Another shoe dropped over the weekend in the saga of Donald Trump’s unsettling ties to Vladimir Putin and his oligarchs. We knew that not only is Trump a Putin toady but two of his top advisers, campaign chairman and reputed and alleged Russian mob fixer Paul Manafort and Russia policy advisor Carter Page had suckled long and deep at the teat of Russian bank accounts. In fact, there is precious little evidence to indicate the are no still on the Kremlin payroll… and when you look at the direction the GOP platform took in regards to Ukraine and Trump’s NATO statements, there is a lot of evidence to indicate they are still cashing checks.

Now we find that Trump’s military policy advisor, retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn took money from a Russian source to speak in Russia. This isn’t criminal, per se, or indicative of General Flynn being a bought Russian Federation asset. But, when you combine this with Flynn’s appearances on the Kremlin English language propaganda organ, RT, and his sitting with Putin at the head table at the RT gala, it certainly gives one the same level of queasiness that one gets when looking at the relationship Manafort and Page have with Russia. It is too close by half.

Green Party candidate, Jill Stein, also was at the same RT gala as General Flynn, and she flew there, allegedly, at Russian expense. While there she attacked US foreign policy and the American record on human rights and praised Russia’s. In fact, her comments drew favorable commentary from, guess who, Vladimir Putin. This from Stein’s own website:

Stein attended a dinner Thursday night, sitting at the table with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “While the objective of that dinner was not to engage in serious discussions, Putin did appear to respond in his formal remarks to the call for greater dialogue and collaboration made by myself and three other political figures on the foreign policy panel earlier that day.

Putin noted, “What I would like to say, something really unexpected, when I was watching this material. When I was listening to your comments, politicians from other countries, you know what I caught myself thinking about? I agree with them, on many issues.”

And, of course, we have Hillary Clinton’s own nebulous and disturbing ties to Russia. While she was secretary of state she provided the Kremlin with increased access to US technology and allowed a Russian company to essentially buy the rights to the uranium mined in America. All the while the Russians showered tens of millions of dollars on the Clinton Foundation and the Clinton household and employed Clinton cronies.

As incredible as it seems, the United States is now in the position of having three of its four presidential candidates thoroughly compromised by Russia. This is the stuff of a Cold War spy novel.