Once Again, America is Asking, “Are Trump and His Party, Traitors?”
Just one week after Trump was staggered to find himself in office, on January 29, 2017, Republican Bush Administration State Department counselor Eliot Cohen wrote his prophetic acid bath blistering in The Atlantic. “Precisely because [Trump’s] problem is one of temperament and character, it will not get better. It will get worse as power intoxicates him… It will probably end in calamity. It will not be surprising if his term ends with impeachment… When you sell your soul to the Devil, he prefers to collect his purchase on the installment plan. To be associated with [Trump is] an exercise in moral self-destruction.”
So we’ve seen. From House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy cowering in a corner of the Capitol, by cell phone begging Trump to call off his jihadists, only to squat prostrate before Trump at Mara Largo two weeks later; to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell trying now desperately to shower off Trump’s orgasmic insurrection climax while, to the contrary, winking with a nod and a smile to Trump’s base, “Don’t resist. I liked it”; to what was once known as “conservative” FOX News—now popularly known as FOX RT—as it seeks to grow Russia’s coalition in the U.S. with broadcasts of Comrade Tucker Carlson’s nightly defense of the Kremlin. And with twice the viewership, as Tucker is also shown on state television in Moscow. As Carlson says, “Why shouldn’t I root for Russia? Which I am.”
Before we go further in this indictment, the word “treason” is being thrown about a lot in his country. How ‘bout a definition? Treason: “disloyalty or treachery to one’s own country or its government, giving aid or comfort to the enemy.” No small offense, almost universally around the world, the punishment for treason is a hanging or execution by a military firing squad.
So, who might America’s enemy be? One, in particular, has made the demise of America a top priority. This man doesn’t employ millions of bots and a 5000-man Troll Army to sucker gullible Americans into having fistfights in Texas because he loves us. He very much wants us to devour ourselves because—thanks in part to Ronald Reagan—he still cries at night over the implosion of his cherished USSR. A civilization that lasted a mere, trifling, pathetic seven decades; one lifetime and… poof. His name is Vlad, Russia’s Vladimir the Great as “conservative” Newsmax called him.
So, there’s that. But who might be “giving aid or comfort” to this enemy? Remember our Carnival Barker kneeling his abundance at Helsinki to lick Vladimer’s toe? Have we forgotten Trump’s secret meetings with Vlad, seizing the notes from a translator? Were we blinded with too much corruption to recall that Trump gave our bases in northern Syria to Vlad through an unannounced pullout and abandonment of the Kurds? Remember Trump’s foot-dragging of veto-proof sanctions against Russia? Could there have been a connection to Trump’s short-term National Security Advisor Michael Flynn’s promise to Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak that Obama sanctions would be removed? Remember, way back, when Trump deleted anti-Russia, pro-Ukrainian language from the 2016 RNC plank? Was this portent of Trump’s halting of arms to Ukraine as part of his extortion pressure in 2018? (For those who believe Trump gave Ukraine, Javelin missiles, while Obama gave only “pillows and bed sheets,” click this reference for a laugh.) Was there any connection to Trump’s staff having 140+ meetings with Russians, their agents, or cutouts during his campaign? Why did Trump privately discuss destroying NATO and publicly call into question Article 5, that any attack on a NATO nation is an attack on the U.S.? Who could be the beneficiary of all this? Who gained when Trump gave Israeli secrets to Russians in the Oval Office?
As the list goes on and on, is there a discernable pattern here? Must the truth-telling side of our media persist in appearing reasonable when they say, “It’s curious,” “We wonder why,” “No one can understand”?
Really?
Have a regular listen with the investigative journalism of The Asset Podcast, where we find Russia’s grooming of Trump as a resource began with his loud and proud KGB meetings in 1987. Then validate their findings from reputable sources elsewhere. From what we’ve seen with our own eyes and countless documented examples, don’t we know the answer to the question posed above? Even if Trump acts—and so enthusiastically—as a hostage of blackmail in Vlad’s favor, is that not treason?
But what about the party? Has Lincoln’s GOP (Grand Old Party) become Trump’s GOPP (Grand Old Putin Party)? Is the whole Right-wing mess from Jewish-space-laser expert Marjorie Taylor Green to alleged child-sex-trafficker Matt Gaetz to conspiracy theorist Paul Gosar, whose five siblings made a TV commercial to announce their brother is nuts; are these people even capable of being traitors? Or are they simply, per conservative Reaganite Max Boot, “the Kremlin’s useful idiots”?
Let’s look at the party. During the House Intelligence Committee hearings concerning Trump’s attempted bribery of Ukrainian President Zelensky and subsequent cover-up, we witnessed former National Security Council Senior Director for European and Russian affairs, Dr. Fiona Hill, tutor the GOPP face-to-face. “Some of you on this committee appear to believe that Russia and its security services did not conduct a campaign against our country,” Hill said, “and that perhaps, somehow, for some reason, Ukraine did. This is a fictional narrative perpetrated and propagated by the Russian security services themselves… [Russia] deploys millions of dollars to weaponize our own false narratives to divide us against each other, degrade our institutions, and destroy the faith of the American people in our democracy… We are running out of time to stop them. [Don’t] promote politically driven falsehoods that so clearly advance Russian interests.” And what was the Republican response? They handed Hill their report claiming Ukraine was to blame for the 2016 U.S. election interference, not Russia—as though they knew what the CIA, NSA, FBI, and 14 other intel agencies did not.
