Bully Meets Professional Bully

Guest Post by Monty Pelerin

What happens when the biggest bully around gets confronted by someone who refuses to be bullied? Usually the bully backs down and avoids a confrontation. But what happens if the one doing the confrontation is himself a bully? What happens if he won’t allow the other to back down?

The answer to that question is playing out between Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin. Obama is the first bully and Putin the second bully. Ukraine provides the convenient vehicle for Putin to ridicule and embarrass a man Putin considers all form and no substance.

Vladimir Putin is hardly a perfect man. There is little to like about him. His history and his methods are those of the old Soviet Union. He competed, survived and thrived in the rough and tumble world of the KGB. He was tested and hardened by that process. He understands the cost of being wrong. He is tough and a no-nonsense guy who believes the Soviet Union should rise again. He achieved and won in competitive environments most of us probably don’t want to imagine. He is a man of substance even though his methods or achievements may not be pleasant.

Barack Obama is also imperfect. He is everything that Putin is not. He has never been tested. His life has been soft and pampered. His position was not achieved via accomplishment or ability, unless you associate fooling a majority of Mencken’s booboise with ability. Obama lacks substance, qualifications and experience. He is weak. And he is arrogant.

Weakness combined with arrogance is a dangerous combination. To a man like Putin, the former is to be exploited. The latter, when not backed up with abilities, only increases animosity.

The two men are polar opposites. Obama represents everything that Putin detests. Personal relations between the two men are non-existent, which is apparent in joint appearances. Putin resents having to deal with what he considers a weak, overbearing phony.

No one doubts who would win in a martial arts contest between the two men. That is not going to happen, but that doesn’t mean that Putin will not find other ways to humiliate, perhaps destroy, his opponent.

Obama is the bully who was called out. He wants to leave the scene, but Putin is a bigger bully who wants to publicly dismantle him. The boy who pretends to be tough has met the man who really is tough. The professional bully is out to expose the pretender. Putin is unwilling to let Obama retreat.

Richard Fernandez describes the situation:

Obama has been yelling ‘stop! stop!’ and still Putin is twisting his arm. The president made yet another plea to Putin according to Carol Lee in the Wall Street Journal: “White House Tells Kremlin Diplomacy Is Still an Option Despite Escalation”. Putin is making Obama crawl to lick his boots.

Mr. Fernandez doesn’t use the bully analogy. He believes the contest is one between a narcissist and a sadist:

One reason why Putin has made a special effort to humiliate the president is that his profilers may have pegged Obama as suffering from narcissistic personality disorder. Putin the secret policeman must be thinking: how do you get a narcissist to melt down? Answer: by personally and publicly shaming him, thereby provoking a narcissistic rage.

That rage can take either of two forms: a reckless act or a withdrawal into a fantasy in which the narcissist remains invincible in some universe of his own.

The narcissistic disorder that seems to plague Obama has been speculated about openly. Putin has access to experts and strategists that mere laymen do not. Doesn’t he have geopolitical and personal motives to exploit what he considers a weak and undeserving leader, especially one who foolishly pretends to be superior to all others?

Regardless of what happens in Ukraine, it is a sideshow to the personal interplay between these two men. Obama is in this game, whether he wants to be or not. He is the hunted and not the hunter. Putin is unlikely to stop before he gets what he wants. At the moment that seems to be the complete humiliation of Barack Obama.

In one sense Americans should be grateful for Putin. He is providing a public service to the majority that elected our mountebank. He is revealing the empty suit that sits in the White House. He is doing the job that the media should have done six years ago.

On the other hand, games played by at least one sociopath (the jury is still out on Putin) can easily spin out of control. When Obama says “Uncle” and Putin refuses to acknowledge his surrender, what then happens? Does Obama give away strategic assets or fly into a rage? Our man-child does not appear stable. Putin seems to know that.

This personality clash will not end well. In terms of the two players, the US is at a distinct disadvantage.

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Tommy
Tommy

man-child…..classic. Great piece, can’t help but think of the dozens of ways this fourth turning could blow – though being led by the nose to fight a bullshit war at the behest of the savior comes to mind at times like this. Don’t hunt bear with a .22, it only angers them.

