Thanks, Trump Cult, for just electing Joe Biden.

[stevenkesslar]

Biden's chances of winning in 2020 just went up significantly. 

Why?  Because The Cult just made sure that a younger and smarter and newer candidate, who would have had a far easier time beating Biden, was instead sacrificed to The Cult.  Haley did not follow Cult rules (ignore facts and reality) or Cult dogma (worship Donald Trump and everything he does).  For that of course she had to be sacrificed.  Bye, Nikki.  We won't miss you.  Fucking disloyal bitch!   Of course you deserved to die.

There is every indication that all those centrist suburban women who voted for Haley yesterday will have a very hard time voting for Trump in November. But The Cult doesn't care.  Because they don't believe it.  Ask @EmmetK.  How could anyone who is not a left wing sociopath not adore Donald Trump???  He's going to win in a landslide! 

Facts just don't matter.

Although, these facts may matter a bit.

Biden’s plan for Trump: Bury him with campaign cash

A massive avalanche of spending is about to come the former president’s way.

Quote

...with the president’s team eager to turn 2024 into a choice election for voters, plans are in place for the campaign itself to ramp up contrast ad-spending this spring. A person familiar with Biden’s campaign strategy but not authorized to speak about it publicly said it will come earlier than when then-President Barack Obama’s allies began turning up the heat on Republican rival Mitt Romney in 2012.

Quote

“Super Tuesday was always circled on our calendars because there’s a segment of persuadable voters who don’t believe that this was going to be a rematch,” said Bradley Beychok, co-founder of American Bridge, one of the pro-Biden super PACs. “This is going to be a ‘what’s behind door number two?’ election and door number two is a second Trump term, and that’s terrifying. Voters need to remember how chaotic the first Trump presidency was.”

The silence of the Biden campaign has been deafening so far.  Although Politico now confirms what was a good guess, anyway.  They were just holding their fire until Trump was a done deal.  Now their job is to make him a dead deal.  It won't be particularly hard.

And that's not quite true.  Team Biden did work up a compromise bipartisan immigration deal.  It's not clear Biden gets any points for it, or will.  The polls suggest both sides think they are all just politicians playing political games.  At the very least, I think it eliminates the idea that Biden is an uncompromising leftist.  He did try to compromise.  Trump was against it.  That may not help Biden.  But it won't hurt him with centrists and Independents.

As a Democrat who hates money in politics, there is some part of me that says:  this is wrong, and it won't work. 

But it probably will work.  As the article notes, we have been there and done this before, recently.  Both W. in 2004 and Obama in 2012 are examples where unopposed incumbents used their incumbency and cash to paint their opponents as a villian.  Or a windsurfing waffler.  Is this wrong?  One time recently that incumbency didn't work was 2020, when Trump lost.  Why?  Because he was a chaotic mess, even before Jan. 6th and all the lawsuits and judgments.  So, no.  I don't think it's wrong.  I'm not sure Kerry or Romney really deserved the treatment they got.  But that is politics.  And, basically, it worked because their own words and history were used against them.  How much easier could it be with Trump? 

The problem will be choosing among Trump's worst words and actions.  Will it be the lies?  The pussy grabbing?  The Putin ass kissing?  The insurrection?  The cop beatings?  The destruction of civil debate and democracy?

Lindsey Graham was on CNN last night telling Dana Bash that Trump will win because he will make this an issue-oriented campaign.  And he has the issues on his side.  Nice fantasy, Lindsey.  

If you listened to Trump's speech, the fantasy is that a horrible invasion of mass murdering thugs from all the worst shitholes in the world is happening IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD RIGHT NOW!  LOCK YOUR DOORS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!    Maybe that is right wing porn for some people.  But will it stick?  Is Biden inviting people from all over the world to murder innocent Americans?  

