It Takes One to Know One

Pic courtesy The Mercury News

One little recognised fact about the recent history of Ukraine is that Paul Manifort, who chaired the Trump presidential campaign from June to August 2016, was influential in grooming the corrupt Viktor Yanukovych who became, in 2004, president of Ukraine after an election fraught with electoral fraud and voter intimidation.

Yanukovych fled to Russia in 2014, after a popular uprising when his government was deposed after signing an economic agreement with the Russian Federation. It has become obvious given the history since 2014, that the last thing the Ukrainian people want is closer alignment with Russia.

Further background includes the fact that in January 2020, the US Government  Accountability Office, a non-partisan watchdog, concluded that the White House broke federal law by withholding Congressional approved military aid to Ukraine. This was after Trump unsuccessfully pressured the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to dig up dirt on Jo Biden's son in the lead up to the 2020 presidential election. 

Putin and Trump have, over the years, set up a sweet mutual admiration society.

On the  Clay Travis and Buck Sexton show last Tuesday, Trump said in reply to a simpering question -

  

“I went in yesterday and there was a television screen, and I said, ‘This is genius. Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine … as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful. So Putin is now saying, ‘It’s independent,’ a large section of Ukraine. I said, ‘How smart is that?’ ”

At the G 20 summit in November 2020, Putin praised Trump thus - 

"This was a really big contribution toward restoring the U.S. economy, and thus restoring the world economy."

It takes one liar very little time to recognise and understand another. 

Trump has used complete fabrication to gain and hold attention over and over again. The best most recent examples were his birther narrative, and more recently, the fraudulent election lie.

Putin has wheeled out allegations of the genocide of Russians in Donetsk and Donbas, and claims that the Ukraine government is controlled by NAZIs. The first claim has been completely discredited, and the second so bizarre as to be laughable, given the fact that the president is Jewish.

Yet, both Putin and Trump share the characteristic of setting up a simple and fearful lie, and despite all the evidence of the facts, sticking to it.

Both are megalomaniacs, likely psychopaths, and both have done enormous damage to their respective countries. Putin has begun to destroy the Russian federation's economy, and Trump has destroyed faith in the democratic process in the USA.

They understand each other very well.

 As the cliche explains, "It takes one to know one".

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