4 ms·

Seriously, I would probably take Putin over Obama any-day, at-least he doesn't pretend to be a nice guy.

by pavs 13y ago

orblivion 13y ago
I'm not sure, I feel like Obama pretends to be a nice guy because he sortof has to be a nice guy in the US. He couldn't get away with poisoning a journalist. Correct me if I'm wrong.
- jlgreco 13y ago
  He could probably get away with poisoning a journalist, but probably not in such a... dramatic and obvious... way. That polonium poisoning was astounding, it just screams "So fucking what."
  - VladRussian2 13y ago
    >it just screams "So fucking what." In my reading it wasn't the main motif, it was a way to kill in the way that nobody would even question who did it, while not having to publicly claim responsibility.
  - coldtea 13y ago
    Or it screams: "I'm sending a message now to anybody else doing the same thing".
- betterunix 13y ago
  Poison, probably not. Give them a choice between prison or paying millions to defend against a federal prosecution, on the other hand... Yeah, I suppose being poisoned is worse. Talk about a rock and a hard place though.
- coldtea 13y ago
  >He couldn't get away with poisoning a journalist. Well, no, but then again, he wouldn't even have to know. The system is quite extended. If someone, say a Hastings guy, makes too many waves, he could, say, die in a car crash. Or if some Garry Webb guy discovers something too bad, somebody can make some calls, and have 13 reporters investigating him (a fellow journalist) instead of his claims. And if they eventually prove to be true, 10 years later, and are even admitted by officials, who cares then?
gojomo 13y ago
...at least he doesn't pretend to be a nice guy. Putin does pretend to be lots of other things: http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/09/vladimir-putin-action-man/100147/ http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/09/vladimir-putin-ac... And he reportedly stole a superbowl ring in 2005: http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/blog/eye-on-football/22429359/patriots-owner-robert-kraft-vladimir-putin-stole-my-super-bowl-ring http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/blog/eye-on-football/22429359/p...
- corresation 13y ago
  The Superbowl ring thing was quite clearly a misunderstanding: It is exceedingly odd to present jewelry to someone in such a context just for them to look at (especially to the president of Russia for a national football league in the US, as if he would be awestruck). Yet presenting jewelry to heads of state (which aren't personally kept, generally, but instead are showcased in national archives), is common. So Kraft was really silly to present the ring like that, and you can't hold that against Putin.
  - MartinCron 13y ago
    The Super Bowl ring story falls nicely in the category of a story that's far too good to bother to fact check.
    - sharkweek 13y ago
      It really got... cinematic. The whole tie-in with Aaron Hernandez (the NFL player recently arrested for murder) being some major revenge conspiracy was just too good. I chose to just believe it all for shits and giggles
coldtea 13y ago
Actually Putin is a well beloved leader in his country, and does very well at elections (BS memes aside). He's just less popular with tech urbanised youth, an insignificant minority in Russia, but quite vocal in the intertubes. Yes, there is corruption in Russia (not that it doesn't happen in every country, it's just than in Russia it's old style as opposed to the modern western style (from Enron to Maddof to trillion dollars bailouts for golden boys). Actually it's more or less the same in Italy, not nobody gives a damn about Italy, because the mob are good with foreign interests, and the US is not competing with Italy for resources anyway. What's important is that he didn't sell the Russian assets to foreign interests and fuck his own people, like the much beloved to the West Yeltsin did. Foreign interests that would like to be able to grab Russian resources and do as they please in the country have sponsored many a BS campaigns against him, from the classic old "Voice of America" style to modern "NGO" style, to blowing out of proportion BS political opponents that get 1/5 of the votes, if that. Like covering US elections by focusing on some third party fringe candidate. But that's for the Russians. For everybody else, the even more important thing is: Russia doesn't mess with other countries outside their neighbourhood.
- redthrowaway 13y ago
  Yeltsin did sell off all of Russia's assets to the oligarchs, yes. He did so at the behest of the US, and it was wrong and stupid. But Putin is nowhere near as rosy as you portray him. Being a nationalist who pines for the days of Stalin may play well in a Russia leery of Western democracy after getting tag teamed by Russia and the US during and after the collapse of the USSR and enduring the poverty and famine that ensued, but it doesn't make you good. Co-opting the Russian Orthodox church into a neo-czarist Church of Putin is hardly the mark of a good leader, either. Nor, for that matter, does murdering people who speak against you. >Russia doesn't mess with other countries outside their neighbourhood. Tell that to Georgia. Tell that to the people being murdered and oppressed in Russian client states like Syria and Iran, or Libya before them.
  - fierycatnet 13y ago
    Those silly Georgians who decided to have a little genocide in South Osetia, they are so represed by scumbag Russia.

