The Russian Parliament has passed, and Putin has signed, a new law that prohibits dissemination of any information that “exhibits blatant disrespect for the society, government, official government symbols, constitution or governmental bodies of Russia.”
In the case of such items on the internet, the Russian prosecutor will have the power to immediately block the offending communication before criminal proceedings are pursued. So the censorship will be much more efficient without the need for court review.
This is the most blatant censorship legislation on offer today. Even before this legislation was signed into law, the authorities have unofficially punished anyone who has made offending statements anyway. But the law makes it much easier to justify doing so in public.
Those who think that we can be friends with the Russian government should think twice. The opposition to the Russian government has been rendered completely voiceless with this law. There is no way to have an honest relationship with a government that muzzles its people. No-one can believe their denials of malign activity.
This quote comes from her column about *him getting more irrational and the Republican’s excuses for him getting more and more lame.
Here is the whole paragraph, with apologies for the use of the word, “Drumpf”:
There is no moral or intellectual reason that will persuade them. There is no respectful conversation to be had with people who argue in bad faith. The only solution is to defeat Trump and his party so thoroughly that Trumpism is permanently discredited. A party that continues to defend this president is simply beyond redemption.
Ms. Rubin was a well-known conservative columnist before what’s-his-name got elected emperor-in-his-mind; since the election, she has become obsessed with just how awful *he really is.
Here is what Bill “Slightly Dangerous” Kristol said on Titwer:
To Republicans who’ve been inclined to acquiesce in a Trump re-nomination in 2020: Read his tweets this morning. Think seriously about his mental condition and psychological state. Then tell me you’re fine with him as president of the United States for an additional four years. –6:56 AM Mar 17, 2019
Laymen and even non-psychiatric physicians might think that the best way to evaluate a person’s mental health would be through a personal interview with the patient himself or herself. That would be true in the case of a physical illness, but unfortunately, due to the very nature of a psychiatric illness, personal interviews are fraught with misperceptions and even personal risk.
Here is a quote from an article in Salon by Chauncey DeVega:
“The best way to evaluate a person’s mental health is not through a personal interview or self-assessment. Instead it is through speaking with friends, family members and other close colleagues that mental health professionals are best able to assess a given person’s mental health.”
Chauncey alleges that Michael Cohen should fear for his personal safety based on *His mental aberrations and behavior.
In the Salon article, Chauncey interviews Dr. Justin Frank, a psychiatrist with more than 40 years of experience; Dr. Frank has written books on the psychology of President Bush, President Obama, and most recently, President *He who must not be named.
Dr. Frank described Michael Cohen’s public testimony before the House as highly believable, entirely within *His character– so there’s no shocking revelations about Cohen or the *president, it’s all exactly as we would expect.
He who must not be named made a speech at the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) annual convention recently. It was long, for him; two hours and ten minutes. It was wide-ranging, covering many topics and returning to many of his favorite themes. “It was also a delusional, nightmarish monologue, full of lies and violent images, manifestly the work of someone who lives in his own reality.” Not to repeat any of his claims here is a mercy to my readers. To conclude, however, what he said makes clear that he is disconnected from objective reality.
(cartoon courtesy of pixabay.com and Conmongt)
According to an article in this month’s Forbes magazine, He to whom all money flows has a 30% (minority) ownership interest in two commercial properties, 2.1 million square feet of office space, part in San Francisco and part in central New York, 1290 Avenue of the Americas. He is quoted in the article as saying he received a check for $125 million for his ownership interest (possibly in 2015). He has no control over the buildings, and they have undergone extensive renovation in recent years in successful effort to get higher-paying tenants. However, buildings with the actual name of he who must not be named on them have done considerably less well, and have declined in value the last two years.
The nature of these treasure-stores of rent is that he need not do anything at all to receive the money annually, just sign the deposit slips at his bank. In fact, these properties are most of his wealth, being overwhelmingly larger than his golf courses or other brands. Apparently he was forced by poor business decisions to give up majority control over real estate, meaning he would get a big check but have no control over the property.
A number of large developments with the family name of he who must not be named have successfully gone to court in the last two years to have the name removed from their facades– partly due to poor publicity, and partly due to poor behavior.
