Show Me the Money, Donald

There is a very convincing conspiracy theory being touted over at the Daily Kos in a post by Mark Sumner. Simply put, it demonstrates possible evidence that Donald Trump is a paid operative of Vladimir Putin in an attempt to foment chaos in the United States electoral process. The post is titled

Donald Trump may be acting crazy, but it’s keeping the news away from the one story he wants to bury

Do you think Trump doesn’t dare to release his income tax forms because they would reveal a dangerously high level of monetary remunerations coming from Russia?

Here is the synopsis of the Sumner post:

1. Donald Trump has frequently expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin, viewing him as a “strong” leader who Trump “admires.” Trump has also given wildly differing statements on his personal relationship with Putin.
2. Trump has, on multiple occasions, suggested a weakening of the NATO alliance.
3. Despite this, Trump previously expressed support for the Ukraine.
4. After Trump hired Paul Manafort, a man who had worked for—and may still be working for—pro-Russian forces seeking to destroy the democratic government of the Ukraine, Trump’s position on the Ukraine changed to one that is far more friendly to Russia.
5. Trump campaign staff, including former Rumsfeld assistant J. D. Gordon, halted the implementation of pro-Ukraine language in the GOP platform, and insisted on language that was much more supportive of Russia after saying they had to speak directly to Trump about the policy.
6. One week after the change was written into the GOP platform, emails hacked from the DNC were released through Wikileaks. Both government and independent investigators have identified the hackers as being associated with the Russian government.
7. Donald Trump suggested that Russia might also hack Hillary Clinton’s email server and recover 30,000 emails (which are not “missing,” but were personal emails deleted by a team of lawyers who reviewed the server).
8. Trump later claimed he was being sarcastic, but within a week of his request, further hacks took place at the DCCC and the Hillary Clinton campaign. These hacks have also been identified as coming from Russian sources.
9. Both Manafort and Trump issued denials that they had anything to do with the changes to the Republican platform, despite the many witnesses and despite having made no objection to the news as it was reported at the time.
10. Trump, in an interview, seemed not only confused about the two-year-old invasion of the Ukraine, but gave apparently contradictory indications that, were he elected, he would cede the occupied Crimea to Russia, and that the Russians would withdraw from the Ukraine.

None of that is speculation. Not one word of it is theory.
Right now, there’s no proof that Trump and Manafort have been involved in a quid-pro-quo arrangement with Vladimir Putin. However, this whole thing stinks to high heaven. This isn’t just a hint of smoke on the horizon, this is a raging forest fire of connections between a United States presidential candidate and a foreign power.

Interesting to speculate. Even more interesting is the effect of this speculation on the Trump supporters. The Trump detractors really need no further evidence that Donald Trump is a mentally challenged huckster who scores 100 percent on the sociopath scale, but is it conceivable that red-blooded gun carrying Right-Wing patriots would overlook even a hint of a suggestion that Trump is in bed with the Russkies.

Then again, it might not be a evil plot, just Donald Trump lining up a sexy Chaturbate model from Moscow to be his fourth wife.