Putin v. Obama ad-Dajjal

I just read a book review in The New York Times which made the following claims about Putin:

In explaining the system’s workings, Dawisha enumerates the standard shenanigans of crooked regimes: bribetaking from domestic and foreign companies seeking business permits; kickbacks from inflated no-bid contracts for state projects; privatization deals rigged to enrich cronies who will later be cash cows for the Kremlin; illicit exports of raw materials purchased at state-subsidized prices and sold for a killing; “donations” from oligarchs eager to keep feeding at the government’s trough; real estate scams yielding mega-profits and palatial homes; money laundering; election-fixing; labyrinthine offshore accounts; lucrative partnerships with the mob; and the intimidation, even elimination, of would-be whistle-blowers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/30/books/review/putins-kleptocracy-by-karen-dawisha.html

All of these claims can be accurately rewritten in the following manner:

To explain the US system’s inner workings, Saint Howard enumerated the standard shenanigans of crooked regimes: bribetaking from domestic and foreign companies seeking business permits; kickbacks from inflated no-bid contracts for state projects; privatization deals rigged to enrich cronies who will later be cash cows for the Democratic and Republican Parties; exports of raw materials purchased at state-subsidized prices and sold for a killing; “donations” from oligarchs eager to keep feeding at the government’s trough; real estate scams yielding mega-profits and palatial homes; money laundering; election-fixing; labyrinthine offshore accounts; lucrative partnerships with the mob; and the intimidation, even elimination, of would-be whistle-blowers.

Personally, I believe that the author's description of Putin's regime more accurately describes the US than it describes Putin. In reality, we have become what they used to be, while they have become what we used to be. Or something like that.

And the brain-dead American public remains asleep.