"Stand Up And Speak Out!"

A turning point of sorts was reached this past week with the firing of FBI Director James Comey by the person whose campaign (and likely more) he was investigating. The firing had all the hallmarks of an attempt to obstruct the investigation into neo- fascist Putin puppet Donald "Rump" Trump, however clumsily the dimwitted narcissist initially tried to have it otherwise (being a malignant narcissist means not being able to be out of the spotlight for a moment -- even if you have to undercut the lame excuse being peddled by your soulless spokesliars to do it).

Today, not only do we have polling showing that the public wants an independent investigation of the Trump- Russia scandal (see post below), but there's also a rising chorus of people formerly in the law enforcement and intelligence communities calling for people in a position of power to stand up and speak out against the slow- rolling unraveling of American norms and Constitutional boundaries.

Preet Bharara, former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York (fired in March along with 45 other U.S. Attorneys), sets out three parameters going forward to restore faith in the rule of law: a bipartisan investigation in Congress, a new FBI director who is "apolitical and sensitive to the law enforcement mission" of the FBI, and

Finally, I join in the common-sense call for an independent and uncompromised special counsel to oversee the Russia investigation. Given the manner of Comey’s firing and the pretextual reasons proffered for it, there is no other way. My former colleague, now-Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, is a respected career prosecutor but has mostly deserved the doubts he generated with his peculiar press-release-style memo purporting to explain Comey’s sudden sacking. He can still fix it. The move would not only ensure the independence of the investigation, but also provide evidence of Rosenstein’s own independence. 

History will judge this moment. It’s not too late to get it right, and justice demands it.

Rosenstein has some damage control to his reputation to attend to, if he's serious about his oath of office and loyalty, not to deranged autocrat Rump but to the Constitution and rule of law in this country. Let's hope he hears history knocking.

Then, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, Jr., came out and said what others have been saying for some time, that Rump is attacking our institutions:

Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said Sunday that he thinks US institutions are under assault from President Donald Trump. 

"I think in many ways our institutions are under assault both externally -- and that's the big news here is the Russian interference in our election system -- and I think as well our institutions are under assault internally," Clapper told anchor Jake Tapper on CNN's "State of the Union." 

Pressed if he meant US institutions were under assault internally from the President, Clapper responded, "Exactly." 

Clapper called on the other branches of the federal government to step up in their roles as a check on the executive. 

"The founding fathers, in their genius, created a system of three co-equal branches of government and a built-in system of checks and balances," Clapper said. "I feel as though that is under assault and is eroding."  (our emphasis)

Even former Bush administration NSA and CIA director Gen. Michael Hayden (USAF, Ret.) is shaken by the Comey firing and what it signals:

Hayden, a four-star general and former NSA and CIA chief, told Zakaria that up until Comey's firing he had been cynical of special investigations as a whole, confessing to a real "dislike" of "special structures, special prosecutors and efforts and so on. [snip] 

"After the events of the past week I really have an open mind as to whether or not we need some extraordinary structure," he said. 

Hayden said he believed something was needed to reach "the criminal resolution," of whether a crime had been committed during Trump's presidential campaign, but also so the American people could "fully understand the totality of what happened here."

It's "the totality" that has Rump reacting like the tinpot would- be autocrat he thinks he should be. Once again, the collusion with Russia during the election is the tip of the iceberg. The ties between Rump and his many associates and lackeys and Russian oligarchs and mobsters are what are thought to be what Comey's FBI are closing in on.

Trump And The Russians, Cont.

Adding to what we already know, there are two alarming assessments this morning of the relationship between neo- fascist authoritarian Donald "Rump" Trump, his campaign, and the Russian government.  We're giving you brief snippets but, as always, we strongly urge you to read the entire pieces.

