The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!

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Whenever we are headed to a full moon, I suffer from insomnia.  As I tossed and turned last night, instead of counting sheep, I started thinking of all the Russians that I could name off the top of my head.   Let's see, there is Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev, Yeltsin, Gorbachev, Baryshnikov,  Nureyev, Yul Brynner, Leo Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov, Catherine the Great, Emperor of Russia and Anastasia.  Then my thoughts turned to the movies about Russia and the Soviet Union:  The Brothers Karamazov, Doctor Zhivago and thanks to TCM, Ninotchka with Greta Garbo and Melvyn Douglas as well as another Greta Garbo film, Anna Karenina.  There may be other names, books and films somewhere in the recesses of my brain, but I think I have listed enough to illustrate my point.  Of the few Russian leaders, authors, dancers, actors, etc. I can name, there is one category in which I can say with absolute certainly I do not have any names:  Russian ambassadors.  That was the case until last week   when suddenly the name Kislyak was bandied about in the media.  For 69 years I have never known the name of any Russian ambassador until the 45th president of the United States was elected.

Without a shot fired, or bombs dropped or airplanes flown by terrorists into American buildings, the Russians attacked and landed.  Make no mistake, the Russian cyber attack  was as much of an attack on our country as the terrorist attack of  9/11/2001.  No lives were lost, but we took a direct hit on our democracy.  One which may have more consequences than we could ever imagine.  It does not take a giant leap of mental gymnastics to determine the Russian influence on our presidential election.

Following the bouncing ball down the yellow brick road:
  • Did the Russian hacking of the DNC, John Podesta's personal emails  and subsequent release of that information by Wikileaks influence the presidential election? 
  • Did then candidate Trump encourage Russia to continue their interference into the presidential campaign ( I love Wikileaks)?
  • Did the Republican nominee, Trump ask the committee at the RNC convention to officially alter its stance on the Ukraine?
  • Who is  Carter Page and what is his connection to Russia?   
  • Did Michael Flynn collude and/or  encourage the Russians to interfere in our democratic process  as well as make promises regarding the dropping of sanctions prior to Trump's inauguration? Note that Flynn is now listed as a foreign agent for Turkey and has been working for them since August 2016 receiving over $500,000 in payment from their government.
  • Was Michael Flynn properly vetted by the new administration prior to being offered the role of security adviser?
  • The three Trump advisers who met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at the Republican National Convention are Jeff Sessions, Carter Page, and J.D. Gordon. 
  • Paul Manafort ???
  • Why is Trump  pro-Putin?  
  • Why is Trump not speaking out about the hacking and infiltration of the CIA's intelligence procedures?  It is common knowledge that Wikileaks is an arm of the Russian government.  Is he not speaking because of Wikileaks connection to Russian?
  • What is Trump hiding in his income taxes?
  • What does Trump owe Putin besides his thanks for handing him the presidency? 
  • Do we have a road map of all the possible conflicts of interest Trump has with his businesses and Russia?
  • Is Trump capable of telling the truth?
  • Where does Trump begin and Steve Bannon end? 
THE BIG QUESTION:  WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE?
Apparently, most of the Republicans, conservatives and right-wingers feel that the "end justifies the means."   Have we really taken our government and  the American way of life so much for granted that we are willing to put our heads in the sand? 
      
By the way, how's that "sitting out" the election because you don't like either candidate working out for you?  For those who cast their vote for a third party candidate, feeling proud about that, are you? As for any Republican, especially those who call themselves Christians or evangelicals, but still voted for Trump, I have no words.
   
I do have some advice.  Learn Russian  (said with a bit of sarcasm, a nod and a wink a la Elizabeth Warren).  I grew up during the Cold War.  I remember that once a week, my hometown practiced their civil defense alarm system.  I think it was every Wednesday at noon.  The alarm was to be used to alert the residents in case of an attack..  I also remember the civil defense drills we had in school, the old  "duck and cover."   Our high school even had a teacher who taught Russian.  How many schools today still teach Russian? 
  
What exactly did the  Russians want to achieve by interfering with our presidential election and helping Trump become the president?  Aside from Putin's hatred of Hillary Clinton, I think the answer is obvious.  They wanted to diminish our country in the eyes of the world, to make our democracy look ludicrous.  The truth may hurt, but Trump has made us the laughingstock of the world.  Keeping score?  Russia won.

  

Steve Bannon at CPAC:

“The third, broadly, line of work is deconstruction of the administrative state. ... If you look at these cabinet appointees, they were selected for a reason and that is the deconstruction. The way the progressive left runs, is if they can’t get it passed, they’re just going to put in some sort of regulation in an agency. That’s all going to be deconstructed and I think that that’s why this regulatory thing is so important.”
    
     

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