To Russia with love

 So I looked up at the TV last night, and I saw USA! USA! was leading an Olympic hockey game 2-0, and then I saw who had the "0". And I thought "Hey, look! We're beating the Russians again in hockey!"

Which we were.

But it wasn't Mike Eruzione and them this time.

And it wasn't "Russia," either, at least not officially. 

This is because it was the USA! USA! women's team, which more resembles the 1980 Soviet juggernaut than the Eruziones. And the team they were beating (the Eruziones in this scenario) was  not Russia but the Russian Olympic Committee team. 

Officially, see, Russia is banned from the Games, and has been since 2017, when it was discovered that Putin and his corrupt totalitarian state were engaged in a government-sponsored doping program. So the International Olympic Committee -- a medical miracle that somehow walks upright without a spine -- said "No soup for you!"

OK, so not really.

Actually, the IOC didn't ban anyone. It simply told the Russians they couldn't display their national flag or play their national anthem at the Games. Instead, they must compete under the generic Olympic flag.

The Russians' imagined response, as they laughed behind their hands: "Oooh! That's so harsh!"

And then proceeded to march in the opening ceremonies and compete just like always.

The Blob thinks this is ridiculous. 

The Blob also admits to a certain bias against the Russians, those lying pushers-around of weaker nations and/or athletic entities.

I suppose I could see my way past this if so many of our elected representatives weren't such Russian fanboys and girls themselves.  But certain reps actually seem to admire Putin and his thug-ocracy, going so far as to take his side against the nation they allegedly serve.

First and foremost among those, of course, is the Former Guy, who spent four years taking Putin's word over that of his own intelligence community. Now Former Guy's acolytes seem to have taken up his standard.

The other day, for instance, a video popped up on Russian state TV of North Carolina representative Madison Cawthorn, an ardent Trumpist, praising the Russian military while denigrating our own. Meanwhile, Donald Trump Fredo Corleone Jr. says he thinks our intelligence community is "lying to us" about a potential Russian cyberattack

So here's the son of a former American president calling American intelligence liars. Which means by simple logic he's taking the word of  a former KGB goon on whose watch close to 30 journalists and more than a few political opponents have died under, shall we say, mysterious circumstances.

The Russians had a phrase for people like this, back in their Soviet days. They called them "useful idiots."

Putin, on the other hand, no doubt nodded approvingly when he heard about Cawthorn and Fredo.

"There's my good poodles," you can imagine him saying.

And then he waved a Russian flag while watching all those not-Russians compete not for Russia in Beijing.

What a world.