Putin wins Presidency

The latest figure is 76.65%. He won 92.14% of the vote in Crimea which shows the tremendous support Crimean's have for him.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_K48euMQNw]

Watch the talking heads in the western MSM start denigrating his victory as well as the Russian people who voted for him.

Russia Desires Respect and Cooperation, Not to Bankrupt the U.S.

I marvel at the certitude many Western observers of Russia and Russia’s president Vladimir Putin maintain about what Putin really thinks or means, despite the evidence of his own words in his speeches and corresponding actions as president on the international stage. One may approve or disapprove of Pres. Putin’s decisions, but it is a fact for anyone caring to investigate it that Russia’s head of state is a careful, systematic, and consistent thinker.
...
Additional concerns of his that stand out in these speeches include the need to denuclearize the world, de-escalate the arms race between the West and East, and resolve differences between countries by peaceful means rather than sanctions and invasions. His speeches’ major themes range from the importance of governmental professionalism and propriety to respect for international law and negotiated agreements.
...
Rather than being obsessed with the U.S. and its budgetary problems born of supporting excessive militarism overseas, Russia desires to have its interests legitimized in the eyes of the West. It is a disgrace and a shame that the West has noticed Russia’s worries about being invaded only after its government developed impressive super-weapons, rather than out of consideration and respect for an international partner seeking cooperation.

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Alligator Ed's picture

I know about 4 words of Russian but the emotion during his speech was vivid. Putin is not the nicest man and has undoubtedly disappeared political rivals, oligarchs, and other people of power. But one thing is evident, he is a patriot. Russia first. He is not selling Russia by the ruble. His victory speech was short and measured. Numerous times he thanked the assembled crowd for their support. He also invited those who didn't vote for him to join a pro-Russian movement--neither a Trump Train nor a Hillary Caboose.

Would Hillary have said anything conciliatory to those who didn't vote for HER? Does Hillary even say nice things about people who vote for HER? So she had to go to Mumbai to voice excuses number 29 (or 41 according to the Guardian) further denigrating not only those who didn't vote for her but the states or regions in which they live. No nuance. Just blanket condemnation. The best part of her sojourn was when she fell on her ass (fall number 3). Too bad for her she wasn't wearing her GPS boot.

I hope Trump doesn't lock her up before the midterms. Her continued blathering is going to make it difficult for Democrats to run on their already puny platform: "we're not Trump"

"Mr. Candidate, do you think the voters in your constituency are unimaginative, lazy, racist misogynistic clods?" Answer that please before trying to dish out the thin gruel of not Trump. Maybe if she got some real Russians to help her, she might have done better in 2016.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2B3gPY5LRg]

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There are bright banners everywhere what have the white. blue and red Russian Federation colors and say "Vote President of Russia". Lots and lots of people voting here in Moscow.
The turn out and margin say one thing, that Russians love and respect the accomplishments of their president. I have been waiting for the spin from Western media and have not been disappointed with the total garbage. The New York Times was actually not as bad as the others and got a couple of basic facts right: that the people love Putin and that the "liberal" fringe candidates Ksenia Sobchak (their Paris Hilton) and Navalny are both not serious candidates and have fringe personalities. Between them they might get two percent of the vote.

The criticisms from the West range from serious competition not allowed (total bull, only Navalny was not allowed, and he has two embezzlement convictions, running on getting fraud out of government) to employers encouraging people to vote (oh my god!) to regurgitating every false claim against Russia over the last five years. Their reporting makes no sense. If "Putin is a thug" then why did he get so many votes in a high turnout. If Putin "annexed" Crimea then why did he get almost all the votes there.

There were 8 candidates running. If one candidate gets more than 50% then he is the winner, otherwise the two strongest candidates are in a run off.

