New here. wrote:
I'm sure there are details here are that are spot on and some details that are incorrect but the overall picture is a depiction of what collusion looks like. Collusion is not a cartoon meeting where a Russian spy twists his mustache and Trump shakes his hand and says, "heh heh heh, let's commit collusion!"
The collusion we are talking about is years long influence campaign where financial interests are so intertwined between Russia, RNC, PACs, FOX, NRA, certain American businesses, organized crime, and Trump organization that the line between self-interest, American interest, and Russian interest is so blurred that there is plausible deniability and no single event to point to. It works in the margins, in the gray area of legality, and through offshore accounts and shell companies.
Collude means "to act together through a secret understanding, especially with evil or harmful intent." Even with just the evidence that is now public, how is that not exactly what has happened? There have clearly been "secret understandings" between members of the Trump organization/administration for personal financial gain with pro-Russian interests against or without consideration of American interest. That happened.
This investigation looks like it is on a crash course to a Constitutional crisis with Republicans arguing that this or that is not technically illegal--taking no ethical stand or accountability for the buying and selling of the public good and the total abandonment of their oath of office. The corruption is so broad that corrupt officers (Nunes/McConnel/Ryan) are covering for other corrupt officers (Trump).
This conversation needs to escalate to trials for espionage, aiding foreign agents, violation of the Constitution, and TREASON--not dithering about accounting and registering as a lobbyist. It looks to me that we have a system of government on trial and the American public is going to have to decide what it is to be American (and not a party loyalist) all over again. To think that the brilliance of the Founding Fathers has devolved to this--and the very people who are destroying our ideals dress up in Tea Party clothing and think they have protected the Constitution because they carry a gun, are against abortion, and can't stand gay marriage. They will boo a black man who kneels for social justice at an American flag but applaud a white man who kneels for bribes at a Russian flag. It would be laughable if it weren't so pathetic.
Are we soon to see large percentages of citizens actually side with foreign interests over their fellow Americans? Have they been so conditioned to hate Liberals that they do not see their fellow Americans as citizens at all--and that they would rather be aligned with other nations than their own brethren. If true, that is such an indictment on the hatred-generating propaganda of the right. No longer "Better Dead Than Red" but rather "I'm In Bed With Red."
We are so in need of total political reform and new stringent anti-corruption laws. We HAVE to make financial contributions to PACS, lobbyists, politicians, and even campaigns illegal. There is not a justification for this version of grift-tinged democracy unless you directly benefit from oligarchy and corruption. We fought a revolution against the tyranny of corruption.