Our Boss is Still Tougher Than Your Boss - Obama versus Putin

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What greater weapons of mass deception are there in the world than the leaders of the United States of America and Russia, Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin..  Imagine what it would be like if these two controversial and complicated political foes and leaders were to square off in the first ever people's choice contest for the toughest leader in the world.

 

Looks like Putin may have the best transportation for the Iron Man competition. 

No offense Mr. Obama but Putin may take this event as well.

We thought you might agree.

Wow - he can be quite charming to the right crowd. 

Maybe Obama is at least the more expressive.

They don't seem to be in to the competition.

Which one is the hyena?

Both are masters of mind control.

Perhaps they should keep their day jobs.

Forget Snowden, listen to this masterpiece.

So much for silly competition.

What else is there to do here in Russia?

Boy I miss the days when George and I got crazy.

Told you the kid never had a chance.

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Lincoln's Gettysburg Address - The Foundation of American Equality

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Putin in Fishy Tales of Pikes and Pretzels

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Apparently Russia is suffering from the same problem as America, there just isn't much good to talk about at the moment.  During times like these the ever-present news media are forced to turn their attention to the most trivial and meaningless of all possible stories, something they are quite adept at here in America.

The latest news from Russia is a fishy tale about some giant Pike caught by the fearless sportsman Vladimer Putin.  Here is how the story played in the American media after an international investigation of the facts.

Bloomberg View

 

By Leonid Bershidsky Jul 29, 2013 6:03 PM ET

Putin’s Big Fish Story Leaves Russians in Doubt

 

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s bizarre displays of machismo may get more laughs than his efforts at humor. That, at least, was the case with the giant pike that Putin supposedly hooked in the remote Siberian region of Tuva.

 

 

On July 26, the Kremlin released a video of Putin pulling a large pike out of a lake, lifting it by the gills and tenderly kissing it on the cheek. Presidential press secretary Dmitri Peskov had a whole story to tell the public about the catch.

 

According to Peskov, for a long time Putin had no luck at Lake Tokpak-Khol in a remote corner of Tuva, bordering on Mongolia. Then a gamekeeper suggested he use a locally made spoon lure called the Czar Fish, and it worked a small miracle.

 

The gamekeeper “said he had never seen anything like it,” Peskov said. “Putin caught a pike that weighed more than 21 kilograms. It took him 30 minutes to pull it out.” As Putin lifted his catch out of the water with a hoop net, the gamekeeper cautioned him that the pike could bite. “I’ll bite it myself,” Putin quipped, according to Peskov.

 

 

That may explain the kiss in the video. Peskov said the pike was made into a delicious meal.

 

The fish story is clearly aimed at bolstering Putin’s support in a country with an estimated 25 million fishing enthusiasts. It could also easily backfire.

 

Popular blogger Andrei Malgin published a mini-investigation of Putin’s fishing vacation. Pointing out that the trip wasn’t on the president’s official schedule, Malgin dug up old photographs from previous Putin trips to Tuva that he claimed looked remarkably similar to the newly released pictures.

 

“Doesn’t it look to you as if we are being fed canned food stored up some years ago?” Malgin asked his readers.

 

 

Others agreed, pointing out similar details of his outfit. “What if Putin has been dead for years and we don’t know?” one reader wrote in the comments. Other bloggers noted that Putin is wearing a watch that looks exactly like the one he gave to a gamekeeper during a previous vacation.

 

“The clothes are new, and the watch is exactly like the one he had back then,” Peskov responded. “He gave away the original watch and then bought exactly the same kind for himself because he is attached to it.”

 

On the clothing and the watch, it was Malgin’s word against Peskov’s: The press had not been invited for the unscheduled Tuva trip.

 

The giant pike was another matter. Experienced fishermen, even those sympathetic to Putin, simply could not believe it actually weighed 21 kilos -- about 46 pounds.

 

“Here’s what I think about the pike,” pro-Kremlin columnist Maxim Kononenko wrote in his blog. “Any fisherman can see that it simply cannot weigh 21 kilograms. For one thing, fish of that size are extremely rare. For another, it would be up to two meters (6’6”) long and you’d be able to fit a bucket in its mouth.” Kononenko suggested that the scale used to weigh the fish was marked in pounds rather than kilograms. If it read 21, that would mean the pike actually weighed about 9.5 kilograms.

