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There is no "second in command" in Russia. There is only the dog-fight we are used to seeing with Putin eliminating everyone who challenges him.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pdw
Putin is an unbelievable tyrant.
I hate to spoil your fun, but so-called tyrants are the leaders of political factions/parties who themselves represent the "power-elite". Putin was handpicked by the Russian elite and they would get rid of him in a heartbeat if he didn't serve their interests.
What you have in Russia is essentially a CIA-created opposition(eg Navalny), who is given media and monetary support from the West to spread scurrilous lies to sow distrust in the Russian population. You also have wealthy pro-Western oligarchs with close business ties to the West, who have been plotting with the West to carry out a "color revolution"/regime-change in Moscow. Not because of a love of country, but because it furthers their economic or political interests.
As I've said before, democracy is rule by money, and that is why democracy is inseparable from capitalism. Money is international. Thus the rule of money is international(unless there are mechanisms in place to prevent it).
So-called authoritarian governments are governments which protect their national interests from manipulation by foreign influence/capital. So-called democracies are almost invariably US clients/vassals(especially mature/developed democracies).
The reason America wants to spread democracy is not because America cares about people in other countries. It is because through democracy we can control them.
I hate to spoil your fun, but so-called tyrants are the leaders of political factions/parties who themselves represent the "power-elite". Putin was handpicked by the Russian elite and they would get rid of him in a heartbeat if he didn't serve their interests.
What you have in Russia is essentially a CIA-created opposition(eg Navalny), who is given media and monetary support from the West to spread scurrilous lies to sow distrust in the Russian population. You also have wealthy pro-Western oligarchs with close business ties to the West, who have been plotting with the West to carry out a "color revolution"/regime-change in Moscow. Not because of a love of country, but because it furthers their economic or political interests.
As I've said before, democracy is rule by money, and that is why democracy is inseparable from capitalism. Money is international. Thus the rule of money is international(unless there are mechanisms in place to prevent it).
So-called authoritarian governments are governments which protect their national interests from manipulation by foreign influence/capital. So-called democracies are almost invariably US clients/vassals(especially mature/developed democracies).
The reason America wants to spread democracy is not because America cares about people in other countries. It is because through democracy we can control them.
Not necessarily. The US has installed/supported plenty of dictators as well. Installing Pinochet who is responsible for tens of thousands of deaths is a prime example. And everything was just fine with the dictatorship in Cuba as long as the dictator was Batista... Supporting the junta in Greece. The list is long...
I remember seeing the headline about Muammar Gaddafi being killed and thinking naively it was good news for the people of Libya in getting a more stable, democratic country. Putin is an unbelievable tyrant but we can’t assume his death or ousting within Russia itself would necessarily mean someone just as bad wouldn’t take his place. There’s good reason to be skeptical of official narratives made by politicians who generally are not exactly a trustworthy group of people. That doesn’t mean everything they say is a lie. It seems that they are right in that continuing to send weapons and funding to Ukrainian forces so they can defend themself against Russia is the best way to to end the war, cause no alternative seems either realistic or not a complete appeasement of Putin
Yes. it would probably be better for the world if Putin's army got whipped and he figured a way out without him being dragged around naked and Russia collapsing.
I hope something happens. Because the status quo is getting old.
Ukraine and probably the western countries blew up a massive dam and are flooding everything, including Kherson and a nuclear power plant. This is a desperate move by a desperate regime. I have no idea why we still support this horrible country, they aren’t doing anything good with our money and are resorting to terrorizing the citizens they claim are Ukrainian.
Last edited by ColoradoOnMyMind; 06-05-2023 at 09:08 PM..
The US has installed/supported plenty of dictators as well. Installing Pinochet who is responsible for tens of thousands of deaths is a prime example. And everything was just fine with the dictatorship in Cuba as long as the dictator was Batista... Supporting the junta in Greece. The list is long...
That is correct, but we install dictatorships when we can't control the democracy. The reason we couldn't control them is because they weren't "mature" democracies. And what a mature democracy is, is one which allows in multinational corporations, financiers, and media companies, as well as Western NGO's and other groups, who can influence/manipulate the population and exert significant economic/political pressure on the leaders, especially by keeping them economically or militarily dependent.
Basically, we install dictators when there is a democracy we don't like, then we either force the dictator to implement economic and political reforms that allow a transition to a "mature democracy", or we overthrow the dictator and install a new puppet democracy which must do what we say or we will replace it with another dictatorship, and the process repeats.
Ideally, America would prefer Cuba/Chile/Greek were democracies because we could control them with soft power, but the United States is extremely ruthless and we will do everything we can to destroy any government who opposes us.
If I recall, in most cases where we overthrew a democracy, it was because the democracy was trying to nationalize its natural resources/commodities or was otherwise interfering with markets and finance. If democracy is rule by capitalists, then removing capitalist influence over your democracy means you cannot be controlled.
With that said, there has never been a democracy that survived that wasn't capitalist. Capitalist democracies are plutocracies(rule by the rich). Democracies without capitalism means rule by the majority.
Which is better, rule by the majority or rule by the wealthy? Rule by the wealthy and it isn't even close. The majority are literally retarded. The fact that idiots believe democracy is some magical political system that makes everyone rich and powerful is a testament to how retarded the average American is.
Haha, good joke. If we had a competent president that didn’t want to see a world war like Trump we wouldn’t have all of this death and destruction. I refuse to support an evil country like Ukraine, I don’t care how bad Russia is. Ukraine is NOT an ally of the west, they are simply being used as a tool.
Ukraine and probably the western countries blew up a massive dam and are flooding everything, including Kherson and a nuclear power plant. This is a desperate move by a desperate regime. I have no idea why we still support this horrible country, they aren’t doing anything good with our money and are resorting to terrorizing the citizens they claim are Ukrainian.
There was no explosions. Kahovsk dam had previous damage from shelling and, apparently, simply gave up.
This creates a very unfavorable situation for Russian army as, before, AFU had a large watershed obstacle in front of them. That obstacle will be no more in a day or two when water recedes.
There is a question, currently unanswered, about cooling down of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. It wilol be confirmed later, if it has a separate basin of water for that purpose but, if water was supplied from the Kahovsk water storage..... not good news.
But no, so far, there is no confirmed info that dam was blown up by AFU.
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