Where did the Leadership Go?

I must follow the people. Am I not their leader? —Benjamin Disraeli

A leader is a dealer in hope. —Napoleon Bonaparte

A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd. —Max Lucado

He who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander. —Aristotle

Mohandas Gandhi

Pierre Trudeau

Great leaders capable of taking  big decisions seem to be rapidly disappearing on all continents. In Europe no more heavy-weights like  Churchill, De Gaulle, Adenauer, Helmut Schmidt and Willie Brandt; instead we have lightweights like Barroso, Rasmussen, Lady Ashton, Hollande and Merkel.



  In Canada no more leaders like Lester Pearson, Paul Martin, Jean Chretien, Joe Clarke and Pierre Trudeau; instead we have Stephen Harper and our famous mayor, Rob Ford. Not sure how to label the US leadership. Once there was Teddy and then Delano Roosevelt, but nothing since Lyndon Johnson;  Bill Clinton serving his banksters by scrapping Glass-Steagall, Hilary uttering Cold War nonsense and associating Putin with Hitler, Obama preaching America's exceptionalism and supporting disasters led  by his appointed trouble makers like Victoria Nuland's PNAC gang, As for the UK we have Mr Cameron, America's servant, and the ever present Lady Ashton parroting whatever the script prescribes.

Winston Churchill

There was a time when leaders were capable of sitting with their sworn enemies to hammer out deals. At Yalta, Roosevelt sat a the same table with Churchill and Stalin. Now we have Obama refusing to talk with Putin, hiding behind NATO and resorting to pouting and sanctions. Western leadership is now like a club house filled with self-serving mediocrities.  Ironically the only country with a real leader is Russia but Europe, US and Canada won't let him sit at the table for fear they might have to hear something that conflicts with the US song sheet they must follow.

Nelson Mandela

Musafa Kamal Attaturk.

Why do they want to destroy Vladimir Putin? Well first of all he is Russian and therefore the enemy of Washington, their loyal EU puppets and the NATO war machine.  I suppose other reasons for  a start might be he is an opponent of Washington's PNAC hegemonic ambitions, a critic of the mob scene in Kiev, resisting US ambition to appoint and control the leadership in Syria and Ukraine, and his condemning them for the failed state disasters they left in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya and now in Ukraine plus US tolerating wealthy Saudi Arabian's support of Jihads,
Also a reminder that Russia hasn't invaded anyone; Crimea overwhelmingly voted to join Russia after the mentally limited US hand-picked Ukrainian leader, Oleksandr Turchnov declared that his Russian speaking citizens were no longer entitled to their language.  NYT and Globe and Mail pundit's are either avoiding this truth that doesn't fit their script or having great difficulty understanding this. If Canada had similarly declared the nullification of the French language Quebec would have instantly succeeded to join France so the departure of Crimea is clearly understandable. With the US fleet positioned in Sevastopol, Poroshenko, the chocolate oligarch new leader of Ukraine, is determined against their will to bring Crimea back into the arms of Ukraine. Poroshenko just a few years ago was described by the CIA as a self enriching crook, but he is now our crook and therefore Washington's and the EU's anointed leader.

Charles De Gaulle

In a nutshell, where have all the real leaders gone? Why have they been replaced with such self serving mediocrities? De Gaulle and Schmidt wouldn't have put up with any of this.

