Secrecy, a dance for one.
Accountability is peeking through the blinds.
Kolton Krouse. Photo by Jayme Thornton.
If you’re watching the Trump stuff and the weekend of upheaval in Russia, some parallels emerge. Putin and Trump are both boxed in with no clear path out of two different and similar situations. Both speak but can we depend on their messages as true?
The weekend in Russia began with clearing the streets and asking citizens to stay indoors. Prigozhin took his Wagner troops from Ukraine to their Russian staging grounds first, with no resistance. As he approached Moscow in a move appearing to be taking the city by force, again with no military planes, no helicopters or ground troops interfering. Magically the military stood down 200 km away, with an agreement to leave for Belarus. Troops to be disbanded or absorbed into Russian troops. Putin made that initial statement Saturday with a follow up on a stronger message today that boils down to move along, nothing to see here, war on Ukraine is ongoing, fine, I’m fine, angry butt FINE.
Sure.
Pundits are reading tea leaves wondering what is what and who will be served the tea by Putin for delivering cracks in his power visible from that 30,000 feet people like to talk about. Also visible from that loft is Trump being trailed with court dates and numbers of witnesses being leaked. The need for clearances so his own lawyers can gasp at the moribund criminality of their client and shriek if not tremble at his depravity is part of why the December 11, 2023 date is now in place. Jack Smith’s special counsel is bearing down on citizen Trump with the entirety of the weight of the DOJ, Lady Liberty and yours truly. You in? To be sure it’s a scary proposition to be Donald Dobbs Trump today. (New name for Former as he as earned the acknowledgement of Dobbs reversal of abortion rights one year ago as his thing. My how time flies. If not for him, we would still have the protections of Roe V. Wade.)
Wm. Barr, Judge Luttig, Chris Christie, are some of the heavyweight voices that are waving red flags to MAGA Republicans to stand down, stand away from the orange trickster in 2024. The appeals are strong echoing the chorus heard from the left for many years. Yes, many. Two is a couple. Three is a few. Four is, several. Five through some more is a bunch. Since 2015 campaign is 8. So, yeah, many years now. After allowing for two impeachments without a Republican worry for our collective future, now the hand wringing appears. Bitter, …, better later than never is a pillow to be embroidered by not me but may be useful words to work with.
Trump’s awful behavior surrounding his taking of secret documents and then keeping the materials despite being asked for them multiple times. The lies, but worse for him and us all is secrecy of what really happened. He took the docs, its fair to say since he doesn’t deny it at all, but what happened to them between the White House and Florida and New Jersey? In boxes, with unders, boxes moved, a stupid shell game to deny access and keep secrecy intact.
The democratic system and its laws are all working to deny the secrecy Trump seeks. The secrecy he seeks also surrounds the system called government in Russia a country appearing to be a multi headed crime enterprise based on petroleum products with reigns held closely by V. Putin. It appears the cloak that surrounds Putin and his mobsters who control the country and military invasion of Ukraine isn't simple to emulate as super hero cards or even a vodka brand. It’s the cloak that Trump is trying to wrap himself in. Best and open demonstration of this point is when Zelenskyy met with Trump in their 2019 oval office meeting. The Ukrainian president knew just exactly who and what he was looking at. Trump could feel it, responding like the hideous child he is.
Outlook for both Donald Dobbs Trump and Volodymyr Putin seem hazy but nevertheless poor.
Trump’s deadlines for court hearings leave little room for siphoning donations for anything fun instead having to keep paying the lawyers. No law is holding Putin accountable except the inevitable laws of the jungle, a far harsher wind than that of the lady holding the scales. Ask Prigozhin.
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