On October 22, Ekho Moskvy radio station in Moscow reported that in an act of desperation a local political activist in the Ural Mountains region, Vladimir Chukavin, managed to have a thoroughfare renamed "Putin StraĂe." The new name is now written on street signs in Germanic Latin script above its former name, still shown in the original Cyrillic.
The renaming of this stretch of road was reportedly an effort to embarrass the region's administrative apparatus into doing something about its abysmal condition. Given the near-deity status Putin is now accorded, Chukavin and his associates reasoned, no street named for Russia's one-time KGB Lt. Col. turned president-for-life could be allowed to remain riddled with potholes.
Anyone who has driven in regions outside of either Moscow or St. Petersburg can tell you that roads rendered almost impassable due to potholes are anything but a rarity in Putin's Russia. But what makes Putin StraĂe stick out is its location: running from a cemetery (which is why the original name of the street was Heaven's Road) to a railroad crossing outside the city of Nizhni-Tagil.
Nizhni-Tagil is home to none other than one of the most famous defense enterprises in all of Russia, the UralVagonZavod (UVZ) battle tank design and production centre. The firm's latest product, the T-14 Armata tank the Armata offers much-better crew survivability than any previous Russian or Soviet tank-assuming all of its features actually work,
was (despite one of them breaking down during a dress-rehearsal ahem, actually work)
the centerpiece of the lavish May 9 70th Anniversary Victory Day parade in Moscow. It is billed as one of the key, new-age weapon systems in a massive military modernization. The plan, at a cost of hundreds of billions, aims to increase by the year 2020 the number of weapon systems in Moscow's arsenal that could be categorized as "modern" in their design from the 10 percent today to 70 percent.
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
10/30/2015 04:56 ||
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#1
It was already on the road to ruin. They had one brief opportunity to break out in the 90s, and then the usual suspects of corruption and power made sure that wasn't going to happen. The Beltway here just has a lot of resources still to burn through before we all get the same experience.
#3
The economic decline is a straight line with negative slope, then we reach the knee of the curve, where the slope changes rapidly and we head in a power dive for the bottom. It will happen to the Russian govt, as well as the US govt, if we continue on the course of economic irresponsibility we have set.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/30/2015 11:24 Comments ||
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#4
The renaming of this stretch of road was reportedly an effort to embarrass the region's administrative apparatus into doing something about its abysmal condition.
Maybe Detroit should consider renaming the city Obamaville.
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
10/30/2015 11:52 Comments ||
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#5
Chukavin and his associates reasoned, no street named for Russia's one-time KGB Lt. Col. turned president-for-life could be allowed to remain riddled with potholes.
That's funny. If it works I expect every street to be named after Putin before long and navigating anywhere will be impossible.
#1
The Bavarian CSU (member of the current "Grand Coalition") has woken up. We may see action pretty soon.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
10/30/2015 0:24 Comments ||
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#2
EC - I used to follow German politics back in the 1980's, not so much now. How does that Bavarian CSU representation affect things in terms of votes / impact?
#4
With the reunification the CSU lost some of its power and influence in the union of CDU and CSU because Germany got bigger, but the CSU stayed in Bavaria.
The CSU hesitated (wisely) to go "federal", because it would probably have lost its clout on Bavaria.
Not anymore. CDU and SPD almost don't differ anymore, the conservatives in the CDU have nowhere to go.
If the CSU decides to run in all German countries, this would change the equation. The conservatives would cross over to the CSU with lightning speed, almost nobody would vote for the CDU in Bavaria, while the CSU would probably get 15%-20% of the votes in Germany (Bavaria excluded where they typically get 50%+). We could see 25%+ people voting for the CSU in all Germany with the right candidate.
The CSU would probably stop the rise of the AfD (fiercely anti-migrant, but far right with growing Nazi flavors). The CSU instead is a conservative (but not anti-social) party firmly in the democratic, Basic Law abiding spectrum, so it could actually overtake the CDU.
The current leader Horst Seehofer will retire soon, but I think he will reactivate former defense minister Guttenberg (who ran into rather irrelevant problems with a plagiated doctorate thesis).
