I've not been following the political news today, so feel so much better not hearing the continuous bog about Brexit. This evening I see that there appears to be some sentiment that Trump didn't purposely collude with the Russians. So, perhaps that means he is simply a Russian Mafia puppet?
I have no excuse to offer for feeling that Putin is cute and sings better than Trump perhaps. I heard Putin singing the Russian National Anthem. It is quite pretty and um dignified to me.
With American politics, perhaps it is the case that all the rich guys look around for an idiot that they can boss around and that is who they put in. It seems that is not the case with Putin, though I do not entertain the delusion that he is an Angel.
I don't think that Trump is a puppet. For one thing, he's wealthy enough that he doesn't need to kowtow to anyone for donations. If the Russians wanted him to win, it wouldn't necessarily have anything to do with collusion or having some sort of control over him. It's just as likely that they wanted someone who was
outside of the control of the US ruling establishment, which seems to be most people's main problem with Trump.
In other words, the Russians may have wanted to throw a monkey wrench into the system, but that doesn't mean that they would have direct control over that monkey wrench or how it actually affects the system.
It seems clear that the US ruling elite have grown so accustomed to having the deck stacked in their favor that once a wild card (or monkey wrench) like Trump enters the game, panic sets in and it's like Chicken Little and the sky is falling. That's what we've been seeing these past couple of years since Trump's election.
Ever since America was founded, there have always been those who have had concerns about the "wiles of foreign influence" (as George Washington put it). During Washington's time, there were Americans who took a pro-British view while others took a pro-French view - since France and Britain were the two main superpowers at the time, and it was felt that America should have to fall within one or the other's hegemony. Washington and others wanted America to remain neutral and detached from such matters.
It worked well for us up until the World Wars, at which time there were pressures from outside entities to get us involved and take sides with one European power against another European power. Big money has also been part and parcel of the electoral process and the manipulation of the masses' votes - and we haven't been very particular lately about where that money comes from, just as long as it spends.
For generations since then, we've had a political system in which it's been largely okay with the Powers That Be that foreigners have influence and that money buys elections. The most prominent foreign influence over America by far has come from Britain, but we've also seen influence from China, Japan, the Arab world, and many other countries.
Heck, even the Iranians were alleged to have colluded with the Reagan campaign to help Reagan get elected in 1980 - and few people even knew about, that let alone made a big deal about it. (The irony is that the Iranians were so naive and clueless about American politics that they didn't realize they were enabling right-wing militarism which still persists today, especially in US policies towards the Middle East.)
As for the Russians, I don't think they're really much of a direct threat to the U.S. They're not the "evil empire" that they once were. Ever since the end of the Cold War, our military has been gallivanting around the world as if we think we own the whole planet. If there's any Russian hostility towards us now, it's only because they're ostensibly trying to remind us that we don't control the entire world. The sooner Americans can realize this and come to terms with it, the better off we'll all be.