The Show Must Go On: The 2019 NATO Slide That Predicted Today
Despite tech gremlins, I was able to share a key 2019 NATO slide on The Thom Hartmann Program today that explained in one screenshot my thesis on how 'Trump Is Putin's Fixer'
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In my appearance on The Thom Hartmann Program today discuss my recent report, Trump Is Putin’s Fixer, I lost Thom’s audio right at the beginning of our interview. He began saying something very nice about Bette Dangerous, and then radio silence. He could, however, hear me.
Thom, being a most gracious host, encouraged me to take the floor anyway, and I’m sure I said something, but I am very grateful to the show’s producer Shawn, who managed to share a slide I sent yesterday that I had hoped to discuss in the interview.
A source of mine slipped me this slide from a NATO officer’s meeting in London from 2019, and I have referred to it many times over the years, but it was particularly timely today, as Trump fulfills Putin’s desire to devastate NATO.
I am sharing my show prep notes, along with some keen assessments from political philosopher Michael MacKay and geopolitical analyst Joni Askola. Both are frequent guests on Bette Dangerous community events and RadPod.
My Notes for Thom/’Trump Is Putin’s Fixer:
Trump does at least three awful things a day so we forget what happened the day before. So I’ve trained myself to always ask, who is benefiting from Trump’s actions? He’s a liar, so I watch his actions…
Invariably and without fail, it’s always Vladimir Putin… every day that Trump has absolute power is Christmas Day for Putin…he’s the gift that keeps on giving
Some examples:
He reputation-washed Putin in Alaska,
the war in Iran is filling Russian coffers,
his humiliation of Zelensky benefits Putin,
the special envoys he sends to Moscow are just crime boss meetings delaying an end to a war Putin can’t afford to end
Lifting sanctions on Russia oil and cargo ships
Lifting sanctions on Belarus
So recall — Putin is an indicted war criminal and Trump rolled out the red carpet for him… normalizing him on the world stage… while relentlessly bashing Europe’s leaders.
And let’s just look at one number: thanks to the spike in oil prices, Russian oil and gas revenues are expected to grow by 70% in April — and that’s more money for war
So Trump now is in the business of creating a crisis, and then lifting sanctions on Russian oil
He’s been busy lifting sanctions on Russian cargo ships – all of this benefits Putin, and clearly, not Ukraine, which is always Putin’s objective
So for me, who spent the last decade reporting extensively on Russia’s war on global democracy, I look at a key target of the US-Israel war in Iran — the target is all European leaders – Trump hit them all at once – you’re either for or against us… and it worked – and today of course, Trump is using Europe’s recoiling from this illegal war to say he’s gonna take the US out of NATO.
What has been Putin’s dream since Trump was installed the first time? Destroying NATO… he called NATO a paper tiger, and said, ‘Putin knows that too’… why would he do that? Because he’s Putin’s fixer…
For those who don’t know what NATO is, it’s a military alliance formed in 1949 to thwart Soviet aggression – it includes 32 Western nations — and Trump has been aiming to weaken NATO since his first trip to Russia in July of 1987 , when he came back taking out full page ads on September 2, in 3 major newspapers — against NATO… here’s some copy from those 1987 ads:
“The world is laughing at America’s politicians as we protect ships we don’t own, carrying oil we don’t need, destined for allies who won’t help.”
That ad ran in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Boston Globe for a cost of $94,000
Why would he do that? Because he’s a money launderer for the Russian mob… and the Russia mob is the Russian government
So for 25 years, the top of Putin’s wishlist is destroying NATO and now his big dog, Trump, is attacking NATO and even giving shoutouts to Putin as he does…
The slide I sent Shawn from a NATO officer’s meeting from 2019 lists all the things that Trump was doing to fulfill Russian aims… among them:
Reduce US role in providing European security
Weaken Transatlantic links
Undermine faith in US security commitments
Weaken US Intelligence Community
Challenge and undermine Western liberal values
Erode US world leadership and global respect
Weaken US society; undermine social cohesion
Show the US as the enemy of Islam
Establish post-truth, post-fact information space
Discredit independent media
See Russia treated as (equal) partner
Reach a grand bargain to ensure stability
And in Trump’s second term, in the first year, he’s finishing the job ruthlessly
In one my columns I wrote:
As the US becomes a drunken brawler, I see one clear goal emerge: taking down all remaining democratic European leaders…
One of my recent reports noted that Russia is increasing its spending on information warfare in Europe, and I just hope Europe is resilient
People ask ‘how can it help Putin if he’s an ally of Iran and he’s helping Iran…’
Well Russia’s economy is one of the only economies to benefit from the war, but also, Trump is a traitor… what does he care if Americans die?
