Inspired by a comment from Pineapple Stu on the American Politics thread... how would you rank this list of madmen in terms of most maniacal and diabolical to least? Any why
Trump
Putin
Netanyahu
Ali Khameini
Kim Jong
Xi
Modi
Erdogan
Ortega
Maduro
Others? I am light on my list of African madmen who will destroy the world, given that their world was already destroyed.
I like high energy football. A little bit rock and roll. Many finishes instead of waiting for the perfect one.
The President of Turkmenistan (I think his son is technically in charge now) is bat**** crazy. Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow
You'd have to add the Saudi royal family to the list also - ostensibly cosy with the West, but all the while using their oil revenues to finance mosques promoting their particularly fundamentalist branch of Islam.
Probably Orban and Lukashenko would go in too - albeit they're more pawns than major pieces I feel. Aliyev in Azerbaijan as well - nice little bit of ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh lately, and the story of Gurgen Margaryan's murder in Budapest by an Azeri officer whose freedom was later bought and whose back-pay was restored is a particularly nasty one.
Definitely the Saudis. A concerning reach into Europe too, through the likes of moderate (but poor) countries like North Macedonia and Kosovo.
I can't quite work out where to put Trump in that list. Netanyahu and Putin are up at the top for me in terms of direct impact for obvious reasons, but the Saudis are more subtle and the subtle trolls are often the most dangerous ones. Is Trump just a callous, self-centred idiot who's only interested in money? I can't quite tell.
Right now I think Netanyahu is number 1, then Putin and Trump as an enabler. But in terms of a direct threat to western civilisation, I think the Saudis have the potential to rank higher.
Ali Khamenei, Kim and so on are nut jobs but really their influence is a step down - and I think there's hope in Iran in that popular feeling is against him, albeit as we say with the hijab protests, the police are still quite powerful.
Thanks for entertaining this, all. Good call on Al Saud not sure how I missed them/him.
Stu, I actually was having the same trouble in terms of the top 3-5 mad lads which is why I threw it up here! I’d agree on the placings you’ve come up with too! It was quite sobering coming up with that list of psychopaths (plus the additions) and realizing that Trump is probably not even close to the most dangerous/problemstic.
I know this is obvious of the dead crazies (and not uncommon) but anyone ever watch any of those YouTube videos on how insane Gaddafi got over time?
The Legion of female bodyguards aside. His original manifesto back in the day kinda makes some sense. By the end with the plastic surgery without anesthesia...
But that surgeon was from Brazil and saw many of Gaddafi's people on his compound and even some hookers and didn't meet one Libyan. All the people around him were from other countries. He was paranoid of the ENTIRE population of 7.3 million ppl.
AND the compound was relatively big but not so big, and none of the servants or "workers" on the compound actually knew where he even lived in there.
That's the mild stuff.
Good thread, some good reads so far. Hard to say, but at this point, I would say the following, when you find yourself having to stop yourself from silently urging Iran on today, the world is in a pretty deep pickle.
On the subject of depth, how out of his depth Trump is, is actually becoming amusing to me. I'm enjoying it, its become a good watch as it slowly dawns on him, emphasis on slowly.
They aren't interested in deals Donald me laddo, they're interested in territory, ethnicity, ancient grudges and raw power.
Yeah, this is spot on I think - the word "deals" sticks out like a sore thumb when he's talking. Which then ties in to where Trump is in the ranking - is he dangerous in the same way as Netanyahu/Putin/the Saudis, or is he just out of his depth here? And if the latter, can he really rank up alongside them? And yet, maybe given the role the US plays in the world (for right or for wrong), an incompetent heading it up can rank alongside the active loonies.Originally Posted by CraftyToePoke
Last edited by pineapple stu; 16/06/2025 at 11:10 AM.
Trump is a liar like most politicians,one of his main points he ran on was anti war and the Democrats were just warmongers,he’s now facilitating Israel starting another war in the Middle East and will probably join in soon,he’s full of s**t ……
Irish by birth ,Harps by the grace of god.
He's in the title race because of it, would be my read, at the moment anyway. Danger is danger in whichever form it presents. Maybe he'll surprise us all but he's looking increasingly flummoxed to me.
