Technically a ‘spy’, but for most of his career more a low level bureaucrat.
Masha Gessen:
“The Man Without a Face is the chilling account of how a low-level, small-minded KGB operative ascended to the Russian presidency and, in an astonishingly short time, destroyed years of progress and made his country once more a threat to her own people and to the world.”
Bakunin quote : Quoted in Daniel Guerin, Anarchism: From Theory to Practice (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1970), pp. 25–26.
Stalin quote : To his mother in the 1930's as quoted in <em>Young Stalin</em> (2007) by Simon Sebag Montefiore.
>But but but libertarians tell me if there were no laws they would be double super honest! After all if the laws are already ineffective surely having none would be soooo much better...
No libertarians don't actually think that. They just think having a strong central government makes it easier for companies to do their bullshit, not harder. Just continuing to use the US as an example, as a dishonest corp you have to just bribe one central entity and they have vast powers to re-write laws to favor you and eliminate competition so you can do whatever you want. By contrast if you have a weak central government there isn't a strong entity to corrupt and you have a vast array of different groups to corrupt to get your unfettered access, such as the various independent organizations covering things like standards, ratings, reputation, credit, mediation, security, etc. And none of them have a monopoly they can be easily replaced by more reliable entities. Just as a real world example of what such groups look like see things such as UL (Electricity standards), ISO, ANSI, credit bureaus, etc.
Continuing with real world examples, with the EU parliament getting stronger every day, you can expect those consumer protections start to erode. It's much easier to bribe some MEPs than it is to bribe every legislature from every separate country in Europe. Article 13's just a preview of things to come. All countries naturally gravitate toward more government power and less freedom as seizing a nation's capital to remain in power as long as possible is the end goal of all politicians.
This may make or break the Iranian government.
The world we live in is one where free, democratic counties are stable, a powerful, authoritarian dictatorships are stable. Dictators that try to become benevolent rulers and cross this gap often fall to revolutions.
​
Iran is precariously in the middle. Their citizens are much richer than citizens in dictatorships, they have a (semi) democratic parliament and President with considerable power within the government, and citizens have access to considerable rights and freedoms over many citizens all over the world. However, compared to many democracies, they lack many personal freedoms many of us in Democracies are accustomed to, and enjoy.
If protestors are successful, it could open the floodgates for reforms and a total collapse of control the Iranian government maintains. The government is in a Catch-22 situation, in trying to maintain stability, squashing protests only adds more fuel to the fire, while giving into protestors can open the floodgates of reforms that could destroy the government, lead to more protests, all which could lead to a revolution.
However, only time will tell.
​
Relevant CGP Grey video and the book it was adapted from, 'The Dictator's Handbook'
I’ll have to check it out. They’re already publishing his speeches on a monthly basis, with proceeds going to the Ukrainian Red Cross….. War Speeches
Check out The Dictators handbook, fascinating and depressing take on how this works. Rewarding the minumum coalition you need, Trump was just more obvious about it
Some time ago there was a question here on whether governments still produced Color Books
It looks like Zelensky publishes all his speeches monthly Amazon link - not quite the same, but maybe close enough for those interested.
> your Hunter Biden comment was based on bullshit conspiracy without any confirmed sources.
Dude, what? He wrote a book about it:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/30/books/hunter-biden-beautiful-things-memoir.html
"President Biden’s son opens up about crack addiction, his romantic relationship with his sister-in-law and the new love that halted his cycle of despair."
https://www.amazon.com/Beautiful-Things-Memoir-Hunter-Biden-ebook/dp/B08428WLJP
Author: Hunter Biden
"Hunter Biden’s devastating memoir, covers much ground, but at its core is an addict’s journey—from the first stolen sips of alcohol in a childhood marked by great loss, to the grim purgatory and lethal despair of late-stage crack addiction."
Sigh. I’m embarrassed for you.
Beautiful Things: A Memoir https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08428WLJP/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_QJQWT9921YYCRGDRDX0S
“Hunter recounts his descent into substance abuse and his tortuous path to sobriety”
Are you done now? Or are you going to keep making that hole bigger?
