Obama's Secret Struggle to Punish Russia For Putin's Election Assault

I almost can't even read the stuff that's been coming out this week. This was so crazy it actually gave me a kind of feeling of vertigo as I read it. So it seems that Putin really did set out to give us Trump--or, at least, to torpedo Clinton. We also have reason to think that those efforts were decisive. Even if he'd have managed to change the election at all, this would be monumental. But he managed to give us the most incompetent and reprehensible President of...well...my lifetime, anyway. Jesus. A broadside from a murderous autocrat, and it hit us amidships... If we had Obama at the helm, things would still be bad... But, of course, one consequence of Putin's great victory is that we no longer have anyone competent on the bridge...  (Aaaarrrr...nautical metaphors aplenty...)
   And, as terrifying as the Democrats are to me now, I'm just sickened by the GOP response. It reminds me of their response to their tainted victory in 2000: doesn't matter; we won. Defective ballots effectively disenfranchised thousands of voters? Doesn't matter; we won. Murderous dictator effectively disenfranchised every single American voter? Doesn't matter; we won.
   I agree that it's a bit hard to see all this clearly with the hysterical left #@triggerword/$$$RESISTANCE(tm)!!!111 shrieking in the background. Those people are perfectly willing to undermine the democratic process as well...and they're diligently working to do so... But, tuning that out for the time being, what's already happened is almost--to my mind, anyway--beyond belief.
   And Putin...or anyone like him...they don't even have to do all that much. Our crazy right and our crazy left are both so goddamn crazy that I worry that all it would take is the right kind of nudge...  Set up the right kinds of political oscillations...hit our resonance frequency...we'll tear ourselves apart...
   For the record, that last bit's a kind of panicky worry in a moment of despair. It's not a prediction nor a calmly-considered judgment.