General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTo those who believe that Putin "has something" on Trump...
Blackmail compels obedience; it doesn't compel enthusiasm. Trump is clearly enamored of the autocrats he runs into.
fleur-de-lisa
(14,624 posts)PatSeg
(47,475 posts)Trump is besotted with strong men and dictators, but I also believe Putin has a lot on him, probably a combination of scandal(s) and financial debt. Putin's favorite patsy! Who knew it could be so easy?
Eyeball_Kid
(7,432 posts)Putin: you will do what I tell you. To prove your loyalty to ME, I'm going to kill your soldiers one by one and YOU are to keep your mouth shut and do nothing. If you're a good little boy, I won't emasculate you in front of the world and ruin your chances for re-election.
Trump: crickets.
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)Whiskeytide
(4,461 posts)Zoonart
(11,868 posts)Doodley
(9,092 posts)The Magistrate
(95,247 posts)He reminds me of the hanger-on, Schwimmer, who liked the company of those gangsters at the garage, and went up against the wall with them on St. Valentine's day....
blogslut
(38,001 posts)He's been laundering money for Russian Mobsters for 30 years.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,716 posts)That Putin owns him is just bidness; he's glad to do Putin's bidding because it means he's a member of that club.
Lucinda
(31,170 posts)I suspect he's the type to admire someone who can best him
jcgoldie
(11,631 posts)...not information. Trump thinks all publicity is good anyway as long as they are talking about you. I think he controls his debt. He could put the fucker in the poor house
empedocles
(15,751 posts)dalton99a
(81,513 posts)Quixote1818
(28,942 posts)can bully around. For Trump it's women he yells at. I think Trump is scared of all dictators.
njhoneybadger
(3,910 posts)And probably Epstein had a copy too. I'm crazy
world wide wally
(21,744 posts)It's always that with Trump
bluestarone
(16,959 posts)Putin owns the white-house, half of our congress, and we will find out soon about the Supreme court!
Enoki33
(1,587 posts)those two masterfully in a sick , evil mind. We plainly see the results.
llashram
(6,265 posts)trumps mind is no match for the evil in Putin's mind. Trump is in kindergarten compared to Putin.
cyberswede
(26,117 posts)I agree that Trump has way too much adoration for autocrats - presumably because he thinks he should be the recipient of the same blind allegiance demanded by dictators.
Also, in the case of Putin, Trump has been groomed as an asset for years, including Putin knowing exactly how to play to his narcissism and greed.
Check out Sarah Kendzior's book "Hiding in Plain Sight"
Here's an excerpt from s review of it:
Her new book, Hiding in Plain Sight: The Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America, connects these dots and then some. Its not simply a book about Trump, but an indictment of the myth of American exceptionalism that made his ascendency possible. The paranoia birthed by Richard Nixon and Watergate; the ruthless venality in which Trump was schooled by his early mentor Roy Cohn; the creation of a television network explicitly engineered to churn out a boundless supply of profitable fear and fury.
(https://www.bitchmedia.org/article/sarah-kendzior-hiding-in-plain-sight-interview)
And a Kendzior quote from a Vogue interview:
(https://www.vogue.com/article/sarah-kendzior-interview-hiding-in-plain-sight-donald-trump)
I can't recommend this book enough. It's a riveting, fast read.
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250245397
"[Kendzior's] book documents Trump's 'decades-long erosion of American stability, integrity, and democracy.' I recommend it, especially if you have any doubt about what's at stake in this year's presidential election."
Connie Schultz, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and author of forthcoming novel The Daughters of Erietown
"Sarah Kendzior, in her brilliant new book, is one of the few journalists who grasps what is happening. Kendzior is a student of autocracy... she has been warning from the get-go that Trump is working to turn America into one."
David Cay Johnston, New York Times bestselling author of It's Even Worse Than You Think and Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist