I have’t blogged anything since March, and probably would never have again. Then I watched Donald Trump stand next to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the official sponsor of the White House reality show, glibly debate America and its institution in exchange for a soccer ball.
I feel like I say this a lot, and with varying degrees of hyperbole during these dark days, but WHAT IN THE HOLY MOTHERFUCKING FUCK DID WE WATCH? And how in the hell can anyone who claims to give a shit about this country be OK with what surely is, the final breath of our Republic? Could the original pee tape be more disgusting than what we watched?
The trained KGB spy and the fat, yapping dipshit who binge eats KFC and doesn’t like reading intelligence briefings were not even trying to hide it. You would think they could pantomime slap each other around a bit–all in good fun–to make it look like something other than a craven surrender on Trump’s part. Get a stuntman, if you have to. The only impressive thing about this presser was how Trump was able to speak despite having Putin’s load in his mouth (was I the only one who caught President Twitterfarts saying, “I speak for Russia”? Did I hallucinate it? Because I wrote it down as soon as I heard it).
Only one journalist had to be bum-rushed to the door, as the president* talked about the goddamn Electoral College and how the Mueller probe is bringing us closer to nuclear war, while Vladimir Putin’s face seemed about ready to explode with delight. On the bright side, Putin gave Trump a soccer ball that probably has a listening device in it. That’s pretty cool, right?
Meanwhile, congressional republicans were meeting in Moscow on the 4th of July with Putin’s top men and The Beltway Media treated it as perfectly normal.
They hacked the DNC. This all began with a cyber-Watergate. Any GOP lawmaker who does not denounce the shambolic, humiliating, treasonous performance we just saw from Donnie Dementia is tacitly admitting that they are disloyal to the United States of America. Something like this should be followed by government-wide mass resignations. It won’t be, though, because nobody wants to give up their Obamacare.
This meeting came on the heels of the most disastrously embarrassing performances in the UK since Mitt Romney, where Trumps did his damnedest to damage America’s traditional alliances. Of course, that’s what Putin wants, so it’s probably a mission accomplished moment for the president. Trump shambled around the UK, making fart noises at America’s foes in the EU, and shit all over our traditional enemy, the United Kingdom. When he was with the Queen and walked past her and then ahead of her, like a goddamn lunatic. Not even once did he acknowledge that she was there or might have needed an arm…it was as if he were imagining that he was the KING and those were his little toy soldiers who were there to pay homage to his gloriousness.
To be honest, Republicans likely had no expectations of Trump behaving like a normal person from either party and expressing even mild annoyance that Russia, under Putin’s direction, had hacked the DNC during the 2016 campaign — as well as probing the election vendors and voter rolls of an unknown number of states. This was probably why Rand Paul, on CNN’s “State of the Union,” argued that all countries “meddle” in foreign elections. Yeah, it’s not just the kleptocratic, authoritarian regime: We’re just a bunch of snoopy Gladys Kravitzes!
Trump, a so-called “businessman at heart”, ranks “taking advantage” of the US in trade above attacking the very heart of our democracy. I don’t know why he’s so hacked off about countries in NATO not “paying their bills” when Trump’s notorious for stiffing people.You’d think they’d bond over their mutual assured deadbeat-ness. This all leaves Trump’s fellow Republicans scrambling to rationalize the president’s soft spot for a major geopolitical opponent that did more to us recently than Britain ever did, even when it inflicted Piers Morgan upon us.
Donald’s right about one thing, he didn’t directly collude with the Russians as he’s too fucking stupid, and the Russians know this. Rather Paul Manafort, Mike Flynn, Rick Gates, George Papadopolus, Donad Jr, Wilber Ross, Erik Prince, Michael Cohen, Jared Kushner, and many others did on his behalf.Last Friday, special counsel Mueller indicted 12 Russian officers of the GRU, also known as Russian military intelligence, for alleged election hacking offenses. President Putin of course personally ordered that operation, as well as the poisoning attacks in the UK, a thing that’s been happening. Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, said out loud that the lights are “blinking red” on incoming Russian cyberattacks on the upcoming midterms, and just on America in general. He compared it to the warning signs our intel community got before 9/11, you know, the ones that were ignored. So of course, Donald Trump had to have his little All By Myself meeting with Putin, who is probably literally his handler.
