Remember Ukraine today and that whatever Trump was and is, Putin is an active war criminal

 

Photo modified by author from Creative Commons color picture here.

By Hal Brown

I was listening to BBC on the radio last night and they reported on Putin's latest attack on civilian targets, in this instance an attack killing at least 11 people in Zelenskyy's hometown. They also described how the destruction of the Kakhovka dam, which Putin shamelessly and nonsensically blames on Ukraine, has flooded thousands of acres of prime farmland and will create a major food crisis. Flood waters are polluting acres of rich farmland and moving landmines into new areas where they will have to be found and removed.

Americans who follow the news will be focused on Trump's court appearance, but while this is going on Ukrainian civilians will be waiting for the next attack by Putin's forces. 

Trump is called all kinds of names by his detractors. He's been likened to Hitler but this misses the fact that the world  has in Putin a Hitler, albeit minus the systematic attempt to exterminate Germany's Jewish population (and others).

Trump is often accused of blaming others for his worst misdeeds as he professes his own innocence. Compared to Putin's claiming that Zelenskyy was a NAZI Trump's turning the truth inside-out is small potatoes. 

I was looking for a non-copyrighted picture (like the one I modified above) to use for this blog and came across one used to illustrate this recent editorial in The Guardian which is worth reading:

The Guardian view on Vladimir Putin’s war: terror without purpose

The subtitle is "The fog of war is thick in Ukraine, but certain strategic and moral truths remain crystal clear" and the caption under the picture reads "Mr Putin’s war is sustained by his monstrous pride."

Take a look at the photo by Mikhail Klimentyev of the A.P. which illustrates The Guardian editorial. Of the many pictures of Putin which you can find with an image search this one (in the seventh row of the image search) seems to  best convey both the monstrous pride noted in the caption and the evil within this 21st century war criminal.

While many of us will be watching coverage of the unprecedented historic event in Miami today on TV, it would be good to give pause to be thankful that we are even able to have electricity to turn on our televisions, let alone not have to be hunkering down in a bomb shelter worrying about our lives and the lives of our loved ones who are in combat against Putin's invaders.

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Looking back on the blog: Here's what I posted in 2015.

Let's not forget Lady Justice holds the scales in one hand and a sharp sword in the other

 

By Hal Brown

Former Rep. David Jolly (R-FL) said "Lady Justice is showing us she has an understanding of karma and a sense of humor" (Reference) but she's never shown as smiling. She does hold a sworn and at times she can be seen as a purveyor of karma.

As shown in my illustration above, Trump has two overlapping mouths. This represents the conundrum of trying to understand Trump. He says things that are demonstrable lies, but we never know whether he believes what he says.

Here's what I think David Jolly is describing in interview with Nicole Wallace dwhen he said the following from the article in Raw Story.

"You could not write the projection that Donald Trump was engaged in, then Secretary Clinton, to now be facing his own loss of liberty about what exactly he accused her of. I think Donald Trump knows that and understands that. I think Donald Trump knows that his wisest strategy is not to win this case in the southern district of Florida but to win the presidency. And that is why you're seeing this two-tiered strategy. Attorneys are left with a client who continues to lie to himself and misrepresent. But it's a political strategy that he sees as working."

There are contradictions here. 

Psychological projection is an unconscious process. While Trump is accusing Hillary Clinton of doing what he did (and of course he's comparing an arsonist to an overripe apple considering that what Hillary did with the email server is nothing like what he did). This is projection in the colloquial sense, i.e. to accuse someone of doing something wrong to deflect from the fact you did something wrong, often worse, that what they did.

We just don't know what Trump believes. 

Therefore, when Jolly goes on saying that Trump knows that his wisest strategy is not to win the Florida case but to win the presidency again, it is just speculation to say what he knows. From what I hear Trump saying about the documents case it seems that he very much cares about winning that case.

I don't see the two tiered strategy Jolly describes.

Then Jolly goes on to say that Trump continues to lie to himself, which of course entails misrepresentation. But if this is due to his lying to himself, then it isn't deliberate misrepresentation even though it is a misrepresentation of the truth.

Finally, how can all that we observe coming from Trump be a political strategy that he sees as working if he is lying to himself? If he is lying to himself to this degree then he is delusional. If he is delusional he is not mentally capable of devising a rational strategy.

If there is such a thing as karma it works in mysterious and erratic way. If Lady Justice is about to wield the sword of karma and strike Trump down, or  to put it another way, give him his just deserts, I don't think she'll be chuckling to herself finding it the least but amusing. 

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My other blogs today:

HUFFPOST title editorializes in title, but gets it wrong, The Rolling Stones got it right.

Sorry, Jennifer Rubin, Bill Barr can't play a vital role in helping Republicans accept that Trump is unfit for office

HUFFPOST title editorializes in title, but gets it wrong, The Rolling Stones got it right.

 

There's no mention of Trumpworld playing with fire per se in the article which it titled: 

Trump, Allies Escalate Attacks On Criminal Case.

I think the appropriate saying is more like playing with matches, especially around a spilled can of gasoline. Of course children do play with fire whether they use matches or lighters and as such they are playing with fire. 

This being pointed out, I might suggest that this Rolling Stones song could apply to Donald Trump thinking he can play his games with Jack Smith.

For that matter, this Talking Heads classic also applies to Trump:

 

Just saying....

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This is the second blog for the day. The first one is here.