I am going to suggest a TV show in the US that is now a little bit old and has jumped the shark but that is Billions which I call the "white collar" version of Sopranos whose many character Bobby Axelrod is an incredible ruthless and vindictive hedge fund manager/crime lord who only stops short of physical violence to achieve more power. Axelrod is the ultimate uber-villain if he was running Russia instead of Putin we would probably still be alive(Axelrod dislikes violence) but we would all be under Russian domination. Axelrod hates and love to corrupt govt officials and in one episode provided large cash bribes and free prostitutes to the Director of the US Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Controls. The series is more popular among Wall Street types but if you liked the Sopranos and you are a foreign policy type looking for something different I would recommend Billions
Something that dawned on me is in the late 1990s Hollywood started making tv shows that glorified crime lords like Tony Soprano in a way they never did before(Walter White in Breaking Bad is another) . I suspect when Claire and Monique were growing up there won't anti-hero shows on TV like when I was growing up like the Sopranos and Billions. This I do think explains some of the admiration for Putin in the West. Putin is kind a real life version of a Bobby Axelrod or Tony Soprano although I think invading Ukraine would be a jump the shark moment. What makes Axelrod and Tony Soprano so incredibly appealing I think as characters and anti-hero is they always seem to avoid the obvious traps there opponents in law enforcement lay out for them.
These videos below I think have a better explanation of this phenomenon than I laid out.
I guess the way Colin Cowherd describes him is that all of us or maybe most of us have a little bit of Vladimir Putin or Tony Soprano in us. On certain days we wish we could be as bold and fearless as Putin or Soprano.
And my last comment is one reason I get so chippy on Twitter at people like Monique and Toomas is I feel sometimes there reactions to Putin are so similar to the law enforcement characters in the Sopranos and Billions(Paul Massaro is a dead ringer for Chuck Rhoades in Billions) who always fall flat on their faces to stop Tony Soprano and Bobby Axelrod's criminality. Actually the real genius of Billions and the Sopranos to a lesser extent is Axelrod and Soprano win by corrupting there own "morally crusading" opponents in law enforcement which to be fair I have no evidence that Monique or Toomas have been corrupted in real life in this way.
Mexico and narcos - scary. I visit friends in Mexico every few years. A random American military guy who is Mexican-American said on video interview 2 years ago that he expects Mexican civil war to arrive in 5 years. And with the US Southern border unsecured for political reasons- what a nightmare. I am pro-Mexico and pro-secured USA-Mexico border.
I am going to suggest a TV show in the US that is now a little bit old and has jumped the shark but that is Billions which I call the "white collar" version of Sopranos whose many character Bobby Axelrod is an incredible ruthless and vindictive hedge fund manager/crime lord who only stops short of physical violence to achieve more power. Axelrod is the ultimate uber-villain if he was running Russia instead of Putin we would probably still be alive(Axelrod dislikes violence) but we would all be under Russian domination. Axelrod hates and love to corrupt govt officials and in one episode provided large cash bribes and free prostitutes to the Director of the US Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Controls. The series is more popular among Wall Street types but if you liked the Sopranos and you are a foreign policy type looking for something different I would recommend Billions
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUQKRM06_WM
Something that dawned on me is in the late 1990s Hollywood started making tv shows that glorified crime lords like Tony Soprano in a way they never did before(Walter White in Breaking Bad is another) . I suspect when Claire and Monique were growing up there won't anti-hero shows on TV like when I was growing up like the Sopranos and Billions. This I do think explains some of the admiration for Putin in the West. Putin is kind a real life version of a Bobby Axelrod or Tony Soprano although I think invading Ukraine would be a jump the shark moment. What makes Axelrod and Tony Soprano so incredibly appealing I think as characters and anti-hero is they always seem to avoid the obvious traps there opponents in law enforcement lay out for them.
These videos below I think have a better explanation of this phenomenon than I laid out.
https://youtu.be/vdpuU1BSrbA
https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-herd-with-colin-cowherd/episode/saturday-special-colin-speaks-with-writer-producer-brian-koppelman-61930186
I guess the way Colin Cowherd describes him is that all of us or maybe most of us have a little bit of Vladimir Putin or Tony Soprano in us. On certain days we wish we could be as bold and fearless as Putin or Soprano.
And my last comment is one reason I get so chippy on Twitter at people like Monique and Toomas is I feel sometimes there reactions to Putin are so similar to the law enforcement characters in the Sopranos and Billions(Paul Massaro is a dead ringer for Chuck Rhoades in Billions) who always fall flat on their faces to stop Tony Soprano and Bobby Axelrod's criminality. Actually the real genius of Billions and the Sopranos to a lesser extent is Axelrod and Soprano win by corrupting there own "morally crusading" opponents in law enforcement which to be fair I have no evidence that Monique or Toomas have been corrupted in real life in this way.
Mexico and narcos - scary. I visit friends in Mexico every few years. A random American military guy who is Mexican-American said on video interview 2 years ago that he expects Mexican civil war to arrive in 5 years. And with the US Southern border unsecured for political reasons- what a nightmare. I am pro-Mexico and pro-secured USA-Mexico border.