In a free market ideological world Trump using the Russians to help him financially is assumed kosher. But praising a political bully is hardly presidential or consistent with American values.
"It’s tempting to say that Donald Trump rose to his current position by way of a massive historical accident, despite the fact that he knows nothing and understands nothing. But I think that’s almost entirely upside down, and is another way of insisting that the current situation in the United States isn’t as bad as it looks, and can be remedied with a few replacement parts. Trump was elected president precisely because he is an arrogant ignoramus who spews out “politically incorrect” bigotry unsupported by any evidence. Furthermore, he has an unparalleled understanding of our culture’s most central elements: the marketing and branding of fame, the power of mass media, and the extent to which image and rhetoric can reshape or even replace reality."
http://www.salon.com/2017/07/08/don...-of-civilization-and-we-end-up-with-this-guy/
"In terms of Russia's cyber capability its worthy to note that LUCKY-7 managed to fuse together all aspects of the traditional KGB-style operations and then marry them up with the advanced cyberwarfare capabilities of the more modern FSB. Their human intelligence officer, oligarchs, and the Russian news media apparently groomed powerful but friendly American associates over several years through financial, personal, and political patronage. If they sought to create a cadre of fellow travelers in their hatred of Hillary Clinton and deep admiration of Russia's political hardball, they got it in spades. Until 2016 it was unthinkable that Americans could be assembled in mutual endeavor to manipulate the goodwill of the American people in order to further their own personal financial interest at the behest of a hostile government. But it appears to have not only happened but even managed to completely usurp the stridently anti-Communist Republican Party and replace it with a presidential nominee who openly lavishes praise on Russia's leader, disparages NATO, and promises to dismantle America's superiority in order to allow Russia to take the role of world's superpower. The fact that Russia can smile, deny, and at the same time conduct cyber and propaganda operations and still have Donald Trump beg them for cyber espionage assistance to hurt another American is unbelievable. If it reveals anything it proves the old KGB policy that loyalty to one's country is elastic if the money is right.
On September 8, 2016, Trump gushed with admiration and at the same time insulted America's president.' He was quickly seconded by vice presidential nominee Mike Pence, who agreed "I think it's inarguable that Vladimir Putin has been a stronger leader in his country than Barack Obama has been in this country."
By publically choosing a known, dangerous, and proven autocratic adversary who has murdered opponents, killed his own citizens, conducted acts of terrorism, and invaded and seized other nations in violation of global norms, Trump and Pence chose Russia's values over America's. It has been said that this election would spell the rise of fascism and end the two-century-long run of American democratic governance. It may be worse than that. The deliberate subversion of America's interests to those of a hostile adversary has never before been suggested aloud in polite company in the history of this nation.
When asked at the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America Commander-in-Chief Forum about Putin, Trump said "Well, he does have an 82 percent approval rating, according to the different pollsters, who, by the way, some of them are based right here." Trump continued,
If he says great things about me, I'm going to say great things about him .... I've already said, he is really very much of a leader. I mean, you can say, "Oh, isn't that a terrible thing-the man has very strong control over a country." Now, it's a very different system, and I don't happen to like the system. But certainly, in that system, he's been a leader, far more than our president has been a leader.
Spoken at a forum of men and women who fought and served against the Soviet Union in the Cold War, Trump's ability to make them forget their service to the nation and agree with him that Russia is a better nation than America because a dictator showed him some love, revealed that the subversion of the unwitting asset appeared complete...."
p151
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32202585-the-plot-to-hack-america
