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Tag Archives: Vladimir Putin

Surrealpolitik: Orban & Putin & ‘Illiberal Democracy’

07 Saturday Jan 2023

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Extreme Brown vs Red-Green, Hungary, Psychology, Russia

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

authoritarianism, autocracy, EU & Hungary, Hungary, Hungary & Russia, Illiberal Democracy is Tyranny, kleptocracy, malignant narcissism, Medieval v. Modern, New Nobility, Orban & Putin, Orban and Putin, political absolutism, Putinism, Russia, Viktor Orban, Vladimir Putin

BUDAPEST, Hungary—When Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban unleashed a racist tirade during an annual address to ethnic Hungarians in Romania on July 23, in which he argued that his supporters do “not want to become peoples of mixed race,” the international community recoiled in horror at the vitriol being espoused by the leader of a NATO and European Union member state. One of Orban’s longtime advisors, Zsuzsa Hegedus, resigned after the speech, calling it a “pure Nazi text … worthy of [former Nazi leader Joseph] Goebbels.”

Coakley, Amanda. “Putin’s Trojan Horse Inside the European Union: No matter what Moscow does, Hungary’s prime minister consistently carries water for the Kremlin.” Foreign Policy, August 3, 2022.

Amanda Coakley’s article also covers Orban’s deliberate development of dependence on Russia for Hungary’s energy supply. His disingenuous position within the European Union suggests he has had but one outcome in mind, i.e., to become premier in Europe’s “New Nobility” as encouraged by Vladimir Putin. At the base of the autocratic feudal-medieval bond–the same “Malignant Narcissism” that has so characterized former American President Donald Trump’s careers and politics that have turned out disasters for banks, contractors, and citizens.


In late November 2022, Ukrainian special forces arrested a suspected Russian agent at the Ukraine–Hungary border. The man had been attempting to smuggle secret information into EU member state Hungary on a flash drive that he had allegedly concealed in his anus.

The flash drive contained stolen personal information about senior figures and staff at the Ukrainian domestic secret service SBU and the Ukrainian military intelligence service GUR, as well as sensitive data on Ukrainian army bases, weapons and logistics.

Bogar, Zsolt. “Is Hungary becoming Russia’s spy hub within the EU?” DW, September 12, 2022.

Orban, contrary to the European Union’s posture, appears not to mind either the presence nor success of Russia’s spies in Budapest and elsewhere in Hungary. The penetration surpasses presence in numbers as allies believe Hungary’s “IT networks and internal communications” compromised. For a four-year period, 2013-2017, Orbán’s Hungary had even eased the access of Russian spies into the rest of the EU via a “Golden Visa” program (related and recent: Szabolcs, Panyi. “Russian spy chief’s son has a Budapest address–in a property owned by an old friend of Orbán’s chief of staff.” Telex, November 14, 2022).


In the now “surrealpolitik” constructed between Hungary and Russia, business includes the following:

  • Building two nuclear plant blocks in Paks financed by borrowing $10 billion from Russia;
  • Building railroad cars;
  • Hosting Russia’s dark International Investment Bank;
  • Supporting a 15-year gas delivery contract with Gazprom that bypasses Ukraine.

For further details, see the source–Rácz, András. “Authoritarian Ties: The Case of Russia and Hungary.” The Russia File, Kennan Institute, Wilson Center, October 22, 2021. Rácz also notes where Orbán’s spine has stiffened in relation to Russian performance not up to EU standards (and some “intelligence operatives” have indeed been ejected from Hungary).

Global Security‘s remarks fit the brotherly love model of modern despotism in Hungary: “Orban played tough, which might not turn out well for him in the long run. His games were turning into a high wire act, threatening to keep Brussels off balance. At times Orban made half-hearted promises to uphold the EU’s policy toward Russia; at other times, he allowed himself to be flattered by Putin, his self-declared political role model. Or, when it came to economic interests, he allowed himself to be put under pressure (Global Security, “Hungary-Russia Relations” as quoted January 7, 2022).

Putin’s realpolitik, plain old mafia leverage, came through for Russia this past year. From The Guardian—

Hungarians voted in general elections just weeks after the invasion, in April, and it seems reasonable to assume that the war next door had an influence on the result. Given the climate of fear that the devastating “special military operation” created, Hungarians voted to keep Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz in power rather than risk an untested six-party coalition. This assumption also underlies Orbán’s response, which is to stay out of the conflict to the point of being “exempted”, a position that has been condemned as a betrayal by Hungary’s western allies. Hungary refuses to allow arms shipments destined for Kyiv to transit Hungarian territory and blocks the extension of EU sanctions against Russia to the energy sector. This latter stance is intended to enable an already controversial Russian-Hungarian project to build a nuclear power plant on the Danube (Paks II) to go ahead unaltered.

Dalos, György.  “Orban says Hungary is ‘exempt’ from the conflict: tell that to his friend in Moscow.”  The Guardian, October 29, 2022.

György also notes the “similarities between the two leaders: authoritarian posturing and illiberalism underlying their respective concepts of the state.”