The invaluable Kurt Eichenwald (who's one of the few journalists keeping his eye on the existential danger represented by Rump) has a long read in Newsweek about how the Kremlin's view of Rump as a tool for disrupting American institutions and democracy has altered somewhat over time:

Trump’s behavior, however, has at times concerned the Russians, leading them to revise their hacking and disinformation strategy. For example, when Trump launched into an inexplicable attack on the parents of a Muslim-American soldier who died in combat, the Kremlin assumed the Republican nominee was showing himself psychologically unfit to be president and would be forced by his party to withdraw from the race. As a result, Moscow put its hacking campaign temporarily on hold, ending the distribution of documents until Trump stabilized, both personally and in the polls, according to reports provided to Western intelligence.  (our emphasis)

Eichenwald details how Russian intelligence operations have successfully penetrated government and non- government organizations connected with the Democratic Party, and the motivations behind that disruptive behavior.  He also notes that Russian intelligence has monitored Rump during visits to Russia and has a "compromising material" dossier on him (a similar dossier on Hillary Clinton is thought to contain "recordings of conversations and intercepted phone calls ... When she was secretary of state, however, Clinton knew her conversations in Moscow might be recorded, so the dossier appears to have been used mainly for intelligence rather than to embarrass her with allies...").

Rump's pattern of behavior in excusing or denying Russian attempts to influence the election (as well as unknowns such as financial ties to Russia and what's in that dossier that Russians may be holding over his head) have alarmed our Western allies to an unprecedented degree:

Officials in Western Europe say they are dismayed that they now feel compelled to gather intelligence on a man who could be the next president of the United States, but believe they have no choice. Moscow is seen as a direct threat to their interests—both in its aggressive efforts to reshape global alliances and for its power to damage Western Europe, which obtains almost 40 percent of its natural gas from Russia. Should the United States, the last remaining superpower, tilt its policies away from NATO to the benefit of Russia, the alliance between America and Western Europe could be transformed in unprecedented ways. And so, for perhaps the first time since World War II, countries in Western Europe fear that the American election, should Trump win, could trigger events that imperil their national security and do potentially irreparable harm to the alliances that have kept the continent safe for decades.  (our emphasis)

Too "nutty" for the Russians and our Western allies. But not for the Republican Party.  That says it.

Former NSA and CIA director under the Bush administration Michael Hayden also examines the phenomenon of Rump's "willful ignorance" when it comes to intelligence assessments of Russia's destabilizing role in Ukraine, Syria, and our elections:

...[T]he American presidential candidate routinely comes to the defense of his Russian soul mate. In the face of a high-confidence judgment of the U.S. intelligence community that Russia hacked the Democratic National Committee and then weaponized embarrassing emails to sow confusion here, the man who would be president has declared: “Our country has no idea,” “I don’t think anybody knows it was Russia that broke into the DNC. . . . It could also be lots of other people” and “They always blame Russia.”  [snip] 

Rejecting a fact-based intelligence assessment — not because of compelling contrarian data, but because it is inconsistent with a preexisting worldview — that’s the stuff of ideological authoritarianism, not pragmatic democracy. And it is frightening. 

Trump also echoes Putin when it comes to Syria and the Islamic State, or ISIS. Here he follows the Moscow line that we and the Russians have common purpose and that Russia and Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad (and Iran) are “killing ISIS.” 

Hayden later comes to this conclusion:

We have really never seen anything like this. Former acting CIA director Michael Morell says that Putin has cleverly recruited Trump as an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation. 

I’d prefer another term drawn from the arcana of the Soviet era: polezni durak. That’s the useful fool, some naif, manipulated by Moscow, secretly held in contempt, but whose blind support is happily accepted and exploited. 

That’s a pretty harsh term, and Trump supporters will no doubt be offended. But, frankly, it’s the most benign interpretation of all this that I can come up with right now.  (our emphasis)

But the FBI ("Trumpland") tells us there's nothing to see here, move along, move along.  And the corporate media remains entranced by the innuendo of the latest nothingburger email "controversy."

So, it remains for us to see that the existential danger posed by this "useful fool" is halted at the ballot box next Tuesday, despite the best efforts of the amoral media, the rotten- to- the- core Republican Party, and the Russian government.