Something has to be done about Vladimir Putin directing his spies to undermine American democracy by spreading lies about our presidential candidates. If this isn’t a casus belli, I don’t know what is.
Take what they did to Hillary Clinton.
This was a woman with the moral convictions of Mother Theresa and the courage of Joan of Arc. She had lived among the poor in the backwoods of Arkansas and then Chappaqua, New York, where she helped to feed the poor, heal the sick and defend sexually-abused women. She had not only refused wealth and fame for herself, but she had shunned the rich and famous, or what are known as the one percent, because of their greed and lavish, hedonistic, carbon-dependent lifestyles. Her daughter followed in her footsteps, choosing to devote her life to the impoverished Seneca Indians in western New York instead of marrying a New York investment banker and living in a million-dollar Manhattan condo. Hillary was so courageous that on a mission to Iraq, she grabbed a 50-caliber machine gun and bandoliers from the top of a Humvee to escort women and children to safety, as shotgun pellets hit the ground around her, fired by Dick Cheney, who was hunting doves at the time.
By planting false news, the Russians tarnished this reputation and led Americans to believe that Hillary had:
- Illicitly made $100,000 in cattle futures while in Arkansas.
- Received ill-gotten gains from the shady real estate operation known as Whitewater.
- Destroyed subpoenaed records from the Rose Law Firm.
- Told a political fixer known as Creepy Carville to destroy the reputation of the woman sexually assaulted by her husband Billy Bob.
- Drove her loyal aide Vince Foster to suicide by her temper tantrums and soul-destroying management style.
- Summarily fired longtime employees of the White House travel office so they could be replaced with loyalists who had the ethics of a rat, which are at least better than the ethics of a Clinton.
- Followed the advice of Tammy Wynette to stand by her man after he had sex with an intern in the Oval Office.
- Established a fake charitable foundation as Secretary of State to extort tens of millions of dollars from foreign governments and fossil fuel sheiks, who believe that women should be stoned for infidelity and that gays should meet a worse fate.
- Used the Foundation to launder money from a dirty deal that let Russia corner the market in uranium.
- Shown no misgivings about her trusted aide Uma being married to a New York politician who emailed photos of his wiener to young women.
- Conducted State Department business on a personal server to keep her shady dealings secret.
In short, the Russians tarnished an impeccable reputation and made Americans cynical about the kinds of people who are at the top of the U.S. government. At the same time, they did the opposite with Donald Trump; that is, they took a tarnished reputation and made it impeccable, in a transformation not seen since Pygmalion.
Look at what they started with: an egotistical, boorish, bombastic blowhard who made his name in three disreputable industries: one, in reality TV; two, in the sordid gambling industry that preys on people with no self-control and that left Atlantic City in shambles after receiving city and state financial concessions; and three, in the dirty Manhattan real estate industry, where success depends on getting in bed with corrupt politicians and Mob-owned cement companies, on using the tax code that favors real estate investments over investments in manufacturing, and on using bankruptcy laws to stick it to suppliers and lenders.
The Russians are so good at spy craft that they were able to transform Donald Trump into an economic genius, a friend of the working man, a get-it-done kind of guy, and an alpha male in the image of Putin who will singlehandedly make America great again.
If the Russians hadn’t spread lies to influence our election, Hillary would be president. Moreover, when it comes to politics, Americans would still have their heads in the sand or in a place only seen by proctologists.
Hmm, on second thought, we shouldn’t take punitive action against Putin. We should be awarding him the Medal of Freedom.