Since then, Orbán has been accused of fostering resentment. Tensions flared in 2018 over a video that apparently showed diplomats illegally issuing Hungarian passports to people in Transcarpathia. Later, in 2019, Hungary was accused of trying to influence the outcome of elections in the region, and blocked Ukraine’s NATO membership negotiations over the row. |

Today, from the Donbas to Kosovo, events are again proving the potency of nationalist narratives over lost territory and peoples separated by the claimed injustices of history. Yet, in the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the simple fact that many Hungarians have negative views of both Russians and Ukrainians is pertinent.

Nattrass, William. “Hungary’s ‘pro-Russia’ stance was inevitable.” Politico, September 15, 2022.

The wholly reactionary New Nobility (a member of which Orban might wish to be counted) rather like the old, appears fascinated by its own super-duper bloodline and culture, enough so to demonize hosts beyond their own boundaries, engage in passportization, and when possibility arises, redraw maps by way of wars driven by the conviction of racially-based cultural supremacy.


Comparing Orban to Putin might once have been hyperbole. But when Fidesz seems determined to expel a high-quality educational institution from the country on the grounds of political views of its funder, it is hyperbole no longer.

The attack on CEU, furthermore, is not happening in isolation. It is part of a broader effort to squeeze out “Soros and the powers that symbolize him,” to use Orban’s own words.

Rohac, Dalibor. “Hungary Is Turning Into Russia: On the CEU, Orban Mimics Putin.” Foreign Affairs, April 12, 2017.

America’s Anti-Defamation League has classified the demonizing of George Soros as expressive of anti-Semitism, a return to the rhetoric of Jew as Globalist. In fact and far back in the day, George and his father, Tivador, used social camouflage to survive the Holocaust while providing other Jews with forged papers for escape. Their resistance would continue against Stalin and Communist Russia, and so through George Soros it has been sustained through the Cold War and throughout Russia journey into kleptocracy and, on this day, politically absolute tyranny.


ADL. “The Antisemitism Lurking Behind George Soros Conspiracy Theories.” October 11, 2018.

Bogar, Zsolt. “Is Hungary becoming Russia’s spy hub within the EU?” DW, September 12, 2022.

Coakley, Amanda. “Putin’s Trojan Horse Inside the European Union: No matter what Moscow does, Hungary’s prime minister consistently carries water for the Kremlin.” Foreign Policy, August 3, 2022.

Dalos, György.  “Orban says Hungary is ‘exempt’ from the conflict: tell that to his friend in Moscow.”  The Guardian, October 29, 2022.

Global Security. “Hungary-Russia Relations”.

Nattrass, William. “Hungary’s ‘pro-Russia’ stance was inevitable.” Politico, September 15, 2022.

Oppenheim, James S. “FTAC: A Short Note on the Demonizing of George Soros.” BackChannels, August 8, 2020.

Rácz, András. “Authoritarian Ties: The Case of Russia and Hungary.” The Russia File, Kennan Institute, Wilson Center, October 22, 2021.

Rohac, Dalibor. “Hungary Is Turning Into Russia: On the CEU, Orban Mimics Putin.” Foreign Affairs, April 12, 2017.

Szabolcs, Panyi. “Russian spy chief’s son has a Budapest address–in a property owned by an old friend of Orbán’s chief of staff.” Telex, November 14, 2022.


While #PutinFullTonto strives to return Russia to some version of the KGB revisits the Russian Imperial mode, few believe the Phantom of the Soviet will restore a monstrous near past; however, he has well succeeded in leveraging cooperation from malign and piratical personalities similar to his own–in power Viktor Orban and Recep Tayyip Erdogan most notably–and thereby weakening the political cohesion and coherence of the Atlantic Alliance and the European Union.

–33–

Liar, Thief, and Tyrant

20 Sunday Feb 2022

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Epistemology, Political Psychology, Political Spychology, Russia, Ukraine

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Damaged Psyche, malignant narcissism, psychology of dictatorship, Ukraine v Russia, Vladimir Putin

One more time . . . .

Malignant Narcissist in Terms-of-Art

Narcissistic Mortification: diminishment or humiliation –>

Narcissistic Covering/Splitting: covering the diminished, humiliated, or shamed damaged self / splitting off a courageous and heroic persona to be presented and sustained before the world –>

Narcissistic Manipulation: manipulation of the behavior and perceptions of others with behaviors ranging from gaslighting and lying to framing others and leveraging their behavior through various strategies –>

Experience of Unlimited Narcissistic Supply: experience of the sustained adoration, adulation, admiration and love of others en masse and without limit.

Related Online

Regarding the ideas represented by terms such as “Malignant Narcissism”, “Reparative Narcissism”, “Narcissistic Personality Disorder”, I’ve chosen to select reference both according to convenience and in response to my own experiences, ideas, and thinking (especially as regards the cited “Paranoid Delusional Narcissistic Reflection of Motivation” that is my own). Whether bullies on the streets, dictators in families, and imperious personalities in politics, the idea that the display of power, whether obviously malign or disingenuously protective (as our Lt. Colonel President Emperor and Tyrant Vladimir Putin so well presents), the relationship between the display of awesome destructive capability coupled with unparalleled wealth belies the heavy armoring and compensation needed to cover a much challenged and derided personality at an earlier stage. “I’ll show you!” and “I’ll show them” and “I will make them pay” suit the outlook of a tyrant whose damaged psyche may never be sufficiently appeased, placated, or repaired. History may come to regard the present Russian president as a man who could master associates, investors, mafia, and military but not himself.

