Rachel Maddow Would Like To Scare The Shit Out Of You Now

She's smiling, but she's going to scare you anyway.

We've been covering the story of how Donald Trump's campaign maybe might have colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 election for one thousand years now, it seems. New information comes out every day, Trump administration officials are already resigning and recusing themselves from investigations, and of course there's that spy document called the Steele Dossier -- which was once "unsourced intelligence! pee hookers! this is crazy!" -- that's being confirmed, bit by strange bit, and the pieces are falling into place slowly but surely. It's nuts! We must get to the bottom of what Russia and Trump did or did not do together, and if that means everybody Trump has ever met has to GO TO JAIL and Trump gets exiled to Gitmo, well so be it!

[wonkbar]<a href="https: //wonkette.substack.com/p/andrea-mitchell-would-like-some-answers-to-her-questions-please-thanks-and-fuck-you"></a>[/wonkbar]But on Wednesday night, Rachel Maddow went over something people aren't really talking about, but they should be. Remember that thing the other day when NBC/MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell became our Hero Journalist of the Day for the first time in her life? She was at the State Department trying in vain to ask Secretary Rex Tillerson how he plans to do his job considering Donald Trump wants to slash the hell out of department funding, Tillerson can't even seem to get a deputy , State isn't doing briefings like it used to, and oh yeah, Trump and Tillerson have been effing CLEANING HOUSE, getting rid of career foreign service officers that have been there for DECADES. If by "drain the swamp," Trump meant "literally destroy one of the most important, longest standing departments of the U.S. government," then that mission is being accomplished!

Maddow talked about all the things State does to support democracy and human rights around the world, including supporting dissident movements in nations like, well, you know, RUSSIA, and how if there is one part our American-ly Exceptionalist System Vladimir Putin would probably like to see destroyed, it's State. It was mean terrible Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, after all, who in 2011 called Russia's bullshit parliamentary elections out for the sham bullshit elections they were, and Russians were taking to the streets protesting the regime in power. Putin blamed the protests on Hillary, and by extension, on State. As Maddow points out, that infamous Steele Dossier says part of why Putin wanted Hillary to lose was his "fear and hatred" of her, because she was so willing to beat his ass when she was at State.

Maddow notes that Tillerson, the man from Exxon who holds Clinton's former position, is a guy who had never met Donald Trump before he was nominated, but he sure as hell was already pals with Uncle Vlad Putin, having been awarded Russia's Order Of Friendship in 2013. Putin gave it to Tillerson himself! Of course Tillerson's Exxon also did YOOGE DEALS with Russia's state-owned oil company Rosneft. (Yes, that's the same Rosneft that Trump stooge Carter Page attended meetings with, about the sale of 19.5% of the company to -- ??? -- in exchange for a loosening of U.S. sanctions. The Trump campaign, having originally denied that Page took that trip, now admits it. After the election, 19.5% of Rosneft was indeed sold to ???. FUNNY!)

So what Rachel Maddow is asking is, if Putin really wanted to destroy the State Department, if Putin wanted to destroy American institutions that threaten his own power, what better guy is there than Rex Tillerson to hold the very important job of standing there and looking pretty while Trump dismantles the "administrative state" (in Steve Bannon's words), and in the process strengthens his Russian butt-buddy Vladimir Putin?

And her bigger question, the question that, as she notes, nobody is really asking, is, aside from getting to the bottom of what Russia and Trump DID to undermine American democracy during the 2016 election, what are they STILL DOING RIGHT NOW to undermine us?

Was the election interference a one-off deal where Putin vanquishes Hillary and then goes home fat and happy? Or was it part of something bigger, where Putin is using Trump -- remember, the Steele Dossier, much of which is still unverified, alleges that Russia has been cultivating Trump as an asset FOR YEARS -- to achieve much wider goals?

Here, watch a video and let Rachel Maddow scare you:

AYIIIIIIEIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! Either our tinfoil hats are fitting just right these days, or YOU ARE CRAZY AND HOLY SHIT. Lately, every time we feel like we are the crazy ones, it turns out in the end that you are crazy, so we're just going to continue with that assumption until we're proven wrong.

 Know what's not crazy? Giving yr Wonkette a few bucks if you liked this post! 

[ Rachel Maddow Show ]