Truth is Stranger than Fiction

Like so many in the world today I have to remind myself daily that the shitstorm going on around me is actual reality. Real live Life. Crazier than anything Hollywood has cooked up, more dystopian and sinister than a Bond movie written by Cormac McCarthy. And so my normal habit of dismissing conspiracy theories as too ridiculous to have merit has come to a screeching halt. In fact, I have a few of my own surrounding recent events in our government and the world. Here, for your amusement, is my latest:

For this bit, the part of Putin shall be played by you, the reader. Trump has been installed as POTUS through a complex series of propaganda attacks, election/ballot machine and database hacking, plus some good timing and luck. He is, of course, an invaluable asset for you, and you've got so much dirt on him that a fleet of backhoes couldn't dig him out from under your thumb. A former KGB agent's wet dream: your mole is the King of the Moles, and you'll do anything to keep this guy in office. He's the best thing to happen to Russia since vodka. And you're so ethically and morally bankrupt you didn't even need a good reason to be nefarious, but you've got a damn good one here.

That's you behind the Iron Curtain, wizarding your Oz.

You're already entrenched in Syria. Your man Trump desperately, DESPERATELY needs a distraction - a dog to wag that's big enough to make people forget, even temporarily, that he's bought and paid for by a zillion different factions. You coordinate a chemical weapons attack, ostensibly carried out by the Assad regime, to take the heat off in the States, to give Trump an opportunity to seem decisive, presidential, and independent of his puppet master (That's you. Remember, you're Putin in this narrative). You order the attack. Your men dutifully carry it out. The world is outraged. As a bonus, they will for a time stop talking about your penchant for using nerve gas on YOUR citizens. Win win! Now, Trumpy can bomb the shit out of some airfields or warehouses that you've already evacuated and you can retaliate somehow, escalating the hostilities until your primary objective is fulfilled. Trump can appear to have stood up to you, you can appear to have stared him right back down, and you will both benefit from a fleeting boost to your approval ratings. 

And this was from a year ago. Deja vu anyone?

Okay. You're not Putin anymore. Sorry to do that to you, but it was an efficient way to get you to where I was.

Aside from the obvious, I have another concern about this completely likely scenario playing out, and it involves chess. Putin thinks several moves ahead in his game, while Trump wants to know why you can't just play checkers instead. I can see Putin and Assad moving some chemical weapon components to likely air strike targets, then claiming the U.S. used chemical weapons in their attack. It's not likely to gain much traction, and it's only one of the things an enemy could do when they're given advance warning of attacks (see previous post) but it's a possibility. Unfortunately, even if Trump is doing all this unwittingly - being led around by the nose by someone much craftier than he - it's all to easy to goad him into predictable reactions. Fact. And he keeps firing everyone who attempts to check his foolishness. Every day that goes by with this guy in charge is a crapshoot, and I'm not that kind of gambler. I don't think most Americans are.