Are you smarter than Vladimir Putin? Well, let me ask you this: DO YOU KNOW:                 

1. That Russia is losing the war in Ukraine?
2. That the Ukraine is a country, whose people think of themselves as Ukrainians, not Russians?
3. That the people of the Ukraine don’t want to belong to Russia and are willing to fight to stay not-Russian?
4. That the Russian Army is getting its butt whomped by the Ukraine Army, not NATO troops?
5. That the Big Mobilization was a disastrous failure, the missile bombings in Ukraine haven’t destroyed Uke morale, and the Russky Army is currently losing a big battle?

I’ll bet you do! These are all things that you can readily find out by watching normal news and reading plain old on-line info channels. Most of this isn’t really ‘news’ any more.

If you know these things, you know more than Vladdy P!

WHAT? How can this be? How can The Guy, the modern Czar of Russia, know less than I do? Simple: he’s a tyrant, a dictator, a man of power. And power makes you stupid. Lord Acton famously said “Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

I say: “Power makes you stupid, and Absolute Power makes you an Absolute Moron.”

Why? Very simple: If you can have people killed for bringing you bad news, who’s going to bring you bad news?

It gets worse. If you are a tyrant, it means you have a system of tyranny. Under you are your assistants: a clique of little tyrants, who run their departments like you do, and under THEM are their assistants, who are in turn little tyrants, etc.

Everyone is afraid of you, that’s how you got to be the dictator. The guys who work for the guys under you are afraid of them, and so on down the line. There is no one in the whole chain of command who can count on getting a straight story from his team. You ask Private Jonesky “how is our stockpile of Cold War-era tanks doing”

                Private Jonesky says “Doing great, SIR!”  Actually, it’s been 30 years since the end of the Cold War, those tank motors haven’t been run since they got hauled into the depot in 1992, most of the electronics got sold off on the black market by 1999, all the bolts on the treads got traded for vodka, and the radios…they disappeared sometime before Private Jonesy was born.

“And you, Private Smithsky: how are the winter uniforms!”

“Doing great, SIR!”

So, Sgt. Millersky reports to Lieutenant Bobsky, and so on up the line. All the way up.

So you’re Vladimir Putin, sitting in your office in the Kremlin, and you’re perusing all the reports on the condition of your fabulous army. And guess what: ALL THE REPORTS ARE LIES. There’s not a bit of factual information in them! These reports contain what the underling thinks his boss wants to hear. And the boss to his boss, and so on up the line is a bureaucratic game of telephone, getting more distorted as it goes.

By the time the Briefings get to Putin, the variance from reality is huge. So no matter how intelligent Vladdie might be, he’s basing all his decisions on bullshit. And that makes you stupid.

How does your body work? You have nerve endings, that respond to stimulus by sending impulses—reports—up nerves to the brain. The nerve endings interact with reality, the nerves relay the information, and the brain then correlates the info and responds to it.

                You touch a hot stove, the nerve endings say YIPE! The impulses relay up the nerves to the brain which perceives the stimulus as pain, pulls the hand away from the hot stove FAST!!

But what if you can’t trust your nerve endings? Touch the stove, the ends say “no worries, boss!” The brain doesn’t find out about the reality of the burning until serious damage is done—or maybe not even then.

                Right now Vladimir Putin believes:

1. The Ukraine isn’t a real country, just a breakaway bit of Russia, whose people would be happy to be ruled by Russia again. He hasn’t ‘invaded’ anybody.
2. The Ukraine is ruled by a band of actual, Hitler-heiling Nazis who are direct puppets of the US and NATO.
3. The Russian Army has had a few setbacks, but all it needs is to restock and then mighty Russian forces will scatter the cowardly Ukraine bandits to the winds.
4. The Russian people are firmly behind their leader, anxious to restore the glory of the Empire, stoically accepting a few minor inconveniences for the great victory.

You know none of these things are factual. You know this because you don’t have enough power to make it worthwhile for anyone to lie to you. The less your power, the closer to reality you are.

This goes double for economic issues.

So that’s why Vladimir Putin continues to feed his army, his men, and his nation into the meatgrinder of a losing war. He’s following a stupid policy. You know better, and you could tell him but he’d probably kill you for doing it. That’s because he has lots of power, and power makes you stupid.

And what does that make President Xi?