Putin's Stooge

Imagine that Vladimir Putin got his personally selected stooge elected President of the United States. What sort of things would a Putin Stooge President do?

This stooge would without question proceed to destroy all of America's relationships with allies, but would cozy up to brutal dictators to get people used to the idea that dictators are the really good people in the world.

The stooge would do his best to disrupt the work of congress. Doing flip-flops on positions after weeks of work, badmouthing congressional leaders, and undercutting the work of congress at every chance.

The stooge wouldn't stop with disrupting congress, he would also try to disrupt the justice system by calling it a joke and trying to control investigations. And don't forget appointing totally unqualified morons as judges to make sure the damage will last for years.

The stooge would try to divide Americans internally by praising Nazis and white supremacists. Calling for police to be more brutal. Waxing lyrical about the honorable south in the civil war. Even inspiring boy scouts to someday own yachts where they could hold sex parties.

The stooge would try to destroy as many American institutions as possible, appointing a leader of the EPA who wants to poison everyone in the country, a leader of the education department who is in favor of total ignorance for all, a leader of the interior department who wants to clear cut and strip mine all of America's park system and federal lands. He would fire all the scientists and replace them with radio talk show hosts.

He would start a phony investigation into nonexistent voter fraud as a front for ramping up efforts to disenfranchise those who might vote against him and his fellow travelers.

It almost goes without saying that the stooge would act rude and imbecilic at all times in order to demean the office of the President.

The stooge would refuse to fill thousands of federal posts to make it impossible for the federal government to operate effectively.

The stooge would deny Russia ever did anything and try his best to stop or obstruct any investigations of Russian activities.

The stooge would actually try to kill off some of the American population by making it much more difficult for them to get effective health care.

The stooge would conduct an all out war against the media to make it difficult for the American people to find out this is all happening.

Possibly the most insidious of all: The stooge would create a soul destroying climate for all federal workers, leading the best of them (the ones who have principles, for instance) to leave government service forever. Most of the career diplomats gone, most of the scientific experts gone. Hundreds of thousands of man years of accumulated experience, flushed down the sewer.

After reading this, it might be instructive to read about Occam's Razor to see if you can identify any real life candidates who might be Putin's stooge.

A hint:

Matching shirts? Really?

Awww, Look! How precious! Another brutal dictator, another set of matching shirts. Doesn't it make you just want to puke your guts out?

And if you think I'm just a paranoid conspiracy theorist, I'm not the only one, and some have done a lot more research than I have, like this article by Jonathan Chait.