The real story of Trump and Putin in Helsinki

The news media went hysterical over President Trump’s comments at a press conference in Helsinki after meeting with Russian President Putin. It’s instructive to first examine what it is the president actually said.

What got the media stirred was this answer to a question about Russian meddling in the election. Trump said, “All I can do is ask the question—my people came to me, Dan Coats came to me and some others, they said they think it’s Russia. I have President Putin he just said it’s not Russia. I will say this, I don’t see any reason why it would be but I really want to see the server but, I have confidence in both parties.”

The Trump haters seized on that line of “both parties” and spun it that Trump was trashing our intelligence services. Keep in mind this is while Congress is investigating the possibility that several FBI agents were involved in a plot to first block his election to the presidency and then bring him down once he won. It’s important at this point to break the issue of Russian interference down into two distinct categories.

First, there’s no doubt that the Russians have been buying ads on platforms like Facebook to sow discontent in the country. What is not widely reported is they bought ads both pro-Trump and anti-Trump. They bought ads both pro-Hillary and anti-Hillary. They play both sides of the Black Lives Matters issue as well as Texas and California secession movements. In other words, the Russians take the opportunity to drive the wedge deeper on any issue that divides us. Why? Nobody really has a good answer. There could be a geopolitical strategy to topple us as the world’s superpower. It could be as simple as Putin’s hatred for America. Whatever it is, they’re certainly active on every side of the issues.

In the indictment of the twelve Russians unsealed recently by Robert Mueller’s team they contend that the Kremlin-linked Internet Research Agency set up shop to interfere with the U.S. presidential election in the spring of 2014. That was over a year before Donald Trump jumped into the race. It is inconceivable that such an operation was devised to get Trump elected president.

But it’s the second part of this equation that Trump is questioning. The part about the Russians hacking the DNC servers, or as the left-wing media like to say it, “hacking the election.” There’s no evidence at all that the Russians or anybody else “hacked the election.” Whatever the Russians did had no bearing on the outcome of the election. That’s one of the reasons why Trump is so defensive. The left is trying to convince the American people that his presidency is illegitimate because the Russians got him elected. That is utter bovine scatology. 

The real issue is the DNC server itself. This is the point Trump was making when he said, “I really want to see the server.” Something most Americans don’t even know is the FBI has never examined the DNC server that was supposedly hacked. How incredible is that? The whole investigation hinges on testimony from a company, CrowdStrike, hired by the DNC to say the server was hacked. Until our intelligence agencies have actually examined the server themselves how on Earth can they definitely say who hacked it, or if it was hacked at all?

That is the point Trump was making in Helsinki, and the left-wing media chose to ignore the real story in favor of flogging the dead mule of Trump-Russia collusion.

Phil Valentine is the host of the award-winning, nationally syndicated talk radio show, The Phil Valentine Show.

Understanding the Crimea mess

Have you ever watched one of those soap operas where a woman is married to this guy but she never really loved him and she’s had a thing for the next-door-neighbor who mows the grass with his shirt off? Then the husband gets tied up in his work and she feels neglected and the next thing you know she’s in the sack with the lawn-mowing neighbor. The husband walks in and finds them together and she wants a divorce but her husband won’t give her one so she just runs off with the neighbor.

That, in a nutshell, is the Ukraine/Crimea/Russia love triangle.

This has been a complicated relationship from the beginning and Crimea’s relationship with Ukraine has been shaky at best. Many people look at Crimea as a part of Ukraine like we

look at Kansas as a part of the United States but it’s not like that at all. Even before the fall of the Soviet Union, Crimea considered itself autonomous. In fact, after the fall, Crimea’s official name was, and is, the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. They are made up of nearly 60 percent Russian ethnics, about 25 percent Ukrainians and the rest Crimean Tatars, who are Sunni Muslims.

From Russia’s standpoint, Ukraine ceased to be a legitimate country when they overthrew Viktor Yanukovych in February. Yanukovych had been elected president in 2010 and was deposed in a coup. Russia, which has always felt like Crimea was more a part of Russia than Ukraine, moved to either protect Crimea or take advantage of the situation, depending on how you look at it. But there’s no denying that the Autonomous Republic of Crimea voted overwhelmingly to become a part of Russia.

This is the part that’s confounding to those of us who have watched President Obama foment an Arab Spring in the Middle East. One by one, the countries of the Middle East were encouraged and aided by the United States in shucking their governments in exchange for free elections. It seems Crimea has done just that and now we’re all bent out of shape over it.

