September 16, 2016

Trump: “I Know Nothing” About Vladimir Putin

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Hmmm:

Here’s what Trump said about Putin: “I know nothing about him, really….I don’t like him, I don’t dislike him, I don’t have feelings one way or the other.”

Isn’t that bracing? Trump knows nothing about the guy who’s been running Russia for the past 16 years. Putin has invaded South Ossetia, annexed Crimea, and waged a secret war against Ukraine. He has murdered journalists, jailed dissidents, and ruined oligarchs who failed to please him. He has encouraged brutal campaigns against the LGBT community. He has crushed the independent press. He is militarily involved in Syria, often in opposition to American interests. He is one of the most important leaders in the world, and so addicted to publicity that it’s hard to avoid knowing about him.

But Trump knows nothing. Nothing. How reassuring in a candidate for president of the United States.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

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