Russiagate: THE CLIFF NOTES

 

Stephanie Ruhle

My newest journalistic crush is MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle. She's on at 9:00 every weekday morning and again at 11:00 on a program she co-hosts with Ali Velshi. Remember her name. This is a woman who is going to be around for a very long time. She calmly - and with as much good cheer as is humanly possible these days - reports what is now happening to this country in such a thoughtful and detailed way that even someone of below average intelligence is able to understand it with little or no effort. This morning on the later program, she explained, chapter and verse, the events of the Trump campaign's nefarious dealings with certain representatives of the Putin government - from the late summer of 2016 to just before the election. Here it is as she laid it out:  

 

June 7: Trump and Clinton become the presumptive nominees for president.

 

June 9: Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner & campaign chair Paul Manafort meet with Russia lawyer.

 

June 9: Trump tweets about 33,000 missing emails.

 

July 18: Day one of GOP convention, Trump campaign changed the GOP platform to ensure that it didn't call for giving weapons to Ukraine to fight Russia.

 

July. 21: GOP concludes with Trump giving his speech accepting the Republican nomination.

 

July 22: WikiLeaks releases stolen emails from Democratic National Committee.

 

July 25: Democratic convention begins.

 

July 27: Trump asks Russia: "If you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing."

 

August 4: CIA Director John Brennan confronts his Russian counterpart about Russia's interference.

 

October 4: WikiLeaks says they will publish [missing] campaign emails.

 

October 7: Homeland Security and the Director of National Intelligence say Russia is interfering in the 2016 election.

 

October 7: WikiLeaks begins releasing Clinton Campaign Chair John Podesta's emails.

 

October 31: Trump says "This WikiLeaks is like a treasure trove."

 

November 4: Trump says "Boy, I love those WikiLeaks!"

 

I'm sure this is all a coincidence.

Junior

A couple of days ago, the "failing" New York Times revealed yet another previously undisclosed meeting between Jared Kushner and representatives of Vladimir Putin. Donald Trump Jr. was present for the shenanigans this time around. He is trying to explain it all away by saying that the meeting involved his family's concern for the orphans of Russia.  Sure. We are all by now familiar with that family’s reputation as great and selfless humanitarians. I was born very early in the morning - but it wasn’t this morning. For every hour that passes by, this thing keeps getting deeper and deeper. The funny thing is the very sight of the president; it’s very similar to Dick Nixon’s last, completely unhinged year as president. The Trickster knew he was screwed, and he completely fell apart as a result. The only difference between now and then (and it’s a huge difference) is that Nixon, for all his flaws, was not certifiably insane. Those of us who lived through those interesting times were relatively certain that he was not going to launch World War Three in an effort to divert our attention. Not so with the Donald. The man is every bit as unhinged as his chubby little North Korean counterpart. Ain't that a scream?

As anyone who has bothered to pay attention for the past eight months could have easily predicted: This is going to end catastrophically. We are no longer the leader of the free world. We are no longer the hope of humankind; We are no longer the country of progress and innovation; We are no longer the envy of those who yearn to be free....We're simply Idiot Nation.

Be sure to pick up some souvenirs while you're here!

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY

SUGGESTED VIEWING:

The Stephanie Ruhle Program

If you have the time to catch her, she's on every weekday morning, 9 Eastern, on MSNBC. We're talking essential viewing.