OT: Russia-Ukraine War

[HarthorneWingo]

I hope the Democrats collected all of their receipts and throw the GOP’s boot licking of this butcher back in their faces during the mid-term campaigns. They shouldn’t let a single one of those traitorous toads off the hook

They will. Expect a good ass-kicking this November.

I really do not get the fear mongering about the mid-terms. The economy is strong and growing amidst inflation which anyone sensible knows is the result of factors outside of Biden’s control (shutting down a sketchy pipeline project was not one of them).

Biden is doing well considering the razor thin margins he has had to cope with. There were inevitably going to be some failures with Manchin Enema.

He did a 180 degree better job on covid than Trump and made it possible for everyone to get their shots free and easy.

He has been rebuilding the judiciary at a record pace.

Even some of his haters have to be impressed by his response to Putin.

Infrastructure has been partially addressed after four years of blah blah blah

The prosecution of insurrectionists is going to set a whole new tone for the mid-terms too. Any remaining fence-sitting Republicans are going to feel ashamed over the incontrovertible facts of treason committed by their representatives.

I’m not predicting anything, but I think the Democrats have proven to be the clear alternative to the profiteering anarchy offered by the proto-fascist element of the GOP.

And we know that if people are paying their bills they will vote with their pocketbooks. That’s why I expect Biden to go hard on securing oil supply in the next 3-6 months even if it will probably undermine his climate change pledges.

I don’t know what the fck is going on in this country right now, tbh. I guess we’ll get a better sense as we get close to the primaries. I’m also expecting Biden to pull a couple rabbits out of his hat before November to create some enthusiasm. Maybe a break on tuition indebtedness? Child tax credit? Climate change bill?

[br7knicks]

I keep seeing a lot of chatter about the Petro dollar and the removal of the dollar as world reserve currency. One side says it's happening soon. The other side acts like it isn't possible. This is the scary part of what's going on right now IMO. How long before this is a reality? That's what I wanna know. Is it a reality? Many other countries citizens are all for it and have an imperialist view of America. Then I see Americans acting like it isn't even a possibility. Then there's the Great Reset talk and all of the rest. Scary time to be alive.

Anyone suggesting that the Yuan is going to replace the dollar as the global reserve currency is a moron. There isn't a more polite way of putting it. The dollar being the reserve currency is partly due to the petro dollar and partly due to what every facet of society is based on which is predictability. The way the Chinese have manipulated the value of their currency has ensured that no country on earth would ever trust the Yuan as a reserve currency. The Great Reset is mindless babbling by the same conspiracy theorists that deny things right in front of them like climate change and violent insurrections while thinking that there are space lasers causing wild fires.

except some are considering it, despite me being a huge moron

https://www.wsj.com/articles/saudi-arabia-considers-accepting-yuan-instead-of-dollars-for-chinese-oil-sales-11647351541

[br7knicks]

I keep seeing a lot of chatter about the Petro dollar and the removal of the dollar as world reserve currency. One side says it's happening soon. The other side acts like it isn't possible. This is the scary part of what's going on right now IMO. How long before this is a reality? That's what I wanna know. Is it a reality? Many other countries citizens are all for it and have an imperialist view of America. Then I see Americans acting like it isn't even a possibility. Then there's the Great Reset talk and all of the rest. Scary time to be alive.

One source I follow - Mark Blyth of Brown Univ (an economics prof) - says, rearding inflation (and like stuff like the dollar being the world's currency) - he says to check out the futures markets - where the money insiders bet on what's likely to happen - there even when we have huge headlines about inflation, in the future's markets things are a LOT more placid. Also, apparently Japan has been TRYING to get over 2% inflation for DECADES and CAN'T. Blyth's youtube vids are a good source.

over the events of the last year or so, it is clear that the US economy is not going to flourish - not the way we're headed, anyway.


that's why i reallocated most of my money into emerging market ETFs, particularly VWO. majority of my money is in that now, due to the last year or so, and the decisions that have been made.

[HarthorneWingo]

P.S. We had multiple govt shutdowns under Trump. The Dems should shove that into every GOP candidate’s face and say what has your party done for Americans in the past six years?

It has to do with enthusiasm. Biden hasn't come through on many of his promises. And he made some pretty big ones. I understand the issues with Minchin and Cinema but Biden could've done more to push them in the right direction and he could have used EOs to move things along. Like I said earlier, maybe he'll come through in the home stretch and, who knows, maybe we'll get some watered down pale-Green New Deal. Supposedly, President Manchin is open that.

