Breakthrough COVID infections are real: Urgent to keep getting vaccinated!

Breakthrough COVID? OMG

Welcome back to Limbo!

Unvaccinated are high risk for serious illness.

Echo opinion letter published in MichiganLive 
By Lawrence Specker

I waited for the text from my wife, as I sat in the car outside the urgent-care clinic. Her message couldn’t have come as more of a surprise: The word “COVID” followed by a plus sign and a sad face.

++😞

This wasn’t the plan: Sure, she’d been hit with fever on Friday, followed by some congestion and cough on Saturday.

Yet, she was vaccinated, so we figured it was a routine case of the crud. It had to happen sooner or later.

Remember 2020, when most of us wore masks everywhere and went a year without flu or colds? Good times.

Now, on Sunday, she’d come in to get a steroid shot and a clean COVID test so she could get back to work on Monday. Just one of those working-class things. But the test didn’t cooperate.

Later in the day, our 15-year-old son and older daughter and myself tested negative. With that result in hand, I felt like I could mask up and go get the stockpile of groceries we’d need for the next week. Daughter, who has her own place, was told to stay away, and the rest of us buttoned up.

Six days later I was back at the urgent care, supremely confident I was about to get another negative. I was vaccinated too (Pfizer, same as my wife) and my symptoms were nothing like COVID. I had a low fever, not a high one. I had a dry cough, not a congested one. I had one day of fatigue and by the time I went in, I already felt like I was over it.

Unfortunately, I was not over it.

There was a while (more like a year) when I thought of the pandemic like one of those scenes from an Indiana Jones movie, where the good guys are swimming down a river while hordes of angry people shoot poison arrows at them. The lockdowns, the masks, the self-imposed isolation -- That was us, holding our breath, trying to stay underwater until we were out of range of the arrows.

But no one can hold their breath forever. Sooner or later, something had to give. By late spring we were all bursting to the surface. A lot of us were getting vaccinated, rates were dropping. It felt good to breathe again. And things were pretty good for a while, floating along down the river, until Delta reared its head. 

Now, we’re at that point where Indy and the gang realize that, ready or not, they’re about to shoot a waterfall. Some start screaming, some grit their teeth and brace for white water.

I’m not sure how a breakthrough case fits into this metaphor. Because it takes you right out of the movie.

You’re not deathly ill, or at least we haven’t been. Melissa’s symptoms fell somewhere between a nasty cold and a mild case of the flu. It was no walk in the park, but it was still trivial compared to the horror stories you hear every day. She was selected for an antibody transfusion. The morning she went to the clinic to receive it, a fellow patient was red-flagged during preliminary screening and sent to the ER.

So you’re keenly aware that your situation isn’t tragic. You’re lying in bed at home, listening to an endless series of e-books (Melissa). Or you’re just plugging away, working from home like you’ve been doing for a year (me). You order takeout. You have groceries delivered. You watch the latest Marvel thing. Need a getaway? You walk the dog. You mow the yard. There are people out there being rolled into ERs and ICUs, being intubated. People are dying from what you’ve got, but you feel well enough to push a mower. It seems unreasonable to expect much sympathy, even from yourself.

And yet: This thing you have could kill people, so you’ve got to stay under house arrest for a while. And it really starts to suck, as it passes from one person to the next and the end date when the household is finally clear keeps moving down the line.

“When one of y’all gets it, my advice is to cough in each other’s faces until you’ve all got it,” I told a (vaccinated) friend at one point. “Get it over with instead of doing it one at a time like us. I’m not saying it’s good advice, just my advice.”

One thing about getting a breakthrough case of COVID-19, it pushes you away from absolute thinking. The world is no longer divided into the safe (vaccinated) and the at-risk (unvaccinated). It’s no longer about the righteous vs. the righteously deluded. There are no guarantees. You already knew that, in a sense, because scientists and doctors have said from the beginning that no vaccine is perfect, that breakthrough cases will happen but should be mild, that every mutation of the virus is another roll of the dice. 

So, now you know it in the sense that you’ve got all this time at home on your hands, but you can’t start that project you have in mind because you can’t go down to Lowe’s and stare at parts and fittings for an hour until you figure out what you need.

Life is no longer divided into “that time when we all had to wear masks” and “the time when we didn’t have to unless we just felt like it.” 

Moreover, it’s no longer divided into the big shutdown and the return to normal.

Normal was great while it lasted. My son and I traveled to Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico for a nine-day backpacking trip. COVID was a serious concern -- among other countermeasures, everybody in the group had to show up with proof of vaccination or of a fresh negative test result. We had those in hand and felt bulletproof.

Even in the backcountry, masks were required when mingling with other groups. But you gave a lot more care to bear safety, making sure that if one wandered through your camp during the night, you and your tent wouldn’t smell like a snack.

Sure enough, there was one morning when a couple of credible crew members said they’d heard something big snuffling around the camp during the night. And another spotted what looked like fresh bear poop. Most of us slept right through it, but it made an impression on those who didn’t.

Having breakthrough COVID in the house is kind of like that: Hearing a potential killer snuffling around your space and moving on. Good luck getting back to sleep.

As I was pondering all this, NPR’s “All Things Considered” did a brisk segment surveying the state of play in Lower Alabama: Low vaccination rates, the Delta variant running rampant, stubborn vaccine hesitancy, frustrated officials wondering what it would take to get to a better place.

I heard Mobile County Commissioner Merceria Ludgood say, “If we can’t figure out a way to get more people vaccinated, then we’re going to be in the thralls of this for years and years.”

That’s not a comforting thought. That’s a world where we (probably) all don’t have to go into mass lockdown again, but every time a fresh variant comes along the at-risk will take the brunt and some of us who’ve been vaccinated will end up having to spend a couple of weeks in quarantine fighting cabin fever. That’s a lot of nights where you lie there and hear the bear snuffling through the camp.

Things will get better; they have to. The system knows a lot more now about treating COVID patients than it did in the early days, when nothing seemed to work. With a fast-spreading variant like Delta, at least there’s the hope that it’ll pass like a flash fire, doing its worst and fading in a relatively short period of time. At some point we might even get to that fabled level of herd immunity, which will be great for the survivors.

In a few days I’ll be out of quarantine, out of Limbo. Things that are mere fantasies now, like being able get in the car and go run routine household errands, will once again be possible.