Seriously, I would probably take Putin over Obama any-day, at-least he doesn't pretend to be a nice guy.

by pavs 13y ago

Seriously, I would probably take Putin over Obama any-day, at-least he doesn't pretend to be a nice guy.

I'm not sure, I feel like Obama pretends to be a nice guy because he sortof has to be a nice guy in the US. He couldn't get away with poisoning a journalist. Correct me if I'm wrong.

jlgreco 13y ago
He could probably get away with poisoning a journalist, but probably not in such a... dramatic and obvious... way. That polonium poisoning was astounding, it just screams "So fucking what."
- VladRussian2 13y ago
  >it just screams "So fucking what." In my reading it wasn't the main motif, it was a way to kill in the way that nobody would even question who did it, while not having to publicly claim responsibility.
- coldtea 13y ago
  Or it screams: "I'm sending a message now to anybody else doing the same thing".
betterunix 13y ago
Poison, probably not. Give them a choice between prison or paying millions to defend against a federal prosecution, on the other hand... Yeah, I suppose being poisoned is worse. Talk about a rock and a hard place though.
coldtea 13y ago
>He couldn't get away with poisoning a journalist. Well, no, but then again, he wouldn't even have to know. The system is quite extended. If someone, say a Hastings guy, makes too many waves, he could, say, die in a car crash. Or if some Garry Webb guy discovers something too bad, somebody can make some calls, and have 13 reporters investigating him (a fellow journalist) instead of his claims. And if they eventually prove to be true, 10 years later, and are even admitted by officials, who cares then?

gojomo 13y ago

...at least he doesn't pretend to be a nice guy. Putin does pretend to be lots of other things: http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/09/vladimir-putin-action-man/100147/ http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/09/vladimir-putin-ac... And he reportedly stole a superbowl ring in 2005: http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/blog/eye-on-football/22429359/patriots-owner-robert-kraft-vladimir-putin-stole-my-super-bowl-ring http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/blog/eye-on-football/22429359/p...

corresation 13y ago
The Superbowl ring thing was quite clearly a misunderstanding: It is exceedingly odd to present jewelry to someone in such a context just for them to look at (especially to the president of Russia for a national football league in the US, as if he would be awestruck). Yet presenting jewelry to heads of state (which aren't personally kept, generally, but instead are showcased in national archives), is common. So Kraft was really silly to present the ring like that, and you can't hold that against Putin.
- MartinCron 13y ago
  The Super Bowl ring story falls nicely in the category of a story that's far too good to bother to fact check.
  - sharkweek 13y ago
    It really got... cinematic. The whole tie-in with Aaron Hernandez (the NFL player recently arrested for murder) being some major revenge conspiracy was just too good. I chose to just believe it all for shits and giggles

coldtea 13y ago

Actually Putin is a well beloved leader in his country, and does very well at elections (BS memes aside). He's just less popular with tech urbanised youth, an insignificant minority in Russia, but quite vocal in the intertubes. Yes, there is corruption in Russia (not that it doesn't happen in every country, it's just than in Russia it's old style as opposed to the modern western style (from Enron to Maddof to trillion dollars bailouts for golden boys). Actually it's more or less the same in Italy, not nobody gives a damn about Italy, because the mob are good with foreign interests, and the US is not competing with Italy for resources anyway. What's important is that he didn't sell the Russian assets to foreign interests and fuck his own people, like the much beloved to the West Yeltsin did. Foreign interests that would like to be able to grab Russian resources and do as they please in the country have sponsored many a BS campaigns against him, from the classic old "Voice of America" style to modern "NGO" style, to blowing out of proportion BS political opponents that get 1/5 of the votes, if that. Like covering US elections by focusing on some third party fringe candidate. But that's for the Russians. For everybody else, the even more important thing is: Russia doesn't mess with other countries outside their neighbourhood.

redthrowaway 13y ago
Yeltsin did sell off all of Russia's assets to the oligarchs, yes. He did so at the behest of the US, and it was wrong and stupid. But Putin is nowhere near as rosy as you portray him. Being a nationalist who pines for the days of Stalin may play well in a Russia leery of Western democracy after getting tag teamed by Russia and the US during and after the collapse of the USSR and enduring the poverty and famine that ensued, but it doesn't make you good. Co-opting the Russian Orthodox church into a neo-czarist Church of Putin is hardly the mark of a good leader, either. Nor, for that matter, does murdering people who speak against you. >Russia doesn't mess with other countries outside their neighbourhood. Tell that to Georgia. Tell that to the people being murdered and oppressed in Russian client states like Syria and Iran, or Libya before them.
- fierycatnet 13y ago
  Those silly Georgians who decided to have a little genocide in South Osetia, they are so represed by scumbag Russia.