Everything Is Upside Down August 25, 2025 THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW WATCH RUSSIAN television or listen to Vladimir Putin’s chilling speeches, and Russia is a besieged fortress, struggling to preserve humanity against the decadent West, defending the traditional values of family life, and defying death by its readiness to sacrifice life. Walk down Moscow streets, however, and it looks nothing like a city in the grip of a death cult. But neither did Berlin in the early 1940s, with its cabarets and heady consumption. . . . For many the war is being fought “somewhere over there” by people who freely signed contracts and have been paid to die, says Alexei Venediktov, the editor of the now-banned Ekho Moskvy radio station. . . . Russia is a besieged fortress . . . Ukraine started the war . . . Russia never helped Trump get elected. Up is down, down is up. Trump has purged one of the CIA’s most senior Russia analysts: “The move will have a chilling effect inside American spy agencies.” But autocrat Putin — who shuts down press outlets and murders journalists — is Trump’s friend and role model. He’s been long maligned by the American press just as Trump has. Oh, the press! America’s reverence for an independent press has been expressed many ways . . . Benjamin Franklin: “Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freedom of speech.” Thomas Jefferson: “Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.” Walter Cronkite: “Freedom of the press is not just important to democracy, it is democracy.” . . . but has never been universally shared: Josef Stalin, Joseph Goebbels, Donald Trump, Kim Jong Un: “The press is the enemy of the people.” After 250 years, we’re suddenly on the side of the autocrats. Up is down, down is up. Slave labor — legal in Virginia for 244 years, illegal for 162 — went a great long way toward making America economically great in the first place (and built the White House) but is suddenly not something to make such a big deal about. Up is down, down is up. Grabbing women by the pussy? Just remember what we were taught as kids: It’s okay if you’re a celebrity — they let you do it! And if they try to fight you off? Just lie and say it never happened! (Though it unquestionably did.) Up is down, down is up. Indeed, lie about anything. Overwhelm them. Alternative facts. Loyalty over competence. Obedience over integrity. Exigency over excellence. Rule by fear. It is 2025 — verging on 1984. When in the course of human events it becomes possible for one narcissistic sociopath to amass limitless wealth and power, ruling by fear and decree over all 50 states, Puerto Rico, Guam, the US Virgin Islands, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, Canada, Greenland, and the District of Columbia . . . a decent respect for the opinions of mankind requires that . . . Everything is upside down! Our job is to get it rightside up. Join Indivisible. Fund the opposition. Spread DIS-disinformation. Robert Reich: We are watching what we never thought possible—the apparent transformation of our democracy into a dictatorship (or, as Donald Trump has promoted, a monarchy with him as king). You may be feeling helpless, powerless . . . but you are not. Tyranny cannot prevail over people who refuse to succumb to it. . . . Ultimately, what happens to our country will come down to our own courage and resolve: To engage in peaceful protest. To organize and mobilize others. To work against hate and bigotry. To fight for justice and democracy. Have a great week.