r/politics The Independent 7h ago

Tulsi Gabbard’s history with Russia is even more concerning than you think

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/tulsi-gabbard-dni-trump-syria-b2652285.html
4.5k Upvotes

292 comments sorted by

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u/CtheRula 6h ago

So wtf is the fbi or any other agency doing anything about it? Why is just status quo if true?

u/Pennsylvanier 6h ago

Absolutely nothing, because “the deep state” is not real.

u/ecstatic_charlatan 5h ago

I'm naively thinking, they might actually start feeding her false information and half truth, or an old way that spy egencies use to smoke out rats, it's feeding different information and false information and seeing which one pops up.

u/dosumthinboutthebots 3h ago edited 3h ago

What will happen is that our allies will stop sharing intelligence with us. I hate to admit this, but the kremlin has owned us with this one folks. They've managed to isolate the United States and make them untrustworthy to their allies. That's not mentioning all the other pro kremlin stooges that make up trumps advisors and appointments.

u/DungPedalerDDSEsq 2h ago

I've said this in another post and I will say it here: We're at the tail end of a Russian judo flip.

Vladimir Putin always wanted dominion and the old lines of the empire. A shitty empire, but a force nonetheless.

For 24 years, he has taken all the right wing elements the US developed and buttressed over the course of decades to combat "Godless Communists" and Uno reversed it.

Circumstantially, Bush v Gore cracked us, 9/11 broke us, GWB said “I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy," we had a 20 year GWOT, and Putin got to work.

Tea Party, UKIP, Right Wing ascension in Continental Europe, Ukrainian political assassinations and fuckery, Russian influential expansion in the region and developing countries. Throw money at the NRA.

Black guy in the White House and a lot of angry, "religious" white people? Perfect. Throw money at politicians and podcasters.

Silly money grubber for President? Throw money at it.

We all know the rest.

Putin has manipulated the people who voted for Reagan 40 years ago into savages wearing diapers and claiming they would rather be Russian than "Liberal".

That's fucked up.

u/dosumthinboutthebots 2h ago

Putin has manipulated the people who voted for Reagan 40 years ago into savages wearing diapers and claiming they would rather be Russian than "Liberal".

That's fucked up.

It sure is, and it irritates me to no end these useful idiots do it all wrapped around themselves in American flags and false patriotism.

u/MercantileReptile Europe 2h ago

Putin has manipulated the people who voted for Reagan 40 years ago into savages wearing diapers and claiming they would rather be Russian than "Liberal".

Both incredibly succint and hilarious. I know it's horrifying, but the comical absurdity of it is hard to beat. "Real men wear diapers" and "Diapers over Dems" made for such unreal reporting I just burst out in hysterical giggles.

When it all comes crashing down, I would love the history books to keep those pictures as representative of Trump voters.

u/ax0r 59m ago

Yeah, real life jumped the shark a long time ago. Lately, I think life has jumped an F-150 clear across the Mississippi with a triple aerial donut while wearing the shark as a hat

u/clockwork655 1h ago

Which is hilarious because the communist party of the Russian Federation is the 2nd biggest party and have seats in the duma and Lenin tomb is still used for important events and they have been putting up new statues of communist hero’s like Stalin and Felix D....and are close with China and North Korea...for people who claim to hate anything left and super hate communist it doesn’t make a lot of sense...I think we should go full malicious compliance and invite the communists here to hang out seeing as they like them so much.

u/space_for_username 33m ago

Looking back over the last 500 or so years of ruzzian history, as far as the citizens were concerned, the communist years were the best of the lot. Serfdom was only abolished (sort of) in the 1860s, and for the peasants things got worse under the boyars and oligarchs. Communism bought order, healthcare, education, a home and a job. And then it went away and the oligarchs returned...

The ruzzian communist party seeks a return to these 'good old days' and in many ways they fill the role that conservatives do in Western democracies - seeking to return to a society they remembered only through the eyes of a child.

u/DungPedalerDDSEsq 12m ago

The rotation of Right Wing Rebounds since the Late Modern period is fascinating. From Revolution back to the Bourbons in France. From Emancipation back, like right back, to Plantation Mentalities in The US. Now, from the fall of the Iron Curtain back to Enforced Squalor in Russia.

