I at first thought that the Oligarchs were organized crime kingpins.
Much of the former Communist world's grief and the Capitalist world's challenge is that The G-dless Communies had to struggle so desperately just to have any hope whatsoever of survival.
This because Ronald Reagan in particular made his intentions to transform all of Mother Russian into a fine, radioactive mist in the stratosphere.
The very height of the cold war was not at all the 1963 Cuban Missile Crisis as most Americans incorrectly believe, but 1981 or so when my father, a US Naval Civil Service Electrical Engineer, just happened to not come home from work. He didn't call to say he'd miss supper, we all figured that there were some fires he had to put out so we were unconcerned.
I don't recall the date but it was around summertime as it's quite nice to be outdoors even late at night in Fairfield, California.
About five miles to the east of our home at the time lay Travis Air Force Base. That's the largest USAF Airlift Command Base on the West Coast. Edwards Airforce Base in California's High Desert just Northwest of the Mojave is larger, but isn't meant for "production use" like fighting wars, just for experimental work like when a new model of fighterplane has a total landing gear brake failure upon touchdown.
Twenty miles to our west, on the otherside of a wide, moderately high but not really tall range of hills, lay Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, where my father was working that night, and was at the time the main submarine maintenance, repair and nuclear refueling shipyard.
So one night Mom looks puzzled steps out the front door then asks my sister and I to join her in the front yard.
"Mike?"
"Jeannie?"
"Mom, those are air raid sirens!"
I had not the clue that they even existed in our neighborhood. They were all around our subdision, about a quarter mile on each side so I couldn't locate any but I figured they had to be hidden inside the streetlight poles.
Oddly no one EVER mentioned this event to me at any time. I don't know why.
Consider that the Soviets, East Germans, Polish &c. were a lot more fearful of getting brutally murdered by us Freedom-Loving G-d Fearing American Citizens than we were of them.
This the Soviets, the Chinese, the North Vietnamese and the North Koreans bet the farm on weaponry as well as provisions for their military personnel.
Spies too, lots of spies, not just to spy on us, but on each other as the Soviets and the Chinese were not Allies, rather "Fellow Travels" in that they were going to the same destination but hated each other with a passion. The People's Republic of China actually invaded North Vietnam after South Vietnam fell in 1975.
There were also quite a lot of secret police, in part to keep a watch out for Capitalist espionage but also to keep an eye out for anti-Communist citizens of Communist nations.
Putin worked for most of his adult life until the Soviet breakup as a KGB clandestine agent in East Germany.
He knew damn well that his only hope of not starving to death under ten feet of Generalissimo Winter after his, uh, "retirement" was to enjoy his Golden Years as a Moscow Taxi Driver!
I AM ABSOLUTELY SERIOUS.
So when Communism fell, everyone who could grab hold of something of value did so - with a fucking vengeance.
Not just Putin but lots of spies and military people - not just men but women - seized power over the Russian Federal.
I expect the Oligarchs have all been for the most part honest, well-intentioned people.
One way to lift oneself from desperate poverty would be, the very instant that ownership of private property became permissible, to buy up what one can, then start a business.
For example Dr. Charles Sims, a Pathologist and the father of my dear friend Murray Sims, when he was just starting out as a doctor, having to pay back all those medical school loads, as well as provi...
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[ 3.6 ms ] story [ 49.8 ms ] threadI at first thought that the Oligarchs were organized crime kingpins.
Much of the former Communist world's grief and the Capitalist world's challenge is that The G-dless Communies had to struggle so desperately just to have any hope whatsoever of survival.
This because Ronald Reagan in particular made his intentions to transform all of Mother Russian into a fine, radioactive mist in the stratosphere.
The very height of the cold war was not at all the 1963 Cuban Missile Crisis as most Americans incorrectly believe, but 1981 or so when my father, a US Naval Civil Service Electrical Engineer, just happened to not come home from work. He didn't call to say he'd miss supper, we all figured that there were some fires he had to put out so we were unconcerned.
I don't recall the date but it was around summertime as it's quite nice to be outdoors even late at night in Fairfield, California.
About five miles to the east of our home at the time lay Travis Air Force Base. That's the largest USAF Airlift Command Base on the West Coast. Edwards Airforce Base in California's High Desert just Northwest of the Mojave is larger, but isn't meant for "production use" like fighting wars, just for experimental work like when a new model of fighterplane has a total landing gear brake failure upon touchdown.
Twenty miles to our west, on the otherside of a wide, moderately high but not really tall range of hills, lay Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, where my father was working that night, and was at the time the main submarine maintenance, repair and nuclear refueling shipyard.
So one night Mom looks puzzled steps out the front door then asks my sister and I to join her in the front yard.
"Mike?"
"Jeannie?"
"Mom, those are air raid sirens!"
I had not the clue that they even existed in our neighborhood. They were all around our subdision, about a quarter mile on each side so I couldn't locate any but I figured they had to be hidden inside the streetlight poles.
Oddly no one EVER mentioned this event to me at any time. I don't know why.
Consider that the Soviets, East Germans, Polish &c. were a lot more fearful of getting brutally murdered by us Freedom-Loving G-d Fearing American Citizens than we were of them.
This the Soviets, the Chinese, the North Vietnamese and the North Koreans bet the farm on weaponry as well as provisions for their military personnel.
Spies too, lots of spies, not just to spy on us, but on each other as the Soviets and the Chinese were not Allies, rather "Fellow Travels" in that they were going to the same destination but hated each other with a passion. The People's Republic of China actually invaded North Vietnam after South Vietnam fell in 1975.
There were also quite a lot of secret police, in part to keep a watch out for Capitalist espionage but also to keep an eye out for anti-Communist citizens of Communist nations.
Putin worked for most of his adult life until the Soviet breakup as a KGB clandestine agent in East Germany.
He knew damn well that his only hope of not starving to death under ten feet of Generalissimo Winter after his, uh, "retirement" was to enjoy his Golden Years as a Moscow Taxi Driver!
I AM ABSOLUTELY SERIOUS.
So when Communism fell, everyone who could grab hold of something of value did so - with a fucking vengeance.
Not just Putin but lots of spies and military people - not just men but women - seized power over the Russian Federal.
I expect the Oligarchs have all been for the most part honest, well-intentioned people.
One way to lift oneself from desperate poverty would be, the very instant that ownership of private property became permissible, to buy up what one can, then start a business.
For example Dr. Charles Sims, a Pathologist and the father of my dear friend Murray Sims, when he was just starting out as a doctor, having to pay back all those medical school loads, as well as provi...