In the past 20 years, Russia sold petroleum in the amount of 3,5 trillion dollars US. This money is nowhere to be found. Nothing was built, no social programs were instituted. The existing social programs are being dismantled. Russia ‘ s banks owe $600 billion.

Where did the money go, you might ask? It went to pay for the ridiculously extravagant lifestyles of Putin ‘ s lapdog oligarchs.

All of the Western B-list starlets (Naomi Campbell, Enrique Iglesias, Mickey Rourke, Mila Jovovich, etc) were hanging out in Russia, peddling their aging bodies and past-sell-by date notoriety in Moscow because there was just so damn much money there. Moscow was drowning in petro-dollars siphoned away by Putin ‘ s pet oligarchs.

In the meantime, the rates of drug addiction (especially among the teenagers) are soaring. The HIV rates are exploding. Russia is the only country where HIV for the most part doesn’t spread sexually. The disease is reaching epidemic proportions because of the use of shared needles by addicts.

Economic inequality has reached epic proportions. Instead of pouring snot over a copy of Hunger Games, look at Russia where your idol Putin has created a glittering capital that is drowning in every conceivable luxury while the rest of the enormous country is boozing and drugging itself to death amidst utter hopelessness and horrible poverty.

I’m sick to death of writing these posts about Putin. But only today I got comments from 3 facile fools glorifying this vicious little animal. What else can I do but keep writing if you people are refusing to take your heads out of your asses? I haven’t been on Facebook for months because I’m tired of the deluge of Putiniana idiocy that I will encounter. Something is so wrong about all of you Putin-lickers and you are not even aware of it.

The proportion of small businesses owned by immigrants is growing. The percentage of businesses owned by immigrants is twice as large as the percentage of immigrants in the population:

Of course, this is caused, in part, by the reluctance to hire immigrants on the part of employers. But immigrants end up with greater independence as a result, which is good.

The semester has started, and everyone is running around like their tails are on fire.

I, in the meantime, am lying on the sofa in front of a fireplace, reading a book. And I’m planning to stay here until January of 2016. Please wake me up in a year.

It took some engineering, but I have managed to set things up so that I get a whole year to work on the book while massively strengthening my scholarly base. I have designed courses that I will teach to myself to fill in the lacunae in my knowledge.

This will be a research year and I know it will be fun.

Putin is worshiped both on the left and on the right of the political spectrum:

Germany’s leftist Die Linke and the far right Alternative für Deutschland both contain pro-Russian sympathizers that opposed German action in the Ukraine last year. These old-style isolationists have stopped short of Marine Le Pen’s open hand-holding with Russia—so far. But “peace” with Russia is one of Pegida’s goals in its grand strategy to reform the German State, and the group could be open to the same sort of manipulation that we’ve seen in France.

In the US, it’s mostly the Lefties who deify the vicious little troll. In Europe, it’s mostly the Righties. Their love for Putin is evidence of the extreme infantilization that has conquered our politics. Everybody is dreaming of a strong parental figure that will chase away the big bad wolf. 

For Pegida, the big bad wolf is an immigrant. For American pseudo-Liberal academics, it’s the CIA. It doesn’t really matter who is assigned magical powers in the childish fantasies of the contemporary whiner. The deified magician Putin is coming to save the good little Lefties and the nice little Righties from the big bad wolves spawned by their childish imaginations.