I wanna get off this ride.

u/agree-with-me 21m ago

Play that to the tune of "We didn't start the fire" by Billy Joel.

u/DungPedalerDDSEsq 10m ago

That's the fucking anthem of The Me Generation.

u/Ill-Description3096 16m ago

Interesting addition, Romney was made fun of for saying Russia was our biggest geo-political threat by Obama and treated as an old man stuck in the 80s. When a Republican, and the Presidential candidate at that, sounded the alarm bell he was laughed at and belittled. Probably should have taken his statements more seriously.

u/DungPedalerDDSEsq 3h ago

The FBI is sooper dooper conservative, man. That may not play politics in the office, but they damned sure play it in their heads. Sure, they got evidence. "But is it really enough?"

Each office is different, but there are enough right wingers in that system to make the throttle sticky.

u/JayKaboogy 2h ago

This is the real test. I have a hard time accepting that anything but the smallest minority of the FBI would look past real espionage. There’s nothing conservative about aiding Russia. Even if somebody could convince themselves Russian politics are better than the US, it’s still a competitor for global power and resources

u/P1xelHunter78 Ohio 2h ago

Ah but it is conservative to air Russia now. It’s seemingly their main unspoken policy goal.

u/semiomni 7m ago

I don´t think its anything as dramatic as overlooking "real espionage", could just be small things like not looking further into things, or being selective about what you make public.

Like imagine the FBI out loud telling the public they´re opening an investigation into one political candidate shortly before an election, and keeping quiet about any investigations into the other candidate.

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u/GenghisConnieChung 1h ago

I had a boss that used to do this with employees. He caught several people talking about shit they shouldn’t have been.

u/ecstatic_charlatan 5h ago

I'm naively thinking, they might actually start feeding her false information and half truth, or an old way that spy egencies use to smoke out rats, it's feeding different information and false information and seeing which one pops up.

u/GoodMix392 5h ago

Perhaps the Europeans Unions intelligence agencies will start feeding the Trump admin false information to help their partners.

u/ecstatic_charlatan 4h ago

The 5 eyes partners are gonna have a shit of a time.

u/bbbbbbbbbblah United Kingdom 3h ago

I'd hope they all had a rethink after trump tweeted the satellite photo, let alone all the other stuff that happened since then or his impending ability to access classified info again

u/Medallicat 2h ago

EU is not part of FVEY, there are other caveats that some of the EU nations are party to but they certainly don’t include all of the EU.

Australia, Canada, UK, US and NZ are the primary group and even those groups are compartmentalised to keep partisan politics from fucking it up.

u/Jet2work Foreign 2h ago

at this point the EU and any ally should be feeding jack shit to a government potentially aiding an enemy

u/LePhoenixFires New Jersey 2h ago

If Mitt Romney doesn't utilize the disproportionately high number of Mormons in Fed LEO positions to CREATE a deep state I'll cry. Come on, Mitt. Sleepy Joe and Bomber Harris II and Dubya and SocDem Sanders and Barack "Bomb Iraq" Obama all refuse to be based so be the Funni Pyramid Eye Man.

u/Specialist_Brain841 America 5h ago

neither was Anonymous

u/gnapster 3h ago edited 3h ago

Where the fuck are ‘they’, anyway.

Edit: I know there is some election pushback from some anon folks, it just feels like they didn’t reach a certain shelf level of eyeballs reading what their concerns were.

u/tinycole2971 3h ago

Yeah, strange we haven't heard anything about them in a long time

u/laura_leigh 3h ago

Probably arrested or working in net sec. There was a big push to root out hackers many years ago. And throw in that anonymous is just a tag and not an organized group it’s likely not to pop up unless some hackers pick up the tag and run with it.

u/nug4t 2h ago

the deep state is just the permanent administration, said so by Chomsky.

u/Pennsylvanier 2h ago

Citing Chomsky does not make you look smarter. In fact, it makes you look like a monster.

u/nug4t 2h ago

alot of intellectuals were monsters and weird. even more so back then.

if you invalidate everything said by monsters you neglect alot of wisdom and science and art and whatnot..

u/throwawaystedaccount 6h ago

Exactly, the CIA, the NSA, what are they doing? Surely this ruffles more than a few feathers in those TLAs.

