In 1997, Putin was the PM of Russia and destined to be the 2nd President within a short period of time. This was the same year that the book called Foundations of Geopolitics was published in Russia. It is a long read - over 600 pages, but it tells the whole world about Putin's intentions as the next President of Russia. His list of goals includes (I am paraphrasing) (1) destruction of the U.S. democracy, (2) abolish Ukraine, (3) befriend France and Germany, (4) return the world order to pre-NATO time, (5) BREXIT, and (6) restore Russia to it's glory days before the collapse of the USSR. It also includes instructions on the post-communist timeframe and military exercises.
Putin is a lifelong Russian secret service agent who became President. His whole life has been dedicated to the destruction of the U.S. He blames us for the downfall of the USSR and he openly wants revenge. During the USSR timeframe, other countries were under Russia's control because they placed a man in power who was loyal to the Soviet leader - who was always a Russian. Putin has groomed Trump for decades and at some point in the 2000's Trump was compromised. He has clearly demonstrated his devotion to Russia - and if he didn't, he or a member of Trump's family would die. This is how Putin operates. Keep in mind, only a few months after Trump lost the 2020 election, Ivana Trump died due to a blunt blow to her head. While Trump did his very best to tell the world this was an accident - I strongly question her death because it resembles the same type of murders conducted by Russian KGB/FSB.
TIME 100 Edition (June 2022), was dedicated to the "most influential persons of 2021-2022." It says "Influence, of course, may be for good or for ill - a dichotomy never more visible than in this year's TIME100, which describes both Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky." President Biden described Zelensky, and Alexei Navalny described Putin. There are two quotes from Navalny in this edition of Time 100 that I would like to share with readers:
(1) "Perhaps Vladimir Putin's true mission is to teach lessons. To everyone - from world leaders and pundits to ordinary people. He has been especially good at this in 2022. He reminded us once again that a path that begins with 'just a little election rigging' always ends with a dictatorship." When I read this statement, all I could think of was former President Trump's call (which was taped) to Brad Raffensperger (R) the Secretary of State for Georgia pressuring him to 'just find 11,780 votes' in order to overturn the GA election. If this is not election rigging, I am not sure what is.
(2) Navalny goes on to say "World leaders have hypocritically talked for years about a 'pragmatic approach' and the benefits of international trade. (My thought: This is because the World and the U.S. thought that the Cold War was over and we were living in global peaceful co-existence - a huge mistake.) In so doing, they enabled themselves to benefit from Russian oil and gas while Putin's grip on (international) power grew stronger. Between sanctions and military and economic aid, this war (with Ukraine) will cost hundreds of times more than these lucrative oil and gas contracts, the signing of which used to be celebrated with champagne."
As most of you know, Alexei Navalny was the Russian foremost presidential opposition leader until Putin first poisoned him and then imprisoned him and then murdered him in an inhumane gulag in Siberia. While Navalny himself decided to return to Russia after recouping in Germany from his near-fatal poisoning, our entire global community is responsible for his death. Let's be clear and honest for a change - Putin is a ruthless, blood-thirsty dictator - often compared to Stalin who murdered over 20 million humans. Our world is not living in peaceful co-existence and little has changed over 75 years.
The United States and other democratic countries have imposed sanctions on Russia that would normally cripple any thriving nation. These sanctions have not worked and will not deter Putin. The West and especially our country naively believed that the Cold war had ended and the West had won. This was a critical and momentous mistake. I was living in Russia during this timeframe, and have been repeating since 1993 that the Cold War DID NOT END. Having lived under the oppressive orthodoxy of Communism and having witnessed numerous frightening lessons on how Soviet/Russia official egoism and bureaucracy works, I understood that sanctions on influential and wealthy Russians - the oligarchs - has NO impact on Putin - yet the sanctions continue. Of course, Biden has few options - and Putin knows this. It is all out war against Putin and Russia or it is sanctions. I doubt that Biden will wage war, at least not before the 2024 election.