Galeotti, Mark. “Active Measures: Russia’s Covert Geopolitical Operations.” Security Insights (George C. Marshall, European Center for Security Studies), No. 031, June 2019.

Kamphuis, Christian (Major, Royal Netherlands Army). “Reflexive Control.” Militaire Spectator, June 21, 2018.

Kowalewski, Annie. “Disinformation and Reflexive Control: The New Cold War.” Georgetown Security Studies Review, February 1, 2017.

Oppenheim, James S. “Paranoid Delusional Narcissistic Reflection of Motivation.” BackChannels, n.d.

Politkovskaya, Anna. “A Small Corner of Hell.” Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003.

Raypole, Crystal. “The Insecurity Behind Narcissistic Personality (NPD) Explained.” Good Therapy, November 7, 2019.

Satter, David. “The Unsolved Mystery Behind the Act of Terror That Brought Putin to Power.” National Review, August 17, 2016.

Schalkwijk, Frans and Patrick Luyten, Theo Ingenhoven, and Jack Dekker. “Narcissistic Personality Disorder: Are Psychodynamic Theories and the Alternative DSM-5 Model for Personality Disorders Finally Going to Meet?” Frontiers in Psychology, 12:676733, 2021.

Schindler, John. “Exploring Al Qaeda’s Murky Connection to Russian Intelligence.” Business Insider, June 10, 2014.

Thomas, Timothy L. “Russia’s Reflexive Control Theory and the Military.” PDF. Journal of Slavic Military Studies, 17:237-256, 2004.

Tiplady-Bishop, Lottie. “Jeffrey Epstein boasted about ‘flying to Moscow to visit Vladimir Putin’ as secrets behind his millions are revealed.” The U.S. Sun, July 19, 2020.

Wikipedia. “Active Measures”.

Wikipedia. “Malignant Narcissism”.

Wikipedia. “Narcissistic Mortification”.

Wikipedia. “Narcissistic supply”.

Wikipedia. “Narcissistic Personality Disorder”.

Wikipedia. “Psychological Abuse”.


Posted by CEPA to YouTube on October 24, 2019.

Posted by MSNBC to YouTube on February 18, 2022.

–33–

Putin the Pirate

24 Monday Jan 2022

Posted by commart in 21st Century Modern, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Europe, Great Britain and United Kingdom, Political Psychology, Politics, Russia, Ukraine, United States of America

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

EU/NATO, New Nationalism, New Russian Imperialism, Putin the Pirate, Russia v NATO, Russia v Ukraine, Ukraine's Frozen Conflict, Vladimir Putin

Well, he stole Robert Kraft’s Sacred Superbowl Ring, so what wouldn’t he steal?

Kraft’s ring now appears on display in the Kremlin’s library, quite a trophy brought home to Moscow by Russia’s Boss of Bosses.

From CNN:

The 4.94-carat ring is in the Kremlin’s library, where all official state gifts are kept, he said. It is worth more than $25,000, according to multiple reports from 2005.

A Kraft spokesman said Sunday the story is a humorous anecdote that Kraft “retells for laughs.”

“He loves that the ring is at the Kremlin and, as he stated back in 2005, he continues to have great respect for Russia and the leadership of President Putin,” said Stacey James, a spokesman for The Kraft Group.

Eshchenko, Alla and Faith Karimi. “Russian president: I did not steal Super Bowl ring.” CNN, June 17, 2013.

No. Putin didn’t steal it. It was a gift!

🙄

***

Will Ukraine be a gift too?

***

Putin the Pirate has done a few things under the table upside-down and sideways over decades to weaken western political coherence, cohesion, and resolve. Start with the KGB’s handling of Zawahiri over the winter of 1996/7. In connect-the-dots fashion, I believe that stay led to the attack by jet hijacking Islamists on 9/11 that in turn goosed the pride of western states in their Christian and independent political cultures and led to what has been referred to as the “New Nationalism”.

When bees sting and flesh swells, the response has not been called “proud flesh” for nothing.

The popular western response in enmity and fear regarding Islam has not been misplaced in relation to Islamic Extremism and related Islamist Terror, but the same has given rise to blood-and-soil nationalism, authoritarianism, and actual autocracy in some EU/NATO states. Hungary, Italy, Poland, Turkey, and the United States (one nation under Trump for a while) have each seen their open democracies challenged by demagoguery or political perversion.