I still like my Indiana Jones metaphor, messy as it has gotten. Yes, he makes it out of the river at some point, and so will we. 

In the meantime -- I’ll see you on the other side of this waterfall.

Republicans are voting for greed over democracy

Since I began voting in Montana for over 40 years, I have always had trust in our voting system. 

Echo opinion letter published in the Missoulian, a Montana newspaper.

Along with being a political wizard and an inventor, was Benjamin Franklin a prophet? “When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.” ― Benjamin Franklin

But, for the recent mayoral election (in Missoula)... I hand-carried my vote to the Russell Street voting center because I lack trust that the Republican state legislature will protect our vote. Rather, the Republicans will suppress the votes of Native Americans and college students (and others) who don't believe the 2020, election was stolen and don't believe voter suppression is needed to stop fraud.

The post office in Montana is now degraded because Republican-appointed U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has systematically suppressed mail service. It is also wrong to disable same-day registration/voting. 

College IDs are sufficient to identify college voters. These laws just suppress democratic federation free voting and push the big lie of 2020 voter fraud.

It is bad that I now have to hand-carry my vote to the center rather than mail it because Republicans have made us untrusting in our democracy's voting procedures — all because they require total government power.

From Mike O'Lear in Missoula Montana

Maine Writer:  In my opinion, Republicans have a nefarious goal to support their greed agenda, rather than to protect democracy.

Sedition is a Federal crime includes murder- January 6

Echo opinion letter published in Tuscon.com, in Arizona:

https://tucson.com/opinion/letters/letter-january-6-2021-capitol-attack/article_57365944-8274-11eb-b476-a34b1558fa67.html

All those (seditionists!) who breached and entered the U.S. Capitol Building, and murdered, rioted, damaged and looted in January should be charged with the same Federal crimes including murder.

The Second Amendment does not mention taking arms to a rally and then breaking into the U.S. Capitol Building where Congress was in session. There was no threat to the security of the free state until the rioters brought the threat into the building.

Sedition is a Federal crime!

It was also horrific that the Capitol police were injured and did not have the back-up they needed to deal with the rioters. The last terrible part was some members of Congress did not accept the will of the people who voted in the election. Some members used this venue inappropriately to voice their so-called concerns about election security and fraud in states other than their own. 

This was neither the time nor the place for these (outrageous!) concerns.

Charles J. Reiser, Saddle Brooke Ranch
Oracle, Arizona

P.S. Watch Michael Fanone give his personal testimony to the U.S. Congress on this attached video.

Selfish antivaxxers - "freedom" to not vaccinate is dangerous to themselves and others

Echo opinion published in The Times-Independent, a newspaper in Moab Utah. 

Wrong minded antivaxxers, the protestors, those who demonstrate against vaccination mandates — or even mask-wearing, are whining about how COVID-19 mandates deprive them of their freedom of choice.

Oh Paleeeze!

In fact, the choice to avoid being vaccinated can and should have social costs. This debate is not about freedom versus tyranny; it is about finding the proper balance between individual choice or responsibility and protecting the freedom of others to live their lives without the constant fear of catching a potentially lethal (and oftentimes preventable!) illness.

First, let’s recognize that no one is compelled to get vaccinated against COVID, or any other disease, nor will they be arrested for refusing a vaccination. Anyone who wishes to decline the vaccine is free to say no. There might indeed be some negative consequences attached to that refusal, but people who are willing to accept those can stay unvaccinated. They retain their full freedom of choice.

Second, the Supreme Court ruled in a 1905 case (Jacobson v Massachusetts) that, as a general principle, the state has the power to impose “reasonable regulations” such as vaccination requirements to protect public health and safety. While individuals do have a sphere of personal liberty, it is not absolute. Moreover, as Justice Harlan noted in the majority opinion, the state does not have a right to force someone to be vaccinated, only to impose a cost (here a fine) upon that person for refusing to do so.

Third, it has become settled law that states may impose vaccination requirements on families that want to send their children to public schools. All 50 states require that kids have the well-known DTaP, chickenpox, and polio vaccinations before they enter kindergarten, and most states (including Utah) also require inoculations against hepatitis B for children.

Note that there are exemptions available for religious (and sometimes other) reasons. In short, vaccination mandates for COVID-19 have not descended from out of the blue; they simply continue a long-established pattern—affirmed by the courts—of safeguarding public health. To reject vaccinations for one’s own children may in fact pose the gravest threat to their liberties, since they might end up seriously ill or even dead from preventable diseases.

This brief review establishes a clear general principle: those who oppose vaccinations for themselves or their children have the freedom to say no, but their refusal will have costs that can be steep. COVID vaccination refusers who work for certain airlines may be fired; ditto medical professionals and teachers in some states or localities.

Anti-vaxxers might have to homeschool their children. And the Biden administration has decreed that all companies with over 100 employees must require vaccinations, but also give employees the option of weekly testing for COVID. In some venues, bars and restaurants may refuse to serve customers who can’t show proof of vaccination.

Those measures do not deprive anyone of personal freedom, but they impose costs on some of their choices, and rightly so. Declining a vaccination for a deadly disease for oneself or one’s children puts many other people at risk and curtails their freedom, especially people too young to get vaccinated and those who cannot be because of certain pre-existing conditions.

A parallel case involves drunk driving. Anyone is free to get drunk at home. But he or she is not free to get behind the wheel and endanger others. So, if drunk drivers are pulled over, given a ticket, and forced to spend the night in jail, they have no grounds for complaining about freedom denied.

They made a choice and must live with the consequences. If you don’t want a society in which drunk drivers roam our highways, you should not want one in which unvaccinated people claim the right to be in our schools, hospitals, and workplaces no matter the impact on everyone else’s liberties

Lew Hinchman writes from Moab, Utah.

Antivaxxers must end hotheaded culture war against medical science

"We have witnessed how anti-mask and anti-vaccination demonstrations have become hotbeds of Holocaust trivialization and antisemitic conspiracy theories across the United States and abroad."

Using Nazi symbols to protest vaccines is disgraceful

Protecting public health should never be equated to the horrors committed by the Nazi regime during the Holocaust

Echo opinion published in Deseret News, a Utah newspaper.

By Spencer Cox and Seth Brysk

Like the rest of the nation, Utah is working hard to keep the Beehive State safe from COVID-19. Yet, in the face of this enormous challenge, some have abandoned reason in favor of hate-fueled actions.