Guttenberg is conservative but modern, a solid Transatlantic politician, who could very well rise to be German chancellor in 2017.
Disclaimer: I'm a well-connected member of the CSU (with some influence and insight). I supported Merkel until this summer out of loyalty to the union, but Merkel has lost my confidence.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
10/30/2015 1:21 Comments ||
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#5
Merkel and Vlad have always been a bit too chummy. Of course Merkel and Obama are chummy as well. Thanks for your astute observations and for helping us sort things out. Your insights are always appreciated EU.
#6
They don't call them 'transnationals' for no reason. They have no loyalty to you or anyone else with a 'national' identity. They'll use it to exploit you, but they have no commitment but to ideology - see old Comintern.
I know Democrats feel the same way about the US flag but I don't think any would be caught on film removing one from the camera frame with such a look. Even a lot of the zombie voters would be turned off by that.
#9
Imagine a US President doing that... umm well, at least publicly
Posted by: European Conservative ||
10/30/2015 15:08 Comments ||
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#10
Imagine a US President doing that... umm well, at least publicly
He wasn't President at the time, but this is from the presidential campaign he won.
As for that little Merkel video: The most appalling aspect is that these people who are nominally powerful and influential members of Merkel's party are openly acquiescing to being treated like imbecile court eunuchs by their empress dowager.
They are being publicly humiliated, their nation is being publicly humiliated and they're just laughing it off like feeble minded clumsy servants.
My reaction isn't outrage, but contempt; not for Merkel but for her spineless enablers.
</rant>
[Jpost] Ever since the attacks have shifted to Judea and Samaria, security forces say there has been an overall drop in the violence.
The epicenter of the wave of Paleostinian terrorism has shifted in recent days from the eastern neighborhoods of Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria.
According to diplomatic sources, Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... issued a directive 10 days ago to halt all attacks in Jerusalem and instead place the focus on Judea and Samaria, with a special emphasis on the Gush Etzion and Hebron areas.
Israeli officials say that the attacks committed against Israeli civilians and passersby generated fierce international criticism. By concentrating their efforts in targeting soldiers in Judea and Samaria, the Paleostinians believe that they could soften the blow of global public opinion.
Ever since the attacks have shifted to Judea and Samaria, security forces say there has been an overall drop in the violence. It appears that Israel has a much easier time dealing with knife-based terrorism aimed at soldiers than it does stopping attacks in the alleys of Jerusalem.
The sharp decrease in the number of attacks could be attributed mostly to the tighter security cooperation between the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), the IDF, and the elite units of both the army and the police in the Judea and Samaria theater. The dragnet and wave of arrests carried out in the last week is the most extensive since Operation Brother's Keeper, the code-name for the effort to track down the three kidnapped teenagers.
In the last week, over 200 wanted Paleostinians have been nabbed Please don't kill me! throughout the West Bank. The security forces have been active in detaining Paleostinians from various villages, towns, and refugee camps. Of those arrested, 53 belong to the Islamist Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, movement.
An overwhelming majority of those arrested were involved in various activities including stone-throwing, the hurling of Molotov cocktails, rolling burning tires at security forces, and using makeshift bombs and grenades. IDF officers say that the suspects brought into the interrogation rooms acknowledge their part in the rioting, with some even saying that they planned attacks.
The considerable chasm between the security forces' ability to thwart attacks in the eastern parts of Jerusalem and attacks in the West Bank proves once again the extent to which the Paleostinian Authority controls the Israeli Arabs of the capital, many of whom are now heeding the new directives.
Conversely, this gap reflects just how little control the security forces have over the eastern parts of Jerusalem as it relates to intelligence and the thwarting of terror attacks.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
On October 22, Ekho Moskvy radio station in Moscow reported that in an act of desperation a local political activist in the Ural Mountains region, Vladimir Chukavin, managed to have a thoroughfare renamed "Putin StraĂe." The new name is now written on street signs in Germanic Latin script above its former name, still shown in the original Cyrillic.
Imagine a US President doing that... umm well, at least publicly
