Like many have noted, the Russian story isn't going away. Sally Yates basically showed what the competent members of the federal state have been saying: Russia has had its fingers in Trump's pie in substantial and troubling ways.
Yates didn't necessarily drop a bombshell, even if she did blast some of the sanctimonious hypocrisy of ambulatory shitbags like Ted Cruz. Seriously Texas, we know you hate anything to the left of Lindsay Graham, but is he really the best you can do? Take a quick look at this gif that I can't embed. Yates pretty much represents any competent, thinking human being who is confronted by the idiocracy currently manifesting in Republican governance.
The fact that Republicans SENATORS (as opposed to the partisan mercenaries of the House) spent much of their question time pressing her on the travel ban and the nature of leaks rather than on the fact that Trump seemed perfectly content to have his National Security Adviser being at best compromised by the Russians, if not an outright Russian mole, is the scariest expression yet of just how far the GOP will go to hang on to power.
Speaking of Lindsay Graham, he is burnishing his maverick credentials by taking on the Trump team in this. I guess I should be encouraged, but I keep coming back to Josh Marshall's Law of GOP Governance: the Moderates Always Cave. Graham pretty much hates Trump, but Ted Cruz should hate Trump, too. Trump went after his father and his wife, for crying out loud. And yet there was Tailgunner Ted attacking Yates and protecting a Trump Administration that couldn't be bothered that its NSA was carrying on nefarious plotting with the Russian ambassador.
What the everloving hell, people?
Critics of Trump and advocates for, you know, democracy are worried that Trump's ability to generate outrage outpaces our ability to assimilate it into our new world. There is little doubt that the Trump White House is engaged in something political scientists call rent seeking. Basically in this case, the Trump extended family is trying to enrich itself because of its connection to the US government. Look at this unbridled act of overt corruption by the Kushner family.
The problem is that the Trump administration is liable to be the most overtly corrupt in our nation's history. Warren Harding was personally honest. Nixon didn't enrich himself off the state. Meanwhile, as Trump engorges his family fortune, the government turns a blind eye to bad actors like Michael Flynn.
I'll say it again. What the everloving hell, people?
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