Wagner coup highlights Russia’s ‘chaos,’ Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky says

Nypost ^ | 06/24/2023 | Rich Calder

[ChicagoConservative27]

The armed munity on the Kremlin led by mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin highlights Russia’s “full-scale weakness,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday,, adding “no lie can hide” the “chaos” inside the country.

“Russia’s weakness is obvious. Full-scale weakness,” Zelensky wrote on Twitter. “And the longer Russia keeps its troops and mercenaries on our land, the more chaos, pain, and problems it will have for itself later.”

[PIF]

Why not link me Rachel Maddow while you are at it.
—
Got a number for her - she’s available now - hurry the line is forming!

[fieldmarshaldj]

You’re half right. I think we’ll keep the anti-globalist leader who doesn’t play the piano with his pecker on tv.

[FormerFRLurker]

Too funny. The first coup I’ve seen with a president at 80% approval and not a SINGLE protest before it taking place

It's pretty easy to get 80% approval rating when your opponents have a tendency to fall out of windows or shoot themselves in the back of the head. Also easy not to have protests when the people know they'll be beaten and thrown in jail if they protest. If you think 80% of Russians approve of Putin, I've got a bridge to sell you.

[BobL]

“It’s pretty easy to get 80% approval rating when your opponents have a tendency to fall out of windows or shoot themselves in the back of the head.”
Didn’t work with Bill Clinton, DESPITE the very strange endings for some 40 or so of his opponents. Can’t speak for you, but watching Clinton’s enemies drop dead didn’t affect my hatred of him.

“Also easy not to have protests when the people know they’ll be beaten and thrown in jail if they protest.”
Tell that to Ceausescu of Romania and Khadafi.

“If you think 80% of Russians approve of Putin, I’ve got a bridge to sell you.”
I agree he has some opposition, for going too slowly in the Liberation of Ukraine, but he still has very, very, high approval.

[skeeter]

Ain’t that the truth

[Vermont Lt]

You are kidding me right? You equate a 200k drive in the US or any country to a 20km column of an army invading a country?

I don’t know whether to laugh at you or with you.

[FormerFRLurker]

Bit of a difference in scale between the Clinton murders and Putin’s murders. Also keep in mind the fact that the Clintons tried to cover up their crimes because the US is still a country of laws rather than of men. Putin, facing no such restraints on his powers, did nothing to stop the Russian press from covering the bizarre “suicides” because he wants his crimes to be known so that people fear him.

All the official 80% approval rating tells us is that only 20% of Russians are willing to express disapproval of Putin. We have no way of knowing how many told the pollsters they approved of Putin, but secretly hate him.

If Clinton (or 0bama or any other Rat politician you care to name) were the American equivalent of Putin FR would either not exist or it would act as a trap to identify and control the opposition. I have no doubt this site is being monitored by the Left, but most Freepers are still free to express themselves without being dragged off to prison.

[BobL]

“If Clinton (or 0bama or any other Rat politician you care to name) were the American equivalent of Putin FR would either not exist or it would act as a trap to identify and control the opposition.”

You might want to see what’s on Telegram in Russia. Try a Jan 6th style coup against Putin, life will suck. But if you’re a nobody bitching about setbacks in Ukraine, particularly the big setbacks last fall, the Russian government doesn’t care - the channels are still up. Unlike what the Neocon Supporters here claim, Russia is NOT the Soviet Union, nor is it China, not even close. In Russia, for example, they get the REAL news from Ukraine - the good and the bad, and they don’t censor CNN or any other Western operation - but try watching RT.com in Europe some time...

Considering what’s become of the US ‘justice’ system (Hunter Biden, anyone, or Trump/Russia ‘collusion’, anyone, or 600 sightseers locked up in DC Central after touring the Capitol...), I doubt we’re any better than Russia, at least at this point. Maybe that will change - God, I hope so.

[BobL]

“All the official 80% approval rating tells us is that only 20% of Russians are willing to express disapproval of Putin. We have no way of knowing how many told the pollsters they approved of Putin, but secretly hate him.”

The number wasn’t always 80%, it was more like 60% before the Ukraine War, as Russians were getting enticed to throw off Putin and join the West. It also dropped during the setbacks last fall.

But then the ABSOLUTE IDIOTS in the West did just what Putin needed and said their plan was to ‘Weaken’ and ‘Dismember’ Russia, and also admitted to LYING to Putin regarding the Minsk agreements in 2014. To be honest, after all of that, I’m surprised Putin’s approval isn’t in the 90s, considering that people tend to rally around their government once they realize they have enemies looking to destroy them.

[fireman15]

The old propaganda gatekeepers aren't in the picture.

They are not only in the picture; they are orchestrating the situation in ways not even imaginable in previous times. You are very naive and foolish to not realize this. Areas not under the influence of Western media which currently contain about 90% of the world's population view this situation completely differently than those of us who are conditioned daily by a never-ending stream of bullcr@p.

[buwaya]

Really. Then why are we discussing these matters now?
Is there some fellow in a black suit standing over you, keeping you from typing whatever?

I have an advantage over you. I grew up in an honest to God dictatorship. That’s not what you have in the US.

What you do have is a deep and irreconcilable social split into two castes, who hate each other with a vicious intensity. Hutu-Tutsi. One caste controls most of your institutions. You hate the people who run your institutions, and they hate you. But that’s not all. Their entire social circle hates you, their friends, neighbors and therapists also hate you, as does the entire chain of personnel in line to take over these institutions, and all their kids in school.

