Do you honestly think Putin is a bad guy? (employment, lawyer, soldier)
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State control of media...have routinely tipped elections in the direction of Mr. Putin. Irregularities at the polls are widespread.
Autocracy is not the same form of government as representative government. A balance/separation of powers is not the same as oligarchy. The rule of law is not the same as corruption. Putin & his oligarchs control the FSB. They control the State media. They control the national economy.
And who controls American media? Angels?
During Russian elections, there were international election monitors, did they claim Putin didn't win?
During American elections, didn't the polls show Hillary won? Even the exit polls? Why isn't Hillary president?
As for this supposed balance/separation of powers, I'm not even sure what you are talking about. Why are a bunch of lawyers on the Supreme Court, balanced by a bunch of lawyers in Congress? And aren't the lawyers on the Supreme Court, chosen and confirmed by the president and Congress? On what basis do they choose their appointees?
In order to have a balance of powers, it would require multiple classes of people with opposing interests. A bunch of millionaires and billionaires making deals with each other is hardly a balance or a check on anything.
The oligarchs you refer to, are just the Russian billionaires. The CEO's of corporations. They have the power in Russia, because they have the money.
And who do you think has the power in America? You? Give me a break.
It is the same everywhere. Some are just more obvious than others.
No. He's an adversary looking our for his country's interests which sometimes conflict with ours. Sometimes he resorts to tactics that we use, to. That doesn't make him evil.
The Lenins, Stalins, Kruchevs, etc. who wanted to conquer the world and impose their ideology on everyone were bad people, not just adversaries.
Can't help but wonder what those posting from Russian social media operations would say if they could be honest.
They would have decidedly mixed feelings. Unlike Yeltsin, Putin isn't a drunkard and a tottering buffoon, who glibly presided over a collapse of the economy. Unlike Gorbachev, Putin isn't a befuddled idealist who watched 75 years of national ambition collapse, because he couldn't corral the forces that his "openness" unleashed. Unlike Brezhnev, Putin isn't a stuttering embalmed corpse sitting on the throne. The bar is pretty low, and Putin easily clears it. Cynics might opine, that by Russian standards, Putin is doing pretty well. Those cynics are the Russian mainstream.
But the smarter Russian social media posters would rue the misfortune, that a Putin is indeed about the best that Russia could produce. Western-minded liberal reformers totally bungled the "transition to democracy". The neo-Communists have nothing to offer, and haven't even been able to capture nostalgia for Soviet certainties and Soviet comforts. A leader in the Western style, where government at least theoretically is accountable to the people, where civil rights and property rights are taken as fundamental, where elections really are contested and often in doubt until the final counting, remains a chimerical dream. These smarter posters would realize, that whether or not Putin is cunningly scheming to subvert Western institutions and to turn them into something akin to what's the norm in Russia, Putin stands athwart of any effort to nudge Russia's institutions toward the Western model. So, while they may concur with the prevailing Russian opinion, that Putin is the best that's realistically possible, they would also very much bemoan that indeed this is all that's realistic.
During Russian elections, there were international election monitors, did they claim Putin didn't win?
During American elections, didn't the polls show Hillary won? Even the exit polls? Why isn't Hillary president?
As for this supposed balance/separation of powers, I'm not even sure what you are talking about. Why are a bunch of lawyers on the Supreme Court, balanced by a bunch of lawyers in Congress? And aren't the lawyers on the Supreme Court, chosen and confirmed by the president and Congress? On what basis do they choose their appointees?
In order to have a balance of powers, it would require multiple classes of people with opposing interests. A bunch of millionaires and billionaires making deals with each other is hardly a balance or a check on anything.
The oligarchs you refer to, are just the Russian billionaires. The CEO's of corporations. They have the power in Russia, because they have the money.
And who do you think has the power in America? You? Give me a break.
It is the same everywhere. Some are just more obvious than others.
^^^ Again, what-aboutism at its best.
No, we are not like Russia. No, we do not share the same philosophy of government. No, we do not have similar histories, and we sure as heck don't have similar interests as do the murderous Putin and his cronies.
