{"id":584,"date":"2018-05-23T10:21:47","date_gmt":"2018-05-23T14:21:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/susanwright\/?p=584"},"modified":"2018-05-23T10:21:47","modified_gmt":"2018-05-23T14:21:47","slug":"trumps-early-morning-rant-against-the-criminal-deep-state-and-spygate-is-peak-paranoia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/susanwright\/2018\/05\/trumps-early-morning-rant-against-the-criminal-deep-state-and-spygate-is-peak-paranoia\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s Early Morning Rant Against the Criminal Deep State and Spygate Is Peak Paranoia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I\u2019m not completely convinced that then-candidate Donald Trump colluded with the Russian government to win the 2016 presidential election.<\/p>\n

There. I said it.<\/p>\n

What I am convinced of is that everything put forth by pretty much every department involved with the U.S. intelligence community \u2013 that Russia attempted to interfere and influence the election in 2016 \u2013 is absolutely correct.<\/p>\n

Commonsense. It\u2019s just what they do, and it\u2019s not even unique to the United States, so of course they did it.<\/p>\n

The grey area is in how much the Trump team were willing to allow them in, given that every poll and every pundit had already put the nail in the coffin of Trump\u2019s presidential run. In the days running up to the election, things looked bleak and the Clinton camp were already picking out new drapes for the Oval Office.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll go even further.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump did not want to win. This was an elaborate, ego-fueled ruse, to begin with. It was his plan to make a scene, generate publicity for his brand, then go back to his free-wheelin\u2019, adulterous lifestyle.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t mean the people around him didn\u2019t have bigger plans, and the uncomfortable connections that are being uncovered, regarding his associates and their entanglements with foreign entities deserves attention.<\/p>\n

Forget what you know about politics and clanging gongs. This really could<\/em> be shaping up to be the most corrupt administration in our nation\u2019s all-too-short history.<\/p>\n

We can use all the whataboutisms in the world, regarding what we think a Hillary Clinton administration would be. The reality is, we don\u2019t know, because she didn\u2019t win. We have to deal with what we actually do have, and what evidence and over a year of experiencing a Trump administration is showing us.<\/p>\n

The guy is definitely dumb, and quite possibly dirty. Not a great combination.<\/p>\n

With that in mind, Trump\u2019s latest episode of desperate thrashing on Twitter is wholly unhelpful.<\/p>\n

The president rose for his usual \u201cexecutive time,\u201d engorged himself on his usual diet of \u201cFox and Friends\u201d junk food, and began raging at former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper<\/a>, regarding a Tuesday appearance on \u201cThe View.\u201d<\/p>\n

Co-host Joy Behar asked Clapper if the FBI were, in fact, \u201cspying\u201d on the Trump campaign, as Trump and his minions have repeatedly claimed.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, they were not,\u201d Clapper said. \u201cThey were spying on, a term I don\u2019t particularly like, but on what the Russians were doing. Trying to understand were the Russians infiltrating, trying to gain access, trying to gain leverage or influence which is what they do.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of course. Most of us understand that.<\/p>\n

When Behar quipped that Trump should be happy that the FBI were keeping tabs on what the Russians were attempting to do, Clapper responded that he should be.<\/p>\n

And yes. As president, Trump should want to know exactly who is trying to subvert our government, when, and how, even if it points back to his own associates.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not Trump, however.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, James Clapper, I am not happy,\u201d Trump tweeted.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpying on a campaign would be illegal, and a scandal to boot!\u201d he added.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

See\u2026 it wasn\u2019t the campaign. It was the Russians attempting to infiltrate the campaign. Why isn\u2019t he making a distinction between those two things?<\/p>\n

He wasn\u2019t through. He continued to ramp up the hyperbole.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cLook how things have turned around on the Criminal Deep State. They go after Phony Collusion with Russia, a made up Scam, and end up getting caught in a major SPY scandal the likes of which this country may never have seen before!\u201d Trump tweeted.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat goes around comes around!\u201d he added.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He even made up a name for his current irritant: SPYGATE. He added that it could be the biggest political scandal in history.<\/p>\n

It could be, but probably not from the angle he\u2019s talking about.<\/p>\n

Trump on Wednesday morning also quoted Fox News contributor Judge Andrew Napolitano as saying \u201cit\u2019s clear they had eyes and ears all over the Trump Campaign.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That was in reference to Stefan A. Halper, the former Cambridge University professor who allegedly worked in conjunction with the FBI to contact several Trump campaign aides, after it had been determined that there was some questionable contact between those aides and Russian operatives.<\/p>\n

That hardly equates to some devious plot to bring down Trump.<\/p>\n

And let\u2019s remember: No one thought Trump was going to win. No one, including Trump. Why would the FBI or anyone else attempt to bring down someone every poll and all conventional wisdom said would not be a factor, after the election? As far as everyone knew, the voters would \u201cbring down\u201d Trump.<\/p>\n

For those not blinded by either cult worship of an unworthy man, or by the tangled mass of hypocrisy that makes up American partisanship, commonsense kicks in and tells us this was not a \u201cdeep state\u201d plot. This was our intelligence community doing their jobs.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s continued attacks and the failure of his team to rein in his madness do nothing to help his case. Rather, he looks like somebody who feels the walls closing in.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t have a problem believing Trump is a gullible pawn, used by the more crafty and corrupt people he\u2019s surrounded himself with, to be honest.<\/p>\n

What I have a problem with is every gutless Republican and rightwing media-type feeding his paranoia and working to whip up unrest among the people, rather than working to maintain calm, while the process plays out.<\/p>\n

Shame on you all.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m not completely convinced that then-candidate Donald Trump colluded with the Russian government to win the 2016 presidential election. There. I said it. What I am convinced of is that everything put forth by pretty much every department involved with the U.S. intelligence community \u2013 that Russia attempted to interfere and influence the election in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3473,"featured_media":596,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[275,41,281,278],"class_list":["post-584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-criminal-deep-state","tag-donald-trump","tag-james-clapper","tag-spygate"],"yoast_head":"\nTrump's Early Morning Rant Against the Criminal Deep State and Spygate Is Peak Paranoia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The president remains convinced that our intelligence community was out to get him.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" 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