Although few Americans paid much attention at the time, the events of February 18, 2014, in Ukraine would turn out to be a linchpin in how the United States ended up where it is a decade later. On that day ten years ago, after months of what started as peaceful protests, Ukrainians occupied government buildings and marched on parliament to remove Russian-backed president Viktor Yanukovych from office. After the escalating violence resulted in many civilian casualties, Yanukovych fled to Russia, and the Maidan Revolution, also known as the Revolution of Dignity, returned power to Ukraine’s constitution.
It's still amazing to me how many people are willfully blind to these facts. I appreciate you doing what you do, Prof. Richardson. Is there other any way to get them to understand the importance?
I wrote about it in a couple of places in the Timeless & Timely newsletter:
I had forgotten about the murder of Paul Klebnikov, another martyr for democracy. It would be interesting to a list of people who have been killed because they pursued free speech and human rights in the last 20 years. Navalny is just the latest…I appreciate your good work so much!
One of those evenings where I think about all the scum mentioned in this post and can only say, "if my thought dreams could be seen, they'd put my head in a guillotine."
There is nothing too bad that can happen to any of the Trumpscum.
"The Putin wing of the GOP", as Liz Cheney calls it, is on the verge of allying our country with Russia and destroying our democracy. It is mind-blowing to me that the pugs have elected to go this route. Such hypocrisy leaves me speechless.
Wonderful history. Thank you for the reminder. Some of us remember this vividly. And still, we are flummoxed daily at the ignorance of our fellow citizens.
This is crucially important information right now. Thanks Professor, for so clearly illustrating how Russia has bought and paid for trump and his terrorist organization.
I remember this very well. And I remember Rachel Maddow tracing the whole sordid sequence. Yanukovych. Manafort. Deripaska. Just like it was yesterday. This isn't ancient history. This is...yesterday.
Dr. Richardson, you have given us all an extremely valuable history lesson here this evening. A lot of this I had forgotten.
What this reveals is one simple fact. If our Congress, the Senate (who this evening passed a package for assistance to Ukraine and others investigating over in conflicts in Europe) and the House of Representatives, who Speaker Johnson has declared the House will not pass any bill for any assistance to Ukraine of any kind, don’t pass this bill the deaths which Putin inflicts upon the Ukrainian people as well as the deaths which will occur in other countries he marches across after taking Ukraine will be the sole responsibility of our Congress. Namely the Republicans in the House of Representatives.
There’s absolutely no excuse, none whatsoever for their actions on this matter. If we vote, in ANY election between now and at least 2030, and leave any of these Republicans in office, then we will be responsible for the destruction of our Democracy and our Constitution. Every single one of them needs to be voted out of office. We must make the Senate, and especially the House of Representatives, a Super Majority of Democrats.
Since the Republican Party has taken the majority in the House of Representatives there has not been one meaningful thing accomplished. No bills passed that benefit us. All they have done is spend our taxpayer dollars trying to impeach Biden, find corruption in the Biden family and administration, and most of all, they have listened to, and done, exactly what their ‘leader’ has told them to do.
As a life-long idealist, (you'd think I would mature one day,) I am grieving Navalny. He was cut from a page of modern heroism. Conversely, Putin is simply chilling as he rides the crest of his evil-doing. Now there is the possibility of a nuclear weapon satellite being launched by Russia.
While many of us shake our heads at the Putin-Republican love affair and ask why, remember that Putin is reputed to be the world's wealthiest man. His fellow oligarchs are similar in their pursuit of wealth and power, as are the admiring toadies in Congress. Money. Money. Like Trump, they worship Mammon. The pursuit of Money has no national boundaries. Loyalty to country is meaningless.
As Trump has demonstrated, what's a crime or two in pursuit of money and power? Some of his supporters even threaten death to anyone who exposes his wrong-doing— a page out of the Putin play book.
It’s so troubling to see how prior circumstances and happenings have foreshadowed what is happening today. I don’t understand how any American can be anything , but alarmed. How can those in government, no matter which party, not do everything in their power to fight against Putin? Can they truly be so blind to the urgency of backing Ukraine?
