Kompromat

 "Kompromat" is literally compromising material.

The Russian's (and the Mob, for that matter) are famous for collecting--and using--kompromat.

It may be of a sexual nature. 

It may be of a financial nature.

It may be of some other personal nature.

It is used to blackmail and extort.

At this point, it feels like almost the entire Republican Party is being blackmailed.

Why else would they have supported, and continue to support, a mobbed up tub of lard in debt to the Russians?

Why do they sometimes appear to be willing to say and do the right thing, only to suddenly change course 180 degrees?

Kompromat is the only logical answer.

The Russians and/or Trump must have serious "dirt" on all of them--especially the ones who openly grovel before Putin and his lapdog, Donnie.

What Did You Expect?

So Bill Barr's Department of Justice is dropping all charges against Michael Flynn...

Is anyone surprised by this?

If you are, you need to remember one thing: Bill Barr has always been a Republican hack.

And if the truth is ever allowed to come out about Flynn, and Manafort, and Stone, and McConnell, and the Trump family and their Russian buddies, that would be the end of the Republican Party.

Bill Barr has fought his entire adult life to protect the simmering cesspool that is the modern Republican Party.

That, and a brutally medieval interpretation of Catholicism, are the foundation of what passes for his belief system.

Deep down, Barr is probably as repelled by Trump as anyone else with a semi-sentient brain. But that's not the point.

The point is that his party is imperiled, and he will do anything, tell any lie, break any law, shit on the Constitution, to preserve it.

House Of Cards

Say you had a political party.

Say this party has benefited from subtle and not so subtle racist "dog whistles" for many years.

Say this party, as a result of these dog whistles, had attracted through the years a collection of the dregs of humanity. The worst of the worst.

Say some of these dregs had actually found their way into Congress, where they formed a block of ignorant, bigoted, clueless fools, who had no understanding of how to govern, or even how government works.

Say this party has strayed so far from its roots that it would be completely unrecognizable to not only its founders, but to many of its current members.

Say, along the way, that this party and some of its candidates had accepted money, lots and lots of money, and other, more esoteric forms of support, from a foreign government hostile to the United States.

Say this money had found its way into the pockets of many of the most highly placed members of this party.

Say this party's win at any cost methods, helped immeasurably by this foreign government, had ultimately resulted in electing a President who is totally unqualified to hold any elected office.

Say someone started investigating this party's connection to that foreign government. Say at every step of the way the investigator(s) were shocked to find someone else in the party who had taken the foreign government's money and help.

All connected, all corrupted, all stacked inside each other, like one of those Russian nesting dolls.

All traitors.

They Still Don't Care

It should be apparent to all but the dullest amongst us that Donald J. Trump is a foolish buffoon.

A stunted, spoiled, manchild oaf, he governs by tantrum and whim. And lie upon lie.

But the people who voted for him still don't care.

The pivot back to sane, responsible, intelligent, adult behavior that was supposed to happen, never happened. It never will happen. Simply because it can't happen. He is not capable of sane, responsible, intelligent, adult, behavior.

But the people who voted for him still don't care.

He worries about the plight of working class people about as much as a pig worries about particle physics.

He has larded his White House with Goldman Sachs lackeys--just as he warned us Mrs. Clinton would. But it's OK because he's a "successful" white male. Not a woman. Not black. So, it's all good.
Except that it isn't. What it is, is rampant kleptocracy and a systematic dismantling of 100 plus years of progress.

But the people who voted for him still don't care.

He surrounds himself with white nationalists, nut job generals, serial liars, and billionaire grifters. Literally the scum of the earth.

He is quite probably a traitor to everything but money and his own deluded ego. A stooge, in hock to Putin and God knows who else.

But the people who voted for him still don't care.

And so, all those Trump banner waving simpletons who roared as he promised to Make America Great Again, who frothed at the mouth as they chanted "lock her up", those pea brains who were dead certain that they were being fucked over by "the liberals" and that black man, blinded by racism and stupidity, are about to be really fucked over by the Clown in Chief.

 But the people who voted for him still don't care.

Meet Trump's Cabinet

Chief of Staff: Steve "Even Sewer Scum Thinks I'm Awful" Bannon.

Secretary of State: Sarah "I can see Russia from my house" Palin. Of course, that's only if Putin is too busy to do the job.

Attorney General: Jeff "If'n You Want To Start A Race War, I'm Yer Peckerwood" Sessions. I guess we're not going to "throw her in jail" now, are we? There's still a very long enemies list to get through.

National Security Advisor: General Michael "Kill Anyone Who Doesn't Love Jesus" Flynn.

Secretary of Defense: John "Bomb Bomb Bomb, Bomb Iran" McCain. I know they've had their differences, but surely they can agree on nuking some folks, can't they? The Chickenhawk and the Professional POW. Sounds like a great buddy movie.

Department of Homeland Security: Milwaukee County Sheriff David "Constitution? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Constitution" Clarke. See, he's black so that means they're not racists, right? Yes, he is black, but the old, ugly phrase "house ni**er" comes to mind.

Secretary of the Interior: Is James Watt dead? If so, then whomever the Koch brothers want will do. We've got a lot of federal lands to despoil. Those National Parks aren't going to privatize themselves!

Secretaries of Education, Energy, Housing and Urban Development, Health and Human Services: you're kidding, right?

And of course, since Trump will need all the help he can get, there will have to be some new positions:

Minister of Misinformation: Roger Ailes.

Minister of Culture: Ted Nugent.

Minister of Bile: Rudy "Frothing at the Mouth" Guiliani. Naturally, he has to be cleared for rabies first.

Minister of Truly Bad Ideas:  John "Anyone Who Listens To Me Is A Fool" Bolton. Regime change? In Iran?  Beautiful. It's good to see Bolton hasn't lost a step.

Minister(s) of Internal Compliance: All those armed Trump supporters can take turns keeping the rest of us, the majority by the way, in line.

Gonna be a fun 4 years.