{"id":263500,"date":"2016-08-24T10:52:52","date_gmt":"2016-08-24T10:52:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/the-foreign-invasion-of-american-politics\/"},"modified":"2016-08-24T20:06:41","modified_gmt":"2016-08-24T20:06:41","slug":"the-foreign-invasion-of-american-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/latest-news\/the-foreign-invasion-of-american-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"The Foreign Invasion of American Politics"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

As one of my Twitter followers put it<\/a>
\n so succinctly: \u201cGlobalization: Where leaders from any country get to pick US
\n Presidents.\u201d As the Clinton campaign\u2019s Robby Mook tears a page out of Joe McCarthy\u2019s
\n book and smears Donald Trump as being \u201cPutin\u2019s
\n puppet<\/a>,\u201d the irony is that this election has seen foreign interference in
\n American politics to an unprecedented degree \u2013 on Hillary\u2019s behalf.<\/p>\n

In the past, foreign actors tried to hide such activities, rightly thinking
\n that they might encounter resentment \u2013 or even legal consequences \u2013 for trying
\n to meddle in affairs that are none of their damned business. Not anymore. Now
\n that we\u2019re a global empire, with our leaders proclaiming the supreme importance
\n of exercising \u201cUS leadership\u201d and sticking our noses in every petty squabble
\n on earth, our client states are openly interfering in our internal affairs.
\n After all, if we can engage in \u201cregime change\u201d campaigns, and dictate the terms
\n and results of Lower Slobbovia\u2019s elections, why can\u2019t they interfere in ours?
\n To this end they employ legions of publicists, lobbyists, and tame congressmen
\n to pursue their national interests, mostly at our expense: the billions in \u201cforeign
\n aid\u201d we ship overseas come back to our shores in the form of exorbitant fees
\n paid to PR firms \u2013 a rare trade deal where American firms actually come out
\n ahead!<\/p>\n

Most of this is relatively subtle, and covert \u2013 or, at least, it has been up
\n to now. However, the Trump phenomenon has changed the rules of the game, and
\n foreign actors are now openly coming out of the closet \u2013 so to speak \u2013 and brazenly
\n attacking the GOP candidate. I can\u2019t recall a presidential contest where a foreign
\n ambassador has written an op-ed piece attacking one of the candidates, but this
\n election season has Ukraine\u2019s ambassador to the US, Valeriy Chaly, publishing
\n a
\n piece<\/a> in the Ukrainian Weekly<\/i> echoing the Mookarthyite charge that
\n Trump is the
\n Manchurian candidate<\/a>. Trump\u2019s comments on the Ukraine issue \u201chave raised
\n serious concerns,\u201d we are told, as Chaly goes on to write that:<\/p>\n

\u201cSince the Russian aggression, there has been bipartisan support for U.S.
\n sanctions against Russia, and for such sanctions to remain in place until the
\n territorial integrity of Ukraine is restored. Efforts to enhance Ukraine\u2019s defense
\n capacity are supported across the aisle, as well, to ensure that Ukraine becomes
\n strong enough to deter Russia\u2019s aggression.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cEven if Mr. Trump\u2019s comments are only speculative, and do not really reflect
\n a future foreign policy, they call for appeasement of an aggressor and support
\n the violation of a sovereign country\u2019s territorial integrity and another\u2019s breach
\n of international law.\u201d <\/i><\/p>\n

Chaly doesn\u2019t get it, but that\u2019s not surprising \u2013 he\u2019s a foreigner, after all.
\n Trump…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As one of my Twitter followers put it so succinctly: \u201cGlobalization: Where leaders from any country get to pick US Presidents.\u201d As the Clinton campaign\u2019s Robby Mook tears a page out of Joe McCarthy\u2019s book and smears Donald Trump as being \u201cPutin\u2019s puppet,\u201d the irony is that this election has seen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519,18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-263500","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire","7":"category-latest-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263500\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}