Rachel Maddow explained how Mitch McConnell has allowed Russia to gain an economic foothold in the US so that they can influence US politics from within.

Mitch McConnell committed economic treason

Maddow said:

The short story here about Mitch McConnell is that he, more than anybody else in Washington, has blocked U.S. efforts to constrain or respond to Russia’s recent attacks. That’s why they’re calling him Moscow Mitch now. But in this particular instance, his state, an economically disadvantaged part of his state, got a $200 million investment from a kremlin-connected oligarch immediately after McConnell personally stepped in to make sure sanctions on that oligarch were dropped, despite his role in what happened to our election in 2016 and despite bipartisan support even from his own party for those sanctions. But don’t just look back at this. Look forward. Right? I mean, the FBI says Russia’s going to do to our election in 2020 what they did to it in 2016. No reason to expect 2020 is going to be any different. If Oleg Deripaska is one of the two or three oligarchs Putin looks to get his work done around the world, given what we know he did in 2016, should we expect Deripaska is going to be involved in Russia’s 2020 operations as well? You have to say the odds of that are better now than they were before Mitch Mcconnell sold off this corner of his state in his I mean, after all, before Mcconnell did what he did, Oleg Deripaska might have felt worried about participating in any Russian attack on us in 2020, right? He might have worried about those crippling sanctions that the U.S. Government put on him at least for a while after 2016. I mean, Mcconnell made sure those were gone, but maybe he’d worry if he did more in 2020, he would get those sanctions back or he’d be further sanctioned in his business activities. He might have had to worry about that before Mitch Mcconnell did what he did. But now, Oleg Deripaska’s business activities, the health of his business empire, that’s part and parcel of the hard-scrabble economy in one of Kentucky’s neediest economies.

This is a plant that’s over a billion dollars. 40% owned by the company of this kremlin-connect bed oligarch. You’re not going to be able to sanction him no matter what he does to our 2020 election or whatever else he does at all. It would strangle Kentucky in the process. There would be hundreds, if not thousands of American jobs riding on anything you did to that Russian guy’s company or, frankly, anything you did to bother him. He now holds all of those American jobs in his hand. The U.S. Government does anything to bother him, he can take them away at will. You can’t do anything to his company, not without him exerting that leverage over Kentucky in response. And that damage has already been done.

O’Connell did this to cement the relationship between Russia and the Republican Party. Republicans can now claim that Russian business interests, like the one in Kentucky, can’t be sanctioned, because if they are, it will hurt American jobs.

If a future Democratic Congress and president would sanction a Russian oligarch with a business interest in the US, Republicans can use that to claim that Democrats are killing jobs. Moscow Mitch has gone beyond leaving the backdoor unlocked for Russia to interfere in US elections. He has rolled out the red carpet and given Putin a seat at the political table by inviting Russia in through the front door of the US economy.

McConnell’s actions are nothing less than economic treason.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.

Before the internet, before cell phones, before television, before Facebook, Google, Instagram, before it all. Even before motion pictures and radio we had to use our imagination. An an author reminded me (thank you Edward Savio), when patrons saw the first motion picture of a train rushing towards them on a screen, they flinched, they ran, they screamed. They were afraid. It wasn’t reality, it was another person’s vision put into their mind.

In today’s world what we see, what we hear is more than we can imagine. It’s bigger, bolder, scarier, edgier than what we would picture in our own minds. It is the vision of another shoved into our pysche. We cannot unsee or unhear these visions. We may move them back and away from our day to day thoughts but they will always be there to come charging at us like a train.

The same could be said of our political and social lives. Not too long ago we couldn’t imagine the racism that pervades our society. We didn’t see, didn’t hear the hate and anger that seems to be part of our American society. Now we cannot unsee it. Racism, xenophobia, misogyny and bullying they all are the top stories in the news. Either it’s the haters spewing their fear mongering or the hated disgorging their distaste back.We cannot escape either side.

This time we live in may pass. We may find our way to a more accepting, loving society. But we cannot unsee or unhear what happens everyday of our lives. The video and audio history will always have a place in our minds. Hiding away, hibernating, if you will, until rearing up and charging at us like a train.

Sorry gang, I’ve been remiss in my rants lately. So much to take and so little time to take it in! I’m just getting around to watching the democratic debates from last week. Not much new there. Infighting amongst the candidates. Calling out each other rather than finding ways to win.

Trump won because people felt left out of the conversation. I believe most people still feel that way. I haven’t seen anything from anyone that is all that inclusive.

I’m sure I’ll have something to rile you up and make you think some more. That is what I try to do. I am like a squirrel right now, storing nuts for the winter. As someone once said