"Our Donald Ivanovych"

While gathering quotes from Republicans for my previous piece, I came across this snippet from last year:

July 11, 2018: Association for Euro-Atlantic Cooperation President Tatyana Parkhalina told the Russian State TV “60 Minutes” news program, “I never thought I’d live to see this! Neither the USSR nor Russia, who tried many times to drive the wedge between transatlantic allies, but Washington is doing everything to break down the foundations of transatlantic alliance and unity.”

It certainly seems like the Russians have been celebrating a spectacular victory over the last few years.

Turns out, they have. In fact, Russians have been as deliriously giddy over there as Trump’s fanatic cult of followers have been over here. We may also observe Russian State TV looks, and sounds, amazingly similar to American FOX(R) State TV.

Imagine that.

Out of a perhaps not-so-healthy sense of curiosity, I thought I’d break out the vodka, pull up a chair, and look in on the festivities over on the other side of the world. 

I cordially invite everyone else with a not-so-healthy sense of humor, or healthy liver, to take this in with me.

I’d like to dedicate the remaining space here to share some of the high spirited, euphoric, Russian squat dancing kind of good times they’re having.

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From:

"Russia Laughs: Is He Their President Or Ours?"

“Have you lost your minds that you want to remove our Donald Ivanovych?” asked popular talk show host Vladimir Soloviev

Olga Skabeeva, host of that Russian 60 Minutes show, is quoted making a confident prediction: “A Republican majority in the Senate won’t allow the president whom we elected, wonderful Donald Trump, to be sent off. It’s impossible. He has 90 percent support in the Republican Party.”

Karen Shakhnazarov, who frequently appears on Russian TV: “They say Trump is making Russia great. That’s basically accurate. The chaos brought by Trump into the American system of government is weakening the United States. America is getting weaker and now Russia is taking its place in the Middle East. Suddenly, Russia is starting to seriously penetrate Africa … So when they say that Trump is weakening the United States — yes, he is. And that’s why we love him … The more problems they have, the better it is for us.”

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From:

"Russian politician: US spies slept while Russia elected Trump"

Vyacheslav Nikonov, a member of the lower house of the Russian parliament, the Duma, made the snarky reference to Russian interference in the 2016 US election on Sunday during a weekly political show called "Sunday Evening with Vladimir Solovyov."

"(To achieve world dominance) the US overextended themselves," Nikonov said. "Because the most recent tendencies, economical, military, even tendencies in the intelligence (services) which slept through while Russia elected a new US president."

"It's just ridiculous, what kind of intelligence in the USA one can even talk about?" he added. "The US sagged in all these aspects for the past two decades. This superpower is losing its ability to define the world."

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From:

"Russian TV boasts about electing Trump ahead of summit with Putin"

Russia 24, a government-funded network covering domestic and international news, criticised the issue of cyber security being included in Mr Putin’s planned discussions with American officials. In the same segment, Russian news analysts also derided CNN and one of its shows, The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, for its coverage of the election hacking. 

"Cyber security is a topic for this summit because what are the main accusations that we hear in the past years from the American side?" A Russia 24 analyst said. ”That our great and terrible Russian hackers invaded the American space."

The analyst went on to say Americans viewed the alleged hacking as “aggression against the country” and believed the Russian government “caused some trouble there.”

“What trouble did we cause?” he asked. “We just elected Trump, that’s all.”

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From:

"Russia’s Fingerprints Are All Over Trump’s Ukraine Whistleblower Scandal"

Russia's state TV names Joe Biden as "Trump's most dangerous rival," host Dmitry Kiselyov says Trump should keep digging in Ukraine for "the sweetest" kompromat of all: "proving that Ukraine—not Russia—interfered in the U.S. elections." 
— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) September 15, 2019

Russia's state TV host Olga Skabeeva says that since Ukraine took the money from the U.S., it is now obligated to deliver the kompromat on Biden.
Panelist asks her: "Are you on Trump's or Russia's side, Olga?"
Skabeeva responds: "We elected him!"

Sergei Markov, an analyst close to the Kremlin, appeared on 60 Minutes and publicly directed Trump to pressure a specific official within the U.S. State Department—Deputy Assistant Secretary in the European and Eurasian Bureau George Kent—to extract the elusive Biden kompromat.

Pro-government experts on the nightly television show The Evening with Vladimir Soloviev have been openly rooting for the supposed scandal in Ukraine to “kill Biden” politically, and allow Trump “to disprove” Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. elections, and destroy the heart of the Democratic Party in the process.

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Oh, my...

They certainly don't need to ask our president twice for help on that front.

To aid in the final triumph over our elections and opposition party, the Trump Cartel has embraced and promoted Putin’s propaganda narrative that blames Ukraine for the 2016 election interference. At an economic forum in the Russian capital, Putin expressed gratitude to all his loyal Republicans who parroted his discredited conspiracy theory. Some even did so at the public impeachment hearings, no less.

For the last word, we quote the man behind the curtain, the KGB’s puppet master who won the greatest victory ever over American democracy, security, reputation, and stability, Vlad the Victor.  

“Thank God, no one is accusing us of interfering in the U.S. elections anymore; now they’re accusing Ukraine."

Welcome Republicans and Veterans

A month ago I concluded a piece with, “Please note, apart from a cartoon dog, I’m only quoting FOX News, Republicans, and the military in this post. How about that?”

I thought I’d repeat that theme with some more quotes from current Republicans and former Republicans who left the cult. And to commemorate Veterans Day, I include patriotic high ranking members of the military. Of course this rules out a certain general named Flynn.