Protests began early and spread nearly in sync with the pandemic. The right to protest is a fundamental American right. 

The star of ostracism and death

Nazis forced Jews in Germany to wear a yellow badge, which meant they were excluded from society. The identification symbol was a precursor to the Holocaust.

Unfortunately, some used the coronavirus as a convenient catalyst to focus bigotry on Asians and others. Rules regarding the use of face coverings and promotion of vaccines may have created an inconvenient imposition, yet were met with vitriol directed at ethnic and religious groups and also the leaders of the public health response.

One of the most disgraceful and misplaced of the myriad comparisons used to decry the public health measures are Holocaust analogies and Nazi symbols.

Earlier this month, a group of protesters outside the Governor’s Mansion displayed enormous banners with swastikas formed out of the image of syringes — equating vaccination with Nazism.

Comparing the two makes a mockery of the scale and scope of the Holocaust and the systematic murder by the Nazis of 6 million Jews, including 1.5 million children and millions of other innocents.

Extremists have invoked new conspiracies by using old tropes to blame Jews for the pandemic or profiting from it. We have also watched with alarm as protesters have affixed a yellow Star of David to their clothing to protest public health requirements. Jews in Nazi-Germany were forced to wear yellow stars visibly on their clothing so they could be identified as Jews in the aftermath of the violent pogrom Kristallnacht on Nov. 9, 1938. Jews who refused to comply were subject to being shot on the spot.

Using a swastika or yellow star as a cheap symbol of protest against the vaccine or mask requirements is odious. The genocide committed by the Nazis resulting in the destruction of two-thirds of European Jewry and one-third of the global Jewish population is not a subject for glib comparisons or politicization. Denying, minimizing or trivializing of the Holocaust is at worst an expression of antisemitism and at best a display of the ignorance of the protester invoking the comparison.

Protecting public health should never be equated to the horrors committed by the Nazi regime during the Holocaust. Encouraging vaccinations does not compare to schemes hastening the mass murder of millions of innocent people. Tying the Holocaust to anti-vaccine and anti-mask protests is as shocking as it is inaccurate and offensive. Policies designed to save lives do not equate with policies devised to mete out death.

Such offensive analogies by opportunists and fringe groups are an act of moral outrage. By brandishing distrust or outright disdain of research and science, they ridicule history.

To be sure, we respect and defend the right to protest. Freedom of expression and the right to assemble are core American values which we cherish. Even so, we condemn the use of antisemitic and other hate-filled slurs or symbols, which are causing deep pain and offense, intentional or not.

We believe Utah must be better than this. We believe we can disagree without hating each other.

We can make Utah an example to the nation.

We have witnessed how anti-mask and anti-vaccination demonstrations have become hotbeds of Holocaust trivialization and antisemitic conspiracy theories across the United States and abroad.

It is a testament to the need for continued and intensified Holocaust education across all ages. And it demands a strong and unequivocal call to action.

We must return to civility, whenever we disagree, through reasoned and thoughtful engagement in our collective desire to end the COVID-19 global pandemic.

Utahns can lead the way.

Gov. Spencer J. Cox is the 18th governor of Utah. Seth Brysk is the Central Pacific regional director of the Anti-Defamation League.

Republican cult and Jim Jones

Echo letter to the editor published in Houma Today, a Louisiana newspaper: American democracy died.

It was slain by #TFG Donald Trump and his cult minions in the U.S. Senate. Indeed, it was devastating to watch insurgents invade the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, our very center of democracy. 

This was done at the behest of their seditious leader, and the vast majority of the Republican party voted to acquit him, even after seeing and hearing overwhelming testimony sufficient to convict him.

By doing this, a clear message was sent to staffers and all personnel who work at the Capitol: You’re on your own. It’s tragically ironic that people were beaten and killed in defense of the very people who, by not voting to convict, seem to condone it. Not holding Trump accountable is an insult to every victim and every American patriot.

This blind commitment to Trump by these politicians is cult-like, and Trump seems cast as the new Jim Jones. What are these politicians afraid of? Why do some sacrifice their own moral standards for his benefit? What are they afraid of? 

I’ll tell you: They are afraid of YOU. They want to be reelected no matter what.

As long as you choose to look the other way and ignore the erosion of our American Constitution, set forth by our forefathers, and keep electing people like Trump, who seek not to govern but to rule, our country will suffer. 

Hold people like Donald Trump accountable, like any other citizen!

Too many valiant men and women have fought and died for the many freedoms we enjoy and take for granted, like voting. I am humbled by their sacrifice and I honor them by voting. We elected a new president, and Trump needs to get over it.

I pray that our beloved country can heal from this in spite of the injustice it has suffered. I pray for continued healing of the defenders of our Capitol. I pray nothing like that ever happens again. But after the verdict, no one can be sure.

I am reminded of a quote by Abraham Lincoln: “ America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.“ 

And the chilling words of Russian communist leader Nikita Khruschev in 1956: “We will take America without firing a shot. We do not have to invade the U.S. . We will destroy you from within.”

Lou Anna Guidry

Senator Grassley does not remember his oath of office: #Iowa

To the Editor: Opinion echo published in The Standard- an official newspaper of Alamakee County, Iowa:

Senator Charles Grassley, Representatives Ashley Hinson and Mariannette Miller-Meeks, and Governor Kim Reynolds have sworn an oath to support the U.S. Constitution which entails protecting and defending it against all enemies foreign and domestic. 

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.

And yet, there they were at a rally in Des Moines, IA, lending their support to the man who organized and led the failed coup that attempted to overthrow our free and fair election. Trump continues to spew his Big Lie in an attempt to set the stage for a successful coup in 2024.

If elected leaders refuse to defend democratic voting procedures, democracies die. Republicans have truly become the anti-democratic and authoritarian party. The only hope to save our democracy is to vote them out of office!

Thomas W. Hill,  Lansing, Iowa

More about Dummy McCarthy and TFG handler - hearing his master's voice

Echo opinion letter published in the Bakersfield.com news, in the California community where Rep. Kevin McCarthy represents the district, in the US Congress. 

Although Rep. McCarthy is obviously elected by his constituents to represent them in Congress, the fact is, there are many opinion letters published in this Bakersfield news source that oppose his right wing points of view. This blog contains just one echo, in a series:

Dummy Charlie McCarthy is handled by his ventriloquist handler, Edgar Bergen. Surely, Rep. Kevin McCarthy obeys his master's #TFG's voice, just like the dummy that is apparently a member of his family.