Vladimir Putin ...... 76.69% his own party United Russia
Pavel Grudinin ...... 11.77% Communist Party
Vladimir Zhirinofsky ..5.65 Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, an outspoken Nationalist

So there it is, Vladimir Putin and a Commie got almost all of the votes. That should make the heads explode of the Western media journalists. Truth is that it made them dig deeper in their bag of rationalizations. What a bunch of disconnected fools.

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Capitalism has always been the rule of the people by the oligarchs. You only have two choices, eliminate them or restrict their power.

Big Al's picture

I'm trying to figure out what that 77% figure means. It doesn't appear that could ever happen here, not with this two party duopoly system designed to divide the public.
Seems like the only times we see that kind of figure is in autocratic countries with dictators or despots.
And I won't ever agree to one person having that much power for that long. It's not democracy. In fact I think humans have to evolve past having one person rule over countries.
Obviously he's quite popular but what kind of political system results in one person getting that high a percentage of the vote?

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@Big Al maybe it's not the system, but the man? Russians Know what vlad has done for them, and is still trying to do, unlike the west. Will he succeed? I think he has, for the most part.
And if he can keep the dumb fucks in the west from blowing up the world, I'LL be happy to vote for him!

Stop These Fucking Wars

peace

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Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .

Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .

If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march

Big Al's picture

@Tall Bald and Ugly I could have just said, "yay Vlad!"
But that's not me.
I can say if I lived in Russia, I would hope I'd still be anti-establishment.

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@Big Al on the ballot, We get two. Sure, Stalin said its not the votes that count, but who counts the vote that matters. From what I've seen, they use glass ballot boxes and broadcast the counting of Paper Ballots. Verifiable, open counting with a chain of custody trail. Better than the US has, imo.
As far as anti-establishment goes, if the gov't is responsive to, and accountable to ALL the people, I got no problem with it. Anti-establishment for its own sake is not what I'm about, IF the gov't is responsive to the people.
Ymmv.

Stop These Fucking Wars

peace

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Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .

Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .

If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march

CB's picture

@Tall Bald and Ugly
for their president.

In America, your vote gets filtered through a maze of gerrymandering and purging and then goes to a group of un-elected people who do the actual voting.

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@Big Al @Big Al

who cut military spending to ensure the ability to maintain pensions to his people with NATO massing on the border, knowing that he already had good defenses to protect his people; the guy working on cleaning out the solid corruption which the US PTB had previously installed; the guy working to improve the living standards of his people, having already made considerable progress, especially considering the wreckage he started with; the guy trying to keep the food supply safe and healthy by banning GMOs and keeping the associated deadly chemicals out of the air, water and diet available to his people; the universal health-care...

I'd say that the guy's best appears to be getting a hell of a lot more done in the public interest than could have been anticipated, including his circumventing the US PTB on very small budget and - because his word is good and, unlike the US PTB, Putin keeps both his head in all situations and his agreements - the leaders of other countries can trust him, and deal with him, as they more and more seem to be doing; while he sets up a separate internet for Russia and already has an alternative to SWIFT*, already has a formidable nuclear/invasion deterrent, to make the unthinking perhaps think, prior to attempting to nuke/converge in armies upon Russian civilians, always quietly maintaining a step ahead of the US Psychopaths That Be, and does it most admirably, considering that this is on a very limited budget, where he gets maximum bang out of each public buck.

But there were multiple other electoral choices available, for anyone wanting to try an unknown quantity who might not be able to gain the trust of other countries, withstand the continual and increasing threats at Russia's very borders and or plan for contingencies with his/her people and country always first in his/her mind and manage good results with what seems remarkably little money - without draining it out of the public. Someone who might knuckle under to threats or bribery. You could have voted for one of those uncertain alternatives to wade into the midst of this, had you been a citizen there.

Honestly, I'm becoming pretty darned impressed with the guy, in all of these areas. And had I been Russian, I'd have voted for him, too, despite other issues the other choices, in that culture, would be unlikely to be better on. YMMV, of course. (Giggles over the prospect of this causing exploding heads at DKOS.)

