Charlie Rose

SharkswithfrikingLazers  04/06/2012 01:02 AM Report

A gay, Jewish woman who has set her sights on Putin and wants the world to know.

Brave indeed.

"Her murder, which occurred on Vladimir Putin's birthday, was widely perceived as a contract killing, sparking a strong international reaction."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Anna_Politkovskaya

BENEZRAA  03/13/2012 08:42 PM Report

SUPPOSE OIL INCOME WERE TO TAKE A BIG HIT IN RUSSIA...

One must wonder, what "Plan B" may be for Russia, should the current oil prosperity take a significant hit. Is Putin the father of his country, squirreling away money in his palace to keep the country on an even keel in the event of economic challenge? Or is the palace his fortress of refuge and "Fort Knox" against the day he may face involuntary or even voluntary "retirement"?

Gelles  03/10/2012 01:07 AM Report

topazgirl ~

Thanks for trying to tame REMant. His conceit forced him mix Limbough's desire to watch Fluke in action with Putin's Palace, personalty and part (unmentionable).

The Russian hand that may hold the doomsday button is Putin's. Better it should his part. Our button is under Obama's finger. We Christian communist crony capitalist button fingers are necessarily to be trusted. Our Iranian suicide bomber zealots are not -- because their button is not yet connected to more than their mouth.

Masha Gessen's books suggest an extraordinary talent for expression, understanding and digging we are fortunate to share if we will.

topazgirl  03/09/2012 06:25 PM Report

...Oops!... I meant that the life expectancy of Russia's journalists is LOWER than those in Syria... See where long, convoluted sentences can take you?

topazgirl  03/09/2012 05:21 PM Report

REMant: I refer to your comments here, "If women using public money for purposes such as this can be considered prostitutes, and one can certainly see the logic of the remark, no matter whether one likes the thought, tho I think also certainly true, and deeply engrained in their character, and can, in this instance, nevertheless, certainly be justified..."... Is this what Romney meant when he gutlessly replied to Limbaugh's disgusting attack on Fluke by saying "I would have used different words"? At least Limbaugh's tirade cut-to-the-chase, and labeled him for what he really is! Yours words sound WAY too pretty (and convoluted), but amount to the same..... Plus, I'm not sure what this has to do with Putin and Russian politics.

topazgirl  03/09/2012 04:49 PM Report

The fact that the Putin opposition can hold rallies and demonstrations is a positive sign... we all now know the truth that most Russians are not happy about their leadership. But don't be fooled that Putin is loosening his hold on the Russian media. Putin is NOT a stupid man; he knows this coverage plays well to the Western world that he is open to the "free speech" of his people... Nothing could be further from the truth! The life expectancy of Russian (and foreign) journalists reporting news that goes against the party line (not the communist Party, but the "Putin party" talking points) is higher than that of Syria. They are mysteriously murdered or simply "disappear". Putin will be of the "KGB" philosophy until his dying days... It is what he knows best, and he will not give up power easily. Russia may be inching closer to "normal", but it will take the removal of Putin, and his ilk, to allow a truly democratic Russia to come to fruition.

reno  03/09/2012 04:17 PM Report

It is impossible to even have the least bit of sympathy for Khodorkovsky or any of the other oligarchs who robbed Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, etc. blind. Gessen is an apologist for the ultra rich and the small benefactors of the greatest collective stealing in history. What she, and other liberal elements miss is that Putin AT LEAST put the breaks on the summary theft of the nation, and therefore garnered the overwhelming vote of the citizens. People like Khodorkovsky deserve to be in prison - actually they deserve worse - good old Joe Stalin would of known what to do with such blood suckers. Khodorkovsky is lucky it is Putin in charge. Putin is saving Russia from western destruction, and for sure it was planned - look at what happened with Ukraine - and what Ukraine got left with - nothing.

