Rat-faced-evil-goons can maintain power in all kinds of ways. Surprisingly in many cases, history shows that even the worst monsters frequently keep control via the willing support of their people. Whether those people will admit it or not.

Hitler probably had a fairly high approval rating until the bombs started falling. And even today plenty of folks still fail to admit that Mao was one of the planet’s most successful life-threshers.

In Vlad’s case, this degenerate fuck has maintained very high approval ratings for a long, long time.

invade your neighbors; bash free speech; rule as an unhinged lunatic; require bribes to consume oxygen; blame it all on other folks not you; surf alongside armed dolphins; buy shit military gear on shit credit; use oil and gas as a weapon; ride bare-chested on horses bribed with booze-oats to appear on propaganda screens; and so on

Eh, whatever, if you’re a Russian, all of this was just a rounding error on your way to a prosperous Western lifestyle. Even though if you knew history, you knew enough to see that these two worldviews simply never mix.

autocratic madness [does not equal] bright happy future

Well, fantasyland is now over. The bill has come due. This is a stark warning to every fool out there who claims autocratic assholes are better than democracy at promoting prosperity and happiness. Democracy is a shitty mess (just read this blog). But Vlad’s world is way, way worse.

Over the last month and leading into the next few months, your average Russian family might lose half their net worth. This is what happens when lunatics run the show. There are consequences toward willfully ignoring the primal and evitable forces of human nature.

If you want a prosperous future: choose, back, and fight for democracy. If you choose Vlad, well, we invite you to watch the forthcoming fiasco. And learn from it.

“uh, yeah, so, ah, hmm, … what uh, what if we just nuke somebody? how long will that buy me?” [cricket, cricket, cricket]