Viewpoint
Allan-
Yeltsin is not dead, yet.
Putin is consolidating an awful lot of power at the top. While it may be “too early to tell” there are many who have serious doubts he will step aside for anyone.OCM, US capitalism did essentially happen over night. While it was five years from the conclusion of the war (1783- though Cornwallis surrendered in 1781) until the Constitution was ratified (1788) unifying us more strongly than the Articles of Confederation (1781-1788), no one else has ever done it faster (not without our help anyway). We’ve actually lost a lot of our earlier Laissez Faire attitude since then.
I think you should watch more schoolhouse rock!
Posted by prairie biker
02/26/2005 at 12:00 PM
I stand corrected, PB. I thought I had read recently that he had passed away. It seems he is hanging on in retirement and simply has led a reclusive lifestyle. It’s a pity Clinton didn’t do the same.
Yes, OCM but the evolution has been Marxist in nature. We’re getting farther and farther away from Adam Smith’s economic liberalism by inserting more state controls.
Try living (or owning a business) sometime in a small village in Illinois where the village owns all the local utilities. What about regulation of imports/exports? We are not moving towards less market control. We are moving solidly towards more controls.
Posted by prairie biker
02/26/2005 at 12:17 PM
I think that the Russians might be a little happier with a Czar type of guy driving the bus. Putin is showing some signs of being this type of leader. Whether or not you can get someone like that to let go of the wheel after he has latched onto it, is a damn good question.
In a perverted sort of way, I miss the old Soviet Union. At least you knew who the bad guys were back in those days. You had a geographic location where you could point the nukes, and feel a little safer. These days, it seems that the bad guys are all mixed in with general population.
Is that dark skinned twenty-something male driving that truck a Mexican or an Iranian? Is he a good Catholic or a militant Muslim? Is there furniture in that truck, or is there a pilfered nuke from Uzbekistan? Where do you point your nukes to feel a little safer? Laredo? Niagara Falls?
God help me, but I am getting a little bit nostalgic for totalitarian Communism.
Putin’s job in the KGB was in currency in
St. Petersburg. Basically, he manipulated
the ruble by controling the black market
cash and consequently the mafia. He is one
dirty dude. So don’t be too quick to ascribe
any virtue to him. He has been an active
participant in the mafia dealings for almost
2 decades. Kind of hard to tell the
difference between ‘em. Many suspect, he
like so many other despots, has billions in
foreign accounts. He’s dirty amigo. Watch
him like a rat around the baby’s crib.Posted by Steel Turman
02/26/2005 at 02:01 PM
I want Russia on OUR side, period. When they get into a fight they are in it ALL THE WAY and they will not f**k around with the Muslims.
As far as the transition to capitalism goes, it will take a very long time for the Russians to accomplish this - possibly as long as, oh, 74 years, the same number of years they were under Communism. Russia also has a history of affinity for strong leaders: from the Varangians (the VIKINGS) to the Golden Horde to the Tsars to the Communists. Their democracy must become a strong one, but it will take awhile and Putin is trying to clean out the dirty bastards so that they can have such a government.
What it all boils down to is Trust but Verify, my friends. TRUST BUT VERIFY.
Russia is, indeed, in a very precarious situation, and it will take a benevolent dictator-type such as Putin to keep it from collapsing into oblivion.
If you think about it for a bit, the US was in one constant state of Constitutional crisis, trying to balance states’ rights vs. the Fed, since the beginning, culminating in the Civil War. Were it not for folks like one of my favorites, Andrew Jackson, who was not afraid to IGNORE the Supreme Court, this country may not have survived. Read about the infamous “Trail of Tears” and Jackson’s statement: “The court has made its decision...now let them enforce it,” basically saying, “You fuckers can decide all you want, but I control the Army, so good luck.”
That is the kind of man I believe Putin is; so he may be the right man at the right time in history.
You all are echoing my sentiments exactly. We can’t hold the Russians up to our standards. Not at this critical point in their history. They (and Putin) need our cooperation, not our criticism. They will remember who helped them and who called them names for a long time to come. One thing the Russians do have is a long memory.
02/26/2005 at 05:27 PM