We may also take note of the “01s” in dates: 1991-dissolve of the Soviet Union in bankruptcy following American intercession opposite the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (from which Russia was forced to retreat in 1989); 2001-the September 11 attacks took place on Felix Dzerzhinsky’s birthday, quite a gift for a Moscow bent on revenge for its losses in Afghanistan-and, no, Putin didn’t do it–it was obviously radical Muslims assembled and deployed by Ayman al-Zawahiri and Osama Bin Laden; 2011-The Horror taking off in Syria that would send millions of refugees into NATO (Turkey, which today hosts about 3.68 million Syrian refugees), the European Union (0.7 million-Germany), and Scandinavia (0.3 million), another goad for the defense of the rightly ethnolinguistic state cultures settled and enjoying the benefits of, well, being themselves, the only problem being a concomitant drift toward the same feudal-medieval worldviews and fascination with authority held by Bashar al-Assad, Ali Khamenei, and Vladimir Putin; 2021-Russia’s repeated threats by military feint against Ukraine, a young democratic state seeking NATO accession, and, by extension, NATO itself, but not quite as Ukraine remains without accession.

So hey, Bob (Kraft), George and George, Jr. (Bush), where are you today with Putin (the thief)?

***

Where and when are dictatorships to be stopped?

Is it when one or another has engaged in political repression and breathtaking plunder at home?

Should it be when the security service agents and agent provocateur show up within the borders of one’s democratic state?

Should it be when the tanks roll into a neighboring state struggling for its own sovereignty against barbaric force and the possibility of a return to corrupt, kleptocratic, and tyrannical governance?

Reference

Amante, Angelo and Crispian Balmer. “Analysis: Italy’s Salvini struggles as rightist ally grows stronger.” Reuters, May 10, 2021.

Bertrand, Natasha and Devan Cole. “Blinken says ‘a single additional Russian force’ entering Ukraine would trigger US response.” CNN, January 23, 2022.

Christophersen, Erik. “These 10 countries receive the most refugees.” Norwegian Refugee Council.

Cummings, William. “‘I am a nationalist’: Trump’s embrace of controversial label sparks uproar.” USA Today, October 24, 2018.

Duffin, Erin. “Nationalism in the U.S. – Statistics & Facts.” Statista, March 11, 2021.

Ellyatt, Holly. “If war is coming, the West must decide how far it will go to defend Ukraine against Russia.” CNBC, January 24, 2022.

Fearnow, Benjamin. “Donald Trump Urges Americans to Bring ‘Nationalism’ Back Into the Mainstream.” Newsweek, November 19, 2019.

Gross, Terry. “Manafort’s Guilty Plea Details His Entanglement with Russian-Backed Oligarchs.” NPR, September 19, 2018.

Harding, Luke. “Former Trump aide approved ‘black ops’ to help Ukraine president.” The Guardian, April 5, 2018.

Hemon, Aleksandar. “Trump’s Nationalism Advances on a Predictable Trajectory to Violence. His Supporters Will Kill When They’re Told To.” The Intercept, May 2, 2020.

Kajta, Justyna. “From street to state: How radical nationalists gained power in Poland.” Open Democracy, April 1, 2021.

Musharbash, Yassin. “The Globalization of Far-Right Extremism: An Investigative Report.” CTC Sentinel, Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, 14:6, July/August 2021.

Oppenheim, James S. “Syria: The Horror: 2011.” BackChannels, December 29, 2017.

Oppenheim, James S. “Trump’s America in Retrospect: Russian Real Estate Entanglements.” BackChannels, October 9, 2021.

Oppenheim, James S. “Ukraine: A Reminder.” BackChannels, December 7, 2021.

Satter, David. “The Unsolved Mystery Behind the Act of Terror That Brought Putin to Power.” National Review, August 17, 2016.

Schindler, John. “Exploring Al Qaeda’s Murky Connection to Russian Intelligence.” Business Insider, June 10, 2014.

Schuster, Simon. “How Paul Manafort Helped Elect Russia’s Man in Ukraine.” Time, October 31, 2017.

Smith, Deyscha. “New details shed light on the Robert Kraft-Vladimir Putin Super Bowl ring controversy.” Boston, September 10, 2020.

Statista. “Ranking of the largest Syria refugee-hosting countries in 2020”.

Stewart, Katherine. “Christian Nationalism Is One of Trump’s Most Powerful Weapons.” The New York Times, January 6, 2022.

The New York Times. “Gerald L. K. Smith Dead; Anti-Communist Crusader.” April 16, 1976.

Troaianovski, Anton and David E. Sanger. “Russia Issues Subtle Threats More Far-Reaching Than a Ukraine Invasion.” The New York Times, January 16, 2022.

Turner, Lauren. “Ukraine: Boris Johnson warns Russian invasion would be disastrous.” BBC, January 24, 2022.

UNHCR. “Syria Refugee Crisis–Globally, in Europe and in Cyprus.” March 18, 2021.

VOA. “Russia Threatens to Deploy Tactical Nuclear Weapons.” December 14, 2021.

Wikipedia. “America First Party (1943)”.

Wikipedia. “Ayman al-Zawahiri”.

Wikipedia. “Felix Dzerzhinsky”.

Wikipedia. “Gerald L. K. Smith”.

Wikipedia. “Osama bin Laden”.

Wikipedia. “Putin’s Kleptocracy”.

Wikipedia. “Russo-Ukrainian War”.


Posted to YouTube by WGN News, January 24, 2022.

