Alexei Navalny, opponent of Russia’s President,Vladimir Putin, was arrested, tried, convicted and sentenced on charges of “extremism” by Putin’s regime. Navalny was in custody of Putin’s dictatorship. On 2/16 Navalny “felt unwell after a walk” & lost consciousness. [FN1] 1/11

In a video hearing the previous day, Navalny smiled behind the bars of a cell and made jokes. [FN2] There are several points in Mr Navalny’s case relevant to us in the USA.
1: trump takes marching orders from Putin, who calls the tunes. Eric trump in 2014 said: 2/11

“Well, we don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia.” [FN3]. Putin uses kompromat & probably has videos of trump. They have to be more than “pee tapes.” I think they have to be snuff films. 3/11

2: trump cannot afford an election in November. The money is irrelevant. SCOTUS in Citizens United gave anonymity of campaign donations protection under the First Amendment. Cash is no problem for foreign powers that see a chance to buy our gov’t slipping away. 4/11

3: Red State governors dispatched National Guard units to Texas. The flow of arms into those groups and calling out “private militias” to help could already be in motion.
4: trump has said the 2024 election will be the “final battle.” [FN4] 5/11

We are not on the sidelines. One example of a far right “reach” is described today by Prof Sheila Kennedy. S.B. 202 in Indiana’s General Assembly requires State universities to “‘deny, limit, or terminate [] employment to faculty if certain conditions [] are not met.” [FN5] 6/11

Der Third Reich tried to force German society into national socialism. {FN6] That did not go well. Hint: the thousand-year reich lasted a little over 12 years. The KKK ran Indiana in the 1920s. Its members didn’t melt away when their leader was convicted of homicide. 7/11

I leave you with these words from Aleksei Navalny: “Listen, I’ve got something very obvious to tell you. You’re not allowed to give up. If they decide to kill me, it means that we are incredibly strong.” Just because we’re pacifists doesn’t mean we’re doormats. Vote! 8/11

Footnotes:
FN1. Heintz, Navalny died while taking a walk, according to Russian prison authorities,” AP, 02/16/2024.
FN2. Hopkins and Kramer, “Aleksei Navalny, Russian Opposition Leader, Dies in Prison at 47,” New York Times, 02/16/2024. 9/11

Footnotes:
FN3. Firozi, “Eric Trump in 2014: ‘We have all the funding we need out of Russia,” The Hill, 05/07/17.
FN4. “Why it matters ...” MSNBC, 01/15/24. See also: “What happens after...?” Washington Post, 11/20/23; “[t]rump describes 2024 ...as ‘the final battle,’” The Guardian, 03/26/23. 10/11

Footnotes:
FN5. Sheilakennedy.net/2024/02/attacking-education/ 02/17/24.
FN6. See, Evans, “The Third Reich in Power,” 2005 ed., pp. 291-302. 11/11