[canis_lupus]

A: Nitrogen at the core: Lots of over-educated entitled 'libertarians' (think Bono) and disenfranchised petty bourgeois ('anarchists', rap artists, alt. musicians etc.) smart-asses looking to be important

'libertarians'? Can you clarify this a little bit? You had me then you lost me with 'libertarians'.

[IgnoranceIsBliss]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('gollum', 'T')his week I read about a 92 year old WW2 veteran who froze to death in his home because his electricity use had been restricted, then read about the Citibank 50 million jet purchased with bailout money. A system that would allow this needs to fail.

[kublikhan]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ReverseEngineer', 'G')ranted, the Frogs are hotheads but its a vast exagerration to say they will Riot at the drop of a hat also. When was the last time you can recall 2M people nationwide and 300,000 in Paris turned out in the streets with their Frog Blood Boiling?

[dohboi]

"police (yes police)) rioting"

This is actually the norm, not the exception.

[ReverseEngineer]

So, is Vlad the Impaler destined to become the next Romanoff, plugged full of lead in the basement of the Kremlin.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'S')everal thousand people have held a rally in Russia's Far East, demanding the government resign over the country's growing economic problems.
The protesters in Vladivostok blamed Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's cabinet for mismanaging the economy and suppressing political dissent.

[vtsnowedin]

Seven days in May? What about that little multiyear skirmish called WW I ?

The Russian version of capitalism has devolved to gang warfare and orginized crime with Vald as the top Don. Not a very good system as no ordinary citizen will invest time and money to produce a product as he knows as soon as it becomes apparent that there is value in what he has made the gang that is the government will show up and steal it.

Not that I have much good to say about our system of bank fraud thievery.

[RdSnt]

I wouldn't get too excited about Putin's situation, he'll survive quite nicely. I would also point out that Russian politicians are much more experienced at being directly involved in their political manipulation, "getting their hands dirty" and sticking around.

What I find curious is that the poor Russian peasant seems to have the backbone, in a repressive country, to protest.
In the US, where the thievery is much more blatant and extreme, not so much.

[dorlomin]

There are no stupid Russian politicians. The stupid ones are dead.

There is something wonderfully funny about the way Russian politics turned out in the last decade. The oigarchs were a disperate group of gangsters and entrepeurs who made out like bandits in the 90s picking up pieces of state industries on the cheap, buying up shares from near starving employees and going on to make vast fortunes on those companies. They thought themselves the masters of there own universe, but the chaos of Yeltsins Russia needed sorting out so they apointed a strongman with a good track record and a grasp of how to set up a security aparatus to run there countries police state for them.

The jackles hired a wolf to guard them. Wrong wolf. The oligarchs were not so smart, they let the KGB back into power without the old Party to stand on its neck. The oligarchs are all now either dead, in prison, in London or staying out of politics and spending there money "kissing the ring" of 'their' security Czar.

Putin is building a state that is extreamly facist. There is virtualy no opposition to Putin (at the minute), unless the old Party can mobilise a movement away from Forward Russia before the FSB crush them.

[Dreamtwister]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('IgnoranceIsBliss', 'I') don't know about riots, but I think some areas of the US are going to look like Iraq pretty soon. You won't be able to set foot anywhere near certain depressed urban areas without getting mugged, shot, ransomed, etc.

[mos6507]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dohboi', '
')Why the hell aren't we all rioting in the streets?

[dohboi]

"So are you a libertarian, anarchist or just an agitator?"

Just an observer of historical fact .

I agree that rioting rarely cures anything, but some kind of organized resistance in the face of massive criminal behavior would be nice.

Posting on forums and writing congress folks just doesn't seem adequate to the enormity of the abuse being perpetrated on all of us and all of our descendants.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'W')hat I find curious is that the poor Russian peasant seems to have the backbone, in a repressive country, to protest.

[ReverseEngineer]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sixstrings', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'W')hat I find curious is that the poor Russian peasant seems to have the backbone, in a repressive country, to protest.

[RdSnt]

Yes at some point I would think Americans will actually shift the overfed behinds enough to protest, but how long will that take?
Consider the level of poverty in countries where there are protests. Poverty may not be the best word in this case, people in other countries live much more constrained lives in that a larger portion of their income goes to basic needs, with very little if any discretionary funds.
I've traveled to a number of countries and seen how far people, collectively, can fall and still cope with life and not protest.
North American's have lost sight of how bad things can get. They are certainly not prepared and they will panic.
That is my primary concern. Particularly when watching events unfold in the US, a country consumed by a nihilist selfishness that is essentially a zombie march to collective suicide.
An example of this is the recent husband/wife murder suicides. Why do they take their children as well? It's a selfish and depraved denial of a future and a rejection that their children should have a better/different life than their own.

[shakespear1]

I Like the French. They have the will to organize and go to the streets.

Viva la France !!!!

[eXpat]

Violent protests in Russia too:
Violent clashes in Russia as angry protesters call for Putin to resign over economy
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'R')ussia was rocked today by some of its strongest protests yet as thousands rallied across the vast country to attack the Kremlin's response to the global economic crisis.

The marches, complete with Soviet-style red flags and banners, pose a challenge to a government which has faced little threat from the fragmented opposition and politically apathetic population during the boom years fuelled by oil.

Pro-government thugs beat up some of the protesters.
About 2,500 people marched across the far eastern port of Vladivostok to denounce the Cabinet's decision to increase car import tariffs, shouting slogans urging Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to resign. Many there make their living by importing cars.

Meanwhile in Moscow arrests were made as about 1,000 diehard Communists rallied in a central square hemmed in by heavy police cordons.

Communist Party chief Gennady Zyuganov told them the Kremlin must throw out Western capitalism and impose sweeping nationalisation.

Eduard Limonov, leader of the banned National Bolshevik Party - and one of the Kremlin's most radical critics - was arrested at another Moscow square.

[StormBringer]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('RdSnt', 'I') wouldn't get too excited about Putin's situation, he'll survive quite nicely. I would also point out that Russian politicians are much more experienced at being directly involved in their political manipulation, "getting their hands dirty" and sticking around.

What I find curious is that the poor Russian peasant seems to have the backbone, in a repressive country, to protest.
In the US, where the thievery is much more blatant and extreme, not so much.

[StormBringer]

Now don't take me wrong here I'm proud of them and honestly pleasantly surprised, but all over this country people protest in one form or another. It just is too common here to be international national, or even sometimes local news, its not sensational enough.