In 2004, the Beslan School incident was a shock to most Russians. Briefly, Chechen rebels held more than 1,100 hostages in an attempt to convince Putin to withdraw his troops from Chechnya. Putin refused to back down and he solved this issue by bombing the school. A total of 186 Russian children died as well as hundreds of Russian adults. Because Russian families, at that time, only had one child, all Russian children were/are normally highly protected and safeguarded. A Russian named Illarionov was Putin's economic advisor at the time. Because he could not bare the thought of these children's violent deaths , Illarionov left Russia and moved to the U.S. The following is a quote from him to the American people: "One of the greatest misconceptions in the West and in the United States is the role of the so-called Oligarchs in the Russian economy and its political system. These roles are next to zero. I've heard so much through all these years about the oligarchs, about how important it is to put sanctions on them . . . (thinking this will in turn influence Putin). If you would like to make life miserable for these people, it's OK. But if you think these sanctions would make changes in the decision-making process of Mr. Putin or the Kremlin, it's wrong. It's a mistake. The political regime in Russia is not like the United States . . . it is not a democracy. .and not even an authoritarian regime. . . Right now, it is a one-man show. You can punish 145 million Russians and it will not change the decision-making process of Putin. It has been Putin's dream for decades to destroy Ukraine.. . . His goal is to not stop in Ukraine, his goal is to move into Europe.. . Ukraine is just his testing ground. . . The West may not want to be at war with Russia, but they also may have NO CHOICE." He goes on to ask the West "How long should we (the U.S. and the world) tolerate the endless spiral of deaths produced by one person?" In Ukraine, Putin has targeted non-military targets - hospitals, schools, and apartment buildings. Thousands upon thousands of innocent people have died. How long can we watch and tolerate this human carnage without our own souls crying out in pain?
We live in a country where the "rule of law" and not the "rule of one person" has governed. If Trump is re-elected, our democracy may die because this is a corrupt man who thinks only of himself. We also have half our country believing that Trump is a decent human being. They have ignored his six business bankruptcies, his 91 criminal charges, his convictions of both fraud and rape, his instigation of a violent insurrection against the legal transfer of power, and perhaps most importantly his obvious dedication to Vladimir Putin and Russia. In reality, this relationship is nothing more than subjugation of a stupid American who was caught in a typical Russian/KGB's trap. I know this process well and was subjected to the Russian "wining and dining" often. I was told that because I speak Russian, but had an American passport, that I could go into the U.S. Embassy and be useful to Russia.
The real problem our nation faces in this coming election, is the enormous number of voters who have succumbed to Trump's form of coercive mind manipulation. Brainwashing began in totalitarian countries 100 years ago, and has been widely used in dictator-led countries. Hitler converted an entire peaceful society/nation into mass murderers. He tortured and killed over 6 million people and perhaps another million died on the battle fields trying to stop him. He turned families and neighbors against each other, and he used speeches filled with repetitive lies, fear, threats and hatred. If this sounds familiar it is because Trump - a candidate for the Presidency of the United States - has used these same mass mind manipulation tools. There are ways to combat and detox brainwashed individuals - but this post is already too long.
I am very opinionated on this subject, so I apologize for the length of this message.
A lot of the problems that we have are rooted in the difference between the expectations and image that Americans have of themselves (as built and expressed in American Mythology) and how the world actually is.
In other words, what we think we are, what we see as being the thing (the nation) is a long ways away from what the Mythology tells us.
The frontier closed over a century ago. Civilization advanced. You don't usually hunt to put food on the table these days. But guns are still somehow a central part of the American Mythology... even though there are no hostile natives to fight (we keep trying to reinvent those, in justification though--in the person of criminals and illegal aliens/terrorists/drug dealers/whatever). No militia can effectively stand against a modern, professional army--if that Army wants to win. And there are no longer any chattel slaves that are going to rise in rebellion (though we try and reinvent that too through BLM).
And the stupid justification that something that was an arm of the government in time of war (militia--so there did not have to be a standing army) is somehow a bulwark against tyranny. George Washington (the only US President to take the field as CinC) summoned the militia to crush the Whiskey (anti-tax) rebellion--so if anything it was a tool of tyranny.
