The murky world of spies has been around for a long time. In the past men and women have been recruited to become spies for a foreign power. These countries want information about the internal goings on in the recruit’s home country. Money is the normal inducement to betray ones country. On occasion there have been men who have been willing to become spies because of a belief in a cause that has led to their willingness to sell secrets or to become what is known as a mole for a foreign power. Belief in an ideology no matter how misguided that ideology might have been was a motivating factor.

Great Britain had a problem, a huge problem with 5 individuals who became spies for the Soviet Union. Those individuals were known as the Cambridge 5. These men were Kim Philby, Guy Burgess, Donald MacClean, Anthony Blunt and John Cairncross. Four of these men were left leaning students at Cambridge University who were recruited by Anthony Blunt to pass secrets on to the Soviet Union during the Cold War. It might have been that Burgess and Blunt actually recruited each other, but regarding the others, Blunt was a talent spotter who through his connections at Trinity College, Cambridge sought out the others to be spies for the Soviet Union.

History is replete with stories of men and women who passed on secrets for money, or by the use of ones sexual proclivities and sexual secrets have been the source of using sex as a source of leverage to turn a person into becoming a spy.

Let us turn the clock forward to today’s world, circa 2010 and onward. We have a new highly explosive story developing of a betrayal of the United States by men who have apparently become willing to become the tools of the Russian oligarchs and Putin in particular. Their motivation seems to be purely the financial rewards that this type of relationship might bring them. If there are any other reasons for these individuals to betray their country, these possible reasons are unknown at this time.

Thus far we do know that the FBI is conducting an intensive investigation into the Russian influence and efforts to subvert our election process, and what possible linkage there might be between the campaign to elect Donald Trump and any possible collusion there might have been between the two campaigns. Other potential problems for the Trump administration are the possible business connections there might have been between the Trump people and the Russian government. What quid pro quo actions could be involved? Is it just about improving how much money President Trump can make? What does Russia want in return? What kind of leverage might Putin have over Trump and what type of blackmail is possible in the future? What could possibly go wrong?

The Russian government has for years attempted to meddle in our elections. This past election the effort to sway and influence our election process has reached new levels where we have seen cyber attacks and other actions.

Russian is known to meddle in other elections, in Europe for example. They even favor specific candidates. What do the Russians expect from these most favored candidates is anyone’s guess, but of this we can be certain, the world has passed sanctions against Russia as a result of their aggression in countries such as the Crimea and the Ukraine. One can expect that at a very minimum Putin will want to get rid of the sanctions.

The cast of characters who may have a Russian involvement grows each day. General Flynn, Paul Manafort, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, Carter Page, Trump’s son in law, Kushner, are individuals whose Russian connections are being investigated.

What most troubles me is the lack of morality that these men have shown. The love of ones country should be so strong as to make the type of action that has occurred be unlikely. But instead of patriotism, these men have shown a callous disregard for what is in the best interest of the United States. They are quite frankly traitors. They have betrayed their country. Money, the promise of a lot of money,  has undoubtedly been the cause of their betrayal.

Back in the day, we have had our own traitors from Benedict Arnold to modern day traitors, who turned their backs on America for the interests of Communism. At least Communism is an idea, that for a few Americans had an attraction a reason to pass on secrets. Aldrich Ames was such a person who was a mole in our CIA.

Turning your back on your own country for money is disgusting. Don’t be fooled by the nonsensical reason that these guys were trying to improve the relationship between our two countries. It is all about the money and nothing more. It is like Judas betraying Christ for 30 pieces of silver.

Let us take Carter Page for example. Corey Lewandowski introduced Carter Page to Donald Trump. Carter Page used to work for Merrill Lynch. Page has lived in Moscow for 3 years. He has had meetings with a former KGB agent who is now the CEO of one of Russia’s energy giants. Use your imagination what could possibly go wrong knowing this as far as what is best for American interests.

General Flynn must have decided to better his retirement income chances by selling his soul in order to work for foreign governments while seeking and getting a key position with the Trump administration where he would have known our innermost secrets. Flynn is a man that Trump would like to bring back into his administration.

Our very own Attorney General, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions has shown to have a particularly poor memory for a person responsible for legal matters. He denies meeting Russians at the Mayflower Hotel. We even have pictures of him talking to them.

In this amazingly complicated mess we find ourselves in we need to diagram who are the players and the possible connections. On you scorecard you need to have who has had meetings with Kislyak the Russian Ambassador to the United States, you need to have Putin on your scorecard as to who has had dealings with him and above all we need to follow the money and see what has occurred between Trump’s businesses and Russian businesses.

It is all more than disappointing and frankly disgusting to be finding out what people are willing to do for money. The art of the deal becomes meaningless if in the process you have sold your country out for 30 pieces of silver.