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Why the Christian Right Shares Trump’s Affection for Putin
There are all sorts of theories about Donald Trump’s affinity for Vladimir Putin’s Russia, ranging from shadowy business dealings with Putin or pro-Putin entities, to Russia’s alleged material aid in promoting Trump’s presidential candidacy, to the personal affinity between two men who yearn for recognition as world-historical figures. A related question is why so many Republicans — who four years ago were cheering Mitt Romney’s prophecies of a new Cold War struggle with Russia — have accepted Trump’s Russophilia.

...Donald Trump and his alt-right fanbase are hardly the only Americans who deeply admire Vladimir Putin: He has a pretty large fan club among politically active U.S. Christian conservatives.

It includes some pretty big names like conservative Evangelical leader Franklin Graham, National Organization for Marriage leader Brian Brown, and American Family Association spokesperson Bryan Fischer. In almost every case it has been his distinctive combination of homophobia and Islamophobia that has made Putin one of the Christian right’s favorite international figures. The cultural conservative preference for authoritarian Christian Slavs who are fighting Muslims has, as Beinart notes, carried over from the Serbs to their traditional sponsors in Moscow, and most especially to the former KGB officer who has revived Russia’s pre-communist tradition of militantly traditionalist Christianity.

Putin’s attacks on “gay propaganda” have been particularly heartwarming to Christian-right folk, probably because of echoes they hear of their own longtime warnings about a sinister “homosexual agenda” pervading U.S. politics and culture. Here’s Franklin Graham gushing about this during a trip to Russia:

Nah, then it becomes about the author and not the words. I prefer to use my own words on A2K unless I find it cumbersome.

Also, do you think Exxon or Trump Enterprises ever hired an economist or two?

How do you correlate the vast difference in opinions among so many liberals between Putin and Castro?

the mission of the federal Department of Labor is both sprawling and clear: “to foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners, job seekers, and retirees of the United States; improve working conditions; advance opportunities for profitable employment; and assure work-related benefits and rights.” Though not often in the headlines, the department enforces hundreds of laws and thousands of regulations affecting some ten million businesses and a hundred and twenty-five million American workers, and it has a distinguished history. It celebrated its centennial in 2013. Its headquarters is in the Frances Perkins Building, which is named after its longest-serving secretary.

...Donald Trump has chosen a fast-food executive, Andy Puzder, to be his Labor Secretary. Puzder, the C.E.O. of the parent company of the Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s burger chains, was a heavy donor to the Trump campaign. He is a prominent opponent of raising the minimum wage, of paid sick leave, of efforts to raise the salary threshold for overtime pay, and of Obamacare. Puzder is even critical of the federal relief programs, such as food stamps, that subsidize the poverty wages that he pays his employees. The current federal minimum wage is just $7.25 per hour. The Fight for $15, the most notable labor campaign of recent years, got its start in the fast-food industry, and Puzder, who is passionately anti-union, is among its most determined adversaries. Selecting such a figure to promote the welfare of wage earners is, as Kendall Fells, a Fight for $15 organizer, told The American Prospect, “like putting Bernie Madoff in charge of the treasury.”

This has become a pattern among Trump’s appointments—naming bitter foes of federal agencies to head them, or behead them.

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How do you correlate the vast difference in opinions among so many liberals between Putin and Castro?

Is that really a serious question? It might have something to do with Castro presenting something close to a zero threat to anyone outside of Cuba.

I am going to make this plea again to everyone posting on this topic.

Refrain, for the love of god, from tossing insults out at other posters.

This is how political discussions go bad. Just don't do it. If there are other posters who do this regularly, PUT THEM ON IGNORE. There really is no value at all in joining them in such ugly contests and lots to be lost if you do. If we all follow this simple procedure, then the individuals who are mainly the ones guilty of it (it is trolling) will be evident to moderators as bad actors and can then be treated appropriately.

The Closed Mind of Mitch
Robert G. Kaiser NOVEMBER 10, 2016 ISSUE
The Long Game: A Memoir
by Mitch McConnell
Sentinel, 278 pp., $28.00
The Cynic: The Political Education of Mitch McConnell
by Alec MacGillis
Simon and Schuster, 141 pp., $14.00 (paper)

In the Cuba thread, there are a bunch of liberal members actually defending Castro.

And of course, you're completely right that it was politically contentious. I mean, the length of the investigation was proof of that, wasn't it?

Good thing Congress was able to conclude its investigation and shut down the Benghazi committee right after the election, before the new President comes into office.

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In the Cuba thread, there are a bunch of liberal members actually defending Castro.

Fine. Bring it up with them.

blatham wrote:

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In the Cuba thread, there are a bunch of liberal members actually defending Castro.

Fine. Bring it up with them.

Well, it appears, McGentrix, that you've heard from the supreme authority. Do as you're told.

I believe Blatham is here responding rather badly to mere disagreement in a thread that he apparently regards as his own blog or something like that.

The point of the investigation was whether Clinton demonstrated the attention to duty and competence required of her office and the personal sense of responsibility and accountability required for that or higher office. [...] We have had an election and have chosen new leadership. It is indeed over.

Why Team Trump can’t admit Russian hacks tried to help him win

Team Trump took troubling reports alleging that Russian intelligence interfered with the presidential election in a way we have come to expect from the president-elect: as a personal insult undermining his win.

"These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction," the transition team said in a statement. "The election ended a long time ago in one of the biggest Electoral College victories in history. It's now time to move on and 'Make America Great Again.'"

Then on Monday, Trump spokesperson Jason Miller pivoted to the media — implying that the coverage is merely drumming up a non-story.

“Going back to this overall narrative that is in the news right now, I think really clearly what this is is an attempt to try to delegitimize President-elect Trump’s win,” Miller said at the transition team’s daily press conference Monday. “First, after the election it was the recount nonsense, then it was discussion of the popular vote, and now it’s anonymous, off-the-record sources with conflicting information, trying to raise other issues. But really, where we are as an incoming administration is getting ready to serve the American people and hit the ground running.”

He continued, “That might upset some people that are bitter their candidate lost in November.”

Re my comment pleading with commenters to refrain from personal insuslts.

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I believe Blatham is here responding rather badly to mere disagreement in a thread that he apparently regards as his own blog or something like that.

You've made that charge previously. It's quite wrong. The plea was directed at everyone. It's a matter of civility benefiting discourse and the lack of it or violations of it degrading discourse. That's it.