[Clyde_Style]

Read on Twitter

[HarthorneWingo]

Read on Twitter

Putin is a delusional psychopath.

[Clyde_Style]

Read on Twitter

Putin is a delusional psychopath.

The mythos he built up around himself has collapsed. He actually thought he was going to be warmly embraced by the people of Ukraine. That's truly a WTF assumption on a grandiose scale.

It's phenomenal how badly he misjudged everything. So, yes, he was and is delusional. The only people who don't know this now or who don't care are his captive citizens fed BS via state media or Russian fascists who are perfectly fine with Putin's actions.

P.S. and his sycophants in the GOP

[Pointgod]

I hope the Democrats collected all of their receipts and throw the GOP’s boot licking of this butcher back in their faces during the mid-term campaigns. They shouldn’t let a single one of those traitorous toads off the hook

They will. Expect a good ass-kicking this November.

I really do not get the fear mongering about the mid-terms. The economy is strong and growing amidst inflation which anyone sensible knows is the result of factors outside of Biden’s control (shutting down a sketchy pipeline project was not one of them).

Biden is doing well considering the razor thin margins he has had to cope with. There were inevitably going to be some failures with Manchin Enema.

He did a 180 degree better job on covid than Trump and made it possible for everyone to get their shots free and easy.

He has been rebuilding the judiciary at a record pace.

Even some of his haters have to be impressed by his response to Putin.

Infrastructure has been partially addressed after four years of blah blah blah

The prosecution of insurrectionists is going to set a whole new tone for the mid-terms too. Any remaining fence-sitting Republicans are going to feel ashamed over the incontrovertible facts of treason committed by their representatives.

I’m not predicting anything, but I think the Democrats have proven to be the clear alternative to the profiteering anarchy offered by the proto-fascist element of the GOP.

And we know that if people are paying their bills they will vote with their pocketbooks. That’s why I expect Biden to go hard on securing oil supply in the next 3-6 months even if it will probably undermine his climate change pledges.

History suggests that the President’s party always loses in the midterms. Look at the district level data and some of the elections as the district level, Republicans are winning in Democratic districts. Not all of the GOP candidates will be trash like Margie Green and Matt Gaetz. Some of them will run like normal candidates.

Biden is doing a good job, but the problem is that the majority of voters don’t care. They don’t understand nuance and they’ll blame whoever is in the Whitehouse for whatever problem they’re facing at the moment. Biden led the country out of a pandemic, he led the recovery to low unemployment, he invested billions into the country, but voters Democrats have done a horrible job selling themselves, exposing the Republicans as a global danger, and getting more wins on the books.

The fact that the Republicans weren’t able to gerrymander a majority may have stopped some bleeding but the midterms don’t paint a positive picture. Foreign policy has been a strong area for Democrats, but still then Americans don’t care, even though it’s directly tied into domestic and economic issues. There’s a direct throughline between Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Republican’s anti democratic and anti global community positions.

[HarthorneWingo]

They will. Expect a good ass-kicking this November.

I really do not get the fear mongering about the mid-terms. The economy is strong and growing amidst inflation which anyone sensible knows is the result of factors outside of Biden’s control (shutting down a sketchy pipeline project was not one of them).

Biden is doing well considering the razor thin margins he has had to cope with. There were inevitably going to be some failures with Manchin Enema.

He did a 180 degree better job on covid than Trump and made it possible for everyone to get their shots free and easy.

He has been rebuilding the judiciary at a record pace.

Even some of his haters have to be impressed by his response to Putin.

Infrastructure has been partially addressed after four years of blah blah blah

The prosecution of insurrectionists is going to set a whole new tone for the mid-terms too. Any remaining fence-sitting Republicans are going to feel ashamed over the incontrovertible facts of treason committed by their representatives.

I’m not predicting anything, but I think the Democrats have proven to be the clear alternative to the profiteering anarchy offered by the proto-fascist element of the GOP.

And we know that if people are paying their bills they will vote with their pocketbooks. That’s why I expect Biden to go hard on securing oil supply in the next 3-6 months even if it will probably undermine his climate change pledges.

