This is about Vladimir Putin — one in a long line of bullies, murderers, sadists and garden variety sickos that have soiled humanity with their odious presence.

They prey on the weak and defenseless — those easily intimidated and with fewer resources and strength to retaliate. Hitler, Mussolini, Pol Pot, Kim Il-sung and his spawn Kim Jong-un are modern vintages.

Th U.S. has had its own parade of bullies, though in government none as notorious as the above. Joe McCarthy, Nixon henchman Haldeman and Ehrlichman, Derek Chauvin, who murdered George Floyd, were all the kind of bullies high school freshmen encounter.

All of these share two common traits — they intimidate, and, when encountering a force equal or greater they cave. In Texas they call this “All hat, no cattle.” In this writer’s Army days it was ‘Rhinoceros mouth and hummingbird a**.” The bravado lasts only as long as it goes unchallenged.

On the opposite end of the spectrum are Teddy Roosevelt, George Patton, Churchill, Dwight Eisenhower, Howard Baker, Sam Ervin, Ronald Reagan and most recently Volodymyr Zelenskyy. His heroic bloodying of Putin’s nose and exposing the “vaunted” Russian military will mark a major turn in world history. He may lose his life for his country, but like so many before him what he stands for is of more value to him than a life cursed by cowardice or acquiescence.

Margaret Atwood famously wrote “As they say, history does not repeat itself but it does rhyme.” We are witnessing history made today rhyming with events nine decades past. An aggrieved sociopath is angered and tortured by perceived maltreatment by victors of a war, in this case the Cold War equates to World War I. He craves lands outside his borders to right the “wrongs” inflicted by war’s victors.

History unfolds daily and the parallels are heartrending, the casual indifference to horrific brutality, outright slaughter, is beyond comprehension. Women, children, the aged and all other innocents are at the altar of these subhuman pukes. They pretend to honor fine arts, ballets, classical music, etc. while their sights are focused on repression, power and domination.

As it was in the 1930s and into WWII, it is a small man with the Napoleon complex turning the world into chaos and mayhem. And, like his predecessor, Putin is aligned with an Asian harboring similar delusions with the fat punk in North Korea playing the Mussolini role. The X factor in this axis is Iran, murderous zealots who seem to enjoy beheading women, infidels (real or imagined), foreigners and journalists who may espouse a different belief system.

The gallantry and heroism of the Ukraine people, the generosity of their neighbors in providing succor and shelter and the absence of US leadership are stunning. Poland, Romania, the Baltics, Hungary and others reveal the depth of their humanity, aged Ukrainians remaining behind to fight for their homeland while the US sends its doofus veep to giggle in front of the world while sputtering non sequiturs.

Meanwhile the President is angered that he is being blamed for what he has wrought. His petulant whispering into microphones and faux outrage voiced in “C’mon man! Gimme a break,” provide chapter and verse to our allies and enemies that there is no steady, reliable leadership in the US.

We’ll have to wait to see if the rhyme continues. Biden is no Roosevelt, but NATO is more united than ever, Japan and Germany have awakened from their defense torpor even Sweden and Switzerland are off the fence.

Russia and China together are an alliance of murderers and liars. Both have quashed their own people sorely punishing any question about their governments. Can they count on each other? Probably not when the goods are on the line. When Russia gets desperate it might consider employing biological and/or nuclear weapons. It used biologics in Syria, Chechnya and Georgia. Such an act committed within the view of the whole world likely would complete the rhyme with Putin’s ignominious end, a la Saddam, Adolf and Benito. That would be a fitting end to a strutting, arrogant stool. Perhaps whatever sane element remains in the Kremlin will accomplish what Hitler’s inner circle failed to do. A palace coup in Russia? Putting down the rogue, the unbalanced? Either rhymes with history…