I guess unless you’re installing the terrorists of the Muslim Brotherhood this administration doesn’t recognize your referendum.

The divorce of Crimea and Ukraine has been a long time coming and it was inevitable that she would run to the waiting arms of Russia. How this is any concern to the United States is beyond me. There are some conflicts around the world into which we could possibly insert ourselves and make it make sense but we have absolutely no interest in this squabble.

The president is talking about arming Ukraine so they can take Crimea back. Crimea doesn’t want to come back. Didn’t we learn this lesson in Vietnam? You can’t force people to fight a war they have no interest in fighting. In fact, this situation is even worse. Crimea would surely fight to stay with Russia.

The American people are not the least bit interested in getting involved in this whole mess. Putin, of all people, understands this. Obama continues to make veiled threats that everyone knows are hollow. Stop it, already. Crimea is joining Russia. The American people don’t give a rat’s rump and there will be no U.S. military intervention to stop it.

This is just a diversion from more important issues like the IRS harassment of those who oppose the president politically, the NSA spying on its own citizens and activist federal judges overturning the will of the states. 

Ironically, we’re more afraid of the United States government than Putin is.

Phil Valentine is the host of the award-winning, nationally syndicated talk radio show, The Phil Valentine Show.

Putin saves Obama from himself

Vladimir Putin may have saved Barack Obama from himself.  Hell bent on striking Syria over alleged chemical weapons attacks Mr. Obama found himself out in the cold, rejected by his allies and, in all likelihood, left to slowly twist in the wind by Congress.  In fact, the House had indicated it would not vote on the Syrian resolution so as not to embarrass the president on the world stage.

Then in stepped Russian President Vladimir Putin.  He came up with an idea of having Syria turn its chemical weapons over to international control and stepped back and allowed Secretary of State John Kerry to float the idea in a speech.  The idea was well-received and Kerry and Obama quickly took credit as a way out of this crisis.

Of course, this was another homemade crisis at the hands of President Obama, just like Obamacare and the sluggish economy.  Had Obama not offered up an ultimatum none of this would’ve happened.  That’s not to diminish the use of chemical weapons but more and more evidence is emerging that suggests the Assad regime had nothing to do with the chemical weapons attacks.

Can you imagine if Obama had attacked Syria and sparked World War III in the Middle East?  Iran had vowed to attack U.S. interests in Iraq along with attacking Israel.  Israel would have surely retaliated then it’s like breaking up a bar fight between two brothers.  You hit one and the whole family is going to jump you.  Then, to ultimately learn that it was the Saudi-backed, al Qaeda-run Syrian rebels who used the chemical weapons in the first place?  Wow.  What a mess that would’ve been.

Fortunately, Putin stepped in to keep Obama from doing something real stupid.  But look at what has ultimately happened.  Obama said the use of chemical weapons would be met with serious force from the United States.  If we truly believe Assad used chemical weapons there were absolutely no consequences.  All he had to do was agree to give them up after he used them.  It’s like the police allowing a mass killer to simply throw down his weapon and they let him walk free.

If Assad does comply with turning his chemical weapons over to international control it could prove to be akin to one of those lame gun buy-back programs.  You know the ones where Grandma turns in her late husband’s revolver he kept in the sock drawer.  The gun had absolutely no chance of ever being used in a crime yet the police can crow that they got another “dangerous weapon” off the streets.

What if it was the Syrian rebels who used the chemical weapons?  The UN says they’ve used them before and now they’re going through Christian villages killing Christians who don’t convert to Islam on the spot.  What about their chemical weapons?  Aren’t we going to demand they turn theirs in too?

Apparently not because this administration, along with other naïve accomplices like Senator John McCain, somehow has come to the conclusion that the same al Qaeda that hit us on 9/11 and now controls seven of the nine Syrian rebel groups is a moderate faction we can do business with.  So we get Grandma to turn in her weapon but the criminal thugs who are known to have terrorized and brutalized innocent people still have theirs.  At the end of the day I don’t see how this is a victory but for the LCDs (the Lowest Common Denominators) it may be all they need to convince them that Barack Obama is a brilliant strategist and master negotiator.

Phil Valentine is the host of the award-winning, nationally syndicated talk radio show, The Phil Valentine Show.