–33–

FTAC: A Comment on Colonel President Emperor Putin’s Course

28 Sunday Jul 2019

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Islamic Small Wars, Middle East, Russia, Syria

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Absolute Power v Democratic Distribution, bashar al assad, Fathers and Daughters, Idlib, medieval v modern, Political Elites, psychology of dictatorship, The Political Memory of the Future, Vladimir Putin, Yarmouk

It’s a wrap, all of it.


https://conflict-backchannels.com/coins-and-other-terms/anthropolitical-psychology/malignant-narcissism/ | https://conflict-backchannels.com/coins-and-other-terms/anthropolitical-psychology/paranoid-delusional-narcissistic-reflection-of-motivation/

Putin was once a brave KGB man in service to the Soviet while in East Germany. He stood off a maddened crowd with a bluff and bought time for the further destruction of KGB records in that Soviet satellite. He may be admired for his extraordinary bravado, courage, and wiles.

When he moved Russia off the pro-democracy track, he inherited an effectively lawless state, one that had transferred the wealth of the Soviet to the Soviet nomenklatura in a fire sale of state assets. Opposition like Khoderkovsky came out of that transfer that had been planned in the mid-1980s (reference: Karen Dawisha, RIP). In effect, Putin inherited the challenges posed by the Vory and assorted gangsterism on a scale unknown to the west (and western naivette about that helped waste billions (I think) in capital that would never be recovered. The mafia state was born.

The Capo de capos, the Boss of bosses, has now to look inward and consider the future of the now old Viking state that he has looted. He could retire to Spain, where he has a house, and watch the cocaine traffic moving up from Africa — just look out his window and know the ships and smile — or he could turn around — this would be a good time — and address Russia’s under-development outside of the Agricultural, Defense, and Energy sectors. He could revert to rule-of-law in Ukraine and apologize, at least, for the bombing of so many hospitals –he’s leveled him — in Syria.

Judging from his behavior, he appears to believe his mission has been to revive the glories of the medieval world and the idolatry associated with political absolutism, i.e., unquestionable authority.

I, not alone, believe he should reconsider that mission.

He has produce what he has promised the world: a “New Nobility”.

But he should look around at what now lies at the feet of that circle: atrocity, mayhem, murder, and the self-inflicted wounding of the image and global acceptance of Mother Russia.

A change of course would be more helpful to him than his staying with old habits past their expiry.


Has one party or personality or other to always play the “bag guy”? The Bond villain? The head of the worst of the worst?

Vladimir Putin has children who will one day and in the natural course of living will look back on their father with an accuracy and perception beyond the public’s ken and the best of the world’s intelligence agencies. When he’s gone, whatever he was, they will know in ways beyond knowing.

For a glimpse at what his state has done at his behest: Idlib today. Here is some recent background involving Russian participation — missile strikes (got to about 7:15 on that)– in Assad’s scorched earth pursuits.

Published to YouTube by The Docterr, July 28, 2019.

Al Jazeera English, July 28, 2019.

Aside: what the Assad Regime did to the Yarmouk Palestinian Camp —

Channel 4 News, May 29, 2018

Vladimir Putin, Bashar al-Assad, and much of the world of analysts and journalists know how “Assad v The Terrorists” took off.

Now you do too.

Fathers must wonder right to the end how their children will remember them.


VOA, Suppression of protests associated with Putin rival Navalny’s hospitalization with strange symptoms. Posted to YouTube July 28, 2019.

–33–

“At Least the Dictatorship Provided Its People with Stability”

27 Thursday Dec 2018

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Epistemology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Political Psychology

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

bashar al assad, Greed and Selfishness, malignant narcissism, Paternal Authoritarianism, psychology of dictatorship, Russian Political History, Saddam Hussein, Vladimir Putin

Contrary to the beliefs of nice people who believe The West, the United States, and Israel the chief repositories of evil in the world, dictatorship do not provide their people with stability: they provide themselves with the power to accumulate and indulge in excess and that especially of cruelty, power itself as the malignant embrace it becoming the power to visit suffering on others with impunity.

Note: the editor has added the URL to a BackChannels piece on ISIS as Assad’s preferred enemy or foil. 


I used to say the same thing, especially in relation to the invasion of Iraq: ” . . . at least Saddam Hussein kept the lid on the pot.”

In retrospect, Hussein did not keep things under control. He leapt into a ruinous war with Iran when presented with weakness in the shadow of the Islamic Revolution, and produced infamous sport like this:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/saddam-drains-the-life-of-the-marsh-arabs-the-arabs-of-southern-iraq-cannot-endure-their-villages-1463823.html

As regards Syria, I and my blog 🙂 have tried to float a too accurate message about barbarism, feudal and totalitarian politics, and their blending in KGB-style Political Theater.  Assad had really to produce conditions favorable to the assembling of the “AQ-types”, the “jihadists”, and their sorting out into the most vicious of fighting elements, and then with ISIL / ISIS make certain that he would have the foil best suited to driving off (to Europe) his most troublesome noncombatant population.

Mission accomplished.

Where westerners believe themselves culpable for such a disaster — “if we hadn’t done this or done that” — the truth slips away without pursuit _except_ by a seemingly small cadre of academics and journalists (and retirees) who drill down beneath the convenient cant to drown themselves in the details of history.