* https://www.rt.com/business/382017-russia-swift-central-bank/

Russia's banking system has SWIFT alternative ready
Published time: 23 Mar, 2017 13:09

If the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) is shut down in Russia, the country’s banking system will not crash, according to Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina. Russia has a substitute.

The introduction of the first cards of Russia's Mir national payment system. © Alexey Filippov Russia’s Mir credit card to go European

"There were threats that we can be disconnected from SWIFT. We have finished working on our own payment system, and if something happens, all operations in SWIFT format will work inside the country. We have created an alternative," Nabiullina said at a meeting with President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday.

She also added that 90 percent of ATMs in Russia are ready to accept the Mir payment system, a domestic version of Visa and MasterCard. ...

... At present, the system has some drawbacks. It doesn’t work from 9pm to 5am Moscow time and costs up to five cents per wire transfer, which is regarded expensive.

That was last year, but even if it's still limited in that fashion, if SWIFT's cut off, even that'd beat hell out of nothing. Russia has far larger problems imposed upon it by The Psychopaths That Be than a currently time-limited banking transfer system.

And I'm really hoping that this part isn't kabuki and that there really are independent leaders successfully standing up to TPTB with their people and countries becoming/staying free and unattacked, or at least undefeated and free of corporate/military control...

Edited to remove a word.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

@Big Al

what came before Putin, I think, to understand why he may be trusted to make a difference, even if he's not "loved." The destitution, crimes against women and children, the mafia corruption and violence, the drug addiction and decay of infrastructure -- these were the gifts of unfettered capitalism brought to Russia by the crony kleptocratic pigs of resource plunder known as Bushworld. In spite of the fact that Putin is of the Communist intelligence state and of the oligarchy that replaced it, he has managed to bring back employment, healthcare, reduction in crime, and he has raised the standard of living in Russia for working people.

The same, including your objection to power, can be said of Franklin Roosevelt, who was also elected and re-elected, not because he was everyone's favorite person, and not because he was the person you'd want you daughter to marry, but because he made a difference in ways the American people could count on in their personal lives. He put the country back to work and provided some safety net benefits. That was a start, and the American people who had been through the Depression knew they were not going back.

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travelerxxx's picture

@Linda Wood

For some time now, I've also thought that - were I a citizen of Russia - I would consider Mr. Putin in the same manner as Americans of the Great Depression era considered FDR. The more I learn of how bad things got in the 90's for the average Russian, the more I am convinced this is true.

Often we hear (even here on C99) something similar to "I'm sure he's not a good guy and has done lots of nasty stuff..." but do we really know that? Seems that whenever I track down the various "misdeeds" of Mr. Putin, I am always coming up with either no evidence, or someone with an axe to grind, or a political foe, etc. The propaganda against Mr. Putin and/or Russia is very pervasive.

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Big Al's picture

@Big Al gets people all up and up. Hey, I'm not Daily Kos.
Hecate? Where'd you go?

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@Big Al up, just a discussion of how and why Russians might be inclined to vote for the man. If Bernie Had won, and instituted similar reforms(as well as knocking down the miic a notch or three) would you be asking the same questions about Bernie? Consistency, Bruddah, that's all. As you said, asking questions, and if you don't like the answers you get, refine the questions, maybe? Or at least, rebut them with what You see to carry on the conversation. No flames here, Mon!

Stop These Fucking Wars

peace

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Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .

Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .

If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march

CB's picture

@Big Al
a Democratic president and a Republican president in the US? Does the true power lay in the White House or the House of Representatives or the Senate? Or does it lay outside all three?

Why are there only two parties and two choices? Do these two parties really represent the ordinary people who go to work everyday to support their families? Why is voting in the US always a choice between two evils?

How much money have the last two presidents collected from the people for their campaign? How much from the oligarchs and/or the corporations they control? How much control does the military have in government? How much control do the financial interests have? Why is lobbying in the halls of a Democracy based government with enormous sums of money allowed? How much money have presidential elections cost since 2000?

