{"id":37291,"date":"2022-09-13T21:03:14","date_gmt":"2022-09-14T02:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=37291"},"modified":"2022-09-13T21:03:14","modified_gmt":"2022-09-14T02:03:14","slug":"how-autocracies-operate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2022\/09\/13\/how-autocracies-operate\/","title":{"rendered":"How Autocracies Operate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Russia&#8217;s a great example, eh?<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder\" data-uri=\"archive.cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/paragraph_A0A70B50-8B99-4B23-D548-388885EAFE57@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\">Russian businessman Ivan Pechorin, the top manager for the Corporation for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic, has been found dead in Vladivostok, the latest in a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2022\/09\/02\/business\/russian-oligarchs-deaths-intl\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">string of mysterious deaths<\/a>\u00a0among Russian executives.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder\" data-uri=\"archive.cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/paragraph_290D284D-CC00-9871-8948-388885F2D87A@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\">\u201cOn September 12, 2022, it became known about the tragic death of our colleague, Ivan Pechorin, Managing Director for the Aviation Industry of the Corporation for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic,\u201d reads a statement from the company published Monday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder\" data-uri=\"archive.cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/paragraph_3BD1BC0B-48E2-9EAE-86CB-388885F22606@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\">\u201cIvan\u2019s death is an irreparable loss for friends and colleagues, a great loss for the corporation. We offer our sincere condolences to family and friends,\u201d it said.<em> [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2022\/09\/13\/business\/ivan-pechorin-death-russia-intl\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>CNN\/Business<\/strong><\/a>]<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p data-uri=\"archive.cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/paragraph_3BD1BC0B-48E2-9EAE-86CB-388885F22606@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\">Just how many?<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Pechorin is at least the ninth prominent Russian businessmen to have reportedly died by suicide or in unexplained accidents since late January, with six of them associated with Russia\u2019s two largest energy companies.<\/p>\n<p>Four of those six were linked to the Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom or one of its subsidiaries, while the other two were associated with Lukoil, Russia\u2019s largest privately owned oil and gas company.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this year, the company took the unusual public stance of speaking out against Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine, calling for sympathy for the victims, and for the end of the conflict.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div id=\"attachment_37292\" style=\"width: 176px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Striped_anglerfish__Antennarius_striatus_.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-37292\" class=\"wp-image-37292\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Striped_anglerfish__Antennarius_striatus_.jpg?resize=166%2C97&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"166\" height=\"97\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Striped_anglerfish__Antennarius_striatus_.jpg?w=1280&amp;ssl=1 1280w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Striped_anglerfish__Antennarius_striatus_.jpg?resize=300%2C175&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Striped_anglerfish__Antennarius_striatus_.jpg?resize=1024%2C598&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Striped_anglerfish__Antennarius_striatus_.jpg?resize=768%2C448&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Striped_anglerfish__Antennarius_striatus_.jpg?resize=150%2C88&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Striped_anglerfish__Antennarius_striatus_.jpg?resize=250%2C146&amp;ssl=1 250w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 166px) 100vw, 166px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-37292\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Not only a lure and a set of nasty teeth, but a really disturbing abdomen. Yeah, sounds like Russia.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n<p>Autocracies use lures like <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Anglerfish\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">anglerfish<\/a>. Strong, charismatic men, fast decisions, never <del>makes mistakes<\/del> admit to error, often friends with the oh so endangered local religious cult.<\/p>\n<p>But, in the absence of Law, they get the sort of crap mentioned above.<\/p>\n<p>Conservative readers who harbor happy thoughts about Tucker Carlson, <em>beware<\/em>. You may not be wishing for it, but pursuing the dream of autocracy leads to nightmares, no matter how much the cult leader, whether the title is Pastor, Pope, or Metropolitan, says you&#8217;re fulfilling God&#8217;s wishes.<\/p>\n<p>Let God come and explain it to you personally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Russia&#8217;s a great example, eh? Russian businessman Ivan Pechorin, the top manager for the Corporation for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic, has been found dead in Vladivostok, the latest in a\u00a0string of mysterious deaths\u00a0among Russian executives. \u201cOn September 12, 2022, it became known about the tragic \u2026 <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2022\/09\/13\/how-autocracies-operate\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37291"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37293,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37291\/revisions\/37293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}