Right wing radio has been playing Rachel Maddow’s Geraldo moment regarding Trump’s tax returns all day. It reminds me of Joe McCarthy more than anything.  At some point, you begin to realize she is speaking to an ever-decreasing number of delusional people: many of them having painted themselves into a corner since the election.  If I weren’t enjoying it so much, it would be painful to watch, such as my capacity for Schadenfreude.

Which brings us to GOP NeverTrumper, Senator John McCain:

While speaking from the Senate floor in support of a bill advancing Montenegro’s bid to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), McCain noted objection from his Kentucky colleague, saying that if you oppose the measure, “You are achieving the objectives of Vladimir Putin… trying to dismember this small country which has already been the subject an attempted coup.”

McCain continued: “If they object, they are now carrying out the desires and ambitions of Vladimir Putin and I do not say that lightly.”

Several moments later, after the 80-year-old senator asked for unanimous consent to move the bill forward, Paul took the mic to raise his objection before dramatically exiting the room.

In response, McCain began railing against Paul, his voice trembling with anger: “I note the senator from Kentucky leaving the floor without justification or any rationale for the action he has just taken. That is really remarkable, that a senator blocking a treaty that is supported by the overwhelming number—perhaps 98, at least, of his colleagues—would come to the floor and object and walk away.”

He then directly connected Paul to the Russian government: “The only conclusion you can draw when he walks away is he has no justification for his objection to having a small nation be part of NATO that is under assault from the Russians.

“So I repeat again, the senator from Kentucky is now working for Vladimir Putin.”..

In response, Paul avoided the over-the-top nature of McCain’s initial attack, instead commenting on the policy issue at hand. “Currently, the United States has troops in dozens of countries and is actively fighting in Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Yemen (with the occasional drone strike in Pakistan),” he told The Daily Beast.

“In addition, the United States is pledged to defend 28 countries in NATO. It is unwise to expand the monetary and military obligations of the United States given the burden of our $20 trillion debt.”

Absent evidence of Russian collusion with Trump or hacking the election and last week’s Vault7 release from Wikileaks of CIA’s Umbrage program which used Russian tools to frame them, a lot of reasonable people began to doubt the false narrative we’ve been dealing with one way or another since WWII.  And those of us paying attention since Ukraine in 2014 can trace this narrative back to Zionist neocons in the US State Dept and warmongers, John McCain and Lindsey Graham.

We have recently learned that despite saber rattling toward Iran, incursions into Yemen and 100 Rangers in Manjib, Syria, the Trump admin is resuming the usual policy of dialog with friend and foe, ended by Obama.  And like healthcare reform, which will occur in three phases, Trump appears to have had a strategy early on for dealing with the neocons, who infest Deep State.  He is achieving this by binding tightly with the military and relying on their professional approach to foreign policy.

Between the MSM and the NeverTrumpers, there is a lot of shrill noise aimed toward Trump, making the truth even more elusive.  But Greenwald’s never left us and Taibbi’s on the way back.  Even the booger-eating morons on right wing radio are up to speed on the resumption of detente.

From InfoWars:

Judge Andrew Napolitano revealed on ‘Fox & Friends’ this morning that the sources spilled the details to him as the controversial case continues to dominate headlines.

“Three intelligence sources have informed Fox News that President Obama went outside the chain of command,” Napolitano said. “He didn’t use the NSA, he didn’t use the CIA, he didn’t use the FBI, and he didn’t use the Department of Justice.”

“He used GCHQ.” Napolitano explained.

“What the heck is GCHQ? That’s the initials for the British spying agency. They have 24/7 access to the NSA database.” The Judge explained.

This is consistent with Five Eyes:

The Five Eyes, often abbreviated as FVEY, is an intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. These countries are bound by the multilateral UKUSA Agreement, a treaty for joint cooperation in signals intelligence…

The former NSA contractor Edward Snowden described the Five Eyes as a “supra-national intelligence organisation that doesn’t answer to the known laws of its own countries”.^[6] Documents leaked by Snowden in 2013 revealed that the FVEY have been spying on one another’s citizens and sharing the collected information with each other in order to circumvent restrictive domestic regulations on surveillance of citizens.

This essentially confirms Trump’s allegation that Obama bugged Trump Tower.  The NeverTrumpers in the GOP establishment and those on the Left may, like McCain, continue to insist on the Russian false narrative, but every day it seems we learn more about sources and methods of actual domestic surveillance.

Unbelievably, Trump seems to have the situation well in hand, as he sets the agenda and leaves everyone else to follow and wonder.  From the Afghan ambassador:

The Obama administration was the most academic administration we have ever had to deal with but the Trump administration has been the most thoughtful and intelligent.

In addition to heading off a disastrous Clinton admin, Trump seems to be following a really bad Obama one.  It reminds me of McNamara in Vietnam, who destroyed morale on the general staff by preferring decisions based on quantitative analysis, rather than experience.  Obama seems to have destroyed many diplomatic relationships, such as that with Israel,  and it is left to Trump to resume detente.  Trump’s victories may not turn out to be his fault, but due to his predecessor’s failures.