We in the US have always felt somewhat invincible from our adversaries’ military aggression. Why? Because we on the mainland are so very far, geographically, from Russia, China, Iran, Syria and everywhere else in the world that war wages – so we’ve never had to engage in on-the-ground combat.
That’s why 9/11 was so devastating. And why Obama unerringly hunted down the man responsible. That’s why Pearl Harbor was such a shock. And why FDR joined the Allies in WWII. We were attacked: Clearly and convincingly. Thousands injured and killed. So President Obama used every resource to bring Osama Bin Laden to justice. And FDR committed every resource to winning WWII. They did what the American people can ALL agree was the right thing to do. We fought back: Against evil; Against fascism; Against the military aggression that fueled Hitler’s invasions and occupations of Europe and North Africa, and the Japanese Emperor’s power and land grabs in the Pacific. (FYI — We did Not fight against socialism or communism, as Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, the newest and dimmest of GOP bulbs to enter the Senate, has declared.)
Our present era is completely different altogether. On-the-ground combat is a Third-World military tactic. We in the US face a whole new set of enemies and a far more insidious type of aggression. Military in nature, yes, but disguised as part of our every day infrastructure. Attacks can be mounted through cyberspace. Attacks can be mounted through media and social media platforms. Attacks can be mounted through airborne diseases, aka a global pandemic, which has been politicized and weaponized to great effect.
So the question we now face is, “Could our foreign adversaries use our own democracy, leaders and political institutions against us to cripple the US population, killing millions, while at the same time killing our economy and undermining our democracy – without firing a single shot? “
The short answer? YES. Many, in a knee-jerk reaction, will decry this assessment. “This could never happen here,” they’ll bleat. But the truth is, not only could it happen. It IS happening. Right here. Right now. And it’s happening because the current occupant of the White House is aiding and abetting a three-pronged attack upon our country.
Before you dismiss what I’m saying as partisan, please hear me out.
The facts (verified by multiple intelligence agencies AND the GOP-controlled Senate Intelligence Committee) are thus:
- The Trump Family Is Compromised by its crushing billion-dollar debt to a number of our foreign adversaries: Russia, China, Turkey — much of which comes due in January 2021. Consequently, all foreign policy decisions Trump has made since 2017 have been shaded by the financial power these adversaries wield over him.
- Russia Cyber-Attacked our 2016 election is just one element of the ongoing “Active Measures” post-cold-war campaign that includes: a. Infiltrating our media (see Russian TV network office in Kansas; see purchase of Reuters; Fox News anchors who spout continuous disinformation and Russian talking points); b. Russian-infiltrating ownership of social media platforms (e.g., Facebook and Parler–a Russian-flunky-sourced Twitter wannabe, funded by the likes of American and Russian oligarchs, see Dave Troy’s article on mashable.com) The purpose, not the least of which, is to push the boundaries of our communications regulations against our Free Speech rights and to create cheap mass distribution networks to influence, inflame and disinform US. c. Compromising prominent GOP politicians, e.g., Trump, Graham, McConnell, McCarthy, Johnson, Paul, Nunes, Meadows, Gaetz, DeSantis, Bondi, Giuliani and others, by allegedly funneling oligarch-sourced money into their campaigns, allegedly laundering money through their states or private companies, allegedly paying them off directly, and/or allegedly compromising their “honey-trap” personal indiscretions to create leverage.
- Putin has unrestricted access to Trump (without any Intelligence or Congressional Oversight). EVERY decision Trump makes, he’s been counseled by Putin, our greatest and most fervent foreign adversary, his favorite “advisor.”
What better way to attack a country than to use its news and pundit media (e.g., Fox News Carlson, Hannity, Dobbs, Ingraham, the newly fired Pirro and the insipidly vapid Fox & Friends cast), its social media platforms, its Constitutional freedoms and norms, its democratic infrastructure, its “leader” and body politic?
It’s economical. It’s risk-free. Consequence-free. Bloodless (for Russia). Above all, it’s incredibly effective. Just look at the results. It’s a Putin wet dream in progress. Here’s what Putin, Trump and the GOP have already accomplished, together.