#Insurrection! Jan. 6 happened. We all saw it. We witnessed the damage, saw the anger and heard the threats. Now, Steve Bannon, who is the sleaziest of all for stealing donations from citizens, is being protected by the Republicans? 

Worse, Kevin McCarthy is at the center of it. The election was not stolen. The ones screaming foul, this crazy set of Republicans, know what fake actions they are taking. It is severely damaging our country. No matter what side you are on, you can now feel the hate in this country. It is tragic, and is being promoted by #TFG Trump and dummy McCarthy. 

Why doesn’t McCarthy want an investigation into what happened on Jan. 6? 

All it is is an investigation.

McCarthy brought Trump, who spearheaded Jan. 6, back into the scene by his groveling. But, Trump was voted out! Well, get ready. McCarthy's “team” is now talking about replacing him as their candidate for speaker with Donald Trump! You don’t think it may happen? Just you wait. In case you forgot, Trump can't serve on any charity board. Geez, you could have had a V8!

COVID rates in McCarthy's district are ridiculously high. 

As a matter of fact, McCarthy should come in person and urge his constituents to save not only their lives, but those of their families, friends, and even your family. Vote for, not against, new roads, child and elder care. Do something positive for once.

— Mark Perttula, Bakersfield

Maine Writer:  #KevinMcCarthy needs a battery change! His brain must be reset.

QAnon Shaman is now the logo of Republican extremism

Opinion echo letter published in The Winchester Star, a newspaper published in Winchester, Virginia.

Maine Writer- In my opinion, this QAnon shamen is now the heinous animalistic logo of of the seditious Republican Party.

Jacob Chansley is the shape shifter symbol of Republican extremism.

'QAnon Shaman' turns on his cult idol: pleads guilty.

Jacob Chansley is the QAnon "shaman". He joined a seditious mob that stormed the US Capitol in a horned bearskin outfit and then pleaded guilty to a felony for obstructing the Electoral College proceedings on January 6

“Stupidity is something unshakable; nothing attacks it without breaking itself against it; it is of the nature of granite, hard and resistant.” — Gustave Flaubert

Recently, one of the most grotesquely colorful and idiotic thugs who attacked the Nation’s Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 pleaded guilty to various crimes and was sentenced to a stretch in federal prison. 

This is Jacob Chansley, the self-styled QAnon Shaman; he of the bare chest, red, white and blue face paint, and horns! It seems that out of a sense of self-survival he has forsworn QAnon and now prefers to be known simply as The Shaman. He has also, it seems, turned on his former idol, The Donald, and now reviles him. Expediency rules the day. This turnaround was no doubt motivated in part by his willingness to renounce Trump out of a sense of self-preservation, but also because he was miffed that Trump did not grant him a pardon while he still could.

As stupid as Chansley clearly is, it turns out that he is the genius of the family. His family was opposed to his pleading guilty to the charges he was convicted of, advising him to hold out until Trump is reinstated in the near future. At that time, their logic goes, Trump would grant him a pardon. This advice is bad on so many levels it simply defies belief anyone could be so stupid as to suggest this course of action. Stupid is as stupid does. Long live stupid on the right!

Michael Rea is a resident of Winchester, Virginia.

Freedom as euphemism for hypocritical disconnect - "Life or Liberty"

Interesting thoughtful insight about how "freedom" is used and abused.

"Americans live in a theocracy, and Freedom is our God," writes Spencer Heitman, a junior philosophy, English and public policy leadership triple major, from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

This echo essay was published in The Daily Mississippian, published by the Mississippi Press Association.

Conceptual conflicts are evident. The nation’s most famous port, New York Harbor, houses a statue dedicated to this principle. 

A replica of the Liberty Bell serves as a similar reminder on the Mississippi Capitol grounds, and on our own campus, a new center designated to the “study of American freedom” is being established. But these are only fragments of a broader story.

The U.S. Government Turned Away Thousands of Jewish Refugees, Fearing That They Were Nazi Spies

At the same port as the Statue of Liberty stands, we should remember the hundreds of Jewish refugees turned away in 1942 on the S.S. Drottningholm. Alongside the Liberty Bell replica at our Capitol, we should notice Belle Kenney’s monument to the women of the Confederacy, questioning the purpose it serves and the roles they played. And on the same campus as this newfound center, we see buildings named for slaveholders and should question how their legacies related to freedom. Here, there is a disconnect between the world we live in and the stories we tell ourselves about it.

The reason so many are willing to look past this disconnect is because freedom has become a religion: complete with icons, symbols, rituals and evangelists. 

Sometimes, however, freedom is falsely evoked, serving no other purpose than to justify harm. My message to the Statue of Freedom atop the U.S. Capitol: your name is being taken in vain.

With mask mandates being enforced and vaccination mandates being called for by both the faculty senate and the Associated Student Body Senate, resistance to this perceived overreach has taken many forms, from a protest outside Baptist Memorial Hospital to calls for a “mask-off walk” through the Grove. However distinct in form these protests may be, they have a common message: they want freedom, and they feel that theirs is being taken away.

What those who protest these public health restrictions often ignore is the way in which they contradict their own principles. 

By antagonizing local music venues for mandating COVID-19 precautions at their events, you contradict the belief that private businesses are free to do whatever they want. 

By claiming to be “for life” and commenting your support on a petition that will put many at risk, you reveal a conflict of values.

More importantly than this threat to principles, however, is the real-world threat this reverence for freedom poses to our physical safety. The effectiveness of masks and vaccines is known, with seemingly infinite evidence for this claim. It should come as no surprise, then, that when the faculty senate voted on a campus-wide vaccine mandate, there was no opposition from the Department of Chemistry or School of Pharmacy. Those who still dissent see this and ignore it. Freedom has become their capital T Truth.

Freedom is a beloved value toward which we should strive, but we do not need to put it above all else. 

Even in the U.S. — a country with a lot to say about freedom — our own Declaration of Independence puts it second to life. We can treat it with respect without treating it with religious reverence. But even if you refuse to denounce this faith, there is room for agreement. Maybe freedom is the end-all-be-all good, but if it is, we need to take it seriously. 

Call for freedom loudly when you see it threatened, but be sure to be right. (Connect the dots between the intent of supporting Freedom and the actions required to protect us against hypocritical abuse of this inalienable right.)

