Of all the obits I’ve read on Yeltsin in the last few days, Mark Taibbi’s “Yeltsin: An Obit of a Drunken, Bloblike Train Wreck of a Revolutionary Leader” captures the man’s life and career best. I think he rightly sums up the Yeltsin period in this passage:
Yeltsin, in other words, single-handedly created a super-gangster class to defend his presidency against an electoral challenge. He had also restored a system of despotic government-by-tribute that had reigned in Russia for centuries, even throughout the worst years of Soviet rule. In Russia there survives a style of leadership dating back to the local Khans of the East in which the leader is a pathologically greedy strongman who takes everything for himself, and then rules by handing out “gifts” to an oligarchy of ruthless underlings devoted to his political survival. Stalin himself, an ethnic Georgian, used to physically re-enact this political style by walking around the room during feasts and breaking off pieces of chicken or hunks of mutton for his more important guests.
Without me, you don’t eat; with me, you eat good. Americans will recognize this form of rule because they see it every Sunday night in The Sopranos. You send the envelope upstairs every week, rain or shine (had a fire? Fuck you, pay me!), and once in a while the boss buys you a Hummer. That was Russia after 1996. Loans-for-shares formalized Russia’s transformation from a flailing Weimar democracy into an organized mafia state; Boris Yeltsin was the Don.
No, and I mean, no punches are pulled in this hilarious article.
In the last 2-3 months, my commentary has appeared in TT, Serbianna, SRB, and JRL. There was also my Siberian Light interview.
I have alredy excluded the Tiraspol Times by my use of the sentence “other than the Tiraspol Times”. And I’m the one who is supposed to be stupid!
We can discount the Siberian Light interview as that was hardly commentary, it was a series of interviews with bloggers, of which I was one. I’m talking articles which have been published in media outlets, not bloggers writing about one another.
The latest SRB article I have found of your is just under 3 months old, and there has been nothing since. I’ll be interested to see if you get anything else published here.
I think we can safely say that after you recent campaign of lies against David Johnson, you will not get published in JRL again.
You have admittedly managed to get a single article published in Serbianna in the past 2 months, alongside such objective views as “Wahhabis endangering Serbia” and “Serbia not guilty”
So in short, your writing career has shrunk to a pro-Serbian propaganda site, a political pamphlet, and a hope that Sean will publish more of your stuff.
This is a bit of a comedown after “Action Ukraine Report, Eurasian Home, Intelligent.ru, Johnson’s Russia List, Russia Blog, The New York Times”, isn’t it? Your writing career seems to be shrinking, not growing!
Perhaps this is why you have taken to mass-spamming unsolicited emails and infesting comment boxes with your views: you have simply found almost nobody else is willing to publish you.
My grammar is much better than Ger’s and Newman doesn’t impress as a great authority on writing ability.
Ger doesn’t pretend to be a serious writer, and whereas I am no authority on writing ability, I am clearly able to identify poor grammar and clumsy prose.
Others more intelligent than Newman love my work.
Ah, this old chesnut, so favoured by Mike. Refer to unidentified third-party supporters who are more intelligent. Easy to say, difficult to prove, impossible to believe.
I saw a photo of Tim Newman with a cigar in his mouth. He looks like the real life dick that he is. A know nothing putz. Fanya must be one real smelly cunt. I Know Chris Doss. He is a loser with no life purpose. Lyndon Allin goes on repeating lies. Irishman and DB are simple folk.
I saw a photo of Tim Newman with a cigar in his mouth. He looks like the real life dick that he is. A know nothing putz. Fanya must be one real smelly cunt. I Know Chris Doss. He is a loser with no life purpose. Lyndon Allin goes on repeating lies. Irishman and DB are simple folk.
A list of ad hominems directed at all who criticise Averko? Check
Use of many short sentences instead of commas? Check
Abusive language? Check
Comment a repeat of numerous others elsewhere? Check
Post contains numerous falsehoods? Check
Post is purely commentary on individuals? Check
Post contains nothing related to the issues at hand? Check
Conclusion: Averko sock puppet.
But you are a dickhead Tim. You stay away from real issues like a troll and overlook the crank comments you agree with.
My compliments to the person describing yourself. That set of comments are a frank description of the pond scum that has polluted this blog.
In your retarded state, sock puppet means those in support of sanity.
I wonder what Hofstra University and Adelphi University (both located in Averko’s general neighborhood) might have to say about Averko using their internet connections to defame people using sock-puppets…
But you are a dickhead Tim. You stay away from real issues like a troll and overlook the crank comments you agree with.
Hmmm. This sounds suspiciously like Mike Averko. That second sentence is almost identical in style and wording to dozens of Averko’s comments.
My compliments to the person describing yourself.
And now we have the improper use of the relexive pronoun, another Averko trait.
Conclusion: Averko sock puppet.
Thanks, Tim. This one cracked me up:
And now we have the improper use of the relexive pronoun, another Averko trait.
So true. So very sad.
I’m feeling fairly certain that Averko still doesn’t understand what an IP address is.
I wonder about Lyndon’s ISP being used as a point for repeated lies that are off topic. Is there only one person in New York besides Averko? Is he actually so flawed to think that others agree with Mike? Why is it that Lyndon goes off topic? It has to do with his views not having much credibility. By the way, where is the scrutinizing of other ISP data involving de facto trolls and possible sock puppets at this discussion? The Lyndon-Tim idiothon repeats lies and stays off topic.
Is he actually so flawed to think that others agree with Mike?
Nope. Are you?
Mike/Claus/Alexandra/Andrew Waller – you should feel free to click on the “eyeball icon” (as you’ve called Sean’s traffic meter before) and do your own research if you think anyone else here is a puppeteer or if you’d like to check up on people’s IP addresses. No special skills are required to do this.
Fanya must be one real smelly cunt.
Sure, as if Mr. Averko – or any of his other multiple personalities – has come within smelling distance of any cooter.
By the way, where is the scrutinizing of other ISP data involving de facto trolls and possible sock puppets at this discussion?
I must confess, this is a new line of thinking for me. Never before have I come across the idea that ones opposition in a debate should make your case for you.
Firstly we have Averko complaining that everybody criticises the Tiraspol Times but not JRL, but does not seem to think there is anything wrong with him criticising JRL but not the Tiraspol Times.
Next we have Averko’s sock puppet complaining that nobody is investigating other possible sock puppets, as if those exposing Averko’s sock puppets are some sort of publicly funded service which must apportion equal time to all comers.
Lyndon Allin
IP # 141.161.127.75
Georgetown University
I’ve said that I would not censor anyone on the comments section. But I think that with 416 comments there is no reason to keep this post open for further comments. Perhaps this will stop or at least release some pressure from the madness.
This thread is now closed.