Today, CBS News reported that the judicial arm of Putin’s regime had issued an arrest warrant for Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of the Russian dissident Alexey Navalny, who was murdered in Putin’s Gulag Archipelago. In their words:
“Russia on Tuesday announced an arrest warrant for Yulia Navalnaya, the exiled widow of the late Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny.
The country accused Navalnaya of participating in an "extremist organization." A court said it had "approved the request of the investigators and decided a preventive measure in the form of detention for two months." Little information about the charges was shared.
Fortunately, Navalnaya is not in Russia. So for now, she is not arrestable. However, she is a prime target for one of Putin’s traveling band of assassins.
This story would once have had no domestic relevance for Americans. America was a country of laws enshrined in the liberties guaranteed by the Constitution.
The good old days. But times change.
In 2016, Trump smirked with sociopathic benevolence as the adoring MAGA cultists chanted, “Lock her up, lock her up.” What was Hillary’s crime? She was his political opponent. After Trump won, the calls for her incarceration died down. Why? Because the American legal system requires evidence of a crime to charge someone with a crime.
At least it did.
Now, thanks to six Supreme Court Justices - three picked by Trump, two owned by billionaires, and one who gave up his career as an umpire to carry Trump’s water — a second-term Trump will not have to worry about the 5th and 6th Amendments and their protections for criminal defendants.
SCOTUS spat on the American ideal that no citizen was above the law - not even the President. And now Trump is free to lock up whoever he wants - for whatever reason - as long as he claims it is an “official act.” A claim this Court will rubber stamp with obeisant alacrity.
Liz Cheney and others may well be packing their bags for a country with no extradition treaty with the US. Trump has made no secret of his plans for her legal future. A week ago, the Putin wannabe retweeted social media posts calling for a televised military tribunal for Cheney and the jailing of top elected officials, including President Joe Biden and VP Kamala Harris.
He also reposted a ‘truth’ that included photos of Chuck Schumer, Mitch McConnell, Nancy Pelosi, Mike Pence and members of the House select committee that investigated the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol. The post said they should be going to jail instead of Steve Bannon.
Nor should anyone currently in Trump’s good graces think themselves safe in the new tyranny. Ernst Röhm, head of the Brown Shirts and Hitler’s fiercely loyal lieutenant was arrested by Adolf himself and extrajudicially executed on trumped up charges.
This is not a joke. Trump isn’t just saying the quiet part out loud. He is yelling it from the rooftops. As Maya Angelou said: “When someone shows you who they are, believe them.”
The Democrats better get their fecking act together and figure out how to win this election. If they do not, there is no guarantee there will be another one anytime soon.