The closing of the frontier also closed off an important societal relief mechanism. You could no longer pack up and leave to escape the government. No more cheap or free land to claim (or steal from the natives). Just less and less space (and higher cost) as time passed.
But we have a lot of societal myths and expectations that are built around that frontier mentality.
Throw on top of that the fact that after WW2, the US largely WAS the global economy as the last major power standing undamaged. GI bill, the rise of the middle class, suburbia, the rise of consumer society and credit... these things are largely the result of an extraordinary economic situation, NOT an ordinary one.
But we still have expectations built on that, too.
The inability to separate ourselves from or actually understand our past and mythology is one of the primary reasons we are approaching destruction.
We are owned by a Blenheim who is amazingly overweight, a testament to her begging talents. We call her a miniature St. Bernard. Our dog does not pee on the kitchen appliances but she is otherwise pretty demanding and barks at us and the doggie daycare staff if we don't move fast enough. David Frum, I offer my condolences. I have a 31 year old who just completed a major adult life benchmark... he and his wife closed on their first home yesterday. They have been living with us to save for it since May, working their first true professional jobs. (My son served in the US Navy, postponing completing his college and graduate school, his wife is 24). I cannot imagine the loss of him. That experience I feel does make one question everything.
You guys are doing great with the newsletter! I would prefer the "catching up" links first or after a brief intro sentence. Some mornings it seems as though I must drink the foam at the bottom of a stranger's glass before I can have my own glass of stout, and that means many days without beer.
I just watched Frank Luntz ranting away on CNN about how Letitia James going after Trump's assets guarantees his election and makes him King Victim. And okay, he may not be wrong, but what the ever loving hell does he want....for Trump to walk away from his crimes, scot free? I am so so tired of being told that holding Trump accountable just gives him more leverage for the election.....It may well be true, but Criminey dutch.....letting him skin out of accountability and responsibility is how we got here......
Every time I hear the phrase, "They don't have the votes to Impeach", I wonder why they don't use the word which describes the actual situation. "They don't have the evidence to Impeach."
When W ran in 2000 he was living in Houston and Dick Cheney was living in and had lived on Dallas for a number of years. He paid taxes and was registered to vote in Texas.
Someyfiled suite under that section of the US Const which states that an elector can only vote for one person from his/her state. As I recall the judge ruled that the plaintiff lacked standing in that no harm had occurred YET.
This suite was not refiled after the elections as I recall
I hate to be that annoying subscriber, but a "fatwa" is a clarification or an explanation for a ruling, not the rule itself. Finally putting my Arabic to use lol. No one cares about the Mid East anymore since our terrorists are now mostly home-grown.
I know where you are coming from. My example is Colin Powell.I thought he could have been a very good president had he wanted the job.He could have very well become the first black president. But he was part of the leadup to the Iraq war. Later Powell admitted that was the lowest part of his life when he went in front of the UN warning against Hussein having nuclear weapons. Everybody have different ways of dealing with their past mistakes.Some acknowledge it.Some stay silent.Some double down. Charlie Sykes constantly acknowledge his in his Morning shots and podcasts.I think that is the biggest reason all us Bulwark readers really miss him
One thing to remember, God gave man free will..... he is right to laugh at us as we live in the dumbest times. For those of us who raised kids, sometimes you have sit back as you have told them time and time again "that's gonna hurt" and they still do it anyway. We have to CHOOSE to be a community, we have to CHOOSE to do the right thing instead of the easy things. We have to CHOOSE to believe in each other. God's will will be done in his time not ours. We have to have faith! Off my soap box now!
Elizabeth Graham
From Democracy to Democrazy
In 1997, Putin was the PM of Russia and destined to be the 2nd President within a short period of time. This was the same year that the book called Foundations of Geopolitics was published in Russia. It is a long read - over 600 pages, but it tells the whole world about Putin's intentions as the next President of Russia. His list of goals includes (I am paraphrasing) (1) destruction of the U.S. democracy, (2) abolish Ukraine, (3) befriend France and Germany, (4) return the world order to pre-NATO time, (5) BREXIT, and (6) restore Russia to it's glory days before the collapse of the USSR. It also includes instructions on the post-communist timeframe and military exercises.
