Stupid, but Not Treason

Donald Trump Jr. is the latest target of the ever elusive Russian collusion story.  In June of last year, he received an email from a British publicist who was going to hook him up with a Russian attorney who had some dirt on Hillary.  Perhaps the best summation was from Kyle Smith: "Don Jr. is why Nigerian e-mail scammers keep trying their luck."  Burn!  The Russian attorney had nothing on Hillary and instead tried to lobby regarding adoption policies between the US and Russia.  It sounds like the meeting was arranged under false pretenses, a bait and switch operation.  If anything, this meeting demonstrates that the Trump campaign failed in a collusion attempt.

As for treason, that's just nonsense.  As discussed here, treason can only be committed by giving aid to, or fighting alongside, the enemies of the United States.  Enemies is narrowly defined as those with whom the US is at war.  As we are not at war with Russia, it is impossible to commit treason on their behalf.  Now, if it had been ISIS or Al Qaeda...  Just because treason is off the table does not mean that espionage or some other crime wasn't committed.

 

Was it treason when Senator Ted Kennedy sought Soviet assistance in derailing President Reagan's re-election in 1984?  Was it treason when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton approved the sale of a Canadian uranium mining company (which controlled a quarter of US uranium mines) to the Russian Rusatom, especially after her husband had been paid handsomely for multiple speeches in Russia and the Clinton Foundation had received millions from parties interested in the sale?  Was it treason when the Clinton Administration approved a technology transfer to China after his re-election that was funded in part by illegal donations from the People's Republic of China?  If you hold that Don Jr. is a traitor, then so was Ted Kennedy, Bill Clinton, and Hillary Clinton.  In fact, none of them are traitors though that doesn't mean they aren't reprobates and criminals.

Celebrating Death

Roger Ailes, the media maven who built Fox News, died this week.  Today, I came across a Facebook post celebrating his death.  The comments on the post condemned Ailes to hell, cheered at his death, even said 'F**k Roger Ailes.'  To read the reactions, one would think Ailes was a murderous tyrant on the scale of Hitler, Stalin, or Mao.  Nope, he was just a Republican media consultant and Cable TV CEO.  This practice of celebrating the death or ruination of political opponents is something that happens almost exclusively on the left.  I have not seen celebratory postings of Anthony Weiner's fall from grace.  Even on the news, when Ailes death is mentioned, there is also the allegation of sexual harassment.  By contrast, when Ted Kennedy died, the media did not bring up Mary Jo Kopeckne.  No, he was the Lion of the Senate and his Republican colleagues spoke well of him in his passing.

 

Charles Krauthammer has noted that Republicans think Democrats are stupid and Democrats think Republicans are evil.  This is an interesting observation from a man who has been in both those camps, notably switching from stupid to evil.  However, one does not celebrate the death of an idiot in the same way one would celebrate the death of an evil person.  Clearly, the reaction of leftists to Ailes death vs. the reaction of conservatives to Kennedy's death shows how accurately this perception predicts.

 

Obviously, half the country is not evil though it is not obvious that half the country is not stupid.  If you are happy because a person with a different political philosophy has died, you need some serious introspection.