Valdimir Putin's Insane Jihad Againt "Illegal" Imported Food and Goods

With oil prices plummeting and economic sanctions in place due to Russia unlawful annexation of the Crimea and unofficial invasion of Ukraine, Russia's economy is headed towards potential collapse and consumers are facing a possible return to a consumer market akin to that of the bad old days of the Communist era.  One of Putin's retaliation against European countries that have applied sanctions against Russia for its Nazi regime like behavior is to ban the import of various meats, cheeses, fruits and food stuffs form nations imposing and/or supporting sanctions against Russia.  Now, both the government and self-styled vigilantes are penalizing those who have continued to purchase and consume such foreign foods.  With all of the huge problems that face Russia, one would think that Putin would have larger worries to dwell upon.  Cynics - or perhaps they are realists - believe there is a method to Putin's madness: he is preparing the Russian public for the harsh austerity that is looming in the future in no small part due to Putin's own mismanagement. A piece in The Atlantic looks at Putin's outwardly insane behavior.  Here are highlights:

Russia’s Federal Customs Service has drafted legislation classifying banned foreign foods as “strategically important.” Until now, that label only applied to weapons, explosives, poisons, and radioactive materials.

If it becomes law, the new classification will mean those caught importing banned fruits, vegetables, meat, and poultry can face up to seven years in prison. French cheese is apparently now just as dangerous to the security of the state as plutonium, uranium, assault weapons, and dirty bombs.

And speaking of cheese, the Interior Ministry this week released footage of a bust of what it called a “major cheese-smuggling ring.” Some 470 tons of forbidden cheese was found and six members of the alleged cheese mafia were arrested.

And why stop with food? The head of the Russian Association of Textile Manufacturers says contraband foreign clothing should also be destroyed. Russian authorities have also begun removing household products manufactured by Colgate-Palmolive, Procter & Gamble, and other leading Western companies from stores, claiming health risks.

It’s hard to wrap your head around all this craziness. At first glance, the Kremlin’s jihad against all things Western looks like the post-imperial temper tantrum of a regime that is truly losing the plot. And perhaps it is. Russia’s leaders want their empire back, dammit, and if they can’t have it they’re going to smash their dinner plate on the floor and trash their room.

“All the falling regimes share an interesting pattern. Before a fall they start acting crazy, they are struck by the epidemic of mass idiocy,” political analyst Valery Solovei wrote on Facebook.

Or perhaps there is a method to the madness. Perhaps Putin’s Kremlin is preparing society for what is coming in an era of low oil prices, a weak ruble, sanctions, and a long-term confrontation with the West. Consider it reverse shock therapy. 

[T]he director of the Moscow-based Center for Post-Industrial Studies, wrote that the Russian economy was heading for an era of austerity and autarky, with thousands of private businesses going under and the state sector expanding.

“The real consequence will be Russia’s retreat from the global market and its economy’s transformation into one which is much more closed,” Inozemtsev wrote. “This way leads us towards a quasi-Soviet economy detached from the world and, at the same time, proud of its autarky; towards a deteriorating economy which compensates for the drop in living standards with pervasive propaganda.”

How long the regime can remain stable, to a degree, depends on people like Nikolai the food snitch and Polyakov the food vigilante. It depends on how long patriotic fervor can keep the population supportive with patriotic appeals as living standards plummet. But much of it also depends on how long the elites—who have become accustomed to their comfortable globalized lives—remain cohesive.

We should soon learn whether we are witnessing the death throes of the Putin regime or the birth of a new fortress Russia.

Putin's one misjudgment may be that he has forgotten that Russia's inferior standards of living compared to the West and the Communist police state led to the fall of the Communist regime.  Ironically, Putin is reinstating the exact situation that led to the downfall of the system he so reveres.  The tsars learned to their chagrin that calls for patriotism only go so far when standards of living are falling and oppressive government control is riding.  I know that Putin sees himself as Russia's new tsar, but does he really want to emulate the policies of Tsar Nicholas II (who had good intentions compared to Putin)? 

