Saudi Arabia

I'm sorry, but Russia is the worst of two evils. Our democratic process still ensures transparency in goverment. That is not the case with Russia, and never will be.

Edited by SteveG - July 07 2017 at 10:55

^Let's not get carried away now. Please think about what your saying.

I am absolutely not disagreeing with you at all, the USA remains a land of polar opposites and false pretenses but I do swallow sideways with Stone, as his view of Russia and the former Soviet Union is tainted with massive amounts of idealistic nonsense. Both the US and the USSR showed incredible amount of ignorance and naiveté when dealing with each other, which is quite stunning to fathom, even today. In fact, there are many incredible parallels in terms of imperialism on both sides (Vietnam vs Afghanistan), as well as incompetent dysfunctional disasters (Three Mile Island vs Chernobyl) and certainly in the power play that was the Cold War, including a whole series of near-Armageddon misses , both sides are clearly guilty of various abuses both externally and internally. The main difference lies in the quality of life between the two superpowers. Living in the West certainly gave rise to a certain form of freedom of expression and thought that simply did not exist in the Soviet Union, by the nature of the type of society., both borne from revolution and yet distinctively opposite for perhaps more cultural reasons.  For one, Russians were prevented from even contemplating visits to the ‘diseased’ West and were fed a series of lies to keep their people complacent and obedient. The same was true for westerners wanting to explore Mother Russia, fueled by loads of misconceptions. That being said, the Gulag did exist and Stalin purges were real.  
The USSR collapsed due to massive economic mismanagement, poor strategic investment as well as political monolithic constraints. Period. A system that repudiates any profit is doomed to fail, as you keep on Ponzi-scheming forever until the whole thing collapses. You cannot sell a product for 50 cents when it costs one a dollar to make. That was the SU! Inefficient, mismanaged and consequence-laden. It collapsed like all empires, from internal rot, on social, political and economic levels. Gorbachev, as agricultural minister, realized this when visiting Eugene Whelan’s farm near Windsor, Ontario in the mid-80s and expecting a feudal, oppressive workers prison.  He knew then that the Socialist Workers paradise could not advance further without ‘openness’ and ‘interface’. Any collective where decisions are taken by a political elite rarely works. Yugoslavia succeeded at that, Israel certainly did as well, and many Western social democracies as well (Canada, Scandinavia, most of Europe etc,,) . 

I have to laugh, considering the number of wars and border conflicts the CIA have sponsored over the years. Yes, Saudi Arabia is a collection of very naughty gentlemen. In perspective, so is the UK, the USA, Russia, China..... it's not "black and white cowboy hats", this is how the world works. 

tszirmay wrote: First of all, I respect your opinions mainly due t the fact that I READ your prog reviews diligently. That being said,I have been studying the former USSR and Yugoslavia in both official and nonofficial capacities and I have seen quite a few 'declassified ' documents. Written a few too. Two things 1- The KGB (my specialty) were masters of disinformation (they are doing it now, with Internet weapons), creating bogus documents that were meant to sow chaos and confusion. As you are a Russophile, you know that they have extremely crafty minds, not just chess and sports , but also everything psychological. They made Mehmet Agca, they  penetrated all spheres of Western society and continue to put a lid on internal dissent, by assassination, if necessary. They deny it but with a wry twist of facts. Chess. 2- All Declassified documents have entire sentences blackened out like Roger Waters latest opus' album cover. Ever wonder what was inked out?  Err..All I can say, it is not pretty (Poland air tragedy, Malaysia air shoot down, intimidation of all the former satellites).

Edited by siLLy puPPy - July 06 2017 at 07:56

First of all, I respect your opinions mainly due t the fact that I READ your prog reviews diligently. That being said,I have been studying the former USSR and Yugoslavia in both official and nonofficial capacities and I have seen quite a few 'declassified ' documents. Written a few too. Two things 1- The KGB (my specialty) were masters of disinformation (they are doing it now, with Internet weapons), creating bogus documents that were meant to sow chaos and confusion. As you are a Russophile, you know that they have extremely crafty minds, not just chess and sports , but also everything psychological. They made Mehmet Agca, they  penetrated all spheres of Western society and continue to put a lid on internal dissent, by assassination, if necessary. They deny it but with a wry twist of facts. Chess. 2- All Declassified documents have entire sentences blackened out like Roger Waters latest opus' album cover. Ever wonder what was inked out? 

Blacksword wrote: siLLy puPPy wrote: ^ yep and he's right. Putin and Russia hasn't commited a fraction of the atrocities that the US has. Of course they have done their share of empire building at other's costs but the US has hundreds of military bases all over the world essentially for the fact of forcing countries to peg themselves to the US dollar. Russia is weak militarily but are brilliant in the scientific world. In fact one of the reasons that the capitalists are so afraid of Russia is 1) because their sciences are so advanced that they could crash the world economy if all the technological discoveries they have achieved were allowed to hit the market and 2) Russia is colluding with Brazil, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) to create an alternative currency that developing nations can adhere to instead of the dollar. This is having some effect as the Chinese yuan has been making serious ground. The days of US domination through the war machines is coming to an end and the rest of us who want to live in peace with our neighbors around the world can hopefully be proud of our country again but personally i find the whole notion of nation states to be obsolete and have no need to attach my identity to it. Putin may not have as much blood on his hands as Bush jnr (for example) but historically Russia's bodycount could give most nations a run for their money. Stalin killed over 40 million of his own people. Not that it's a contest, of course. Putin scares me as much as Trump does. He's not the type to blink, and Russia has a history of survival and withstanding hardship. They almost embrace the challenge, whereas the west cowers from it. I would also dispute that Russia is militarily weak. Like in the good ole days of the USSR, it seems to be where most of its money goes these days, especially since NATO has insisted on pushing up to her borders.

See, Trump isn't always wrong. How does the saying go? Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

^ yep and he's right. Putin and Russia hasn't commited a fraction of the atrocities that the US has. Of course they have done their share of empire building at other's costs but the US has hundreds of military bases all over the world essentially for the fact of forcing countries to peg themselves to the US dollar. Russia is weak militarily but are brilliant in the scientific world. In fact one of the reasons that the capitalists are so afraid of Russia is 1) because their sciences are so advanced that they could crash the world economy if all the technological discoveries they have achieved were allowed to hit the market and 2) Russia is colluding with Brazil, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) to create an alternative currency that developing nations can adhere to instead of the dollar. This is having some effect as the Chinese yuan has been making serious ground. The days of US domination through the war machines is coming to an end and the rest of us who want to live in peace with our neighbors around the world can hopefully be proud of our country again but personally i find the whole notion of nation states to be obsolete and have no need to attach my identity to it.

^Trump made the remark during an interview with Fox News' Bill O'Reilly, saying he respected his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

Edited by SteveG - July 05 2017 at 07:51