What have the last three presidents actually done for the people since 1990 in concrete terms? What have the last three presidents actually done for the American oligarchs during that period?

How have the lives of ordinary Americans advanced since 2000 in monetary, health, education and general well being?

Compare to Russia...

I'm trying to figure out what that 77% figure means. It doesn't appear that could ever happen here, not with this two party duopoly system designed to divide the public.

Percentages much, much higher than those figures occur within the US electoral system if you consider Electoral College vote percentages. In America these are the votes that actually count towards electing a president.

Washington - 100%
Roosevelt - 98.49%
Reagan - 97.58%
Nixon - 96.65%
Clinton - 70.45%
Bush - 53.16%
Obama - 67.84%
Trump - 56.5%

Have you considered that it's a fault of the system itself? How much of the vote would a president get if he consistently gave what the people needed and wanted? How much of the vote would a president get for his second term if he actually followed through on his first term promises? Would C99% even exist if they did?

In Russia, each and every citizen gets to vote independently and individually to choose their president. There no organizations, fucked up gerrymandering or voter roll manipulation/purging schemes between the citizen and his ballot.

Have you considered that "Democracy" in countries that have unfettered capitalism at play, along with their attendant unlimited funding, are not truly democratic but well staged Kabuki theater?

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@CB much more eloquently than I could ever manage. Thanks.

Stop These Fucking Wars

peace

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Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .

Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .

If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march

Big Al's picture

@CB Have you considered that "Democracy" in countries that have unfettered capitalism at play, along with their attendant unlimited funding, are not truly democratic but well staged Kabuki theater?"

I've failed in my essay writing. I guess I'd better stop.

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CB's picture

@Big Al

I've failed in my essay writing. I guess I'd better stop.

No you haven't. All I did was poke you with your own stick. Blum 3
Where the hell do you think I got some of those ideas from? Yes 3

Just playing the room....

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Creosote.'s picture

@CB
thanks to Citizens Band

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edg's picture

@Big Al

Or the United States. George Washington could have been president for life if he'd wanted. FDR pretty much was, elected 4 terms and dying in office. It wouldn't surprise me a bit if a lot of Democrats wanted Obama for life and a lot of Republicans wanted Reagan for life.

Putin took the looted, broken remnants of the Soviet Union and built them into a credible nation with renewed respect (you don't think Montenegro-gate would play as well as Russia-gate, do you?), rebuilt agriculture supplying 1/2 the world's wheat, and a recovering economy -- despite US and EU sanctions and despite constant attacks by the US.

The question I have for you is why wouldn't people vote for him?

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Big Al's picture

@edg @CB I asked a question and you got a debate. That's how it works. Or like I said, I could have just said, "yay, Vlad", and there probably would have been no debate.

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edg's picture

@Big Al @Big Al

Lively debate, no autobans and no hunter-killer TR packs. And your essays, of course.

There's not much love for Russia in my family. Grandpa had to flee Poland to escape being drafted as cannon fodder into Tsar Nick 2.0's army. But I gotta give Putin props for taking a nearly hopeless situation and largely turning it around. And I also love the fact that Putin's successes drive American pols, pundits, and puppetmasters berserk.

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TheOtherMaven's picture

@edg

because no matter what they do, they can't get such high approval ratings and poll results. (Of course, they don't DO anything to deserve them!)

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

@Big Al

why limit voters from having a 'same again' choice when they (finally) have one who's actually proven to have produced excellent results in a horrible situation, as existed prior to Putin, who has managed considerable improvements in the state of the country and the condition of his people's lives, and who may be the only one capable of handling an incredibly difficult situation?

The point of voting is supposed to be to empower the people, and depriving them of what they may feel is their best choice simply because s/he has already been proven to them seems kinda counter-productive.

