Opinion: What if Trump's conspiracy was way bigger than we know?

[catbyte]

Thom Hartmann
August 30, 2022

There was, it increasingly appears, a conspiracy involving some in the most senior levels of the Trump administration to end American representative democracy and replace it with a strongman oligarchy along the lines of Putin’s Russia or Orbán’s Hungary.

This would be followed, after the January 20th swearing-in of Trump for a second term, by a complete realignment of US foreign policy away from NATO and the EU and toward oligarchic, autocratic nations like Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, and Hungary.

As the possibility of this traitorous plan becomes increasingly visible, the GOP, after a frantic two weeks of not knowing what to say or do, has finally settled on a response to Trump’s theft of classified information: “Hillary did the same thing, and she didn’t go to jail!” I heard the comparison made at least a half-dozen times this weekend on various political shows.

(For the record, Hillary did nothing whatsoever even remotely close to Trump’s theft of classified materials. Among the 50,000+ personal emails on her server, Republicans found three that had markings indicating they were at one time classified, none had to do with espionage or compromised national security in any way, and all three were clearly there because she had replied to somebody using the wrong account in error. But we can expect this to be the distraction line coming from Trump and the GOP all this week.)

snip

Full article here

[MartyTheGreek]

1. While Trump and regime gave the green light to Putin to invade Ukraine...

Remember, Trump's first comments after the invasion was announced was to call it a smart move by Putin. Then later he had to walk that back.

[Irish_Dem]

3. Trump knew what Putin was going to do and in fact probably helped him.

[Irish_Dem]

2. Here on DU, we figured this out some time ago.

We have been asking questions all along.

[patphil]

4. I agree. There's no doubt that those documents only represent the tip of the iceberg.

I'm certain the FBI knows this, and is pursuing a much deeper, far-reaching investigation. It's a dead certainty that Trump, and at least Jared have traded, or sold state secrets.
We'll see a lot more after the election.

[Irish_Dem]

11. I agree, it is most likely only a partial picture.

It is apparent that Trump went on a crime spree the minute he walked into the WH.

Because of the highly classified nature of some of the crimes, I am not sure how much we will be told about them.

[gab13by13]

5. If we had people like Thom Hartmann

on cable news it would make it fair and balanced.

Some rich billionaire needs to start up a cable news network with people like Thom, and Keith Olbermann, and Dylan Ratigan, Martin Brashear, Rachel, Nicolle, Zerlina Maxwell, Chuck Todd. (lol, do I need the sarcasm thingy for Chuck?)

[empedocles]

6. Good list.

[PSPS]

8. Bad example. Find someone who wasn't on the kremlin's payroll.

[gab13by13]

12. Thom Hartmann runs circles around the people we have on cable news.

I wish there were 100 Thom Hartmann's out there.

While at RT he constantly warned us about Donald Trump.

[yankee87]

7. Losing our country

With every passing day, every revelation, we came damn close to losing our country. With the Secret Service going to kill Pence, Senators willing to go along and not certify the election, and I’m sure martial law would have been declared.
I’m still a little worried it can happen again.

[erronis]

9. This is a huge and scary description of how autocrats around the world schemed to destroy the US.

Thanks for posting!
(Still reading and trying to absorb.)

One excerpt:

That Trump had a plan, worked out with Putin, MBS, a few dozen high administration officials, and a large handful of Republicans in the House and Senate, to overthrow our government and establish an oligarchic system like what is currently in place in Russia and that Fox “News” showcased in Hungary?

That once that overthrow was completed under the gimmick of six Republican-controlled states “discovering voter fraud” and changing their Electoral College votes, the plan was that Trump and his GOP allies (including the 11 Republican senators who, this May, voted against aid to Ukraine) would quickly move to re-align America away from NATO/EU and toward Russia/Saudi Arabia?

That, as soon as he was sworn in for a second term, he’d invoke his October 21, 2020 Executive Order 13957 that would instantly fire 50,000 senior Civil Service employees encompassing the management of every federal agency including the FBI, CIA, NSA, and DHS, and allow Trump to replace all of them with nakedly political loyalist appointees?

That as soon as that transformation of America and our alliances was complete, Trump would use a national state of emergency to suppress dissent and seize control of voting systems across the nation to insure he and the Republicans loyal to him would continue in power for the long run?

And that the deaths of our spies, the Saudi-driven explosion in oil prices when Biden came into office, Putin’s decision to attack Ukraine, and even Xi’s cranking up his aggression against Taiwan were all just the echoes of Trump’s failed plan?

[yonder]

10. If you were to read OP today, read this.

Last edited Tue Aug 30, 2022, 12:35 PM - Edit history (1)

Mr. Hartmann is running on all cylinders here and has lined up many seemingly unrelated events that appear to show an organizational capability much bigger than TFG would be able to muster himself.

This is a one-stop shop for the elements that nearly overthrew our democracy and as he writes: “Viewing the acts collectively can help to illuminate their significance…..”

[lees1975]

13. What if it was bigger than we know? It obviously was bigger than we ever imagined.

And it is still a threat.