History suggests that the President’s party always loses in the midterms. Look at the district level data and some of the elections as the district level, Republicans are winning in Democratic districts. Not all of the GOP candidates will be trash like Margie Green and Matt Gaetz. Some of them will run like normal candidates.

Biden is doing a good job, but the problem is that the majority of voters don’t care. They don’t understand nuance and they’ll blame whoever is in the Whitehouse for whatever problem they’re facing at the moment. Biden led the country out of a pandemic, he led the recovery to low unemployment, he invested billions into the country, but voters Democrats have done a horrible job selling themselves, exposing the Republicans as a global danger, and getting more wins on the books.

The fact that the Republicans weren’t able to gerrymander a majority may have stopped some bleeding but the midterms don’t paint a positive picture. Foreign policy has been a strong area for Democrats, but still then Americans don’t care, even though it’s directly tied into domestic and economic issues. There’s a direct throughline between Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Republican’s anti democratic and anti global community positions.

I would just add that regardless of whether it's a midterm or general election, Democrats generally don't vote as often as Republicans. Correct me if I'm wrong, but if Democrats votes in equal percentages as Republicans, we'd be doing much better. I haven't checked the stats recently, but that's what I recall.

[HarthorneWingo]

Yanis Varoufakis is a professor of economics at the University of Athens. In 2015, he became the world’s most prominent opponent of austerity when, as finance minister of Greece, he refused to accept the terms of the loan agreement dictated by the Eurozone’s leaders. He wrote the 2017 book Adults in the Room: My Battle with Europe's Deep Establishment, and regained a parliamentary seat in 2019 as leader of MeRA25.

Here he proposes a way towards a withdrawal/peace agreement. It's complicated but draws from other "comparable" situations in history that he describes in some detail. He sees this as the only way out of this war before it turns into a quagmire.

Watch on YouTube

[Jethrobodine123]

The world is becoming more and more complicated every day.

Viktor Orban has just won re-election in Hungary. He will be speaking at CPAC, the largest American Conservative conference to be held in Budapest. Try to rap your heads around this, the Conservative Political Action Conference is being held in Hungary with Orban, no friend of democratic nations, a longtime supporter of Vladimir Putin, as the keynote speaker. Also, Hungary is a member of NATO so that could prove to be a challenge for the alliance going forward.

Marine Le Pen the far-right candidate in France is closing the gap with Emmanuel Macron ahead of the country's presidential election.

China and India, the two most populated countries in the world, are both unwilling to criticize Russia and take part in any sanctioning of said country.

Elon Musk buys 9.2% of twitter, joins the board. How long until Trump is reinstated?

Interesting times indeed.

J

[HarthorneWingo]

The world is becoming more and more complicated every day.

Viktor Orban has just won re-election in Hungary. He will be speaking at CPAC, the largest American Conservative conference to be held in Budapest. Try to rap your heads around this, the Conservative Political Action Conference is being held in Hungary with Orban, no friend of democratic nations, a longtime supporter of Vladimir Putin, as the keynote speaker. Also, Hungary is a member of NATO so that could prove to be a challenge for the alliance going forward.

Marine Le Pen the far-right candidate in France is closing the gap with Emmanuel Macron ahead of the country's presidential election.

China and India, the two most populated countries in the world, are both unwilling to criticize Russia and take part in any sanctioning of said country.

Elon Musk buys 9.2% of twitter, joins the board. How long until Trump is reinstated?

Interesting times indeed.

J

Indeed. Buckle up.

Read on Twitter

?s=21&t=wa0YlU7oTu2W28tZ-hFkvg

[Stannis]

Marine Le Pen the far-right candidate in France is closing the gap with Emmanuel Macron ahead of the country's presidential election.

things are getting in motion

just wait until winter when half of Europe is freezing their balls off. It will be x 10 worse.

[HarthorneWingo]

Marine Le Pen the far-right candidate in France is closing the gap with Emmanuel Macron ahead of the country's presidential election.

things are getting in motion

just wait until winter when half of Europe is freezing their balls off. It will be x 10 worse.

Do you really think that the French will go along with cozying up to China and Russia, et al.? I find that difficult to imagine.

The world needs to get a away from fossil fuel now anyhow if you saw the recent UN Report on Climate Change. We're basically on the brink.

