Psssst! Have you heard the latest? No? It turns out that Wayne LaPierre and Chris Cox are really — get this — secret Russian agents! No, really! They conspired with shadowy Putin-connected Russkis to elect Donald Trump. And we only know this because the NRA finally admitted it!
That’s the tenor of a recent story by the Woodward and Bernstein wannabes at National Public Radio (your tax dollars at work). They’ve been trying to pump a supposed NRA-Russia collusion narrative for months now. It’s been hopelessly convoluted and hard to follow (Everytown for Gun Safety has helpfully tried to make it clearer for you), mostly because there’s virtually no evidence that anything untoward ever happened.
But now, the intrepid NPR scribes and their other media pals have gotten their ink-stained little hands on a document — an actual document! — that proves what NPR and Everytown have been claiming all along.
To try to put this ludicrous narrative to bed, the NRA did something rather unprecedented. They sent Oregon Senator Ron Wydern — a NRA/Russia conspiracy theorist — information about some of their members. And the details reveal the true depth and breadth of this nefarious, unholy alliance and how much Russian funding has poured into the NRA, one of Trump’s most loyal front groups!
As The Federalist’s David Harsanyi writes:
This document (also known as a “letter”) prompted headlines that ranged from “The NRA received donations from Russian nationals” to “NRA discloses additional contributions from Russian donors.” All of which probably sounded pretty damning to anyone who didn’t read past a headline. Those who did, on the other hand, would soon learn that Russian “nationals” meant 23 “Russian-linked” individuals — some of them Americans citizens living in Russia — who had contributed around $2,300 total, mostly in membership dues, over three years’ time. Approximately $525 of that sum came from “two individuals who made contributions to the NRA.”
$525.
That’s right. These shadowy “contributions” from “Russian donors” are also known as membership dues. Many of which were apparently paid by Americans (who happen to ive in Russia). In NPR’s fever dreams, that total of $525 is what now qualifies as massive Russia-directed influence exerted over the evil NRA.
The idea that this kind story is worth publishing, much less framing in a conspiratorial, gotcha light, as many news outlets did, would be puzzling in any other era of journalism. Today, even though there’s no evidence of illegality (it’s unlawful for the NRA’s political shop to accept foreign contributions, not for the organization to have members in other nations), or for that matter, even any proof that substantial legal monies had changed hands, the stories still intimated wrongdoing.
Here’s how pervasive and intertwined the sub rosa relationship was between the Russians and America’s biggest gun-promotion racket:
As it turns out, there were a couple dozen, out of millions of members and donations over the past three years.
That’s right…$525 out of an estimated total of $250 million in annual dues How could the NRA brass possibly refuse to do the Russians’ bidding after a massive cash infusion like that?
The NRA does itself no favors answering politically motivated questions in the first place. Because Wyden, who apparently subscribes to The New York Times’ notion that defending your rights just makes you seem guilty, told ABC News that he is now considering “additional oversight actions.” Why? One imagines, because the NRA didn’t come back with an answer that implicated itself in shady behavior. Which is how an open-ended smear works.
Never mind that there’s zero evidence of any connection between Russia and the NRA. Or that the minuscule amount of cash the NRA took in dues couldn’t have exerted any influence on them in any conceivable way. The seriousness of the charge mandates further investigation.
In other words, Wyden and his complicit stenographers at NPR will continue to fan the flames of alleged conspiracy because it furthers two goals. First, it smears the hated National Rifle Association, which everyone knows has blood on its hands. Second, it keeps the Trump-Russia collusion narrative alive, if only in the minds of low information media consumers. Even though there’s apparently no there there. And never has been.
What happened to the days when these liberal flakes had nothing but glowing praise and admiration for the Russians and communists in general?
🤠
Well if the NRA was busy colluding with the Russians that would certainly explain why they weren’t busy defending the second.
There was a point in time where it appeared the NRA checked out. We were all running around in circles yelling WTF? Bet this is why.
Obumer left the Whitehouse and granny lost. The dems still love communism Russia at moment is not quite pure enough as in the Stalin days. The LOVVVVE Stalin
The Russians are failed Communists/socialists, and the competition. To the liberal progressive, it will work right when THEY implement it. “The Russians messed it up, but trust us, we will do it right!”
Liberals started hating Russia when it stopped being a Communist country with the dissolution of the Soviet Union on December 26, 1991.
If NPR were real journalists rather than Propagandists, they would investigate the real corruption of Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation for starters. Oh but that would be against their narrative.
“What happened to the days when these liberal flakes had nothing but glowing praise and admiration for the Russians and communists in general?”
That ended when Sec State Hillary Clinton stuck her nose in a Russian election, questioning its fairness. That pissed Putin off *bigtime*.
Remember in ’16 in the run-up to the November election when the Russians were constantly threatening nuclear war? It was a head game by Putin on Hillary. Trump fucked it all up by being elected.
Now, Putin is fucking with Trump. It’s not really personal, Putin is hell-bent on re-creating a buffer zone around the Rodina (Motherland), as it was pre-1991.
This puts the Baltic states in great peril. Putin is also hell-bent on destroying NATO’s mutual defense pact. Allowing all those Baltic states into NATO puts them in peril, IMO.
Putin wants his legacy to be nothing less than the restoration of the Russian Empire, cold-war era. Expect his actions to be towards that goal. The best way to thwart him is to cut him off at the knees financially, as in to provide Europe with cheap US natural gas. Force him to have to sell it to China…
*sigh*
It took way too long for Dan Zimmerman to get to the point, that the dues were membership fees from potentially Russian American citizens (big frickin deal), the rest of this article read like a drama-filled narrative from a teen-age girl.
TTAG, needs to get their act together. We dont want to the the tabloids or gossip rag of the gun world.