Nah.  Not really.  The FBI says the murder rate was down 6 % in 2022, the most recent year the FBI put out data for.  The Council of Criminal Justice says it went down 10 % more in 2023 in 32 study cities. In other words, elect More Murder Trump if you want more murder.  When Biden goes after Trump for having more murders  (but fewer facts) on his watch, that may change how people feel about the right wing rhetoric.   Unless people feel every right white winger should be given a free AR-15.  Which is why the murder spiked under Trump in the first place.  More guns. 

We don't even have to guess about this.  More Murder Kevin McCarthy tried to pose in photos with cops and use crime to create a massive red wave.  At best he created a whimper.  Why didn't it work?  He comes from one of the murder capitals of California.  Far more murder in More Murder Kevin's city than in SF or LA.  Facts do matter, most of the time.

If you want more walls, more murder, and more guns, VOTE TRUMP!  As a bonus, he'll cut taxes for billionaires again and take your health care and abortion away!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I could of course go on and on.   But there clearly is a disconnect right now between how much people think Biden and his economy sucks, and how much people long for the good old days of Trump.  WHICH IS OF COURSE WHY THEY DIDN'T APPROVE OF HIM FRM 2017 to 2020, AND FIRED HIS ASS THE FIRST CHANCE THEY GOT.

The comfortable but fantasy nostalgia about Benevolent Donald won't stick when Biden starts to remind people of the specific reasons he won 51 % of the vote in 2020.   People do know these things, after all.   It always helps when you have facts and reality on your side.

Bye, Donald.  We won't miss you.  

[Moses]

On 3/6/2024 at 6:15 PM, stevenkesslar said:

Biden's chances of winning in 2020 just went up significantly.

Biden already won 2020. Could you please wear you glasses and look on calendar? 🤣

And I have one tiny question to you: what you will do with all your political spam here on forum when Trump will win 2024?

[floridarob]

4 minutes ago, Moses said:

what you will do with all your political spam here on forum when Trump will win 2024?

the question is , what will you do when Biden wins....Again?

[Moses]

31 minutes ago, floridarob said:

the question is , what will you do when Biden wins....Again?

Me? I will write something like "America got zombie-president Joe Alzheimer".

You easy may find here my posts where I wrote my opinion about Trump and Biden, both are worst cases for US. One is orange neo-nazi clown and second one is walking mental catastrophe.

 

[stevenkesslar]

5 hours ago, Moses said:

Biden already won 2020. Could you please wear you glasses and look on calendar? 🤣

Thank you for being so kind, @Moses.  But obviously it's not my glasses.  It's my dementia.  🤪

Oh, and by the way.  Your English is great, as a second language.  But it's "your" glasses.

[floridarob]

6 hours ago, Moses said:

I will write something like "America got zombie-president Joe Alzheimer".

Good...I'll accept that. 

The president is like a director of a movie/TV show....he's surrounded by experts, generally. The movie director generally listens to his cinematographer set designers, lighting people, etc..... occasionally the director over rules someone and wants something done in a particular way.

I trust the people that Biden will be surrounded by.....so if he went full blown dementia, like Ronald Reagan.... I still feel that we'd be OK.

Trump on the other hand, learned his lesson the first time around. He's not hiring ANYONE that would do THEIR JOB competently, like the generals and sec of state. He's only going to hire people that agree with him on anything, like Kellyanne Conway and her type.......... THAT is what worries me about him. 

And that picture of Biden. with what to do...isn't new. Lot's of executives and politicians have those.... if you've never been involved in politics, you know, our type...not the dictator ones, this is quite normal.  Ever notice how Trump just wondered around at times not knowing where to go....because, he didn't pay attention to his staff's instructions.

[stevenkesslar]

8 hours ago, Moses said:

You easy may find here my posts where I wrote my opinion about Trump and Biden, both are worst cases for US. One is orange neo-nazi clown and second one is walking mental catastrophe.

Granted, Biden is a mental catastrophe.

But when I looked up the Atlantic Council's most recent projection of what the world looks like ten years out, here is what "experts" said about whether the US will be the dominant power in each of these areas in 2034:

US is world's dominant military power in a decade:  81 % say yes in 2023, up from 71 % in 2022.