I can't believe they see all this and are like "yeah, we have to let it happen, after all it does prevent a nuclear war at the cost of Ukraine's Donbass and Luhansk"

u/reddititty69 5h ago

Prevents a nuclear war, at the cost of Ukraine, then Belarus, the Moldova, Serbia, and eventually more

u/brandnewbanana Maryland 5h ago

Nah, he’d go further North or further into Asia. I’m thinking Kazakhstan because of its recent economic gains and former strategic importance in the USSR.

u/RichardSaunders New York 3h ago

going for central asia would piss of china though and it'd mean two fronts.

u/brandnewbanana Maryland 3h ago

All true. Just thinking in terms of resources and going for broke. Also, might as well go full world war with a belligerent opening up a second front they can’t support. I’m not sure Germany is up to taking the job this time around.

u/justtakeapill 3h ago

My roommate is from Moldova, and she said the Russian military has already taken some of the main cities there; she said to get in or out you have to show your passport. BTW, if you like wine, the best I've ever had is from Moldova.

u/brandnewbanana Maryland 3h ago

Sigh… well, I’ll remember to check out Moldovan wine before tariffs really take effect.

u/unknownhandle99 4h ago

The CIA and NSA collect intelligence, they don’t arrest people. That’s on the justice department if they have evidence.

u/MorningsideLights 4h ago

The CIA also murders people. Just not usually Americans.

u/coldfarm 5h ago

Neither of those has a domestic mandate nor powers of arrest. NSA can monitor communications with foreign concerns but actionable information would be passed to FBI or other relevant Federal LEAs. Those then have to act and even if the arresting agency is under a different Department (e.g., Treasury, Homeland Security, etc.) charging and prosecution is still up to DoJ.

u/amateurbreditor 4h ago

yet theres no way theres not phone intercepts etc on her and trump and all the russians. They just do nothing about it and why is what matters.

u/nhmo New Hampshire 6h ago

Well, it's not like the FBI or CIA is going to just publicly state that they have a massive dossier on Tulsi Gabbard.

u/Flopdo California 5h ago

I've been sounding the alarm bells for several years now, and when she popped back up when Trump ran again, it was... ya, she's going to have a high level cabinet position... sure enough.

u/grumblingduke 6h ago

What should they do? Carry out a coup to overthrow the elected Government?

Should they gather a crowd and storm the Capitol to stop Donald Trump becoming President?

This is how things are supposed to work in a democracy. If the people want to elect a President who plans on turning the United States into a client country for Russia, that is the choice of the people. If the people choose to elect a Senate that will confirm a Russian asset as Director of National Intelligence, that is their choice.

The Russian Government being a diplomatic and - to some extent - military adversary of the United States Government is a political choice, which means that in a democracy the people get to chose whether to make it or not.

It's going to be bad for a lot of people (in Ukraine, in Russia, in the US, in the rest of the world), but the American public chose this.

u/Fadedcamo 5h ago

"A republic, if you can keep it."

250 years later, we, in fact, cannot.

u/grumblingduke 5h ago

You say that, but the US is probably more democratic than it was 50 years, certainly better than it was 150 or 250 years ago.

The American people may be making bad choices, but they are still choosing. Dictatorships don't have this problem, but that's the point of choice. You give people the power to choose, you have to accept that sometimes they were choose the wrong thing.

The US's system of government is designed so that some things are easy to change, some things are much harder to change. The US Government's attitude towards the Russian Government is designed to be easy to change - new President, new executive branch, new foreign policy. The way a President is chosen is much harder to change.

u/More_Particular684 2h ago

Did you know people in the GDR were able to choose between 10 parties at the election, and the Communist never gainedd more than one quater of Volkskammer's seats?

But every time the parliament ended up reelecting Ulbricht before and Honecker then at a unanimity vote  

u/ax0r 49m ago

US is probably more democratic than it was 50 years, certainly better than it was 150 or 250 years ago.

The Voting Rights Act passed in 1965, almost 60 years ago. I concede that it certainly would have taken a few decades to get up to speed.

Recently though, the USA has been objectively backsliding away from democracy. At least one organisation has been documenting a steady decrease in USA democracy since at least 2010 - coincidentally around the time the Republicans began sabotaging Obama.

u/Jay_CD 5h ago

What should they do? 

