What I've learned from discussing the DNC hacks with Trumpers

That Vlad Putin, Anonymous, Julian Assange, Breitbart, Judge Napolitano's tea leaves, assorted chicken entrails, the former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, William Binney, and Madam Olga's Crystal Ball are more credible intelligence sources than the CIA and FBI.

Who'da thunk it?

It would be bad enough if this was coming from the normal collection of Alt-Right cuckoos. But it actually seems to have become the Republican party line.

But I'd like to ask three questions: first, how, exactly, does Donald Trump know that Russia isn't behind the hacks?

Secondly, why is it so important to him that they not be?

And finally, has the entire Republican party lost its capacity for independent, critical thought and become part of a Trumpist hive mind?