1. Trump-Putin are political reactionaries in criminal mode with a psychology to match, that of mafia chiefs with extensive systems of private patronage. Neither serves his nation; neither are lawful souls; both regard power as absolute and have emotional needs for being so. https://conflict-backchannels.com/2022/07/10/malignant-narcissistic-process-distilled/. The two have been covering (shame), lying (method), and presenting themselves as undamaged, unassailable, courageous, and heroic all their lives — but they know the truth and appear delusional and paranoid in concert with their malign narcissism. (more)
2. The end of the Cold War displaced somewhat the former Soviet spheres of control and influence in the world. The dogma that characterized “Communism” gave way to “”perestroika” only briefly–out of work KGB cab drivers wanted back in, and the got. The “Russian Mafia State” was born with an FSB in part resembling the old criminal secret political police enterprise–and those were aware of Trump in the 1970s. The same were also the sponsors anti-Semitism and terror and kleptocratic relationships with dictators throughout their earlier tenure. Under Putin, much survived. (more)
3. Among “habits of mind”, Soviet anti-Semitic cant and strategies had deep civilizational roots: https://conflict-backchannels.com/2021/02/01/ftac-endemic-russian-anti-semitism-a-note/. The same machinery has kept Jew hate alive through both secular and religious streams – pan-Arab Nationalism for some, Hamas and similar for others, although I believe it’s Hamas that most sustains the middle east frozen conflict as Moscow would have it. https://conflict-backchannels.com/2021/07/26/ftac-palestinian-kgb-the-palestinians-abused-and-plundered-by-their-own/.

DJT’s a developer . . . “deal maker” before and beyond anything else. For the purposes of defending himself in power, Trump has neutralized forces within the government, especially the FBI who had investigated him. He’s taken over the country in the way he knows: mafia-style. On X: #StateCapture / #StatePiracy.

So the Soviet’s gone and the west — the Atlantic Alliance and Israel — may have at hand a large distributed system of political criminality bearing down on the civilizational liberalism that has left an opening for leaders disturbed, myopic, and rapacious . . . emperors in their own heads boosted by those they favor and those who fear them.

I’m 70 and merely feel old.

I’ve been FB friends with Avi Melamed for years.

Most of the helpful minds in conflict studies please their already educated and informed–and critically thinking–audiences, but there’s a real problem in updating adverse cultures dependent on agitprop and political cant without an orientation beyond the authoritarianism and political repression that has channeled their attitudes and beliefs about the world.

“Cultural updating” and “cognitive warfare” are still arcane terms in relation to getting barbaric and medieval societies to change a little bit in the interests of their constituencies. Hamas, of course, doesn’t get it–and kingdoms fear chaos in the presence of weakened authority.

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For any new to BackChannels or curious about reacquaintance, “FTAC” generally refers to Facebook and the prompting conversations I have had on that platform. Basically, FB arguments and questions have prompted quite a bit of thought on my part. Over time, ideas and insights have become firm and stable (and I won’t back down, so goes the song).

Regarding Avi Melamed, we have had a Facebook acquaintance dating back to 2012 with a faltering correspondence — my fault too — petering out around the middle of October 2015. So much for “social media”. For all the humans, lol, there really is just one of each of us, and with Time having become the new Space, many with lives online — Entertainment! News! Shopping! Zoom! — have fully booked the Dimension.

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