What really caused the Russia mess?
Manipulation by Russia with DISINFORMATION.
And multiple things can be true at the same time in a complicated case.
1 thing we know...Russia did it.
2nd thing we know - it has destroyed any way for Republicans and Democrats to work together

We know that at least starting in 2014 Russia started using social media to encourage a sense of distrust in government . Early cases of "jade helm 15" conspiracies ( google it) about summer training exercises for the Military started popping up.

" possible military coup" "obama is going to take your gun" "closed wal mart's will be used for internment camps" Which was ridiculous. When people like Gov.Abbot of Texas and others sent letters to the military demanding information they gave this traction ( go ahead google it)

If Texas officials had called it out as HOGWASH it may have not gained traction.They didnt.They were so partisan they needed needed to make somebody a bad guy to look great.I have no doubt that they are innocent of knowingly push foriegn DISINFORMATION they were playing politics

Over and over this played out all over the country in different social issues .Black lives Matter movement and others had the same issue. DISINFORMATION all being pushed to further divide Americans. Again many politicians took partisan sides ( Google it) and didnt work together

Well apparently the Russians found easy pickings in America. Shame on us. Ok so 2015 and 2016 DISINFORMATION warfare is upped. Primary battles in both parties was an awesome target. By this time , I have no doubt the NSA and FBI were trying to understand it and didn't yet.

With ridiculous partisan ship a Dossier was paid for first by Republicans and then Democrats. We may never know if the information in the Dossier was partially planted to continue discord. And of course it should have been investigated. It hit its mark further causing disruption

Donald Trump becomes the nominee of gop and honestly mostly gets a rag tag group of outliers and nuts to work for campaign- easy pickings for professional DISINFORMATION operatives. I have no doubt that tid bits were offered to them and they latched on in an effort to be relevant

Between Sen.Sanders and Hillary Clinton DISINFORMATION was pushed and 2 wings of the DNC handled it in a less then appropriate manner - sanders camp assumes a fix ( hubris) and some in Clinton's campaign assume somehow Sanders or more left must be working with Russia ( hubris)

So I wasnt in any rooms talking to anyone in either camp but I watched as accusations flew. Shame on folks who chose to believe conspiracy in the Democrats camps.Sanders is a good person, Clinton is a good person neither hate the United States. They have policy differences

At this point - with Trump and Clinton in place - again DISINFORMATION from Russia- terrible conspiracies about Clinton, Disgraceful memes and ridiculous conspiracies of working with a Soros globalist cabal to create a world order. And Trump campaign? They elevated it.

Mike Flynn with his chants of "lock her up" and conspiracy of Obama and Clinton high crimes- that was a disgrace to any miltary uniform he ever wore. Roger Stone( he's nuts)and his contacts were an easy mark to leak info to because dirty has always been his game.

And please..of course he talked with Trump. And of course Russia set up meetings with Trump people. My SPECULATION now is - those meetings were set up not to give actual deals but to dangle and confuse. Perhaps making them unwitting conspirators. Of course the Trump campaign did

I have no doubt hints were dropped about a DNC dump through Assange and so wanting to win Trump campaign went for the ride not realizing they were useful idiots. Meanwhile- the FBI investigating has 2 to paths to investigate either Trump people are comprised or dumb.

By early October you have Rudy Giuliani hinting at an October surprise a smoking gun.(go Google it) he goes on fox and says (former FBI tell him)I can not imagine the pressure on James Comey and those investigators trying to figure out who's working with who.Guilani is a Disgrace

Now the sore spot days before election- if Comey ignored and said nothing about the laptop from the wiener household he risked making the FBI look guilty of partisan politics. So a hail mary - release the information and 3 days later explain it was not what people thought is was

I'll never know whether this was the best way and I choose to not question the way he did it. - if you were a Trump follower and cheered when he released the info - you should have believed him when he said no crime. Shame on you.

All during this October chaos - Mike Flynn and his son were busy tweeting about ridiculous conspiracy born from crazy speculation on John Podesta's emails ( google it) about Pizzagate, Hillary Clinton involved in child sex rings running from a pizzeria and other garbage.

So Mike Flynn and his son. 3 things to look at
Were the Flynn's working with Russia?
Were the Flynn's just pushing terrible lies to win for Trump?
Were the Flynn's just plain crazy?
There is only 1 correct answer -

Of course the FBI should investigate-they knew this garbage was a hot mess and that Trump transition team was looking to him for National security decisions. For goodness sake - all 3 things made him unqualified for that position. Pizzagate tweets made him unqualified.

I can not imagine how it must of felt for the career fed. Law enforcement who were trying to untangle this mess -and were faced with a new administration who benefited from a DISINFORMATION campaign and still were not sure if it was a real conspiracy or..unwitting.

The truth should have come to light in the Mueller investigation. In many ways it did. But again partisan politics took hold. A know sitting President discredited it and anyone working on it.He announced to the world that Putin did nothing.

He knows that's a lie. Intelligence briefings would have included that Russian DISINFORMATION campaigns were there. Why either he was part of it on purpose or unwittingly in either case he's dangerous and unfit. His absolute refusal to accept fact has hurt America.

His disgusting rally remarks aimed at Lisa Page and others in the DOJ and FBI are something all Americans are responsible to apologize for. The Republicans who attacked the report should be ashamed . They allowed Disgraceful disingenuous partisanship to lead.

Democrats also ( while rightfully enraged) took a partisan path. They chose to start with the second part based on OBSTRUCTION by Trump instead of Part 1 where the original DISINFORMATION campaign is laid out. So people would understand. This mistake made Trump look persecuted.

I get it - I too feel he committed OBSTRUCTION but they like me are in a small bubble, most folks still dont understand the extent of DISINFORMATION spread. Most people were busy going to work to pay attention. People needed to start at chapter 1.

My thoughts on all of this - We have a mess.Never forget McConnell knew as it went along but couldn't admit like others in the GOP they picked a uniquely unfit candidate because it would point out they did nothing about it.

The full truth on 16 and the cover up by GOP of what happened would point out - part of the current GOP is nuts ,parts just wanted to grift, and part just wanted to cover themselves from the blame they deserve.

We may never knew how much the Trump campaign knew in the before but I do know something- the current Trump campaign manager and others learned from the Russian interference and so did others. Now America under no leadership is being attacked with DISINFORMATION daily.

For me...mine in honesty- "All I want is someone to finally tell the whole truth " if the current administration day 1 warned instead of denying, beefed up security, admitted mistakes , didnt defend crazy , we'd be in a better place.

Deep state is HOGWASH.
Qanon is HOGWASH
Life long FBI employees were never in a plot to destroy Trump.
Donald Trump is uniquely unqualified to hold office.
People like Mike Pence who worked on the campaign and ran the transition team would have known Mike Flynn was unfit.

Anybody in GOP leadership after 2016 elections or on the transition team was unfit to deal with national security. Anyone now working with and appointed by Trump you are unfit to be in leadership.
Everything in this thread is easily found in public information .Google it.