What Do We Know: Saturday Political Soap Box 157

As society collapses all around you, isn't it comforting to know that you voted against Hillary Clinton because of her damn  e-mails?

As the country spins into it's gravest political crisis since Watergate, and perhaps the worst in American History, it is a good time to take stock of the inverse of the Great Watergate question - What did the President Know, and When Did He Know IT?

Let's ask of ourselves the first part of that question - what do WE know?

Cutting through the wall of B.S. surrounding the thoroughly abused term of "fake news", what is apparent from base factual observation?

First, we clearly don't know everything that motivates Trump to slavishly praise Putin and tout the Russian line.  We can only speculate as to whether he has been blackmailed into it, or motivated by personal greed, or if he is doing it of his own free will.

But we do know this -

HE IS DOING IT.  HE IS UTTERLY DEVOTED TO PUTIN AND RUSSIA.

We know -

1)  He follows the Russian line in every political utterance.

2) He has surrounded himself with advisers and campaign managers who have consulted with, advised, and profited from Russian interests.

3) The only part of the Republican platform that he took a personal interest in was to side with Russia in the Ukrainian invasion.

4) Putin is about the only person that he praises unconditionally.  He's ripped into many Americans and foreign leaders without hesitation and care, including Republicans and military leaders.  But Putin?  Nothing but sweet talk.

5)  Many of his advisers were in constant contact with Russia throughout the campaign.  What were they saying?  We don't know .... yet.

6)  Multiple US intelligence agencies believe that Russia interfered with and hacked into our election, and they did so to benefit one side.  You can believe them, or you can believe the Orange One shouting "Fake News!" and "Pay no attention to that Putin guy behind the curtain!"

7)  The condemning dossier accumulated by a British MI6 agent has passed every credibility test. Not all particulars have been proved to a tee, but nothing in it has been proven false..

8)  The day that ex-NSA head Flynn called the Russian Ambassador several times, was right after President Obama put sanctions in place.

9)  Trump has refused to release his tax returns, which could clarify his foreign involvement.  He is willing to put everything on the line to never release them.  SHAME ON US for not insisting he release them.

10)  There is no proof that Russia hacked into our voting machines.  So trying to argue that this is meaningless, because the Russians didn't do that, is meaningless.  They did it by hacking the DNC and through the selective release of e-mails and other information.

What we don't know is how much direct collusion the Russians did with Trump and his team.

And this we must find out.

Senators McCain and Senator Graham are making noises that they will put country before party and work with Democrats and others to get to the bottom of it.

I encourage you, regardless of who you voted for, to support their efforts.

We cannot bury this under the rug,  For the sake of our democracy and its future viability, we have to know more.

We have to know if we have a traitor in the White House.