[Stannis]

Marine Le Pen the far-right candidate in France is closing the gap with Emmanuel Macron ahead of the country's presidential election.

things are getting in motion

just wait until winter when half of Europe is freezing their balls off. It will be x 10 worse.

Do you really think that the French will go along with cozying up to China and Russia, et al.? I find that difficult to imagine.

The world needs to get a away from fossil fuel now anyhow if you saw the recent UN Report on Climate Change. We're basically on the brink.

Not immediately. But yes. Just read some on Marine Le Pen and you will see.

This is a marathon.

The world needs to get a away from fossil fuel now anyhow if you saw the recent UN Report on Climate Change. We're basically on the brink.

"We need to get away from fossil fuel" shouldn't be some kind of silver-lining in all of this. People still need to stay warm inside their homes. And they still gotta pay for gas going to work.

USA doesn't have the power grid to do so. It will be the next recession if we try to force it.

I think the average cost of an EV is over 50 grand. People can't afford that right now.

[Zenzibar]

Marine Le Pen the far-right candidate in France is closing the gap with Emmanuel Macron ahead of the country's presidential election.

things are getting in motion

just wait until winter when half of Europe is freezing their balls off. It will be x 10 worse.

Do you really think that the French will go along with cozying up to China and Russia, et al.? I find that difficult to imagine.

The world needs to get a away from fossil fuel now anyhow if you saw the recent UN Report on Climate Change. We're basically on the brink.

One thing here is clear. Once Russia and China discussed creating an alternate to SWIFT and de-dollarize some markets of the U.S. dollar, the West had no choice but to fire up the missiles.
Nothing will happen until the West's hypersonic technology has been delivered and deployed.

But indeed the clock of a global war is ticking, "We're Here".



From First Alert to Missile Launch Go to "From First Alert to Missile Launch"

(Requires Flash plugin)
From First Alert to Missile Launch
by Rick Groleau

At this very minute, operators at early-warning centers in both the U.S. and Russia are sitting in front of their displays, on the lookout for nuclear attack. In both countries, a total of 13,000 nuclear devices are deployed. Among these, about 4,400 sit within missiles on high-level alert, just minutes away from launch.

The reason for the high alert is to deter the other side from attacking. If a strike was ever initiated by one side, the other side could send off all of its missiles before being destroyed. Since this would result in the destruction of both countries, the attack—any attack—would be pointless.

This strategy may have had its place during the Cold War. But now that the Cold War is over, the "launch on warning" strategy should also end, or so argue defense experts such as Bruce Blair of the Center for Defense Information. The solution, these experts say, is for both sides to take nuclear-tipped missiles off hair-trigger alert. If we don't, we risk the possibility of an accidental launch, or of a false alarm triggering an all-out "counterattack." (Such a scenario has almost come to pass on four occasions—see False Alarms on the Nuclear Front.)

Compounding the problem of the launch-on-warning strategy is the time that each side has to respond to a threat. The U.S. has about 25 minutes to respond to an apparent attack. With Russia, the response time is ten minutes. (Russia has less time because U.S. submarines could fire missiles from the North Atlantic, whereas missiles headed to the U.S. would originate almost entirely from Russia's mainland.)

The following presentation simulates the sequence of events that would take place after Russian operators at early-warning centers first detect a threat. As you'll experience firsthand, the time presented for deciding whether or not to attack is short—frighteningly short when you consider the potential catastrophic outcome.

[Stannis]

Hungary has already been buying Russian oil with Rubles.

[br7knicks]

I really do not get the fear mongering about the mid-terms. The economy is strong and growing amidst inflation which anyone sensible knows is the result of factors outside of Biden’s control (shutting down a sketchy pipeline project was not one of them).

Biden is doing well considering the razor thin margins he has had to cope with. There were inevitably going to be some failures with Manchin Enema.

He did a 180 degree better job on covid than Trump and made it possible for everyone to get their shots free and easy.

He has been rebuilding the judiciary at a record pace.

Even some of his haters have to be impressed by his response to Putin.

Infrastructure has been partially addressed after four years of blah blah blah

The prosecution of insurrectionists is going to set a whole new tone for the mid-terms too. Any remaining fence-sitting Republicans are going to feel ashamed over the incontrovertible facts of treason committed by their representatives.

I’m not predicting anything, but I think the Democrats have proven to be the clear alternative to the profiteering anarchy offered by the proto-fascist element of the GOP.

