Karl Schmidt in his letter of July 20 imitates his hero Donald Trump by whining about his favorite straw man, the imaginary leftwing media. The truth is that nearly all the media is owned by large corporations. As such, they are only interested in ratings which translate into profits. Had there been a left-wing media, Trump never would have been nominated as his corruption and unstable mental condition would have become exposed much earlier.

Schmidt is a bit short on facts regarding Russian interference in the 2016 election. He needs to get out and do a little reading. I recommend “The Plot to Hack America” by Malcom Nance and “Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin’s War on America and the Election of Donald Trump” by David Corn and Michael Isikoff.

For one, Russia hasn’t been a communist country since 1989. Former KGB officer Vladimir Putin is a Russian nationalist and not our friend. The only true communists are in North Korea. Putin ordered the wide scale interference so the hawkish Hilary Clinton, whom Putin hates as much as Schmidt does, wouldn’t become president. Instead, he wanted Trump, a “useful idiot,” to be president. This was part of Putin’s larger game of getting rid of liberal democracy by financing right-wing nationalist movements in Europe.

In this country, the NRA is under FBI investigation for taking Russian money to buy pro-Trump political ads. The Internet Research Agency, the St. Petersburg source of the DNC and John Podesta email hackings, also hacked into US voter rolls in a number of states and used the data to send anti-Clinton ads to influence voters via social media. Trump’s admiration for Putin isn’t just seemingly, it’s out and out treason.

Trump has graduated to full Russian agent with his disgraceful kowtowing to Putin at the Helsinki summit. Trump has been doing his part to “Make Russia Great Again” by refusing to unequivocally admit Russian interference, failing to implement sanctions, planning on removing current sanctions, desiring Russia rejoin the G-8 by forgetting about their annexing of the Crimea, as well as Trump seeking to break up NATO by insulting allied heads of state and unilaterally imposing tariffs on our allies. Above all Trump refuses to implement procedures to prevent future election mischief.

Trump has few allies and many political enemies because the majority of the American people aren’t as racist, xenophobic or misogynistic as Trump.

Schmidt rants on about Hillary Clinton’s “crime syndicate” yet fails to come up with a single indictable offense. On the other hand, the Mueller investigation into Trump-Russia has already produced 32 indictments and five guilty pleas. Email hacking is a federal offense yet Schmidt expresses no outrage about the cyber- attack on this country by a foreign power. Of course, that’s because Trump benefited. Had the Russians helped to elect Hillary Clinton, Schmidt would be out with his torch and pitchfork demanding impeachment.

Yes, Schmidt is right about the politics issue. Like the Republican Party, he’s choosing politics over country.

JAMES PECA is a retired U.S. government analyst who lives in Farmville. Contact him at Jep315@gmail.com.