[blueplum]

Don’t expect a third-worlder to hold the same logic, reasoning power or world-view as a first-worlder. Assad’s country is in tatters and his wife is buying $7,000 shoes. Assad gets rid of more of his poor, and his wife can buy more shoes. It works for them - because there’s no one to challenge his power. Seems crazy to us.

[Wallace T.]

Elites everywhere live like potentates of old. While the Ukrainian peasants starved to death by the millions, Stalin and his henchmen gorged on the finest food. It doesn't look that the North Korean dictator misses many meals, irrespective of his malnourished countrymen.