The Russia Connection

The vast and pernicious sheer scale of electronic surveillance means there is no longer such a thing as secrecy, certainly for those close to power. Someone somewhere will be listening in. That is why fake news, that ancient phenomenon, is such a nonsense. A lie can barely go viral before being savaged by the bloodhounds of truth. For a foreign power, even an enemy, to dabble in someone’s election is hardly a surprise, least of all in the home city of the CIA. What is new is how quickly we all know about it.

It is clear – or surely soon will be - that dealings between the Trump organisation and Moscow were close. That is no surprise in the world of dodgy finance. What is not known is whether these dealings were merely over dodgy finance, or strayed into winks and nods over policies that might be adopted by Trump in power.

Vladimir Putin’s Russia is generally regarded as America’s mightiest enemy, however idiotic this might be.

[...]

The irony is that resetting the west’s relations with Putin’s Russia was one of Trump’s few refreshing pledges when he was running for the presidency. He refused to hurl the statutory abuse. He was clearly sceptical of western sanctions, which have strengthened Moscow’s kleptocracy and driven Putin’s potential opponents to emigrate. There even seemed a hope that the recent, crazy resumption of an east-west arms race might go into reverse. Sanity beckoned.

  Guardian

In vain.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.