This is not going to turn out well. For anybody. US government reporting today stated that Russian President Vladimir Putin was being purposely misled by his senior advisors because they feared the consequences of telling him the truth of just how badly his tin pot army was getting its ass kicked in Ukraine. So what else is new? This kind of toadyism goes all the way back to the Soviet Union.
But whether it’s true or not, it is a classic ratfuck. Putin is a paranoid personality, and of course he is going to hear of this, and whether it is true or not, it is going to make him want to launch another purge to ensure inner circle loyalty. But what else might it make him do? We don’t know.
I know, so what does that have to do with the price of tea in China? Here’s what. Here’s what. We have already suffered through the national nightmare of His Lowness as President. And right now, he’s still the leading candidate for the GOP to run for President in 2024. And when you look at what’s going on right now in Russia, that should scare every American citizen silly.
Because Vladimir Putin was able to launch his disastrous invasion of Ukraine simply because there was no one to act as a guardrail to stop him. In other words, nobody in his inner circle who was willing to speak truth to power. In fact, evidence seems to show that they flat out bullshitted him, telling him that the Russian invaders would be greeted with flowers as national liberators. None of which happened.
Cast your mind back to 2017. After the inauguration of Diaper Donnie, most of the country consoled themselves with the fact that there were adults in the room that would put the brakes on Trump’s worst impulses. And for almost 3 years it worked. But as the Trump presidency went on, he held a series of mini purges to try to get rid of the remaining guardrails that were constricting him. Fortunately the Democrats retoot the House in 2018, and tied him up in multiple investigations and two impeachments to keep him at bay.
But what happens if Trump wins again in 2024? He won’t make the same mistake twice. In 2016, Trump was still at least partially reliant on the RNC to govern, which meant guardrails like Reince Priebus and Rex Tillerson, as well as HR McMaster. But as Trump’s term went on, and he grew stronger and more confident, he started slyly purging the guardrails that were resisting his more base instincts. Fortunately, congress intervened.
But if Traitor Tot takes the oath of office on January 20, 2025, all bets are off. Trump now owns the GOP rock, stock, and barrel. If the GOP manages to control the Senate, he will hammer through nothing more than a total sycophant army for his cabinet, as well as faithful toadies for management positions. And Nobody. Can. Stop .Him.
This is the warning that I bring today. Just look at Vladimir Putin today, surrounded by soulless sycophants that won’t even tell him the truth in the most critical moment for Russia since 1945. And then look at a Trump presidency of 2025 or 2026, when a hot spot blows up,and Trump’s aggressive tendencies take over, with nobody to hold him in check. Vote your asses off!
You just made the argument that Garland needs to get off his ass. If not, don’t worry. Democracy will be dead. A tyrant just as evil as putin will start his vendetta. He’s already killed over a million citizens, over twice the number of soliders lost over 4 years in WW2, with those supposed adults in the room. He may nuke blue states for the fun of it. Nuclear winter? Hell on earth? Literally. Just like the hell that used to be Ukraine. Exaggeration? Funny how nice comfortable folks never believe in Hell til the doors are kicked in & the devil is standing there. Neither did the world in 1938 when Hitler was Time magazines Man Of The Year. Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men. In trump’s case, we should know by now.
So, the “polls” show the shit-gibbon leading in 2024 match-ups. My lack of concern is because he WILL be forced onto the debate stage. I know, DK is saying ‘pube pols are avoiding it but you really can’t when it’s prez primary season. Here’s the thing tho’: the damned fool broke all the standard rules of debating when he ran in 2016-do you think there won’t be others on that stage tearing his ass down like he has done in the past? This time I expect one of the contestants (yes, it’s a game show) to point out that his small hands do indeed indicate he has a teeny weeny and there is proof from the women he fucked. They will rush to point out just how incompetent he was during his four years and it’s not like there is a lack of evidence. Former guy brought an inelegant but apparently effective debating style to the forefront and I think the G.Q.P. contenders are going to jump on it. Now imagine a stage full of former guys. I’m not so sure DJT will win the ‘pube nomination given that kind of scenario. He won the previous one because he was “different” from other pols but if the other pols debate from the gutters like he did, and presumably would in 2024, then the entire field would be “different” and it might come down to his performance during his four years and that’s got to hurt him.
Of course, as a prognosticator, I make a really good cook. lol
Or how about this interpretation, Murf: knowing what brain-broken, panicky idiots we can be, Putin is saying this to psych us out to compensate for how his ability to do real harm is dying daily within the bounds of Ukraine? It’s a classic abuser’s tactic when they’ve been knocked down hard to the point of not being able to get back up. It only works if the target still assumes the present is EXACTLY like the past. Personally, I submit an asshole who gets his own troops terminally ill with radiation poisoning for no appreciable gain (as Putin has done in Chernobyl) is not at the top of his game.
Plus, there’s another danger all this Trump fixation ignores, as pointed out by Bill Palmer: it gives the next ACTUAL threat cover to not be scrutinized until it’s too late. We call ourselves the “reality-based community”. Until we do better than THIS, it’s an undeserved, unearned title.
Your statement about intentionally getting his troops sick stood out to me. Putin was a mid-level KGB officer during the Cold War. Might have advanced a bit more and maybe not. What is undisputed however is that he’s very much locked into the Cold War mentality of the regime he served in and as part of the State organ tasked with maintaining control including that of the Soviet Armed Forces. I’ve mentioned before that during my own service during that time I got “checked out” on Soviet weapons and gear, and one thing has always been seared into my mind. One part of their “kit” for NBC environments was a small, crappy cardboard box filled with white tablets. What those tablets were marked as was a prevention against radiation poisoning. What they actually WERE however were simply a medication that would mask the symptoms for a while so the Soviet soldier could keep fighting until he was too debilitated to carry on. (If he complained at first doctors/medics could simply tell him he was tired but otherwise okay)
The point is that the masters didn’t fucking care about the thousands or even hundreds of thousands of troops they’d sacrifice, memories of the losses in what they referred to (and still do) as “The Great Patriotic War” (WWII during which the USSR lost by far more than anyone else) notwithstanding. Again, that mentality is part of Putin’s DNA and he doesn’t give a fuck about individual troops or even large numbers of them and never has! So my point is that this isn’t some psych out the west tactic on his part. It’s just how he’s always thought, as in any of these troops are nothing more than pawns to keep him in power. It’s not that he’s not at the top of his game, but rather he’s acting exactly how he would have back in the old days, just like his then political masters thought and acted. Only now he is the political master of his country.