What explains the Republican nominee’s fondness for Russia’s president?

That Trump admires Putin merely reflects the simple fact that those who want him to become president want a dictator to lead them. It also shows how many people tacitly approve of violence as a means to resolve conflicts. Donald is omnipotent and omniscient in his own words, and so probably in his own mind, and his followers want to believe he has those powers. Seen from afar, with much distance, it is a sign that many people feel their country has not served them well. As long as those who oppose US citizens who want Trump to become president don't at least try to address the genuine concerns that hide in there somewhere, because these people deserve respect like any other citizen, this "culture war" will remain. There is way too much talk about Donald Trump, because in the end he matters not: The citizens who would vote for him do.

Whenever I post something on here I get strange things happening to my computer after -people hacking my gmails -odd messages popping up with no-one on there-could it be that the Economist is one of the most trusted papers by the American people to read and is being hacked by cyber crooks like Putin's friends trying to intervene in the election if you write anything anti Trump? or is it simply cyber crooks -either way it only happens to me when I go on this site -does it happen to anyone else?

It is indeed dangerous to be right when all others, especially politicians, are self-righteously wrong, and especially when we have Saudi bribed Congressmen (such as Keith Ellison who is as thick as two short planks) around. Trump is honest, disruptively (of the corrupted two-party establishment) straight forward and upfront. A quality hypocritical and politically correct Americans with their perverted sense of morality can’t come to terms with. Obama is a dead loss, the other ones are beating around the bush. Hillary (a Saudi Arabian puppet) is the danger; she is duplicitous, iniquitous and treacherous, and will drag Americans into harm's way of major military conflict. Whereas, (Sanders and) Trump will spend Americans' time, energy and taxpayers' money on education and creating jobs rebuilding America'a nationwide crumbling infrastructure, will get Western Powers (NATO) to abandon their Cold War thinking and stop buggering about with China, Korea and Russia and stoking conflicts in Eastern Europe, will not look for trouble with heavy military presence around the world and will mind our own business; which is to look after the health of American people, creating real wealth and financial security for generations to come by getting well out of the weapons industry and into a prosperous and peaceful Air and Space industry.

Why is the FBI re-opening its investigations into Hillary? Haven't they had enough of hating her yet?

She hasn't done anything wrong, everybody says so.

I know, they hate her because she is a woman, she is a good woman, she is the smartest woman in the world and she wants to fight for us.

Yes, she will fight for us. In Syria, she wants to declare a no-fly zone to bring us into open conflict with Russia.

Fight, fight, fight. War, war, war. Nuclear, nuclear, nuclear. Hillary good, man bad!

She wants to fight for us in the East, too. She says she wants to ring China with missiles. Isn't that what we all want?

As secretary of state, she fomented wars in Ukraine, Libya, Syria, Iraq and Yemen. That is the best way to get peace and understanding, yes, that is why I am voting for peace and Hillary.

We need a woman to fight for us. Then we will have peace.

FBI reopens Clinton email investigation.
This is the time for Assange and/or Putin to release the real dirt if they have it.
Interesting 24-48 hrs to come. Even if nothing happens it's interesting because it'll mean that there is no dirt on her or its not available.

Trump has been bankrupt 4 times. Sensible banks won't lend to him. His Atlantic City junk bond investors lost money and sued him for fraud (unsuccessfully, the court said the prospectus included enough weasel words). He bragged of making money on the failed casinos, which implies an illegal failure of fiduciary duties to the investors. So the idea that Trump is owned by Russian oligarchs close to Putin is not at all far fetched. Russian mafia may be one of the few investors who could actually get their money back--if Trump values his life.

I don't believe that Mr. Trump would cozy up to Vlad. Much like President Reagan, Trump would limit Putin's expansion by updating NATO as well putting some misile bases under Vlad's nose.