The NYT and Fox News have been preaching for some time pure propaganda that Vladimir Putin is an evil dictator. After cleaning up the financial mess from the rape of Russia's assets during the IMF aided Yeltsin period of 'Gangster Capitalism' that created overnight billionaires (most of whom now sit with their laundered stolen wealth in Britain) and impoverished the population, Putin raised the standard of living, put the economy on a sound footing and enjoys a popularity rating far above that of any Western leader. Loves animals too. He rightly imprisoned Mikhail Khodorkovsky who was recognized by the CIA of amongst other offences tax evasion including 10 billion dollars of money laundering. Putin must be bad but not sure why. The weak but obedient rabble that we now have as leaders now sit around a table to decide how Vladimir Putin and the Russian people should be punished. To save the taxpayer some money why don't these same leaders apply sanctions at the same time to America's and the UK's leaders for the far greater crimes they have committed.  Their list of crimes is long; in the past two decades they have left Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan and Vietnam in ruins and millions have been slaughtered, but all is forgiven without sanctions and lets move on and focus on Putin. Russia in modern times hasn't invaded anyone while the West has been busy; but no matter, because maybe if we upset their borders enough they just might and NATO will have something to do. The Charge of the Light Brigade will be reborn.

Why is this happening to leadership? 

The veritable explosion of sources for information through the internet  challenges our  conventional view of where we can find the truth. Leaders were once looked to as a top down source for guidance, but now the internet has opened up a global village for debate the moment a leader speaks and every voice must be heard. Admittedly this is a good thing, Everyone is entitled to their opinion whether a scholar, an oracle, just a journalist or an ignorant bigot. The internet has opened up many sites that challenges the mainstream media. The cacophony is deafening. How to choose? Eric Fromm's famous book written in 1941 'The Escape from Freedom'  is highly relevant reading today. Fromm emphasizes the human tendency of retreating from intellectual freedom by adopting the values and ideas of others. The choices  presented in this exploding information age are vast and heightens the confusion.The pundits and politicians of many stripes try to guide us through this swamp with many of them like our Canadian PM, Mr Harper part of the swamp and adding fuel to the confusion. We all have our favourites depending on our biases. 

Can real leaders survive in this jungle of information surrounded by a circus of media consultants, supporting politicians, strategists, back room specialists, pollsters, script writers, film makers, and with equally well financed attacking opponents tearing this all to shreds. Where is Waldo in all this? With all this expertise will wealth determine the winner? Can they fabricate, cut and paste false leaders to serve their ideologies and objectives? Will any leader say anything that they have personally thought out or written? Will we be voting for well financed committees with the false leaders videoed by aides simply waving at a distance as they step out of helicopters?

I wonder what it cost to develop and support great leaders in the past in comparison with what it costs today to produce these new humanoid leaders backed by their armies of helpers?

Vladimir Putin - great leader or villain?

Preface  
 Augst 7 2014: US sanctions against Russia to no ones surprise are severely backfiring with the Russian PM Dimitry Medvedev signing a decree on the full ban for imports of beef, pork, poultry meat, fish, cheese, milk, vegetables and fruit from Australia, Canada, the EU, the US and Norway. One wonders why these countries other than the US bothers to carry the overhead of governments since the all take their orders from Washington in this insane pursuit of self-destruction. The cost to Russia and the western nations of this food fight will annually amount to hundreds of billions dollars in lost revenues. While their unfit weak leaders fluff up their feathers and huff and puff their already weak economies face further damage. Wth the battle now extending to the airlines this is becoming an economic disaster. Why are we doing this to ourselves? Is leadership so weak now that there are no EU leader that can step forward and say "lets end this self destructive nonsense"?
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May 1 2014: The Cold War is back as Russia and the US/EU battle over the Ukraine. On the east side the population is predominately Russian speaking and have strong historical relationships with Russia. To the West and in Kiev sympathies lean more to developing closer ties with the EU and accepting NATO. The IMF have just offered a loan to Ukraine in the vicinity of 17 billion US dollars and it has been accepted.  The demands for austerity and the selling  off of assets as part of packages produced an economic and social disaster in Russia during the Yeltsin period including imposing a brutal program of austerity to pay off the bankers. The IMF is now often referred to as global loan shark and has repeated these measures in over 70 countries including Greece and Portugal with the same disastrous results. The question at this point is whether the Ukraine, a deeply troubled nation with a highly educated population will accept living with the IMF's terms for austerity and the inevitable selling off of assets to the highest bidders. 

