News of Russian interference in our 2016 election and beyond swirls around us in perpetual motion. What was once unthinkable is now common place. And just when it seems we have reached bottom, a new trap door slides out from under us. Giving us even more reason to believe that there is so much more we dont know.

Senator Arthur Vandenberg of Michigan at the dawn of the Cold War.

To me, "bipartisan foreign policy" means a mutual effort, under our indispensable two-party system, to unite our official voice at the water's edge so that America speaks with maximum authority against those who would divide and conquer us and the free world.

Those words bring perhaps an even more foreboding paradigm to what this nation faces. Starting with the president and those who surround him to a Republican party who has forsaken their commitment
to national security. The integrity of those whose first
duty is to protect the U.S. from foreign threats has been shattered as we learn each and every day people in our government were willing to work with Russia and former KGB officer now president Vladamir
Putin, if they could obtain power in this country.

It is therefore no surprise that the word treason is being tossed around as much as a ball in infield practice. Yesterday at what was to be the sentencing hearing for former Trump national Security Adviser
Michael Flynn, the judge probed the prosecution with questions about the charge of treason and declared
with impunity that Flynn "had sold out his country".
In an age where social media can be used with the same destructive force as flying planes into buildings
treasonous behavior has become sadly more relevant today then when we fought WW I I.

While republicans in Congress continue to give cover
to a man like Donald Trump (whose whole adult life has been filled with unethical deeds and a wholly self serving) who by all accounts used his connections with Russia to usurp the presidency. This combined
with at least 14 of the closest people in his campaign
now proven to have on going communication with Russians from 2015 in an attempt to sway thw 2016
presidential election. If 911 was an attack on our nation's way of life by radical sectarians, surely the 2016 election meddling was an all out assault on this nation's soul.

As jaw-dropping as the events of 2016 were, they were a prelude to the premeditated actions of
Inflicting additional damage to the U.S. With Donald Trump leading the offensive against our democratic institutions including our intelligence agencies, our
Justice Dept and failure to ensure that our electoral
processing is secured from foriegn intrusion. Trump
also to Putin's delight has crticized our NATO partners
threatening both our security and Western Europe.
And in an unprecedented policy has given autocratic dictators like Putin and Kim Jong Un of North Korea
(who like other autocrats have killed their own people
indiscriminately) positive recognition while calling our
free press enemies of the people.

Senator Vandenberg's words quoted above seem more prophetic today. A nation with a two party system must be on the same page when we are under
enemy fire or the next chapters written in our history will be fraught with peril. Further should our government allow itself to be co-opted by a foreign
entity to allow hyper partisan candidates or party's
win short term grabs for power, long term efficacy
of a democratic system will flounder in ways
not to be imagined.