US is world's dominant power in technological innovation in a decade:  63 % say yes in 2023, up from 54 % in 2022.

US is world's dominant economic power in a decade:  52 % say yes, up from 33 % in 2022.

US is world's dominant diplomatic power in a decade:  32 % say yes, up from 31 % in 2022.

I'm so sorry.  Nobody thinks Russia will be the world's dominant military, economic, diplomatic, or technological power in a decade.  Many think Russia will break up by then.  So sorry.  But look on the bright side.  You'll still be the best at turning your people into fertilizer.

So we know for sure Biden will not be POTUS, or even alive, in a decade.  So maybe this has nothing to do with Biden.  Seeing as how he is a mental catastrophe.  But it is interesting that we call out Vlad for genocide, and back Ukraine, and revitalize a global coalition with a good purpose.  And suddenly people think the US will be even stronger militarily long term.  We start building out cutting edge new technologies with federal subsidies.  And suddenly people think the US may actually still be the world's economic and technological leader in a decade.  But that has NOTHING to do with Biden, right?

Of course, most of those people making projections are US or European experts.  So you could argue they are biased.  But they made the same less optimistic (about the US) projections in 2022.

Maybe Biden isn't such a catastrophe after all.

Please ask Vlad and Tucker for us.  They are always right about everything.

 

[Moses]

47 minutes ago, stevenkesslar said:

here is what "experts" said

47 minutes ago, stevenkesslar said:

US is world's dominant

Exactly. Mainstream of Western propaganda "America should dominant". And my questions are:

• Why should dominant nation which killed  more people than any other nation in world after Hitler?
• Why should dominant nation which has most prisoners per each 100K of inhabitants?
• Why should dominant nation which dropped nuclear bombs on the heads of women and kids?

Russia doesn't speaks about domination, China doesn't speak about domination. America does. And I remember the only nation which did the same in modern history: Hitler's Germany. He also spoke about domination.

[Moses]

3 hours ago, floridarob said:

The president is like a director of a movie/TV show

How many successful directors of movies and TV shows who is above 80 do you know? Can you tell any successful  project of such director?

When a film or play fails, it does not become a national shame or disaster.

 

[floridarob]

2 hours ago, Moses said:

How many successful directors of movies and TV shows who is above 80 do you know? Can you tell any successful  project of such director?

Google :

https://www.thewrap.com/oldest-directors-still-making-movies-over-80/

https://www.worldofreel.com/blog/12-great-films-made-by-directors-over-80

Putin is 71....is it his time to go or will it be ok when he's older too....not everyone ages the same, some people don't make it past 50 or 60, sadly.

I just watched bits of the state of the union....I think he did well, better than his predecessor 😉

There is just such a night/day difference between Trump and Biden....you've been to Thailand...the expression "good heart", that describes Joe.

Trump on the other hand is a snake oil salesman.....in the late 80's , I thought he was a genius, then the more I watched and learned how he was, nothing but a fucking conman.

I've met him in person , he wasn't THAT bad back then. Listen to Howard Stern talk about him....

You've said neither is a good option.....what has Biden done so bad, Israel, border, inflation? The president can't do everything he wants, he has to work with a congress that has become too radicalized.

My souvenir from when I met him...anyone want to buy it , lol

[Moses]

21 minutes ago, floridarob said:

You've said neither is a good option...

Correct. 

I am surprised that America allows its two leading parties to show selfishness: to win elections, we are ready to sacrifice the interests of the country.

Well, it can’t be that everyone is so blinded by Trump’s “charm” in the Republican Party, and in exactly the same way: it can’t be that the Democrats don’t see the almost daily mistakes of Biden, who already has little control over what he says - from calling Xi a dictator directly at a press conference with him, till discussing the problems of the Gaza Strip and promises to drop containers of food into Ukraine to make life easier in Gaza.

