POWER CORRUPTS, AND ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY

SNOWY MORNING

ENGLAND'S KING HENRY II

RUSSIAN PREMIER VLADIMIR PUTIN

Tuesday, 7:30 AM.  18 degrees F, wind variable, with light gusts.  The sky has a low overcast and it is snowing moderately, with several inches of fluffy snow on the driveway.  The humidity is 90% and the barometer is still falling, now at 29.74".  Buddy and I are waiting for a break in the snowfall to take our walk without getting too wet.  We may wait in vain, as the weather teeters on the brink of getting nasty. We will have to shovel snow at some point.
   A major opposition figure in Russia is assassinated, and Prime Minister Putin vows to investigate the crime.  That is tantamount to the fox investigating the disappearance of chickens from the henhouse.
   Did Putin actually order the murder of Boris Nemtsov?  I would guess not, as he is far to clever for that.  But kings, dictators and others with absolute authority do not have to actually order their own skulduggery.  It is enough to say in the presence of their sycophants, "Please, somebody, do something about this situation.  But don't tell me anything about what you are going to do," and lo' and behold, the thing will be done, and if anyone is caught in a subsequent investigation it will be the lowest hireling on the event chain.
   In 1170, King Henry II of England, who had been jousting for years over church/state matters with the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Beckett (a particular thorn in Henry's royal posterior), said loud enough for his knights to hear, "Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest?"
   Sure enough, four of them set out for Canterbury, and there killed the archbishop, right in the sanctuary of the cathedral.   The assailants were given a rough time by both church and state but were really never brought to justice, and King Henry ended up doing penance, but he was rid of his nemesis.
   I am certain that if Putin doesn't know English history, there are examples enough in Russian history to have given him the idea of how to safely rid himself of Nemtsov.
   Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.