He’s been killing Americans since his first term, only this time, he doesn’t have anyone in his orbit preventing the worst
He’s surrounded by bad actors whose purpose is to destroy the institutions they lead
Trump learned from such savage fixers as Roy Cohn, and Bill Barr, who buried ten prosecutable charges of felony obstruction laid out by Robert Mueller, just like he buried the criminal evidence for Bush and Reagan in the Iran-Contra scandal
He’s such a fixer for Putin I sometimes wonder if he wasn’t dangled by his toes from Trump Tower once or twice…
Even if the only thing Trump did was cause chaos, that alone would be a boon to autocrats everywhere, primarily Vladimir Putin
We needed to treat our democracy as a gift… and instead, we took it for granted… it’s only been one year of Trump 2.0… I don’t think we can take more…
Some Russia watchers think the only way out is a Maidan Revolution… getting out in the streets and staying there until Trump is forced to flee to Moscow…
But when this period ends, and it will end, and if we have a democracy left, we have to look at places like Estonia, which knows how to deal with these Russians…
You can read the original report here:
And below are additional notes on this topic from Dr. Michael MacKay in Canada and Joni Askola in Finland.
Dr. Michael MacKay’s framing:
Trump is indeed Putin’s fixer in all the ways laid out in that slide. But to understand what’s going on I think it’s important to start with an overarching concept that ties all those bullet points together.
Putin is a nihilist. Nihilism is the doctrine that nothing is of any value. Trump is a chaos agent – every thing he says and does tears down truth and meaning in the world.
Trump is a liar. He tells so many lies so often it destroys hope of the possibility of truth.
Trump is corrupt. His criminal character and moral pollution is such an abyss it swallows up the dignity and worth of any human beings who fall within his orbit.
Trump is a traitor. He betrays his country not for any ideal but only for money and flattery.
Trump is evil. He believes there is no good in the world or in other people.
Trump is an imbecile. He leads what was once a mighty nation without an ounce of intelligence, wisdom, insight or even cognition.
All of this solves Putin’s problems. Because Russia engineered Trump to have unchecked power, the United States is no longer a force for good, prosperity, peace, stability, democracy, the rule of law, scientific innovation or human progress in the world. Unless and until Americans rise up in a Revolution of Dignity as Ukrainians did in 2013-14, the United States is “hors de combat” in the global war Russia is waging against Western civilization.
Joni’s comments:
Donald Trump is the absolute best gift Vladimir Putin could ever dream of. His fundamental worldview is entirely backward, and his compromised nature, combined with a profound admiration for strongmen, makes him naturally subservient to dictators. We know from the released Epstein emails that Jeffrey Epstein actively helped Russian UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin understand Trump. This revelation strongly points to Russia gathering the exact psychological profile and compromising material needed to blackmail him. When you pair this leverage with Trump’s endless dishonesty and his long history of doing business with shady Russian figures, it is completely unsurprising that he is terrified to confront Moscow in any meaningful way. His personal dislike for Volodymyr Zelensky, coupled with a deep-seated anti-European ideology, only fuels this dynamic. He openly idolizes authoritarians who actively side with Russia, including Viktor Orbán, Xi Jinping, Kim Jong Un, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Alexander Lukashenko. Finally, because there is vastly more money and far larger bribes to be found in Russia than in Ukraine, his financial incentives perfectly align with his political sympathies, guaranteeing he will do anything he can to help Moscow without getting directly caught.
It is highly likely that Russia does not maintain direct, absolute control over his every move, but rather wields powerful leverage that they apply only when necessary. Occasionally, Trump listens to advisors like Marco Rubio and takes actions that actually go against Russian interests, such as his abduction of Maduro in Venezuela or placing sanctions on Lukoil. However, when he goes too far, Moscow pulls the leash. They enforce their will, whether by using the looming threat of the Epstein files, activating proxies like Thomas Massie and Marjorie Taylor Greene to force him back into line, or utilizing other less visible channels. The result is a president who constantly buys time for Russia, legitimizes their illegal and immoral demands in Ukraine, and aggressively pressures American allies. He surrounds himself with people who hate Europe and everything it stands for, including freedom and democracy, operating under the delusional belief that they can break the Russia-China alliance by simply appeasing Putin. Trump genuinely thinks he is playing 5D chess, but in reality, every foreign adversary and ally plays him, and he loses almost every single time. Ultimately, he is a pathetic loser and a traitor who uses any excuse to weaken sanctions and actively ignores the collateral damage of his broader agenda. He will never go out of his way to ensure his unrelated domestic or foreign policies don’t inadvertently benefit Putin; if his other actions happen to reward Russia, he lets it happen, because he knows exactly what awaits him if he stops being useful to Moscow.
We are going to pick this up on Sunday, with Craig Unger, as we revisit the catastrophic events leading up to November 8. 2016, always learning, always strategizing and seeking ways out of America’s troubles, which impact the world.
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