His presidency raised questions about whether the U.S. would remain committed to the West's collective defense, fears returning in anticipation of a likely rematch between him and Biden.

A defense policy bill approved by the U.S. House of Representatives in December includes provisions that say the president must get the advice and consent of the Senate or an act of Congress before withdrawing the U.S. as a member of NATO.
 
Bagginski

Bagginski

Well-Known Member
garybo said:
Without incontrovertible evidence to your statement, "it's just a fictional statement".
Click to expand...
Ignore what they (& their spokesmodels) *say* and watch what they *do*: if you can’t catch a grip on who’s the liar, who’s the bad actor

Recasting your comment, it applies practically *everything* ‘conservatives’ have been claiming about Democrats for the last 40+ years: absent “incontrovertible proof”, it’s all political fiction
 
C

CCGNZ

Well-Known Member
BudmanTX

BudmanTX

Well-Known Member
China behind fake accounts polling US voters on domestic political issues: Microsoft


The Chinese government appears to be operating fake social media accounts impersonating U.S. voters and polling followers about their views on domestic political issues, according to a new report from Microsoft.

“The Microsoft Threat Analysis Center (MTAC) has observed a small yet steady increase of additional sockpuppet accounts that we assess with moderate confidence are run by the [Chinese Communist Party],” Microsoft wrote.

The accounts “nearly exclusively” post about U.S. domestic issues — such as drug use, immigration policy and racial tensions — and often ask followers if they agree, according to the report.

“This tactic may be for the purpose of seeking further engagement, or possibly to gain insight into how Americans’ views on US politics,” Microsoft said. “More such accounts could be operating to increase intelligence gathering around key voting demographics within the United States.”

In one instance, an account posted about a Senate proposal that sought to pair border funding with aid to Ukraine and Israel and asked followers, “What’s your reaction?” Another post criticized the Biden administration over a missing F-35 jet and asked, “What do you think about this?

Actors linked to Chinese influence operations are also increasingly using generative artificial intelligence (AI) to produce “sleek, engaging visual content” targeting the U.S., Microsoft said.

Amid wildfires in Maui last August, one such actor spread conspiratorial content alleging that the U.S. government deliberately set the fires to test a military-grade weather weapon.

It used “AI-generated images of burning coastal roads and residences to make the content more eye-catching,” according to the report.

thehill.com

China behind fake accounts polling US voters on domestic political issues: Microsoft

The Chinese government appears to be operating fake social media accounts impersonating U.S. voters and polling followers about their views on domestic political issues, according to a new report f…
thehill.com thehill.com

watch those accounts trying to poll you on social media, they could be fake.....fyi
 
Bagginski

Bagginski

Well-Known Member
Will never see so many of my fellow citizens in the same way ever again…it’s as if they never understood what the rule of law is all about, they’re so ready to discard it, to plow it under…as if they aren’t capable of evaluating their own thoughts, their own actions, their choices & the consequences thereof
 
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