From Russia with not much love...

"Until this final purge happens to the Deep State, the President is right to keep them at arm's length and to look at them with a jaundiced eye." 

"Throw him out of office!" "High crimes and misdemeanors!" "Treason!" "He is nothing more than a Putin puppet!" And it goes on and on and on. Here is a news flash for those who still do not get it. For reasons which some see to be crystal clear, this President does not trust his intelligence services, the FBI, and the Justice Department. Do you mean everyone in all of them? Heavens no! But - is seems over the years they have become corrupted with elements of the Deep State working deep within them. Plus, during the Obama years, they became somewhat weaponized. 

If this Russian collusion nonsense had never happened, if Clapper and Brennan had not shown themselves to be almost traitors, if Comey, Strzok, McCabe and so forth had not sullied the FBI, if the Justice Department had not turned out to be a joke, and so on and so on, Trump would have probably had a different world view right now. But trust needs to be earned, and it is obvious that certain parts of the federal government has not proven itself trustworthy.

Does that mean I believe a serial liar like Putin? Nope. Do I think the Russians did some meddling? Yes. Do I think we do the same to them? Oh, yes. Those who think we are "Lillie white" on this issue, need to take off their rose colored glasses. Do I think that spying, meddling, cyber intrusions will continue go on by both sides? Until the end of time, they will.

To establishment Republicans, and progressives who are today calling for President Trump's scalp, here is my take. Donald Trump is a patriot. Will be until his dying day. His world view is different than most in the Deep State. For example, keep you friends close, and your adversaries closer. He knows that to have a relationship, ANY relationship, with the leader of Russia is better than what we have had in the past. To stand on the stage in Finland and throw insults and accusations at Putin, would have resulted in the same type of relationship we had under Obama. That - was bad. And very dangerous.

My message to the intelligence agencies (which some call the alphabet organizations), the FBI, and Justice is simple - clean your house. Get the rest of the bad actors identified and disposed of. The job of these organizations is to serve the American people and be responsible to the President. In the past ten years, they have fallen short on both.

Until this final purge happens to the Deep State, the President is right to keep them at arm's length and to look at them with a jaundiced eye. All of us were taught this when we were youngins - trust is earned. There are a whole bunch of folks who have some damage control to do so we won't have another Helsinki type press conference. Let's get to it.