(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . We Can Stop Trump [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-11-21 Welcome to the resistance. I have a proposal for you for action at the end of this essay, but it will make more sense to you if first we talk more about “kompromat.” You will note that the word sounds a bit like “compromise,” and it is indeed that. It describes Russian efforts to put people from opposing countries in compromising positions, so that they can be blackmailed into betraying their country for Russia’s benefit. Once the Russians have evidence that the target wants to keep hidden, they can push the target to cooperate in some small way. Each cooperation then becomes another act for which the target can be blackmailed. A picture of the target with someone other than their spouse can lead to a demand to share unclassified information. Sharing even unclassified information with Russians is bad, and it becomes another act that must be hidden from employers, friends, family, the press, etc. etc. So, a bigger demand follows: “Give us some classified information, or we will out you to your boss.” Kompromat always escalates to the maximum the target can give up. Any person can be a target, but the higher the person, the better. This is a long game. “That person could be an elected official someday. Let’s start a (kompromat) file on him.” Trump, we should all remember, expressed an interest in being a politician decades ago. The signs that Trump is controlled by Putin through kompromat are public and have been for years. Trump fired FBI Director James Comey over his investigation of Trump’s ties to Russia, something both Trump and Putin wanted. However, Trump might not have been brave enough to fire the FBI Director without a threat from Putin. This is only speculation. So, let us look at real, public kompromat. In 2017, Trump had the Russian Foreign Minister, the Russian Ambassador to the US, and Russian press in the Oval Office. All Americans other than Trump were removed. This could have happened because of kompromat. This definitely was a kompromat exercise. Russia later said Trump shared classified information with his Russian guests. Trump was powerless to deny the allegation because he had no American witnesses. Putin could make any claim he wanted. Every other President has taken staff with him for meetings with Russian leaders for exactly this reason. In 2018, Trump met with Putin for two hours with no American witnesses. Afterward, Trump and Putin came out to a press briefing together. Putin had a beaming smile. Trump looked like he had spent the entire two hours on his knees, groveling and was not yet done groveling. Although every US intelligence agency had concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 election, the obviously cowed Trump told the world, "I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today…All I can do is ask the question. My people came to me, Dan Coats came to me, and some others, they said they think it's Russia. I have President Putin, he just said it's not Russia. I will say this, I don't see any reason why it would be." This is a President we know is operating under kompromat then siding with Putin over the United States. Kompromat always escalates. “Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort,” says our Constitution. Treason is the first grounds for impeachment in the Constitution. Impeachment is our first defense against a treasonous US President, including one who is operating under the influence of the Russian President, controlled by kompromat. Again, this kompromat is not speculation. It was done in public with Trump’s cooperation, that cooperation likely explained by earlier kompromat exercises. We saw it happening in the two examples above and in other situations. We know that our incoming President is under Putin’s influence. It is a matter of public record. So, what are we going to do about it? Nothing? Are we going to let Chief Justice John Roberts swear in a Russian operative—Putin’s saboteur—into the Commander in Chief role? Are we so committed to constitutional order that we will follow it knowingly into the end of our Constitution? Are we that feckless? That weak? That appallingly stupid? Earlier today, I created a meme that noted President Biden has the authority to declassify all US intelligence on the compromising relationship between Trump and Putin. If there is none, I argued Biden must flatly say so. Otherwise, he needs to declassify every bit of what we have. To do otherwise is reckless and stupid and a betrayal of our Democracy. We must know with as much completeness as possible the danger we face. We know we face danger. Our intelligence services, paid with our taxes, know more than we. This is a crisis, and they must share. Biden must share. There is no justification for refusing. That path is to betrayal and danger and perhaps the end of our Constitution. There is a defense for us. In 2021, after Trump left office, the House of Representatives approved impeachment articles against the former President. He was tried on those charges in the Senate. We are still in the period after Trump left office. In this moment, with this danger looming, the House could impeach Trump for his compromised relationship with Putin. The Senate could try him, convict him, and block him from public office. That would save us. Perhaps nothing else would or could. This, however, becomes a possibility only if Biden declassifies US intelligence on this relationship. How much more kompromat does Putin have? How many times has Trump put Putin’s interests ahead of ours? How many times has Trump provided Putin “aid and comfort” as he did in firing Comey, bringing Putin’s agents into the Oval Office without American witnesses, telling the nation that he was not going to act on US intelligence of Russian interference in our election because his Russian handler (Putin, himself) told him it did not happen? We must know. The entire nation must know. Republicans in the House and Senate must know and be forced by us to act. That is where you come in. Biden will not act unless we demand that he act. That is what we must do now: Demand Biden declassify US intelligence on Trump’s vulnerability to and cooperation with Putin. Share the hashtag. Share the meme. Build a community of people demanding action, so we will have a nation demanding action and a response to this existential threat. Do it today. Once Roberts swears in Trump, our recourse to the slide into a Fascist dictatorship is all but gone. #DeclassifyTrump [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/11/21/2287839/-We-Can-Stop-Trump?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/