Another interesting comment in the second half is that he brings up Brothers Karamazov & the "Russian soul".  He says that Westerners are more 'pragmatic', and Russians are more 'metaphysical'. 

 

I read Brothers and don't fully understand the Russian soul & certainly very few in the West would understand what he meant.  Overall so much in this interview was odd.

23 hours ago, Cult Icon said:

 

TBH I don't think he was talking about communism and economics.  He was arguing that culturally similar people should be under one government, as it was during the Soviet Union and before it.   Even Tucker pointed out this is the "Ukraine is not a real country" speech and tried to stop Putin but he kept on going.

 

Putin was just repeating the points he laid out in his essay "On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians".  

 

On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians - Wikipedia

 

Article by Vladimir Putin ”On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians“ • President of Russia (kremlin.ru)

 

  I think very few people who aren't Russian would sympathize with this historical approach.  Times have changed and it appears that at least middle aged Ukrainian men in the West-Central parts of the country are prepared to die for their independence, while former Ukrainian peoples of the South and East are prepared to kill them to prevent them from joining the Western fold.  Meaning while young men and women have escaped the country in the millions to either the West or Russia for a better life and to escape conscription.

 

 It's a Civil war that Russia is as guilty as fueling as the United States & NATO.   

 

In that first hour I found it strange as it undiplomatic and unsympathetic to western audiences- or maybe Putin was focusing more on what the domestic Russian audience would prefer to hear?

 

Besides invoking the historical argument he also threw shade at Biden as being unimportant in the grand scheme of things and blamed the entire war on the US-NATO aggression.

 

He talks about a centralised great Russia. That's centralism (communism being one of the forms of centralism).

 

That's how I would summarize his view of the "great Russia" and what communism is:

 

Tucker Carlson gained 600,000 subscribers since the putin interview.. He was at 900,000 the day I saw it.

 

Tucker Carlson - YouTube

 

Tucker Carlson Network - YouTube

On 2/12/2024 at 5:48 PM, Enrico_sw said:

 

He talks about a centralised great Russia. That's centralism (communism being one of the forms of centralism).

 

That's how I would summarize his view of the "great Russia" and what communism is:

 

 

Communism is primarily about economics:

 

Communism - Wikipedia

 

Putin said that Russia is a 'Market Economy'.  Russia/China is a mixed economy like Europe & US. where gov't is mixed with the market.

 

The chief difference is the nature of the mixture, which is different from country to country. 

 

Russia is traditionally obsessed with security as it's the largest country in the world, has to govern vast territories, and is pretty easy to invade.  Putin's Red line was in 2014 when they were losing their influence in Ukraine.  They were very afraid that Ukraine will turn into another US Army base.  Then the US re-militarized Ukraine, provided training advisors, and re-activated the Soviet arsenal prior to 2022 invasion.

 

Ukraine was once a very important part of Russian security, the whole territory was highly weaponized and industrialized.  IMHO the centralized ethnic argument is just a cover for their (unspoken) issues with NATO penetration into the East.  

 

Without knowing too much about Russia internally my first guess is that they are afraid not only of the US-NATO military colonizing Ukraine but also of how the West uses military occupation to infiltrate countries economically, culturally, and politically primarily with multi-national corporations and influencing political processes.  This would influence the economy of Russia just by association and threaten their ruling class (oligarchs, government bureaucracy, FSB, military etc)  

 

The Biden family also has economic interests in Ukraine, like other US politicians and financiers.

 

The Russian forces launched an offensive into Adviika fortified city a few days before the Putin-Tucker meeting.  On the same day Zelensky openly fired Army chief Zaluzhnyi.  The Ukrainian defenses are collapsing and there are forces getting encircled in a pocket. Units are the process are retreating out of it.  Ukr sources claim up to 16 combat battalions getting cut off  and Russian 90th Tank division being maneuvered in as a reserve.

 

The new commander-in chief announced a general retreat from the area today.

 

 

Tucker is clearly representing the 'abandon ship' wing of the Republican party.  The Russian strategy of fighting this war very slowly in order to minimize Western support appears to be working as the West gets more and more exhausted both militarily and politically.  Even the US war mongering propaganda is only a fraction of what it was 1 yr ago and there is more reporting on Gaza than on Ukraine:

 

Tucker Carlson:

"Lindsey Graham’s latest scheme is convincing Republicans that it’s somehow better to loan Zelensky $60 billion, rather than give it to him. Some are falling for this. But it’s fraudulent. Ukraine will never repay the debt, and we’ll never make them. This is just a more dishonest way to send more unaccounted for weapons to the region, delay the inevitable peace deal and kill more forcibly-conscripted Ukrainians, some of whom are nearly Lindsey Graham’s age. It’d be easier to take if he’d join them on the battlefield."

On 2/15/2024 at 8:27 AM, Cult Icon said:

 

Communism is primarily about economics:

 

Communism - Wikipedia

 

Putin said that Russia is a 'Market Economy'.  Russia/China is a mixed economy like Europe & US. where gov't is mixed with the market.

