One would have believed it impossible for a certain subset of a certain party to be so obviously working on behalf of the Russian government while this country carries on as if it’s entirely normal. Sometime in the future (provided there is one), the 23rd Century’s version of Gibbon will struggle with the chapters on how the U.S. accepted what was an almost open Russian-asset (Or at least acted like one) in the White House as the historian writes the definitive scholarly tome on the “Rise and Fall of the American Empire and Western Liberalism.”
Today it’s Steve Bannon talking about “vague borders” (as if this serves as justification for bombing schools and apartment buildings. But yesterday it was Tucker Carlson asking a billionaire to pay to primary every Republican who supports McConnell’s continued aid to Ukraine. Or Wednesday’s Tulsi Gabbard (On Tucker’s show) said that the U.S. position in rendering the Russian state too weak to ever do this again could force Russia into a position where they would have to – understandably – use nuclear weapons.
But for Friday, at least early Friday, it was Bannon’s turn to step up and excuse the Russian slaughter of tens of thousands of innocents in mass graves and assert that none of this impacts U.S. interests. From Media Matters:
This Ukraine thing is an embarrassment and you’re dead wrong and nobody in the world can sit there and make the argument it’s in the vital national security interest of the United States. It does not exist…
… It’s in Hong Kong where Cardinal Zen’s been rounded up and the Vatican said we’re watching him with extreme interest. And the State Department said oh yeah, he ought to be let go.
All that’s in the vital national security interest of the United States against the Chinese Communist Party. Not a struggle in the eastern, ill-defined, oh they hate when I say that, ill-defined border of the, wait for it, bloodlands.
Shortened: The border between Russia and Ukraine is vague, so it’s acceptable that Putin commits atrocities at a level unseen since Rwanda, and besides, China is the real problem. Ever notice that with the MAGAs, China is always the bad guy, not the Russians?
Is it normal for an American adversary like Russia, one with strong ties to the then-president, to invite eight Senators to visit over a long weekend on July 4th, 2018? And to curiously have all eight senators from the same party? This occurred after the United States intelligence community and Robert Mueller established as fact that Russia worked to elect Donald Trump. And to this day, with Russia committing war crimes amidst a wholly unjustified war, those same MAGA elements, the same ones with the strongest ties to Russia, continue to tell us to back off Russia, or why Ukraine might deserve some of this?
A former general, MIke Flynn said that the biggest mistake the U.S. could make is to continue to send Ukraine military aid. “It will only prolong Ukrainian suffering,” Flynn said on Emerald Robinson’s “Lindell TV” show. A former American general is arguing that American policy should be to allow the Russians to win as fast as possible and Ukraine will then simply suffer under Putin’s rule. And all this goes on with the country writ-large moving along as if this is just more political maneuvering.
There is an open, obvious, and dangerous Russian presence within mainstream American power and it needs to be exposed. This didn’t happen organically. While it is true that many MAGAs such as Tucker would prefer a more “Putinesque” government for the United States, the unanimity of the opinion, the tightness of the grouping in proximity to Trump, there is a stronger underlying thread that runs straight back to the Kremlin as solid as the backchannel to Russia that Jared Kushner and Flynn sought before Trump was even sworn in.
And this is all acceptable, normal, no worries.
It is also happening amidst an increasingly reckless, cornered, Putin has people talking about moving nuclear weapons. From the Moscow Times, a former Russian president:
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev warned Thursday that Russia would deploy nuclear weapons close to the Baltic States and Scandinavia if Finland or Sweden decide to join NATO.
Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council and president from 2008-2012, wrote on Telegram that if the countries joined, this would more than double Russia’s land border with NATO members.
The people acting in every way like Russian assets must be exposed. This is not normal. This is not acceptable. This is damned dangerous, ask Ukraine. And as for American interests in the region? American interests are less a “region” than a principle, democracy based on classic Western Liberalism. Putin is convinced that democracy cannot work in a 21st Century world. It appears that far too many here agree. Enemies, foreign and domestic.
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