Russian political culture has long displayed itself as medieval, ruthless, and ever paternally authoritarian.

In the near span of 100 years, 1917 to 2017, the experience of two upheavals by revolution and the appearance of three forms in government has not changed its historic character. Russians less connected to Moscow and St. Petersburg are missing out on all the fun with cash while the oligarchy could care less — and thus as it has ever been.

While Moscow often admires Europe and the west and adopts related aesthetic and cultural practices, it seems to resist deep political change, not to beg the point. The Obama Administration had indeed hoped to encourage a little bit of western liberal values in what remained of the Soviet axis of power in the middle east, and at that junction in 2011 defined by Bashar al-Assad’s response to a mild challenge to his absolute power, he would go on to say that Putin had reverted to “the KGB playbook” — and that’s the truth long forgotten at this point in the Syrian Tragedy, so I call it, and the more general and frightening “east-west rivalry”, so others call it.


BackChannels has adopted the term “paternally authoritarian” from the work of the recently late Richard Pipes.  There are two volumes listed in “The Russian Section” of this blog’s library:

Pipes, Richard.  Russia Under the Old Regime: The History of Civilization.  New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1974.

Pipes, Richard.  The Russian Revolution.  New York: Alfred A. Knop, 1990.

Blog editors may not have the collegial and financial defenses plus resources known to tenured scholars, so there may be other of Pipes’ works here, even bookmarked — there’s a box full of set-asides that has not been opened in ages — but the two mentioned by do for a start.  Note also: flood by web-info, the editor has developed a short memory for which countermeasures are being installed, specifically, limited time on the web to much less “Facebooking” and blog posting in order to return to that world in which the companionship of a book — any long read — might be appreciated for a day or two without deflection or distraction.


Also related to Russia’s New Nobility, the KGB-infused political methods of a revived aristocracy, and the global eruption of the Newest Nationalism: https://conflict-backchannels.com/2017/03/11/reflexive-control-process-allahu-akbar-terrorism-new-nationalism-neo-feudalism/


Posted to YouTube nine months ago:

&

And posted to YouTube September 2016:


Best ask of every dictatorship: “Stability for whom?”


–33–

Mafia “Don”? Laundering the Authoritarian President’s Image

07 Friday Sep 2018

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Political Psychology, Political Spychology, Politics

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

authoritarian, book notice, book review, Craig Unger, Donald J. Trump, House of Putin, House of Trump, integrity in office, money laundering, national security, political absolutism, presidential character, Russian mafia, United States, Vladimir Putin

Trump-Helsinki2018-moment

all I can do is ask the question my people came to me dan coates came to me and some others they said they think it’s Russia I have president putin he just said it’s not russia i will say this i don’t see any reason why it would be I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today and what he did is an incredible offer he offered to have the people working on the case come and work with their investigators with respect to the people I think that’s an incredible offer

Guardian News. “Key moments from the Trump-Putin press conference.” Start: 0:0:07.  Transcript machine generated.  July 16, 2018.

BackChannels has lived long enough to see “Active Measures” become a movie, “alternative facts” obtain traction in the arguments of some lost souls, and the “Fake News!” rise up en masse to denounce the source of the accusation.  Now the whole ugly stain attending the deeply foreign influenced election of America’s president has begun to seep and spread from the infernal nucleus of the Russian marriage between State and Mob and now a hint of the presence of the same in the United States of America.

How soon will the journalists be asking of the Russian mafia — and mafia generally — in America, “How broad, how deep, how high, how powerful?”


cover-HouseOfTrumpHouseOfPutin

“Dear friends, respected colleagues!” Nikonov said.  “Three minutes ago Hillary Clinton admitted her defeat in US presidential elections and a second ago Trump started his speech as an elected president of the United States of America and I congratulate you on this.”

Even though Nikonov did not add what many in the Kremlin already knew, his brief statement was greeted by enthusiastic applause.  Donald J. Trump had just become Vladimir Putin’s man in the White House.

Unger, Craig. House of Trump, House of Putin: The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia. Page 1.  New York: Dutton, 2018.

While readers may not find evidence quite so “hard” as a memo or recording between “Don” and “Vlad”, the darkly glittering atmosphere brewed by dirty or shady businesses, related events, FBI and other investigations, and innumerable lawsuits in all directions (with Trump Administration scandals, even the lawyers have needed lawyers) the preponderance of the evidence — in the worlds of investigators and journalists alike, the character of personal associations and relationship — becomes inescapable.

***

The art of reading has been changed by “broadband Internet”: these days, one may snooze between the hardcovers but also depart from any event or noun mentioned to find source and related materials online — or to chat with the “journo” should the same be so nice and unhurried as regards giving up a piece of his time o’ day.  With a book as rich in coverage as Craig Unger’s, there are mentions aplenty for mining.  Page 147, for example, a simple flip-open (it could have been any other page or chapter), makes mention of somebody “Nogueira” and a Reuters investigation — and a minute later, now listed in reference, Brad Brooks’ piece comes up (and may be read separately).  Of the man noted, here’s one more excerpt from Unger’s new book:

According to conversations secretly recorded by a former business partner, in 2013 Nogueira said he had laundered tens of millions of dollars through real estate.  “More important than the money from real estate was being able to launder the drug money — there were much larger amounts involved,” he said in the recording.  “When I was in Panama I was regularly laundering money for more than a dozen companies.”