By exploiting our system’s inherent and historic racial injustice, Trump and his GOP enablers have created a population divide similar to the time of Civil War, blurring our ability to unite as AMERICANS who have everything in common, especially when faced with a foreign adversary.
By flouting basic public health and safety measures, Trump and his GOP enablers have sickened millions of Americans (many of them personally, e.g., 130 Secret Service agents and countless White House staff) and killed 250,000 Americans and counting. Far more deadly than an outright military strike. Trump, on Putin’s advice, has singlehandedly infected our military, law enforcement, medical and first-responder personnel. Abroad, Trump has given Russia, Turkey, Syria and the Taliban carte blanche to kill and wound our military and local allies with giddy abandon. They have kneecapped our global efforts to control and defeat the pandemic. All of which lays bare our defenses to keep the world order from the “corporate/military/political takeover” mounted by Russia and China.
By refusing to concede the election THAT THE ENTIRE WORLD KNOWS he has most definitively lost, Putin, Trump and his GOP enablers cast doubt on our free and fair elections (“The most secure elections ever held in the history of the US,” according to CISA in Trump’s own administration.) Consequently, Trump and the GOP aids and abets Putin by obstructing the peaceful and ongoing transition of power that seeks to ensure that our national security and our public health are protected.
Why? Why would a president and GOP Senators and House members want to cripple almost every aspect of the very country they’ve sworn an oath to serve and protect?
The only conclusion is one formerly found only in fiction. The current occupant of the White House is an agent of our foreign adversaries. A real-life “Manuchurian Candidate,” or in this case, more accurately, a “Siberian” candidate. He has leapt off the book page and film screen and catapulted directly into our White House. When I said this four years ago, some thought it was hyperbole. As of this writing, it is more of an understatement than hyperbole. What’s more, we appear to have an entire “Siberian” party in the tattered and unrecognizable remains of the former GOP, led by a cartoon-like villain in the guise of Senate Majority Leader, and publicized by another cartoon-like villain, Rudy Ghouliani himself. Forever linked by their unsavory ties to Russian FSB operatives, Russian oligarchs and their joint fantasy of a global white supremacy.
So what, can we as Americans, to do? Well, the good news is, we turned out the vote in historical and previously unheard of millions (over 150 million to be more precise). Almost 80 million Americans voted for former Vice-President, President-elect Joe Biden and former CA Senator, Kamala Harris, now Vice-President elect.
The bad news is, Kentucky, inexplicably and with a 13% approval rating throughout the state, somehow returned the malevolent Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell to the Senate. Given his ties to bad actors in both Russia and China, this makes the road forward that much more difficult. He’s shown himself to be the single largest obstruction to passing or even considering any legislation intended to assist Americans in their daily lives. His only stated goal is to create an imbalanced judiciary that will protect “white supremacy” and corporate wealth, while suppressing voting rights of all non-whites and those who vote Democratic, for a generation, if not longer.
If we’re to become free of the insidious attacks that the Russians continue to hurl at us, aided and abetted by a number of the GOP Congressional senators and representatives, (in what was formerly the Republican party, but is now more accurately described as the party of Putin), we MUST gain Democratic control of the Senate. That means, all hands on deck for the Senatorial run-off race in Georgia in January. Stacey Abrams and Fair Fight can’t do it all on their own. We, as a nation, should put all our efforts into electing Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock to the Senate. I repeat. We as a nation should do EVERYTHING WE CAN to elect the Democratic candidates in Georgia to the Senate.
McConnell and the GOP MUST be defanged in order to allow a Biden administration to put forth the remedial legislation our country so desperately needs: for COVID economic relief; for a national COVID mask mandate, funding for COVID protection measures and vaccine distribution, for national security protections; for racial justice; for climate change; for communications regulations AND most importantly, for healthcare – so that from this moment on, we never again leave ourselves vulnerable to foreign adversaries who would exploit our vulnerabilities and exacerbate our pain and suffering, using the leaders we’re supposed to follow and trust, to accomplish their attacks, without firing a single shot.