Dollar Hits New Low, Oil Hits New High, and Who Benefits?

Vladimir is sittin' on top of the world. Russia has a new prez, who happens to be Vlad's protege, and Vlad himself will be the next prime minister. Russia has more oil, gold, platinum, and other commodities than it can export and the Russian people seem to enjoy living under this authoritarian regime. And investment money is flooding in to help build a solid business infrastructure.

Funny how less than ten years after a financial collapse in Russia, they are now lending us money. Like him or hate him, there is no question that Putin has turned Russia around from being a basket case heading into third-world status into becoming a powerhouse in the global economy. But the astonishing turnaround is all the more startling when contrasted with the consequent incompetence nearly across the board in gross mismanagement of the US economy.

When George Bush said he looked into Putin's soul, you know what I think he saw? I thing he saw that he was fucked. Putin is smarter and tougher than Bush ever dreamed of becoming and he has proved it by somehow reconfiguring the wreckage of the former Soviet Union into the new Russia.

Let me emphasize that I am not endorsing authoritarianism, but I wonder what the fate of Russia would have been otherwise? Putin brooks no opposition, and his coldness at the murder of journalist Anna Politskaya was frightening, not to mention what he's done in Chechnya. But the KGB didn't create cream puffs, and Putin, rather than clinging to failed ideologies or fantasies of godly redemption through Jesus, grasps the fundamental laws of power and wealth. That's pragmatism writ large--he may have been a commie, but he was a Russian first.

And we have played right into his global plan. Bush hasn't got a fucking clue what terrible damage he's done to this country, and he's even more numb when it comes to the growing power of our former nemesis.

Bush is Vlad's little bitch.