Especially with NATO massing on their borders and the US PTB sharpening their nukes while the drool runs down their grinning jaws.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Mark from Queens's picture

grip.

Let me first say for context: I think the whole contrived, concocted and convoluted Russian Red Herring Mania Meltdown by the venal MSM, put up to it by the scorned Clinton Cabal, will go down as one of most embarrassing, hideous, dangerous and dumb epochs of American history.

But that doesn't make me a fan of their counterparts in the Russian government either.

I consider Christopher Hitchens one of the world's greatest minds, historians, authors and socialists. And when he speaks (spoke, he's gone now) I listen very carefully, just as I would Gore Vidal.

This is a very unpromising development in the church that claims to be the nurturing mother of European civilization. But if you look just a little further east to another schism that took place in the bosom of the same church you will find that the other
schismatic force, now known as orthodoxy instead of Catholicism, has just instated as its dictator, its spiritual and earthly representative, Vladimir Putin.

The Russian Orthodox Church has now become the official Church of the Putin organization. No instatements of any police official, any military official any government, official the Putin regime, is complete without the kissing of the icons, the swinging of the incense the affirmation of the ancient verities of the very church that - since we're on the subject, managed to bring us all the way all the way to Western Europe with incredible trouble. The forgery, actually the fabrication, of the protocols of the Elders of Zion, the church of Tsarism, the church of serfdom, the Church of Russian imperialism the Church of tyranny and superstition - and now they're producing new icons.

Not content with the old ones, that baptized and confirmed serfdom, tsarism,
anti-semitism and fascism, they've created new new icons. You can see them; they are easily found on the internet. They would show him in a prayerful attitude, as the Father of his people and as the holy protector of Holy Russia, Joseph Stalin. Who it's true was a very leading member of Seminary in Georgia, under the name Joseph Vissarionovich jr. Even in his youth his mother is supposed to have said to him, when he became a chairman of the Central Committee of the Presidium of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, 'you're a stupid boy; if you'd just have stayed in that seminary you could have been a bishop by now.' I believe the story anyway even if what is said by the mothers of gods isn't always to be taken completely seriously.

So that's a very bad development. And believe you me, we will all live to see and regret what we we've allowed to happen unnoticed, the conversion of modern Russia into a heavily-armed, aggressive, self-pitying, chauvinistic, theocracy.

Just imagine if George HW Bush, former CIA head, was made president over and over again. Putin is his counterpart, as head of the KGB.

I'm a lot less sanguine about this guy and his regime than a lot of folks here seem to be. Too much Putin-luvin' (and Trump at times too) here makes me a little unsettled. These are oligarchal thugs, protectorates of moneyed-interests, hiding behind a religious revival, with no fealty whatsoever to the 99%. The Russian people had a glorious practically bloodless revolution the first time around.

On Thursday, February 23, 1917, women workers in Petrograd left their factories and entered the streets to protest. It was International Women's Day and the women of Russia were ready to be heard.

An estimated 90,000 women marched through the streets, shouting "Bread" and "Down With the Autocracy!" and "Stop the War!" These women were tired, hungry, and angry. They worked long hours in miserable conditions in order to feed their families because their husbands and fathers were at the front, fighting in World War I. They wanted change. They weren't the only ones.

The following day, more than 150,000 men and women took to the streets to protest. Soon more people joined them and by Saturday, February 25, the city of Petrograd was basically shut down -- no one was working.

That's the kind of Russian I look up to with a sense of awe, solidarity and inspiration.

Those are my comrades. Not Putin's capitalistic, theocratic thugs.

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"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"

- Kurt Vonnegut

edg's picture

@Mark from Queens

These are oligarchal thugs, protectorates of moneyed-interests, hiding behind a religious revival, with no fealty whatsoever to the 99%.

Are you describing the United States here or Russia?