Steve Hogan
Steve Hogan

Putin is like a mafia don. He doesn’t feel the need to bluster. Get out of line and he just breaks your knee cap.

Obama, on the other hand, is like a school yard bully. He is full of tough talk, but carries out threats only against the weak (Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan). Put him up against someone willing and able to fight back and he becomes a paper tiger.

It really is fascinating to watch Obama being humiliated on the world stage. Let’s just hope he doesn’t do something really stupid in retaliation, or he’ll end up killing a lot of innocent people.

A. R. Wasem
A. R. Wasem

Of perhaps even greater concern is the potential response of the Chinese rulers to the probable succession of pansy-ass Obongo by Hilarious. BC-LR to all

red menace
red menace

I wonder if vlad has lots of photos of barry attending a young socialists conference in moscow back in the ’80’s when barry was “attending” columbia university but nobody remembers ever seeing him. it would make a great spy novel…

Dutchman
Dutchman

Great analysis.

Obama – a community organizer from a scandal ridden / bankrupt / ghetto city, where entire cemeteries vote! In a state – Illinois – where 4 of the last 7 governors are in jail.

It’s obvious Obama has gotten to where he is through lies, manipulation, favortism, and just plain rigged deals. We can clearly see that there is no substance to this man.

He’s less than a empty suit.

PrisonerofZelda
PrisonerofZelda

Putin most likely has a full dossier on Tar Balls. Transcripts, photos, psychological profile etc. This will ultimately come down to how good or bad Tar balls advisor are.

Tommy
Tommy

PrisonerofZelda….since they’re all members of the CFR, we’re pretty much screwed.

ragman
ragman

It’s important to remember that Obama is NOT the US Military. He is the “Commander in Chief”, so what? Putin is smart enough to know that to truly fuck with the US Military is not very smart.

NIck A
NIck A

One would hope that the US Military High Command also understands that pissing off the Russian Military is an equally stupid action. Mind you the recent “Obama Purges” may have been intended to remove the last vestiges of critical thinkers from that particular area.

Maybe this is part of “The Grand Plan” – provoke (or co-operatively “arrange”) WW3, as a very convenient way of “reducing future liabilities” associated with a net shift of the social demographic to elderly – Social Security, Pension, Healthcare.

One way of “getting the deficit under control” I suppose.

flash
flash

Only a dipshit would follow orders issued by a half-baked Oreo. Does the US military act on whims, fantasizes or the will of those who never suffer the consequences of bloody war, but are in control of a easily manipulated retard, that believes the easiest way to get getting ahead is by giving head ? If the answer is yes , the We the US have a bigger problem than Obama.
This won’t end well.Bet on it.

AWD

How about dumbshit community organizer, aka bathhouse Barry, meets a real world leader.

Hopefully a meteor hits the White House, or else we’re all doomed….

And these two bozos are posing for selfies…..

comment image

Dumbbell and Dumbbama

Dumb and Dumber

Semi-employed White Guy
Semi-employed White Guy

After two long wars, our military is worn down with many even suicidal after their umpteenth tours of duty in shitholistan and eyerack. And it had a hell of a time defeating some third worlders with not much more than African American-engineered booby trap bombs. We don’t know how effective our multi trillion dollar military really is since it hasn’t picked on somebody even close to its own size in 70 years. Air superiority would by know means be a slam dunk against the Russians. Our Navy has been even less tested. I think the carrier group concept is obsolete by a couple of decades. A confrontation with Russia or China would prove it.

AWD

“Putin is unlikely to stop before he gets what he wants. At the moment that seems to be the complete humiliation of Barack Obama”

Although fucknuts Obama is really good at humiliating himself, is there anything I can do to help?

NIck A
NIck A

Carriers are expensive to build, and difficult to defend (especially against modern very rapid – delivery weapon systems). However, Carriers are excellent as support platforms in genuine Humanitarian crisis management (i.e. casualty management / supply provision, not the “relief via gunpoint” method).