And we know that if people are paying their bills they will vote with their pocketbooks. That’s why I expect Biden to go hard on securing oil supply in the next 3-6 months even if it will probably undermine his climate change pledges.

History suggests that the President’s party always loses in the midterms. Look at the district level data and some of the elections as the district level, Republicans are winning in Democratic districts. Not all of the GOP candidates will be trash like Margie Green and Matt Gaetz. Some of them will run like normal candidates.

Biden is doing a good job, but the problem is that the majority of voters don’t care. They don’t understand nuance and they’ll blame whoever is in the Whitehouse for whatever problem they’re facing at the moment. Biden led the country out of a pandemic, he led the recovery to low unemployment, he invested billions into the country, but voters Democrats have done a horrible job selling themselves, exposing the Republicans as a global danger, and getting more wins on the books.

The fact that the Republicans weren’t able to gerrymander a majority may have stopped some bleeding but the midterms don’t paint a positive picture. Foreign policy has been a strong area for Democrats, but still then Americans don’t care, even though it’s directly tied into domestic and economic issues. There’s a direct throughline between Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Republican’s anti democratic and anti global community positions.

I would just add that regardless of whether it's a midterm or general election, Democrats generally don't vote as often as Republicans. Correct me if I'm wrong, but if Democrats votes in equal percentages as Republicans, we'd be doing much better. I haven't checked the stats recently, but that's what I recall.

this is correct. minored in social sciences, with an emphasis in political science.

democrats outnumber republicans, (at least around 2005-2009 when i was in college), around 3:2.

there are a lot of crazy factors that play into when republicans end up winning any of the elections, including being as stupid as the weather playing a role.

[br7knicks]

Marine Le Pen the far-right candidate in France is closing the gap with Emmanuel Macron ahead of the country's presidential election.

things are getting in motion

just wait until winter when half of Europe is freezing their balls off. It will be x 10 worse.

Do you really think that the French will go along with cozying up to China and Russia, et al.? I find that difficult to imagine.

The world needs to get a away from fossil fuel now anyhow if you saw the recent UN Report on Climate Change. We're basically on the brink.

it'd be great if we did; i'd prefer it. only problem is, what is considered "green" in regards to vehicles, requires a **** load of fossil fuels (recharging stations) and other materials (making the batteries).


need to start pumping more money into innovation that is sustainable, and as close to fossil fuel free as possible.

[Clyde_Style]

History suggests that the President’s party always loses in the midterms. Look at the district level data and some of the elections as the district level, Republicans are winning in Democratic districts. Not all of the GOP candidates will be trash like Margie Green and Matt Gaetz. Some of them will run like normal candidates.

Biden is doing a good job, but the problem is that the majority of voters don’t care. They don’t understand nuance and they’ll blame whoever is in the Whitehouse for whatever problem they’re facing at the moment. Biden led the country out of a pandemic, he led the recovery to low unemployment, he invested billions into the country, but voters Democrats have done a horrible job selling themselves, exposing the Republicans as a global danger, and getting more wins on the books.

The fact that the Republicans weren’t able to gerrymander a majority may have stopped some bleeding but the midterms don’t paint a positive picture. Foreign policy has been a strong area for Democrats, but still then Americans don’t care, even though it’s directly tied into domestic and economic issues. There’s a direct throughline between Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Republican’s anti democratic and anti global community positions.

I would just add that regardless of whether it's a midterm or general election, Democrats generally don't vote as often as Republicans. Correct me if I'm wrong, but if Democrats votes in equal percentages as Republicans, we'd be doing much better. I haven't checked the stats recently, but that's what I recall.

this is correct. minored in social sciences, with an emphasis in political science.

democrats outnumber republicans, (at least around 2005-2009 when i was in college), around 3:2.

there are a lot of crazy factors that play into when republicans end up winning any of the elections, including being as stupid as the weather playing a role.

Yet none of our past predicted so much of the GOP leadership being batchit crazy. I think the playbook of the GOP was well established and the alt right methods have been working hard at brainwashing the public for half a century, but the one thing we can't predict is how swing voters are going to behave now.

I'm more than ready to accept that most Americans have their party allegiances etched in stone and they don't care if their representatives are fascists, but since so many electoral contests are so close that element of disgust at the GOP may play into this next election.

That is hardly a vote of confidence for the Democrats, but it could play to their advantage.