Follow the bouncing ball

It is getting downright upsetting to see the number of people who are so infected with Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) that they are knowingly or unknowingly willing to put our Republic at risk. And no, that is not overstating the situation.

Let's take a few minutes and recap the events that have lead us to this point in time. To start, Obama knew of Russian hacking as early as 2014; and probably before. He claims he told Mr. Putin to "Cut it out" and he did take a number of steps to remove some embassy officials and that sort of thing.

During the 2016 election period, the Russians attempted to hack both the Republican and Democrat National Committee websites. They were not successful in their attempt to invade the Republican system but were able to get into the Democrat's system; mainly because of John Podesta's ineptness in responding to a "phishing" entry by the hackers. The Democrats refused to allow the FBI access to their system so the hacking could be investigated.

When it was learned that the Democrat National Committee had essentially rigged the nomination process in favor of Secretary Clinton and against Senator Sanders, candidate Trump, who was thought to have virtually no chance of winning the election, made a comment that the Democrats were also probably trying to "rig" the presidential election in Secretary Clinton's favor.

During a campaign rally in Columbus, Ohio, in August, Trump said that he was afraid the election was going to be rigged, citing amongst other things, the fact that the Democratic National Committee colluded to make former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton the nominee instead of Senator Bernie Sanders.

Following candidate Trump's statement, during a joint press conference with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, President Barack Obama stated it was nearly impossible to rig an election, adding, “I’ve never seen in my lifetime or in modern political history any presidential candidate trying to discredit the elections and the election process before votes have even taken place”. He then added, "No serious person out there who would suggest somehow that you could even rig America’s elections.” Of course now the former president is saying he punished Russia for allegedly doing what he previously said was not feasible.

The ultimate election stunned Secretary Clinton and her team. They were so certain of their victory that they failed to pursue it in earnest. And, they were unable to accept the fact that the failure was theirs alone. As they subsequently plotted a "resistance" movement intended to remove President Trump, someone offered the thought that Trump must have "colluded” with the Russians and they were able to turn the election in favor of Trump. Since that time here is a brief recap as to what we have learned:

— Sadly, we have found that the upper levels of management at the FBI were politically biased and corrupted. They conducted a sham interview with Secretary Clinton and literally ignored a number of serious violations of the law by her, and violated FBI protocols in doing so.

— We have found that senior officials at the FBI submitted multiple applications to the FISA Court, seeking permission to spy on Carter Paige, one of the staffers in the Trump campaign. Importantly, what has been cited as the most damaging piece of evidence in securing the warrant from the court is what is referred to as the "Trump dossier." That dossier was/is an unverified document that was bought and paid for by the Clinton Campaign and the DNC. However, that information was not shared with the court. That repeated failure may well lead to the entire special counsel investigation being filled with "fruit from the poisonous tree", as unsubstantiated and unverified information was the basis for seeking the warrants.

— We now read of a question set that was leaked to the N.Y. Times that was produced by the special council as a basis for discussion with the president. Included in the question set are some that (essentially) ask the president to justify his actions in dismissing FBI Director Comey. I must ask, what right does any attorney have to question the president concerning a right that is constitutionally given to him/her? The president is a separate branch of our government and is given enumerated rights in the Constitution. One may not like how he exercises those rights, but that power belongs to him.

Thus far, the resistance movement has unwittingly uncovered collusion within the FBI that has violated both laws and protocols, and that its director both leaked and lied, and it has shown that the director of the CIA and the director of the National Intelligence Agency also leaked and lied . . . failures that probably would have not have been known had Secretary Clinton been elected. Politicization of the “Deep State” is a significant problem that needs to be corrected

It is beyond time to stop the resistance and the "witch hunt". Our Constitution and Republic are at stake

(Bob Meade is a Laconia resident. He may be reached at bobmeade13@gmail.com)