Okay, here’s the scoop.
Stop pretending “so-and-so is a Russian asset” and all that, as if individuals were lone wolves in this. They weren’t.
Here’s how it went: Russia has owned Trump since the 90s. He’s been laundering money through his shitty properties for ages.
At the Washington Correspondent’s Dinner, Obama pissed Trump off by making him a laughingstock in front of everyone, teasing him about his birther racism. So Trump decided to run for President and destroy anything that had Obama’s name on it.
Russia jumped in to help out, because Putin couldn’t stand the idea of Hillary putting her boot on his neck, and because they could use Trump to leverage against the USA and destroy NATO. Most importantly to Putin, Trump could ease sanctions which we’d imposed due to the invasion of Ukraine (which were really painful to Putin and his rich buddies, threatening his power base).
Putin also poured *huge* amounts of money into the NRA to be funneled into various Republican races (meanwhile, Wayne LaPierre grifted off his share, for which he’s currently being investigated), and managed to buy more than a few Congressmen and Senators in the process. What they didn’t get with NRA money, they’ve been “investing” in businesses local to other members of Congress, which then finds its way into political contributions.
This is why the “puzzling” attitude change took place about Russian sanctions during the RNC convention prior to the 2016 election.
Since then, through Trump properties, far more foreign money has been pushed into Trump’s pockets, further cementing their hold on him. Which puts him beholden to *foreign powers*, including Putin and the Saudis, and specifically *against* us, *against* the people of the USA. He has himself offered $millions to the various election campaigns of Republicans, with the expectation of total loyalty to him if they accept.
What you’re looking at today is this: if Trump goes down, he has very likely threatened all Republicans that they go down with him. He has them, because they all were on the take with him. They cannot possibly afford a fair Impeachment trial, because if there is one, he’ll be removed, indicted, and he’ll sing like a goddamned bird to take as many of them down as he can along the way.
So stop expecting the Republican party to act like a legitimate political party any more. They aren’t. They have morphed into a criminal enterprise, whether willingly or not, and their only hope is to cheat their way into ownership of the country. If they don’t succeed, they know that there’s a stack of indictments coming for each of them as soon as they lose control of the DOJ.
I’ve said many times “It only takes one side to wage a war” – the Republican party is waging an undeclared war against the USA. The sooner this becomes clear to everyone, the sooner we can gear up, fight it, and win it.
This is not the time for milquetoast bullshit like “how can they be acting so irresponsibly”. Recognize they are the ENEMY. They WANT to act this way. Their GOAL is to destroy our institutions, because that is their only path to safety. For them, this is life-and-death – because if they lose, they spend the rest of their lives in jail. Some may very well even end up in the electric chair for treason. They are desperate to avoid this – which is why you see Giuliani wandering around Eastern Europe on the payroll of Russians, doing “free” work for Trump. It’s why Bill Barr, who has no business doing business outside our borders, wandering around Europe. Both of them extorting bribes in the form of smearing Trump’s political opposition.
It should be obvious now to everyone that they take this shit very, very seriously. It’s about goddamned time the rest of the country – the press especially – did so as well. So if you know someone in the Press Corps, someone who works for the news, make sure they understand this.
