It’s mourning in America.

Nobody saw this coming. At all. And, those now saying they sensed something like Donald Trump’s electoral victory, I want to point out – what they sensed, they sensed in an atmosphere poisoned by disinformation, misinformation and propaganda. Were this normal political junk mailers and emails, it’d be one thing. This wasn’t that. When Trump did this in 2016 – defied expectations – we blamed it on the polls getting it wrong. We’re doing the same thing now. Blaming our view of ourselves. Blaming ourselves.

But, what if the reason Trump “won” in 2016 is the same reason he “won” yesterday. And it all has to do with Donald Trump’s relationship with Russia and Vladimir Putin?

Trump’s relationship with Putin – and how Putin “influenced” the 2016 and 2020 elections – has gone largely uninvestigated. Remember Robert Mueller? Remember Bill Barr? Remember all those pardons Trump dished out before he was voted out in 2020? Among them was a pardon to Paul Manafort, his 2016 campaign manager.

Remember why Manafort went to prison? He gave a man named Konstantin Kalimnik proprietary polling data for four states – Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.  Kalimnik handed the polling data to his buddy Oleg Deripaska – a Russian military intelligence officer. That settled a debt between Manafort and Deripaska. And it broke the law – and, seen in its actual context, it was an act of treason.

Foreign actors of any kind have no place in American elections. Yet, in the age of Donald Trump, foreign actors can act right in front of our faces – and, to this point, we’ve done nothing to stop them. That’s why there are now “Pro-Putin Republicans”.

In the past, had there been “Pro-Putin Democrats”, ya know what Republicans would have called them? Traitors. And they’d have been absolutely correct.

Because that’s what every pro-Putin Republican is and has been from the jump back in 2016: traitors.

Throughout Trump’s first term, our news media scratched divots into their scalps trying to figure out Trump’s intense hold on the GOP. This was before Trump’s base became a cudgel he could hold over every Republican’s head.  Take Lindsey Graham. He went from being a “Trump’ll destroy the Republican Party” guy to a man with Trump’s fresh DNA on his breath. Did Lindsey see “the light”? Or – much more likely given Donald Trump’s thuggish nature (nurtured by Roy Cohn and paid for by Putin) – did Lindsey see kompromat of him doing things he shouldn’t have to people he shouldn’t have?

Remember how angry Trump was about the FBI raiding his private safe at Mar-A-Lago? The FBI didn’t find stacks of cash. They found kompromat. Do I know this for a fact? Of course not. But, if you connect the dots – and they’ve been begging for either the press or the Department of Justice to do that – you get a very clear picture.

We can point to a day – June 25, 2016 – when, for a moment, the Republican Party spoke the truth about what they suspected was about to happen. They need to explain – under oath – BEFORE DONALD TRUMP TAKES ANY SORT OF POWER – why they said what they said in a meeting that someone recorded. That recording was played almost a year later for then Washington Post reporter Adam Entous.

So, this story is actual news that our press reported and then failed to follow up.

Entous reported that Representative (and future Speaker Of The House) Kevin McCarthy attended a meeting on Capitol Hill where the intelligence community briefed members of Congress about Putin’s active efforts to undermine Ukraine’s fragile, new democracy and its new president Volodimir Zelenskyy. McCarthy exited that meeting and entered another where GOP leaders had gathered.

Upon entering the room, McCarthy said (remember – it was recorded) “There’s two people I think Putin pays – Rohrbacher and Trump – swear to God!”

No one present either questioned McCarthy – or doubted him. Instead, he got nervous laughter. That’s what prompted “Swear to God!”. McCarthy had just implied that their about-to-be presidential nominee – should he win – would pose a grave national security risk. Did anyone there suggest calling the FBI? No. Instead, then Speaker Of The House Paul Ryan asserted “leadership”. He told all present they weren’t going to discuss this any more. That they would keep it their secret. “That’s how we know we’re family,” is how he ended it

What kind of family was he thinking of?

