Trump, Putin The Mob, and Terrorism
Trumpism - Putinism rears its ugly double head. Machismo, authoritarianism, greed, double dealings, criminal connections, and cheap but skillful populism and demagoguery are their common body. The Russian Mafia State and The Underworld International play their "Samson and Delilah games" with the West, using Trump as their "unwitting agent" and "playing him like a fiddle". These are the games of deception, betrayal, domination and conquest.
The similarities in personalities, both general and political, of Trump and Putin, are striking. Theirs is what Theodor Adorno called the "authoritarian personality" ("a personality type that involved the "potentially fascistic individual") or what the Russian criminals call "avtoritet" ("the authority") or "vor-v-zakone" ("the thief-in-law").
Both Trump and Putin possess the same pungent bouquet of personality traits and styles with criminal tendencies and juvenile delinquency at its core: easy and frequent, habitual, artful lying (which they probably could not separate from truth themselves), lifelong skill of camouflage, "pathological narcissism", grandiosity, risk taking (gambling), superficial psychopathic charm, bullishness and brazenness, etc., etc. The difference between them is that Putin is more adept, skillful and experienced in politico-criminal matters, which would allow him to invisibly outsmart and play his bromance buddy "like a fiddle".
Trump-Samson destroyed the GOP, singlehandedly, alarmingly, tragically, destructively and self-destructively, acting not only as an "unwitting agent" but also as an unwitting and destructive Trojan, who burrowed his way into the country's social and political life and delivered the party which adopted him, blood drained, confused and incapacitated, on a silver platter to its traditional geopolitical foreign opponents. Very much in the style of the "Fancy Bears", his Russian cyber-patrons.
The Republican party will be reborn from this crisis and this bitter lesson. But Trump will not be able to destroy the country. This is the consolation. And with all this, he still is pretty much "unwitting" and still is unaware of the "inner workings" of not Russia only but, apparently his own.
Trump: "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing!"
Mother Russia responds: "O.K., sunny, I've heard you; we'll do. We will do anything to get you elected, the whole world knows this. Don't you ever doubt me, my boy, yeah! Didn't I find a good new wife for you? And don't you worry about the costs either, we will put them on your credit account, you can pay it back later, at our convenience... Because you are my kind!"
Trump (pulling at $11M pinky "pussy bow", pensively): "Finally! I have nothing to lose except my capitalist GOP shackles! This is my last and the most resolute battle! The Oligarchs of the World, unite! Putin, if you hear me, leak, leak, leak! Leak more! Right on their heads! And keep whispering your sweet Melania somethings into my ears at night (just like this mantra: "Oh, wouldn't it be nice to get along with Russia, Trump-ik?"), it is like the two of them have merged into The One. It's so erotic, who needs to grab pussies..."
At the same time, his adaptive capacity for change (the ability to be "reformed", among other factors, by the political-military establishment), has to be assessed also. His hypothetical need for this reform might also be viewed as the maladaptive psychological replay ("repetition compulsion") of the old drama. It probably was one of the key moments in his early and later life history.
The present and future historians and political scientists will try to analyze and understand the 2016 Presidential Elections in depth. It looks like some of the major contributing factors, among others, of the GOP looming defeat, are the "technical issues": Trump's lack of the personal and political maturity and professionalism, and his campaign managers' lack of the political acumen, in comparison with the much better prepared, experienced and strategically adept Democratic party operatives, in addition to the substantive issues: the nature and character of the political appeals of the candidates and the structures of their respective electorates.
Now Trump looks more like Laocoon, tied up in painful and torturing knots by the serpents of truth that he himself has unleashed. The defeat looks inevitable and well deserved.
Both Trump's and Putin's connections with organized crime are well documented.
"Security Analysts Issue Dire Warning: Trump Is The ‘Manchurian Candidate’ Of The Russian Mafia... The stunning article reveals that Trump’s connections inside Russia go far deeper than what has been discussed in the mainstream media to date, and along a much darker path."
"Putin’s power is founded on his links to organised crime. Putin has a close circle of criminal oligarchs at his disposal and has spent his career cultivating this circle."
"The Republican candidate’s links to Russia are a mix of bling, business and bluster spanning 30 years. The FT has compiled this account from a variety of sources, tracing Trump's fascination for Russia from its beginnings in Soviet times, through the Putin era to the US presidential campaign."
How should the future President deal with Russia?
"There will be no ‘reset’ with Russia".
"Russia is now a threat. The U.S. should treat it like one".
"The best answer to Russian aggression is containment".
On a somewhat deeper level, the question is, how to deal with the powerful and hidden forces that are behind the "mafia state", and I venture a guess.
Destroy or at least control the Russian - International "Mafia" - organised crime, in which Russia plays now a major role, and with which the Russian Intelligence services are most inextricably linked and intertwined, and use them as the conduit, the operational tools and the means of subversive activity, (hypothetically) from terrorism to mass shootings, war on police, and other "active measures" and "special operations", to covert and overt political interference, that we know and do not know about - and you will solve at least half of the problem. This is the area with which law enforcement is the most familiar with and could be potentially most successful, in comparison with the direct counterintelligence work, which is complex, intricate, often operates outside the official realm of law enforcement, and should be left to the highly specialized and trained security services.
What are the roots of this phenomenon of "authoritarianism", descending historically to the times immemorial, from ancient Greek tyrants, to more recently, Hitlerism and Stalinism, among many other historical figures and examples, large and small?
Its association with criminality, in many aspects and respects, seems to be evident and logical; it is a crime to deny and suppress the personal liberties of others.
Just by the way, Stalin was a direct product of the criminal world, in which he grew up, matured and acquired his skills which he later used in his political struggles, the main among them, the old familiar "divide and conquer". This circumstance shaped the Soviet Union and the history of the post-WW2 world.
What are the psychological and social underpinnings of this phenomenon of authoritarianism, and what are their vicissitudes?
Why does this political mechanism work so well in the countries like Russia, where Trump and Putin are supported by the majority, and why, hopefully, it will never work in America?
What are the political immunity factors?
Free speech, free press, pluralism, healthy intellectual honesty and civic duty.
Michael Novakhov
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