Nogueira told Reuters that he became the leading broker for the project thanks in part to the support of Trump’s daughter Ivanka, who appeared in a promotional video with him.

What did Donald Trump do?

Trump licensed his name — attractive and synonymous with glamour, power, and wealth — to the project of interest and many others worldwide.  What crime could there have been in that?  His organization also held management contracts on real estate projects, but here BackChannels will leave the details to the curious among readers; however, the same litmus applies: he nailed a service contract: so what?

On the other hand, perhaps the “so what?” is in the “with whom” and the true “for what”.

At the end of his book, Unger notes, “Donald Trump has repeatedly said he has nothing to do with Russia.  Below are fifty-nine Trump connections to Russia” (p. 265).  “Below” begins with Roman Abramovich and ends with Viktor Yanukovych.



Reference

Brooks, Brad. “Former broker in Trump Panama project under investigation in Brazil.” Reuters, November 17, 2017.

Drehle, David Von. ” Trump resume is rife with mob connections.” Op-ed. The Washington Post, August 10, 2018.

Goldberg, Jeffrey. “Donald Trump’s Mafia Mind-Set: Listening to a legendary American mobster and hearing the president of the United States.” The Atlantic, August 23, 2018.

Graham, David A. “The Many Scandals of Donald Trump: A Cheat Sheet.” The Atlantic, January 23, 2017.

Hettena, Seth. “Michael Cohen, Lanny Davis and the Russian Mafia.” Rolling Stone, August 28, 2018.

Johnston, David Cay. “Just What Were Donald Trump’s Ties to the Mob?” Politico Magazine, May 22, 2016.

Layne, Nathan, Ned Parker, Svetlana Reiter, Stephen Grey, and Ryan McNeill.  “Russian elite invested nearly $100 million in Trump buildings.”  Reuters Investigates, March 17, 2017.

Locker, Ray. “New book looks into ties between Donald Trump, Russia, but there’s more smoke than fire.” Review. USA Today, August 14, 2018.

O’Harrow, Jr. Robert and Shawn Boburg. “The man who showed Donald Trump how to exploit power and instill fear.” The Washington Post, June 17, 2016.

Unger, Craig. House of Trump, House of Putin: The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia. New York: Dutton, 2018.

Unger, Craig. “Trump’s Russian Laundromat.” The New Republic, July 13, 2017.

Vesoulis, Abby. “Trump’s Team Keeps Using Mafia-Inspired Language — to Defend Itself.” Time, August 1, 2018.

Waldman, Paul. “President Trump brings mafia ethics to the GOP.” Op-ed. The Washington Post, August 23, 2018.



Addendum

Keatinge, Tom. “We cannot fight cross-border laundering with local tools.” Op-ed. Financial Times, September 9, 2018.

Unger, Craig. “Understanding Trump vs. Bruce Ohr: Think Russia’s top crime boss, Semion Mogilevich.” Just Security, August 30, 2018.

–33–

FTAC: Inspiration for Conscience: Netanyahu, et al.

02 Sunday Sep 2018

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, Anti-Semitism, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Philology, Political Psychology

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

autocrats, Benjamin Netanyahu, malignarcs, Vladimir Putin

Inspiration

Heller, Aron. “Duterte visit showcases Netanyahu’s roster of tough-guy pals.” The Republic, September 2, 2018.

Given Judaism’s natural promotion for ethical and moral arguing and the “speaking of truth to power”, why would an Israeli president court the favor of the world’s most emergent autocratic leaders?

Here’s one approach to an answer.


I would not blame Netanyahu for Putin’s development of centrality in the adjacent conflict zones. Neither Israel, the more general “west” nor the Palestinians (and now the Syrians) will ever escape the effects of Soviet meddling in the middle east on the heels of the cessation of WWII. While it may be to Putin’s credit (and Lavrov’s) that the Kremlin has shifted some policies concerning the Jews, it is certainly to the west’s discredit that so little interference (to none) has forestalled the depths of the agony experienced in Syria by Syrians of all backgrounds.

The above noted, I liked the article. For my purposes, it underscores the powerful drift backward in the world toward feudal absolute power. Modern liberal Israel may not itself have the power to express pique or impose sanctions with effect: it is the smallest of states as regards that kind of financial or military power. The best it may do — and appears to be doing — is to walk the MaligNarcs (“malignant narcissists”) through a little bit of history from the Jewish perspective and to encourage the autocratic to reconsider what each budding or established dictator  appears to be missing in conscience.


–33–

US | RF | Bikers, Clubs, Presidents | Impression

12 Sunday Aug 2018

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Political Psychology, Political Spychology

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

bikers, Donald J. Trump, Donald Trump, feudalism, medieval v modern, patriotism, political absolutism v democracy, political impression, Russo-American relations, The Night Wolves, traditional values, Vladimir Putin

bikers-trump-Putin-one-BackChannels



In the order of screenshot appearance:

Pierce, Charles P. “The Russia Scandal Was Desperately Missing a Biker Gang Subplot. Well, Here It Is: Paging Hunter S. Thompson.” Esquire, June 28, 2017.