When a drunken Yeltsin was “strange” in Russia - he uninvitedly conducted an orchestra in Japan, could not get off the plane in Germany because he was very drunk, danced ugly on stage during a rally, everyone here was embarrassed, ashamed and said that it was time for him to leave, that soon it happened - he lost support.

All these Biden slips, falling down stairs, shaking hands with ghosts, it's a national disgrace. And Trump, with his criminal cases, disgusting behavior and culture of an ill-mannered country boy, is also not an adornment to the nation. But both parties stubbornly pretend that “everything is fine” and stubbornly continue to cling to these dubious figures.

[floridarob]

6 minutes ago, Moses said:

I am surprised that America allows its two leading parties to show selfishness: to win elections, we are ready to sacrifice the interests of the country.

Agree.... isn't it the same in Russia?

I ran for office in the 4th largest city in the US.   It's a club/gang/clique  take a pick. Everyone for their self . If you don't play the game, you'll never have a say in the game and you'll never get money for your district then not re-elected. You might even get Primary'd from your own party if you don't play ball.

Bernie Sanders is 82, yet has more stamina/energy than me....I'm a Bernie Bro, need someone that isn't afraid to ruffle feathers and stand up to corporations and billionaires, he's the only one that fits that bill, as far as I know. Yet, the Democrats fucked him over twice, because he def won't play ball the way they want him to.....

[Moses]

7 minutes ago, floridarob said:

isn't it the same in Russia?

Nope. President here is above of any party, constitution forbids any ideology as "state ideology". By voting Putin majority agreed to leave some rights in exchange for country prosperity and personal prosperity as well. On the West your propaganda calls it "dictatorship". 

Past 20 years life here is going up, personal income growing up. It is the reason why majority still support Putin despite cruel limitation of freedom of speech here. His support isn't fake as it is presented in Western medias. Especially it is high in poor layers of society - in small towns and villages where 20 years ago life was really harsh and terrible.

No one country in world is now under such pressure of sanctions as Russia is, but GDP in 2023 grew 3.6% and it is #1 result in Europe and #5 in World. Personal income grew 5% (with deduction of inflation).

I do not support many of his actions, but I can't not admit - Putin got many positive results, esp. in economy. 

[floridarob]

1 hour ago, Moses said:

, but I can't not admit

afraid of heights?

All the Russians I run into internationally, seem to have a different perspective.....

[reader]

9 hours ago, Moses said:

• Why should dominant nation which dropped nuclear bombs on the heads of women and kids?

 

You seem to forget that Japan was also pursuing nuclear weapons development programs. There was little doubt that Japan would have deployed a nuclear weapon if it had succeeded before the U.S.

The Japanese military invested in various efforts to research the potential technology, and created technology for uranium enrichment (including several cyclotrons and a thermal diffusion device). Japan developed the first cyclotron outside the U.S. in 1937 and its second (pictured below) in 1943.

Russian physicist Georgy Flyorov suspected that the Allied powers had secretly been developing a "superweapon" and wrote a letter to Stalin urging him to start such a program in 1942. Initial efforts were slowed due to the German invasion of the Soviet Union and remained largely composed of the intelligence gathering from the Soviet spy rings working in the U.S. Manhattan Project. (From Wikipedia).

Does anyone really doubt that Stalin would have used it against Germany had Russia been able to develop it,

 

[Moses]

1 hour ago, reader said:

You seem to forget that Japan was also pursuing nuclear weapons development programs. There was little doubt that Japan would have deployed a nuclear weapon if it had succeeded before the U.S.

Yeah, I heard the same not far ago.

[reader]

That's Putin's sperm sample?

[stevenkesslar]

10 hours ago, Moses said:

Russia doesn't speaks about domination

10 hours ago, Moses said:

Russia doesn't speaks about domination

10 hours ago, Moses said:

Russia doesn't speaks about domination

10 hours ago, Moses said:

Russia doesn't speaks about domination

We completely agree on this one.