A Forbidden Question

“If civilization had been left in female hands, we would still be living in grass huts.” -Camille Paglia (b. 1947)

Even to question the consequences of American men having entitled women to vote via Amendment XIX puts the questioner at risk of severe derision. The truth, nevertheless, is that until the 20th-century, with rare exceptions, women had little direct say in affairs-of-state, let alone the vote. Swiss men didn’t entitle women to vote until 1971.

Here in the USA, one consequence already has been a “War Against Men”. See "Mangling Masculinity" under ...
http://nationonfire.com/category/government/politicians/.

“In the end of days ... women will rule men.” -Isaiah

American women now outnumber men at the balloting box. Men would put Mrs. Clinton into the jailhouse. Women will put her into the White House. Consequences? Risking nuclear war rather than having a problematic, aged Lothario as President.

Putin isn't necessarily fond of Mr. Trump. He hates Mrs. Clinton, however, holding her in contempt for good reason. Even so, succumbing to blind ideology, American women will put this wretch into the office just to have a female President. To Hell with reality!

When, God forbid, the shooting starts and the bombs start falling, will Mrs. Clinton’s misguided supporters, men and women, say, “What have we done?” Fat chance!

In the war between ideology and reality, ultimately reality always wins. Behavior does have its consequences.

Obsession (with Putin) is the only expression I can find to describe The Economist's infatuation with the Russian leader.
And with that comes the endless repetition of the same old, same old and very tired talking points, insinuations, allegations and accusations.
As if the demonisation of Mr. Putin would lead anywhere.
It doesn't, except in the tiny brains of the great unwashed simpletons this paper (and others in the mainstream media) is trying to convince.
That's pretty sad.

This article needs to be printed in some sleazy rag paper, as the author noted this is a conspiracy theory based on a spin of the Clinton Foundation Supporters .. hopefully the Economist is free to say the truth and not a pay for play rag paper

Explain to us the "fondness" of the current crop of Western politicians?

Corporate sellouts, warmongers and hypocrites, closet imperialists, pretending to be all for human rights, but OK with siding with Jihadists in Syria, because of a deep butthurt towards Russia? The stuff of peace and stability?

Let me tell you one very big problem with you people, who occupy Westminster, the Pentagon, the White House and the mainstream media.

Continuing and championing a policy of aggression and confrontation towards the emerging world, especially Russia, China and Iran, is going to backfire. Let me repeat that. Its going to backfire.

Is it not problematic that Democrats and Neocons are "alarmed" at Trump seeking better ties with Russia? When seeking peace with an adversary becomes anathema to your dogma, I think you are a big part of the problem.

two brilliant friends

1. you can thank trump for politizing women, latino, islamic and ethnic voters. Great job rump at uniting your enemies against you and destroying your rotten brand.

2. you can thank putin for uniting islamic moderates, radicals and jihadists under one banner as they unify and counter attack all over syria ... then spread to the rest of europe. Great job sputin at uniting all islamist fighters against you ,,,, they will being coming home to roost

so putin and trump have much in common ... neither is as smart as they think they are ... even europe has begun troop build up along russian border which means putin will have to match ... and just recall how last soviet empire collapsed ... a rotten economy, over extended military and corrupt rotten leadership .... deja vu I suppose ....

is it me? or is this article badly written?
There is a hint of confusion even in the title, but the rest of the article i dont get much any betterer

or am expectating too much as a English personage?

Whats wrong with that? Trump and Putin are such great friends that Trump sold a US Uranium mine to Putin when he was in govt. ...wait a minute, that was probably not Trump!

TE and MSM are like energizer bunnies except the battery is from CFR and Bilderberger of global banks. After the masters switch it on, MSM just jump around shouting Putin...Putin....Trump...Putin....Putin...Trump...

"Mr Trump has countenanced the idea of easing the sanctions imposed after Russia’s""" illegal seizure of Crimea""" an annexation he has indicated he may recognise.