Mirror  03/09/2012 10:25 AM Report

Lastly. Take note that Solghenitzin respected Putin. Solghenitzin was a fine writer, Nobel prize winner and a dissident—a genuine one at that (not a fraud like Khodorkovsky)—did time in Gulag. He, Solghenitzin, had an axe or two to grind against the security services. But he saw the disaster of Yeltsin era, he saw how the country spiraled into complete dysfunction and did not like it. Believe me, neither should the world; what occurred then was a country the size of an ocean with very bad bombs became a failed state. It is not anymore. The very fact that opposition can hold rallies and demonstrations is a sign of a society becoming normal. The world is better and safer for that.

Gelles  03/09/2012 02:34 AM Report

These comments have opened up several cans of worms. The limits of intellect comes to mind. Murder and same-sex love intrude on account of their frequency: life without either is most attractive -- if less real than the real thing. Prevention of worst case outcomes is worthy of universal support. Yet our lot on earth is to become familiar with evil in all its disguises. Putin may be our punishment for all our mistakes and wrongs. If so, what are we to him? He did not invent corruption so much as he copied our own.

Mirror  03/08/2012 10:43 PM Report

It may well be true that Putin and his friends are getting rich, the difference now is that they leave the possibility for the rest of the population to make decent living. This was NOT the case in the 90s, that alone allows him to make a very plausible case that he will not let the country disintegrate the way it did a decade ago. This election was the most monitored anywhere. And, if some irregularities did occur (let's say they did), who would have the good ground to stand to point the finger, may i ask? Would you prefer it if the Supreme Court decided the winner? (see Florida 2000, Bush v Gore) Or should it be like Ohio in 2004 (when all the paperless voting machines were created by a Bush backer Diebold)?

Mirror  03/08/2012 10:33 PM Report

The dreary fact is that Putin became popular because of the staggering robbery of the 90s by the Russian mob (including Khodorkovski) which left everyone except a handful of the most shameless and best armed—poorer than before. And the Russians were not terribly spoiled to begin with. It is obscene to suggest that any one of these robber barons might be likened to Saharov.

SharkswithfrikingLazers  03/08/2012 06:12 PM Report

No freedom of information act. One of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. Their history is hidden. Putin has a billion dollar palace and is perhaps a worth of $40B.

Sounds like the fuse is burning now.

SharkswithfrikingLazers  03/08/2012 06:06 PM Report

She says, 'No political class because no politics.'

You know after our never ending Presidential election I don't necessarily think this is such a bad thing.

Gelles  03/08/2012 05:04 PM Report

Masha Gessen is a prodigy herself on whom Charlie would do well to run a series. Her book of a formal approach to understanding the shape of the universe, which you can approach yourself on Amazon's Masha Gessen page, will leave you spellbound. The shape of Russia's destiny, if the human race persists, is like the shape of the universe -- unknowable -- but as fascinating to Russians as our own shaped destiny is to us.

Topology is the study of shape under rigid rules of logic. It is about flat shapes, solid shapes, transformable shapes, and can be stretched to include both mathematical shape and linguistic shape.

Masha Gessen was raised in Russia as a Jewess in anti-Semitic communist Moscow. She lives in America as a gifted reporter and writer of permanently interesting books. If you visited here from Mars, you might well be more interested in her brain than Vladimir Putin's.

The Charlie Rose Show is a good beginning for popular education. It needs to spawn a companion for such matters as topology and logistics so that we may get a handle on the goals of science and economics. Masha Gessen might be the host.

Today's issue is Syria. Tomorrow's is Iran. Some of study the brain. The brain is equipped to study language, logic, history and purpose. But, as has pointed out in comments below, every brain is attached to other organs -- not a one of which is simple.

I will soon buy all of Masha's books -- after I move south to live with my son and before I die thereafter. John, my eldest son is 11 years older than Masha. She has a brother Keith, 8 years older than Masha, now about 36, also a gifted writer who can co-anchor her show as described above. All her family are distinguished thoughtful people, if their hinted gifts are what they seem at a glance.

