Exactly. Trump has embedded loyalists deep inside our Intel agencies now. Those people have different agendas than Trump and some, I'd be willing to bet, are only too happy to help Russia continue to undermine our Democracy, just on principle (never mind the money, although I'm sure they wouldn't reject it).

It's so hard for Americans to wrap our minds around the idea that there are people in this country who would prefer another form of government to Democracy. Most of us were born into the Post-War period of relative peace. We saw the defeat and rejection of fascism, we saw the collapse of dictatorships, and we watched the collapse of the Soviet Union and believed Democracy's spread and stability were inevitable (I was one of them). But the big picture of history is different.

Kentuck, you're on a roll this morning!

That is why the party that once talked about exporting democracy is now making apologies and excuses for Russia, Hungary and Poland and saying we should be more like them -- countries that wouldn't have even permitted to join the EU or NATO had they been this way back when those organizations were formed. And why they are "okay" with Russia's overtures to expand its empire into Ukraine, Crimea, and perhaps beyond.

An authoritarian who believes what they believe, speaks glowingly and with nostalgia of a past that never existed, slowly turning a nation into a "Christian Nation," demonizing minorities, immigrants, non-Christian religions, GLBT, politicizes the court and gives basically unrestrained powers to the Executive to "make that country great again" (the way it used to be but actually never was in the first place).

Putting aside Trump for the moment (because he only thinks about the present moment and a few seconds into the future), the Republican Party has two modes:

When there's a Republican president: Look out for themselves and their high-end donors and feed the base (especially the Christian Nationalists).

When there's a Democratic president: Try to make the United States ungovernable so that people begin to question whether or not democracy works. That kind of blockade of governance is what made Trump possible. It is a playbook that seems to be working in Europe, and is primarily a Russian export that is catching on as far right parties begin to degrade (or have completely degraded, as in the cases of Hungary, Poland and some others--India, Brazil, Philippines) formerly functioning democracies.

I think the GOP is moving back into the second mode.

I've come to this conclusion after reading a few books on this subject, most recently Ezra Klein's book Why are we Polarized?, Timothy Snyder's book (all of them are incredible) The Road to Unfreedom, Benjamin Carter Witt's book The Death of Democracy (which is actually about the rise of the Nazis, but ever-so relevant) and Anne Applebaum's book Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism. There are some other great books on this too, but those come to mind this early in the morning.

official correct numbers before Biden takes office.

We've known for months the true figures are higher, and we see these studies and articles every month or so, going back to last summer.

Make the adjustment now! This is the Trump body count. We shouldn't dump a bunch of new dead people on Joe Biden's administration who died because of Trump, and died when Trump was president.

and she points out how politicians from Hungary to Poland to Spain to the UK to Brazil and the U.S. are so easily manipulated by Russian "active measures" to believe things that are not true, and how these lies become the basis for the overthrow (or attempted overthrow) of formerly stable governments. It's a chilling book.

These politicians believe these are their issues, issues they care about and have a stake in, but they were basically planted or accelerated by Kremlin propaganda, fake news websites and social media bots.

The scandal is that it's not all that hard to do, and Democracies haven't yet found a good way to defend against it.