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Lily O Lady's picture

@edg

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

@Mark from Queens when his term is up? Will he 'go gently into the night'? Or will he cling to power, still?
It seems(to me) that vlad's priority is 'Russia First'(in country). Oligarchs allegiance to the State first, then you can make shit-tonnes of money. But if you fuck with politics the State will crush you. Don't we have the reverse of that? I thought we Wanted business out of gov't? Not defending Putin, per se,just wondering wtf he should(could) have done? A judiciary totally bought off, a police force no better, no taxes being collected, bribes and corruption SOP, thousands(if not more) literally dying in the streets, Every Western institution rooting for him, and by extension, Russia, to fail so they could pick the carcass clean. Ffs folks, the guy ain't no angel, but Damn, look where he had to start from and where Russia is today? ALL the State institutions were fucked and OUR gov'ts were lining up for their turn.
OUR gov'ts have ringed Russia in steel and He is supposed to be the 'bad guy' because he's using every means available, sans oppression, to lift his country up? And don't cry me a river about some greedy fucking robber baron getting dick stomped into the dirt, I'd LOVE to see that happen here(fat fucking chance).
Or would you rather have WWIII? So far that ain't happened, and I give vlad Full Credit for that non-event, so far.
If that makes me a Putin dupe, or apologist, then I guess I'm guilty. At least there is One Statesman worthy of that title somewhere in this world(even if it ain't us).

Stop These Fucking Wars

peace

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Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .

Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .

If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march

TheOtherMaven's picture

@Tall Bald and Ugly
which is what he did the last time he was termed out as president. (Russia has a dual-head-of-state system, an elected president and an appointed (by the president) prime minister. The system may seem clunky from the outside, but it works for them.)

Interestingly, about the only thing I remember from Medvedev's term as president (aside from he appointed Putin prime minister) was his beautiful blue lynxpoint Neva Masquerade (= colorpoint Siberian) cat.

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

CB's picture

@TheOtherMaven

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TheOtherMaven's picture

@CB

Leave it to the Russians to have a male equivalent of "Dorothy" (= Dorotheus). It never caught on in the West, probably because "Theodore" was satisfactory.

Gorgeous cat, anyway. Smile

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

@Mark from Queens

Putin openly talks about his work in the KGB, and no one in Russia is confused about the omnipresent oligarchy he works within. He has raised the standard of living for the Russian people from the destitution brought on by lawless crony capitalism. And they have re-elected him because of what he did.

Franklin Roosevelt was of the corporate elite, a Wall Street lawyer. He was part of the cabal that had brought on the devastation of the Depression. He raised the standard of living for the American people from the destitution caused by lawless crony capitalism. The American people elected him president 4 times because of what he did. They were under no illusions about who he was, who bankrolled his campaigns, or how far back they could fall if he lost. He was in a position of power because of his relationship to Wall Street gangsters, but he made incremental change in the interest of working people.

In addition, Franklin Roosevelt was bankrolled by the very firms that armed Hitler, and I believe they fully expected the United States under his leadership to enter the War on the side of Germany. He allowed Japan to attack the United States in order to make the decision to join the Allies, including the Soviet Union, the ultimate target of Wall Street's war.

In the same way, Putin faces the resurgence of Nazism in Ukraine, armed by the United States. Again. We will see whose side we are on in days or years to come, if we have any years to come.

In an article from last August, the writer q502 says,

https://medium.com/@q502/robert-mercer-money-launderer-for-vladimir-putin-8c596cd3d930

Russia is controlled by a vast organization comprised of the intelligence services, organized crime and big business. This organization is led by Vladimir PUTIN and control is maintained through corruption, blackmail and assassination.

We could just as easily replace a couple of words and say,

"The United States is controlled by a vast organization comprised of the intelligence services, organized crime and big business. This organization is led by the BUM OF THE MONTH and control is maintained through corruption, blackmail and assassination."