 

The chief difference is the nature of the mixture, which is different from country to country. 

 

Russia is traditionally obsessed with security as it's the largest country in the world, has to govern vast territories, and is pretty easy to invade.  Putin's Red line was in 2014 when they were losing their influence in Ukraine.  They were very afraid that Ukraine will turn into another US Army base.  Then the US re-militarized Ukraine, provided training advisors, and re-activated the Soviet arsenal prior to 2022 invasion.

 

Ukraine was once a very important part of Russian security, the whole territory was highly weaponized and industrialized.  IMHO the centralized ethnic argument is just a cover for their (unspoken) issues with NATO penetration into the East.  

 

Without knowing too much about Russia internally my first guess is that they are afraid not only of the US-NATO military colonizing Ukraine but also of how the West uses military occupation to infiltrate countries economically, culturally, and politically primarily with multi-national corporations and influencing political processes.  This would influence the economy of Russia just by association and threaten their ruling class (oligarchs, government bureaucracy, FSB, military etc)  

 

The Biden family also has economic interests in Ukraine, like other US politicians and financiers.

 

 

I love that wikipedia says "Communism (...) is a left-wing to far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology". Ok.... "Left to far-left"

 

Communism is totally far-left, but I guess the wikipedia's writers wanted to water down the perception of this crazy ideology. Typical wikipedia

 

Communism is not just about economics (at least wikipedia agrees on this point), it's also a sociopolitical movement whose aim is total control of society. They can't achieve communism without strong government control. Otherwise, their regime can't hold, pockets of "capitalism" will recreate. Communism is primarily a totalitarianism.

 

Hannah Arend't book on the origins of totalitarianism is a must on the subject.

 

Putin is a former agent of KGB. He's obsessed with control. Russia is what we used to call a "transition economy", but it turns out it has lost of relics from the  communist era (the oligarchs being one).

5 hours ago, Enrico_sw said:

 

Communism is not just about economics (at least wikipedia agrees on this point), it's also a sociopolitical movement whose aim is total control of society. They can't achieve communism without strong government control. Otherwise, their regime can't hold, pockets of "capitalism" will recreate. Communism is primarily a totalitarianism.

 

Putin is a former agent of KGB. He's obsessed with control. Russia is what we used to call a "transition economy", but it turns out it has lost of relics from the  communist era (the oligarchs being one).

 

The emphasis in Russia about the need for a 'Tsar' and a police state is likely similar to why China wants an 'emperor' and why half of America wanted a 'King Trump'- vast country with a vast population is difficult to govern for a weak democratic ruler.  It would lead to lack of leadership, chaos and civil war.  I think the situation in every country is different.  It is much easier to govern a very small country.

 

I think western economic theories about economic development are heavily flawed.  We in the west live in the 'service economy' which is actually filled with massive inflation, bullsh*t jobs, corrupt industry structures, de-industrialization, and lack of real economic/cultural/social development.  For the US middle and working class, living standards have barely budged in 40 years and have declined for many.   The soon to be 34 trillion dollars of debt is another sign of failure.  European economic performance has been stagnating for decades too.

 

Then communist China with a mixed economy becomes the biggest real economy in the world with the fastest growth.

 

America like Russia is also ruled by Oligarchs and has a corrupt and incompetent political and military system.

 

Combat footage of "elite" 3rd Assault Brigade (Ukraine) equipped with NATO hardware.  They arrived and launched a failed counterattack against the Russians at Adviika and were being used as rearguard to help the 16 odd-battalions retreat from the pocket.

On 2/17/2024 at 4:00 PM, Cult Icon said:

 

The emphasis in Russia about the need for a 'Tsar' and a police state is likely similar to why China wants an 'emperor' and why half of America wanted a 'King Trump'- vast country with a vast population is difficult to govern for a weak democratic ruler.  It would lead to lack of leadership, chaos and civil war.  I think the situation in every country is different.  It is much easier to govern a very small country.

 

I think western economic theories about economic development are heavily flawed.  We in the west live in the 'service economy' which is actually filled with massive inflation, bullsh*t jobs, corrupt industry structures, de-industrialization, and lack of real economic/cultural/social development.  For the US middle and working class, living standards have barely budged in 40 years and have declined for many.   The soon to be 34 trillion dollars of debt is another sign of failure.  European economic performance has been stagnating for decades too.

 

Then communist China with a mixed economy becomes the biggest real economy in the world with the fastest growth.

 

America like Russia is also ruled by Oligarchs and has a corrupt and incompetent political and military system.

 

The prosperity of Western Europe (and its children like the USA, Canada or Australia) comes from the fact that there's been (for centuries) a sane competition between and within these countries. Even in the Holy Roman Empire, the structure was built on competition between princes, lords and houses.