 

Alfred Kokh, a deputy prime minister under President Boris Yeltsin, took a more scientific approach. “Putin’s height is 175 centimeters maximum,” he wrote on Facebook. “Approximating the pike to a cylinder with a diameter of 10 centimeters and a length of 120 centimeters -- a complimentary assumption -- we calculate the volume of the pike to be 9420 cubic centimeters, or roughly 10 liters.”

 

Kokh’s post received almost 1,500 likes. Again, Peskov had to defend the president. “I was especially amazed at blogger Kokh, who, if I am not mistaken, wrote that the fish could not have weighed 20 kilograms,” he told the Russian News Service. “I was personally present at the weighing, I saw the scale, and it really was over 20 kilos.”

 

By then, the fish’s size and the circumstances of its capture hardly mattered: The Kremlin was on the defensive. In 2013, Putin is no longer a recent underdog turned national leader. He is a dictator who has been in power for 13 years, and at least as many people mock him as admire him. He needs a change of public relations strategy no less than his country needs some change at the top.

 

(Leonid Bershidsky, an editor and novelist, is Moscow correspondent for World View.)

 

This is what we at the Coltons Point Times believe really happened.  It's true Putin was fishing.

 

 

Then he saw something off to his side and checked it out.

 

 

This is what he saw.

 

 

Thus the source of the monster pike.

 

Or perhaps it went something like this.  Putin decided to try out a new weapon as he is really in to weapons like Obama is in to golf.

 

 

He then took it for a ride.

 

 

He thought he saw a dangerous intruder to his water space and immediately armed the weapon and fired.

 

 

 

He blew away the Pike but to conceal the secret weapon he said he caught it.

 

Deep in the bowels of Russian Intelligence we found other photos of Putin catches to be used in future slow news days.

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 



Then there is the Pretzel.

 

As for the Pretzel element of the story, just look at this rhythmic gymnast and tell us she does not remind you of a contorted pretzel.  Bodies are not meant to bend like this.  However, in this case the pictures are true and the body belongs to Russian gymnastic superstar Alina Kabayeva.

 

 

This rumour may just be true, that President Putin has found his match for a potential mate with the beautiful Alina Kabayeva, a 30 year old gymnast who is rumoured to have had an affair with the Prez.

 

 

In typical Russian fashion she has broken her silence to say she will not talk about her private life, in her first interview since the Russian president divorced his wife.  Only in Russia do you give an interview to tell the media you won't talk to them about what they want to talk about.

 

 

This 30 year old beauty seems to have the physical assets to keep up with our favorite Action Hero, the Russian president.  Kabayeva is Russia's second most successful rhythmic gymnast after Evgenia Kanaeva and is one of the most decorated gymnasts in the history of rhythmic gymnastics earning two Olympic medals, 14 world championship medals and 25 European championship medals.

 

 

We do not know if she is a fisherman however.

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Chinese President Xi Jinping - A Man for the Times

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In one of the first signs that major change is underway in China the following stories note the drastic change I the approach of the new Chinese President Xi Jinping as he takes control of the massive Chinese government institutions.

Xi to Politburo - Shape Up and Make Clean Break from Past!

By Russell Leigh Moses

After telling the lower ranks of the Communist Party to shape up and make a clean break from past practice, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has taken aim at a new target:  the Party leadership itself.

And he’s done so with authority and openness from the highest pulpit of politics in China–the Politburo, the very place where the senior leaders sit and make policy.

In a speech at the conclusion of a three-day special meeting that was covered across Party media and took up nearly half of the evening newscast on Tuesday evening, Xi proclaimed that senior members of the Party needed “to play an exemplary role,” and that they had to be “broad-minded enough to reject any selfishness…to adhere to self-respect, self-examination and self-admonition” in their work in Chinese.

It’s extremely rare for Politburo proceedings to be spoken of in such detail and openness.  And it’s unprecedented in modern times for the Party boss to start taking swings at his colleagues at the top by so directly reminding them of their responsibilities—a move that suggests he might be planning something even stronger soon.

Having just admonished lower-level cadres in a salvo last week, some observers might think that Xi is simply putting on a show here. After all, it’s difficult to demand improvement in the work-styles of the rank and file without at least paying lip-service to the idea that those at the top could stand to do a little better themselves.

