The Three Kings
I'd Say "The Three Stooges" But That Would Be An Insult to The Stooges
We live in a time of the Three Kings. Putin, Xi, and Trump. (The latter is still working on his coronation, but he’s very much in the game.) Far from just offering observers opportunities for hyperbole (well, hyperbole today, reality tomorrow), these three are providing an essential service to the broader world. Together, they open windows into the sinister workings of autocrats the world over.
Autocrats, famous for their control of all information outlets - and for generating much of the content these emit - have been able to avoid having their natural, sinister, buffoonery exposed to their people and each other. Trump, as he scrambles to legitimize his dictatorship, in the midst of a free press, has opened this window, into how autocrat’s connive, wide. In this Trump is providing the world an exquisite, high quality, view into why autocrats are useless to the societies they control, or seek to control.
As the world looks in, it sees how utterly foreign autocrats are compared to real people. People who work for a living.
Three Kings, Three Windows
The China Window: Yet Another Chinese Emperor
Xi's holy war, against the world order that facilitated China's rise, is made of the same cloth as Trump-Vance's holy war against the US system that facilitated their rise. These childish boys evolve a belief system which enables them to believe they are special. This specialness is essential to creating the mindset which enables them to treat people as expendable tools.
In Xi’s China, success for Xi has been measured by each ratchet-click up the control spectrum. Xi, eliminated term limits for the CCP’s top leader. Click. Xi used the Covid crises in China as a way to enhance party control of the population (rather than address the actual crises). Click. Xi made himself emperor for life, shutting down any oxygen China may have inhaled around the promise of useful political change. Click.
Xi proceeded to tell his captives, the Chinese people, to “buy more stuff”, while simultaneously refusing the establish a safety net for those Chinese needing one: the elderly, the sick, the young. Instead of investing in people, Xi invested in his vision. A vision straight out of the 1990’s: export-led growth.
This “vision-cum-hallucination” insisted that China could and would use its power of cost-free subsidies to expand China’s manufacturing to the point where its survival demanded that other industrial nations willingly de-industrialize. Xi likes to make god laugh, and China’s target markets raise tariffs. This bumbling “policy” has caused in Xi’s prey (the US, Europe, Japan, et al) to raise tariffs on Xi’s de-industrialization aims. Xi, now has an expanding inventory of highly subsidized, unsold, Electric Vehicles (and related goods), which he cannot export.
The actual path for China future lay in two parallel directions. First, China was poised to join the world order as a powerful, capable, ally to the Chinese people, and the West. The way, however imperfect, was cleared. Simply following the path of progress would have altered the world order in China’s favor. The major player in the global order, the US, had prepared the way! Second, China was supposed to modernize its political system, trending towards a more democratic ideal.
This latter goal fell to Xi. Xi, steeped in the losers’ history of China’s empires and emperors, chose to believe that the reflection he saw in the mirror was both Mao and every emperor of China’s past. Not showing up in this reflection was reality. Reality, as Jefferson pointed out, was in the direction of freedom and liberty. Indeed, China’s prosperity came as a result of democracy’s emergence from millennia of autocratic idiocy: Pharaohs, Kings, Princes, Popes, Dictators, Imams, Emperors, Generals, and the like.
Xi, because he has failed to establish a free press, independent judiciary, or an ensure free and fair elections, has been able to snuff out honest reporting, and public evaluation, of his foolishness. This snuffing out is a feature of autocracy. The weak men who emerge at the top of these shaky pyramids (see: Egypt’s pharaohs, et al ), cannot engage at an honest level with either their minions or “their” people, because their weakness - a craving for the power of self-adoration - informs them of the unlikely outcomes should they behave like adults.
Xi, a weak strongman, has conjured weakness into China’s economy from the position of strength he inherited. He started by over-incentivizing China’s real estate sector. Followed this by intimidating China’s technology sector. Then opted to expand his control of China politically during Covid, then stumbled forward (inertia is a bitch) into over-subsidizing China’s EV sector. Sitting atop this effort to crumple China’s competitive advantage, Xi is now forced to entertain the machinations of one who would join him atop this autocratic pyramid of idiocy: one Donald J Trump.