I recommend you reading The Dictator's Handbook, which is summarized in this video. As a politician, you only have two options:
Thus, all politicians with power will be corrupt (to an extent). Why then, do we sometimes have good things? It is either
I do believe social pressure is the best way that citizens can persuade the government to do something. All politicans are merely puppets of the system and the corporations. Is social media the best option? Perhaps not. They should:
But I don't think they should run for office.
PS: Why are some politicans better than others? It's all about who their pupeteer is. If oil companies are behind them, they'll want to promote car transportation and wage war. If tech companies are behind them, they'll want to improve the average wage so that people can affort phones. Really, read the book
the best book I read on the history of the end of 19th and beginning of 20th centuries:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00INIXPYE/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
Prof Kotkin is a professor at Princeton.
Definitely Princeton (I'd recommend Yale as well since Timothy Snyder is there, but Kotkin is my hero)
SS:
AMAZON: "Amazon has noticed unusual reviewing activity on this product. Due to this activity, we have limited this product to verified purchase reviews."
Apr 8, 2021 - ...But it gets better. In an attempt to determine if this was an isolated incident, I decided to see what would happen if I attempted to post reviews on other books. Most of the time, Amazon would allow me to write a review. Conservative or liberal, it didn’t matter. I was absolutely able to post a review on a book I had not read. Except for one. When I tried to write a review of Hunter Biden’s memoir Beautiful Things,
https://www.amazon.com/Untitled-Nonfiction-AB-Confirmed-Gallery-ebook/dp/B08428WLJP
I got the same notice as the racist devotional book...
Check out any Erik Larson book. For this specific topic, try his latest book called The Splendid and The Vile. It’s about Churchill; I think it’s what you’re looking for.
https://www.amazon.com/Splendid-Vile-Churchill-Family-Defiance-ebook/dp/B07TRVW6VX
I know this sub is more about punchlines than literacy, but I'm reading Erik Larsen's The Splendid and the Vile right now, about Churchill's herculean effort to keep the UK going and trying to get help from the USA.
Highly recommended!!
I HIGHLY recommend "The Dictators Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics" as an introduction to my outlook on power structure. From my interpretation of the text, it shows how politics often boil down to incentive systems, and how they are manipulated by the actors within.
Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Dictators-Handbook-Behavior-Almost-Politics-ebook/dp/B005GPSLHI
I don't think I am being pessimistic, I am just thinking logically and am armed with information provided in the dictator handbook ( The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005GPSLHI/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_Qu4FBbXWJ5Z9G )
Please read this: Dear Reader. Infants are starving to death. The country is one big prison. Horrific labor camps. Punishments handed down to distant family.
>They aren’t all starving, in the 90s there were shortages due to bad harvest
Dude, read some history. They couldn't farm because they had no fuel. Kim Jong Il was offered help from the many other countries. He turned it down because he know that if the populace knew that he wasn't the one protecting them and feeding them, they would kill him.
He chose to let millions starve to death to protect his power.
Si les interesa seguir leyendo mas del tema el libro se llama: "The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics"
Si vistes los dos videos, veras que no es trivial; es basado en un libro llamado "The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics"
Dudo que el 99% entienda como el poder opera exactamente, tienen algún tipo de imaginación. SI fuese trivial como tu dices no existiría ese libro tan famoso que te abre la mente a como es el juego de cartas realmente. La gente se cree que pq ve "House of Cards" son la hostia en politica y a pesar que es muy buena la serie le falta pa competir con libros como este.
Pero bueno estoy seguro que no vas a ver, ni los video pq eres PNP y hablo de RR en el titulo cuando esto aplica a todos los politicos. Es una lastima pq el contenido de esos videos es un buen resumen del libro, CGP Grey se tomio la molestia de resumirlo en 2 videos en un total de 25 minutos para los vagos que no leen o las personas que no tienen tiempo. Pero bueno seguimos con la ignorancia que es mas ventajosa en estos tiempos.
I recommend checking out this book if you have the time.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005GPSLHI/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
I'm not advocating screwing over the citizens of Flint, I'm pointing out that it is the unfortunate reality of the situation.