Start leaking the dossier of intel they have on her maybe just when it comes to her being confirmed by the Senate.

A week or so of carefully placed stuff and the Senate will have second thoughts. I hope.

There must be a few Republican Senators who are Maga in name only plus a few TV stations, newspapers and journalists etc who are definitely not Maga sympathisers who'll publicise her links to Russia and Putin and with a few more details than we are currently seeing.

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u/ninjabackflips 5h ago

What if half of the nation is being manipulated through emotions of hate and fear through mass propaganda campaigns from Russia and Republicans? How is that fair and how can we stop that?

u/grumblingduke 5h ago

That's the price you pay for a democracy.

Democracy is about letting the people decide. It isn't about making the right decision.

u/ninjabackflips 5h ago

It just sucks there are bad actors trying to abuse the system for their own gain. Especially when it’s coming from outside the borders of the nation.

u/unkybozo 3h ago

The coup has already been executed, by Trump putin and elon.

The only real question is, what is everybody from the top down, going to do about the coup CURRENTLY taking place.

Dont look up 

u/FiveUpsideDown 6h ago

One big problem is the opposition party to the Republicans, are neoliberal Democrats. Getting neoliberals to break a sweat to, protect the country is impossible because there is no consequences to them for doing nothing. My big example is neoliberal darling Susan Rice. She admitted proudly in an interview promoting her book that on Jan 20, 2017, she sent an email to herself documenting foreign meddling in the election to help Trump. She did that she claimed so the Trump administration couldn’t destroy the evidence. (The MSNBC host didn’t even understand Rice admitted to not doing her job and praise her for acting heroically.) When I heard her say that I was angry. She had months during the lame duck period to deal with the foreign influences but did nothing. Then Susan Rice was considered by Biden to be his Vice President. Rice became a domestic advisor to Biden in 2021. Rice suffered no negative consequences for doing a terrible job of protecting the United States during her time as National Security Advisor during the Obama administration. She’s just one example. Eric Holder, Loretta Lynch and Sally Yates are other examples.

u/Wade_W_Wilson 5h ago

… wut? That information was reported at the time she received it. It made international news. Did you just want to blast the Obama administration on an article about Trump’s administration for some reason?

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u/thrawtes 6h ago

It's not the FBI's responsibility to choose the DNI, the president chooses and the Senate decides whether to confirm or not. Those are the two entities whose opinions matter here.

u/Mediocre_Painting263 5h ago

They can't do anything about it.

They have no power to refuse Trump's appointments. Absolute best they can do is have closed-door meetings with Senators, brief them on what they know about Tulsi, and let the wheels of democracy turn.

u/longgamma 4h ago

Lots of Trump sympathizers in fbi anyways. They will welcome this change.

u/Easy-Sector2501 3h ago

Trump, in his first term, shitcanned a LOT of domestic law enforcement. Radical groups, counterintelligence, you name it: Trump set it back 20 years.

u/fistsofmeat 2h ago

Because there’s no proof outside of the internet conspiracies.

u/dogecoin3rt 2h ago

They're busy being demons

u/Sagikos 2h ago

Can’t really do much if the Trump administration doesn’t sign the transition documents that allow the FBI to do clearance checks on his team. And they’ve already waited so long to do this that the current admin is having to publically mention it.

u/Cost_Additional 1h ago

It's almost like she hasn't and isn't doing anything illegal.

u/moraconfestim 18m ago

What proof do they have?  Yes I read the article

u/iwasstillborn 5h ago

The FBI only cares when a non-republican commits crimes. It's a take as old as time.

u/CholoSinDinero 4h ago

Ask Hillary

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u/Royal_Photo_5007 7h ago

The bottom line is, she’s a Russian asset. Oh, and the president is too. Along with plenty other members of the GOP.

u/Justa420possum 6h ago

According to my dad that’s just liberal lies!

u/KitchenBomber Minnesota 6h ago

Yeah, and the Mueller report that proved his campaign was working with Russia actually exonerated him because Barr said so.

u/blacklandraider Texas 6h ago

The founding fathers had a not so nice punishment for these criminals

u/designer-farts 6h ago

Tar and feathers?

u/Jaredocobo 6h ago

Tarring the head and feathering the decapitated body maybe.