Putin doesn't speak about genocide.  Or mass murder.  Or sadism.  Or cruelty.  Or putting a bullet in your head.  Or poisoning you.  Or turning you into fertilizer.

He just does it.

[stevenkesslar]

6 hours ago, Moses said:

Past 20 years life here is going up, personal income growing up. It is the reason why majority still support Putin despite cruel limitation of freedom of speech here. His support isn't fake as it is presented in Western medias. Especially it is high in poor layers of society - in small towns and villages where 20 years ago life was really harsh and terrible.

 

7 hours ago, Moses said:

I do not support many of his actions, but I can't not admit - Putin got many positive results, esp. in economy. 

Four charts that tell the same story from two different perspectives:

That one supports your argument.  There is clearly economic improvement since Vlad took over. 

I'd argue it's the opposite of what you said.  It's not that individuals give something up for the collective nation to be better.  It's that individuals are okay with Russia becoming a mess and a pariah.  Because at least their own lives are a little better.  Not sure the families of all the Russians being turned into fertilizer in Ukraine feel that way, though.  Let's have a Russian TV show where they get to speak honestly.

You keep wanting to bring up 1945.  If the US fucked up, I think the big fuck up was the 1990's.  I don't blame Russians for associating the 1990's with chaos, and democracy with bad times.  Whether the 1990's in Russia was really democracy is a huge debate.  Russians have told me that even if there had been a global Marshall Plan for Russia in the 1990s, it never would have worked under Yeltsin or Putin and the current corrupt system.  I don't know. 

But the US and Europe didn't even try.  We took the victory lap, extended the borders of NATO, and then invaded Iraq.  That was our big fuck up, in my mind.  And we have paid a huge price for it.  But, again, once Putin took over, Russians I have spoken with say this course was set.  Historians will debate that forever.

But whatever price the US paid for our fuck ups, it is not anything like the price Russians have paid.

Trends in Chinese and Russian GDP growth since 1989 (in constant $US million)

That last chart is the share of the global economy each country has. 

Translation:  Russia doesn't matter.   In the global economy, you're  an afterthought.  If India and China can get cheap gas from you, and if you can buy bullets and drones from Krazy Kim and Iran so you can kill and rape Ukrainians, and if Ukraine can get cheap fertilizer from you  by turning your people into grass, that is just what Russia is in the world today.  Thank Putin for that.  Some leader!  What an economy!  Now everybody thinks of him as the guy who will nuke us if he gets pissed off at us stopping his rape and genocide.  What a guy!

Of course, those bottom three images are distortions, based on population.  China has so many more people than either Russia or the US.  But that's the whole point.  All those US and European corporations that wanted into China for its cheap labor and markets were not wrong.  It is the ultimate story of how global capitalism won.  It lifted a billion people out of poverty and hunger.  Even if it didn't work out quite as the US hoped, in terms of democracy, I am proud of what the US and China did.  (The Americans who live in factory towns and lost their jobs are not.)  This is not a not a bad outcome for China, or the US, or the nations of Asia.  As long as we can keep the peace, and stay in guard rails as we compete.

Russia is the geopolitical loser.  You used to be #2.  Never economically.  But you were a rival superpower.  Now you're an afterthought.  The only good thing about Russia invading Ukraine is it almost certainly has made it clear to China that invading Taiwan would be an economic, political, and military disaster.  Which is pretty much what the US proved to itself by invading Iraq. The US had its unipolar moment, and totally fucked it up in Iraq.  Lesson:  it's probably better for peace to have a multipolar world.

I'd rather have China than Russia as a global competitor (or partner) any day of the week.  They have proven, as those charts show, they can grow an economy.  They can build electric cars and solar panels and innovative new technologies.  Putin proves every day he can steal money.  And start wars.  And murder opponents.  And let his soldiers kill and rape and torture and depopulate countries before they are turned into fertilizer.  No one in the world wants more of that.

