Putin’s Russia…
The case against Russia is growing. It’s now clear that they interfered in the 2016 election. Pursuing the possible collusion from Mr.Trump or his campaign staff and supporters, whether true of not, is detracting and liable to embolden Mr. Putin and his “patriotic” hackers to do it again in 2018 and 2020. They did it in France too. Not quite cyber warfare, it still distorts the democratic process. That’s Putin’s goal. He has no use for democracy.
Putin is a despot. His only positive quality, if it can be called that, is to remove the veneer that covered the Soviet mobsters in ideology. The latter and so-called “communist leaders” even today (Cuba and Venezuela are prime examples) have shown Communism to be a defunct ideology that exploits workers and champions human rights violations, including murder and torture. Removing that veneer has only exposed us all to the reality of Putin and his cronies, all despots who still run Russia like the mafia thugs they are.
Recent protests in Russia show that all is not well in the “worker’s paradise” that never was a paradise. Putin tries to maintain Russia’s image as a democracy, but the arrest of many protesters shows that he allows no opposition in Russia. Why is that different than Stalin and the mafia thugs who followed him?
This has been going on for quite a while. When you protest too much in Russia, you have to flee for your life—or be killed. Even if you emigrate abroad, the long arm of the SVR can reach out and kill you. Putin learned to employ murder in the KGB and he still does it. Members of the opposition, reporters, and other have been killed. Have you ever heard of one arrest being made in these cases?
Dictators maintain their power through violence and fear. Stalin exterminated his opposition in all the countries that came inside the Iron Curtain after WWII. He established a tradition that Putin willingly follows. I shudder to think how many were “disappeared” in the part of Ukraine he stole. His puppets in Chechnya and other former Soviet satellites propagate his murdering ways. He backs the brutal dictator Assad in Syria. If you ever want an example of evil in the world, you have it in Putin.
One of the things (there are many, of course) about Mr. Trump that jarred me the most was his cozying up to Russia during the campaign. Of course, our president seems to have a habit of doing that—supporting the despotic Saudi Arabia is another example. But Russia’s flirting with democracy was short-lived because of Putin. No American leader has any business cozying up with Putin. That’s a bipartisan statement we should all reaffirm, and we should hold our leaders’ feet to the fire if they try such a thing.
Collusion with the Russians? I don’t need that to find Mr. Trump’s love affair with Russia seem like a travesty that is threatening to our democracy. Trump should be leading the charge to safeguard our electoral process. Why isn’t he?
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Rembrandt’s Angel. To what lengths would you go to recover a stolen masterpiece? Scotland Yard’s Arts and Antiques Inspector Esther Brookstone goes the extra mile. She and paramour/sidekick Bastiann van Coevorden, an Interpol agent, set out to outwit the dealers of stolen art and recover “An Angel with Titus’ Features,” a Rembrandt painting stolen by the Nazis in World War Two. Their efforts lead to much more, as they uncover an international conspiracy that threatens Europe. During their dangerous adventures, their relationship solidifies and becomes a full-blown romance. Published by Penmore Press, this novel is available in ebook format at Amazon, Smashwords, Kobo, B&N, and Apple, and in print through Amazon or your local bookstore (if they don’t have it, ask them to order it). Great summer reading!
And so it goes…