Representative Liz Cheney speaks truth to power and reveals "The Big Lie"

(I doubt the ventriloquist Edgar Bergen ever thought that his dummy Charlie McCarthy would ever come alive!)

Opinion letter echo published in Bakersfield.com a California newspaper. 

Edar Bergen was the ventriloquist who spoke for the famous dummy he named Charlie McCarthy. Obviously, Edger Bergen's dummy has come alive in the person of  the Republican Kevin McCarthy.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy stated in a speech that former President Trump was responsible for the January 6 insurrectionist attack on the US Capitol. At that time, McCarthy was right, and I applauded his standing up for truth and for our country.

Nevertheless, McCarthy (wrongmindedly) perceived, soon after January 6th, that Trump is still the head of the GOP in the eyes of many and back-pedaled. 

McCarthy and many other Republican leaders buy into "The Big Lie" about the 2020 election outcome as somehow not being legitimate, Moreover, McCarthy shamefully voted to overturn the results of the election in the House.

Now, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., the powerful GOP minority member in the House of Representatives, is speaking "truth to power" about Trump's role in the January 6, seditious attempt, and about his perpetuating The Big Lie about the election. Cheney's truth makes Rep. McCarthy uncomfortable,

Maybe, in part, it is because he looks like the non-truth-teller that he is, that McCarthy wants her out of her leadership position.

Rep. List Cheney is a patriot, and she is telling the truth. When did those attributes become a liability? I was born in Bakersfield California and grew up in Kern County. I wish I could vote against McCarthy (but live in Los Angeles). 

People of Bakersfield, you can vote McCarthy out of office! .

— Linda Randolph, Los Angeles (Calling on the people of Bakersfield to vote against Rep. Kevin McCarthy!)

Beware of history relived - January 6 and the Beer Hall Putsch

Opinion echo Column: We can’t let ongoing election lies become political white noise. A Jan. 6 defendant’s words show why.

By Rex Huppke published in The Chicago Tribune

Daniel “D.J.” Rodriguez, one of the hundreds charged in the Jan. 6 domestic terrorist attack on the U.S. Capitol, broke down in tears while speaking to FBI agents: “I’m so stupid. I thought I was going to be awesome. I thought I was a good guy.”

Pro-Trump protesters gather in front of the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021 in Washington, DC. Trump supporters gathered in the nation's capital to protest the ratification of President-elect Joe Biden's Electoral College victory over President Trump in the 2020 election. A pro-Trump mob later stormed the Capitol, breaking windows and clashing with police officers. Five people died as a result. (Brent Stirton/Getty Images)

But, of course, Rodriguez was neither awesome nor a good guy. 

Rather, he was just a dupe. Yet, as simple as the con may be, we ignore it at our own peril. (Maine Writer- history redux:  Beer Hall Putsch!*)

Like many who have embraced former guy Donald Trump’s ongoing lie that the 2020, presidential election was stolen, Rodriguez embodied the old saying, “There’s a sucker born every minute, and two to take him.”

Now the California man stands charged with, among other things, tasing U.S. Capitol police Officer Michael Fanone, who was beaten and suffered a heart attack during the insurrection. Rodriguez is facing the possibility of decades in prison and nobody should feel sorry for him.

But it’s worth reading the nearly 200-page transcript of Rodriguez’s March 31, interview with FBI agents to see the shameless mental havoc wreaked by people like Trump and every Republican politician and pundit pimping, or even playing footsie with, a profoundly false election narrative.

Most recognize that, (truth!)but those who continue spreading it are unconcerned with collateral damage to people or democracy, and those rolling their eyes, and letting it become political white noise are missing the urgency and tragedy of the matter.

The transcript of Rodriguez’s interview with federal agents was filed Friday by his attorneys as part of a motion to suppress the interview, alleging the man was not properly Mirandized. 

Rodriguez was arrested earlier this year after he was identified by online sleuths at Huffington Post, an example of the so-called sedition hunters who have scoured photos and videos from the Jan. 6 attack and traced the identities of many insurrectionists.

In the interview, Rodriguez explains why he left his home in California and traveled to Washington for the “Stop the Steal Rally.”

“Trump called us,” he said. “Trump called us to D.C.”

He later said: “My story is just that we thought that we were going to save America, and we were wrong.”

It’s a con transparent as a freshly cleaned window. And it’s dangerous.

Rodriguez revealed he had been told by conspiracy sites such as Inforwars — which he had followed for years — that a civil war was about to happen. Trump and other prominent Facebook conspiracists had fully convinced him the election was stolen.

He told the agents “we felt that they stole the election. We thought they — we felt that they stole this country, that it’s gone, it’s wiped out. America’s over. It’s destroyed now.”

“I thought that Trump was going to stay president and they were going to find all this crooked stuff and … we thought that we did something good,” Rodriguez said. “It was rumored that Nancy Pelosi got her laptop stolen and that they found all this evidence on it and it was a secret plan. … And then we could just bust everything and find the truth and it’ll be all exposed and we’ll see that she’s corrupt or some kind of evidence. And we thought we were being a — we were part of a bigger thing. We thought we were being used as a part of a plan to save the country, to save America, save the Constitution, and the election, the integrity.”

There are moments in the interview when you almost feel Rodriguez’s mind wrestling with the poison that consumed it: “We just thought that — damn, dude. I don’t know. I understand what it ― it’s very stupid and ignorant, and I see that it’s a big joke, that we thought that we were going to save this country, we were doing the right thing and stuff. I get it.”

You see similar statements in the transcripts of other law enforcement interviews with Jan. 6 attackers and you hear similar words in court hearings. Again, I have no sympathy for these people. They tried to stop the peaceful transfer of power and directly attacked the heart of our democracy. Throw the book at them.

But beyond the crimes of these individuals, it’s important to pay close attention to these cases and see the insidious mental games an entire political party is playing with a huge swath of American voters.

Rodriguez, like most who attacked the U.S. Capitol, was convinced — by Trump, by the things he heard in right-wing media, by the like-minded people he associated with online — that an election was stolen and America was on the brink of a new civil war. He was willing to risk his life to that end and in doing so felt he was part of something bigger than himself.

It’s clear from the interview that it gave him meaning and purpose. You need only scan social media a few moments to see how these lies do the same for so many. And, on Fox (fake!) News, and on Infowars, and in the Facebook feeds of conspiracy profiteers, and in the words and tweets of many gutless elected Republicans, you see those lies still tossed out like chum.