On each day of the hearings, California House “Republican” ranking member Devin Nunez diverted from Russia with opening remarks that were a version of, “What is the full extent of Ukraine’s election meddling against the Trump campaign?” The answer was none. Nunez and his comrades were well aware of agency and Senate findings to the contrary. Nunez was later found to have been in Ukraine, secretly seeking conspiracy theories against Biden. Once revealed, he suddenly recalled his forgotten contacts with Giuliani co-conspirator and indicted Lev Parnas. But each day was another promotion of the Ukrainian conspiracy, part of Russian Ops explicitly traced to Vlad by U.S. intel and already briefed to Congress, including Nunez. Meanwhile, House “Republicans” Jim Jordan (OH), Mark Meadows (NC), Matt Gaetz (FL), Doug Collins, (GA), Mike Conaway, Louie Gohmert, and John Ratcliffe, all of Texas, promoted this or other Russian propaganda attached to Right-wing hot button issues like guns, Christianity, and abortion. Finally, Senator John Neely Kennedy of Louisiana chimed in with House comrades to assure it was Ukraine that fondled our elections, the next day he admitted it wasn’t, while the day after that it was Ukraine again. Wow. Liiiiiars. Soon after, “Republican” Senator Ted Cruz—whose father, according to Trump, assisted Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK’s assassination — joined the Russian Op. There’s an old saying that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Notice how the “Ukraine infiltrated our election” story became “China did.” No, it was Iran, then it was Venezuela… No, wait, QAnon said it was space aliens. Then it was Hillary again, after long ago it was Obama. None of their shit sticks. Yet they keep pitching it, undeterred by failure, the stench, and uproarious laughter. (Had they a memory, the New Right would laugh too.)
But why finger Ukraine for something Russia did to begin with? Would taking the blame off Vlad ease the pain of a man who murders people in other countries with Novichok? Could it have been that if Trump, his party, and propaganda machine convinced enough people that Vlad was the victim of Russia-bashing liberals, all Russian sanctions would vanish? Would that have affected Russia’s stumbling economy and Vlad’s power? Perhaps a bit like Trump’s removal of sanctions on Russian oligarchs that netted one of them hundreds of millions of dollars in a day. And if all this were to benefit America’s enemy, why would Trump’s party want to do that? Who gains when Congress welcomes Russian counter-intelligence operations as their own?
Hmm…
Recall, this is the same party for which the “Republican” Senate Majority Leader—whom House Speaker Nancy Pelosi addressed as Moscow Mitch McConnell—repeatedly blocked bills passed by the House that make collusion with foreign powers illegal.
More hmm…
While a sizable fraction of the rank-and-file naively swallows what the lie factories feed them, making it hard to blame them for more than extreme ignorance, 52% of their total claim to so love the Constitution they want it rescinded for authoritarian governance, clearing the way for Trump as dictator. This is the party that after Vlad invaded Ukraine, at their America First Political Action Conference, they chanted, “Putin! Putin! Putin!” And far from mere fringe, the party base that is CPAC doesn’t mind, as they idolize the leftovers of what Reagan called the “Evil Empire.”
By the time House Intelligence Committee hearings on Trump’s bribery commenced, the GOP that sanctioned Vlad was already dead. It took time for the GOP to become the GOPP, but it was surprisingly swift. As Max Boot wrote, what was once “the party of moral clarity” has “declared moral bankruptcy.” Cohn’s warning has come true. The Right-wing’s soul has been evacuated by the Devil that Cohn said they’d sell it to. While after seven of his closest minions became convicted felons, the Devil retains his freedom to spread lies. As Apostle John said, “He does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is the father of lies.” And still, the Devil has supporters—legions of them. Even after the Devil tried to overthrow the Constitution with an attack on the Capital that Al Qaeda hoped would do what their fourth plane didn’t. “Moral self-destruction” complete.
With Trump gushing over Vlad’s “genius” for invading Ukraine (genius, like Trump’s own, that’s proven to be embarrassingly stupid), with FOX RT on Russia’s side, with too much of the “Republican” Congress following Trump’s admiration of Vlad, is there really a question here?
Maybe it’s not that complicated. There’s an old saying in the American Midwest where I was born: If it walks like a traitor and quacks like a traitor, it’s probably a traitor.
All we need are the trial and its consequences. Imagine judgment in the affirmative and the consequences publicly televised for the world’s cathartic recovery. When it came time for Trump’s turn on the stage, as a game show host and World Wrestling Entertainment imp, he’d love the ratings. Finally, at long last, the whole world with every eyeball watching him, only him, just him. His inferiority disease might finally be quenched. For an instant.
References not linked to above:
Paragraph 3: Treason: “disloyalty or…” abbreviated from the American College Dictionary, 1979.
