The way you phrase this makes it seem like the oligarchs had no responsibility in shaping how Russia is today.
Russia is at least as complicit in its own destiny.
I think you can understand why any nation wouldn’t just fully embrace a failed state with their arms wide open, particularly one that, up until a recent turn, had been its most vehement opposition.
While I agree with your sentiment regarding people losing faith in their government, we have been on this road before a few times (antibellum era, William Jennings Bryan era, Joe McCarthy era). After a time of painful soul searching, we've always come back from these low periods. I have no reason to believe we won't overcome it again.
Your typo took me way back. There was a game called "Wall Street Kid" for the NES where you could "invest" in companies in the stock market, with the hopes to make it big. Many of the companies in it were a play on words of real-world companies. Boeing's was "Boing Boing". Thanks for the nostalgia today, though I wish it would have arrived on a more optimistic post.
This article reads like a China/ Russia propaganda greatest hits album. What does a Y2K worker revolt have to do with WW3? What does some hedge fund selling rare earth mining have to do with the price of tea in China?
NATO didn't allow Russia into NATO because Russia had been the one who invaded the Eastern Block (huh, sounds oddly prescient what with them invading Ukraine nowadays). Maybe if Russia had gone through “shock therapy” and not given all of their state owned assets to a few oligarchs, who then installed who they thought was going to be a weak president, who then provoked a false flag attack on his own people to incite a war, which eventually culminated in that president becoming dictator for life…perhaps then Russia would have transformed into a healthy capitalist state with less corrupt politicians, and perhaps then NATO would have included them. But alas, change is hard and it is easy fall into such traps along the way.
China on the other hand. For one, TPP for the US didn’t happen, so it’s fairly toothless. The author seems to argue that the US sending some of its manufacturing to China was a bad thing, but I’d argue that it helped to form the Chinese middle class. Shanghai was a little more than a backwater in the 80s, Hong Kong was the crown jewel of East Asia. Those manufacture jobs made China what it is today.
So far as including the US in belt and road, it could have been great idea, but there were some concerns with that. For one, China continues to steal US businesses IP, they don’t seem to value the concept of IP in their country, especially of the foreign type. Without IP protections, fewer people are encouraged to innovate or share their knowledge with the public. Secondly, the US already has the World Bank and IMF for such initiatives. The money comes with strings attached to incentivize countries towards the path of democracy, probably why China went a different path.
And that’s the rub isn’t it? Democracy scares the hell out of countries with centralized government (and the dictators as well.) Can’t be putting all of that political power in the people’s hands can we? (Oh the irony).
To close, I’ll ask you this. Is any of this really worth fighting WWIII for!? Chinas butthurt, Russias butthurt, the US, also butthurt. But ultimately my take is that we’re all here to give a better life to our citizens. Is WW3 really going to deliver on that?
I think some of these folks are jaded that Bernie didn’t win the presidency. And that is completely understandable, it’s a shame that our country, and the dems for that matter, are not that left leaning.
But what I think they fail to remember is that Bernie was elected as a Senator from Vermont. Kucinich, Omar, AOC have been voted in multiple times as representatives. While the country as a whole is not so left leaning, there are pockets in this country that are. Change can start at the local level, with actual local laws that impact your actual life a whole lot more than the small, but significant handful of things at the federal level.
But notice that these folks are all democrats. If you want the AOCs and Omars of the world to have more power, then the best way to do that is to vote their party in as well.
There’s a Russian expat YouTuber I found yesterday. He mentioned this very thing. In Russia, all police are federal and thus serve the state, in the US the police are local (yes, we do have some federal enforcers, but they are dwarfed by local police). It blew the guy’s mind that we actually have local police that have to respond to citizens and politicians at the local level. Conversely, it blew my mind that this isn’t necessarily the status quo.
All that is to say, the people on here that are saying “Biden do something!” May not understand that our president is not, and at least for the moment, cannot, be dictator in chief. And I for one am thankful for it.
I’m going to answer this honestly, because on the internet I can’t tell if you’re being funny or curious. Kanye referred to Jesus as Yeezy. Once he became so grandiose in the music industry, and his mental disorder started to take over, he started calling himself Yeezy. So Yeezy should be pronounced like Jesus, I suppose.
In any case, the man has a God complex.
And this article confirms what we all already knew - he likes fish sticks.
So much like a zoo monkey, you exist for the fascination of others, and the occasional casting of feces their way? I see. I'll continue to view you from the cage you've made for yourself then, while keeping some distance.