Trump (and this is where the window opens wide) joins the autocrat’s struggle to make us all dumber, and poorer, by embracing tariffs the way a 5-year-old embraces Mickey Mouse, excessively and with little understanding of what’s inside, and adds, in generous proportion, the unwelcome ingredient of erraticism. This Trump-formula has tanked a vibrant US economy, sent the shivers of ultimatums across the globe, and awaits re-industrialization of the US economy the way this same 5-year-old awaits Santa. As Trump spends down US resiliency, the future which the US has owned for the last 80 years, acquires risk.
So bold in Trump. So, um, bold.
Buffoonery is exposed, with each step these autocrats take.
Putin’s Russia Window
Let’s move now to King Putin’s window. In it we see the early days of Putin leading up to the current day. Like Xi, Putin also had the option of modernizing Russia’s legacy political and economic system. Somewhat unlike Xi, Putin emerged into his position among a budding democratization process, albeit in a country that has zero tradition of personal freedom. Still, there was an emergent free press. Emergent free and fair elections, and an emergent independent judiciary.
Putin showed his stars were not aligned with the future, but with the past. A past that presented Russians an hapless serfs and willing victims of both Czarist excesses and those of the oligarchy. Arguably, Russia’s future and opportunities were to be found among the institutions of the West through a process of integration. Poised in the 2000’s to launch an emerging technology sector into a future in which technology would generate so much of what composes “today”, Russia had a foundation which would place it in acceptable competition with the West and with China.
Putin, opted for the gold in the ground approach to compose “his” Russia - an imaginary world. Exploiting Russia’s natural resources mesmerized Putin and animated his slow, steady, grip on power. By minimizing Russia’s emerging economic capacities, and emphasizing only what the Tzar could eat, Putin lodged Russia in the global framework of a nascent economic force, as a commodity player.
Putin’s tools for building his vision of “Russian Greatness” were not the tools of advanced economies, but of commodity economies. Economies which rise or fall not based on broad-based innovation, but dependent on the appetites other nations have for its oil and gas.
Putin, originator of the “Drill, baby, drill!” policy, mimicked Xi’s ratchet. Except, instead of having a proficient civil service, Putin needed to build his governing infrastructure on corruption and graft. Thwarting the emergent democratic processes required jailing all viable opponents. Click. And required Putin to farm his own “opponents” which would be his willing minions. Click. It required eroding the emergent free press. Click. And it required eliminating any shred of an independent judiciary. Click.
Putin’s ratchet required something more though. Because Putin is guided by fantasy, his “vision” required re-establishing an empire that never was. Acquiring the countries which “escaped” the Russian grip when the Soviet Union disintegrated was not a message to Putin about the failure of autocracy, but a map towards Putin-greatness. So armed with commodities and a thirst fed by fantasy, Putin aimed his gas station with nuclear weapons at Ukraine.
We can agree that we are not observing “genius” either from Xi or Putin. Clearly, if Putin had chosen a more rational path in his early years, Russia would likely have a relationship with Ukraine that was nearer to pre-Trumpian US-Canada relations. A relationship which generated wealth and friendship instead of a body count measured in children’s lives.
Autocrats’ capacity to visit death on their own people and others’ is a feature, not a bug. The separate and cumulative effect of autocratic moves - not quite policies - make everyone poorer, places them in direct contact with unnecessary death, and ratchet’s down humanity’s general capacity for survival.
Trump’s Amsterdam Window: A “red light district” all its own
Trump’s elevation to the US presidency in 2025, marked something autocrats were not expecting. Mainly, someone so enamored with dictatorship that he would actually try to instantiate one in the midst of a free press, independent judiciary, and free and fair elections. Even for autocrats this is as dumb as it is revealing. Trump added his own aura to make it tawdry as well.
In Trump’s window, we see an energetic autocrat weaving his moves - not policies - to take over the country, clearly. Trump’s ratchet aims to accomplish his takeover in three moves. First, he works to remove the '“power of the purse” from the Congress by removing the mechanism for making Congress’ will known, the Treasury’s Bureau of Payments System (BPS), from Congress. Second, he declares the law to be something the president can define. Third, he seeks to populate the entities which control the US capacity for coercion with people who care little for the US Constitution and much for a cheapening-commodity known as Trump-loyalty.
