Do you like Putin?

@GeistInTheMachine You admire murderers?

@GeistInTheMachine It might be fun for you live in a Russian prison for a while and then talk to you about how good his qualities are.

@AlmostAnAngel Read again - I stated the exact opposite.
I only said that I admire those two qualities.

@GeistInTheMachine those are qualities that I would never admire...cold and calculating!

@anythingoes477 Stop jumping to conclusions. I never said I supported Putin.

You Dems are just as annoying as the GOP.

@GeistInTheMachine Attention!...not all of us are Democrats.

@AlmostAnAngel Those qualities can be applied for good or for ill. It depends on the person.

@AlmostAnAngel What are you?

@GeistInTheMachine I would think a better term would be...concerned citizens with well thought out plans to insure for the well being of all members of their society.

@GeistInTheMachine Human on planet earth.

@GeistInTheMachine Dems? GOP? It makes a difference? What a piece of work you are if you think disliking a person like Putin has ANYTHING to do with politics. It has to do with being a caring human being.

Putin's ordered takeover of Crimea that resulted in the death of anyone in his way.
Same with the Ukraine. Those death counts have never been publicly released by the Russian government but human rights abuses folks count them in the hundreds--if not thousands. On Putin's order 269 people were killed when his soldiers shot down a Korean airliner in 1972. 200-400 people die in Russian custody per year. The list does NOt end.

But you admire Putin for those things? Then in your deep sense of compassion and your highly developed sense of logic, common sense and rationale--you astutely determine the negative comments must have something to do with the political party of the one posting it. Brilliant.

@anythingoes477 Yes, yes... Putin is bad. I know - I never said otherwise.

Carry on, as you were.

@GeistInTheMachine You admire he made it possible to shoot down an airliner?

@anythingoes477 In 1972, Putin was 20 years old and he could not give the order to shoot down the plane ...

@Darina As in U.S. politics--the absence of one leader of a political party does NOT mean that the old ways died with a past leader of that party. Just as it's been long standing GOP policy here to be the "Party of NO"---and has always been known as "The Party of the Rich"---rather than representing the values and interest of the common man---in Russia the policy of old is still very much alive in the Putin's style now. The only changes now vs. the1970's and '80's is a few extras thrown in by Putin to individualize his own character and style of leadership. This from Wiki:

"In foreign affairs, the Putin government seeks to emulate the former Soviet Union's grandeur, belligerence and expansionism. In November 2007, Simon Tisdall of The Guardian pointed out that "just as Russia once exported Marxist revolution, it may now be creating an international market for Putinism" as "more often than not, instinctively undemocratic, oligarchic and corrupt national elites find that an appearance of democracy, with parliamentary trappings and a pretense of pluralism is much more attractive, and manageable, than the real thing."

In other words---fundamentally little has changed from the 1970's. So the orders given now--would have been given in times past--because the focus of leadership and overall goals of government are still the same.

@anythingoes477 It is necessary to visit Russia once to understand it ...