Banning Russian probability

[bigbadwolf]

Good one from Anglin:

I still don’t really understand what the purpose of this was. “Suicide as political protest” is not a coherent concept to me, and I’ve never read anything that cleared it up. I understand Islamic-type “suicide bombing as political protest” – that’s pretty self-explanatory – but just killing yourself and none of your enemies… I don’t get it.

Yet, this is basically exactly what the US is doing in response to Russia invading the Ukraine. None of these sanctions really hurt Russia in the long term, though it has yet to be explained – or even really discussed – how already struggling Americans are going to pay double or triple for everything they need to live.

Then you have the mentioned issue of the US demonstrating that it is a completely unstable country, totally unwilling to honor basic agreements that it makes with other countries. Saudi Arabia is currently involved in a war in Yemen that is a lot more brutal than the Ukraine – a lot, lot, lot. The US supports that war, but now Biden is trying to do a deal with Iran, while also calling and trying to buy oil from Iran. This is after Obama made a deal with Iran that Donald Trump refused to honor.

So what is the incentive for the Gulf nations to keep cutting the US in? Obviously, you can mention various issues, but from the 40,000 foot view, if you’re the Arabs, you must recognize that the US is the most unreliable possible ally.

So you’re witnessing the US self-immolate domestically and on the world stage for reasons that are not even coherent.

New Sanction: US Bans All Import or Export of Dollars to Russia

I know it’s difficult to keep track of all of these different sanctions that the US is putting on Russia. But this is a new one which is intended to make it impossible for them to trade oil, or for citizens to use dollars for other forms of trade. This is something that has never been done to...

www.unz.com

 

[Daniel Duffy]

Will Putin chance his colours? Is he heading for a fall?

 

[bigbadwolf]

One thing that should be discussed here is the declining influence of the US and concomitantly, the erosion of the dollar as global reserve. Because this will have an impact on the financial services industry, which as I pointed out earlier, is the handmaiden of US empire. Financial services will be sharply reduced simply because of USA's sharply reduced influence on the world stage. Which the fiasco in Ukraine is (arguably) accelerating. USA is a financial and military empire -- deficit finance props up the military and conversely, the military props up the dollar. They both stand together or fall together. The problem is that the USA is nothing but finance and military -- its economy is hollowed out and it's fair to call it a Potemkin Village.

Some might argue that London continues as a financial centre long after the sterling area was consigned to the garbage bin. True enough. But only because Britain aligned itself as a junior partner to hegemonic USA. The declining USA will probably not align itself as a junior partner to anyone for the foreseeable future.

I've given the link for what I consider to be a well-written essay by Peter Koenig, written last year and hence before the Ukraine fiasco burst into view.

Over the past about 10 years, the US dollar has been losing its hydrocarbon trade monopoly. Also, other international contracts are no longer finalized in US dollars today. China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela and some other countries have stopped using the dollar in foreign trade, and instead are trading in their own currencies and increasingly in the Chinese yuan.

Why? Countries around the world started realizing that the dollar is a highly volatile fiat currency. An equally important factor for the loss of trust in the US currency is Washington's frequent use of dollar-denominated international assets and the US banking system to impose draconian and illegal economic sanctions on countries that do not follow its dictates, including blocking countries' reserve assets placed overseas. Such nefarious economic and political acts of the US have triggered the end of the dollar's hegemony.

One hundred years of vision and success

China's success story goes hand-in-hand with the evolution of the Communist Party of China. The founding of the Party on July 1, 1921, signaled the start of ending some 200 years of oppression by foreign powers, Western invasions, occupation and exploitation, and looting of China's rich natural...

www.chinadaily.com.cn

 

[Daniel Duffy]

So, next step is to flatten Mariupol, its hospitals and starve civilians.

 

[bigbadwolf]

News from the front isn't too good: Comrade Ogilvy single-handedly wiped out a Russian division of 15,000 men yesterday.

 

[Daniel Duffy]

News from the front isn't too good: Comrade Ogilvy single-handedly wiped out a Russian division of 15,000 men yesterday.

were they hiding in the theatre? дети

https://media-exp1.licdn.com/dms/im...t=4uduBfTn9EI9SqA8YaUI7dP41paqDQ_0juu_zC0EwL4

 

[Daniel Duffy]

 

[Daniel Duffy]

News from the front isn't too good: Comrade Ogilvy single-handedly wiped out a Russian division of 15,000 men yesterday.

That you can speak in this flippant way says buckets. Or is it satire?

 

[Daniel Duffy]

next? The swimming pool and hostages

 

[Daniel Duffy]

This could be taken word-for-word from Orwell's Animal Farm for those familiar with that book.

 

[ExSan]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1504144895501557762

 

[Daniel Duffy]

Napoleon had denounced such ideas as contrary to the spirit of Animalism. The truest happiness, he said, lay in working hard and living frugally.
– George Orwell

 

[bigbadwolf]

Napoleon had denounced such ideas as contrary to the spirit of Animalism. The truest happiness, he said, lay in working hard and living frugally.
– George Orwell

Napoleon is always right. I will work harder. Four legs, two legs bad.

 

[Daniel Duffy]

“Four young porkers in the front row uttered shrill squeals of disapproval, and all four of them sprang to their feet and began speaking at once. But suddenly the dogs sitting round Napoleon let out deep, menacing growls, and the pigs fell silent and sat down again. Then the sheep broke out into a tremendous bleating of “Four legs good, two legs bad!” which went on for nearly a quarter of an hour and put an end to any chance of discussion.” ― George Orwell, Animal Farm

 

[Daniel Duffy]

Наши,

Nashi (youth movement) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[bigbadwolf]

Some trenchant analysis from the pen (or probably keyboard) of Gilbert Doctorow:

The murder of Vladimir Putin in the present context of the ongoing war to the death over global overlordship would surely precipitate the launch of Russia’s nuclear arsenal against the United States. As I have said in the past, the Russian political elite is much more aggressive and much readier to push the button than Vladimir Vladimirovich. I have also said and here repeat, that the Russian Federation likely has First Strike Capability, meaning that it can launch a nuclear attack first, destroy nearly all of America’s arsenals and most important population centers, disorganize or frustrate any counter attack, and rely on its well developed anti-ballistic missile defenses to ward off any of the residual U.S. capability. That was the clear objective of Putin back in 2007 when Russia was humiliated and impotent before the American hegemon. He reached that objective in 2018.

This is how the world ends

Will the ongoing military conflict in Ukraine lead to a World War that quickly escalates to an end of the world scenario in nuclear exchanges? That remains unlikely, but we are clearly well o…

gilbertdoctorow.com

I could use a stiff drink. Four legs good, two legs better.

 

[Daniel Duffy]

I was 10 during the Cuban missile crisis. The government issued us with iodine tablets and cardboard boxes.

 

[bigbadwolf]

Some good discussion here. I don't know how long the video will survive on YouTube.

 

[Daniel Duffy]

Some good discussion here. I don't know how long the video will survive on YouTube.

He who pays the piper calls the tune.
Bunch of patsies.

 

[bigbadwolf]

He who pays the piper calls the tune.
Bunch of patsies.

I've noticed that your debating style is to employ ad hominems against anyone you don't agree with, without engaging with the content. Thus anything on RT must be garbage -- but somehow US and British sources are sacrosanct, and if they say a hospital was bombed then, by golly, it must be so. Maybe this style of argument works in your neck of the woods.