Once Putin Knew We Were for Sale...

Once Putin Knew We Were for Sale…

Everything fell into place once Russian President Vladimir Putin knew America was for sale. One of the distinctions of capitalism is that everything is for sale, and everything has a price. What price the presidency? Putin had to buy “Individual One,” but he also made sure money went to Mitch McConnell, Lindsay Graham, Devin Nunes, Kevin McCarthy, and a host of other top Republican “leaders.” What price for country? What price for a soul? Apparently much cheaper than most Americans realized. Of course, Putin has at his personal disposal the wealth of his own country which he has already robbed.

Who can blame a lifetime grifter, racist, cheat like Trump for saying yes to cash, to unlimited power, to audiences of sycophants—bought and paid for from Russians near and far in cooperation with American capitalists like Robert Mercer, the Kochs, Sheldon Adelson? Who can blame Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell from stacking up Russian money in exchange for his country? Some of these deals may be fairly easily be traced from Russia with love to U.S. Republicans. Some of the bribery has been well hidden, courtesy of the U.S. Republican Congress, Republican-controlled Senate, and an illicit Attorney General William Barr.

None of it would be possible with better oversight, with a free press willing to research and expose the criminality and corruption of this administration. But then again, how profitable Trump and his disgusting mouth have been for news media? Very is the answer. How much easier for the New York Times to run 800-plus highly negative articles about Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server leading up to the 2016 election than actually conduct investigative journalism around the criminal activities of Donald J. Trump? Focusing on Trump’s antics in the media, however, became more than profitable. Never mind that Trump and his entire team use private email servers and attempt to hide and lock up every exchange. Never mind that Trump’s communication preferences have left the country open to blackmail by nearly every country in the world with any technical capability. Not really a New York Times’ thing. That is to say nothing of the 24-7 propaganda channel assisting Trump’s criminality in Fox “News.” Rupert Murdoch has some knocked over a lot of democracy dominos with more to come.

Social media? Who knew how easy it would be for Russia to buy its way into Facebook and insidiously turn Americans against Americans? Thank you, Mark Zuckerberg and company for showing all of us the truly evil aspect of capitalism.

“I believe most of the GOP leadership has been compromised by” Russian money,” Craig Unger, author of House of Trump, House of Putin: The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia, wrote. The NRA did its part by laundering Russian money and funneling it into willing Republican pockets, including the Republican National Committee, in the guise of supporting unrestricted gun madness. Who exposed and wrote about the Trump Victory Fund, jointly managed by the Republican National Committee and Trump's campaign, took contributions from Russian companies Intrater and Kukes? Not front page on the New York Times and Washington Post lately?

What price Mitch McConnell, Marco Rubio, Lindsey Graham, Tom Price, Steve Mnuchin, Rear Admiral Jackson, Harold Bornstein, Ty Cobb, Ted Cruz, Joseph DiGenova, Scott Walker, Marc Kasowitz, Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, Jerome Corsi, Carter Page, Kevin McCarthy, Paul Ryan, Roger Stone, Rudy Guiliano, John Dowd, Scott Pruitt, and a host of other Republican American "leaders"? Felix Sater, Serey Kislyak, Viktor Vekselberg, Len Blavatnik, Dmitry Rybolovlev, and Oleg Derispaska join that sly assassin Putin in knowing, and their insidious smiles are wide and hidelously elongated.

How relatively easy it has been to buy not American, but America. How tragic.