There’s a great article (subscription req’d) in The New Yorker by Adam Davidson on the Trump-Russia connection.  What it boils down to is that Trump isn’t an agent of the Russian government; he’s not slick enough unless you think his whole persona is an act.  It’s more likely that the Russians have something on him — in Russian it’s called kompromat — and that’s why he’s basically doing everything to keep them happy.

What is it?  Well, knowing Trump — or at least what we’ve seen of him — it’s probably financial as opposed to sexual.  He’s not afraid — he’s probably secretly proud — that stories have leaked, so to speak, about his sexual conquests, such as they are.  But he’s done everything he can to keep his finances secret to the point that he’s never revealed his tax returns or allowed anyone, including his legal team, to give up any information on where his money comes from.  (We already know where it goes; usually down the drain.)

What I and a lot of other people can’t figure out is who is really running this caper.  Certainly not Trump himself.  He’s not smart or deft enough to pull this off on his own; he can’t even lie well enough to get past the records of his own tweets.

So the question comes down to this: who’s really calling the shots?  Certainly not Putin himself; he spent too much time in the KGB to put himself out there.  There has to be someone high up enough to be able to know exactly what it is that they have on Trump, but invisible enough that they’re not seen or heard.  We may never know who it is.  But they’re there and they’ve got him.