Russian Hackers

We seem to be stuck in a never ending news cycle concerning Russian hackers trying to influence the recent presidential election. Not only were the Democratic National Committee's server and the Clinton campaign chair's emails hacked but the resultant hacked emails were then modified and redacted to be even more damaging than they actually were. There is little doubt in the opinion of intelligence experts that Russia was heavily involved in these actions at a very high level. We can never know for certain how much effect these hacks had on the actual outcome but there it seems pretty obvious that they occurred.

I would be surprised if US intelligence agencies don't do similar things in elections in other countries that have a bearing on US policy efforts. In other words, it seems obvious to me that this is not something new; or even something that is unusual when powerful nations with interests directly affected by such elections become concerned about changes in national leadership that directly affects their national agenda. I also believe that unless the election returns or voting machines were directly hacked it isn't something that we can do much about changing. The world can be a harsh and inherently unfair place; especially when large amounts of wealth and power hang in the balance of public elections.

What I do find interesting about this particular situation is that so few people seem to be questioning why Russia would prefer a Trump presidency to a Clinton presidency. After all, Trump campaigned as an ultra-conservative "winner" who was going to improve our world standing by increasing both our economic and military might. Surely this is not something that a Putin led regime bent on increasing Russian power and influence back to its former strength as the USSR would find appealing. Trump and many of his supporters railed against Clinton/Obama policies that they saw as weak and dissembling; increasing world disdain for US power.

The one thing we know for certain about Putin as a leader in Russia is that he is not in favor of a stronger US economy, nor a stronger US military to stand up to his pushes for land and power in Ukraine and Syria. Why then, would he favor Donald Trump over Hilary Clinton as the US president? I suppose some would say that Trump's open admiration for Putin's strength and iron fisted style might have caused Putin to decide he simply liked Trump better than Clinton. To suggest that Putin might make such a momentous decision of Trump over Clinton because of some sort of mutual admiration society between himself and Trump is to ignore the indisputable fact that Putin is a hard nosed ex-KGB realist who cares little for what anyone except Putin perceives to be his own best interest.

Two things I have read in intelligence leaks supposedly from the US intelligence community do make sense however. The first is that Putin sees Trump as something of a buffoon that can be easily bought off with insider business deals for Trump and his cronies. Trump has very publicly tried to do real estate deals in Russia for quite some time and since Putin and his oligarch cronies who basically took over the Russian economy as a private way of enriching themselves quite a few years ago, he is obviously aware of these efforts. Perhaps Putin assumes that a few such sweetheart deals will put Trump in his indebtedness enough to turn a blind eye to some other things that Putin wants to accomplish both in Russia and the rest of the world. Since Trump has already made a lot of statements about not honoring our NATO agreements without financial renumeration from some of the member states this doesn't seem like much of a stretch to suppose the Putin is licking his chops to test this theory out.

The second possibility that I have read in such public musings about why Putin would favor Trump is that he has some rather explicit and embarrassing video of Trump in compromising positions in previous visits to Russia when he was seeking to make real estate deals there. Frankly, Trump's own admitted sexual philandering in the past makes it pretty obvious to me that this would not be hard to arrange were I Putin or any of his cronies. I don't have any proof that this is what has already happened but from what we know of Trump's past with women I see no reason to suspect that someone determined to obtain such blackmail information would have a hard time doing so; more especially and ex-KGB group in Russia when Trump was visiting Russia to make business deals. Trump is neither smart enough to avoid such a trap nor morally inclined to keep from falling into it because he thinks it is wrong. If there is one thing we know for certain about Trump it is that his ego is so huge that it wouldn't be hard to pull the wool over his eyes about why an attractive female or two might fall into his bed in Russia. If the man didn't have enough sense to keep from trying to force himself on unwilling women here in the states does anyone doubt that a willing woman in Russia couldn't get him in a bed with KGB hidden cameras all around?

All of this is supposition based upon innuendo at this point on my part. What isn't supposition is that Putin and a lot of high officials in Russia seem to have attempted to help Trump get elected as President of the United States. We owe it to ourselves to at least ask the question of ourselves as to why they would do this. If we are lucky enough to find out why quickly we will undoubtedly be better off than if we have to learn it the hard way after Putin has his way with US foreign policy for a long enough period to do great damage to us as a nation. After all, we do know quite a bit about the nature of Putin and Trump as men of character and I don't think anyone in their right mind wants our well being as a nation to depend on either of these men's moral nature.