LOL @ The Fox News Version of The Maria Butina Story.
I watch Fux News so that you don't have to.
And if you'd only watched details of the Maria Butina case on Fox News, you'd now believe that she's a Russian spy who was sent to spy ON the NRA. Presumably because the NRA is Russian's greatest threat. (As opposed to being one of AMERICA's greatest threats, which it actually is.)
That's right, she was sent to spy ON the NRA.
Not to funnel massive amounts of illegal Russian cash to the Trump campaign THROUGH the NRA.
Not to ask Trump questions about lifting sanctions on Russia during press conferences.
Not to co-opt so called 'conservatives' to Putin's cause
Not to compromise key American political figures by gathering kompromat on them.
Not to exploit a fracture point in American politics in order to weaken America's political effectiveness in the world
Not to whip up deranged, posse comitatus gun nuts into fighting against their own government
Seriously, that's how they're playing it, and it's hilarious. They don't actually SAY that. But, as usual, they selectively omit certain facts in order to leave that impression with their half-wit audience. It's the most subtle and insidious type of propaganda, and they're masters at it. The main reason I watch Fox is to see how hard they have to struggle to put a 'positive' spin onto bad news for them. Or how much energy they have to expend to appeal to the cognitive dissonance of their audience. And they're really having to EARN their pay on the Butina story!
If you'd only been watching the Butina story on Fox, you'd know that she's pleading guilty to being an "unregistered foreign agent." (You know...basically a LOBBYIST. Another one of them...PROCESS CRIMES.) You'd also know that her father denies she's an agent, and that Putin denies she's an agent. And (above all) you'd CLEARLY know that the investigation into Butina is "NOT part of the Mueller investigation." (That part is especially important, because Mueller equals Trump, and therefore Butina has nothing to do with the Trump investigation. They make sure to mention that every time.)
What you would NOT know, because they NEVER mention it, is...
-Butina's 'boyfriend' was conservative activist Paul Erickson.
-That they were both basically using each other. He used her for sex, she used him to infiltrate the conservative movement.
-Through Erickson she set up a huge 'conduit' to funnel Russian money through the NRA to finance the Trump Campaign
-She got friendly with LOTS of Republican politicians, as well as big name 'conservative' celebrities and pundits
-She reported to a notorious Putin operative named Alexander Torshin
-Butina, Torshin, and by extension Putin had inserted their tentacles all through the American conservative movement, USING THE GUN LOBBY as a conduit.
-And, now that the scheme has been exposed, Torshin has vanished.
And, above all, you would NEVER have seen any of THESE pictures
= new reply since forum marked as read
as a con man 30 years ago. I know very smart educated people that fell for his bullshit, I just can't
understand how it happened. Do I have some kind of intuition that makes able to spot a con man?
I see religion as a con job, it seems people that claim to be Christians are the biggest pushovers.