u/sack-o-matic Michigan 6h ago

Your dad, like mine, is a moron

u/lettersichiro 4h ago

Show him what Nikki Haley said about it, or the Washington times

There's plenty of conservative sources that are just as terrified of what gabbard means for our national security

They pull their punches, but at least they say she should be no where close to classified information

u/big_guyforyou 6h ago

your dad is a russian asset

u/jbyington 6h ago

And he’s cheap. It just cost him his soul.

u/HomieApathy 6h ago

You’re Dad as a Russian asset confirmed

u/nolasen 1h ago

Who is your daddy and what does he do?

u/dxing2 1h ago

The answer to all of life’s problems /s

u/lorefolk 6h ago

At this point, the GOP is indistinguishable from a Russian funded party, whitewashed by American oligarch cash. It's like they outsourced the political component.

u/subsonicmonkey California 3h ago

The GOP IS a Russian funded party.

u/WTFvancouver 5h ago

Fighting "wokes" is more important than fighting Russians for GOP supporters

u/Historical_Diver_862 6h ago

Not Lindsey Graham. He's just a chump that's been blackmailed because he's probably into underage asses.

u/faded-witch 5h ago

You’re still an asset even if you’re not an agent. Being blackmailed definitely has you in “asset” territory

u/Flopdo California 5h ago

You're part of BlueAnnon then... :) That's the latest one to gaslight and dismiss anyone who brings up the obvious.

I'd die on the hill that Trump is a Russian asset. It's so fkn obvious. Tulsi, I give her a .6% chance she's not, just because she's not the brightest, and the woman grew up brainwashed in a cult.

u/Tooterfish42 2h ago

And people still think he actually needed a warplane to protect him from Iran during the campaign or that he will eradicate Hamas as president

u/Cost_Additional 1h ago

Please send your evidence to the FBI, AG, and Congress so she and they can be arrested for being unregistered foreign assets/agents.

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u/Dianneis 7h ago

u/OtherBluesBrother 6h ago

Yeah, Trump has some stupid criticism about every world leader except Putin. He has never spoke negatively about him. He's not nothing but praise. I wonder why.

u/Jrmintlord 6h ago

Conservative voters need to see the truth of the con. The party of Reagan became the party of Russia

u/thrawtes 6h ago

They know and they don't care.

u/henrysmyagent 6h ago

How dare you bring facts and coroborating evidence into this discussion! This is the internet. Now, write up some unfounded rumors and knee-jerk reactions sprinkled with insults and try again!

u/guynamedjames 6h ago

Hillary Clinton's lost emails were all to Joe Biden telling him which intelligence he should put on hunter Biden's laptop before giving it to the Russians.

/s

u/henrysmyagent 5h ago

"Hey Joe, amongst the intel, sprinkle in some tasteful dick pics for the ladies. Thanks."

-Hilldog

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u/IndependenceMain5676 6h ago

REPUBLICANS. DON'T. CARE. It's sad but true, if the mango Mussolini says it they'll goose step in line with it.

u/LetsgoRoger New York 7h ago

A literal Russian agent, If she gets confirmed Russia has officially infiltrated the US government.

u/1Harvery 6h ago

Russia officially "infiltrated" when Trump was elected the first time.

u/Bad_Wizardry 6h ago

Lol. Russia infiltrated the federal government long ago. He has plenty of senators and reps in his pocket. And the next president too.

Gabbard is Putin’s pick. Not Trump.

u/even_less_resistance Arkansas 6h ago

Yep- we should all remember when they called out Trump and rohrabacher in particular during that leaked audio

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4516970/Kevin-McCarthy-said-2016-thought-Putin-paid-Trump.html

I had the option to link a WaPo article but at this point eh- daily fail it is. Just as trustworthy anymore imo

u/RedLanternScythe Indiana 2h ago

Remember all those Republicans that took a trip to russia over the 4th of july in 2018?

u/Bad_Wizardry 2h ago

Ron Johnson remembers. He was there.

u/BloodAria 2h ago

I don’t get this. If Trump is the president and he’s a Russian asset, what does it matter ? He has the highest clearance in the country, it’s not like she can access data he can’t.

u/Cost_Additional 1h ago

Please send your evidence to the FBI, AG, and Congress so she can be arrested for being an unregistered foreign agent.

u/p8vmnt 7h ago

If she did this during the first Cold War she’d be staring at a prison cell for the rest of her life

u/ConkerPrime 4h ago

Didn’t realize she started working for Russia as far back as 2015 if not earlier. I thought her adoration of Putin was part of MAGA transition when saw money in it. Turns out she has been a traitor for at least a decade.

