Putin curbed exploitative leaders, fought Communism, and protects his country's interests above all others
By certain traditional measures, Russian President Vladimir Putin is the pre-eminent statesman of his time. Neh, Bibi does more with less
When he took power in the winter of 1999‐2000, his defenseless and bankrupt country was being carved up by its new kleptocratic elites, in collusion with its old imperial rivals. Much as Kemal Ataturk had done in Turkey seven decades earlier, Putin rescued a nation-state from the ruins of an empire and gave it coherence and purpose.He disciplined his country's unaccountable plutocrats, restored its military strength, and refused, with ever-blunter rhetoric, the subservient role in an American-run world system that foreign politicians and business leaders had drawn up for Russia. His voters credit him with having "saved his country." So do many of his Russian detractors, although they worry he has stayed in power too long.
...But traditional measures of statesmanship have, since the end of the Cold War, cut little ice with Western leaders and the pundits who judge them. We have rebaptized as "human rights" the system of identity-group and interest-group politics by which America is ordered, and by which America orders the world. It ain't America anymore---the ruling class takes its clues from Tranzi central of EU. And, if one can imagine such a thing, is even more incompetent Putin, who plays by an older set of rules, is cast as a brigand or a desperado. Or even as a madman.
#1
You have to be realistic about the guy. He is a ruthless dictator and he is not our friend. But unlike his counterpart in Washington DC, he does seem to act in the best interests of his country. If our president was smart and acting in the best interest of our country he would try to find areas where we could agree and cooperate with the Russians instead of seeking confrontation over places like Crimea and eastern Ukraine where we have no interest.
He is the duly elected president in a system that is probably fairer than the current US primaries.
Wehave rebaptized as "human rights" the system of identity-group and interest-group politics by which America is ordered, and by which America orders the world.
aka crony socialism.
Standard OP for the Left is to accuse anyone who opposes you of doing the bad and dishonest things you are doing, knowing the media will cover for you.
Primaries are not elections -- they're internal operations of the parties. There is no requirement they be fair, just that the participants agree on the rules.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
04/15/2016 20:16 Comments ||
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Several weeks ago I had an online discussion with a colleague about the ethics of abstaining from voting this November, no matter who the nominated presidential candidates turn out to be. However, I long ago decided that voting for president today is an exercise in self deception and that for both Democrats and Republicans (who are together a unified party usually called the Political Class) the Marxist theory of elections is present reality: elections are intended to do nothing more than give the voters the illusion that they actually have a say in how the country is to be run.
But we are long, long past that point. What Eisenhower cautioned about the military-industrial establishment long ago became true for many other government entities and civilian industries. That is, there are greatly overlapping Venn diagrams of far more than just the Pentagon and defense industries.
No wonder that Americans have lost confidence in everything. Here is one of many excellent reasons, provided by US Senator Mike Lee:
Behold my display of the 2013 Federal Register. It contains over 80,000 pages of new rules, regulations, and notices all written and passed by unelected bureaucrats. The small stack of papers on top of the display are the laws passed by elected members of Congress and signed into law by the president.
That is why come November, you can "Vote all you want. The secret government won’t change. The people we elect aren’t the ones calling the shots, says Tufts University’s Michael Glennon"
#1
Note well they always skip over the following from Eisenhower's speech -
Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.
In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.
Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.
The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present
and is gravely to be regarded. Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientifictechnological elite.
[Hollywood Reporter] Like many in Hollywood, the actress endorsed Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton in 2008. Now eight years later, Stone feels it's the female candidate's time. "Look at everything she's been through. Why would she have been secretary of state during the most demanding and dangerous time this country has seen since World War II?"
Stone tells The Hollywood Reporter. "She could go retire somewhere great, write a book, relax a little. It's not like she needs the $200,000 or whatever you make being president. She just cares about our country."
Stone, who headlined TNT's short-lived action drama Agent X last year, felt strongly that Clinton needed to serve as secretary of state before she could be president. "And she knows that," says the Basic Instinct actress, insisting the two have a "frank" and "open" relationship. "She showed such grit and grace as secretary of state, such steely calm and humor in those hearings. That's what it actually takes to be president. It takes a lot of friggin' mettle. It doesn't take a lot of flamboyancy or that George W. Bush let's-go-out-for-a-beer personality."
#2
Its her turn because of her gender? Not because of competency or skills. Same crap we heard about Obama being the black candidate's "turn" and look what that got the nation.
[NATION.PK] Having spent some time with the Lahore blast victims on a daily basis for the last few days, I have made a very strong connection with them. Throughout this time, there were many people here from different walks of life, just there for the victims’ moral support. There were students, teachers, youngsters, mothers and even those who had nothing material to contribute, but were just there to lend helping hands.
While I spent a few days there, I did not see a single self-proclaimed "Aashiq-e-Rasool" maulvi around condoling people who lost their loved ones, especially the kids who lost their parents with no one there to claim them. Later I realized that in order to be a real admirer of our Prophet, all you need to do is follow his footsteps and traits ‐ simple as that. When I see young likeminded volunteers cheering up the patients, boosting up their morale, distributing iPads and cycles among kids, it depicts the true face of humanity, which ought to be one of the supreme teachings of Islam. To me every volunteer out there is a true admirer of our Prophet.
Now coming back to patients, out of more than fifty patients in Jinnah and Sheikh Zayed hospitals, I was amazed to see their strong mental state and morale. The best part was that none of them, in spite of going through such a traumatizing event, had any complaints against the government or blamed anyone for security lapse. They were all on the same ground, with the same stance, that there is no detector ever invented yet which can detect this brainwashed breed of jacket wallahs.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
04/15/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
The mullah is not the threat.
Western elites are the threat. With somebody half-way sane in charge, we'd turn Islam into religion of Peace in a jiffy (and solve their overpopulation problem at the same time).
#2
With somebody half-way sane in charge, we'd turn Islam into religion of Peace in a jiffy
Yeah, we just need to explain it to them in language they can understand, and help them appreciate our sincerity. I don't know what the going rate is, but we had to nuke the Japanese twice to make it clear we weren't messing around.
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.
