Pity the Troll

I want to get real about Russian trolls.

Putin has installed a dedicated cadre of trolls into the Internet Research Agency. Their mission is to disrupt the political process in the United States.

Probably he has done so now because his regime is facing trouble. Some few years ago, he directed the Russian economy to depend on the oil industry as the sole income earner for Russia. See BLOWOUT, Rachel Maddow for the background.

The Russian oil industry has three dominating characteristics:

First, it is technologically retarded and its oil fields with easily extracted reserves are depleted; they now require advanced technology to get at the oil.

Second, sanctions imposed by the United States prevent Russia from getting the knowledge and skills it does not have from American oil companies like Exxon.

Third, all Russian oil companies are corrupt and controlled by Putin through his personally chosen oligarchs.

On top of this, the Russian economy is very poor and skewed so that income flows only to the top. It presents a classic oligarchic structure and is thus ripe, perhaps overripe, for revolution. Putin's days are numbered.

Side by side comparison of GDP per capita for Russia and the US:

Russia 2018 GDP per capita $ 11,289

USA 2018 GDP per capita $ 62,869            

https://countryeconomy.com/countries/compare/russia/usa

Americans live in a rich country; Russians live in a poor country.

As an American, I am a free man; I can, and do, complain about the President. I do so without fear of death or imprisonment. I live in California near the Pacific Ocean where the temperature seldom drops below freezing. I have many relatives and friends whom I love and are close to me. Some of those people are Trump supporters; and, as my Tennessee born Grandmother would say 'God bless their little hearts'.  We disagree and still love each other, for the most part.

A particular Russian troll has threatened that he would take over my Face book page. In response, I pity him.

He is Russian and lives in a totalitarian state where he will be killed if he criticizes Putin. He lives in St. Petersburg where you can freeze to death while crossing the street. He cannot get away from that city and he can be with Russian women only. They are incredibly lovely but hard to live with; my ex-wife is Russian. And, if he wants to be with a man instead of a woman, he will be beaten in the streets.

I can have him killed very easily - all I have to do is find his real name and spread a rumor that he is anti-Putin. He will disappear and nobody will miss him.

Das V' danya