"Maybe this will be a quiet week. Everyone is hung over from the holiday weekend, I bet we'll finally have a normal news week," I thought optimistically on the final night of the long weekend. Turns out, I'm a moron! Here we are on the first morning of a new week, and already the news cycle is basically that meme where the dog is drinking coffee in the room that's on fire. The newest comes from CNN, which reports that U.S. intelligence intercepted Russian communications where officials discussed having damaging information about Donald Trump and his associates.

Russian government officials discussed having potentially "derogatory" information about then-presidential candidate Donald Trump and some of his top aides in conversations intercepted by US intelligence during the 2016 election, according to two former intelligence officials and a congressional source. One source described the information as financial in nature and said the discussion centered on whether the Russians had leverage over Trump's inner circle. The source said the intercepted communications suggested to US intelligence that Russians believed "they had the ability to influence the administration through the derogatory information."

Now this could of course be disinformation, designed to be intercepted, but when you pair this with the very real influence that the Russians had over Michael Flynn and potentially other members of the Trump team, you end up with a picture that looks pretty damning.

Also, haven't we reached the point where Donald Trump has lost the benefit of the doubt? I mean, how many terrible stories have to be released about you and your associates before people will actually believe what is so blatantly obvious. It is inarguable that Russia used cyber attacks to influence our election. It's also inarguable that Donald Trump was basically THE ONLY American politician who was pro-Russia and single-handedly moved the Republican position on Russia, with no good explanation. Throw in his son's quotes talking about the money the family receive from Russia, and it doesn't take much to see what's in front of us.

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