You are not going to fix this by overthrowing the government, because its not a dictatorship. Its a lot worse than that. But its different. Your real enemies are in the millions, its not some conspiracy of a few megalomaniac cranks.

Most of the world outside the US doesn’t have this very modern-American Hutu-Tutsi thing going. Its normal. Europe is normal. Asia is normal. Its a relief to be out of the US these days. You can talk to people about real things without putting yourself into a machete-murder zone.

And you have no clue what non-western media is saying. Do you speak Hindi? Tagalog? (I do). Chinese? Spanish? (I do).

[fireman15]

I am genuinely impressed by your language skills and your background. Unfortunately, you seem to be like most other people for whom English is a second language and who grew up in a different culture... You concentrate very hard on whatever is being discussed but do not pick up on the nuances of what is really being said. So, I have an advantage over you that you do not and likely never will have any real understanding of.

People communicate in many different ways but even the nuances of speech are hard to pickup on. Your first clue that your perception is being manipulated should have been when your point of view on anything becomes closely aligned with Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, AOC and the “squad”, along with RINOs such as Lindsey Graham. You should reevaluate your point of view when those types of deep state characters are expressing the same sentiment as you.

[buwaya]

After almost 40 years in the US I am well integrated into US culture. There are no secret signals or implications that I don’t understand.

As for Pelosi, et al - I’ve lived in the SF bay area the whole time, save a year in Sacramento. Married there, kids grew up there, etc. Worked there, managed people, departments, projects, etc. I have been living all this time in the belly of the beast. I know where Pelosi and Feinstein and Boxer and Newsom etc. came from. I knew SF local politics in and out, which is whee these people come from. When I got there Pelosi wasn’t even in Congress. What Pelosi et. al. say and do very closely reflects what their voters think.

“Pelosi” as a concept is a simplistic personalization of a much larger and more complex social phenomenon.

As for policies, back to dictatorships. These things aren’t a matter of cartoon villains. In the middle of the grifting and looting and shutting down the opposition or shooting people in the streets, they very often convince themselves that they are doing good. And, after all, they run the country. They have to do necessary things. Ours were all for public works and highways and education (old school), keeping the communists suppressed, trying to attract foreign investment, etc.

Back to Pelosi. Opposing EVERYTHING is (see above), silly. You would also have to be against Social Security and Medicare, public works and national security, among other things. Even a dictatorship has to deal with real world problems.

And to reiterate, these people (including the ESG mongers at Blackrock) represent THEIR people. That stuff is their peoples’ definition of the good, the true and the beautiful. It’s perverted and stupid, but that’s your tragedy.

[fireman15]

I've lived in the SF bay area the whole time, save a year in Sacramento.

I am sorry but it is like you are setting yourself up for a bad joke. So, you have lived in the “SF bay area” for 40 years and you think that you now completely understand American culture. You are far worse off than I ever could have imagined. It is no wonder that you advised me to open my mind to social media. No one is more insulated from reality than those who have lived in the Bay area for decades. I do not know whether to laugh or cry about your situation.

[buwaya]

And, besides living in San Francisco, I have travelled the length and breadth of California, from Eureka to San Diego, including such woke spots as Redding and Bakersfield, working with the stout old blue collared America.

I have had a very long career in hands-on engineering in the energy field. Outside of the HQ, these people are MAGA. I think they are the best of you, and the bureaucrats at HQ are largely useless eaters, if it weren’t for the fact that they are necessary to keep the government predators away.

I have thus had a foot firmly in both camps of your social divide. Its not a comfortable situation even now, in retirement.

That is why I know that this IS a massive social problem. I think that you, at your end, do not see the people on the other side, hence you fail to see it as that, a social problem. Your imagination runs wild, thinking of master manipulators working invisibly behind the curtain.

No. Its just that there are two extremely different groups of people who hate and fear each other. The Pelosis and etc. represent their people as these want to be represented, and they don’t represent you.

You have a nasty habit of making self-serving assertions btw.

[fireman15]

I have thus had a foot firmly in both camps of your social divide.

You believe that there are two camps in a social divide. And that you as an objective outsider are an astute observer. This demonstrates that despite spending 40 years in California that you still do not get it. There are not two camps in California or the United States for that matter... there are dozens or hundreds of “camps”. Because of your background and/or your personality you see everything in black and white.

My grandfather emigrated here when he was 17. He was very successful the same as you appear to be. Like you he mastered the language but never had a good understanding of nuance. I doubt that I am the first person to have noticed that you have this personality trait.

You have a nasty habit of making self-serving assertions btw.

Could you be more specific? Which offensive assertions are you referring to.

Somehow this is how I envision your opinion of me.

[fireman15]

I am very curious about your moniker. Here is a definition that I found. I am assuming that you most likely are referring to the crocodile, but really have no idea, and would not want to make another “self serving assertion”.

buwaya

Noun
buwaya (Baybayin spelling ᜊᜓᜏᜌ)

crocodile; caiman
Synonym: kokodrilo
(by extension) alligator
(slang) corrupt police officer
(figuratively) greedy or corrupt person (especially a politician)
Adjective
buwaya (Baybayin spelling ᜊᜓᜏᜌ)

(figuratively) greedy; avaricious; rapacious
Synonyms: ganid, suwapang, masakim, makamkam
(figuratively) corrupt
Synonyms: korap, kurakot, tiwali
buwayang pulis
corrupt policeman
(figuratively) tricky
Synonyms: suwitik, magdaraya, manlilinlang

[buwaya]

Schoolboy nickname. Crocodile.

[fireman15]

Sounds like a good one.