A NPR Fresh Air in September had former MI6 Brit spy and novel writer Jean Le Carre. He said right wing plutocrats (like the Mercers, Koch) have common interests with Russian plutocrats in destroying democratic systems. Especially ours.

Bannon calling Don Jr. actions unpatriotic and traitorous damages their stooge Trump, not surprising Mercer would cut the $$.

The Liars Paradox, Cohen at wapo.

Until recently, the famous liar’s paradox was a liar saying, “I am lying.” Now, though, it has to be when any of Donald Trump’s friends or associates claims not to have called the president an ignoramus, a liar, an egomaniac or heroically unsuited for the presidency. Their choice is either to confirm the obvious or to appear a liar ....As every journalist knows, news is not that a dog bit a man but that a man bit a dog. In the same vein, it would be news if someone confided to an author or journalist that Trump was a reasonable man, self-effacing, considerate of others, cautious in his approach to major decisions, knowledgeable about the grand issues of national security or, even, aware that his hero Andrew Jackson did not live to the Civil War.