Man, I miss the days of
Glastnost &
Peristroika. 
Is it me or are there a lot of reversals of great reforms & stuff? In the 20th century, we had labor reforms, the Civil Rights Act, the end of the Cold War in the 90's and a new era of Russia being sympathetic......Suddenly, everything's now like a second Gilded Age, parts of the Civil Rights Act were repealed (and 'anti-voting' laws rife) & Russia is becoming "The USSR 2.0".
That said, I guess the reason Putin became "Dictator For Life" was due to the fact that Russia under Yeltsin was apparently even worse, economically & the Russians got a bad case of "Ancient Hebrews in the desert longing to go back to Egypt" Syndrome. I could be wrong or the facts wrong but I guess while the "Free World" was like "Yay! The Cold War's over! Russia is our friend! Glastnost! Yippie!" the Russians were like "Man! This sucks! Yeltsin is an incompetent drunken ignoramus!"....leaving them susceptible to the sweet-talk of that snake, "Ol' V-Poo".
On the upside, LGBTA rights in America's growing by leaps & bounds and Progressives are slowly waking up and doing something about it. I just have to be patient, these movements take time to "come together" and strengthen (especially without the money from Big Business). I'm not alarmed by MSNBC's drop in ratings because I realize that Progressives generally don't watch TV news, period! All TV news is stupid....plus, the suits at MSNBC have been ditching all the good anchors/commentators and they just keep Maddow (who's awesome) around just to stay afloat. MSNBC has become a corporate-shill like the rest of them. As for FAUX Noise, they're losing the younger demographics & the old ones who keep their ratings up will eventually all dance with Mr. D.
Over time, hopefully, things will change for the better.....but it will take time and Idealism must be combined with Realism. Humanity is flawed by nature and it takes a while for those of Human Nature's Good Side to put one over on Human Nature's Bad Side.
I also realize that one must apply the basics of the "Serenity Prayer" to life & activism....Accept what can't change, change what can & the wisdom to know the difference. You can't change everything in the whole world, but if you leave YOUR world better than it was when you die, you've done much!
As an American, I say that it's best to focus on changing America for the better. Should that be done, then perhaps the rest of the world will follow, since our influence is felt, for good or ill, in major & minor ways all over. Can you imagine how different the world would be if the U.S.A was like Norway or Sweden....super-Progressive & peace-loving?