• Victoria Nuland travels to Kiev to hand out cookies to the riot police. It is not known whether she baked them or bought them from Lidl or Aldi.
• We are told  to vilify Vladimir Putin and this blog is an attempt to explain why.
• Ms Nuland was heard to say "Fuck the EU!! and Ms Merkel angrily asked for an apology. This offering of cookies might help.
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• The New York Times and Fox News say that Vladimir Putin is a very evil so everyone in America who watches TV and the mainstream media know that he must be a very bad guy.
• Putin made an outrageous statement "Sometimes it seems to me that America does not need allies, it needs vassals." and this clearly shows the thoughts of a disrespectful very bad guy.
• He intervened but failed to prevent the CIA-NATO coup against Gaddafi that destroyed Libya as a nation-state with the loss of many lives so Obama and his Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasian Affairs, Victoria Nuland, are very offended and Putin must be a very bad guy 
• He prevented the US military from finishing off the Assad Government in Syria while funding Jihad rebels and in the process forced a peace that eliminated chemical weapons, including the rebels use of  Sarin gas by blocking the Jihad. Victoria Nuland is upset again because she had her heart set on bloodshed and regime change. This arrogant defiance of US striking power was further proof that he is evil and  must be a very bad guy.
• He was very critical at the outset of the US invasion of Iraq that has left the country in ruins. Here again Victoria Nuland and her husband Robert Kagan of PNAC fame who led the charge into Iraq are very upset. This is a gross insult of the intentions and use of US power and therefore he must be a very bad guy. Hillary Clinton has finally admitted that in supporting the invasion she made a mistake so maybe Putin, the bad guy, was right but all the same if the NYT says he is a bad guy. 
• He accepted the will of Crimeans in a free vote to return to their original Russian homeland, Hillary strangely called him a Nazi for supporting this, Poroshenko the corrupt chocolate king President of Ukraine and his close friend and equally corrupt and self enriched ally Yulia Timoshenko that he freed from jail are upset too, so this surely makes Putin a very bad guy.
• He  builds troops along his border as NATO points its missiles toward Russia and Obama has asked him not to do this so Putin must be a very bad guy
• Obama feels insulted and hurt when Putin doesn't agree with him so he is sulking and has decided to stop communicating with him because he is clearly a very bad guy.
• Putin is supplying natural gas to Western Europe and this stands in the way of promoting US fracking and shipping liquified gas to Europe at much higher prices and this is not good for US business and again clearly makes him a very bad guy.
• The twin tower attack in Volgograd by a Saudi financed Jihadist killed 32 people and this is just one of similar Saudi inspired attacks. Putin threatens a retaliation on our beloved Saudi allies who also brought down New York's twin towers, and supplies arms and money to Jihad rebels in Syria so he must be a very bad guy.
• Putin described the Victoria Nuland led gang in Kiev as an orgy of unelected radicals, fascists and corrupt misfits. That is true but he is insulting our Washington and EU allies so he must be a very bad guy.
• The mostly Russian speaking population in Eastern Ukraine show more trust, loyalty and affection for their Russian neighbours across the border than for the collection of unelected misfits in Kiev and this is surely because of the influence of Putin who must be a very bad guy.
• Obama has ordered spying to find out whether Putin is richer than the Koch brothers and Sheldon Adelson (who enrich the US Congress) and if so this will prove that just like them he is truly an evil and bad guy. 
• Putin's popularity rating in Russia averages around 85% according to the Washington Post. This compares with a very popular Merkel at 69%, Obama at 41% and Hollande at 26%. This proves that the Russian people know something that we don't know about this truly evil and bad guy.

Summary: Does all this seem totally insane? Of course it is. Vladimir trades insults with Obama and fails to show the respect that this Nobel Prize winning US President so richly deserves. From this I am sure you will agree that he must be a very bad guy or just maybe he might be a very good guy.