We live in schizophrenic times, it seems, when people are so polarized by what they believe about anything that civil discussions aren’t an option. The politician who seems to exemplify this schizophrenia is Putin.
This dude appeared shirtless on horseback, hiking, showing off his biceps and triceps and abs – and we don’t know whether women swooned and fainted at the sight of him. What we do know is that he and his wife are now divorced. We know that Putin was a KGB agent for 16 years, was elected as president in 1999…and well, you can read the rest of his strange political career here.
We know that Putin dislikes gays, that there are many stringent laws in Russia against gays, and that it was an issue during the Olympics. We know that Putin granted whistleblower Edward Snowden asylum. And Snowden is the only area where I agree with Putin. Even though Putin probably did it for political reasons – instead of for the right reasons – his decision bought Snowden time. There’s an ironic synchro in this that we wrote about previously.
The bottom line is Putin is on the wrong side of history with his invasion of the Crimea. Recently, there was a vote about whether the Crimea should leave the Ukraine and rejoin Russia and the vote is apparently overwhelming in favor of linking up with Russia. The U.S. refuses to recognize this vote.
“Under the stage direction of the Russian Federation, a circus performance is underway: the so-called referendum,” Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said Sunday. “Also taking part in the performance are 21,000 Russian troops, who with their guns are trying to prove the legality of the referendum.”
As soon as the polls closed, the White House again denounced the vote: “The international community will not recognize the results of a poll administered under threats of violence,” it said in a statement. “Russia’s actions are dangerous and destabilizing.”
My question is this: Why should the U. S. be involved in this at all? The answer seems to be fairly straightforward: oil.
Why are we still an oil-based economy? Why was the electric car killed? What about solar power, wind power, ocean power? Back in 1973, when an oil embargo was in full force, I remember sitting in line at a gas station for three hours in order to fill my tank. And back then, gas was cheap. In fact, in June 1973, around the tine I used to wait in those lines, gas cost 42 cents a gallon. Yeah, you read that correctly. 42 CENTS. On a good day here in the U.S. gas is close to four bucks a gallon. In Europe, it’s much higher.
Yet, pundits who manipulate numbers would have you believe there’s no such thing as inflation. These are the same pundits who want you to believe that Snowden is a terrorist for revealing the extent of NSA spying on its own citizens.
Go figure.
We don’t just live in strange times. We ARE the strange times. Until our collective beliefs reach a tipping point, until we realize that corporate power spells political power, until we somehow extricate ourselves from the matrix of consensus thought and go rogue in our own lives, we are as trapped as Snowden. We may have a bit of breathing room, we may remain free for another day or month or year. But at some point, it will all catch up to us.
Oh, Putin. How macho you look without a shirt. What a man’s man you are on horseback. We’re grateful that you grated Snowden asylum. But hey, dude, I mean, really. The Crimea? Why? What’s the point?
It’s, for once, not because of oil, it’s because of the Crimean peninsula’s been ever since geostrategically important for Russia – you control the black sea when you got it. My friend said that Russia would never let go of Crimea and he was right.
Beside that, it is true that there are always economic interests behind every military action (and one can assume it’s right what, I think it was him, Harald Welzer said, that the elites themselves are in a crisis).
The former German Federal President Horst Koehler was forced to resign after he had said that Germany is defending economic interests in Afghanistan. It was the truth, but it was a scandal for German politicians! Not because the German ‘constitutions’ prohibits the German army to act beside of in a state of defence (so far, because the worst-case-scenario just happened last year and we have a coalition that has more than a 2/3 majority right now and could theoretically change the German constitution)…
Koehler was done, it took just a few days and we had a new Federal President (well, Mr. Wulff was a very interesting man, too and didn’t make it for long as well, then has been replaced by a man who is told to be a great defender of freedom, but I would say, he is just great with words… but that’s another story…)
And the electric car hasn’t been developed further by the end of the 19th century, because it was cheaper and more efficient to use oil, and the oil lobby has been persistent making sure that they could sell oil as long as they gain profits.
A different story: lead. It took DECADES to get it out of certain products before the industry found a alternative way to use it: they put it into petrol. And the talk about an oil peak has been around for decades now. We had a great prof who used to tell us these stories, about the lack of responsibility in the sciences of the 20th century, and I couldn’t believe my ears and eyes.
