Fending off Russia while Robert Mueller takes Donald Trump down
It is now beyond evident that any future attacks from Russia – whether on our elections, electrical grid, or even by their military – will not see a proper response from Donald Trump, as he has proven to be forever indebted to Vladamir Putin. The Department of Homeland Security reported last week that Russia was responsible for cyber-attacks on our energy sector and infrastructure going back to 2016. Despite these new revelations we have yet to hear a peep out of Trump, who has been holed up in Mar-a-Lago to escape the recent March For Our Lives demonstrations. He did, however, find time to tweet about the fact he’s having considerable trouble finding new lawyers to defend him, while again stating his lie of “NO COLLUSION.”
The recent nerve gas attack in the UK on a former Russian spy and his daughter has resulted in most of America’s allies calling for further sanctions on Russia, but not even a mention of these attacks from Trump. Every day that passes with Trump still sitting in the Oval Office is another day that America loses standing in the world. While we know that Trump will never say a bad word about Putin, we also know that Trump’s time in power is waning. While Trump is off golfing, Special Counsel Robert Mueller is solidifying his case against Trump. The only questions are, when will the indictments drop, and how many Republicans in Congress are willing to go to jail to protect him? The answer: sooner than many think, and not enough to save Trump.
The next question becomes, how does America respond to the many attacks from Russia once we have a legitimate president in office? This question has led to much discussion about SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication), which allows financial institutions around the world to perform secure transactions. While Russia has always threatened a “strong response” if they were prevented from using SWIFT, it seems that money is the main motivator for Putin and his oligarch friends.
Once America has a president that is not a Russian asset, the first step should be to join our allies in strong sanctions against Russia, up to and including preventing Russia from being able to participate in SWIFT. I would certainly call that swift justice.
I’m a ceramic engineer living in Central New York, avid sports fan but find myself more interested in politics lately.