The Russians have been in Crimea for almost as long as the "English" have been in Southern Britain

In the mid-10th century, the eastern area of Crimea was conquered by Prince Sviatoslav I of Kiev and became part of the Kievan Rus' principality of Tmutarakan. In 988, Prince Vladimir I of Kiev also captured the Byzantine town of Chersonesos (presently part of Sevastopol) where he later converted to Christianity. An impressive Russian Orthodox cathedral marks the location of this historic event.

At the same time, the southern fringe of the peninsula was controlled by the Byzantine Empire as the Cherson theme.
Mongol invasion and later medieval period[edit]
Further information: Principality of Theodoro, Empire of Trebizond, Golden Horde, and Mongol invasion of Rus'
Genoese fortress of Caffa

Kievan hold on the Crimean interior was lost in the early 13th century due to the Mongol invasions. In the summer of 1238, Batu Khan devastated the Crimea and pacified Mordovia, reaching Kiev by 1240. The Crimean interior was under the control of the Turco-Mongol Golden Horde from 1239 to 1441. The name Crimea (via Italian, from TurkicQirim) originates as the name of the provincial capital of the Golden Horde, the city now known as Staryi Krym.

It could well be in your best interests to get along.

Little is known about “Satan II” beyond such government statements. Russian broadcaster Zvezda recently boasted the RS-28 was capable of “wiping out parts of the Earth the size of Texas or France.”

NUMBERS OF THE BEAST

It is generally believed the ICBM will weigh about 100 tons with a range of about 10,000km.

It can reportedly carry a payload of between 4 to 10 tons. At 10 tons, it will be able to carry 10 heavy or 15 medium independently targeted thermonuclear warheads.

Each heavy warhead is believed capable of producing a 750 kiloton blast. The detonation that flattened Hiroshima was just 15 kilotons. There are reports of extremely large single warheads capable of up to 20,000 kilotons.

The purpose of an ICBM is to carry these weapons into a suborbital position above a target where they would separate and plunge down towards independently designated targets.

A prototype of the new ballistic missile — which is based on the same liquid-fuelled rocket engine technology as its predecessor — was completed late last year. However TASS reports testing has been delayed as the testing facility was recently shifted to the Plesetsk cosmodrome took longer than expected to complete.T

Since there is again an abundance of people claiming that everything expressed here that they disagree with is the work of Putin's trolls, I thought I'd try and undermine them a bit.
There are Russian trolls working the social media. Mostly twitter, Instagram and YouTube. But to a lesser extent discussion boards too.
However.
There are NSA and GCHQ trolls working the same ground. The Snowden revelations proved that beyond reasonable doubt, but one would have assumed that they were there even before Snowden. This is so well established that even Guardian wrote about it.
___
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jan/31/british-army-facebook-wa...
____
In fact the first troll army created to influence the public discourse through manipulating major internet social networks was during president Obama's first campaign. It was hailed as novel and highly effective.
____
Now, I have come to believe that an NSA/GCHQ tactic is to try to disrupt ANY discussion that goes down a direction they don't like is by spamming it with comments like "you're a Russian troll". I frankly suspect anybody that does this of being paid to do this.
However, as it turns out on a more detailed examination of what most (not all) of these people generally say - well they turn out genuine, if somewhat naive people with genuine, if somewhat naive opinions.
This simply is an NSA/GCHQ tactic that works as a viral meme.

The thing certain is that Trump with Putin can settle in Syria the disaster caused by Obama and Hillary with their idiotic support to the s.c. 'Arab Springs' through which North Africa and the whole Middle East was set in fire and plumped in rebellions. Of course should Hillary win the election the catastrophe in those regions will spread rapidly like wildfire everywhere and the WW 3 would sand by. Hillary's victory would mean Armageddon

What about Mrs. Trump? What views does she have on Mr. Putin and Russia?

Trump sees China as the major emerging threat to American interests. Therefore he wants Russia to be at least neutral but better yet on America's side.
It's Nixon in reverse.
Duh.