He's a liar, like them all but you know something, I do believe his naivety / ego / unsuitablility did lead him to think he could sort these things out, & get that Nobel Peace Prize. I think Putin & those types look at him & see nothing of consequence & Netanyahu could well drag the US into the middle east against Trumps own wishes, I do think Netanyahu sees an opportunity to do that because the White House incumbent registers as weak to him. Malleable.
These guys are hardened pros & they see Swindon Town 93 / 94 somehow in the Oval, admiring them.
& its funny as long as nobody pulls out a nuke & starts waving it around.
Last edited by CraftyToePoke; 16/06/2025 at 2:36 PM.
I wouldn't consider Trump to be 'maniacal and diabolical'.
I'd just consider him to be totally and utterly out of his depth, completely ignorant of the role that US can (and does) play in world politics and power, and so consumed by a desire to be praised that he'd do, or allow anybody else to do, whatever needed to get that praise.
George Bush Junior was / is a moron.
Joe Biden was not combos mentis.
Trump is what he is.
And yet the American Deep-State / Dark-State march on through it all ~ ~ As if it doesn't matter a jot, who / what, is President! ! !
LOL ~ Excellent, great sense of humour at 1;44 AM ~ That bit about most American Presidents is priceless comedy altogether ! ! !
A bit naive, Tets. Most presidents/sure, sane individuals from relatively sane countries, sure. Those from that list above and the missing long list of African lunatic leaders kinda puts paid to that theory.
I like high energy football. A little bit rock and roll. Many finishes instead of waiting for the perfect one.
Great series of posts there. Its incredible how one dimensional and ineffective his domestic and global leadership is proving to be... talk big, shout loud - appeal to a ton of people - and then not be able to follow through on much of anything of substance. I thought he might have been better this time round, learnt his lessons, learnt the game etc but if anything he is less effective. A total one trick pony. The Art of the Deal... the bit in Craftys post that i bolded made me laugh because it is so spot on. Anyway... what does that make him? Useless, yes. Dangerous, i dont think so. If he realizes how useless he is, and the ego kicks in though, we could be in danger.
I like high energy football. A little bit rock and roll. Many finishes instead of waiting for the perfect one.
What is most intriguing here is Netanyahu has him on the precipice of going against swathes of his own fabled base. Sure there are Republican hawks who'd like to change the Iranian set up, but sections of his largely cannon fodder & jobless / poorly paid base put him where he is ( & they chose him, he didn't build them from thin air ) on a no more worlds policeman, bring the boys home, get them working, they do not want this & are clear about that. It shows how Israel are running rings around him and Netanyahu doesn't give one solitary fcuk about him.
So is it America First ? I think he has to chose self preservation here, whatever the power of the Jewish lobby in the US & he hopefully does, and becomes less dangerous as a by product of that. Thing is the lure of the world stage .... & Donald, hmmmm.
I was Taylor Downing's 1983 a year or two ago - it's a recap of the nuclear crisis in the 80s, when the Soviet jets were on the runways waiting for the order to take off at one stage, and Stanislav Petrov was sacked for not pressing the red button despite the computer read-outs saying war had broken out (he second-guessed it because he'd written the computer code and realised it was crap)
Anyways, one thing that stood out in the book was how calm and reasonable Reagan and Gorbachev as the crisis really ratcheted up. (Andropov and Chernenko were useless - old-school Soviets on the brink of death anyway). They made the call to sit down, talk, and listen to each other - it turned out they got on well and (which arguably impacted things even more) their wives got on too.
Trump and Putin are worlds apart in that regard.
The dangerous part is not so much on the world stage but domestically what long term damaging effects he will cause. At heart, like most loud bullies, he is a coward. That is why most world leaders eat him for breakfast , but at home he has all branches of Government working for him and thats whats allowing him to use the likes of ICE like the Gestapo. Just the other day at a Home Depot beside me they rolled up like they were trying to arrest El Chapo, all to arrest some day workers. The idiotic thing now is that Trump is getting push back from farmers and hotel owner so hes coming out and saying he might need to give amnesty to "illegal workers" in those sectors. They guy is a moron, but is causing economic damage.
I will say that the protests at the weekend did restore my faith in people a little bit. Massive turnouts across the country and 99.9% of it peaceful. I went to one myself and it was actually good craic. The cherry on the cake though was seeing the North Korean style military parade looking pathetic in comparison, and the fact that there were no counter protests in Washington didnt give Trump the scuffle he wanted.
Its really not that complicated!!!
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