I am starting to admire the Russian’s approach overall. Seriously. Which party do you infiltrate? Which organization? Not the party that is constantly having its patriotism questioned, not the organization that is accused of undermining the rule of law. No – not the Democratic party or the ACLU: The Republican party and the NRA. Stupid Americans will never see it coming. The NRA is a weapons selling organization. One of Russia’s only two real exports is weapons. There was no real infiltration needed there. I mean, the GOP’s White Evangelical base have been Putin puppets since at least 2012. They love his crackdown on the wheys and he embodies the virile, muscular leader thing they claim Jesus was. This is an outgrowth of the bog standard racism and hate of the base. No GOPer pol is going to cross the Tea Party crazies unless they want to get primaried by an even nuttier candidate from further right. Also no real infiltration needed. Both groups voluntarily walked into Putin’s embrace. The propaganda network was already in place. It was only necessary to subvert it.
It’s oddly, bitterly instructive: when Russia was formally communist, it was, in many dimensions, less dangerous to its neighbours. Sure, if mostly because the rest of the world were more on their guard. The trouble with Putin’s kleptocracy is, in a world in which money and information flow easily, they _have_ money (or enough to get some pretty good leverage over the for sale, post-madcap looting of the former state, notwithstanding their now generally flatlined economy), and they’re accomplished exporters of misinformation…
They know the game. The lunatic right wing worldwide is pretty much the same easy mark, the same ready fifth column, Italy to Alaska. Talk their talk, stoke their fears, join them in the same wedges: scary Islamists, scary immigrants, dirty gays, slutty, county women, the wrong kind of internationalism will kill us all (they’re fine with the kind where the rich move filthy money around without ramifications, and at the expense of everyone else, less so with actually beneficial trade or cultural exchange). Marry up the flag and Christian chauvinism, whether Orthodox or evangelical, play to white nationalism, boom, you gots yourselves some ready and willing allies, ready to lick the boot of the strongman.
The seeds for that propaganda network can be traced all the way back to Nixon, thanks to his PR man Roger Ailes who waited patiently until Nixon killed the Fairness Doctrine and got Murdoch money to create his own “Republican CNN” right smack-dab in the middle between the ’94 Gingrich backlash and Monicagate. Monicagate begat Shrub. Fox dials up the crazy after 9/11 and thumps the drums of war. A breathless America elects Obama to clean up Shrub’s mess, so Fox dials up the crazy to unbearable levels and we get the Tea Party. They continue delegitimizing and dehumanizing Bamz and Hillary for the next six years. They infiltrated naive progressives and pounded their message into their unformed brains. Until, finally, Fox begat Trump. The GOP has been cultivating media as propaganda for a fascist coup for at least 50 years. Fabian fascism, the Business Plot and Powell Memo made flesh. Russia by way of the new media outlets Facebook and Twitter put them over the top!
If you’re as old as I am, you’ll recall that back in the 1980s, the whole Republican brand/pro-establishment Middle Americans involved cherished “traditional morality”, law and order, and venerated institutions like the FBI. AND THEY HATED THE RUSKIES. It was the crazy commie libs who thought D.C. was a “swamp” where politicians conspired with one another to thwart social and economic progress. Now, the Republican president is talking like some kind of crazy commie lib, loving on the Ruskies, bashing the FBI and giving the benefit of the doubt to a former KGB agent and conservatives have cold decided that defending Trump is more important than defending the FBI. The Deep State controls the levers of power in D.C., and the FBI is simply a conspiracy of pizza and taco loving leftists dedicated to electing Hillary Clinton and bringing down Donald Trump. The derangement has spread to every corner of the country, from California’s central valley to Western Pennsyltucky. Indifference to sexual libertinism. Pro-Moscow sympathies. Paranoid conspiracy theories. A violent, radical fringe. Hatred of the G-men at the FBI, along with the rest of The Corrupt Establishment. Four decades ago such markers defined the radical left—and everything about liberalism that conservatives loathed. Now they define the American right.
