CONGRATULATIONS TO RACHEL MADDOW #1 RATINGS SINCE ELECTION DAY.

So let's recap what we learned from the Rachel Maddow show last night. Please try it on line because the details will surface later as the Russian story breaks.

First, David Remnick of the New Yorker commented on the election. He said Putin really ,really didn't like Hillary Clinton. Putin always resented Bill for pushing NATO up to the Russian border, Then Hillary supported the Ukrainian Maidan that toppled the Russian-backed dictator. Remnick said Putin's aim was to destabilize the Hillary Clinton presidency. He was deeply offended by Obama referring to Russia as a regional power. But Putin didn't think Trump would win until September when he decided to hack the DNC and spring Wikileaks against Hillary.

Remnick said that John Kerry asked Obama to create a 9-11 Commission to investigate into the Russian interference in the election. But Obama felt the optics were wrong and would politicize the situation worse then it was. A question here is did Obama's refusal to create the 9-11 Commission pre-date Comey's letter about Hillary's emails.

Remnick doesn't share Rachel's skepticism or Judy Ruben's or mine about Senator Burr. John Brennan and he claim Burr will be serious.

What Rachel Maddow exposed was the connections between Putin,Commerce Secretary Ross and The Deutsche Bank. Ross is the majority owner of the Bank of Crete with two of Putin's business partners. And the deposed Deutsche Bank President became the head of the Bank of Crete after he was disgraced.

The whole point of the Deutsche Bank investigation was their role in laundering billions of dollars from Russia. 

And here is where the Fertilizer King came in. He had billions he wanted to hide from his wife in a divorce proceeding. He bought a Florida home among many other things for $110 million from Donald Trump, who owed Deutsche Bank $40 million for some Chicago real-estate. By flipping the house he wipes out the Deutsche Bank debt. Who arranged the sale of the house to the fertilizer King,Commerce Secretary Ross. 

Rachel also covered the blackmail story on Paul Manafort. Threatening emails were sent to Manafort's daughter saying if Manafor did come though the person would give the shit to the cops. That shit were the details of the $12 million off the books payment from the Ukrainian dictator--details of which were found left behind in his papers after he fled.

But Manafort was asked to arrange a meeting with Donald Trump.  The White House laughed at this saying Manafort was not working for Trump at that time. 
But Rachel asks how did Manafort become campaign manager for Trump when he had never run a a national campaign before. Then she talked about Carter Paige. She quotes a Politico article that no one in the national foreign policy world even knew who he was.  

Rachel made an excellent point. Manafort who was named in many of the conversations with the Russian spies and Carter Paige were well-known to the Russians--not Americans.

So how did these people get attached to  Trump? And what about Rex Tillerson? Trump had never met him until after the election. But Tillerson had been awarded the highest honor by Putin. So how and why did he become Secretary of State.

I think Rachel is finally focusing on the issues that matter. Meanwhile you have Josh Marshall concentrating on Trump's lawyer, Michael Cohen. 

Remnick pointed out that the Kremlin has instructed their media to hold the applause about Trump because Putin thinks he is unstable.

Rachel Maddow shows journalists have picked up their game in the Trump era.