19 Comments
User's avatar
lin•'s avatar

At the Helsinki presser , Putin buttered Trump by going on about Robert Mueller's phony investigation, when all he had to do was ask Russia to investigate any suspicions of wrong doing by any Russians, and then slammed Hillary Clinton for driving the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax.

Yesterday at the Alaska presser, Putin buttered Trump by blaming Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Biden, when all he had to do was to talk to Putin, and then he gave his guarantee that had Trump been president there never would have been a war.

Old KGB operative Putin knows his man. The way to Trump's compliance is through amplifying his favorite lies.

Expand full comment
Pamela M Rosenblum's avatar

Indeed...well put. All I kept thinking reading the news this morning is "a poor 'deal maker' being totally played by a KBG expert at manipulation.

Expand full comment
Ilene Winn-Lederer's avatar

Well, Steve, you nailed it again with this great Janus-like portrayal of the Trump-Putin beast. If, in your next iteration, you added a few more autocratic heads to this creature, you will have made a true Hydra of Horror where removal of one of the heads would just be a signal to regrow itself.

Expand full comment
lin•'s avatar

"...a true Hydra of Horror where removal of one of the heads would just be a signal to regrow itself."

Oh yes, the eager next generations are jostling for their chance.

From the 1960s white supremacist Christian academies to Oral Roberts University to George Mason Scalia Law School and Mercatus Institute (like the Supreme Court majority, wholly owned subsidiaries of Charles Koch/Leonard Leo) to ChristoFascist Adrian Vermeule of Harvard. The Federalist Society, Heritage Foundation, Teneo Network, and Turning Point. From violent extremist militias seeding their recruits in the military and police to Hegseth. For decades the Right wing has been creating its electorate and its cadres eager to repurpose a democratic republic as an authoritarian state. An all of society effort. Totalitarian if you like. Or even if you don't.

Expand full comment
Doug Beardslee's avatar

Sadly, indeed tragically, spot-on.

Expand full comment
Joan Eisenstodt's avatar

Related/unrelated: is the Teneo Network related to the hotel owners group? I’ve not looked; wondered if you, Lin., knew. Thanks.

Expand full comment
lin•'s avatar

More than one Teneo.

This was started by some ambitious politicos, pundits, and a tech bro. Then super-charged by Leonard Leo.

Josh Hawley, Elise Stefanik,

JD Vance ... Teneo.

Inside the “Private and Confidential” Conservative Group That Promises to “Crush Liberal Dominance”

Leonard Leo, a key architect of the Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority, is now the chairman of Teneo Network, a group that aims to influence all aspects of American politics and culture.

https://www.propublica.org/article/leonard-leo-teneo-videos-documents

Expand full comment
Ilene Winn-Lederer's avatar

Leonard Leo and his cohorts are indeed the embodiment of pure evil. That he has his greasy little fingers in every major poison pie is not surprising.

Expand full comment
Joan Eisenstodt's avatar

Thank you for providing details, @lin. - what a charming group. As @Ilene writes, Leo is “the embodiment of evil.” Tho I know they always exhisted, many detailed by SPLC, The Nation, etc, I think I felt less afraid when they were less visible.

Expand full comment
Ilene Winn-Lederer's avatar

I don’t like it, Lin. But who cares what I like or don’t like? I’m only grateful that we can still express ourselves here on Substack. Which leads me to the conclusion that Aldous Huxley was rather prescient when he described the nature of his Brave New World in which that world was controlled by a handful of wealthy autocrats who gradually remade the world in their own sick image with total control and redesign of an enslaved population. I am becoming very afraid.

Expand full comment
lin•'s avatar

I am grateful for all our substack communities. Especially those such as The Greater Quiet where SB provides info about a wide range of activism opportunities. We still have the right to protest and the more of us exercise it, the more likely we are to preserve.

Even in the depths of the Stalinist USSR, where publishing one's thoughts could be a death sentence, people privately made and circulated Samizdat.

We keep resisting. And working to Get Out The Vote for Democratic candidates. There is so much to do.

"Samizdat (Russian: самиздат, pronounced[səmɨzˈdat], lit. 'self-publishing') was a form of dissident activity across the Eastern Bloc in which individuals reproduced censored and underground makeshift publications, often by hand, and passed the documents from reader to reader. The practice of manual reproduction was widespread, because printed texts could be traced back to the source. This was a grassroots practice used to evade official Soviet censorship."

.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_the_Soviet_Union.

Expand full comment
Ilene Winn-Lederer's avatar

Steve is indeed a brilliant artist and satirist. Long live American samizdat!

Expand full comment
Joan Eisenstodt's avatar

Are thus MAGATs now not anti-Russia? Anti-Putin? Wasn’t a red carpet too much?

Expand full comment
Ilene Winn-Lederer's avatar

Joan, each day’s newsfeed reminds us that hatred is enticing andoblivious to its own depths. There’s no rescuing of people who are drowning in their own free will. We must carry on despite these pathetic lost souls.

Expand full comment
Audrey Eve's avatar

Perfect drawing of a one-headed, two-faced monster.

No surprise here but still so heart wrenching for Zelensky and the future of Ukraine. Rolling out the red carpet for this vile war lord, warmly shaking hands with Putin, and then watching them ride away together (a satisfied, sly smile on Putin's face) summed up how hollow Trump's tough guy threats and consequences would turn out to be. That and bringing up Russia, Russia, Russia took us back to Helsinki, when Trump sided with Putin over his own Intelligence agency.

There's no limit to Trump's obsequiousness; he buys into Putin's flattery every time and fails to see how Putin is merely playing him.

Expand full comment
Paranormal Cartoons's avatar

...TACO at his best!

Expand full comment
Constance Breslin's avatar

What

A STUPID PHONY SHIT TRUMP IS. HE FAILED !! Surprise!! Stupid Media hanging on his fetid lies!!! He is trying really hard to stay off Epstein isn’t he? PUTIE SHOWED THE ASS HE REALLY IS!

Expand full comment
Steve Brodner's avatar

They cannot spin this. The level of fraud is now way exposed. And those prices !

Expand full comment
Rosa Maria's avatar

It looks like a an horrific vision of Janus.

Expand full comment