I just don’t get why 15 to 20 years ago, when I was a child, plastic bottles started to appear in masses… I might not know enough to get this logic. But what I know is, there are enough researchers who can prove the structures of the shadow economy behind wars. And in these stories, guys like Putin play a major part.
Thanks very much for the insights!
I’m reading a book called “The Grand Chessboard” at the moment which explains quite a bit here and it is written by Zbigniew Brzezinski (look up his stats) ,this guy is a big name in the political arena,so there is a lot of weight to his words.
Personally,I think the world is in big trouble right now.
The world may not officially be at war,right now,but it is as close as it can get,with both sides smelling an opportunity here.
Buckle up,because it is ALL about the oil here,and don’t be surprised if this missing jet comes back into this equation.
Because the key is IRAN,not the Crimea.
And what do we have on the missing plane ?
An Iranian with a stolen passport…apparently.How convenient is that ?
And how do you lose a f#cking jet in this day and age ?
You can’t tell me nobody knows where this jet is.
I smell an event in the air bigger than 9/11 here.
Let’s hope I’m wrong.
The movie MILK – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_(film) and the “Twinkies” defense for premeditated murder may be a twist to consider regarding Putin.
Not even “dog park politics” can help us with this one. We can only wait for the next poop.
I can’t stand Putin. And, not to make light of the situation regarding Crimea, but I just have to say…for someone that dislikes gays so vehemently, I certainly question his sexuality every time I see one of those infamous pictures…no shirt on horseback? How much gayer can he get? The more macho he tries to be, the more it looks like he should be wearing suspenders, a helmet, and staying at the Y-M-C-A…
A number of pastors, pundits etc who had been so vehemently against gays have later turned out to be gay. You may be right about him, Melissa.
I know it!
Putin also brokered the deal with Syria – keeping us out of yet ANOTHER WAR. Up is down and down is up. We have absolutely no business telling another country what to do. It’s not like Iraq is creating a holiday commemorating that debacle. If they voted to join Russia – then so be it. They do speak Russian, afterall.
They don’t speak Russian, they are Russian. Not that I’m defending Putin, Obama, Bin Laden, or any other cult, but Crimea was Russia. They had simply given it when they thought that The Soviet Union would last forever. Remember those killings in Ukraine a few days ago? They were killing their own people: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/05/ukraine-bugged-call-catherine-ashton-urmas-paet. Other they were killing their own people in Sarajevo (under someone’s instructions to do that – a few days later NATO was bombarding Bosnian Serbs) because, in Alija Izetbegovic’s words at that time, Allah would understand. They had killed Serbian civilians near Srebrenica (the same number of people as during 9/11) and Serbs later took over Srebrenica and killed men (and men only) involved in that (officially still called the worst war crime in Europe after World War 2).
“Our” Bin Laden (the bastard who was killing Serbs) is Naser Oric, free as a bird.
Why is it that the war criminals often aren’t held accountable?
Thanks for the correction! The Serbian people have suffered so much…
Why Crimea? Two words; Power and Control.
Don’t underestimate Putin and Russia. He is a Very dangerous man.
I say that with some knowledge…I will leave it at that.
Anyone who spent 16 years with the KGB has got to be dangerous.
It’s odd that you should write about Crimea as I was talking to a Russian about this today. I say Russian but she originally lived in Ukraine (now lives in Cornwall). Despite the election being considered illegal by USA, UK and parts of Europe she says that she would have voted to join with Russia – as would (and did) the majority of the local Crimean population – they are Russian (speak Russian) and were Russian up to about 60 years ago.
The problem arises because there are also people who consider themselves Ukrainians in Crimea. The woman I was talking to said her daughter (also Russian speaking) considers herself to be Russian but is married to a Ukrainian and her children are therefore Ukrainian.
There could be trouble ahead. I feel that the UK, Europe and the USA should keep their noses out of this and let the Ukrainians and Russians sort this out. It could become a dangerous situation. Oil and natural gas shouldn’t come into it, but probably will.
I agree that we should all stay out of it. It isn’t our business.