Almost a year later, the WaPo published Entous’ piece. A few intrepid reporters found McCarthy and asked him about it. McCarthy waved it off with “I was joking”.

That, apparently, satisfied the news media.

But, there was a follow up question that never got asked. One among a million follow ups our press still hasn’t asked. They may never get to going forwards.

Here’s the question: was Kevin McCarthy joking about the other name he mentioned – Dana Rohrbacher’s? No, he wasn’t. Everyone there knew that Rohrbacher was as he’d been characterized “Putin’s Favorite Congressman”. So, McCarthy was not joking about Rohrbacher. Rather, McCarthy was saying that, like Rohrbacher, their about-t0-be =nominee lived inside Putin’s pocket.

And THAT is what the GOP decided to keep secret because they were “family”.

A family of traitors.

We’ve learned recently that both citizen Donald Trump and citizen Elon Musk have had numerous off-the-books conversations with Putin We know for a fact that, while he was POTUS, Trump had numerous one-on-one’s with Putin without any other Americans present. I guess that’s what owning an American president buys you.

Donald Trump has never in his life done anything legitimately or within the rules. If he’s stayed within the law, it was more likely because those enforcing the law stretched the law to accommodate Trump. He’s gotten that advantage his whole corrupt life.

That’s the bottom line here. Trump’s never done or won anything honestly. He didn’t start with this election. Did Russia in any way, shape or form contribute to Trump “winning” again?

If so, we need to examine this win carefully and thoroughly before accepting its legitimacy. This is not about politics.

It’s about our SOVEREIGNTY. It’s against the law for other countries to “interfere with our elections” and yet, we all agree that, in 2016, Russia did exactly that. And we have ample proof that Trump and his campaign knew it and participated. Remember Paul Manafort?

If we allow other countries to “interfere with” our elections, then our sovereignty is meaningless.

That’s what happened in 2016 – with success – in 2020 without – but in 2024 with success.

I still question results that go violently against what literally anyone expected and no one saw coming. That’s not just “weird”, it’s suspect. Especially because Donald Trump and the Pro-Putin Republican Party have their fingerprints on it. And those are corrupt, treasonous fingerprints.

So, what can anyone do?

There’s an answer. When the Supreme Court gave the American President nearly limitless power, they were thinking of Donald Trump. But they changed the rule while a Democrat – Joe Biden – sat in the White House. That means Joe Biden, so long as he remains POTUS, has nearly limitless power so long as he acts within the now limitless powers of his office.

In fact, because the SCOTUS changed the law, Biden could now walk into Attorney General Merrick Garland’s office and order Garland to investigate (or even arrest) his – or America’s – political enemies. All without anyone prosecuting him.

Now, I understand as I write this, that were Joe Biden to do such a thing – operate “outside the law” to hold onto political power – he (and the Democrats) would be acting exactly like Republicans. That’s correct, they would be. But, then, they’d only be following and practicing the law AS IT IS NOW – because that’s what the SCOTUS did. Ironically, the Democrats would be following the Republican playbook at exactly the moment the Republicans most doubt the Democrats would do such a thing.

But, Joe Biden and the Democrats better. Or this is the end of the American experiment. Do not doubt that. The Republican Party has made it explicit: they intend to make voting irrelevant. They intend to take power (seize it) and hold onto it forever.

All talk about “we’ll get em in two years” is rubbish. The first thing Trumpco will do if given the reins of power is secure them in his hands. First and foremost? He will guarantee that he never gets prosecuted for being a traitor.

And that has always been the bottom line.

Joe Biden could tell us that this is a matter of American national security and the world’s security. He’d be right. Would there be violence if he did this? Yup. But there’ll be violence regardless. Especially if Trump does what he promised in his (hopelessly inarticulate) “victory speech” – and keep all his promises.

Those promises all include violence to his political enemies.

Will Joe Biden do the right thing by American democracy? Will he use the power in his hands to save it? That’s the question.

I have no idea what the answer will be.