Trump, Russia, Investigations

When I was much younger...back in the early 1970s...I was frustrated by what seemed on the part of many liberal politicians and media figures then to be a double standard when it came to judging the behavior of communist nations vs. those of the rest of the world.  If Chile or another Latin American country fell to a military coup and began a right-wing autocracy, the liberals would scream bloody murder about how terrible it was...but they seemed content with brutal, totalitarian leftist societies like Mao's China, Cuba, and the Soviet Union.  With the latter, of course, the Russians were the dominant national group.  Nowadays, though, the tables seem to have turned diametrically in the opposite direction, with the politically more conservative Putin regime there encountering criticism from liberals in the West while many conservatives here and abroad are giving them a free pass, making excuses for every aggressive action they take...that is, when they aren't completely denying everything.  So now it's frustrating to have to hear conservative opinion-makers in the media refusing to accept that there is any kind of threat from Russia...and this trend seems to mostly stem from our current president, Donald Trump, and his repeated praise of Putin and strange overfriendliness with him and his cronies.  Ever since it was disclosed...before the 2016 election...that Russia had interfered on Trump's behalf and hacked Democratic Party computers and turned over embarrassing documents for release on WikiLeaks, there has been a level of suspicion of an ongoing connection between our Russian adversaries and the Trump campaign...but no proof of this has been made public.  Now there are numerous investigations going on, including one by independent counsel and former FBI chief Robert Mueller.  From time to time a leak will happen and some information about the behavior of Trump surrogates, be they current Attorney General Jeff Sessions, former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, or, lately, close advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner, will make it into the news.  When this happens, the right-wing deniers like President Trump, media talking heads like Fox's Judge Jeanine and Sean Hannity (who is pushing a defamatory narrative that Hillary put a hit on a former campaign worker), and others like talk radio's Mark Levin only want to criticize the leaks themselves, completely dismissing the Russian angle.  But the way I see it, were it not for that trickle of information, incomplete as it is, the American public...which should be properly informed...would not be able to recognize that there was even a problem...

The press has an important role in holding our government accountable for its actions.  We currently have a national government that sees one party controlling both the executive and legislative branches.  Referring again back to those early 1970s, the Watergate scandal might never have been uncovered had Woodward and Bernstein...without the aid of their insider "Deep Throat" leaking information...not been able to unearth the cover-up going on.   And the government then was split with the Democrats at least in control of Congress.  So now it is even more imperative that people can get an idea about what is going on, although I doubt that the Republican-led Congress will ever even consider lifting a finger to impeach a president from their own party.  And even if the Democrats take back the House of Representatives in 2018 and win every single Senate election that year, they'll still only have a 56-44 advantage in the Senate...and 67 votes are required to remove a president from office.  So all this impeachment talk being made by Trump's opposition should be taken for what it is: to weaken the Republicans and strengthen the Democrats in the next election...

I don't see any proof that Trump and his political pals have conspired with the Russian government, but I now suspect some collusion nevertheless.  What has just been revealed about Jared Kushner, a month after the election, secretly contacting the Russian ambassador in hopes of establishing a clandestine communications link between that regime and the future president...with everything said between the two parties to be available to Russian intelligence but deliberately cut off from American intelligence...sounds so sinister that I have to shake my head in disbelief when I hear apologists for Trump get on TV and try to explain it away.  Maybe they can make themselves and Trump's unquestioning fan base think it's all innocent, but it sounds treasonous to me.   And if you remember the previous article I wrote on this subject, it should be clear that I'm not quite as defensive of our sitting president on this subject as before.  Sure, the American people elected him and I recognize that, but I don't want someone in this most powerful position turning over our national secrets to the enemy while turning a blind eye to their aggression.  In other words, I'm losing trust in Donald J. Trump and now wonder about his loyalties.  And it's a shame about Kushner: I had always kind of admired him as a thoughtful, responsible voice of reason within the administration...a counter to some of his father-in-law's more objectionable behavior and outbursts.  If he leaves due to this revelation, what's going to happen to Trump's inner circle of confidants and how will it affect his actions? But maybe I'm getting way ahead of myself...after all, didn't Trump once openly brag that he could step out in the street and shoot someone and still keep his support...and then went on to win the election in spite of that inflammatory comment??!!