Putin is making progress for the Russian people, and they have re-elected him because of it. We are supporting Nazi fascism in Europe, Saudi Wahhabism in the Middle East, and offer the people of the world war and annihilation. Does it seem illogical if some of us see Putin as rational by comparison?

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CB's picture

@Mark from Queens
is inordinately conflicted with his dislike (to put it gently) of religion.

His brother, Peter Hitchens, has a diametrically opposed view of both religion and Russia/Putin. I find his arguments to be stronger.

The following is an excellent response to your post:

Peter Hitchens on Western Reaction in the Russia-Ukraine Crisis
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfdcIbT3pKQ]

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CB's picture

@CB
Includes Peter Hitchens' comments on NATO and EU expansion to the east, Ukraine putsch, Crimea, Skripal poisoning, plus other interventions done by West against Russia.

Peter's views are much more nuanced and accurate then his brother's.

Peter Hitchens on Russia (BBC Radio Ulster)
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Gw84P3EKNs]

PETER HITCHENS: The 'patriotic' thought police came for Corbyn. You are next
18 March 2018 12:01 AM

Is this a warning? In the past few days I have begun to sense a dangerous and dark new intolerance in the air, which I have never experienced before. An unbidden instinct tells me to be careful what I say or write, in case it ends badly for me. How badly? That is the trouble. I am genuinely unsure.

I have been to many countries where free speech is dangerous. But I have always assumed that there was no real risk here.

Now, several nasty trends have come together. The treatment of Jeremy Corbyn, both by politicians and many in the media, for doing what he is paid for and leading the Opposition, seems to me to be downright shocking.
...
Mr Corbyn has earned the right to be listened to, and those who now try to smear him are not just doing something morally wrong. They are hurting the country. Look at our repeated rushes into foolish conflict in Iraq, Libya, Syria and Afghanistan. All have done us lasting damage.
...

Take note that Christopher Hitchens supported the Afghanistan War, the Iraq War, the Libya War, the Syria War plus all the shit that went down in Georgia and Serbia. He would support an Iran War if he was still sucking air. He would even support a war with Russia if it wasn't for Russia's nukes.

Here's is John Pilger's take on Christopher Hitchens:
[bold added]

The world war on democracy
19 January 2012
...
It is as if writers as watchdogs are extinct, or in thrall to a sociopathic zeitgeist, convinced they are too clever to be duped. Witness the stampede of sycophants eager to deify Christopher Hitchens, a war lover who longed to be allowed to justify the crimes of rapacious power. "For almost the first time in two centuries", wrote Terry Eagleton, "there is no eminent British poet, playwright or novelist prepared to question the foundations of the western way of life". No Orwell warns that we do not need to live in a totalitarian society to be corrupted by totalitarianism. No Shelley speaks for the poor, no Blake proffers a vision, no Wilde reminds us that "disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man's original virtue". And grievously no Pinter rages at the war machine, as in American Football:

Hallelujah.
Praise the Lord for all good things...
We blew their balls into shards of dust,
Into shards of fucking dust...

Into shards of fucking dust go all the lives blown there by Barack Obama, the Hopey Changey of western violence. Whenever one of Obama's drones wipes out an entire family in a faraway tribal region of Pakistan, or Somalia, or Yemen, the American controllers in front of their computer-game screens type in "Bugsplat". Obama likes drones and has joked about them with journalists. One of his first actions as president was to order a wave of Predator drone attacks on Pakistan that killed 74 people. He has since killed thousands, mostly civilians; drones fire Hellfire missiles that suck the air out of the lungs of children and leave body parts festooned across scrubland.
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@CB a while to catch on with obomber, but when he droned that first USian and then That guys son, things were just Wrong. I couldn't articulate it, or describe exactly What was wrong(still having blinders on, but Peeking!), I just knew something wasn't right.
Where ya at, Big Al? Ya helped get this party started, jump in, the water's fine!

Stop These Fucking Wars

peace

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Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .

Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .

If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march