It’s unconscionable what these people are doing to Americans they know will be susceptible to such lies. Their words are turning citizen against citizen, and warping minds for nothing but money and power.

Trump sent out a statement showing his continued delusion and scorched earth approach to making a buck: “If we don’t solve the Presidential Election Fraud of 2020 (which we have thoroughly and conclusively documented) Republicans will not be voting in ‘22 or ‘24.”

Days later, his Super PAC sent a note to supporters quoting that statement. It added: “The truth is, we need $45 from EACH Patriot reading this email if we are going to have the necessary resources to solve the election fraud of 2020.”

There’s a sucker born every minute. (Maine Writer- Beer Hall Putsch warning!)

*The putsch brought Hitler to the attention of the German nation for the first time and generated front-page headlines in newspapers around the world. His arrest was followed by a 24-day trial, which was widely publicized and gave him a platform to express his nationalist sentiments to the nation.

January 6 and domestic terrorism analysis

Echo report published in Daily Mail by Rachel Sharp

This story was published in January 2021, following the January 6, insurrectionist attack on the U.S. Capitol, a seditious movement instigated by #TFG cult Trumpzis.  General McChristal's analysis is spot on and deserves a stereo echo:

'Homegrown insurgency': General McChrystal compares MAGA rioters to Al-Qaeda - saying they also followed a 'powerful leader' - and claims that 'Stop the Steal' is a rallying cry like the Lost Cause was after the Civil War.

Trump gave his supporters 'legitimacy to become even more radical', with his Stop the Steal rhetoric, now a radical rallying cry similar to the Lost Cause adopted by the Confederates in the American Civil War. Pictured a rioter carries a Confederate flag through the Capitol.

Retired Army General Stanley McChrystal said there are terrifying parallels between the birth of the Al-Qaeda terrorism group and the violent siege on the US Capitol last week

Trump has given his supporters 'legitimacy to become even more radical', McChristal told Yahoo News

His Stop the Steal rhetoric is now a radical rallying cry similar to the Lost Cause adopted by the Southerners in the American Civil War

McChrystal warned that now 'the fabric of something very dangerous has been woven', the consequences will continue long after Trump leaves office

McChrystal led the army's fight against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda

McChrystal was fired by President Barack Obama after he made disparaging remarks about him and then-Vice President Joe Biden

Retired Army General Stanley McChrystal has compared the MAGA riot to the evolution of Al-Qaeda saying in both instances people followed a 'powerful leader' who 'justified their violence', as he warned America is headed for a homegrown insurgency.

McChrystal, the former commander of American troops in Afghanistan, said there are terrifying parallels between the birth of the terrorist group responsible for the September 11 terrorist attacks and the violent siege on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, that left five dead and sent shockwaves around the world.

Donald Trump has given his supporters 'legitimacy to become even more radical', he told Yahoo News, with his Stop the Steal rhetoric now a radical rallying cry similar to the Lost Cause adopted by the Southerners in the American Civil War.

McChrystal, who was fired by President Barack Obama after he made disparaging remarks about him and then-Vice President Joe Biden, warned that now 'the fabric of something very dangerous has been woven', the consequences will continue long after Trump leaves office.

"...arrests of mob members are made and new details of the January 6, siege continue to emerge..."

His comments come as the nation is still reeling from the January 6 attack on the seat of American democracy and security is being ramped up ahead of President-elect Biden's inauguration.

As more arrests of mob members are made and new details of the siege continue to emerge, it has become increasingly clear that among the rioters were members of several extremist groups including white supremacists, neo-Nazis and Proud Boys.

McChrystal led the army's fight against the the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.

Army General Stanley McChrystal

He said the recent events on the US soil are drawing concerning reminders of the rise of the terrorist group.

Back then, people with 'very poor prospects' followed Osama Bin Laden 'who promised to take them back in time to a better place', he said.

For the last four years, Trump has taken on that role with a radical group of American citizens.

On January 6, he riled up the crowds at a DC rally telling them to march to the Capitol and 'to fight', moments before the mob broke into the building to stop the Electoral College votes being counted.

'I did see a similar dynamic in the evolution of al-Qaida in Iraq, where a whole generation of angry Arab youth with very poor prospects followed a powerful leader who promised to take them back in time to a better place, and he led them to embrace an ideology that justified their violence,' McChrystal told Yahoo News.

'This is now happening in America.'

McChrystal also drew comparisons to another dark time in American history.

'President Trump has updated Lost Cause with his 'Stop the Steal' narrative that they lost because of a stolen election, and that is the only thing holding these people down and stopping them from assuming their rightful place in society,' McChrystal said.

The Lost Cause myth came out of the Confederate states at the end of the Civil War, as they tried to rewrite the narrative after losing.

They falsely claimed the war was caused by secession and what they said was a noble pursuit to protect the country - not about slavery, which they still (wrongly!) believed was just and moral.

Meanwhile, Trump has repeatedly sought to rewrite his legitimate 2020 presidential election loss by pushing unfounded claims of mass voter fraud - claims that his avid fans have latched onto.

'That gives them legitimacy to become even more radical,' McChrystal told Yahoo News.

He warned that the problem is already much deeper than people realize: 'I think we're much further along in this radicalization process, and facing a much deeper problem as a country, than most Americans realize.'

And the radicalization which has already taken deep roots in the US will not simply disappear when Trump does, McChrystal warned.

Federal authorities are still rounding up perpetrators of last week's riot and have vowed to come down heavily on those involved.

When this happens, McChrystal said, extremists tend to go quiet and regroup and will likely become 'more professional'.

'As this extremist movement comes under increasing pressure from law enforcement in the coming days and weeks, its members will likely retreat into tighter and tighter cells for security, and that will make them more professional, and those cells will become echo chambers that incubate even more radical thinking along the lines of armed insurrection,' he said.

So even if Trump exits the scene, the radical movement he helped create has its own momentum and cohesion now, and they may find they don't need Trump anymore.'

Another 'charismatic leader' will step up and fill the gap left by Trump, McChrystal added.

'They can just wait for another charismatic leader to appear,' he said.

'So the fabric of something very dangerous has been woven, and it's further along than most Americans care to admit.'

McChrystal was the head of Joint Special Operations Command in Iraq during the 2000s, and the commander of all US and allied troops fighting the terrorist organization in Afghanistan.