There used to be a good argument (in the US, John Mearsheimer still makes it, Henry Kissinger used to) that we should be aligning with Russia to balance against China.  Ukraine ended that idea for the rest of Putin's reign.  And probably the rest of our lifetimes.  Americans want nothing to do with Russia.  The ones who support Trump aren't pro-Russia.  They are pro-isolation.  And that has never won, for long at least, in US history.  It's a reason Biden will likely win.  When Americans are reminded of Ronald Reagan's doctrine of defending allies (no surprise Crazy Biden quoted Reagan last night, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall"), 2 in 3 want to send weapons to Ukraine.  Even many of the Republicans blocking the aid want to send it, and know it is really a short term political fight in the US.

So it's a good year for Vlad.  He'll win his fake election.  He killed Navalny for good.  Tucker came all the way to Russia to suck his cock and fawn over him.  His economy grew a little.  There are plenty of Russians, so far, to send to Ukraine to become fertilizer.  And people don't care that the rest of the world looks down on you. 

You can call that a tactical victory if you want.  Woo hoo!  But if you are not clear the Putin lost the economic, political, and military war a long time ago, and Ukraine is one of the results of that loss, you're just not clear about history.  China won.  The US won.  Sorry.  I don't think Russia won.  Vlad just gets to be Master Xi's pit bull.  If he can actually manage to bite and kill.  Vlad's getting up there in years, too.

Desperate genocidal sadists do desperate things   That's the chapter we are in now.  We really don't know how it ends.  But I think we do know however it ends, it won't be good for Russia.  It's not really good for Russia right now.  I suspect most Russians know that, in addition to all the Russians who fled.  But they tolerate it since they have no choice in the matter.

[stevenkesslar]

12 hours ago, Moses said:

How many successful directors of movies and TV shows who is above 80 do you know?

Good point.  The history of leaders who served their nation into their 70's, 80's and even 90's is a trail of disaster.

Queen of England until age 96

Konrad Adenauer.  German Chancellor.  Served 14 years until 87.  Died at 91.

Shimon Peres,  President of Israel for 7 years, until aged 91.  Died age 93.

Yuri Andropov.  General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.  Died while serving for 15 months until his death at 69.

Konstantin Chernenko, Succeeded Andropov as General Secretary of the Soviet Union.  Died while serving for about a year at age 73.

 

I dunno @Moses.  Maybe Russian leaders are just unlucky.  

England loved their Queen, and misses her.  She never missed a beat.  (Or, if she did, it was when Di died when the Queen was in her early 70's.)  Adenauer cheated fate.  But he did have to take naps in the afternoon by the end of his long run.  He was always going to be the model for how it worked for Biden.  Or not.

So far, Biden has held up better than Andropov.  Or Chernenko.  But, given your experience, I can see why you would say 69 is too old to lead Russia.  Or 73.

How old is Vlad, by the way?  😉  

Granted.  Joe Biden is no Ronald Reagan, when it comes to public speaking.

I think Joe Biden is Ronald Reagan, when it comes to standing up to the USSR or Russia.

I don't think "I will not bow down" to Putin will work out badly for Biden.  Americans agree with Biden.  Bowing down to Putin is unacceptable.

Btw, I kept thinking watching the speech how young and vibrant Kamala looks.  And there is something about the idea of having a First Gentleman that I really like.  Doug is classy.  However it plays out for Biden's health, I won't be unhappy if she is the next US leader to stand behind that podium.

 

[floridarob]

7 hours ago, reader said:

You seem to forget that Japan was also pursuing nuclear weapons development programs.

was it stressful for you during those times 😊

[reader]

2 hours ago, floridarob said:

was it stressful for you during those times 😊

Still recall hanging on to every word of FDR's fireside chats. You youngins don't know the half of it.
🫠

[Moses]

17 hours ago, stevenkesslar said:

Trends in Chinese and Russian GDP growth since 1989 (in constant $US million)

 

[Moses]

18 hours ago, stevenkesslar said:

Russia is the geopolitical loser.

