There should be transparency concerning compensation of elected officials.

It does not matter if the compensation comes from Putin or from, for example, a Koch institute, the taxpayers deserve to know if they have a conflict of interest due to salary enhancements.

On the other hand, if they are disseminating this disinformation for free, the voters deserve to know which elected officials are representing Russian interests above, or instead of, U. S. interests.

I've been thinking that myself. If they love Russia so much, if they think Putin is so great, why aren't they moving there to enjoy a dictatorship that is already established?

every Republican congress person, the Democrats in congress and Senate should be public shaming them to no end. Start calling them all out for who they are ect.

Special interest money or gifts of any sort and for any purpose should not be allowed in the possession of politicians or any other government employee. In addition, we should insure we're paying them well enough to do their jobs at all levels of government.

It's difficult enough just dealing with some people's screwed-up thinking on governing of our society without undue special interest influence. That's the root issue at hand.

Let's return our politicians back to the core purposes of public service.......

THIS problem is, to put it bluntly, TREASON.

The President of the United States is serving the interests of a foreign adversary, and Republicans in Congress are serving the president instead of our country and their oath of office.

They are joining this POtuS in his assault on our democratic instutions, on the Constitution, and on truth itself.

We are heading towards fascism, which goes way beyond the corruption of corporate interests purchasing politicians (though fascism does involve the corrupt alliance of corporation and state).

Benjamin Franklin said we have a republic, if we can keep it.

We are in an existential battle to save it.

That money is the fertilizer that allows mind control and then fascism to flourish and grow.

For example, the original recent seeds of fascism here were (and still are today) planted by right-wing talk radio and a number of conservative publications. Those media sources were funded by high-wealth individuals highly resentful of taxation and government oversight. And, it's known they were set up to operate at a loss, which means they intended to brainwash the public for a fee. The same analysis applies to most of their think tanks, several of which hold hostage much of our current government policy.

They also bought their way into many of our churches which were traditionally progressive in their leanings for much of our history. Then came along News Corp. and right-wing tabloids, and then social media. They artfully used all these avenues to divide our general public into bitter, vitriolic camps - thereby making us easier to control.

So, were it not for the froth from profits from unfettered capitalism that creates power-mad billionaires, we likely would not have this problem. Those people know the public is gullible as hell and not broadly educated and therefore easily manipulated. That is how they've managed to almost destroy our small town culture, as mega-Walmart is now the culture.

Trump is but a symptom of this disease and it was almost certainly destined to head toward fascism in the end.

My contention is that without that massive effort by a relatively small group of wealthy people, our normal democratic processes would have stamped out any trends toward fascism.

... will always be susceptible to demagogues and con men.

But I do essentially agree with your contention and how the malefactors of great wealth have, through propaganda via the media they control, greatly influenced a large portion of the voting public and turned the American citizenry against each other.

I've been saying for years that this bipolar division between ordinary people far exceeds any actual conflict of intetest. It's the old divide and conquer strategy, keeping us at each other's throats instead of looking up at those who are keeping us down.

A house divided against itself cannot stand, and a people divided against themselves cannot stand and work together for their common interests.

Now a foreign adversary has taken advantage of the inherent vulnerability of country divided against itself in an assault on the US-led world order which has kept the worst tyrannies at bay and sustained at least a modicum of free democracy.

What we face now is more than just greedy rich bastards grabbing the lions share of the economic pie for themselves. The fascism we defeated militarily seven decades ago threatens to engulf us from within.