national news

The Russians are still at it

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Wherever he is ensconced in the Kremlin, Russian goon in chief Vladimir Putin must be a happy man these days.

He set out in 2016 to sow fear, discord and confusion in the American electoral system. If there’s a Russian equivalent to “mission accomplished,” then Putin is saying it over and over.

Now he’s at it again. FBI Director Christopher Wray agrees with two of his predecessors — Robert Mueller and James Comey — both of whom have said the Russians would do the same thing, only more of it, this time around.

I heard today that Donald Trump, Putin’s pal in D.C., might fire Wray after the election, I guess Trump means “win or lose” the election. He doesn’t like the job Wray is doing. All he has done to incur Trump’s reported wrath is confirm what the rest of the civilized world knows already, that the Russians are up to no good once again.

They wanted to defeat Hillary Clinton in 2016. Trump invited them to look for Clinton’s missing e-mails, which they commenced doing the same day Trump made the public request.

They’re messing around now with Joe Biden’s campaign. I pray that Americans have wised up to the chicanery Putin is capable of performing.

All in all, though, Putin’s gang of crooks has enlisted the aid of none other than Donald Trump, who himself is sowing more doubt in our electoral process, claiming the existence of “rampant voter fraud” where none exists. Trump threatens to take the election to the Supreme Court if Biden gets more votes than he does. And, what to do you know, he is likely to have a fully staffed SCOTUS on hand to render some decision on whether to accept the results; that will include, in case you’ve been comatose, Amy Coney Barrett, who is about to be confirmed by the Senate in a railroad-job of a confirmation process.

I will hand it begrudgingly to Vladimir Putin. He played his hand perfectly four years ago. I am going to hope for all I am worth that we have wised up to the trickery and will send Vlad’s boy, Donald Trump, packing once we get the ballots counted.