Trump’s Musk-efforts to control the power of the purse will live or die on the hill where Congress is empowered to say “no”. Here, the Republican Congress refuses to use its voice to save the Republic. Trump’s ham-fisted clamor to wrest the powers invested in Congress and place them in the fist of the Executive displays the quiet desperation of the bully. Trump can only succeed here if his congressional minions, in broad daylight and in front of the window, fail to do their job.
Congress’ simple remedy is to simply state that the mechanisms housed in Treasury which comprise the US payments system is Legislative Branch property. This removes the impoundment mechanism, Trump is using to violate the Constitution, from Trump’s greedy hands.
Trump’s efforts to become King Louis XIV’s “l’estate cest moi!” (I am the state), presents the judicial branch with more opportunity than hinderance. As Trump attempts to assert that he can snatch Americans off the street and send them to foreign prisons, the Courts are challenged with easy wins. The Declaration, understanding what a composition of tyranny is, can help focus the Judicial mind: (recall that history rhymes, it does not repeat like a TV re-run, or a Trump rally)
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power. (Hegseth, is no accidental minion.)
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes (Tariffs) on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, (Jan 6)
When tyranny composes itself before even the eyes of the Judiciary, the effort to strike down such malevolence is near to hand. A failure of the Judiciary to do that which is easy, because to requires bravery and honor, will damage the United States in ways that tyranny only seeks. Are we a nation of laws, or of men?
Trump has populated the coercive elements of our government (Defense, Intelligence, Justice, Homeland) with persons who are loyal to Trump primarily and to the Constitution only where it sates this loyalty.
There is no honor to be found among a Justice department which easily deports the undefended, admits its mistake, and lacks the character to rectify the situation. Honor is an essential substance of the law. Trump’s need for loyalty, and Bondi’s desire to provide it, pushes honor, and thus the law, aside.
In the conduct of our foreign affairs, Trump performs his obeisance to the kings he holds most in reverence - Putin, Xi. Trump’s ante with Xi, granting Putin recognition in Crimea, serves up Taiwan as an enticement. Oddly, as Trump is demonstrating, by handing Putin his war goals against Ukraine, each gets their validation from what they are willing to give to the other kings.
There is an epic misunderstanding here. A kind of blindness necessary to the role of autocrat: Autocrats, do not have allies. They only have transactions.
Trump, always seeking to one-up the other guys, does. He has explained to the world that his preference for companionship exists in Moscow, and if possible, Beijing. Certainly world leaders, elected or not, can have preferences. However, given that we are limited to the one planet, its in most people’s interests to understand what those in possession of having the option of preferences, inflicts therefrom, on the rest of us.
Trump, by supporting Putin, has told Ukraine, and any other country with ears that having nuclear weapons is essential to sovereignty. Trump indicated his pro-proliferation preference during his first term when he withdrew from the pact which limited Iran’s nuclear program. He re-emphasized this preference when he withdrew from the medium-range missile compact with Russia. This latter withdrawal tacitly allowed Russia to pursue its goals to introduce medium-range (in-theater) nuclear weapons to the world. Which it has done.
Trump has indeed one-upped both Putin and Xi in his lackadaisical, erratic, approach to power. Though it may be, and likely is, that Trump’s approach appears lackadaisical and erratic because he is performing autocracy in front of a free press, which reveals Trump to be what he is.
Trump takes avoidable distraction and makes it a functional characteristic. Distracted by his tariffs. Distracted by the reactions to his tariffs. Distracted by his attack on civil society. Distracted by his distractions, Trump weaves his incompetence into the fabric of all he touches. Such is reported hourly by the press, providing a full view of “autocrats in action”.
If Xi or Putin had a free press, and the necessary enablers of it (independent judiciary, free elections), they too would be so exposed.
This tawdry erraticism is “winning”, as authored by Trump.
Xi's not budging on tariffs stem from Xi's belief that the US is in decline, and China can just wait it out. Trump, because he is as impatient as childishness permits, desperately needs a deal. Not because he will make a good deal, but because he needs to make some deal so he can sell it to his devoted and so sustain their devotion.