Yes, history IS watching. It is watching republicans sell out Ukraine & democracy around the world because they have sold their souls to trump! I can't imagine anyone being so stupid as to sell their soul to a con man. But like the saying goes, "There's one born every minute!" Those individuals are pathetic & I would love to see them on the manure pile of history but I fear they have enough idiots supporting them that they may prevail to some degree. And, how riduculous is it that the trump faithful still send him money when they see what he will have to pay due to his fraud & lying all these years. Really, people, you may as well use that money to light your cigarette or start your bar-b-que. At least if you used it for that you'd get some immediate gratification, a hit of nicotine from the cigarettes or maybe a nice bar-b-qued burger or chicken, my guess is you can't afford a steak, besided beef prices being really high you've already spent your money paying trump's leagl fees. Get a clue, support your country not your con man or idiot representatives that wouldn't know a history book if someone hit them over the head with one!
This evening my wife and I watched the Netflix movie Einstein. I will not attempt to list the similarities between what has happened since the 2016 election in the US and what happened in the mid 30s in Germany with the election of Hitler. We had best get our head & *** wired together. Just remember this is 2024 not 1933. Because we move at light speed, make a mistake and we may not be able to recover.
When will they learn? When will they figure out it was the Russians that controlled the 2016 election, the 2020 insurrection, and will try to game the 2024 election? That’s the real psy-op, engineered by Putin, Stone, Manafort, and Flynn to cultivate Trump’s cult.
It’s difficult to put in words that the mindless puppets in our very own congress are sitting on their hands allowing the entire free world to be subjected to elected “un-Americans” aide, abet and allow the destruction of our very freedoms. Those that elected them will be as guilty as those they elected.
I just finished watching a documentary about Navalny on CNN. I'd seen it before, shortly after he was imprisoned after he returned to Russia, but it was particularly poignant now, with his death having been announced. His final message was that we should not be afraid, that we should be active. While Russians were his main audience, it's clearly a timely reminder for us all. Last I heard, the authorities had refused to give his body back to his mother as she had requested. At the end of the film, it mentions an exposé Navalny's team had made, Putin's Palace, available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_tFSWZXKN0. It's long, and I've only watched the beginning, but the end product of the corruption Navalny fought against is mind-blowing.
It's still amazing to me how many people are willfully blind to these facts. I appreciate you doing what you do, Prof. Richardson. Is there other any way to get them to understand the importance?
I wrote about it in a couple of places in the Timeless & Timely newsletter:
https://www.timelesstimely.com/p/it-can-happen-here
https://www.timelesstimely.com/p/tyrants-at-the-gate
I had forgotten about the murder of Paul Klebnikov, another martyr for democracy. It would be interesting to a list of people who have been killed because they pursued free speech and human rights in the last 20 years. Navalny is just the latest…I appreciate your good work so much!
One of those evenings where I think about all the scum mentioned in this post and can only say, "if my thought dreams could be seen, they'd put my head in a guillotine."
There is nothing too bad that can happen to any of the Trumpscum.
"The Putin wing of the GOP", as Liz Cheney calls it, is on the verge of allying our country with Russia and destroying our democracy. It is mind-blowing to me that the pugs have elected to go this route. Such hypocrisy leaves me speechless.
Wonderful history. Thank you for the reminder. Some of us remember this vividly. And still, we are flummoxed daily at the ignorance of our fellow citizens.
This is crucially important information right now. Thanks Professor, for so clearly illustrating how Russia has bought and paid for trump and his terrorist organization.
I remember this very well. And I remember Rachel Maddow tracing the whole sordid sequence. Yanukovych. Manafort. Deripaska. Just like it was yesterday. This isn't ancient history. This is...yesterday.
Dr. Richardson, you have given us all an extremely valuable history lesson here this evening. A lot of this I had forgotten.
What this reveals is one simple fact. If our Congress, the Senate (who this evening passed a package for assistance to Ukraine and others investigating over in conflicts in Europe) and the House of Representatives, who Speaker Johnson has declared the House will not pass any bill for any assistance to Ukraine of any kind, don’t pass this bill the deaths which Putin inflicts upon the Ukrainian people as well as the deaths which will occur in other countries he marches across after taking Ukraine will be the sole responsibility of our Congress. Namely the Republicans in the House of Representatives.