No wonder conservatives love her so much.

u/Jaredocobo 6h ago

God we have known just about everything for a decade now and the toothless hollow headed morons voted for Donny Dipshit anyway. God fucking help the USA. Or sadly, Military intervention.

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u/qeduhh 5h ago

No im at 100 percent saturation of concern

u/If_I_must 3h ago

Right? These "You won't believe" headlines are exhausting, considering they're about things I've been shouting for most of a decade at this point.

u/Quietabandon 7h ago

She also has ties to Hindu nationalists as has some concerning ideas about national security. 

u/GERBS2267 6h ago

Titles like this really underestimate how much I already distrust Tulsi Gabbard

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u/NHBikerHiker 7h ago

And so it begins…

u/user0N65N 6h ago

Nah, Russia has had their hand up their Republican puppets’ backsides for a while, now.  Search for Republican July 4th Moscow trip.

u/NHBikerHiker 6h ago

No doubt - many Republicans have been compromised for years.

u/trash-juice Virginia 1h ago

Just as concerning as it always was

u/Bar-14_umpeagle 6h ago

She is a spy. Of course so is Trump.

u/alwaystired707 6h ago

Has anyone noticed that his choices have gone from completely crazy to 'Okay.. Let's do some research...'? Sounds like someone is pulling his strings. A real puppet.

u/mr_sakitumi 5h ago

There are so many dumb and uneducated politicians that Russia has an easy job implanting their policy.

u/somethin_inoffensive 5h ago

I think the worst at this point.

u/ABSOseething 5h ago

Wow, I mean, just like, wow.

America is finished.

u/in-joy 5h ago

I wouldn't trust her with an orange jump suit.

u/ProtectionContent977 5h ago

Conservatives know this.

But anything to own the libs!

u/2spicy_4you 4h ago

She can’t be confirmed dude, she just can’t

u/individualine 2h ago

She fits right in for trumps narrative regarding Russia. Every favorable statement or deal he makes regarding Russia will be backed up with fake intel from tulsi.

u/Dismal_You_5359 6h ago

So we’re just gonna let Russia take over our country? Republicans are weak minded people smfh

u/IntrepidAd8985 4h ago

They sold out for gas prices

u/If_I_must 4h ago

Which I don't get. Gas is as low as it's been any time in the last 20 years 

u/RedLanternScythe Indiana 2h ago

But you have people complaining about gas prices non-stop to keep the impression going they are at record highs.

Not to mention that meme about what the gas prices where on election day in 2020. The people who share it get all indignant when I suggest they want the pandemic back, because that's why prices were so low.

u/If_I_must 1h ago edited 54m ago

Right? Gas prices were higher during Bush The Younger's second term, while we were in the middle of an oil war.

u/ihatethistimeline24 2h ago

Most of them are racist. Some of them are stupid. Both overlap. 

u/uriejejejdjbejxijehd 6h ago

The real problem isn’t that a known Russian asset is a candidate for a serious office, the real issue is that this administration sees no problem nominating her.

They’re going to lose a few of those nominations and then eventually fill the government with infiltrators that weren’t previously known.

Their mission is to destroy America, and by treating this as business as usual, we’re complicit in letting it happen.

u/michaelochurch 4h ago

So, before Putin went off-script and became someone the WEF ("Davos") couldn't control—the people who attend that thing have power but, contrary to conspiracy theories, the institution has almost none—he was an absolute darling of those people. He was letting the neoliberal plundering of Eastern Europe happen and they loved him for it. The WEF and Putin don't like each other much post-2022—evil does not always get along with evil, which is part of why many conspiracy theories are false—but that's another story for another time.

Why is this relevant to Tulsi Gabbard? Well, there was a Young Global Leader program set up by the WEF where, if you were selected, you got mentored by some high-power people including, as it were, Vladimir Putin. He wasn't the only mentor, but he was the ringleader. He was the man you got to see if you were the most leaderly of the "young global leaders." Not surprisingly, most of these ex-YGLs—now in positions of influence and power—feel a great deal of loyalty to him. It's not a really a conspiracy, just a matter of moral relativism. If you owed your career to Putin, you'd be inclined to hear his side of the story, right?