What Alabamians and Iranians Have in Common

I lived in Alabama for four years right after graduating from law school - in the Mobile area to be precise. While the state was certainly conservative back in that time era, based on the state's recent voting record and my experiences traversing the state after Hurricane Katrina to bring back evacuees the state seems to be lurching much farther to the lunatic far right fringe. A new Gallup study shows that the driving force for this phenomenon may likely be the strength of religious belief in Alabama as opposed to say Massachusetts. In fact, religious fervor in Alabama is roughly the same as that in Iran. Yes, I said Iran. Obviously, that is a frightening realization and perhaps also a reflection as to why Alabama ranks so low in terms of per capita income. In fact, the Gallup study revealed that with few exceptions, the least religious nations in the world were also the ones with the highest standards of living. The results also clearly show that the states that voted for McCain/Palin are the ones that are most religious and the ones with the lowest standards of living.
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One unanswered question is: does religious belief drive down a nation's standard of living or does a low standard of living encourage a high level of religiousity? Here are some highlights from the Gallup study:
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In 2006, 2007, and 2008, Gallup asked representative samples in 143 countries and territories whether religion was an important part of their daily lives. The accompanying map shows religiosity by country, ranging from the least religious to the most religious on a relative basis.
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[A] population's religiosity level is strongly related to its average standard of living. Gallup's World Poll, for example, indicates that 8 of the 11 countries in which almost all residents (at least 98%) say religion is important in their daily lives are poorer nations in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the 10 least religious countries studied include several with the world's highest living standards, including Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Hong Kong, and Japan.
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Lining up these percentages with those on our worldwide list allows us to match residents of the most religious states to the global populations with which they are similar in terms of religiosity. The results produce some interesting comparisons -- Alabamians, for example, are about as likely as Iranians to say religion is an important part or their lives.

Growing American Inequality

UPDATE: The New York Times also has an article that looks at the health care system in the USA that looks at a lot of failings even though Americans spend more than twice as much on healthcare costs as in other nations. That story can be found here.

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One thing that has struck me for many years - and often was an outright embarrassment at times when I traveled extensively overseas as in-house counsel based on the boorish behavior or moronic statements of some Americans - was the blind belief by some Americans that the USA is superior to all other countries and that there is only one perspective on issues: their own. Worse yet, no objective data can convince them that maybe, just maybe, they might need to re-evaluate. Not surprisingly, many of these folks are the same crowd that has remained in the GOP and blindly supported the Chimperator and his failed policies. Am I anti-America? No, definitely not. I am however, against closed minds and stupidity. A new story in the Independent gives plenty of reasons why Americans need to wake up and open their eyes. Some of the data and statistics are quite revealing, if not outright shocking. Sadly, under the Chimperator's regime NOTHING has been done to change this situation. I doubt McCain would do any better. Before one can fix a problem, you need to recognize that it exists. Simply not wanting something to be true does not make it untrue. Here are some highlights.

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The United States of America is becoming less united by the day. A 30-year gap now exists in the average life expectancy between Mississippi, in the Deep South, and Connecticut, in prosperous New England. Huge disparities have also opened up in income, health and education depending on where people live in the US, according to a report published yesterday. The American Human Development Index has applied to the US an aid agency approach to measuring well-being – more familiar to observers of the Third World – with shocking results.

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Despite an almost cult-like devotion to the belief that unfettered free enterprise is the best way to lift Americans out of poverty, the report points to a rigged system that does little to lessen inequalities. "The report shows that although America is one of the richest nations in the world, it is woefully behind when it comes to providing opportunity and choices to all Americans to build a better life," the authors said. Some of its more shocking findings reveal that, in parts of Texas, the percentage of adults who pass through high school has not improved since the 1970s. Asian-American males have the best quality of life and black Americans the lowest, with a staggering 50-year life expectancy gap between the two groups.

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Despite the fact that the US spends roughly $5.2bn (£2.6bn) every day on health care, more per capita than any other nation in the world, Americans live shorter lives than citizens of every western European and Nordic country, bar Denmark.

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"Some Americans are living anywhere from 30 to 50 years behind others when it comes to issues we all care about: health, education and standard of living," said Sarah Burd-Sharps co-author of the report.