What Makes Trump Jealous

Vladimir Putin cut his teeth as a very successful “black arts” strategist within the former Soviet Union’s KGB, the USSR’s CIA equivalent. To put it mildly, he was a dirty tricks expert who now controls contemporary Russia with the rather extraordinary ability to crush any inquiry or policy challenge, instilling fear in any organization or individual who thinks otherwise. Death, confiscation of assets, prison or confinement to a mental institution are the rich rewards for those who have tried.

Challenge officially-disseminated “fake news” in Russia and prepare for those dire consequences. Officially, Russia never interferes in outside elections – wink, wink, and the Russian people seem to admire his ability to get away with it and wreak havoc in Western elections – and Russian athletes don’t need steroids or other unlawful enhancements to beat their opponents in just about any sport they choose. Putin has a blank check to do and say anything he wants without risk of local challenge. And then there’s our own Putin-wannabee.

Donald Trump emits a constant litany of “fake news” that is treated as gospel by his base, but so far at least, he lacks the power to silence his critics, stop inquiries (official and unofficial) delving into his and his cronies’ possible illegal manipulations and force his policies on to the entire nation without resistance. MSM (mainstream media) constantly debunks the fakeness, excoriates his lackeys who toe his mendacious line… and he does not seem to be able to stop them. He constantly returns to rallies with his base to bolster his massively insecure ego, seemingly drooling with envy at how Putin controls his country. But according to just about every nation poll in recent days, most Americans disapprove of Donald Trump. Russia? Polls? LOL!

Maybe Trump can challenge CNN indirectly, as his federal agencies – led by his appointees – threaten the AT&T-Time Warner merger. He can always label anyone who contradicts his latest tweet (which may itself contradict an earlier tweet) as a liar. His based will always buy it. He can certainly replace those in his inner circle who do not march in lockstep with his inconsistent and often inane policies and statements. Perhaps he even can side-step the roiling accusations of his self-admitted sexual predation as “locker room talk.” But so far, he lacks Putin’s power to kill, arrest, confine or strip wealth from those who criticize him. So far… although his “tax reform” legislation is clearly punitive to high tax blue states that sit atop the list of those who oppose him.

Putin just gets what he wants, far from the prying eyes of a free press. He even has the unambiguous support of the President of the United States, who has openly stated that believes Putin’s denials. The same “I looked into his eyes” affirmation uttered by an equally naïve George W Bush, the last GOP president. Put must love Republican presidents. That all of US intelligence agencies have confirmed Russian interference in the 2016 election does not seem to matter to Mr. Trump. And Putin is equally about badges of honor and Russian superiority.

As images of Putin playing ice hockey, swimming rivers and practicing martial arts permeate the press, clearly supremacy in sports is near and dear to Vladdy’s heart, an expression of power, discipline and excellence that sends a clear message of Russian superiority to the rest of the world. To ensure the litany of victories, Putin has wildly supported his national teams and athletes in global competitions with clear instructions to those who run those programs “to win at all costs.” But those administrators understand their leader’s directive as “do whatever is necessary to bring home the glory to Mother Russia.” And that has resulted in the most obvious program of doping in global competition, one that has led to the complete ban of an official Russian presence at the upcoming Olympic Games. Russian athletes have also been retroactively stripped of medals for violating antidoping rules.

The problem (to Vladdy) with the pattern of pervasive Russian doping is that it is not as susceptible to plausible deniability as is Putin’s policy of political disinformation and destabilization in Western elections. He just doesn’t have the same ability to use “deniable” intermediaries in sports programs where the private sector is just not present. The global community that controls such international sports competition is also simply not inside Russia.

As pointed out in my December 5th, Chastnye Voennie Companiy, blog, Russia has learned how to use private companies and criminal elements, paid under the table or rather directly controlled by Putin cronies, to implement pernicious Russian policies to destabilize their rather obvious enemies, almost always the United States and the West. Putin wants to extend Russia’s once glorious image as the greatest challenge to the West, a powerful force at the top of global power. While he has yet to supplant China ascension, at least the People’s Republic seems to be an ally in countering the obviously dwindling influence of the United States. But Russian cheating in sports reflects Putin’s policy of interference, misinformation and manipulation on the political side of the equation very well.

The December 8th New Times fills in the details: “The details of the sports scandal — deconstructed by Russian whistle-blowers who have provided rare insider insights — offer perhaps the purest case study of Russia’s drive to dominate, its brazen methods and, in part, its motivation to influence the American presidency.

“In a declassified intelligence report released early this year, United States officials said Russia’s attacks on the election had been, for Mr. Putin, partial payback for the doping scandal, which he repeatedly called an American-led effort to defame Russia. Last month, as new medals were stripped from Russian Olympians, Mr. Putin said the disqualifications were the United States’ attempt to undermine his re-election.

“In fact, sports regulators and investigators who conducted the multiple investigations into Russia’s doping are headquartered in Canada, and the Olympic leadership in charge of disqualifying athletes is based in Switzerland. It was the former president of that staunchly neutral country, Samuel Schmid, who conducted the latest investigation for the Olympic committee, resulting in Tuesday’s sanctions [12/5].

“In scrutinizing Russia, sports and antidoping officials have said they acted on objective forensic and scientific evidence of Russia’s fraud: documents, data, lab analyses and glass bottles of urine with telltale signs of tampering. Just as allies of the special counsel Robert Mueller have done this year in the context of the election inquiry, the officials have defended their impartiality and interest in plain facts.

“Three key whistle-blowers helped provide those facts: Grigory Rodchenkov, Russia’s former longtime chief antidoping chemist, as well as Yuliya and Vitaly Stepanov, a former Russian runner and a former employee of the nation’s antidoping agency. All now live in the United States, in undisclosed locations from which they have spoken openly about years of coordinated cheating. The Justice Department, too, has taken interest in their evidence.

“Dr. Rodchenkov, whose personal diaries cataloged each day of cheating in Sochi, came to the United States only after Vitaly Mutko — Russia’s deputy prime minister and former sports minister — asked him to resign in light of growing global suspicions about the extent of the nation’s cheating, which the chemist had helped mastermind.”

That Donald Trump has been supportive of Putin, that his election campaign managers seems to have pledged to “rip up the sanctions” (imposed because of Russia’s invasion of Crimea and deployment of forces inside Ukraine), that Trump’s insiders (including his immediate family) have connections to official Russia that are slowly being unveiled… all suggest that we are being destabilized by a foreign power with the complicity of those at the top of our leadership.

Even as Mr. Trump enlisted powerful business interests – like the Wall Street Journal, which is rewarding Trump for slashing corporate income tax – to support his presidency, the more Trump tries to extinguish official inquiries into his and his administration’s ties to Russia, the more suspicious we need to be. The open wound of Putin’s manipulation of his sport program – where we really get a clear look at how he operates – is a rather clarion call to investigate more.

I’m Peter Dekom, and we have yet to learn how to defend a free state from manipulation through social media, a task made that much more difficult with the obvious complicity of the President of the United States of America.