From Russia with Loath

"Vladimir Putin had no time for Barack Obama. No bromance there. However, he had a real antipathy for his Secretary of State, HR Clinton."

In all my years of paying attention to politics and world affairs, I have NEVER seen things so confusing. Not just confusing, but there is so much spin being put on every issue, I can see why young people get dizzy and just drop out. What I am going to try to do this morning is make some sense out of the non-sense. Wish me luck.

First up Russia. Where this ruse all started. I have been hearing lots of facts and mostly opinions from different news sources. Here is what I believe to be true. For reasons known and unknown, Vladimir Putin had no time for Barack Obama. No bromance there. However, he had a real antipathy for his Secretary of State, HR Clinton. Seems Vlad thought that Clinton led some meddling in Russian affairs and elections. He never forgot it.

It now appears to be true that Russia, led by Putin, tried to influence our election - to a degree. It was not to get Trump elected - no love lost there. It was to screw over the woman who (in his mind) tried to screw over him. Now here is where it gets interesting. Putin also was starting to believe the polls. That Trump did not have a snowball's chance of winning. So he went ahead and tried to make the path to victory as rocky and messy as he could for HRC. And then against all odds - Trump wins.

It is also probably true that Paul Manafort had some dealings with Russia before the election. Trump was wise to cut the cord with Manafort early on. If Manafort's dealings were legal or not, appropriate of not, I do not know. It was just good that he was gone before the general election.

Other than that, there is no real tie that has shown up between Russia and Trump. However, this does not stop the Trump hating MSNBC to run conspiracy theories on the Trump-Russia nexus 24 X 7.  

With all this static about Russia, mix in the "wiretapping" issue with Trump Tower. Now Chairman Nunes has disclosed that our intelligence agencies were doing surveillance on some Russian communications (legal), and in the process, some U.S. citizen names were heard (normal). However, some of those names were "unmasked" without the aid of a FISA warrant (illegal). This gave some "legs" to the assertion by Trump that he was surveilled before the election. The Democrats however, don't buy it. What a mess.

Add to all this the peeing and moaning by Democrats about Merrick Garland not being considered for the open SCOTUS seat. The ridiculous questioning of Judge Gorsuch by Democratic clowns like Al Franken. The terror attack in London yesterday. Today's vote on the very messy and evolving American Health Care Act. And I could go on and on and on.

What is the bottom line? As far as the Russia-Trump nexus, there is no "there, there". Manafort, there is something there. The loathing of HRC by Putin - a whole lot of "there, there". So how does our government operate? Corrupt and inefficient. People in the intelligence agency who unmasked US citizen names without a FISA warrant should go to jail.

This is the best I can manage with this pile of goo. Yesterday, I was thinking about my Congressman who also a friend. If some days when he gets up, he wonders why he jumped into this pool of quicksand. I know I would. What a hot, hot mess.