I recently passed a few hours reading an old Tom Clancy novel published 15 years ago, that focused on Russian intelligence services and politics. That novel, "Red Rabbit", mentioned early on the attempts by the Soviet Union and subsequent Communist Russians attempting to influence a d control the outcome of US elections. Clancy also made reference to these same people trying to influence our politics through funding extremist and hyper-nationalist groups. Clancy also expressed the assurance that US and allied intelligence services would successfully obstruct such efforts.
I would argue the intel community failed to prevent that happening but they may very well undo the Russian success that has been foisted on us.
While Clancy wrote fiction he did extensive research and had significant contacts in the intelligence communities. Clancy was not making up those allegations which are well documented for decades to present.
We have seen this play out with Russian funding of French and Austrian far right extremist groups, and their candidates, like Marine Le Pen of the neo-nazi French National Front. Those same funding operatives from Russia met with disgraced General Mike Flynn and with Le Pen's counterpart in Austria, which Russia also funded.
The involvement of what is clearly successful Russian intervention, combined with the continuing successful verification of the MI-6 agent Steele's dossier that argues Rump is likely at least partially or more fully the puppet of Putin and the Russians through a combination of blackmail material and financial controls.
If, as I believe is plausible verging on probable, that Rump achieved office through a rigged, invalid election then he needs to go, and his entire administration with him. That has to include the Vice President who is in office through the same tainted process. I was amused to see on BBC's World News that Irish bookies are offering odds of 4 to 1 that Rump will be impeached, and 15 to 8 (nearly 2 to 1) that Rump will resign before his term is up. So this expectation is not unique to me but apparently some people are venturing cash on it.
I would go further and argue that the only explanation that makes any sense for why Pence was supposedly kept in the dark about Mike "pizzagate" Flynn and the Russians is the hope that Pence might appear clean enough to avoid being thrown out with Rump as information about how they got elected emerges.
That is so catastrophically far from being a trivial "distraction" is instead an unprecedented governmental crisis, a crisis even Tom Clancy in his day could not have constructed. To paraphrase the famous words of Abe Lincoln, we must preserve government of the people, by the people, for the people, not government of Americans, by Russians, for Russian oligarchs and other fascists.