Putin is a lifelong Russian secret service agent who became President. His whole life has been dedicated to the destruction of the U.S. He blames us for the downfall of the USSR and he openly wants revenge. During the USSR timeframe, other countries were under Russia's control because they placed a man in power who was loyal to the Soviet leader - who was always a Russian. Putin has groomed Trump for decades and at some point in the 2000's Trump was compromised. He has clearly demonstrated his devotion to Russia - and if he didn't, he or a member of Trump's family would die. This is how Putin operates. Keep in mind, only a few months after Trump lost the 2020 election, Ivana Trump died due to a blunt blow to her head. While Trump did his very best to tell the world this was an accident - I strongly question her death because it resembles the same type of murders conducted by Russian KGB/FSB.
TIME 100 Edition (June 2022), was dedicated to the "most influential persons of 2021-2022." It says "Influence, of course, may be for good or for ill - a dichotomy never more visible than in this year's TIME100, which describes both Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky." President Biden described Zelensky, and Alexei Navalny described Putin. There are two quotes from Navalny in this edition of Time 100 that I would like to share with readers:
(1) "Perhaps Vladimir Putin's true mission is to teach lessons. To everyone - from world leaders and pundits to ordinary people. He has been especially good at this in 2022. He reminded us once again that a path that begins with 'just a little election rigging' always ends with a dictatorship." When I read this statement, all I could think of was former President Trump's call (which was taped) to Brad Raffensperger (R) the Secretary of State for Georgia pressuring him to 'just find 11,780 votes' in order to overturn the GA election. If this is not election rigging, I am not sure what is.
(2) Navalny goes on to say "World leaders have hypocritically talked for years about a 'pragmatic approach' and the benefits of international trade. (My thought: This is because the World and the U.S. thought that the Cold War was over and we were living in global peaceful co-existence - a huge mistake.) In so doing, they enabled themselves to benefit from Russian oil and gas while Putin's grip on (international) power grew stronger. Between sanctions and military and economic aid, this war (with Ukraine) will cost hundreds of times more than these lucrative oil and gas contracts, the signing of which used to be celebrated with champagne."
As most of you know, Alexei Navalny was the Russian foremost presidential opposition leader until Putin first poisoned him and then imprisoned him and then murdered him in an inhumane gulag in Siberia. While Navalny himself decided to return to Russia after recouping in Germany from his near-fatal poisoning, our entire global community is responsible for his death. Let's be clear and honest for a change - Putin is a ruthless, blood-thirsty dictator - often compared to Stalin who murdered over 20 million humans. Our world is not living in peaceful co-existence and little has changed over 75 years.
The United States and other democratic countries have imposed sanctions on Russia that would normally cripple any thriving nation. These sanctions have not worked and will not deter Putin. The West and especially our country naively believed that the Cold war had ended and the West had won. This was a critical and momentous mistake. I was living in Russia during this timeframe, and have been repeating since 1993 that the Cold War DID NOT END. Having lived under the oppressive orthodoxy of Communism and having witnessed numerous frightening lessons on how Soviet/Russia official egoism and bureaucracy works, I understood that sanctions on influential and wealthy Russians - the oligarchs - has NO impact on Putin - yet the sanctions continue. Of course, Biden has few options - and Putin knows this. It is all out war against Putin and Russia or it is sanctions. I doubt that Biden will wage war, at least not before the 2024 election.