 

Competition has brought many intellectual and technological breakthroughs that led to prosperity. Contrary to what a lof of nonsensical leftist "thinkers" believe, Western countries became the world leaders in the 19th/20th century, NOT because they stole a bunch of resources (primary sector) in poor countries, but because their industry (secondary sector) was far superior than anyone else's.

 

The industry has been the key to prosperity, and, competition is the core engine of the industry. 

 

I agree with you that most of the tertiary sector is composed of BS jobs. Tertiary companies and jobq are widely overvalued. The reason why there's so much overvaluation is because the competitive intensity has largely decreased in the West. Sane States are supposed to prevent over-concentration in the industry, but that's not what we did. Big oligopolies (Google, Amazon, General Electric, AT&T, Disney, etc.) were allowed. Less competition, less efficient industry, less creativity. This replicates the same flaws that socialist/communist economies have.

 

In short, the industry made the West rich and then Western leaders spoiled it to redistribute it to a BS tertiary economy.

 

The question of a strong leader is a separate topic. BTW, I don't believe that Trump was an autocrat (there are lots of checks and balances in the US and he had the media against him), but Biden's administration is closer to it (it has the media and shitloads of big companies behind it). Trump has a strong character, but his admin was not as forceful as Biden's.

People wanted Trump to get rid of corruption and corrupted ideas (like wokism and all the follies that the far left recently developed).

Just now, Enrico_sw said:

In short, the industry made the West rich and then Western leaders spoiled it to redistribute it to a BS tertiary economy.

 

 

In short, here's a summary:

Oligopolies that ally with parties to influence elections is one of several seeds of socialism:

 

An AI that pushes political agenda is another seed of totalitarianism / socialism:

 

Quote

Google’s push to lecture us on diversity goes beyond AI

https://nypost.com/2024/02/22/opinion/googles-push-to-lecture-us-on-diversity-goes-beyond-ai/

 

Political bias and modern type of soviets:

 

Vice was a giant garbage pail.

 

 

Here's something that most far left believers don't understand: the primary sector is way less important than the industry (secondary sector).

=> Europe colonised Africa because it was the first industrial power. Now, China colonises Africa, because it's the new industrial power.

 

The tertiary sector is useful to some extent, but when it's over-bloated, it's a mirage, a bubble (like the tulips were during the Dutch golden age). DEI jobs are the most worthless and overpaid jobs in the world.

There's been several remarkable developments over the past 3 weeks.

 

1. The loss of Adiivka fortified city has triggered a wave of local Russian attacks across the front, several towns were taken and others are being infiltrated, the Ukr army retreated and is now defending several towns west of Adviika. The Russians destroyed the first US M1 Abrams.

 

2.  These are just an intensification of positional fighting but nothing that implies any serious attempt at offensive yet.  Russia is still developing and holding a large reserve army that is not being used for the war in Ukraine but for a potential war with NATO ground forces.  Today, Russia re-established Moscow & Leningrad military districts as planned last year.   

 

3. It is notable that Russia has not attempted any serious armored operations since 2022, they are clearly accumulating forces and even the armor in Ukraine is very sparingly used.  Ukrainian propaganda channels claim that Russian army has completely restocked their armored force in Ukraine itself and unlike in 2022 the current Russian force in Ukraine is maintained at a stable level of strength.

 

4.  The loss of Adiivka has interestingly spooked the US-UK military, all of a sudden there is alarmist coverage on the war, like in the past it appears to aimed at trying to reboot interest and $$ for the war effort by claiming that Ukraine is out of ammo and "starting to 'lose'. " However the intensity of the propaganda is nowhere as much as in 2023 and the overall political climate in the West is weakening interest in the war.  NATO-Ukraine has already admitted that they are in a strategic dead end and have no solution except fanaticism. 

 

5. Overall it looks like it's not in Russia's interest to advance at all on the map, everytime they do the West uses it to stimulate politics of military aid.  However the constant concealment of the high Ukrainian losses has the ironic result of making it safe for them to quietly conduct positional warfare with missile, artillery, and drone strikes everyday.

 

6. The sudden success of the Russian forces in Adiivka was accomplished by 4 infantry brigades largely staffed by reservists.  These are older men in their mid-late 30s, likely with families.  

 

Throughout the war Putin has been noticeably sparing of his reservists that were called up 2022.  They had been largely used in the defense rather than offense. They have sacrificed the professional-contract troops of 2022, the convicted criminals and the Ukrainian separatists but the ordinary people with political weight inside Russia have not been used in aggressive offensive operations.

 

Putin has repeatedly assured Russians that he will not need to do a 2nd round of mobilization of reservists.  Given the political fallout that would happen if he does I doubt that the Russian army in Ukraine will attempt aggressive offensive operations with men with families.

 

7.  It is more and more looking like this is the beginning of the final act of the war in Ukraine.  Unless NATO or Russia launch a powerful second invasion the war will end on the negotiation table after Ukraine caves in from the catastrophic damage inflicted onto it.