There’s absolutely no excuse, none whatsoever for their actions on this matter. If we vote, in ANY election between now and at least 2030, and leave any of these Republicans in office, then we will be responsible for the destruction of our Democracy and our Constitution. Every single one of them needs to be voted out of office. We must make the Senate, and especially the House of Representatives, a Super Majority of Democrats.
Since the Republican Party has taken the majority in the House of Representatives there has not been one meaningful thing accomplished. No bills passed that benefit us. All they have done is spend our taxpayer dollars trying to impeach Biden, find corruption in the Biden family and administration, and most of all, they have listened to, and done, exactly what their ‘leader’ has told them to do.
These Republicans have to go!!!
As a life-long idealist, (you'd think I would mature one day,) I am grieving Navalny. He was cut from a page of modern heroism. Conversely, Putin is simply chilling as he rides the crest of his evil-doing. Now there is the possibility of a nuclear weapon satellite being launched by Russia.
While many of us shake our heads at the Putin-Republican love affair and ask why, remember that Putin is reputed to be the world's wealthiest man. His fellow oligarchs are similar in their pursuit of wealth and power, as are the admiring toadies in Congress. Money. Money. Like Trump, they worship Mammon. The pursuit of Money has no national boundaries. Loyalty to country is meaningless.
As Trump has demonstrated, what's a crime or two in pursuit of money and power? Some of his supporters even threaten death to anyone who exposes his wrong-doing— a page out of the Putin play book.
It’s so troubling to see how prior circumstances and happenings have foreshadowed what is happening today. I don’t understand how any American can be anything , but alarmed. How can those in government, no matter which party, not do everything in their power to fight against Putin? Can they truly be so blind to the urgency of backing Ukraine?
Yes, history IS watching. It is watching republicans sell out Ukraine & democracy around the world because they have sold their souls to trump! I can't imagine anyone being so stupid as to sell their soul to a con man. But like the saying goes, "There's one born every minute!" Those individuals are pathetic & I would love to see them on the manure pile of history but I fear they have enough idiots supporting them that they may prevail to some degree. And, how riduculous is it that the trump faithful still send him money when they see what he will have to pay due to his fraud & lying all these years. Really, people, you may as well use that money to light your cigarette or start your bar-b-que. At least if you used it for that you'd get some immediate gratification, a hit of nicotine from the cigarettes or maybe a nice bar-b-qued burger or chicken, my guess is you can't afford a steak, besided beef prices being really high you've already spent your money paying trump's leagl fees. Get a clue, support your country not your con man or idiot representatives that wouldn't know a history book if someone hit them over the head with one!
This evening my wife and I watched the Netflix movie Einstein. I will not attempt to list the similarities between what has happened since the 2016 election in the US and what happened in the mid 30s in Germany with the election of Hitler. We had best get our head & *** wired together. Just remember this is 2024 not 1933. Because we move at light speed, make a mistake and we may not be able to recover.
When will they learn? When will they figure out it was the Russians that controlled the 2016 election, the 2020 insurrection, and will try to game the 2024 election? That’s the real psy-op, engineered by Putin, Stone, Manafort, and Flynn to cultivate Trump’s cult.
It’s difficult to put in words that the mindless puppets in our very own congress are sitting on their hands allowing the entire free world to be subjected to elected “un-Americans” aide, abet and allow the destruction of our very freedoms. Those that elected them will be as guilty as those they elected.
Most appreciated Professor ⭐
I just finished watching a documentary about Navalny on CNN. I'd seen it before, shortly after he was imprisoned after he returned to Russia, but it was particularly poignant now, with his death having been announced. His final message was that we should not be afraid, that we should be active. While Russians were his main audience, it's clearly a timely reminder for us all. Last I heard, the authorities had refused to give his body back to his mother as she had requested. At the end of the film, it mentions an exposé Navalny's team had made, Putin's Palace, available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_tFSWZXKN0. It's long, and I've only watched the beginning, but the end product of the corruption Navalny fought against is mind-blowing.