by Barry Hastings

What in the world is going on between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin? Is it “true love,” or does Putin have him (as the old saying goes) “by the short hairs?” My best guess is it’s the latter, and if I’m right (and where else could such dogged devotion originate), America may have been in the murdering Russian dictator’s grip from long before his announcement he’d make a run at the U.S. Presidency. Stranger things have happened in international politics.

There is no sane reason for Trump trashing the American Intelligence establishment the way he’s repeatedly done. It makes me wonder exactly how much he knows about Russia, her government, and the kind of people who’ve run her government (almost) entirely since time immemorial. I’d guess he’s never read anything about Russia and the Russians, and I can tell you Russian history is not a pleasant picture to contemplate — from the time of Ivan IV, the Terrible (and he was horrific), through a long list of czars and czarinas, the long reign of communism, and on through to the present day dictator.

The only czar (or dictator) whose story is in the least bit human was Peter the Great, and even he had the capacity to torture his own eldest son, and was not the only king, czar, emperor to do so — even to the point of murder — the “throne,” in days of yore, and perhaps today in some Russian cases, “trumped” all else. Putin has murdered some political competitors (the most recent, only one block from the Kremlin), imprisoned others indefinitely, and impounded or confiscated the wealth of others.

One thing I can tell you with certainty (being a bit of a student of Russian history from its earliest times to the present), they have not, will never in Putin’s lifetime, and well beyond, change their spots, giving up enmity to all things democratic and/or related to democracy. Read a damned book, you Trumpers, even while we supported their efforts against the Nazis during World War II, giving them more than 200,000 heavy trucks (to supply and move their armies), thousands of aircraft, hundreds of ships, and small arms beyond counting, in addition to fuel by the shipload, they held hundreds of our air crews forced to land in their territory, never gave the airplanes involved back, and whined every day about our not being willing to sacrifice soldiers in un-winnable battles.

They, themselves, often sent unarmed soldiers into battle, telling them to pick up the arms of fallen comrades (and did the same thing under Czar Nicholas during World War I). They care so little about human life that while we were fighting Germany, Italy and Japan, and suffering roughly half-a-million battle deaths, the Russians suffered more than 14 million dead soldiers (and another seven million civilian deaths). Nice, or caring people do not last long in Russian government service.

More than a million women flood D.C. Protesting Trump

On the day after Trump’s sparsely attended inauguration ceremonies, four times as many people, mostly women, poured into the city (by train, bus, airplane) to protest his racist, sexist, confrontational approach to government leadership. Aerial overhead photographs of crowds on the mall demonstrate, beyond doubt, the falsity of claims to, “over a million,” attendees on Friday, by his Press spokesman on Saturday. Just watching the inaugural parade on the tube, Friday, it was clear that bleachers along the route were far less than half full. The scarcity of parade participants certainly appeared to viewers as somewhat fewer than those of Barack Obama; and even those of Dubya.

While more than a million women flooded the streets of D.C. (without a single arrest), the Donald, with his usual boldness, traveled out to CIA headquarter in Langley, and tried to cover his many clashes with intelligence officials by blaming them on “dishonest reporting” by the national media. Of course, his tweets starting the confrontations still exist (and will forever), Kellyanne Conway told “Meet the Press,” she believed, “Presidents aren’t defined by crowd size,” and she was right. But they are defined by “Truthfulness,” and this sonuvabitch starts every day with a lie, and has done so since the first days of his campaign.

Conway stood defending the new administration’s lies about crowd size, and the presidential scuffle with intelligence services, for at least 15 minutes, and never answered Chuck Todd’s question related to either matter. She’s going to be a big part of this administration’s continuing decline. Todd’s continuously going back to the question really pissed her off to the point of insinuating threats. Other Republicans (Paul Ryan, for one) actually threatened to, “hold the Press accountable,” for asking embarrassing questions.

Going into office with a 32% approval rating is a poor enough start, and being besieged by more than a million women (and a large number of men) in D.C. on his first full day in office — and millions more around the country, and the world — doesn’t make the picture appear any brighter. Conway is a mistress of the devious arts, as is her president, his vice president, their press secretary, and the whole Republican Party establishment.

Recall how many of them said they’d never support Trump a year ago? Not many held out, did they? Only John McCain and Lynsey Graham, to my certain knowledge. The biggest job for reporters down the road, is going to be separating truth — not from fiction, but from bald-faced lies.

“Whether we are black, or brown, or white, we all bleed the same red blood of patiotism. ” Thus, Donald Trump, in his inaugural address. I ask you, Mr. Trump, how many in your family have bled that red blood? I ask you, in fact, “How many of your family have served in the U.S. military establishment?” Few, at best, I’ll wager, and likely enough, not a Purple Heart holder in the bunch. You may correct me if I err. As Trump contemplates destroying NATO, our other old alliances, I’d like to refer him to my story, “Hard, trying times” of a month, or so, ago, on this site.

So, you tell me, have Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, the two Roosevelts rolled over in their graves? If doing so is possible, I’d bet they have (but I really don’t believe it likely). I do know the racist, sexist taunts were flying at the local coffee joint, thicker than Confederate battle flags the day following Trump’s victory, thicker than generals in the Air Force, thicker, even than the worst fog at Nantucket, or than the Trump campaign signs still stuck in grass months after election day. They’re proud of themselves. We’ll see how long that lasts.