33 years 2 months and 2 days ago Mikhail Gorbachev announced his resignation as leader of the Soviet Union. The next day, 26 January 1991, the world learned that the Soviet Union itself, had ceased to exist as a political entity.
I watched Gorbachev on American TV. The enormity of his resignation and the dissolution of USSR silenced the room. The consequences of it were unclear but generally I think everyone felt lighter; things were bound to get better.
Today, I watched President Trump and VP Vance go on TV and announce their desire to join a new USSR, led by their buddy Vlad Putin. The enormity of this decision was lost in a squabble of hectoring and scolding more akin to a WWE extravangza than a diplomatic photo opp.
Just as Gorbachev’s announcement stunned the world, so too the Dynamic Duo’s performance on live TV today, has left the world immobile with shock. Only instead of hope we watch in horror, knowing for sure that only worse lies ahead.
A few months earlier I had watched Boris Yeltsin jump onto a tank in the middle of Moscow and rally his fellow Russians to resist the coup that had been launched by hardline Communists against Gorbachev’s glasnost and perestroika. I remember thinking, ‘Wow, that’s ballsy!’ And the people rallied, the coup was put down and Big Boris led them into a new era.
I don’t watch TV or read much news anymore. But I find it interesting that Yeltsin’s demonstration of leadership and purpose is apparently so uninspiring to the politicians of the Greatest Country in the History of Humanity. Our leaders, our so-called Yeltsins’, our hardcore anti-Putin hawks, now flap their wings and coo quietly in harmony with the two assholes at the top.
DJT is leading us into a new era too.
Missionaries, Mercenaries and Misfits 
“Leading” suggests a consciousness & intentionality I am not sure Cheeto Jesus possesses, not to underestimate him. At all. And his dumb luck or his handler’s clever planning–yesterday’s eruption is working out so well for him on the ground here it is embarrassing–should also be, if not appreciated, also not to be underestimated.
This is very, impressively bad. And as I have said before, will get worse before it gets worse and we hit some inflection point, if we have not already. I can’t pretend to weep over liberal, “Western,” bourgeois democracy which has been failing us all for a long time; the abject abnegation of their duty in the legislature, the failure of the nominal opposition to do anything with their power when they had it, on and on and on. But this is somewhat different. You can find echoes and resonances, but this full frontal assault is impressive and the backing of the billionaire techbreauxs and their minions change the calculations in ways we are still understanding…if we are.
Sorry. Part of it is Texas, the heart of the hellscape, from which we hope to escape soon…a veritable sea of madness, friends.
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Leadership for Trump like everything else is a Black and White zero sum exercise of power. This is (unfortunately) exactly what was to be expected, though the swiftness which he has wielded his sword has left me breathless. As a local writer here said, Trusk’s actions in a month have the intent of making the US government unequipped to govern or administer.
It is really quite scary and can slide towards paranoia very quickly. But with the airwaves which we all rely on (internet) are controlled indirectly or directly by Trump and Elon and Marc and with Jeff issuing the most self serving instructions to his board of editors I fear that it will be very difficult for any sort of resistance to get traction and offer alternative reality based analysis, technology or solutions. Perhaps I’m a victim of my dour Christian German upbringing but I don’t see many pillars of independence standing when 2028 rolls around.
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