In 2004, the Beslan School incident was a shock to most Russians. Briefly, Chechen rebels held more than 1,100 hostages in an attempt to convince Putin to withdraw his troops from Chechnya. Putin refused to back down and he solved this issue by bombing the school. A total of 186 Russian children died as well as hundreds of Russian adults. Because Russian families, at that time, only had one child, all Russian children were/are normally highly protected and safeguarded. A Russian named Illarionov was Putin's economic advisor at the time. Because he could not bare the thought of these children's violent deaths , Illarionov left Russia and moved to the U.S. The following is a quote from him to the American people: "One of the greatest misconceptions in the West and in the United States is the role of the so-called Oligarchs in the Russian economy and its political system. These roles are next to zero. I've heard so much through all these years about the oligarchs, about how important it is to put sanctions on them . . . (thinking this will in turn influence Putin). If you would like to make life miserable for these people, it's OK. But if you think these sanctions would make changes in the decision-making process of Mr. Putin or the Kremlin, it's wrong. It's a mistake. The political regime in Russia is not like the United States . . . it is not a democracy. .and not even an authoritarian regime. . . Right now, it is a one-man show. You can punish 145 million Russians and it will not change the decision-making process of Putin. It has been Putin's dream for decades to destroy Ukraine.. . . His goal is to not stop in Ukraine, his goal is to move into Europe.. . Ukraine is just his testing ground. . . The West may not want to be at war with Russia, but they also may have NO CHOICE." He goes on to ask the West "How long should we (the U.S. and the world) tolerate the endless spiral of deaths produced by one person?" In Ukraine, Putin has targeted non-military targets - hospitals, schools, and apartment buildings. Thousands upon thousands of innocent people have died. How long can we watch and tolerate this human carnage without our own souls crying out in pain?
We live in a country where the "rule of law" and not the "rule of one person" has governed. If Trump is re-elected, our democracy may die because this is a corrupt man who thinks only of himself. We also have half our country believing that Trump is a decent human being. They have ignored his six business bankruptcies, his 91 criminal charges, his convictions of both fraud and rape, his instigation of a violent insurrection against the legal transfer of power, and perhaps most importantly his obvious dedication to Vladimir Putin and Russia. In reality, this relationship is nothing more than subjugation of a stupid American who was caught in a typical Russian/KGB's trap. I know this process well and was subjected to the Russian "wining and dining" often. I was told that because I speak Russian, but had an American passport, that I could go into the U.S. Embassy and be useful to Russia.
The real problem our nation faces in this coming election, is the enormous number of voters who have succumbed to Trump's form of coercive mind manipulation. Brainwashing began in totalitarian countries 100 years ago, and has been widely used in dictator-led countries. Hitler converted an entire peaceful society/nation into mass murderers. He tortured and killed over 6 million people and perhaps another million died on the battle fields trying to stop him. He turned families and neighbors against each other, and he used speeches filled with repetitive lies, fear, threats and hatred. If this sounds familiar it is because Trump - a candidate for the Presidency of the United States - has used these same mass mind manipulation tools. There are ways to combat and detox brainwashed individuals - but this post is already too long.
I am very opinionated on this subject, so I apologize for the length of this message.
Elizabeth
A lot of the problems that we have are rooted in the difference between the expectations and image that Americans have of themselves (as built and expressed in American Mythology) and how the world actually is.
In other words, what we think we are, what we see as being the thing (the nation) is a long ways away from what the Mythology tells us.
The frontier closed over a century ago. Civilization advanced. You don't usually hunt to put food on the table these days. But guns are still somehow a central part of the American Mythology... even though there are no hostile natives to fight (we keep trying to reinvent those, in justification though--in the person of criminals and illegal aliens/terrorists/drug dealers/whatever). No militia can effectively stand against a modern, professional army--if that Army wants to win. And there are no longer any chattel slaves that are going to rise in rebellion (though we try and reinvent that too through BLM).
And the stupid justification that something that was an arm of the government in time of war (militia--so there did not have to be a standing army) is somehow a bulwark against tyranny. George Washington (the only US President to take the field as CinC) summoned the militia to crush the Whiskey (anti-tax) rebellion--so if anything it was a tool of tyranny.
The closing of the frontier also closed off an important societal relief mechanism. You could no longer pack up and leave to escape the government. No more cheap or free land to claim (or steal from the natives). Just less and less space (and higher cost) as time passed.