The sell is already underway as Trump episodically declares that Xi has reached out to Trump to reduce Trump’s tariff (tax) crises which Trump unnecessarily created. Guess who has the upper hand? Xi, mumbling to himself, adjusts tariffs to cover his own economic failures.
Overall, Trump’s time in leadership has witnessed the launch of the quixotic - in a delusional sense (though he is also going after windmills). Since Trump first emitted about immigration, claimed his dealmaking during 1.0 would cause American manufacturing to reemerge triumphant, or froze during the COVID crisis (inject disinfectant??!!), Trump’s pronouncements have disbursed like dust in the stiff breeze of reality.
See, for example, Trump’s declaration that Foxxcon’s Wisconsin factory would be the “eighth wonder of the world”. Trump’s manufacturing emissions fade like the sound of a distant gong.
All have in common the same kernel of energy - mired in the impatience of youth and untethered to the wisdom of age - Trump’s unwarranted actions which compose a deification of himself.
Since we know, and can see, now, in the 21st century, in the global sense, what autocrats are, and what enduring harm they can do and actually seek to do, is it not time to more purposefully, after so many centuries, eliminate autocracy?
Another Window Opens?
Historically, great leaders (Washington, Lincoln, King) provide people with examples of why leadership, tethered to honor, is important. Similarly, leaders who opt for the autocratic side, provide people with examples of why surrendering to these autocrats (Putin, Xi, Trump) is a horrible exercise in self-harm. (Musk may be learning this now.)
It may be that when autocrats are emerging, everything they touch turns to garbage. We did not see this with Putin or Xi, because they did away with any element of a free press. Trump, on the other hand, is exposed, daily to the results of his Trump-competence.
This service autocrats are providing humanity is special. Combined with today’s technology, no era of human struggle has had such a clear view into the pure folly, waste, and unnecessary death, autocrats generate. Generate as a matter of course. Intentional catastrophes which impoverish millions (Stalin, Mao), bring death and injury to millions (Putin, Hitler), and performative egomania (Trump, Putin, Xi) which inspire minions and repulse, as a policy outcome, all human honor.
This is not a moment to be wasted.
Unlike rebellions of the past, even America’s own, the reach of collective human revulsion at these autocrats is unprecedented. Unseating these kings can open up a new frontier across our planet. A frontier with opportunity, liberty, and freedom as real probabilities, no longer only possibilities, for all. The opportunity for freedom and liberty becomes boundless as autocrats and autocracy decompose.
The autocrats have, throughout human history, spent great energy, fortunes (not theirs), and lives (also, not theirs) holding closed this window on freedom and liberty. We can now see, globally, thanks to global technology, and these three Kings, (special thanks to Trump) how feckless and frightened these autocrats are.
Frightened of elections. Trembling over a free press. Shocked by an independent judiciary. Each a common, necessary, element of the adult world - elections, a free press, and an independent judiciary. (Not Frightened, Trembling and Shock. Just too be clear.) To these necessary components of the adult world, they lash out like spoiled, malevolent, children. Like the Dickensian children, Ignorance and Want, liberally applying either or both to whatever situation they encounter.
The blueprints for composing improved societies from the ruins of Putin’s Russia, Xi’s China, and Trump’s America are all here, waiting to be implemented by populations willing to be free of the autocratic idiocy which has animated not only our today and threaten our tomorrows, but have plagued all of human history.
Is this the time to change the narrative of the human race? With all eyes on these autocratic performers, the human audience can react in a relatively unified manner: Dump the bums.
There's no upside to the machinations of autocrats. Trump, because the free press light in his window shows him to be what he is - incompetent - is just like Xi, who is just like Putin. It’s buffoons all the way down. The latter two have the advantage of not being exposed as buffoons publicly because they have prevented the rise of a free press, independent judiciary, and free elections. But as Trump has shown us, they are guided by the same scripts, and are each, equally, idiots.
The choices they have made are not the choices which advance their nations’ people, only a small slice of their people: Putin, his oligarchs. Xi his CCP-elite. And Trump, his Inaugural Donors and hangers on. And so their self-dealing actions, qualifications, and presences, are all, equally, surplus to the requirements of the human race.
With sufficient local movements in opposition to these autocrats, a new avalanche can emerge and its energy can snap the capacity of autocrats for all time - or much time - we are, after all, human.