The similarities between Putin and Obama are many. They both conjure up fake crises to get what they want. Putin says Crimea wanted him—so he takes a piece of Ukraine. Obama said our healthcare system was broken—so he invaded one seventh of our economy and took it. Both demonize their enemies with lies, aided by a subordinate press, in hopes of stigmatizing opponents. Both use the Saul Alinsky playbook.
Putin is seeking a fourth term in 2018, and doesn’t want to be too associated with Obama whose favorability poll numbers are in the 30’s versus Putin’s in the 70’s—Putin has his career to consider.
Yep, ole Putin is running again in 2018. He said he looks forward to the voters of Russia being heard at the polls–then chuckled uncontrollably for a few minutes. I predict Putin will him win first, second and third in that race.
Obama appears weaker each day. He is not going to use military force in Putin’s march for Ukraine. It’s not like there is an Arizona Tea Party farmer grazing cows on federal lands. Yet he is serious and sent Joe Biden to Kiev. Dennis Rodman must have been on assignment.
Both Putin and Obama have oligarch bag men. Obama has:
Elon Musk: He turned green-energy tax credits into Tesla motors, making $100,000 cars for the rich. Musk just got tax cuts for just his company (alone) in California via his Democrat friends. It is such blatant crony-ism, Obama is already denying knowing about it.
George Soros: Trades the shadowy international currency markets and funnels profits back to Democrats.
Tom Steyer: Made money in oil stocks, he’s now trying to stop the Keystone Pipeline. Turns out with Obama, once you cannot run again, you’re ok with $4 a gallon gas.
Al Gore: Became rich investing in “green energy” with government backs deals like Fisker Auto. Most recently sold a cable company he got from the government to Al Jazeera, who built their fortune on mideastern oil. Gore likes to hug trees, but awkwardly lingers way too long when he does.
Carlos Slim: Uses his Mexican monopolies in telecom to help Democrats. He kept the NY Times from going under. They continue to lead the charge on most liberal causes, including hypocritically calling the Koch brothers “oligarchs.” They feed Harry Reid’s Koch habit.
The Koch brothers do not make their money via government cronyism; it’s quite the opposite since they are targeted by this government. They are the anti-oligarchs. They are 59th on the list of donors, with mostly unions above them, who funnel political favors in the form of cash back to Democrats.
George Kaiser: Big Obama donor, of Solydra fame. He defaulted on the $500 million we guaranteed for him, then set about putting himself ahead of debt holders. Obama trumpeted Solyndra “as the future of green energy.” It went bankrupt, so I guess he was right.
The truth is the business Obama does is green; in that it only uses recycled donors.
Putin is said to be worth $70 billion now. He just got divorced, so that number is now $72 billion. The divorce went well for his wife of 30 years Lyudmila. Putin keep his $72 billion and Ukraine, she is not dead yet. Just imagine how much Putin would have if he were not a share the wealth socialist on a government salary. The same can be said for Al Gore, who is said to have a post-divorce net worth of $300 million.
Putin had a big year. Forbes named him the most powerful leader in the world. He was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize (an award he would kill for). The Kremlin newspaper named him sexiest dictator alive for the 15th year in a row. He posed shirtless with a fish he killed with a spear gun; and there was little the manager of the Moscow Red Lobster could do about it.
Economic boycotts are the only way to control Putin. It hurts him and his cronies. Economics usually trumps politics. It is estimated that $160 billion will leave Russian this year in hopes of escaping financial hardships.
Boycotts work. Pro-Russian women in Ukraine embarked on a sex boycott against their men. At least that will end one problem, after a couple of weeks of denying men sex, Putin will be hesitant to take his shirt off in that country.
Ron Hart, a libertarian syndicated op-ed humorist,award-winning author and TV/radio commentator can be reached at Ron@RonaldHart.com or visit www.RonaldHart.com
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: The Obama Oligarchy Malarkey