This is shocking but it is hardly surprising, considering the way things are going in the Republican party these days. The tentacles of the Kremlin are everywhere and yes, Nikita, just as you said back in the mid-1950’s, you would destroy us from within and take us over without firing a shot. And so you have. George Conway unearthed this jewel from a few days back.
Trump enlisted Russia to find Hillary's emails. He then wanted Zelenskyy to play 'nice' with him to get dirt on the Bidens. When Zelenskyy refused to collude with Trump he went full Russia on America and the world.
Trump/GOP like to keep Russia 'locked and loaded' against USA. pic.twitter.com/97mCo0QukK
— CK14 (@palazzo214) February 23, 2024
The tweet ends “88 percent owned by three Russian nationals—Konstantin Nikolaev, Mikhail Yuriev, and Andrey Kunatbaev. Nikolaev is known to be a top ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.”
What makes this interesting is that back in 2016 it was revealed that Kevin McCarthy had a talk with Paul Ryan, wherein he said, “There are two people on Putin’s payroll. One is Dana Rohrabacher and the other is Trump.” Little did we know what an understatement that was. At the time it seemed an amazing revelation, now it’s pretty much standard operating procedure for the GOP. Newsweek:
News of money previously given to House Speaker Mike Johnson‘s congressional campaign by Russian nationals has re-emerged after the Republican rejected a $95 billion foreign aid bill passed in the Senate.
In 2018, a group of Russians were able to donate to Johnson’s bid for the Louisiana seat he eventually won as the money was funneled through the Texas-based American Ethane company.
While American Ethane was co-founded by American John Houghtaling, at the time it was 88 percent owned by three Russian nationals—Konstantin Nikolaev, Mikhail Yuriev, and Andrey Kunatbaev. Nikolaev is known to be a top ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
A spokesperson for Johnson previously assured in 2018 that the campaign returned the money that was given to them by American Ethane once it was “made aware of the situation.” There was no indication that Johnson’s campaign team willfully broke federal law, which makes it illegal for a campaign to knowingly accept donations from a foreign-owned corporation, a foreign national, or any company owned or controlled by foreign nationals. […]
In a press conference on February 14, Johnson said he would not bring the bill recently passed by the Senate back from a House vote and that the “Republican-led House will not be jammed or forced into passing” the foreign aid bill.
The same day, Ukraine-based blog Fake Off posted on X, formerly Twitter: “US Speaker of the House Mike Johnson received campaign contributions from American Ethane, a company 88% owned by three Russians. Now, do you understand why he was categorically against the aid to Ukraine?”
Another social media user added, while sharing a clip of Johnson’s press conference: “Astonishing that the Speaker of the House for the United States Government accepts money from Russia. Konstantin Nikolaev, Mikhail Yuriev, and Andrey Kunatbaev own 88 percent of American Ethane.”
88% is a controlling interest, yes indeed. Nobody is naive enough to not think that executives of large companies have a say in where campaign contributions go and to whom. The stereotype of the smoked filled back room comes from somewhere. But now we’re literally selling out to Russia? And Russia is buying congress members this openly and blatantly? And this level of Americans working against America’s interest and in favor of Russia’s is the new normal?
And you’ll love this. Comrade Nikolaev is “also a part owner of Tula Cartridge Works, which has been supplying ammunition for Russian forces during its invasion of Ukraine.” So he’s playing both ends, he’s making money from selling ammo and he’s also cutting off funding to Ukraine vis a vis his puppet, Mike Johnson.
Far be it from me to promote conspiracy theory, but have the Russians given Elise Stefanik any money? Because I find her conversion from the Great GOP Hope for the future to a full fledged Uber MAGA to be something noteworthy.
As a matter of fact, I don’t think that a new law requiring candidates for public office not accept campaign contributions from Russia would be remiss. International trade is one thing, treason is quite another. And the way these breadcrumbs are forming a trail, they all seem to lead back to Moscow and straight to Vladimir Putin.
Or, we can continue on the path we’re on and become a colony of Russia. And apparently there are enough feckless, venal individuals in the GOP who don’t care who they sell out to, as long as they get what they want personally, which is a congressional seat.