Russia is winner already. On all three ways: political, military, economical.

Political: under Russian influence World became multipolar. Bye, "domination".

Military: Russia got Crimea and 4 other formerly Ukrainian but loyal to Russia districts. Ukrainian human reserves are almost melted already, Ukraine, even with support of the West, has as much as 2 years max to resist. Then soldiers will run out. West runs proxy war against Russia "till the last Ukrainian". Than more you will supply them, then more Ukrainians will die. Unless West will start Third World war, it has no ways to conquer Russia.

Economic: Russia is demonstrating economic and energy independence in the face of unprecedentedly harsh sanctions. GDP growth +3.6%.

[stevenkesslar]

6 hours ago, Moses said:

 

Absolutely!  Thank you!

You made all my points,  @Moses.   Russia is stagnating under Putin.  There is no real growth.  Look at your own chart.  

In 1989, using whatever "constant 2017 international $" are, it looks like the average person in China was at about $1,000 per capita.  There was massive poverty.  It was a poor country.  The average Russian was at about $22,000 per capita, it looks like.  Let's say, based on this measure, the average Russian was 20 times better off than the average Chinese.

Between then and now, the average Chinese went from something like $1,000 to something like $16,000.  We all know the story.  Amazing growth.  Something like 1 billion people in Asia - mostly Chinese - were lifted out of poverty and malnutrition.  It's been a big part of the global success story.  It's because of capitalism.  And while it is primarily a Chinese success story, all the capital and investment from the US and Europe helped make it happen.  A lot of disgruntled Trump voters in factory towns that are a shadow of their former selves would argue it worked out better for China than the US.  I disagree.  I think both nations won.  I think the world won.

Now let's talk about Russia, based on your chart.  While China was growing by leaps and bounds, thanks to state capitalism, Russia went nowhere.  Thanks to Vlad's state sadism.  Which has now morphed into state genocide, and a state program of turning poor Russians into fertilizer while talented Russians get the fuck out of the mess and go anywhere else in the world they can. GDP per capita, based on your chart, went from maybe $22,000 to maybe $27,000.  And the only way you can keep that now is through murder, rape, torture, genocide, and keeping your mouths shut and obeying while Vlad turns more and more Russians into fertilizer.  And you think that is winning?  Poor thing!

On your chart, in 1989 the average Russian was maybe 20x better off than the average Chinese.  Now they are maybe 25 % better off?  50 % better off?  It shows China is making tremendous progress for its people.  Vlad failed.  His consolation prize is he gets to be Master Xi's pit bull.  As long as he can competently bite, and kill.  Which is questionable given all Vlad's failures - even at genocide.

That's the first of the four charts I posted above.  I did it, as I said above, to agree with your point.  Our two charts are slightly different, but they mostly measure and say the same thing.  On an individual level, there is no question the average Russian is better off economically than the day Putin came to power.

I like your chart better.  Because it leaves the US out and covers a longer term period.  My chart focuses on Vlad's "good" years, the Naughts.  Yours shows that there was a big decline in GDP per capita in the 90's.  So there was a huge amount of growth in Russia from 2000 to the global financial crisis in 2008.  Most of that, as your chart shows, was simply getting back to where you were before the USSR fell apart.  But let's credit Vlad for that.  Progress is progress.  Even if it is just getting back to where you were.

Since the GFC, Russia has stagnated.  Your own chart shows it.  The average Chinese, according to your chart, looks to be maybe 16x better off.  The average Russian is no better off in the last 15 years or so.  Again, based on YOUR chart. 

What you are really saying is that Russia survived.  And at least things aren't getting worse, like in the 90's. Maybe.  But that really depends.  If you are the Russian being turned into fertilizer in Ukraine, or their wife or kids, things ain't so great.  Maybe things are better if you are the Russian who gets to rape, torture, and kill Ukrainians so Russia can survive. 

