Ignore The Man Behind The Butt

The more that the Russian hacking story develops the angrier I get. I’m angry that the Russians did this. I’m angry they succeeded. I’m angry that we have a president-elect who’s becoming more and more complicit with the Russians. I’m angry that his supporters allowed themselves to be played by the Russians and continue to put partisanship over patriotism.

The directors of national intelligence, the National Security Agency, The FBI, and the CIA together sat Mr. Trump down to lay out the evidence. First they had to distract him from Tweeting about the ratings of The Apprentice now that Arnold Schwarzenegger is the new host. After they were able to meet with Trump and do their job they told Trump that Vladimir Putin ordered the hacking. Putin wanted Trump to win. They sought to denigrate Hillary Clinton. They created a broad campaign that included covert operations, including cyberactivities and “trolling” on the internet of people who were viewed as opponents of Russia’s effort. They created a website to expose the emails. When that website didn’t catch on they released the information to Wikileaks. After Trump won the Russians celebrated. Let’s not forget that Trump himself asked the Russians to disrupt the Clinton campaign and to leak information from hacking.

Trump’s first response to all this was to protect his ego and tweet that the Russians didn’t affect the outcome. That was the most important detail to Trump. He’s not acknowledging the Russians did the hacking but this is the farthest he’s gone as he didn’t continue his campaign that they weren’t involved and that the hackers could be the Chinese or New Jersey fat guys. Trump mostly blamed the DNC for having such lousy security to allow themselves to be hacked (which is like blaming a rape victim) and ignored the fact that the RNC was hacked also. The Russians just didn’t release those emails.

Trump tweeted Saturday morning about how much he’ll be respected by Russia and that only “stupid” people don’t want a great relationship with the nation. Of course Trump will have a great relationship with Russia. Puppets never argue with their masters unless it’s part of the show. Seeing that Russia sought to destroy the Democrats’ campaign, the candidate Vladimir respected was Hillary Clinton.

One detail that really makes me angry is that our future president won’t admit information he doesn’t agree with, or insults him personally. Four directors gave him the facts but for Trump and his supporters they don’t have the clout or credibility as Vladimir Putin, Julian Assange, or the National Enquirer.

As a journalist who’s worked for newspapers for over 25 years it deeply disturbs me that Trump has a love for the National Enquirer and lacks the intelligence and critical thinking to recognize false information. I would like to think the leader of the free world is intelligent enough to know the difference between real and fake news. The National Enquirer doesn’t just print fake news. They print outlandish and unbelievable fake news. Unbelievable to a rational and reasonable person at least which Trump and his supporters are not.

Republicans need to recognize the warning signs now. Trump isn’t even pushing Republicanism anymore. This is Trumpism. This is idol worship for an empty idol. Devoid of ideas, intellect, and incapable of critical thinking (probably because he doesn’t actually read). People incapable of thinking critically are not problem solvers. They’re tweeters. His first response to any problem is to hurl childish insults to tell us how great he is.

Donald Trump has already broken three of his big campaign promises and he’s not even president yet. There will be no locking her up, no “repealing and replacing,” and no border wall paid for my Mexico (you’re going to pay for it. People who hated raising the debt ceiling should really love that). First, you should have known he was lying before the election. That was easy to spot but then again, intelligent people know a fake news story when they see it. Second, if Trump’s breaking promises now, thus everything he sold you is not actually important to him, what’s he going to break next? We’re still waiting on his taxes. How about those press conferences he keeps announcing?

Trump played you as much as Putin has played you. Except Putin is actually smart. You allowed yourself to be played by a narcissistic moron with the maturity of an angry toddler in a crappy diaper. Good job. When I was a kid I fell for it when my grandfather told me to pull his finger. I never pulled the finger twice. You’re still pulling Trump’s finger.

Trump’s surrogates on news shows can’t even allow a question to finish before they start not answering it. Their first response is to talk about how bad of a campaign Hillary Clinton ran. Putin has made the same point. Trump has made the same point. Your talking points are coming from Moscow. Alexey Pushkov, a Russian senator, said that Republicans trust Putin more than they trust Democrats. He’s right. There’s something very wrong with that.

I wasn’t real crazy about drawing a puppet cartoon as it’s been done, but hopefully not in this context. Trump refuses to acknowledge there’s a Russian hand up his ass. And if you’re spreading fake news, have spread it, continue to deny the Russians hacked our election, or you even voted for Trump, you’re not noticing the hand up your ass either.

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