In 2006, he was credited with leading the airstrike that killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

But in 2010, he was fired from his role as the commander of multinational forces in Afghanistan by Obama after a Rolling Stone article revealed he made disparaging remarks about the president and senior administration figures.

In the article, McChrystal said it was 'painful' to watch Obama's slow approval of the deployment of thousands more US soldiers to Afghanistan.

An aide to the army boss also said McChrystal had been 'disappointed' after he had a meeting with Obama who 'didn't seem very engaged'.

McChrystal also pretended not to know Biden who was Obama's Vice-President at the time while an aide mocked Biden's use of the phrase 'bite me.'

McChrystal was promptly fired. But despite their speckled past, the retired general said he was endorsing Biden in the lead-up to the 2020 election.

They didn't see everything the way I did. But in every instance, they listened. In every instance, they took in my view,' he said of Biden and Obama in an MCSNBC interview in October.

'In every instance, I felt that they were trying to make the best decision based on all the information they had, and based on a bedrock of values.'

In 2018, McChrystal described Trump's behavior toward the military as 'deeply disturbing' and said 'the size of the defense budget is not a measure of patriotism or connection with those in service'.

'I don't think that Trump has developed as deep - a real connection of trust - with the military as perhaps he thinks he has,' he said.

McChrystal's warnings of escalating extremism on US soil were echoed by other counterterrorism experts who fear that all the signs of growing violent extremist movements are there to see.

Brian Michael Jenkins, a senior adviser to the president of the RAND Corporation, also compared the January 6, mob to the devastation caused by Al-Qaeda, saying both are the result of extremists mobilizing behind one common view.

'Osama bin Laden's major contribution to the terrorist pantheon was to create a mythology around the narrative that a band of Arab fighters defeated the Soviet superpower in Afghanistan in the 1980s, and he used that mythology to bring together a lot of disparate terrorist groups from all over the world, under the single banner of al-Qaida, giving them cohesion and an organizational structure,' he told Yahoo News.

'Similarly, the people behind January 6, 2021, mobilized right-wing extremists of every stripe - white supremacists, neo-Nazis, QAnon, anti-Semites, antigovernment militias, xenophobes, anti-feminists - and brought them together as a movement in what amounted to a Woodstock festival for extremists.

'And now the 'Battle of Capitol Hill' has become symbolically important and central to right-wing mythology, and it will lead to more organizing and escalating threats from this movement, which we're already seeing.'

Symbols for right-wing fanatic groups the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and Three Percenters were spotted among the mob on January 6.

Others rioters spewed the QAnon conspiracy theory - the debunked extreme right wing theory that claims Satan-worshipping pedophiles are plotting against Donald Trump and running a global child sex trafficking ring - and one rioter was seen wearing a 'Camp Auschwitz' sweater.

Experts told Yahoo extremist terrorist movements start with lots of small similarly-minded groups like this before they join together over time to form a larger group.

As the group gained ground, the leaders often made themselves known to fuel the recruitment of more followers.

It is common for extremist movements to recruit from law enforcement and the military communities - something Islamic State did in recruiting Baathist military officers, reported Yahoo.

Several former military members took part in the violent riot on the state Capitol. 

1.  Ashli Babbit, the woman who was shot dead while she tried to climb through a window into the congressional chambers served 14 years in the Air Force.
2. Meanwhile, Larry Rendall Brock Jr., 53, who was seen dressed in combat gear and carrying zip ties in the Senate is a retired lieutenant colonel who was in the Air Force for more than two decades.

The US Army is said to be investigating 25 people including active-duty members thought to have participated in the mob.

Experts said extremist groups then often join with similar organizations operating in other countries.

Ali Soufan, a former FBI supervisory special agent and counterterrorism expert, said Thursday that some of the white supremacist groups at the Capitol riot had ties to overseas groups including the Nordic Front, a neo-Nazi group in the Nordics.

The growth of the extremism reached a tipping point when the rhetoric turned into violent action, experts said.

Concerns of 'major security threats' at Biden's inauguration sent Washington DC into lockdown.

A Baghdad-style 'Green Zone' perimeter was set up and more than 20,000 armed National Guard troops were mobilized.

The Secret Service released its restricted access plan, which included what the agency called a 'Green Zone' in the heart of DC.

The term 'Green Zone' was the same name given to the heavily-fortified area in Baghdad during the Iraq War.

Most of downtown DC was off-limits to traffic and drew comparisons to Baghdad's high-security zone.

In extraordinary scenes out of the Capitol, thousands of armed military members patrolled the streets, and anti-climb steel fences and road blocks were installed in the wake of the  deadly siege.

Russian leverage over Trump percolates like toxic swamp bubbles

Russia has kompromat on Trump. Full Stop!

An Ex-KGB Agent Says Trump Was a Russian Asset Since 1987. 

Does it Matter?

Kompromat!

Echo essay published in The Intelligencer New York Magazine, by Jonathan Chait.

In 2018, Jonathan Chait became either famous or notorious — depending on your point of view — for writing a story speculating that Russia had secret leverage over Trump (which turned out to be correct). The story’s most controversial suggestion was that it was plausible, though hardly certain, that Russia’s influence over Trump might even date back as far as 1987.

Here is what he wrote in that controversial section:

During the Soviet era, Russian intelligence cast a wide net to gain leverage over influential figures abroad. (The practice continues to this day.) The Russians would lure or entrap not only prominent politicians and cultural leaders, but also people whom they saw as having the potential for gaining prominence in the future. In 1986, Soviet ambassador Yuri Dubinin met Trump in New York, flattered him with praise for his building exploits, and invited him to discuss a building in Moscow. Trump visited Moscow in July 1987. He stayed at the National Hotel, in the Lenin Suite, which certainly would have been bugged. There is not much else in the public record to describe his visit, except Trump’s own recollection in The Art of the Deal that Soviet officials were eager for him to build a hotel there. (Surprised? It never happened.)

Trump returned from Moscow fired up with political ambition. 

He began the first of a long series of presidential flirtations, which included a flashy trip to New Hampshire. Two months after his Moscow visit, Trump spent almost $100,000 on a series of full-page newspaper ads that published a political manifesto. “An open letter from Donald J. Trump on why America should stop paying to defend countries that can afford to defend themselves,” as Trump labeled it, launched angry populist charges against the allies that benefited from the umbrella of American military protection. “Why are these nations not paying the United States for the human lives and billions of dollars we are losing to protect their interests?”