But we have a lot of societal myths and expectations that are built around that frontier mentality.
Throw on top of that the fact that after WW2, the US largely WAS the global economy as the last major power standing undamaged. GI bill, the rise of the middle class, suburbia, the rise of consumer society and credit... these things are largely the result of an extraordinary economic situation, NOT an ordinary one.
But we still have expectations built on that, too.
The inability to separate ourselves from or actually understand our past and mythology is one of the primary reasons we are approaching destruction.
We are owned by a Blenheim who is amazingly overweight, a testament to her begging talents. We call her a miniature St. Bernard. Our dog does not pee on the kitchen appliances but she is otherwise pretty demanding and barks at us and the doggie daycare staff if we don't move fast enough. David Frum, I offer my condolences. I have a 31 year old who just completed a major adult life benchmark... he and his wife closed on their first home yesterday. They have been living with us to save for it since May, working their first true professional jobs. (My son served in the US Navy, postponing completing his college and graduate school, his wife is 24). I cannot imagine the loss of him. That experience I feel does make one question everything.
"Normies"? Despite your conflation of Spies' clients, DeSantis was an obvious stepping stone from traditional Republicans to Trumpist extremism.
"...a bald misrepresentation."
Lot's of that going around for the past eight years.
You guys are doing great with the newsletter! I would prefer the "catching up" links first or after a brief intro sentence. Some mornings it seems as though I must drink the foam at the bottom of a stranger's glass before I can have my own glass of stout, and that means many days without beer.
Yes, I know I am ridiculous and should piss off.
Like everything else The Loser touches, he'll get around to rebranding it the TNC, "Trump National Committee". ... for the glory of God, er, Trump.
I just watched Frank Luntz ranting away on CNN about how Letitia James going after Trump's assets guarantees his election and makes him King Victim. And okay, he may not be wrong, but what the ever loving hell does he want....for Trump to walk away from his crimes, scot free? I am so so tired of being told that holding Trump accountable just gives him more leverage for the election.....It may well be true, but Criminey dutch.....letting him skin out of accountability and responsibility is how we got here......
Every time I hear the phrase, "They don't have the votes to Impeach", I wonder why they don't use the word which describes the actual situation. "They don't have the evidence to Impeach."
When W ran in 2000 he was living in Houston and Dick Cheney was living in and had lived on Dallas for a number of years. He paid taxes and was registered to vote in Texas.
Someyfiled suite under that section of the US Const which states that an elector can only vote for one person from his/her state. As I recall the judge ruled that the plaintiff lacked standing in that no harm had occurred YET.
This suite was not refiled after the elections as I recall
I hate to be that annoying subscriber, but a "fatwa" is a clarification or an explanation for a ruling, not the rule itself. Finally putting my Arabic to use lol. No one cares about the Mid East anymore since our terrorists are now mostly home-grown.
I know where you are coming from. My example is Colin Powell.I thought he could have been a very good president had he wanted the job.He could have very well become the first black president. But he was part of the leadup to the Iraq war. Later Powell admitted that was the lowest part of his life when he went in front of the UN warning against Hussein having nuclear weapons. Everybody have different ways of dealing with their past mistakes.Some acknowledge it.Some stay silent.Some double down. Charlie Sykes constantly acknowledge his in his Morning shots and podcasts.I think that is the biggest reason all us Bulwark readers really miss him
Bush and Cheney were both from Texas
One thing to remember, God gave man free will..... he is right to laugh at us as we live in the dumbest times. For those of us who raised kids, sometimes you have sit back as you have told them time and time again "that's gonna hurt" and they still do it anyway. We have to CHOOSE to be a community, we have to CHOOSE to do the right thing instead of the easy things. We have to CHOOSE to believe in each other. God's will will be done in his time not ours. We have to have faith! Off my soap box now!
Is Comer a secret Biden stan playing 6th dimensional by getting the absolutley worst impeachment witness testimony ever?
Thank you for Ringo.