I won't even try to debate about whether this is a political or military victory for Vlad.  Because I think it clearly proved Vlad is weak.  Russia is weak.  And the Russian military are like Keystone Kops.  One thing that is almost self-evident is that the supposedly great Russian army that failed miserably in Ukraine and has to turn its people into fertilizer to avoid losing is not about to roll their shitty tanks and raping and torturing Russian soldiers into Poland or Germany. 

But the other lesson that this once again shows is why both the US and USSR failed when they started military quagmires in Afghanistan.  Ukraine is more powerful and bigger than Afghanistan.  So if you are deluding yourself into thinking you're winning, go ahead.  As this goes on Ukraine will be the one that kills you and wears you down.  Vlad has scored some tactical wins.  You'll probably keep Crimea in a decade.  Or maybe Russia will fall apart in a decade, since Vlad is turning it into a global economic pariah.  Either way, you are in denial of history.  It always ends badly.  It will in Ukraine.  Check back with me in a decade.  If Russia even exists then, in its current form.

Vlad has won some battles this year.  He gained whole kilometers of territory in Ukraine that are now a devastated mess.  How?  By turning lots of Russians into fertilizer.  Again, that is what Russia is today.  Russians rape.  Russians torture.  Russians kill.  Russians commit genocide.  Russians make weapons to kill themselves and kill Ukrainians,  under your genocidal sadist.  That is what Russia is.  That is what Russians do.  You have to do it, to survive.  And to just keep things from getting worse economically.  That's victory?  What a fucking joke!

Vlad's biggest victory, such as it is, is that both the US and Europe have deep political divisions. Which Vlad helped create, at the margin, and is trying to manipulate however he can.   If America and Germany and Sweden (NATO's newest member) were run by dictators, we could just do shit like Vlad does.  We can't.  Trump seems to want dictatorship as much as democracy.  So that helps Vlad.  America will spend 2024 having a very deep and important debate about that. But I don't think Vlad is smart enough to win in Ukraine.  Much less destroy global democracy.  But he's trying.

 

Now I'll add the US back in economically.  That's the only chart I could find that compared the US, Russia, and China up to close to 2024, on an individual per capita basis  Either the green or black line is Russia.  The other is Kazakhstan.  If we are talking about how well off individuals are, there is no question that America keeps growing at a level the average Russian or Chinese is nowhere near.  Once you add in the US, it obscures the fact that the growth for individual Chinese has been amazing.  Again, 1 billion people were lifted out of poverty and malnutrition.  Whole metropolises and whole new industries that fuel the global economy came out of nowhere.

Russia does have its gas, and its bombs.  But the great global achievement of Russia right now is rape, torture, mass murder, and genocide.  That is how you manage to survive and keep things from getting worse economically, while the rest of the world thrives.

The US won the Cold War for lots of reasons.  Some people like to emphasize a type of moral victory.  Democracy always wins in the end.  We had a better and freer system.  Maybe.  But in a colder and by the numbers way, the US had a bigger economy.  We built more weapons.  And - critically - the US was increasingly better at technology.  The US is getting better and better still at many of the world's leading technological innovations.  Vlad is getting better and better at figuring out how to kill Ukrainians, and turn Russians into fertilizer while his economy stagnates long term.  If you can't project that out in terms of what it means for who wins militarily, you are in deep denial.

Vlad obviously knows this.  He is spending as much as he can on technologies of mass murder, in his desperate effort to make a sadistic and corrupt system work.  He now has to threaten that he will nuke Europe or nuke the US if we resist him.  Even the USSR was better than that.  He's a sick fuck.  If I were Russian I'd be worried what the sick fuck would do.  (My job now is to worry about what Trump will do.)  Vlad, not Trump and not Biden and not Xi, is the most likely person in the world to start a nuclear war today.  He's practically bragging about how he could do it.  He is a genocidal sadist.  And you own him.  And all the misery and death he creates.

You are NOT winning.