A Russian opponent to Putin has just died in prison. Most of the world believes that he was killed to remove any opposition to Putin in the upcoming election. We have watched Russia go from a complete dictatorship under Stalin to a more democratic society. The Church was allowed to function, and elections were held but after Putin's election he has managed to use his prior KGB connections to power his way past the rule of law and change the law to benefit him like allowing multiple terms in office. Once again, we are looking at a czarist Russia with little or no way to remove him other than assassination. Navalny's opposition to Putin was met with arrest on charges that were drummed up to remove him from the political arena. Later he was declared ineligible to be on a ballot and later put back in jail. When he was released from jail he left he country only to return and be immediately arrested again. There has never been a trial and conviction but just removed from the political opposition to Putin. His popularity has remained high though which is why he was probably murdered by Putin. The justice system in Russia is owned by the ruling party that will do anything including murder to stay in power.
Russia or the old, USSR, has been an enemy of the US since the end of WWII. It has been at varying degrees with high alert during the Cuban Missile Crisis to a lower point when the Berlin Wall was removed. Lately the degree of angst between the countries has once again risen to alarming levels with the Russians willing to break arms treaties that have helped to keep the world safe from nuclear war. With the Ukraine war it has moved to the top or near to the threat of war again and with Russia and now China we are or should be on high alert at all times, but we have a greater threat to our democracy within our own country. I would like to point out some parallels between the political actions in the US with those we have seen in Russia in the past few years.
It started with election of Obama which we were happy about because we had just jumped a big hurdle relevant to the racist country we had been accused of. I did not vote for Obama but was happy that he was elected by white people and showed that we were more Christian than the world thought. The values that we as a country were always based on the Judeo-Christian ethic and I expected that to continue. Many of the values that we cherished were thrown out of the window. We funded another enemy to us and to Israel when gave Iran billions of dollars and removed many of the sanctions against them. Iran proceeded to use the money to buy and build weapons to use against Israel and procure an atomic bomb which they are close to having. Abortion became the law of the land although there was nothing in the Constitution about the Federal Government telling the states who they could kill or not. The death penalty had always been the right of the states to determine. Suddenly the same-sex marriage was approved by the president. At this time there was a decrease in Church attendance and the Judeo-Christian ethic seem to disappear. After 2 terms the country had been fundamentally changed which is what Obama ran on. When George W. Bush ran, we started to see the coming together of the democratic party to attack in a more vicious way with the media in their pocket. Name calling and demeaning Bush was a constant barrage from the news media and it never stopped after he was elected. The republican congress was divided and while it exasperated many it was good to see congressmen vote their own ideas rather than the party line. The democrats did the opposite and started voting as a bloc. It was like watching lemmings run over the cliff. The old thoughts of individuals voting their conscience or the way they had promised their electorate vanished and the congressional party leader controlled all of the votes. It was not the first time that this had happened, and both parties have followed this pattern for short periods of time but not for years on end and not with the help of the news media who seem to have forgotten what truth and facts are. Shame on our journalism schools.
Here comes Trump and starts to play the democrats' game of name calling and demeaning opponents. The New York born and raised Trump sounded the same as the young men that I went to college with that were from New York City. The rest of the nation apparently hadn't met many New Yorkers and were appalled by his actions against his opponents. He told the truth about the border and the areas and countries that we could be worried about. A full out assault against him was started and we found out later that his opponent and the democratic party schemed to make up charges against him with a dossier that was fabricated. While his term of office was very successful, he was hindered daily by the democratic owned media and justice system. The assault did not stop even after his defeat in the next election which is still questionable but continued using the justice system much the same as Putin has done against his opponents. Try to put him in jail and bankrupt him to prevent him from running again. It isn't enough to allow the voters to decide the election but just remove him from contention. I have wondered if the thought of Trump being another Epstein in prison hasn't crossed the minds of those so devout in their attacks on him. Laws have been combined, changed and misused to indict him. He has been denied attorney-client privilege that we all are supposed to have and old cases that are out of date have been renewed to get at him. Trump has become our Navalny, and we should be ashamed of ourselves.
When I started to think about these comparisons it scared me because all of the autocracies have started this way. One leader is in position to name many of the justice system personnel and then power and greed take hold of the elected officials.With the justice system on their side it is easy to bribe the media to become the lemmings. These last few years it has been difficult for me to hear a congressman or woman talk about the things they wish to do and then follow the party line when voting. Very few have had the mustard to stray, and the media goes after them immediately. Facts and values have disappeared, and our system of government is going with them. If you read this, please, look at the comparisons that I he drawn and make up your own minds regardless of your political bias. We need all the help we can get.
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