That headline could just as easily read “Republicans Are Fifth Column Traitors“.

Same difference. A traitor is a traitor is a traitor. And the Republican Party isn’t just the Trumpist Party now, it’s the party of treason.

The term “fifth column” originated during the Spanish Civil War. Emilio Mola Vidal, a Nationalist general who served under fascist Francisco Franco, was marching on Madrid with four columns of his own army. But, he said, he already had troops inside the capital, a “fifth column” of supporters who were working to help him. This “secret army” worked in secret against their fellow citizens. As the Spanish Civil War was an internal affair (mostly), those fifth columnists weren’t traitors – except to whatever moral compass they had. America’s Republican Party are doing exactly what those fifth columnists inside Madrid were doing. Except they’re doing it at the behest of Russia.

And that makes them TRAITORS.

Seriously – how openly treacherous do Republicans have to be before our news media – and the DoJ – catch on? Let’s look at Justice first. We’ll need a bit of time – and the events within them – before we know whether Merrick Garland was a hero, a villain or something else entirely. Was his determination to appear fair an over-reaction to criminal behavior he misinterpreted as political behavior? I suspect that was the case – and it’s why he took a year longer than he should have to begin investigating January 7!

A whole goddamned YEAR! And had the House Committee not done all that investigation first? Where would the DoJ have been? Just starting out down the same road?

That year would have stood between Trump, the Republicans and this year’s election. FFS, January 7 was all about circumventing the outcome of Election 2020. While the DoJ was actively pursuing the actual perps on the ground, they seemed completely disinterested in everyone who planned January 7 and paid for it!

Why is Roger Stone still walking around free – and not under intense investigation? How about Steve Bannon and every other hump who had anything to do with the Willard War Room? What does Garland think happened there – just a loud party?

Meanwhile, Russia’s influence over the entire GOP has become an open secret! There are actual pro-Putin Republicans. What the hell is that? How can such a thing be?

America may not be in an open state of war with Russia, but make no mistake: Russia is at war with us!

Cyber war is no less war than a bombs and bullets war. To pretend otherwise is to live in the past while your foes live in the present and future. Take this to the bank: you will lose every war you ever fight – and the other side will beat you on the cheap while you spend a fortune on bombs and bullets.

Russia has a crap military (as their war on Ukraine has demonstrated). But, at espionage, they are masters. And no one is more masterful an intelligence officer than Vladimir Putin.

Putin, don’t forget, was a career intelligence officer before becoming a career dictator and crime boss. He ran the KGB’s successor as the Soviet Union collapsed and Russia emerged from the mess. It was because he ran the intelligence agency that he leveraged then president Boris Yeltsin out on New Year’s Eve 1999 and himself in – to power.

Why did Yeltsin step from power so unexpectedly? Betcha it wasn’t because Putin asked nicely.

The GOP’s leaders knew before they even nominated Trump that Putin had him in his pocket. They even discussed it. OUT LOUD.

June 25, 2016 – former Speaker Of The House Kevin McCarthy exited a meeting where the intelligence community briefed members of Congress about Putin’s continuing attempts to undermine Ukraine’s fragile, young democracy. McCarthy went from that meeting directly into a meeting of Republican leaders.

The very first thing McCarthy said upon entering the meeting (which was recorded by someone present and the recording played for then Washington Post Reporter Adam Entous almost a year later) was: “There’s two people I think Putin pays – Rohrbacher and Trump – swear to God!”

A little context: everyone there would have agreed that, yes, California Representative Dana Rohrbacher lived in Putin’s pocket. The press had described Rohrbacher as “Putin’s Favorite Congressman” and everyone in Republican leadership knew and accepted that fact. But, Trump?

“Putin pays Trump”? That should have been a gut punch moment! The room should have erupted in outrage.

At least someone should have been outraged. Or angry. Or maybe just disagreed with McCarthy. Except no one did.

Rather, there was nervous laughter. That’s why McCarthy added “Swear to God!” He wanted the room to know he was serious about that accusation. The room knew he was serious.

And the room knew the accusation was both serious and problematic for them. Then Speaker Of The House Paul Ryan stepped forward and asserted what Republicans considered “leadership” in that moment.

It must have been so, because the rest of those Republican leaders followed along with what Ryan wanted – to keep this terrible secret from getting out to the American electorate. As Entous put in in the WaPo: “Ryan instructed his Republican lieutenants to keep the conversation private, saying: ‘“’No leaks. . . . This is how we know we’re a real family here’.”

A real family… a real crime family.

The news media has asked from the start “what is the strange hold Trump has over Republicans”. Yeah, sure – his base has become the key. But, his base wasn’t the key back when Trump first seized control of the GOP. The entire leadership structure went from being like Lindsey Graham – seeing Trump for the disaster he was – to being completely willing to let Trump be that disaster.

Hello, Lindsey! Hello, Fifth Columnist!

It isn’t hyperbole to say that the war between Russia and Ukraine is a war between corrupt authoritarianism and democracy.

Why would any American – an American politician no less – side with corrupt authoritarianism over democracy? What’s the lure inside that fifth column?

Racism. Bigotry. Religious fanaticism. WillfuSpanishl ignorance. Cultural hegemony. Greed. But, above all, racism.

Remember – when America started, not everyone wanted to be free. About a third of America’s colonists were out and out monarchists who didn’t want independence. They’ve never changed – or changed their minds about America. They still despise our democracy because democracy threatens their hegemony.

That’s why they’ve always stood apart from the rest of America – a Fifth Column, waiting for its moment. Trump provided it.

These Fifth Columnists are traitors to us, to our democracy – and to the government which sustains that democracy. You know, our government of the people, for the people and by the people.

What kind of person would dare side with the enemy to that?