Post Treason Summit, most Republicans hid in their bunkers until the Heritage Foundation banged out some mantra for them to spout, deploring–well, something, while blaming it all on Hillary and Obama. Paul Ryan practiced his “anxious face,” and Chuck Grassley and Devin Nunes hunkered down somewhere drawing up articles of impeachment against Rod Rosenstine.
Laura – vesuvius of vomit – Ingraham banged away on Twitter with this, in response to John Brennan’s impassioned statement about Trump’s treason: “What is @JohnBrennan hiding? If he’s this desperate to get @realDonaldTrump out of office now—what was he willing to do to stop him from winning election in first place?”
Jesus God. Republicans. There isn’t enough hot water and strong soap on earth to clean away the stain.
Republican’s Helsinki response is typical of most elected Republicans, who want to walk the political tightrope of acknowledging that a crime has been committed (Russia’s attacks on our elections) while still receiving the stolen merchandise (the promotion of the GOP agenda through Trump, oh and also stolen DCCC data used by Ryan’s superpac, but let’s just keep ignoring that). Overall, Republicans are happy that Trump won the election, never mind how, but I imagine they’re more than a little disappointed that Putin owns a US President. Paul Ryan appeared visibly annoyed that he had to talk about Putin when he’d rather talk about how he planned to starve old people.
The House responded to Trump’s surrender to Russia with the second useless hearing on supposed conservative bias in social media – promoting the narrative that there are sensible people out there desperately attempting to control Trump, which is obviously preferable to the reality that Trump is controlling the GOP-led government and he in turn is controlled by a Russian dictator – or as the apes who run the world in the future will call them “The Diamond and Silk Hearings.”
It’s the time the Republicans drag ass from their bunkers to take to Twitter to make sad words about President Treason selling out the country. They are concerned, nay even deeply troubled, that Trump would stand next to Putin and pretend the Russians didn’t hack the 2016 election. Patriotic Republicans are SHOCKED! Well, not, like, upset enough to do anything about it — not with a fascist carpooler to jam into the Supreme Court. But they’ve got tweets!
Marco Rubio gently disagreed with Trump’s absurd insistence that Putin didn’t interfere with our elections, but he ultimately supports the feller who gave him a wedgie during the 2016 primaries, claiming the interference didn’t really matter. Does Rubio think presidential campaigns are ultimately meaningless, because Russia actively “campaigned” for Trump? Does Putin look like his evil plan didn’t work? When Putin used to meet with US officials who weren’t his personal property, he seemed constipated. Yesterday, during his presser with Trump, Putin looked like he’d just had the most satisfying dump in recorded history. Thanks, Marco. That was of absolutely no help whatsoever. Also, why are you tweeting in the middle of the night like Lady Macbeth at her looniest? I know it sucks serving as a puppet’s puppet, but get some rest, Marco!
Mitch McConnell? All this turtle freak wants it to maintain the illusion of Trump’s legitimacy long enough for them to pack all the courts with more wing-nut judges. He last tweeted on Friday when he shared a positive op-ed about Brett Kavanaugh, who will still somehow wind up on the Supreme Court despite the events of the past week. The male-dominated punditry condemned Hillary Clinton for her “delayed” response on Harvey Weinstein when she no longer held or was seeking public office. Yet, it’s again falling for the “banana in the tailpipe”of thinking the latest Trump horror will inspire the GOP to honorable action.
Paul Ryan? Come on down! Show the baby weasels how it’s done!
