The Analysis has the video Matt Taibbi on Putin the Apostate.

And as I said Matt’s done a great piece about the rise of Putin, and here he is. Now joining us is Matt Taibbi. He’s an award-winning investigative reporter, was a contributing editor at Rolling Stone magazine and writes a top written column on Substack. Thanks very much for joining me, Matt.

Of course I don’t agree with everything that has been said here, but it is food for a lot of thought.

I had no idea of Matt Taibbi’s history with and in Russia.

I think part of the explanation of Putin’s adventure in the Ukraine is understood by referring to Greenberg’s Law of Idle Threats.

Never make a threat you don’t intend to carry out. If you have any doubts about your ability to carry out the threat, do not make it.

Corollary:

If you never test the opposition about whether they make idle threats, then you enable them to ignore this law.