You may note that the family name Gessen is topologically very close to Gelles. Linguistically they may not be so elegantly alike. I hope I get invited to her show to prove the value of being appreciative of very extraordinary people we only touch at a great distance.

tabs  03/08/2012 03:44 PM Report

He pushed the Crown away thrice?

The reason for Mr Putin's rise to power is simple, other than the familial association with the power structure going back to Lenin which gives advantage. Mr Putin study of International Law and his stint in East Germany before the fall of the Wall gave him knowledge of Western business practices and more over a network of contacts (One would look to see which Germans were involved in particular with the energy deals with Russia) Mr Putin was the facilitator/conduit and bag man for the powers that be in Russia after the implosion. In other words Mr Putin with his contacts in the west made it possible for those in Russia to make at first energy deals (Nord Stream) with western businessmen. It was all the DM's and USD that flowed into Russia via those deals that put Putin in the catbirds seat. The rest is history.

REMant  03/08/2012 11:49 AM Report

What alternative universe are you guys living in?

Putin's opposition was in fact mainly from the Communists, not the middle-class, which most benefited in the past decade. The latter's complaint reflects rising expectations, as has been the case in the Middle East. The pattern is pretty clear. The ppl protest at modernization, and the intelligentsia, whose only real interest up to that time had been self-seeking, jump up to lead the parade. It's all very Bourgeois Bohemian. Marx and Engels savaged it in the Communist Manifesto. The American Revolution, I regret to say, developed in much the same way, except for a few idealistic souls (who were eventually thrown out along with their ideals). Whatever the case, this movement is also as clearly premature as collective farming. Just look at what is happening in Libya today, and in Iraq. Beyond any of this, of course, Putin has a penis.

A more realistic assessment appeared on Aljazeera.com a few days ago from which the following is drawn:

"The first inconvenient truth, rarely mentioned, is that Putin is simply popular. Even most of his critics do not dispute that if free and fair elections were to be held tomorrow, he would win by a landslide. All the opinion pollsters give him a first-round win: state-owned VCIOM and FOM, and independent Levada, all predict a first-round victory with about 58 per cent to 60 per cent of the vote. He has a threefold lead over the Communists' candidate Zyuganov, the perennial second-place man of Russian politics. Nor are Putin's ratings in freefall. They did slump to a "local minimum" in mid-December 2011, to use a mathematical term, but have since recovered, despite - or because of? - the protests. Putin's consistently high popularity may be unexpected, and attributed to nefarious factors like his control over the media - in reality, far more fictitious than real, as anyone who reads Russian newspapers or browses online will quickly find - but it shouldn't be. Whether Putin, oil prices, natural recovery from the Soviet collapse, or some combination of all these factors is responsible, Russians undeniably live far better today than a decade ago: GDP (in purchasing power parity terms) has doubled, salaries have risen nearly tenfold (in US dollar terms) to $800 per month, and even many blue-collar workers can now afford the occasional holiday to Turkey or Thailand. Rightly or wrongly, Putin is associated with these improvements, and the stability that enabled it. This largely rules out any useful comparison with countries such as Tunisia or Egypt, which were growing much more slowly in per capita terms, and from far lower starting bases. Furthermore, they are major grain importers, while Russia is a net exporter, so they are adversely affected by food price shocks to a much greater extent than Russia." (See http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/03/2012347111873641.html)

If women using public money for purposes such as this can be considered prostitutes, and one can certainly see the logic of the remark, no matter whether one likes the thought, tho I think also certainly true, and deeply engrained in their character, and can, in this instance, nevertheless, certainly be justified, then Mr Rose is their pimp. To be fair, tho, Charlie worships publicity and status as much as any of his female contributors and guests.

Who can be next for these vitriolic vendors of virtue, Francois Hollande? Angela Merkel?