By Bob Gaydos

Trump and Putin in Helsinki.

   Forgive me if I sound a bit testy, but I get frustrated, after 10 years of dealing with Donald Trump, when people, especially people who are supposed to be educated in such matters, express surprise when the dotard says or does something that benefits Vladimir Putin.

   Like announcing a deal to buy 300,000 metric tons of diesel fuel from Russia. Let’s set aside the legality, duplicity and utter stupidity of the deal for a moment. To those not familiar with the details of diesel fuel usage in America — most of us, I suspect — that may sound like a lot of diesel. It is. But it is roughly half the amount of diesel that America uses every day.

    Half a day’s worth of diesel. To help out a financially struggling Russian economy on which the U.S. has placed economic sanctions, including on diesel, and a Russian leader engaged in a costly and unpopular war (half a million dead soldiers, a million wounded) he started with Ukraine, whom the U.S. is supposed to be supporting.

    Which is only half the war story. In the war that Trump started, Russia is on the side of Iran, sharing intelligence. So Trump wants to send money to Russia to help it fight against our ally, Ukraine, even though Russia is helping Iran to kill Americans. Do you get that MAGA? Republicans?

    But, American truckers and farmers are angry that they can’t afford diesel fuel for their trucks because Trump’s war against Iran has resulted in Iran and its allies shutting down the main route for shipment of oil from the Middle East, resulting in a steep increase in the price of diesel available in the U.S. And diesel fuels the trucks that move all those now also more expensive groceries, etc. that Americans are complaining about.

   And the polls show Republicans likely losing control of the House of Representatives in next month’s election, meaning Trump won’t be able to ignore the law, as he is with the diesel deal, and is likely to spend two years, at least, of intense investigation. 

     So (and we’re not through with all the dots here) Trump looked for a quick fix to save his butt with voters and turned to his “friend,” Putin.

      This looks like a good spot to go back to why I’m so cranky about this Trump/Putin thing. It goes back to July 16, 2018. Trump and Putin had a summit meeting in Helsinki. Their third meeting. It began with a private, two-hour meeting between Trump and Putin and their interpreters. That’s it. No one to this day knows what was said behind closed doors for two hours. But the world saw a smiling Putin emerge along with a slumped over Trump looking like he had just been taken to the woodshed. That aura of smiling confidence Trump likes to put on was gone. He was thoroughly whipped. Very unpresidential.

       When asked by reporters what Putin had to say about  charges by Special Counsel Robert Mueller that Russia had interfered in the 2016 election to help him, Trump meekly said that Putin had denied it and that he believed him. Case closed.

       It was there for the world to see. Putin had Trump. Or more accurately, something on him. Has had it ever since. It has been reported often and too often forgotten when Trump does something that seems stupid because it helps Putin, who has never been this nation’s friend. Sex tapes, videos, photos of Trump in embarrassing and illegal situations. Believing they don’t exist is to ignore the life histories of the two men. A narcissistic, legally adjudicated sexual predator whose attorney general and FBI are hiding the Epstein files from the public and the former head of the Russian KGB, which is known to have used women to lure men with influence into “compromising” situations.

       Connect the dots. Trump is Putin’s puppet. In spy lingo, he’s a Russian asset. It makes him our liability. 

       Trump doesn’t care who is hurt if he can protect himself. Say that Ukraine should get a new president because Zelinsky refuses to surrender to Putin? Sure. Suggest at a political rally that Iran (with a large, international network of terrorist allies and intelligence help from Russia, remember?) might want to take out San Diego and Los Angeles? Why not? “Small price to pay,” said Trump. People laughed.

      He is solely driven by self-protection. 

      The “deal” with Russia is illegal, ignoring economic sanctions that were in place. In total, it amounts to about two weeks’ worth of diesel in the U.S. and can be gotten cheaper from Canada, our ally until Trump. It will do little to help either Russia or the U.S. economically. It’s political window dressing for two struggling authoritarians. The fact that Russia is helping Iran to fight us, killing Americans, makes the deal incredibly stupid and … maybe treasonous?

      You get the idea. We know all this. Republicans know and refuse to stop it. The media mostly treat it as business as usual. But there’s nothing “usual” about this. That’s why I’m testy.