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“Never let yourself be persuaded that any one Great Man, any one leader, is necessary to the salvation of America. When America consists of one leader and 158 million followers, it will no longer be America.”

"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist."- Dwight D. Eisenhower

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“Maybe you do not much care about the future of the Republican Party. You should. Conservatives will always be with us.If conservatives become convinced that they cannot win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. They will reject democracy.”– David Frum

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“It's said if you're not a liberal when you're twenty, you have no heart; if you're not a conservative when you're forty, you have no head. I'd add, at least in my case: If you're not rethinking some conservative orthodoxies in your sixties, you haven't been learning from life.” - Bill Kristol

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“I’m a conservative, but I have no doubt that Donald Trump’s actual authoritarianism is a much bigger threat to this country than any of the Democrat’s hoped-for socialism. Put another way: I’m way more afraid of a dictator than I am of a guaranteed jobs program or free college.” – Former Rep. Joe Walsh

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Trump: “Read the Transcript!” Justin Amash: “Read the Constitution.”

“Libertarians, constitutional conservatives, and classical liberals believe in protecting whistleblowers to expose government corruption. Trump Republicans believe in exposing whistleblowers to protect government corruption.” - Justin Amash

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“There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump.” Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)

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"These are, in today's Republican party, spineless politicians rotten to the core without virtue, without any level of human integrity, devoid of self respect... Without courage and without the moral compass to recognize their own malevolence"- Former Rep. David Jolly

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How can we not include Lindsay Graham representing the Republican Party's politically-corrected, reformed, and enlightened views on Trump?

2015: "Here’s what you’re buying: He’s a race-baiting, xenophobic religious bigot. He doesn’t represent my party. He doesn’t represent the values that the men and women who wear the uniform are fighting for."

2018: "He’s not, in my view, a racist by any stretch of the imagination. I have never heard him make a single racist statement. Not even close." 

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“...I could remember a time when Republicans thought about ideas and enjoyed those good-spirited and consequential debates. It seems that time is gone, replaced by a race to the bottom to see who can be meaner and madder and crazier.

It is not enough to be conservative anymore. You have to be vicious. ... But in the election of 2016, our side outdid itself. It helps if you ascribe the absolute worst motives to your opponents, traffic in outlandish conspiracy theories, abandon reason and any old-fashioned notions of the common good, and  have an unquenchable appetite for destruction.  But Donald Trump is not the source code for our obsession for the politics of personal destruction. Our crisis has many fathers. Among them is Newt Gingrich, the modern progenitor of that school of politics.” From Jeff Flake’s “Conscience of a Conservative”:

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“If our promises are meaningless, how will our allies ever trust us? If we can't have faith in our nation's principles, why would the men and women of this nation join the military. And if they don't join, who will protect us? If we are not the champions of the good and the right, then who will follow us? And if no one follows us — where will the world end up?

They have seen our leaders stand beside despots and strongmen, preferring their government narrative to our own. They have seen us abandon our allies and have heard the shouts of betrayal from the battlefield. As I stood on the parade field at Fort Bragg, one retired four-star general, grabbed my arm, shook me and shouted, 'I don't like the Democrats, but Trump is destroying the Republic!'

Those words echoed with me throughout the week."  From "Our Republic Is Under Attack From the President" by Retired US Navy Adm. William McRaven.

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"I was concerned by the call. I did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen, and I was worried about the implications for the U.S. government's support of Ukraine. I realized that if Ukraine pursued an investigation into the Bidens and Burisma, it would likely be interpreted as a partisan play which would undoubtedly result in Ukraine losing the bipartisan support it has thus far maintained.This would all undermine U.S. national security. Following the call, I again reported my concerns to NSC's lead counsel." 

"I am a patriot, and it is my sacred duty and honor to advance and defend OUR country, irrespective of party or politics." - Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman

(For a special blast from the past, showing how the worst authoritarians never evolve:)

“Don’t confuse me with the facts. I’ve got a closed mind...I’m going to stick with my president. (Nixon, 1974) – Rep. Earl Landgrebe (R)IN 

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And for laughs, let’s hear from the psychotic Cult 45 peanut gallery:

“I see it as harassment, quite frankly,” Gail Sonatore of Middletown, New Jersey, said of the House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry. “I don’t think he’s done anything. I understand his tone — nobody likes that tone. But when you’re dealing with Marxists, what are you supposed to do? Just take it? Republicans have for a long time been called racist, fascist, sexist and greedy. And I think that’s why they support Donald Trump.” 

(Don’t you love that victim card and inadvertent admission of their true nature?)

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"Trump is highly biblical, and I would say to your listeners, we will in all likelihood never see a more godly, biblical president again in our lifetime.” Michele Bachmann, R-Minnesota

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“Donald is funny, playful, and colorful, but most of all, he is honest.” Jon Voight

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“I have every right and authority to declare the White House as holy ground because I was standing there and where I stand is holy.”  Shyster preacher Paula White, “spiritual adviser” to the Big MAGAt

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On second thought, maybe this mass madness is amusing only to those of us with a sick sense of humor.

Last, but not least, I quote the Big MAGAt (BM) himself on his ‘victimhood” and his chilling, sinister, and absolutely Orwellian declaration:

“There's never been a time in the history of our country where somebody was so mistreated as I have been."

“What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening.”

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In conclusion, I refer the reader back to Eisenhower, the last honest Republican president.