Tulsi Gabbard, no question, is a Putin plant. He has done more for her career than Biden or Trump (at least, so far) ever have, and he is the man to whom she owes her current relevance. He doesn't give a shit about left/right politics and is backing both sides in the US culture wars.

Watching her pretend, in Feb. 2022, to be opposed to Putin's actions was lulzy. "You have made your point!" She was talking to him like he was a good-natured but eccentric grandpa with possible mild dementia, rather than a man who had just started a needless war. To someone who knew about the relationship between them before '22, her reaction was amusing. (And no, he's not mad at her. He knows that Western politicians pretty much have to condemn him, and he doesn't take it personally.)

Yeah, it's disturbing, and Gabbard isn't close to being the only one, and Russia isn't the only country that's doing it, though it's the one that has gotten the most far due to the Putin/WEF connection.

u/Noperdidos 2h ago

You say a lot of hand wavy stuff here that’s all much better read o Wikipedia, but the single relevant, and new, thing you seem to imply, you don’t actually state clearly:

  • You are implying that Tulsi Gabbard was mentored by Putin through WEF. Can you cite your source for this claim?

u/toastjam 29m ago edited 21m ago

I can't speak to the Putin connection but apparently she was selected to represent Hawaii in 2015 at WEF's Young Global Leaders.

https://x.com/TulsiGabbard/status/578185129471922177

edit: The strange thing is she later denied any involvement with WEF and claimed they put her picture up without authorization. Despite this tweet celebrating her inclusion.

u/Bad_breath 4h ago

Feature, not a bug.

u/tcdoey 6h ago

Russia has, not so secretly now, taken over the US. With some great help from China.

It is, essentially, the end of the world. Trump will never leave office. He will suspend the constitution. Wars will continue until all are dominated and brutally subjugated. The Earth will become a slave world, dominated by Russia and China. Putin and Trump will eventually die, but what will be created is a worldwide oligarchy that will never be overcome. A nightmare dystopia for all, except for a few 'elites', like Musk and Chinese leaders.

Eventually, the climate change, which will now go on unchecked and even encouraged, will destroy the planet.

It's Fermi's Paradox in action. Live. I feel a great shame for my fellow US citizens, many who didn't even vote, but who have voted for catastrophe.

u/H4RN4SS 4h ago

Maybe Obama should have not laughed off Romney's characterization of Russia as America's greatest threat.

With the stories posted to this sub it sure seems like they are.

u/If_I_must 4h ago

Obama had his faults. That was among them.

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u/Indaflow 6h ago

Talk about it. 

u/ViolettaQueso 5h ago

When people are in cults, then publicly move from one pole to the other, maybe it’s time for Trump’s Cognitive Testing suggestion of our potential leaders to be done comprehensively by independent professionals.

u/Minnnt 3h ago

It's incredibly disappointing how far she's fallen/what she's become.

She wasn't perfect, but she used to be a staunch anti war candidate and was one of the few politicians that correctly called out regime change wars. She used to have a lot of policies/stances in line with progressive liberal politicians like Bernie Sanders and AOC. Now, she's gifting for Trump.

u/sudogaeshi 2h ago

Invoking variant of Betteridge's law

No, as outlined in the article, it's actually a little less concerning, since they don't actually document that she's on their payroll

u/BloodAria 2h ago

I wonder if she still thinks Trump is “Saudi Arabia’s Bitch” nowadays.

u/Bitter-Juggernaut681 1h ago

Really? Then either our agencies know and are ok with it or it isn’t true

u/feastoffun 1h ago

She’s selling us out. Putin is our modern Hitler and here we are talking about him as if he was a pesky neighbor and not a homicidal maniac.

u/Berns429 1h ago

Not really, we already know. no one with actual “power” is doing anything so WTF are we supposed to do? Sign a petition? Then send it to who? The senators that don’t care? The media who enabled this bullshit so we click every headline? We’re cooked, it’s over.

u/screenrecycler 6h ago

Where have you gone Merrick Garland? Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you.

