re: #255 Targetpractice

It’s a strongman tactic as old as the idea of laws and corruption. Identify your political rivals, accuse them of “corruption” that hurts “the people/state/etc,” then use such to justify their incarceration and/or execution. Some regimes might go through the trouble of holding show trials where the accused are informed of their “crimes,” “evidence” of such introduced to shock and horrify the onlookers, and persons scared shitless of standing in the docket brought in as “witnesses” to said “crimes,” before summary judgement is handed out. Others just skip to having them drug out into the street and shot to save on the paperwork.

This was the central point of the conversation between Masha Gessen and Chris Hayes last night on Chris’s show. It’s exactly what Putin did, exactly what Stalin did. Of course one of the very first things Mao did 70 years ago was institute “anti-corruption” campaigns enabling the CCP to target and contain the business community and holdover bureaucrats. Don’t know if Trump comes to it naturally or has guidance—I’d say a little of both.