SPETSNAZMC.ORG



Dobrovolskaya, Lily and Nicholas Nehamas. “Russian official linked to South Florida biker club spent millions on Trump condos.” Miami Herald, June 22, 2017.



American-based, humanist, and classically liberal and democratic BackChannels here adds just one more biker video:


BackChannels Frame

Feudal-Medieval Political Absolutism

v

Modern Democratic Checked and Distributed Power

Between “Active Measures” and America’s inherent internal tensions, citizens may feel channeled toward a fascistic Far Right new nationalism or a dippy Far Left socialist revival, but BackChannels reminds that there may be — there should be — a more grounded and spacious Middle American Way and some wish to rediscover and renew that more coherent nation.

American Basic Training

–33–

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Epigram

Hillel the Elder

"That which is distasteful to thee do not do to another. That is the whole of Torah. The rest is commentary. Now go and study."

"If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am not for others, what am I? If not now, when?"

"Whosoever destroys a soul, it is considered as if he destroyed an entire world. And whosoever that saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world."

Oriana Fallaci
"Whether it comes from a despotic sovereign or an elected president, from a murderous general or a beloved leader, I see power as an inhuman and hateful phenomenon...I have always looked on disobedience toward the oppressive as the only way to use the miracle of having been born."

Talmud 7:16 as Quoted by Rishon Rishon in 2004
Qohelet Raba, 7:16

אכזרי סוף שנעשה אכזרי במקום רחמן

Kol mi shena`asa rahaman bimqom akhzari Sof shena`asa akhzari bimqom rahaman

All who are made to be compassionate in the place of the cruel In the end are made to be cruel in the place of the compassionate.

More colloquially translated: "Those who are kind to the cruel, in the end will be cruel to the kind."

Online Source: http://www.rishon-rishon.com/archives/044412.php

Abraham Isaac Kook

"The purely righteous do not complain about evil, rather they add justice.They do not complain about heresy, rather they add faith.They do not complain about ignorance, rather they add wisdom." From the pages of Arpilei Tohar.

Heinrich Heine
"Where books are burned, in the end people will be burned." -- From Almansor: A Tragedy (1823).

Simon Wiesenthal
Remark Made in the Ballroom of the Imperial Hotel, Vienna, Austria on the occasion of His 90th Birthday: "The Nazis are no more, but we are still here, singing and dancing."

Maimonides
"Truth does not become more true if the whole world were to accept it; nor does it become less true if the whole world were to reject it."

"The risk of a wrong decision is preferable to the terror of indecision."

Douglas Adams
"Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?" Epigram appearing in the dedication of Richard Dawkins' The GOD Delusion.

Thucydides
"The Nation that makes a great distinction between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools."

Milan Kundera
"The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting."

Malala Yousafzai
“The terrorists thought that they would change our aims and stop our ambitions but nothing changed in my life except this: weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage was born.”

Tanit Nima Tinat
"Who could die of love?"

What I Have Said About the Jews

My people, not that I speak for them, I nonetheless describe as a "global ethnic commune with its heart in Jerusalem and soul in the Land of Israel."

We have never given up on God, nor have we ever given up on one another.

Many things we have given up, but no one misses, say, animal sacrifice, and as many things we have kept, so we have still to welcome our Sabbath on Friday at sunset and to rest all of Saturday until three stars appear in the sky.

Most of all, through 5,773 years, wherever life has taken us, through the greatest triumphs and the most awful tragedies, we have preserved our tribal identity and soul, and so shall we continue eternally.

Anti-Semitism / Anti-Zionism = Signal of Fascism

I may suggest that anti-Zionism / anti-Semitism are signal (a little bit) of fascist urges, and the Left -- I'm an old liberal: I know my heart -- has been vulnerable to manipulation by what appears to me as a "Red Brown Green Alliance" driven by a handful of powerful autocrats intent on sustaining a medieval worldview in service to their own glorification. (And there I will stop).
One hopes for knowledge to allay fear; one hopes for love to overmatch hate.

Too often, the security found in the parroting of a loyal lie outweighs the integrity to be earned in confronting and voicing an uncomfortable truth.

Those who make their followers believe absurdities may also make them commit atrocities.

Positively Orwellian: Comment Responding to Claim that the Arab Assault on Israel in 1948 Had Not Intended Annihilation

“Revisionism” is the most contemptible path that power takes to abet theft and hide shame by attempting to alter public perception of past events.

On Press Freedom, Commentary, and Journalism

In the free world, talent -- editors, graphic artists, researchers, writers -- gravitate toward the organizations that suit their interests and values. The result: high integrity and highly reliable reportage and both responsible and thoughtful reasoning.

This is not to suggest that partisan presses don't exist or that propaganda doesn't exist in the west, but any reader possessed of critical thinking ability and genuine independence -- not bought, not programmed -- is certainly free to evaluate the works of earnest reporters and scholars.

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