A Conspiracy of Dunces

Here is a good rule of thumb for dealing with Donald Trump: Everyone who gives him the benefit of the doubt eventually regrets it.

This was true of clients and contractors and creditors throughout his business career. It was true of the sycophants and opportunists before whom he dangled cabinet appointments during the campaign and then, oh, never mind. It has been true of his cabinet members and spokesmen, whose attempts to defend and explain their boss’s conduct are gleefully undercut by the boss himself. And it should be true — for the sake of their souls, I sincerely hope it’s true — of the Republican leaders whose reputations for probity and principle he has stomped all over since winning their party’s nomination.

And now it’s true of me.

. . . the Russians are still a more-hostile-than-not power these days, with stronger incentives to subvert American democracy than the average foreign government. So taking their oppo has a gravity that should have stopped a more upright and patriotic campaign short.So while this is not direct evidence that the president of the United States was complicit in a virtual burglary perpetrated against the other party during an election season, it’s strong evidence that we should drop the presumption that such collusion is an extreme or implausible scenario.

Instead, the mix of inexperience, incaution and conspiratorial glee on display in the emails suggests that people in Trump’s immediate family — not just satellites like Roger Stone — would have been delighted to collude if the opportunity presented itself. Indeed, if the Russians didn’t approach the Trump circle about how to handle the D.N.C. email trove, it was probably because they recognized that anyone this naïve, giddy and “Burn After Reading”-level stupid would make a rather poor espionage partner.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/11/opinion/trump-russia-collusion.html?_r=0

Josh Marshall talks about it here:

The idea of Americans working with a hostile foreign government to turn an election is way outside our national experience. Way outside. It’s just hard to believe, even with people you know are selfish, corrupt and untrustworthy. That resistance has, I think, played a powerful role protecting the President.

And yet here we have it. The campaign gets an offer that might as well be word for word what I described above. And the response is enthusiastic. “I Love It!” Enthusiastic, unrestrained, untroubled.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/he-burst-the-bubble