Maybe, it was just a coincidence that Trump came back from his trip to Russia and started spouting themes that happened to dovetail closely with Russia’s geopolitical goal of splitting the United States from its allies. But there was a reasonable chance — loosely pegged it at 10 or 20 percent — that the Soviets had planted some of these thoughts, which he had never expressed before the trip, in his head.

Today, the odds higher, perhaps over 50 percent. One reason for  higher confidence is that Trump has continued to fuel suspicion by taking anomalously pro-Russian positions. He met with Putin in Helsinki, appearing strangely submissive, and spouted Putin’s propaganda on a number of topics including the ridiculous possibility of a joint Russian-American cybersecurity unit. (Russia, of course, committed the gravest cyber-hack in American history not long ago, making Trump’s idea even more self-defeating in retrospect than it was at the time.) He seemed to go out of his way to alienate American allies and blow up cooperation every time they met during his tenure.

He would either refuse to admit Russian wrongdoing — Trump refused even to concede that the regime poisoned Alexei Navalny — or repeat bizarre snippets of Russian propaganda: NATO was a bad deal for America because Montenegro might launch an attack on Russia; the Soviets had to invade Afghanistan in the 1970s to defend against terrorism. These weren’t talking points he would pick up in his normal routine of watching Fox News and calling Republican sycophants.

A second reason is that reporter Craig Unger got a former KGB spy to confirm on the record that Russian intelligence had been working Trump for decades. In his new book, “American Kompromat,” Unger interviewed Yuri Shvets, who told him that the KGB manipulated Trump with simple flattery. “In terms of his personality, the guy is not a complicated cookie,” he said, “his most important characteristics being low intellect coupled with hyperinflated vanity. This makes him a dream for an experienced recruiter.”

That’s quite similar to what I suggested in my story:

Russian intelligence gains influence in foreign countries by operating subtly and patiently. It exerts different gradations of leverage over different kinds of people, and uses a basic tool kit of blackmail that involves the exploitation of greed, stupidity, ego, and sexual appetite. All of which are traits Trump has in abundance.

This is what intelligence experts mean when they describe Trump as a Russian “asset.” It’s not the same as being an agent. An asset is somebody who can be manipulated, as opposed to somebody who is consciously and secretly working on your behalf.

Shvets told Unger that the KGB cultivated Trump as an American leader, and persuaded him to run his ad attacking American alliances. “The ad was assessed by the active measures directorate as one of the most successful KGB operations at that time,” he said, “It was a big thing — to have three major American newspapers publish KGB soundbites.”

To be clear, while Shvets is a credible source, his testimony isn’t dispositive. There are any number of possible motives for a former Soviet spy turned critic of Russia’s regime to manufacture an indictment of Trump. 

"Trump refused even to concede that the Vladimir Putin regime poisoned Alexei Navalny"

Nevertheless, his story is almost exactly the possibility sketched out by Chait's well developed assumptions.

Moreover, it fits the known facts about how Russian intelligence works and what Trump has done, pretty tightly.

Yet thing changed Chait's my mind on since his story ran. That is this: The effect any this would have on the American public, even if it were proven.

There is an allure to the mysterious that gives certain unknown facts outsize meaning. 

For example, uncovering the secret identity of “Deep Throat” was considered one of journalism’s greatest prizes, until Associate FBI Director Mark Felt admitted it was him, after which hardly anybody cared. If Jimmy Hoffa’s body had turned up shortly after his disappearance, its location would have been forgotten almost immediately, rather than becoming the subject of decades-long speculation and probing.

The nature and origins of Donald Trump’s relationship with Russia probably falls into this category. The full story will probably never be known, for certain. Robert Mueller was thought to be pursuing it, but steered clear of the counterintelligence investigation to focus more narrowly on criminal violations; the Senate Intelligence Committee produced tantalizing evidence of 2016 campaign collusion, but did not have access to Trump’s inner circle. In theory, the Trump lieutenants who clammed up, Paul Manafort and Roger Stone, or their Russian contacts, like Manafort partner Konstantin Kilimnik, could eventually furnish some kind of deathbed confession, but even that would be rendered inconclusive by its source’s fundamental lack of credibility.

If something like the most sinister plausible story turned out to be true, how much would it matter? Probably not that much. Obviously, Russia having secret channels of leverage over an American president isn’t good. Even if we could confirm the worst, to the point that even Trump’s supporters could no longer deny it, it wouldn’t have changed very much. Trump wouldn’t have been forced to resign, and his Republican supporters would not have had to repudiate him. The controversy would have simply receded into the vast landscape of partisan talking points — one more thing liberals mock Trump over, and conservatives complain about the media for covering instead of Nancy Pelosi’s freezer or antifa or the latest campus outrage.

Unfortunately, a great deal of incriminating information was confirmed but very little, in fact, changed, as a result. In 2018, Buzzfeed reported, and the next year Robert Mueller confirmed, explosive details of a Russian kompromat operation. During the campaign, Russia had been dangling a Moscow building deal that stood to give hundreds of millions of dollars in profit to Trump, at no risk. Not only did he stand to gain this windfall, but he was lying in public at the time about his dealings with Russia, which gave Vladimir Putin additional leverage over him. (Russia could expose Trump’s lies at any time if he did something to displease Moscow.)

Mueller even testified that this arrangement gave Russia blackmail leverage over Trump. But by the time these facts had passed from the realm of the mysterious to the confirmed, they had become uninteresting.

We don’t know what other sources of leverage Russia had, or how far back it went. Ultimately, whatever value Trump offered to Russia was compromised by his incompetence and limited ability to grasp firm control even of his own government’s foreign policy. It was not just the fabled “deep state” that undermined Trump. 

Even Trump's own handpicked appointees constantly undermined him, especially on Russia. Whatever leverage Putin had was limited to a single individual, which meant there was nobody Trump could find to run the State Department, National Security Agency, and so on who shared his idiosyncratic Russophilia.

The truth was simultaneously bad and paradoxically anticlimactic. Trump was surrounded by all sorts of odious characters who manipulated him into saying and doing things that ran against the national interest. One of those characters was Putin. In the end, their influence ran up against the limits that the character over whom they had gained influence was a weak, failed president.

P,S. - Maine Writer: Like being infected with toxic swamp bubbles, Trump is polluted by Russian influence. 

Trump is infected with Russian Swamp Toxins!