ANY TRUTH TO IT?? DID PUTIN HAVE A HAND SELECTING TRUMP?

The EC has selected Trump - it's over - Trump is our Nations next president.

I really wonder if anyone agrees that the arguing on this thread is not really about the individual political players, but how alienated one is from the supporters of the political players. Meaning, anti-Trump folk likely would care less, since Trump's administration could become an exercise in high hopes with little results; however, the vitriol for his supposed supporters (i.e., rural white Protestants) seems to make some foam at the mouth and grind their teeth. Just my observation from the sidelines of America's fractured society.

Yes, every tinpot wannabe dictator loves to blame America machinations for any opposition they might face.

And hey, sometimes there's even something to that - the US has a pretty long record of plotting against other countries' governments, after all.

But I wouldn't take Putin or any other authoritarian ruler's claims about such things on face value. Of course they would blame any protests and dissent against their regimes on the US, it's convenient. But there was plenty of genuine, local impetus for the anti-Putin protests.

I thought you were talking about 0bama, he loves to blame America for all of his problems.

Well Mr. Farmerman that story is a biggest pail of crap I heard so far initiated by leftists loosers in America. It is so childish and naive that any respond to it is already over dignifying those claims. With all do respect it takes some seriously mentally impaired or low IQ person to believe such bulshit.
Numero uno: HOW IN THE GOOD'S WORLD COULD ANY RUSSIAN OR ESPECIALLY PUTIN PERSONALLY "HACK" INTO ELECTION???!!!
None of the voting machine is in any way connected to anything, no Internet, no any kind of network, NOTHING!! So what else ??? ... did he sent his people to count our votes?
Do you people sometimes listen to your own words???
Please do so ocasionally. That might prevent making fool of yourself.

it was a question Einstein. The CIA is the one outfit that has been following the state sanctioned works of "Cozy Bear" a set of Russian operatives (that started out as a payed to play event by Russian hqckers).
Now it has Russian sanction by opperachik

You know that several FACT CHECKING sites call this mostly BS and Unproven propaganda by Trump??

Its ok, If trump can get away with being the biggest Fuckin liar since Pinnochio, you should learn some tricks and maybe you can get a job in his regime.

You lie, and I believe your problem with honesty is congenital.

no you lie. Go to SNOPES for a quick review

Just say nope to Snopes - they lie - they are owned by the left.

and you are owned by the RUSSIANS eh?

Lemme see, Snopes or the Russians?

If you dont like the truth, just kinda shut up n be peaceful.

Youre a bit of a looney ,

HRC is living rent free in farmerman's head.

Let me educate you on something. First, before you start rising any such questions, you should answer basic question: what is the ultimate Russian goal here, and what they are trying to achieve? Obviously you have no early idea nor has any liberal here bacause they ARE the very product of Russian achievement in this country!!!
That being said plus having in mind they (Russians) trying to demoralize, dumb down, and corrupt our country, it is plain stupid thinking they would want Trump here who promise rebuilding military and cleaning the house from Hilary-like type. They would much rather push for Hilary who already proved her complete lack of interest in anything but her own pockets, and with strong tendencies of selling us out (i.e. our uranium)

And now we have a tinpot wannabe dictator blaming Russian machinations for any opposition she faced.

To the original question:

I'm not one who believes Putin would not want to hand-pick our president, because I'm sure Obama would have loved to hand-pick the Russian president. We certainly shouldn't tolerate any effort on his part to do so, but it's absurd to describe it terms of "evil" intent.

Having said this, it is equally absurd to even suggest that Putin selected Trump. People who do, are especially vulnerable to complex conspiracy theories that defy logic and human nature.

To believe he engineered the Trump presidency we have to believe that

1) He convinced or coerced Trump to run
2) That he somehow managed to nefariously guide Trump through the process of defeating 16 other Primary candidates
3) That he foiled each and every effort by #NeverTrump Establishment figures to deny Trump the nomination
4) That he was able to hack into US voting machines and turn defeat into victory.

It's utter nonsense.

Julian Assange who, not that long ago, was hailed as a hero by A2K lefties, denies he received the DNC e-mail from Russians. If you think he is lying (and I wouldn't put it past him) you need to provide a plausible reason as to why he would.

But let's say the leaked DNC and Podesta e-mails were thanks to the Russians. Were they the turning point of the election? Of course not. They were proof of what voters already believed about Dems and the Clinton Machine.

And since this is a crazy speculative thread, let's speculate a little further: What if the leaked e-mail revealed truly horrible things about Clinton: E.g. That she was guilty of the wacky murder trail. Would her supporters be claiming voters should never have been made aware of it?

Of course the Dems suggested that Russian hackers falsified the e-mail, but no one believed them, in part because they never offered any proof.

By all means we should investigate the extent of the Russian's attempt to interfere, and most importantly we should take necessary steps to make sure they can't do it in the future, but all this pious nonsense about the sanctity of our electoral system is coming from sore losers who want to delegitimize Trump's presidency. Frankly, that effort is far more troubling than anything the Russians did.

Would foreign interference in the US electoral system favoring a Trump win delegitimize Trump's presidency, in your view?

Not unless it could be shown that he knew of it and was party to it.

I've no doubt the Soviet Union did whatever it could to help US leftists win election. I don't blame those leftists...unless they agreed to the help.