This is Putin’s Playbook

Years ago, well before Trump came on the political scene, I read an article about Putin. It described how he ruthlessly tortured, kidnapped and killed anyone he saw as his enemy. He bribed, imprisoned and murdered the oligarchs to extort their money. Anyone who showed any sign of decent, decrying his heinous acts of violence - journalists, activists, educators and others - were imprisoned or killed. A press release from the UN Human Rights Office documented that even doctors and medical personnel under Putin’s control have participated in abuses, subjecting detainees to starvation, electric shocks, rape, and sexual violence.

Mariana Katzarova, Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Russian Federation, reported that “justice inside Russia is unattainable,” underscoring the severity of the crisis as the state works to “crush civic space, silence the media, dismantle the legal profession, eliminate political opposition, suppress culture, and distort historical truth,” according to reporting by Agence France-Presse. Sound familiar? Trump has been enacting these same tactics to destroy Democracy in his first term and, especially, the last year.

This article, years ago, sent chills down my spine. I was so disturbed by it that I mentioned it to a couple of colleagues who had a similar reaction. That’s when I started paying attention to anything related to Putin.

Trump has had a decades’ long relationship with Putin and Russia. His ties to Russia go back to 1987. Trump has been following Putin’s playbook to a tee. First term, plain clothed Homeland Security agents kidnapped protesters. He had Homeland Security pepper spray citizens for peacefully exercising their First Amendment Right, so he could get a picture of himself on church steps holding a bible upside down. He lied about how peaceful the BLM movement was: over 95% peaceful with many of the criminal incidents that occurred being instigated by MAGAs. He lied and lied and lied. Trump then attempted to overthrow our government by agitating an angry mob who attacked the Capitol J6.

This is Putin’s playbook.

All of it, right down to the purposeful disinformation campaigns. Russia is, by and large, isolated having lost allies. Trump is isolating the US, turning on our allies.

Russians are starving and their children are drafted into a war for a homicidal maniac who only cares for two things: power and greed. On that, he and Trump are one and the same. Thus far, over 1 million Russians have died in their war with Ukraine; they have captured only a small sliver of Ukraine as Ukrainian soldiers now strike inside Russia, targeting infrastructure.

In Russia, citizens cannot speak out. That is Trump’s goal and why ICE is being given all this power – not to detain criminals but to terrorize and brutalize people of color and progressive activism – those he deems the “enemy of the state”. Billions of OUR taxpayer dollars. Trump has threatened to execute Slotkin, Kelly and others for simply reminding soldiers to honor their oath. Now, Trump is creating a list of those he calls domestic terrorists and I’ll be on it, eventually, if we keep going down this path. So will many of you.

Trump, the Heritage Foundation, and Palantir are creating a surveillance state to monitor every single one of us. Never forget, even those in his closest orbit have not been spared. He does not care.

This is Putin’s playbook.

Trump has turned his back on every one of our allies while rolling out the red carpet for Putin. He is destroying our economy, trashing treaties, threatening to take over other nations, and kidnapping other leaders, all while enriching himself and the pedophile class he works with.

AND Trump and the Republicans, with the exception of Representative Thomas Massey, are covering up the world’s largest child sex trafficking ring and is, right now, in contempt of court. FBI has been scrubbing his name from the files and Trump has said, on tape, it’ll hurt a lot of his friends.

China is making deals with the countries Trump has abused to the point that they are all uniting against us. China is growing stronger as our job market crashes and our farms go bankrupt. He has taken over Venezuela.

Everything he’s doing makes sense if you understand that Trump is not working for us. He has his mission and it’s not to serve this country. It’s to destroy it.

So, when I say he doesn’t care about anyone, look hard at the proof. There’s plenty. The only thing Trump cares about is power and money.

I think a lot of us are pondering what we’d be willing to sacrifice for our children’s and grandchildren’s futures. What would you give to secure their freedom? And if not, maybe you ought to hug those loved ones tight and take some time do that.