Fake Endorsements

Is Putin's endorsement of Kamala Harris legit? Nyet

It’s ridiculous that an argument has to be made that Vladimir Putin’s “endorsement” of Vice President Kamala Harris is fake and he’s just trolling voters. Is anyone stupid enough to believe this “endorsement” is real? Yes. There are people dumb enough to believe this. We call them Trump supporters.

During an economic conference this week in Vladivostok, the Russian president said, “We will support her. She laughs so expressively and infectiously that it means that everything is fine with her.”

Do you see what Putin did there? He pointed out her laugh which has become a right-wing talking point. It was mocking and tongue-in-cheek. It was a nod to Trump who’s also mentioned her laugh. Putin can be subtle and tricky. He’s known for his mind games and shit like that works on people with small minds, people like Donald Trump.

Trump responded to this by saying, “I don’t know if I’m insulted or he did me a favor.” He’s trying to do Trump a favor just as he did in 2016 and 2020.

I’ve already seen two cartoons believing Putin’s “endorsement” is legit, which means there will be several more over the next few days. One of those MAGAt cartoonists is Gary Varvel, who is a right-wing goosestepping fundamentalist troglodyte. You have to wonder if Varvel is stupid enough to believe this endorsement is legit, or if he’s smart enough to see through Putin’s bullshit and he’s being dishonest in his cartoon. Maybe we should ask Gary if he’s being paid in rubles.

Putin made his remarks a couple of hours after the Justice Department charged two Russian citizens with directing a $10 million campaign to influence the 2024 election through online platforms that promote Trump's candidacy.

Putin is already spending more on this election than he did on the 2016 campaign. He doesn’t want four more years with a Democrat in the White House.

Cartoonist Lisa Benson is convinced, or lying, that the Russian disinformation campaign is a hoax even though this was a settled fact even before the 2016 election. During the 2016 campaign, the Trump Campaign invited Russians into their headquarters in Trump Tower. Putin started hacking the Democratic Party’s servers and the Hillary Clinton Campaign the same day Trump asked him to. Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign manager, shared polling data with Russia. After the election, Donald Trump spent four years up Putin’s ass the same way the entire Republican Party is up his.

We had an American president who lied and tried to conceal that we were attacked by a foreign power. Yes, election meddling and interference by an adversarial nation is an attack.

There were Russians criminally indicted this week by the DOJ. US companies hired useful idiot influencers such as right-wing goons like Tim Pool, Dave Rubin, Benny Johnson, and others, who were secretly funded by Russian state media employees working at Russian state-owned RT (Russia Today), a propaganda outlet disguised as a legitimate news outlet.

RT has been banned from broadcasting in the United States but its website is still accessible.

According to the indictment, paid-off media companies would use the money/rubles to churn out English-language videos that were "often consistent" with the Kremlin's "interest in amplifying US domestic divisions in order to weaken US opposition" to Moscow's interests, like its war in Ukraine, according to the indictment.

DOJ has charged Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva, two employees of RT, with conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act. They are accused of funneling nearly $10 million to a Tennessee-based content creation company, Tenet Media, for Russia-friendly content. They’re a little bit too friendly with Russia, I’d say.

Today, YouTube terminated Tenet’s channel along with multiple others. These are not Democrats being funded by Russia.

Putin’s endorsement is a joke, Russian interference in our and other nation’s free elections is not a joke.

We are under attack by Russia and the only thing worse than Americans not knowing it is the Americans supporting it.

Note: I’m aware it’s not fair to refer to Donald Trump as “Trump” in a cartoon and then refer to Kamala Harris as “Kamala.” It’s disrespectful. I also knew one of my proofers (she’s sharp) would point this out in the cartoon. But in today’s cartoon, I thought “Kamala” sounded better coming from Putin than “Harris.” I just want you to know that even if you don’t like it, I’m conscious of it.

Drawn in 30 seconds:

Timelapse with a voiceover:

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