They would have decidedly mixed feelings. Unlike Yeltsin, Putin isn't a drunkard and a tottering buffoon, who glibly presided over a collapse of the economy. Unlike Gorbachev, Putin isn't a befuddled idealist who watched 75 years of national ambition collapse, because he couldn't corral the forces that his "openness" unleashed. Unlike Brezhnev, Putin isn't a stuttering embalmed corpse sitting on the throne. The bar is pretty low, and Putin easily clears it. Cynics might opine, that by Russian standards, Putin is doing pretty well. Those cynics are the Russian mainstream.
But the smarter Russian social media posters would rue the misfortune, that a Putin is indeed about the best that Russia could produce. Western-minded liberal reformers totally bungled the "transition to democracy". The neo-Communists have nothing to offer, and haven't even been able to capture nostalgia for Soviet certainties and Soviet comforts. A leader in the Western style, where government at least theoretically is accountable to the people, where civil rights and property rights are taken as fundamental, where elections really are contested and often in doubt until the final counting, remains a chimerical dream. These smarter posters would realize, that whether or not Putin is cunningly scheming to subvert Western institutions and to turn them into something akin to what's the norm in Russia, Putin stands athwart of any effort to nudge Russia's institutions toward the Western model. So, while they may concur with the prevailing Russian opinion, that Putin is the best that's realistically possible, they would also very much bemoan that indeed this is all that's realistic.
Unlike any of his admittedly flawed predecessors, Putin is a sociopath, and a very clever one.
No. He's an adversary looking our for his country's interests which sometimes conflict with ours. Sometimes he resorts to tactics that we use, to. That doesn't make him evil.
The Lenins, Stalins, Kruchevs, etc. who wanted to conquer the world and impose their ideology on everyone were bad people, not just adversaries.
Missed out on what happened to Ukraine over the last three years, did you?
Like loves to watch child pornography and rape children bad? Seems there is an endless amount of hate against him when at worst he's guilty of having his friends make facebook posts against Hillary.
1. Putin is a former KGB agent; therefore, to call Putin vermin of the vilest kind is to pay him a compliment. He’s a murderer.
2. Are you being paid by cousin Vlad to spread good things about him? If so, forget about it. The cult might fall for it but a lot of other people won’t.
3. Just because Trump is being blackmailed by Russia doesn’t mean I’m going to think that the Russians are “good people”.
4. Yes, I do believe Trump is being BLACKMAILED by the Russians.
No, we are not like Russia. No, we do not share the same philosophy of government. No, we do not have similar histories, and we sure as heck don't have similar interests as do the murderous Putin and his cronies.
All governments are pursuing the same ends. The difference in means is the result of different circumstances.
You are not free. Or at least, you are only free to do "good". The moment your freedom threatens the interests of the "state", you will cease to be free.
To whatever extent that your freedom is either real, or an illusion, is only to the extent that your perceived freedom is beneficial to the state.
If the state could become more powerful by enslaving you, you would be a slave. The most-powerful state rules the rest. Thus, if slavery created power, then slave-states would always conquer free-states, until there were no free-states left(IE most of pre-industrial history).
We didn't win WWII with freedom and democracy. We won it with guns, and bombs, and money. And the soldiers weren't volunteers, they were conscripts, forced to fight "for their country". And conscription is just another form of slavery.
If you imagine Russia as an institution, or an organism. It needs to do certain things to survive. It needs to be able to defend itself. And in a Darwinian world, it needs to become as powerful as possible.
And not just Russia, but everyone. America needs to be as powerful as possible. China needs to be as powerful as possible. Saudi Arabia needs to be as powerful as possible. And power, in this world, comes mostly from money. Which is why the #1 priority for all governments is "economic growth".
Whatever evils you think Russia is committing, they are doing so only out of necessity. Putin isn't the devil, he is just another Machiavellian, in a long line of Machiavellians.
The actions of Putin and the KGB have a greater purpose. The entire world operates through a geopolitical and economic dimension. Domestic policy is always shaped by foreign policy. And national security always comes before everything else.
Freedom, rights, democracy, equality, and virtue, will always be sacrificed in the name of national security. It doesn't matter if it is America, or Russia, or China, or anywhere else. It is always the same.
If you think Russia is fundamentally different than America, you don't know anything.
Like loves to watch child pornography and rape children bad? Seems there is an endless amount of hate against him when at worst he's guilty of having his friends make facebook posts against Hillary.
The real question is how do you think he is a good guy. Are you an american?
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