This is most alarming. The mainstream media needs to get on top of this and yesterday.
Not just Stefanik, but every MAGAt repug politician, they’ve all been compromised by someone/something. I’ve wondered what the sword is over their heads, what threat, what compromat? Maybe it’s as simple as they’ve all been bought off. It’s too disgusting to think about, but it certainly makes sense. As for Lindsey Graham, there’s something else with him, the way he ping pongs back and forth between saying sane things and then switching to insanity. They’re all JPN, just plan nuts. Lock ’em up.
“he’s also cutting off funding to Ukraine vis a vis his puppet, Mike Johnson.”
That “vis a vis” should probably have been “via.” As a preposition, “vis a vis” means “in relation to” or “with regard to” while “via” means “by way of.”
The discharge petition is a go so at least the funding, Ukraine and Israel, ought to be discussed on the house floor. Not all the ‘pubes like abandoning Ukraine and I don’t think any of them want to stop funding Israel, well, all except for the loony faction who want it all in oligarch pockets.
Still, johnson needs to be up against the wall for being a traitor to our country and while we’re at it might as well take out the rest of the putie pals as well.
“As a matter of fact, I don’t think that a new law requiring candidates for public office not accept campaign contributions from Russia would be remiss.”
Um, isn’t it already illegal to accept campaign contributions from ANY foreign country or foreign official? Even if there are groups or individuals registered as lobbyists for foreign governments are prohibited from using any kind of money they may received from those governments (any moneys donated to a political campaign have to be 100% derived from US sources).
It is illegal.
From Casablanca…Louie the police captain: “I’m shocked! shocked that there’s gambling going on in here.”
An employee of Rick’s: “Your winnings sir!”
Louie: “thank you.”
HYPOCRISY…thy home is America!
Long before 2016 Putin/Russia was courting favor with and funneling money to the NRA. Long by early in Bush 43s second term an organized but quiet grassroots campaign was afoot in small town/rural America (that included getting “Christian” churches involved) to curry favor to the gun goobers touting a bullshit vision of Russia being a paradise for gun rights and how “real mur-i-cans” should have it so good as gun owners in Russia. Russia even feted small town NRA chapter bigwigs, preachers and others in small groups with junkets to Russia.
And they made regular donations to the NRA, who as you know didn’t just talk the talk but donated to countless Republican political candidates. In 2016 the NRA’s political contributions jumped dramatically. If memory serves thirty percent, if not more and in large measure thanks to Putin/Russia. Remember Maria Butima? And the asshat she wound up living with and banging? (not that he was the only GOP bigwig she banged) The point is, while in recent years the NRA has (kind of like Trump) had their financial shenanigans catch up to them before that a LOT of money and other support flowed to a LOT of Republicans.
The NRA was used to launder Russian money to U.S. political candidates. Maybe some of those who took NRA money or other support didn’t know it but they goddamn well had heard the rumors. And chose to look the other way. But some of them almost certainly knew exactly where some of their NRA money originally came from, and knowingly used the NRA to launder the contributions to get around campaign finance laws. You can bet that Putin/Russia can prove it too. Maybe the actual number of GOPers who directly spoke to their Russian contact asking for money and arranged donations via the NRA is only fifteen or twenty people. But if some are the right people the impact can be massive.
Trump can only wreck their political careers. Putin can and has done far worse to people who’ve crossed him and he long ago proved he was willing to go after people on foreign soil, including in a couple of instances that we know of people here in the U.S. We joke about the old Mafia warning of “Nice family you got there. Shame if something happened to them” but if Putin makes such a threat (and I have no doubt sometimes he has) the recipients have every reason to worry.
Then there are all those, the bulk of Republicans who had “heard the rumors” but looked the other way. If they were confronted with a ledger showing how much of their NRA donations were from Russia you’d see them go pale. Again, it’s speculation on my part but if you look at the steadily growing number of GOPers who’ve become more supportive of Russia in the past couple of years it’s not a stretch to think perhaps they’ve had a quiet dinner somewhere, and after a sumptuous meal the “let’s talk a little business” left a GOP ready to throw up. And shit their drawers at the same time!