A thread of quotes that hopefully offers readers a connect-the-dots moment …
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Last night as I was reading all the econ blogs screaming "wtf," I came across the news that the Russian stock market had been forced to close for a couple of days due to its own volatility.
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There’s a saying oft heard in Russian schoolyards: "Go ahead and spit at me. Fill your mouth with shit and spit at me." It may be an indelicate way of suggesting that one should cut off one’s nose to spite one’s face, but it provides some insight into why Russia’s economy, which grew by eight percent last year, has suddenly melted.
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When Putin responded to Western criticism, he was so defiant that Leonid Radzihovski, a columnist for the liberal online political journal Ezhednevny Zhurnal, characterized his government’s diplomatic position as: "If America wants it so much, let it come and make up with us."
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The whole world is in turmoil due to a variety of factors, not the least of which is that some major powers are currently being run by a bunch of macho jackasses. This is a big problem that is easily solved by voting — for intelligent, thoughtful, modern leadership that recognizes that the world is too complicated and too interdependent to be run by chest beating and schoolyard demonstrations of "strength."
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Comment in response to above : good point. Macho jackasses.
Unfortunately, Digby, it has BEEN EVER THUS!!!!!!!!!!!
Inclusive fitness dictates that human groups are inevitably led by macho jackasses. Alpha-males who piss on the couch, shit on the rug, destroy the shoes, scratch the door, break every damned thing in the living room.
It’s the fault of our genes, and a fair amount of "normative" pressure.
If you ever figure out how to defeat the DNA of an alpha-male, you let us know, because, believe me, that one thing would save the world.
You could neuter every male at birth, saving a few for reproduction, and that might help..but some eunuchs out of history were known to be pretty bad actors too..so hormones aren’t the whole story..
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