I have a kinda sick feeling in my gut about this coming week, mingled with a strange hope. Trump & Putin met in Paris (I don't believe for a minute that meeting WH denied from the beginning was "cancelled." How do you cancel an event that wasn't supposed to happen in 1st place?)
They met. Very likely it was real reason Trump couldn't attend memorial for American soldiers. Putin would have chosen that time intentionally just to fuck with us, like he did by having our GOP senators in Moscow on Fourth of July.
They're planning something. I hope our IC knows it. They must. There is no way Putin can allow DEMs winning the House to derail everything. With DEMs in house, he can forget losing the sanctions. Trump becomes worthless.
He'd either dump Trump or they'd plan something horrific to consolidate power for good. Putin invested years of work & immense sums of rubles into this effort. (This didn't start in 2016, but years - possibly decades - earlier). He won BIGLY & he's cocky now.
They met to discuss next steps. How to dispose of Mueller threat, but even more - how to dispose of DEM threat. Putin was too damn happy in Paris - the way he grinned at Trump & gave him that thumbs-up, the way Trump appeared grateful & eager. 
So that's the scary part - what are they planning? The hopeful part is Mueller is poised to go. IC must have known from beginning Trump is compromised by Russia. It's inconceivable they don't. Question is why - if they knew or strongly suspected it - they let him be inaugurated.
One possibility is that without concrete evidence at the time, they had no choice. If so, the danger they allowed America to be placed in is breathtaking. A Russian agent in the WH - can anything at all be more of a national security threat?
Were their hands so tied by law & concern over following every letter of it they allowed us to be placed in this danger? Were they convinced (as so many of us were) GOP would rein him in & not actually be part of it?
Over the last 2 years I have asked myself over & over - if the danger was this severe, why didn't Obama announce the concern, even after election? Why no attempt to delay inauguration until investigation conducted? Was it simply because nothing in Constitution addressed it?
I mean, that would be a good reason. But is that reason strong enough to place America in the greatest danger EVER by letting Russia into the very Oval Office? Could it be they really had no idea at that time how compromised Trump was? This I find hard to accept. They knew a lot.
Let's assume for a minute they DID know Trump was working for Russia. Did they give him valid intelligence on all things? Do they monitor him? Why let it go on so long, despite grave & obvious damage to our international reputation, our domestic affairs, literally everything?
My gut says they knew far more than we would have imagined & they knew it early - certainly during final months of campaign. Remember how prescient Hillary was in debates? She accused Trump then of being a Russian puppet. She knew. IC knew.
Yet despite known Russian hacking, known Russian infiltration into voter databases nationwide & an active FBI investigation into possible conspiracy between Trump campaign & Russia, Hillary conceded right away. That has always bothered me.
Why concede in the face of all that? Why not demand investigation into the vote? Why not - at that time - have Obama reveal what IC knew so Americans could understand the concern? Yes, it would have angered Trump's base - any suggestion of delay - and might have led to violence.
But could potential outcry & worry over Constitutionality outweigh potential ramifications of a literal traitor sitting in the Oval Office? Would Americans as a whole - 2 years ago before we'd descended so far into abnormality - not have wanted to KNOW before letting him in?
Maybe it's a case of hindsight being more clear. Maybe they really didn't know or suspect so much. I simply don't believe it. There's NO THREAT greater than a traitor in the WH. None. Why let it happen if there's even a reasonable suspicion - as there most certainly had to be?
I've mulled over this many times the past 2 years. My gut tells me that if we assume IC & Obama are competent - I believe they are - than threat may be greater than we imagine. It's only explanation that makes sense to me - beyond being scrupulous to the point of annihilation.
What if they decided to let him in as a way to better unravel it all? If so, one would assume - hope - precautions were taken. Did they get a court order or some kind of secret warrant? I can't imagine there being a process for that. But then could anyone imagine this threat?
Were we fearful of what Russia could do & not not merely Russia? We now have plenty of evidence suggesting other countries - Saudi Arabia, Israel, UAE - are also involved. We knew Russia could take out our power grids. Can you imagine how quickly US would descend into chaos?
Can Russia STILL take out our power grids? Or did they somehow use these last 2 years to fix that little issue? One would hope so. What if the reason we let Trump in, even tho we strongly suspected he was working for Putin, is to give us time?
If so, I suspect they didn't know how quickly Trump - in concert w/ a corrupt GOP & propaganda channel - could harm democracy. Perhaps they'd have stopped him then. Or maybe the threats we DON'T know about are greater. I'm hopeful & fearful. I still don't know how it'll turn out.
