Russian Warship…
Do you know why Russia keeps doping their athletes? Because we let them. The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) itself the product of an earlier Russian doping scandal was a compromise of ethics, don’t drug your athletes, and allowing the “innocent” athletes to compete at the Olympics.
As a practical matter, what this arrangement amounts to is a ban on the waving the Russian Flag and playing its National Anthem during the medals ceremony. Ouch. That must hurt.
When I first heard that Kamila Valieva, a Russia ice skater tested positive for banned substances, it reminded me of the 1960s and 70s where everyone knew the Russians and the East Germans were giving out performance enhancing pharmaceuticals by the handful, and more, to anyone who wanted them, and the world looked the other way.
Perhaps we could write off that episode as a casualty of the Cold War. I doubt the world would risk a nuclear war over a few ill-gotten and undeserved medals went to the Soviet Union as part of a “look how superior our communist system is when compared to the underperforming and evil capitalist way of life” campaign designed to highlight Soviet superiority.
World dominance through the miracle of modern science and medicine. Yet in the final analysis, Russia was engaging in acts of fraud and cheating to ensure the rest of the world bear witness to their athletic programs as a harbinger of the Soviet world to come.
Yet for all its huffing, puffing, sabre rattling and general belligerence that did at times end in tanks rattling into foreign countries, the Soviet economy collapsed, and Russia lost the Cold War.
This was not the first time a nation tried to prove its eminence through the Olympic Games. In 1936, Nazi Germany chose to showcase its new Reich, including its commitment to racism as a key element of its pathway back to former glory.
Unfortunately, Jesse Owens, a very non-Aryan American track and field competitor won four gold medals while ruining the Nazi’s attempt to turn the Olympic Games into one big Nazi propaganda party.
It was no surprise when Hitler and Goebbels tried to ban all Jews from any nation, including Germany, from competing. As a condition of hosting, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) forced Germany to remove all signs of antisemitism from public view.
The IOC awarded Berlin the games to Germany in 1931. This was before Hitler came to power. Goebbels saw the games as a potential propaganda bonanza to promote the German “master race”. Let the games begin.
After the second day of events ended, Goebbels wrote in his diary "We Germans won a gold medal, the Americans three, of which two were Negroes. That is a disgrace. White people should be ashamed of themselves."
Today, there is another group of nationalist warmongers led by a deranged, sociopath bent on world domination. Much like Hitler before him, Vladimir Putin is on a collision course with destiny.
With little more than a Man of La Mancha type delirium of bringing back the Soviet
Union back to its former glory days when in the name of "security" a madman by the
name of Stalin invading his Eastern European neighbors, installing puppet governments
who voted to place their previously free countries within the Warsaw Pact for the benefit
of Mother Russia, ostensibly to "protect" the members from the evils of capitalism and
the West.
As I recall, the Berlin Wall was touted as necessary to keep the westerners out, but
what it really did was keep the now firmly held hostage East Germans in. Then, came
the Olympics, this time it was the hammer and sickle crowd's turn to showcase its claim
to social, economic, and cultural superiority. The way of the future, again.
And again, it was not to be. The Soviet Union is no more and probably will never be. Yet
an aging, in the true sense of the word, demonic, demagogic and dangerous
psychopath who likes to poison his perceived enemies with radiation has invaded his
neighbor. Not enemy mind you, but neighbor. Democratic neighbor.
I would say it feels as if history is repeating itself, but it's not. For this time, the world is
ready. Ready for a change. For his part, Putin has made a serious miscalculation. The world is no longer willing to accept his brand of virulent, nationalistic, and violent leadership from what amounts to a giant gas station with nuclear weapons.
Why? Because we don’t have to. The world has become so intertwined that the idea of a stand-alone, isolated country thriving in today’s world economy is a pipe dream. What Vladimir is about to discover, is he and his oligarch pals can no longer take the benefits a global economy has to offer without paying for its acts of violence, terror and yes, war.
An unwanted and unprovoked war. With Ukraine. Who is not Russia’s enemy, except in the paranoid delusions of a madman willing to exterminate millions if necessary to do little more than salve his fragile ego.
First comes madness, then isolation and finally, the fall. Traditions die hard, but they do die. Sad, lonely and all but forgotten for the most part. And yes, at times, hard. Very hard. Sometimes, accidentally falling out of an open second story and above window hard.
I know many of you are thinking when Putin goes, he’ll be replaced by another bedlamite eager to fill the power void left by the departing strong man/lunatic. But, maybe, just maybe this time the Russians will replace this last unwelcome and unwanted remnant of the Cold War with a new, fresh face full of ideas and dedicated to the service of his people and not the maintenance of what’s left of a rotten and twisted mind.
Maybe try an ex-television actor/comedian who is willing to take up arms in defense of his country and his people. I stand and pray for Ukraine and I’m certain you do to.
Yes, indeed! This madman has to go and perhaps the Russian people will recognize and have the gumption to get rid of him and replace him with someone who does not belong in a sanatorium.