Arthur S. Reber

Okay, it’s crazy time. Actually, it’s been crazy time since Trump took over the Oval Office. But all this craziness has me thinking crazy thoughts. The little spasm of nuttiness that’s commandeered my brain, however, could very well turn out to be true.

Follow me on this here. I’m beginning to believe that our POTUS may be an agent of the Kremlin, a traitor. I’m trying very hard not to sound like some wack-job, an “Alex-Jones-nutball” swooping in from the left. But, here’s the story:

It begins with Rachel Maddow’s show Wednesday night. If you missed it, track down the video and watch. She’s knitting together a string of little tidbits, meetings, notes, hints, some of it fairly “hard” (i.e. we know this meeting took place) much of it “soft” (i.e., allegations still without independent verification).

The bottom line is just fucking off-the-wall-impossible, incomprehensible. The Russians have the goods on Trump. His organization and Russian intelligence were colluding throughout the campaign. But the real quid pro quo wasn’t just the Kremlin getting the guy they wanted in the White House, it was to control Trump and America’s positions on international affairs. In short, Trump just may be an agent of the Kremlin.

The evidence that she cites that’s so tantalizing is not just the usual stuff (Trump’s financial dealings with Russian oligarchs, his admiration for Putin’s “strongman” style) but deeper and far more malevolent — it’s what’s happened to the State Department since he took over.

Rather than being the instrument of US foreign policy, it has been neutered. Scores of life-long diplomats were either fired or resigned. They were not (and apparently will not be) replaced. Trump’s budget calls for an astonishing 37% reduction in funding of the State Department.

Secretary Tillerson, long a friend of Putin’s and recipient of Russia’s highest award for foreigners, has been reduced to a hand-shaking bag of wind who, when he says anything, just mutters empty slogans. There is no Undersecretary. All hints of how State will operate in the months and years to come show it leaning toward assisting Russia with sanctions, supporting inroads into Ukraine, backing its stance with regard to NATO, its interventions in the Middle East and its position vis a vis China.

And, curiously but tellingly, every day a new tidbit emerges from some source that confirms the allegations in that “dossier” that Chris Steele (who has emerged from hiding) put together. The main things missing right now are “hard” data on exactly who said/promised what in the meetings, Trump’s alleged sexual misconduct while in Moscow and, of course, those golden showers.

It’s also telling that when word of those meetings between Trump, his people and the Kremlin first leaked they were denied — passionately. Trump, Manafort and others are on record stating categorically that no one from the campaign ever met with anyone from the Kremlin. Well, there’s certainly been a course-correction on these as independent evidence comes out. I think we’re up to around six of his people having been confirmed as holding meetings with operatives from the Kremlin.

So here’s the teaser: it really is beginning to look like Putin has Trump by the short and curlies and it is just possible (I can’t believe I’m saying this — I really am sounding like a left-wing Alex Jones) that our POTUS is a traitor.