Russia is not our friend.

Russia is not our friend.

Russia is not our friend.

I felt it necessary to try and get a mantra started, for the sake of those who might be on the fence, in regards to any involvement by Russia, no matter how minor, in our elections, and if it’s “no big deal,” as some would have you believe.

That, and, Russia is not our friend.

The intelligence community released their report on the alleged Russian involvement in the hacking of emails (which were subsequently released by WikiLeaks) of various Democrat officials.

Their conclusion was that Vladimir Putin, Russian president, ordered that a cyber-campaign be conducted, in order to help Donald Trump win the election.

Here is where it gets sticky, and there has been discussion back and forth over whether the information they provided to WikiLeaks had any real effect on the election.

They didn’t hack into voting machines. Nobody is alleging that.

The notion is that they released so much negative, damning information on Clinton, that it turned attitudes towards Trump.

I didn’t see it in that report, but previous reports have mentioned Russian “bots,” that flooded social media with praise for Trump, even as the WikiLeaks evidence was making the Democrats look increasingly wretched.

Personally, I’m thinking in compiled terms.

Yes, the Russians likely did try to influence the election, by both making Hillary look bad with the released emails, and by creating the army of Trump-bots to blend in on social media, among the actual Trumpidians and flooding the internet with pro-Trump talk.

Yes, little egg people, I see you on Twitter, with your names such as, @Trumpgirl23927u or @MAGA12345.

And who cares if you only follow 12 people, and have only 4 or 5 followers, yourself? You still matter!

However, Hillary Clinton was just a pathetic, very beatable candidate. The Democrats couldn’t have picked a worse candidate to run, so Putin could have channeled those resources elsewhere and still ended up with a friend in Washington.

At least, Trump really, really wants to be his friend.

The man-crush is real!

From the report:

“Russia’s goals were to undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process, denigrate Secretary [Hillary] Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency. We further assess Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump,” the report said.

Trump, who signaled throughout his presidential campaign that he was open to warmer relations with the Kremlin, has criticized United States intelligence agencies over reports about Russia’s cyber activity.

Trump went on to insist that the report showed that the intelligence community definitively stated that no voting machines were hacked.

Nobody suggested that the voting machines were hacked, actually, outside of a few, random nutters on the internet, and that was before the election, when they were so sure Trump would lose.

Saturday morning, however, Trump took to Twitter to signal that it’s time to embrace Russia with open arms.

Having a good relationship with Russia is a good thing, not a bad thing. Only "stupid" people, or fools, would think that it is bad! We…..

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2017

have enough problems around the world without yet another one. When I am President, Russia will respect us far more than they do now and….

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2017

both countries will, perhaps, work together to solve some of the many great and pressing problems and issues of the WORLD!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2017

I’m as big of a believer in extending the olive branch, as anyone. However, Putin’s Russia is not suddenly going to become the kind of regime that can be counted on as a reliable ally and friend.

They restrict religious freedoms, even more stringently than the leftists in America.

They execute journalists and political opponents.

Putin’s Russia is authoritarianism on steroids.

How do you befriend that sort of regime? Much less, how do you admire such a regime, as Trump has done, openly, ever since he began running for office?