It is likely that, in order to gain control over him, the Russians would have needed to shift hundreds of millions of dollars his way. One way of doing this, apparently, was to purchase apartments in his developments for inflated prices, say $5 million for a single apartment. On the other hand, large real estate assets, like a 50 acre country estate, could go for nearer a hundred million dollars– and the price could be easily inflated to two hundred million without raising suspicion.
(the title is a quote from a New York Times article, March 9, 2019, on Democratic positions in a time of resurgence– and how moderates are afraid the radicals will give away the party.) What we need is a central figure to rally around as Democrats, somebody who is more popular generally than he who must not be named. Moderates are terrified of being forced into radical positions, or having a radical candidate who will be “too far left.”
(cartoon courtesy of pixabay.com)
(image stolen from fox news)
An old New Yorker article published during the presidential election campaign of 2016 reminds us of why and how he who must not be named became an “asset” of the Russian intelligence apparatus– otherwise known as a “useful idiot” (someone who unwittingly parrots the Kremlin line or follows its plans without realizing its true intentions.)
The article quotes Sergei Parkhomenko, an activist and broadcaster for Echo of Moscow, who describes Vladimir Putin’s motivation for pushing *His election specifically– as opposed to a general opposition to Hillary Clinton, because he suspected her of a hand in anti-Putin demonstrations at his election in 2012– as being twofold.
First, *His policies and behavior as president will cause intense internal dissension which will take America’s attention away from foreign-policy problems like the Ukraine.
“But there is a second reason,” Parkhomenko continued. “Putin is convinced that absolutely everything in this world is done for money. He is a religious fanatic, and money is his god. With money, it is possible to solve any problem, buy any interlocutor. He bought the Olympic Games, he bought the World Cup. It will be easy to deal with [Him]. He won’t need to use words in negotiations, only figures. When they don’t agree, it will only be necessary to find the right price.”
Thus, we will find the connection between *Him and Putin when we look at *His income tax returns. Putin has paid millions of dollars for the privilege of directing his puppet’s performance, and that money will show up somewhere (if it hasn’t already, in the form of overpaying for real estate.) Oh, and where did all that money come from that *He has spent on his golf courses the last few years?
He who must not be named doesn’t directly tell people to lie– thus we have the Buzzfeed story which was refuted by a rare public statement from the Mueller office. What he who isn’t named actually does is create an alternate reality in front of the person he is urging to lie– he says, repeatedly, the lie that he wants to hear from the subject and then goes out in public and repeats the same lie. The subject is forced to either lie along with he who cannot be named or else contradict him and face his wrath. He (the subject, in this case Michael Cohen) knows exactly what he who must not be named wants the subject to say. He who must not be named doesn’t have to direct request anyone to do his dirty work for him– he merely implies that he needs something done, and repeats his implications again and again in the appropriate setting.
This is a well-known Mafia technique for getting things done without having to go on record as having requested or ordered them. You need to have a staff that is well-tuned to what your needs are going to be in any situation– like Michael Cohen, who knew from ten years of experience with he who must not be named that he wanted Michael to lie when he said, “Michael, I know you’ll say the right thing.”
Of course, if you speak of “internal consciousness of lying” you may be mistaken, as it appears that he who must not be named actually believes many of the things that he has factually mis-stated. There is an internal world that he inhabits which is unreal, fantastic, magical, and in which he is the hero of every story, since every story is about him.
Michael has been subjected to a process of intimidation, almost enchantment, in which he initially was irresistibly attracted to Individual 1, and thought that he could do not wrong. By the time he realized that what he was doing for the unindicted co-conspirator was really wrong, he was already captive to the man’s psychological attractions. He only broke free when he realized that the government was going to send him to jail for the rest of his life (twenty or more years) if he didn’t come clean– and his wife and children would be rendered indigent as a result.
The effect of his being entangled in Individual 1’s lies and corruption and being discovered by the special counsel investigation bothered him when he realized that his children would suffer– bothered him to the extent that he decided it would be better to stop being a fall guy for he who must not be named.
The Republicans make a lot of noise about how Michael is a convicted liar– but they leave out the part about how he lied for he who must not be named, but now he’s coming clean. They conveniently gloss over the fact that his testimony before the House, if shown to be false, could land him in even more legal trouble. So if he was a liar before, he’s got to tell the truth now or spend even more time in prison.
(image of michael stolen from fox news)