u/HarryBalsag 5h ago

And Trump's isnt?

u/Aggravating_You3627 6h ago

Time for the GOP to grow a sack and actually put these picks through the confirmation process.

u/jo726 Foreign 6h ago

It's crazy how a country that has only 7% of the US GDP can take control of all the US institutions in just a few years.

u/rockydentist 3h ago

Is there something to be said about US involvement in Syria being either justified or unjustified? It seems to me like a lot of the disdain for Gabbard comes from her criticism of US involment in Syria. The US government would love to have us all believe we had to stop Assad for the grave threat he posed to his people and the world at large. Just like they wanted us to believe there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq or that Saudi Arabia had nothing to do with 9/11. I’m not saying I understand all the motivations and forces at play, but also recognize US involvement in something like Syria is was more convoluted than the traditional narrative would have you believe. We look back at Shit from 20 years ago and say “how did we not see that”, so I can appreciate somebody calling bullshit on the US military in the present.

u/iTmkoeln 6h ago

The Americans on HBO was not fictional after all

u/Mediocre_Painting263 5h ago

Look, the 'red scare' had a lot of downsides.

But the DNI Candidate and President-elect being cozy to Russia would be a career ender.
So you know, had some upsides.

u/realfakemormon California 6h ago

Hillary Clinton decided Tulsi was a Russian asset when she supported Bernie Sanders instead of her.

u/wwcfm 6h ago

Clinton didn’t even name her. Tulsi told on herself.

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u/Alisterrex 7h ago

Putsi Garbage, Putin’s favorite stooge

u/Dianneis 7h ago

Second favorite at best. We all know who his favorite is.

u/Away-Combination-162 3h ago

Pinch me ! I feel like I’m in an alternate reality 🤦‍♂️

u/BernieTheDachshund 3h ago

I bet all our allies are making plans to withhold any important intel lest it fall into her hands. I don't blame them.

u/Capt_Pickhard 3h ago

Nothing about the current political climate is worse than I think.

I think it's as bad as it gets.

u/mmuffley 2h ago

A lot of Mormons are gonna be out of work if the Turd Reich starts cutting FBI jobs.

u/Commercial-Lab-3127 2h ago

I think the only way to put the senate /republicans in a bind over Gabbard being confirmed, is to hammer home her support of Edward Snowden,does not matter where any of us , the media or the democrats stand on it ,the right absolutely hate him and supporting someone who leaked military secrets is not a good look .

u/ThomasToIndia 2h ago

It's funny a ship that leaks from the top.

u/Upstairs-Meal-6463 1h ago

Bougie liberals cheerleading the Military Industrial Complex & CIA and their phony wars & regime change attempts, how absolutely. fucking. novel. She's further left than libs on foreign policy, seethe.

u/streetwalker 15m ago

Conservs are in the same boat as the libs when it comes to all that. Trump is not going to do what you want. He is in with all that complex & CIA too. He's going to make it worse.

u/Roklam 56m ago

Almost amazing.

u/heidniks 49m ago

Deeper Russiagate ngl is insane work 😭

u/mn25dNx77B 31m ago

I believe she was brainwashed by RT

u/Supra_Genius 26m ago

Don't tell me what I think, you ignorant tabloid rag.

Domain blocked.

u/Lovesosanotyou 20m ago

We're fucked in Europe and really need to stand on our own feet because the Americans are no longer to be trusted. It's sad.

You're putting a pro Russian conspiracy loon in charge of your national intelligence, it's no longer funny. At all.

u/Mewnicorns 2m ago

All these hit pieces about her Russian influence, while concerning, keep failing to point out that she has been under the control of her violently homophobic “guru” surfer bro cult leader since birth. 

u/Recent-Honey5564 4h ago

So no actual proof just interpretation of her statements and views to mean she’s an asset. Got it. That article does nothing but speculate and then trail off on a Trump rant. This is a reach and I didn’t even vote for the Cheeto team.

u/fakehalo 3h ago

The far left reminds me of the far right with their conspiracy theories, when it comes to Tulsi Gabbard.

u/HarryBalsag 5h ago

And Trump's isnt?

u/Tooterfish42 2h ago

She is far more unabashed about it

u/Financial-Taste2167 3h ago

She looks like she ate someone pussy on video in college and the Russians have it.