The Chinese are very aware of this, and they have noted the significant PR AND Social benefits of providing genuine relief, rather than “Regime Change”.

So, is this going to be a part of “their” Master Plan? Seems they are doing very good deals with many Countries, and really expanding their Global influence by entirely peaceful (and presumably mutually beneficial) means.

Seeing as “War, War” is pretty destructive (socially and at an infrastructure level), maybe their plan is that of Global management as a “benevolent Dictatorship” – shades of The Chairman? A better outcome for all? Or a recipe for unmitigated disaster on a Global scale??

We sure do live in “Interesting Times”, don’t we!

Shawn
Shawn

Obama and Putin know the United States is currently in no position to stop Russia. Yet, Obama keeps trying to save face. I would bet almost anything that Obama is back channeling to Russia with the message, “I’m really not concerned with this Ukrainian issue, But I have to make some tough talking speaches to make it appear that I do care.” “P.S. you may have noticed some meaningless sanctions, just ignore them, every one else will too.”
Ukraine should defend its boarders rather than just hand them over. What countries are going to be willing to join an armed conflict for a country who will not defend itself? Armed conflict will also get the U.N. humping on a cease fire agreement within 42 hours. The European Union should be handling this, but they would rather watch one of their own go down rather than pay more for natural gas. This whole situation reminds me of the start of WW2.

El ILEGAL
El ILEGAL

I thought this was going to be about Billy and BB.

Marc
Marc

I am fairly certain that Putin does not long for the old Soviet Union in an economic sense because he has openly warned America about going in that direction. He is a nationalist who wants a strong and culturally unique nation. He strikes me as sober, fit, and more rational than our own windbags. Mankind would benefit if all nation states used Switzerland’s international relations version of NAP (non-aggression principle) as a template but that seems unlikely to happen. An expanding NATO pretty much assures that it will not.

Frenchie
Frenchie

Putin is a drop of hope in an ocean of pro-muslim motherfuckers. If he proves strong in this case, there’s a hope that those who spread radical Islam in our western countries (in order to stage a future religion war / population limitation) will lose ground to the nationalists. nationalism isn’t a problem if everybody sticks with his own domestic policy.

there’s only nation against fucked up religion

John Coster
John Coster

Yes, This is an interesting bit of psychology. I suspect, however, that Putin may see this as an opportunity to fumigate some of those corridors of power where the Neocons have been breeding like cockroaches. In which case, Go Vlad! These dangerous ideologues have done enormous damage to America’s economy and national security and have commandeered the US military to pursue the goals of extremists within the US and Israeli power structure. I have little doubt that the same forces are behind the development of the Department “Homeland Security”. which appears to be intended as a domestic police force to suppress opposition to the post Constitutional regime currently being implemented. Exactly what the Neocon involvement may have been in 9/11 is uncertain, but they clearly were the main beneficiaries and openly spoke of the need for a “new Pearl Harbor” to justify American led regime change in the Middle East. Maybe Putin feels that with Obama repeatedly getting caught in crude deceptions, poison gas attacks in Syria etc., and Russia in control of European gas supplies, this is the time to defend against future as well as present acts of aggression. What really scares me in the current situation is the irrational element in US foreign policy, irrational of course unless those making decisions really are intent on bringing America to its knees. Of what possible value is it to bankrupt the US attempting to militarily encircle Russia with missiles and also threaten China, our main creditor? Is this going to save the dollar? Are Russia and China and Brazil for that matter, going to be intimidated by Neocon bungling and bribery so that the US and it’s bankster owners can continue to suck up the world’s resources. Seems unlikely to me.
Help me out here, can stupidity theory alone explain what’s going on? Outright insanity? Pure evil?
Am I missing something?

MuckAbout

@John Coster: A very nice intelligent post. My only problem with it is that I don’t have a clue either!

I figure you answered your own question at the end. Insanity? For sure. Evil? Absolutely. Only I’d add a few more; Incompetence? Certainly. Dysfunctional? Completely. And most of all – stupid? Of course – everyone knows you can’t fix stupid.

MA

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