Go to the episode of Feb. 25th from Public Radio’s This American Life on the Internet. Is called the Other Mr. President and in one hour with four “chapters” you will get a picture of the man I desperately hope has bitten off more than he can chew in the Ukraine.
The First chapter is Going with a Bang. It lays out the likely story of bombs being set of in Russia’s appartment buildings by Putin’s allies in the newly constituted spy agency of the no longer Soviet Union to start the brutal war in Chechnya which has so far not been attempted in the much larger Ukraine. Its titled Going with a bang and because its already such ancient history I’m not certain if I heard it and forgot it long ago. It proceeds to Putin’s massive luck at a time of an Economic Crisis that our newly dominate Congressional Republicans all but ignored to our peril when, Like Trump with his go go economy Putin became the darling of Russia. And then it proceeds to the 3rd Chapter Pay attention to the man behind the Curtain. That is of course an allusion to my all time favorite movie The Wizard of Oz. In it you will hear the remarkable story of a Russian model for the movie the Matrix where humans have been implanted with the equivalent of the Anti-Vaxers dreaded microchips to give them the illusion that the hell they live in is really a wonderful normality.
In it Putin becomes a creature not unlike Donald Trump in his Apprentice Days. TV producers take a somewhat shabby braggart and turn him into a vision of a tough brilliant pragmatic billionaire that he never was. With apprenti like Gary Bussy its no wonder Trump looked smart.
Only in Russia the New KGB controlled all the money and all the political parties were shams.
I write this a little before 2 AM Sunday with a column to churn out for the Reader. I have an outline for it since Thursday and I’m looking forward to writing it but I slept short yesterday and just put three more inadequate hours in to give my brain a rest. I spent hours on the early stages of a short booklet yesterday which I hope to start selling to raise a little cash for the cosmic mission I intend to start in a few weeks or months.
That cosmic mission has more to do with making sure the Trumplican Party doesn’t turn America into a version of the Russia that the Greedy and historically dim Vladimir Putin wants to pour into every Russian’s head. No thank you Texas Governor Abbot and Costello.
Good. Now I’m ready for the Reader.