But the tone of Xi’s comments and the play they’ve received in the state media suggest this is far more than just rhetorical window dressing.  It wasn’t enough for high officials to “strictly abide by party discipline and act in strict accordance with policies and procedures,” Xi said. Those at the top must also “strictly manage their relatives and their staff and refrain from abuse of power.”

“The sole pursuit” of senior members of the Party, Xi insisted, should be tied to “the Party’s cause and interests” – in other words, “to seek benefits for the Chinese people as a whole.”

Whether it’s misuse of official license plates or the high-end looting of state assets, Xi knows that corruption is not always confined to lower-level cadres.

Xi was careful to concede that there have been some positive developments in the ways by which the Politburo and other Party bodies operate, such as “improvements in research and reporting.”  Meetings have been shortened and presentations streamlined, “enhancing the majority of party members’ and cadres’ sense of purpose, as well as the view of the masses” towards the Party leadership, he noted.

But it’s clearly morality at the top — not the way that decisions are made — that concerns Xi and his allies the most.   As Xi’s speech noted, “as long as Politburo comrades always and everywhere set an example, they can continue to call the shots, for that will have a strong demonstration effect, and the Party will be very powerful.”

But Party leaders “must follow their own strict requirements first.”

Xi’s reprimand seems to imply that some of them are not.  His predecessors talked about the general threat to Party rule from the evils of corruption; but in nearly every case they chose to scold officials in the abstract, instead of smacking them around.  As with so many other efforts, Xi’s being different.

Indeed, such comments raise the very real possibility that Xi has someone specific in mind – that he could be about to strike against one or more of the conservatives who populate the Politburo and who might be standing in the way of further reforms.

Whatever form the next round of fighting takes, Xi and his reformist colleagues are clearly interested in creating a fresh sort of politics, even at the very top of the system.  This is risk-taking and resolution of a high order–and it brings a real political showdown with opponents of Xi’s brand of reform all the closer.

Reuters

 The Path to the Top of Chinese Politburo

 By Michelle FlorCruz

Western politicians may have ups and downs in their careers, facing various obstacles like campaigning, raising funds, and another concept foreign to Chinese politicians: elections.

China’s top brass, however, deal with a different path to the top, one that may take longer but appears far steadier. The seven men who make up its Communist Party Politburo Standing Committee, an exclusive group that sits at the top of the country's hierarchy, took 38 years, on average, to get there and followed a pretty linear path, as illustrated by the curves in the above graph.

Contrast that with the political career of U.S presidents Barack Obama (11 years in public office before being elected to the White House); George W. Bush (five years); and Bill Clinton (13 years) -- none of them spent more than one-third of the time in office it takes a Chinese politician to reach the top.  

For the most part, as previously described here, and translated in the above image, climbing the ranks of the Party is pretty formulaic; if you pay your dues at lower level positions and excel, promotion to high office becomes more of a formality. Yet, the seven men at the top still displayed exceptional characteristics. 

China’s current president, Xi Jinping, had the fastest ascent to power, going from the political bottom rung to leading the world’s second-biggest economy in 28 years -- but his rise, while fast, is pretty steady, as the curve shows.  Xi’s major contribution to creating the Special Economic Zones and economic liberalization is what propelled him to top-level politics. Xi’s military background, serving the minister of Defense early on, also made him a standout nominee for the presidency.

China’s Vice President, Li Keqiang, also experienced a relatively quick rise, but rose much faster early in his career. Li rose from a municipal leadership position, to a provincial level position, to a provincial deputy minister position, in just four years, becoming the youngest provincial governor at the age of 43, when he was appointed to lead Henan. This jump took China’s president twice the time to achieve.  Many attribute Li’s quick rise to power to efforts he made leading an economic development project in Henan, transforming poor areas in the province into profitable, investment-attractive cities.

In addition, most of the standing committee members have held positions in the Chinese Communist Youth League, considered one of the best ways to land on a fast-track in Chinese politics and has a reputation for cultivating top-level caliber leaders. Li Keqiang, Liu Yunshan, Zhang Dejiang and Li Yuanchao were all part of the Youth League at some point in their careers.
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