“There is no question that Russia interfered in our election and continues attempts to undermine democracy here and around the world. That is not just the finding of the American intelligence community but also the House Committee on Intelligence. The president must appreciate that Russia is not our ally. There is no moral equivalence between the United States and Russia, which remains hostile to our most basic values and ideals. The United States must be focused on holding Russia accountable and putting an end to its vile attacks on democracy.”
So you’re generally mad at someone, whose name you aren’t mentioning. And you hope the President appreciates that Russia is not an ally. Bold leadership, Mr. Speaker! Reminiscent of the the “vaguebooking” your friend posts on social media when their marriage is collapsing. He claims Russian interference had no effect on an election decided by 78,000 votes across three states. That’s actually dumber than pretending it didn’t happen at all.
Sure, Donald Trump is dismantling all our institutions and turning us into a worldwide laughingstock, but he helped fulfill Ryan’s dream of passing a Big Fat Tax Cut For Rich Fuckwads, so he can drag his horrible granny-starving ass back to Wisconsin where he can disappear into his survival vault, insulated against the screams of the the dying, and where he can not worry about his former colleagues going on to slash Social Security and Medicare, since mysteriously we just don’t have the revenue for that stuff anymore. He’s accomplished his life’s work, like a salmon that has already spawned, so now it’s just a matter of waiting for the bears to come. His lasting political ideology will be of his unstinting dedication to the proposition that the poor must be punished for being poor, and the rich must be rewarded for their virtue.
As for John MnCain’s outrage? Any jackass can burn down a barn. Except John McCain. All he is capable of doing is standing somewhere where he looks like he can’t possibly have helped light the fire and yelling that the flames are going to ruin that barn.
During an interview Sunday Trump wore a hat with “USA” in big letters on it, presumably so someone could easily return him if he got lost on the field trip, Trump went so far as to call the European Union a “foe” of his country, which if you believe his hat is supposedly the United States not Russia. This FREAK OF NATURE has to be ousted. Every Republican who remains complicit should be tried for treason when this nightmare ends. Even Voldemort was defeated. Not that Trump is Voldemort, Putin is Voldemort. Trump would be lucky to be Putin’s house elf when this is all over.
I don’t know about anybody else, but I’m certainly not willing to die from hypoxia holding my breath for Republicans to do anything, anything at all, to stop him, as Donald Trump, frolics through fields making daisy chains with a self-made Russian dictator and coincidental poisoner who our own justice department believes attacked our mostly free elections and our true national monument, the Internet.
We should all be meeting in somebody’s basement to plot and plan and learn Russian and figure out WHAT THE FUCK TO DO. In the meantime let’s take a purity pledge to do two things:
FIRST
Copy and paste this to your Senators, governor, and congress critter:
I am a voter in [your district].
I have no words for the spectacle of our President* aiding and abetting the enemy on the world stage. Democrats in Congress and any of the thus-far craven Republicans who have an ounce of self-respect, not to mention patriotism, left MUST take immediate, forceful action to remove this dangerous man from office:
1. Deny him another Supreme Court justice, by any means
2. Deny a quorum on any vote, in both chambers
3. Start a media shit storm to bring ALL Americans around–no more “understanding” his deplorable base. They other 70% of us need him GONE.
4. Every Democratic member (and Republican, see above) needs to be on the steps of Congress NOW condemning his statements. You need to be there every day until he’s gone.
SECOND:
Trump is entirely dependent on Fox News to maintain his grip on his base. Deny Trump his propaganda outlet and he no longer has a vehicle to perpetuate his daily lying. It’s time to aggressively boycott everything associated with Fox News. Block it on your parent’s teevees. Ask to have it turned off in restaurants, hospitals, in waiting rooms, at the airport. Stop the malignant strain from entering the brains of your fellow Americans.
SPREAD THE WORD: #TUNEOUT #WALKAWAYFROMFOXNEWS
Sweet Christ. I can’t even. All my evens are permanently disabled. When this is all over, I’d like to humbly suggest that once the trials are finished, we exile the Trump family and all of their Congressional supporters to… oh, let’s say… a small Aleutian island where they can see Mother Russia.