Too late.
Doesn’t mater one bit. The NRA as a Russian arm talking point is out there and I guarantee we’ll be hearing from plenty of people for the next 50 years at least.
Shit, assholes still ramble off “facts” from Moore’s stupid KKK cartoon from nearly 20 years ago.
Truth, lies. It really doesn’t matter at this point. All that matters is how many people believe a lie and when confirmation bias rules supreme believers are easy to come by.
Okay, I admit it — I’ve been colluding with Russia, as proven by my consumption of borscht.
As opposed to Sen. Wyden, who has been consuming bullscht.
“Ralph enjoys vodka! See? Proof he and Putin are in cahoots!”
🤠
Talk about a bad Sheppard , ignoring the wolves amidst his flock. Have these people no common sense , of reality that is. More and more of this propaganda being spread thru our so called news of the day. It stinks of shit. It seems to me that these morons need to find a new purpose in their life’s and let us live our life’s without their unrealistic , worthless . attack on NRA and like minded law abiding citizens. For the ignorant ,read it and weep puppets. First learn how to read. Second learn not to believe everything you hear / read as there is a word for it. Propaganda !!
You want some crazy prog. search on – nra branch in russia
the first thing that should have been highlighted is that the money was from membership dues – essentially magazine subscriptions.
Great example of piss-poor writing and/or intentional obfuscation by TTAG.
Agreed, TTAG writing style is atrocious, reads like a teenage girl talking about how her boyfriend dissed her
Why is NRA soooo quiet with all the gun grab laws being pushed at state level ?
Groups like Moms Demand and Everytown for gun stupidity are Hammering local lawmakers , yet it hardly gets a mention by the increasingly out of touch NRA.
You just don’t understand. See, two decades ago, a child accepted a candy bar from a man who would later become Vlad Putin’s butler. And that child grew up to become the OFFICIAL lawyer of record for a man who once met Wayne Lapierre! Obviously, the entire thing was planned by the NRA decades ago. How can anyone not see the connections?
/sarc off/
wow, they sure use a lot of string to make their argument…
Let’s be serious, though. 525$ does mean a hell of a lot more to the NRA than it does to Bloomberg, so maybe some investigation is warranted after all.
Maybe some Treason should be dealt with over at the (D)NC? I mean, if it has a definition at all, this fits.
Sedition anyone?
How much $$$ is being poured into overthrowing our Constitution?
How much FOREIGN MONEY is being taken to overthrow our Constitution.
I want some MFn pelts.
Wow! Glad you cleared that up😄 I was sooooo worried about the rooshuns…
THE ONLY RUSSIAN COLLUSION WAS WITH THE POS EVIL MFn communist (D)NC WITH THE:
1) Ohole – “I’ll have more flexibility after the election”
2) Hillary – “We’re going to do a reset with Russia and Putin”
3) Hillary – Russia’s “Uranium 1” is going to buy 20% of the U.S. Strategic stores (much of which was Fing imported) so that my foundation can collect millions.
4) Bill Clinton – I’m going to do a speech to Russian oligarchs for $500K cause I want my payola for Hillary doing her Uranium 1 deal.
4) Hillary – I’m going to have my State Dept. give Russia 2 islands in the Bering Strait. They’re not worth much, but it secedes territorial waters and prevents us TRACKING FING RUSSIAN SUBS MOVING UP INTO THE ARCTIC TO TEST NUCLEAR POWERED CRUISE MISSILES, AND CHINESE POS MFn SUBS THAT ARE JUST DOING THE [GREAT LEADER XI’s “Hey UN, the World should be run by globalists doing globalism, and China should be at the head of it (oh, and, btw, I’m now an Emperor)”].
5) Podesta – I am an evil twisted MF
6) Panetta – I didn’t see sh_t as CIA Director
7) Comey – I’LL MAKE SURE NO ONE SEES SH_T ABOUT HILLARY’S URANIUM 1 THING AND I’LL TRY TO KEEP TRUMP BUSY AS LONG AS I CAN, OR GET HIM OUT OF OFFICE.
8) Mueller – How much am I getting paid for this ass-circus cover for the POS (D)NC/Obama/Hillary/Russia thing again.
9) McCabe – I rolled over on the above parties but I’m pretending I didn’t
10) Sessions – I like swamp, swamp is good, he he.
11) Strozck (D)bag FBI and (D)NCunt Lisa Page – we rolled over on the above entities 5 months ago but we’re pretending we didn’t.
12) satan – ha ha ha. . . . what do you mean soros, “not tonight, I have a headache”, that weak sauce sh_t don’t cut it here.
So what if Russia did give money to the NRA. AND Putin poisons the opposition. What’s the U.S.A going to do about it, bitch sanctions? 2030 parts of the Ukraine and some other Russian place that got fucked up by Chernobyl’s nuclear fallout will be able to produce uncontaminated wheat again. The Ukraine supply’s 1/4 the world’s wheat.The U.S.has sanctioned the shit out of Russia, the U.S. IMO had better try to develop better relations with Russia. I do not know why America insist on building up China with our imports from them….Deny global warming if you want, call it climatic change, when the glaciers in the Himalayas melt shits going to hit the fan.Russia would make s good allie I think. What a world shaker that would be. Russia donation’s to the NRA— Go Putin
Well, if influence with the NRA is measured in dues and donation dollars, the Ruskies are definitely substantially behind me in the waiting line.
Da, komrade. I am loyal NRA Putin Pal for Scientific Socialist Soviet Union. I love AK and PPSh gun types. I love Rodina and guns. I love KGB. Baka komrade.
We took federal funds away from the CDC to limit the anti-gun propoganda. Maybe we need to do something similar with NPR.
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