I urge you to really pay attention to Morning Joe's segment on Russia and the GOP embrace

[coolsandy]

of Trump and Russia behavior.

Here is why I think it is important.

I live in a fairly upscale section of Potomac, Maryland. Within the past 10 years large numbers of Russians have moved in, built gated communities and Condo complexes. In one supermarket the manager and most of the workforce is either Russian or German. Most of the service jobs that were held by Hispanics (Mexican, Salvadoran, etc) are now held by barely English-speaking Russians, Croats, and others from the Balkans. In my grandchildren's public and private schools this population has increased significantly to the point where Russian is being offered as a language election. African immigrants have basically taken over the elder-care and personal care industry. My granddaughter's two best friends are a Russian boy and an Nigerian girl. They get along just fine, however, the Nigerian girl has had two bullying encounters with a group of the Russian students (girls).

Lots of new building developments owned overtly or covertly by Russians have been built in and around the DC suburbs within the past several years, often going up at lightening speed with shoddy building materials and workmanship. Three Russian owned business have opened and closed in strip mall 5 miles from us. Really seemed like a monkey laundering venture from the beginning...a restaurant and jazz bar that never had food or jazz, a nail salon with never more than 2 customers at a time, a sports accessory shop that closed almost as soon as it opened. All were very suspicious to me and several of my neighbors.

All this is to say that I believe that people would be surprised by the number of Russians living and working in this country and even in our Federal government. It's may speak to the rather laid-back attitude about sanctions against Russia that our GOP Congress has taken. The growth of fascism is stealth and you don't really feel it until you are knee-deep in it. STAY WOKE.

[FarPoint]

1. Thank you for sharing your observations...

Connecting the dots.....

[Ohiya]

2. A lot of monkeys could use a good laundering!

Sorry!

Thanks for your great post!

[WinkyDink]

5. Hahahahahahahahahaha!

[bluepen]

3. Very interesting. Thanks for the post!

[democratisphere]

4. Looks like we need a Russian Ban with deportations.

The American and Russian Oligarchs are rotting our democracy from the inside out.

[Sanity Claws]

6. Lots of Russians in Riverdale, Bronx

I have only lived there for about 5 years so I can't gauge how much it has changed. All I know is that I hear a lot of Russian spoken on the Metro North trains from Grand Central up to Riverdale and Westchester.