I’m painting him as what he is, which while not a Bond villain is also something more than an opportunistic mid-level bureaucrat and half-assed mobster. It’s like calling Hans Gruber a “common thief”:
The West should shudder at a well-funded and cost-efficient campaign aimed at electing far-right politicians, undermining NATO and trade alliances, and reducing confidence in liberal democratic institutions. Not to mention opponents of Putin being regularly murdered on foreign soil, sometimes with nerve or radioactive elements.
That’s quite a programme for an “opportunistic mid-level bureaucrat,” even before we get into the kleptocracy and hard-right ultranationalist cult of personality he’s built for himself at home. If you’re confusing him with Brezhnev (truly a mid-level bureaucrat and half-assed mobster) you’re not paying attention.
As for the guy licking his bum today:
You forget (or perhaps choose to downplay) the fact that he’s also a naturally talented life-long grifter. As you see, I give credit where credit is due even to those I loathe.
The real proof will be what happens with the three morons on the morning show. If they criticise him or avoid talking about it on Tuesday he’s lost them for the moment.
Now cult of personality I can get behind, shooting tigers with tranqs and barechested trout fishing. That there isn’t some Mad Men type advertising outfit behind Putin, I cannot believe. Some testosterone based mythos that the poor vodka drinking Ivans can fantasize around.
What I accuse the west of is believing in parts of this fantasy. Russia is in shambles. They can stamp metal and incel as Facebook trolls and pump natural gas, but the economy revolves around laundering drug money, not the science that sent up Sputnik. The west keeps capturing little components here and there, nobody makes pumps like Grundfos. So Russia is scrambling. I empathize with all these bastards.
Well, not Assad, he is a true shithead like Saddam Hussein.
Anyway, we can argue all night, it seems as if you believe a paradigm I disagree with, even if we share values, if that makes sense? If I am not clear in my beliefs and assumptions, I apologize.
I don’t like Putin, but I want peace with Russia. I am not cool with mass condemnation of anybody, even Shithead Leader, based on a few press conferences. If we make it to 2020 with no nukes going off, I will be happy. Not sure if I can state my stance any clearer.
You haven’t been discussing it with “the West”, you’ve been debating with Westerners in this comment thread, Westerners who have studied history and political science and current affairs. We understand that Russia is a modern industrial nation-state but that it’s also a kleptocracy. They might stop scrambling if for once they gave someone who wasn’t an autocrat or a thief a chance for 8 or more years.
It’s not that you haven’t been clear, it’s that you haven’t sufficiently supported your “paradigm.”
You’ve made that clear. Peace in for our time.
I’m basing my mass condemnation of Il Douche on 30+ years of watching him operate as America’s foremost public confidence artist and narcissist. Nothing about today’s presser changed my view.
It’s a common misquote, I’ll agree. But “peace for our time” sums up your view just as well. I’ve made the corrections above accordingly. I see that while you understand the reference you’re not denying it, so “bless your heart” (in the Southern sense) right back atcha.
By the way, one can appease leaders (and regimes) who are not genocidal maniacs but who are still bad actors on the world stage. I’ll give you some time to digest this radical notion.
Back now that your mind has been blown? Ok. One common characteristic of appeasers (or “useful idiots”, to use the Russian-associated term) is that they downplay the toxicity of and threat posed by the bad actor in question. When inconvenient questions are asked about the bad actor’s behaviour or actions they’re usually ignored or brushed off by the appeaser, conflicting as they do with the narrative of harmlessness.
First tell me when you stopped beating your wife.
Alternately, quote me anywhere in my comment history where I’ve said or implied that Putin is a genocidal maniac. I’ll wait.
The thing about blackmailers is that once the target gives in to their first demand they always come back for more. It’s called being owned. We saw a stunning example of that today.
He’s 65. John McCain, who bodily has been to hell and back, and is definitely supposed to be dead from brain cancer by now, is 81 and still managing to be a mighty nuisance.
By all accounts Putin is still very physically active, and doesn’t engage in all the drinking and smoking of his peers. My money is on him ruling for another 20 years, effectively at that.
So now we really have a perfect example of a wishy-washy politician. There are good things on both sides all the time. So Korea and Russia know they have a friend.
The only thing Trump can denounce is Hilary Clinton. That’s the only thing he never seems to change his mind on. Putin owns his ass. We in the US are going to need a War president soon or go back to Isolationism. Trump doesn’t have the backbone.
Of course not. There is no reason for Putin to be aware of a visit like that. But the response was an ideal opportunity to deny that the material exists. Putin doesn’t say that.
