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Thread: Russian invasion of Ukraine discussion

  1. #1051
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    ‘Army’ Larger Than Russia’s Invasion Force Likely Fled Mobilization

    https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zon...ce=msnarticles

    The conscripts in the video below were dumped in a snowy field with no officers, uniforms, weapons, or direction.
    Religion is doing what you are told no matter what is right. Morality is doing what is right no matter what you are told...

  2. #1052
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    Quote Originally Posted by Wake27 View Post
    I haven’t actually read NATO’s governing documents but from what I know, a country at war can not join NATO, for obvious reasons. UKR can apply all they want, that doesn’t make it worth anything.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
    My understanding as well

  3. #1053
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    Gas starts flowing to Poland through new Baltic Pipe pipeline

    https://www.reuters.com/markets/euro...rce=reddit.com

    WARSAW, Oct 1 (Reuters) - Gas started flowing to Poland through the new Baltic Pipe pipeline from Norway via Denmark and the Baltic Sea on Saturday morning, Polish gas pipeline operator Gaz-System said.

    The pipeline is at the centre of Poland's strategy to diversify its gas supplies away from Russia that began years before Moscow's February invasion of Ukraine triggered a global energy crisis.
    Religion is doing what you are told no matter what is right. Morality is doing what is right no matter what you are told...

  4. #1054
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    From a comment on YT:


    Zeis Siez
    4 days ago
    It could well be a sabotage. Former US grand strategist Zbignew Brzezinski said: “It is IMPERATIVE that no Eurasian challenger emerges capable of dominating Eurasia and thus of also challenging America”. Because the US has just 4% of the world’s population, and it’s isolated from the Eurasia continent which has 70% of the world’s population, or 87% with Africa included. Defensively, it’s an advantage to the US, but economically, it’s a handicap. That’s why economically, Eurasia is a competitor to the US and the Euro is a threat to the dollar.
    How does the US with an isolated and just 4% of world’s population maintain its position as the world’s biggest economy? The dollar must stay as the world’s reserve currency. This allows the size of the US economy to be highly scaled up, instead of being sized according to the fundamentals.

    To be the world’s reserve currency, the dollar must be circulated in the world. The US created a huge consumption-based economy and shifted manufacturing outside, so that dollars flow out of the US to product suppliers like China or Japan. To make products, China and Japan need energy. The US created the Petrol-dollar scheme, so that dollar is circulated to Saudi. With the US stock and financial market much more lucrative than other countries, the dollars from Saudi are attracted back to the US. Money printed in the US to exchange for goods from outside eventually ends up with the Wall Streets, where the rich gets richer. And that completes the cycle of circulation of the dollars.

    The American Dream attracted top talents around the world to strengthen the US’ science and technology sectors, and a technological gap is maintained between the US and other major economy like China, so that the US benefits from highly lucrative high-tech product/patent exports, while low profit manufacturing sector is outsourced to China and Vietnam. This is why world leader in 5G, Huawei, are banned in 2019.

    If China or Japan bring back all the dollars and exchange to their local currencies, it inflates the local currencies, making their exports expensive. So, China and Japan use some of the dollars to buy US debts (treasury bonds). That’s why the US, a rich country, is in-debt to China which has just 1/5th of the US’ GDP per capita.

    And by holding US treasury bills, China and Japan have to support the US dollar, for if the US dollar collapses, their hard earn money would become worthless. After Obama’s “Pivot to Asia” in 2011, which aimed to contain China, China introduced the Belt and Road Initiatives (BRI) in 2013 and diverted some of the dollars into it to reduce the risk of putting all eggs in one basket, and hoping that after these countries are developed, China would have a wider trade market.

    With a huge population, if Asia and Africa develop rapidly, the share of the US’ economy shrinks, then the Euro could replace it as the world’s reserve currency. When that happens, the US would no longer be able to print money out of nothing without a hyper inflation like Venezuela. Then the size of the US economy has to fall back to the fundamentals, which today is quite a lot smaller than the inflated economy. That’s why no country in Eurasia is allowed to catch up with the US’ economy. When Japan was catching up fast on the US in the 1980s, they were knocked down to a three decade stagnancy by appreciating the Japanese Yen. And in the last 30 years, the US created conflicts, wars and color revolutions in the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa to destabilise the Eurasia-Africa supercontinent.

    When the US prints a lot of money, other countries’ foreign reserves in dollars shrink in value. Furthermore, to prevent exports to the US becoming expensive, these countries have to print money too, which devalues the savings of the people, and causing inflations in these countries. It’s estimated that our savings devalue by 6-9% per year after the abolishment of the gold-backed Bretton Woods system, after which the US prints money based on just the creditability of the dollar.

    North America is relatively easy to defend, yet the US has a military budget more than the total of the next 9 countries in the top 10, to protect the dollar with its 800 military bases worldwide.

    For the record, the US had no mercy on threats to the dollar:
    * In 2000 Saddam Hussein said he would start selling oil in Euros not Dollars.
    >> Saddam was hanged by the US.
    * In 2009 Gaddafi made Libya export oil in Gold Dinars, not in dollar or Euro.
    >> Gaddafi was killed by US-backed NTC.
    * Syria had an independent Central Bank NOT under Federal Reserve controlled Bank of International Settlements.
    >> Obama attempted to overthrow Bashar al-Assad.
    * Iran has been trading oil in currencies other than US dollars since 2011.
    >> Iran was being sanctioned by the US.
    * After being sanctioned in 2014, Putin started to trade in non-dollar. In 2019, Putin (1) completely ditched dollars in oil trades, (2) sold almost all the US treasury bonds, (3) is now the forerunner in de-dollarization.
    >> The US tried to topple Putin by supporting Alexei Navalny. And now the Ukraine war to weaken Russia.
    * China (1) introduced the BRI in 2013 which helps many countries to develop and speed up the integration of Eurasia, (2) used non-dollar in oil trades with Iran and Russia, (3) introduced the CIPS, an alternative to the West’s SWIFT system which has been weaponized by America, (4) China’s economy and high technology are catching up fast.
    >> China has become the US’ #1 target.

    If a country supports the dollar, it’s being looted; if a country doesn’t support the dollar, the government is changed by the US. This is financial slavery.

    The Fed has printed 80% of all US dollars in existence since Jan 2020. There was $4.02 trillion dollars in circulation at the beginning of 2020. The number reached $20.08 trillion by Oct 2021. This amounted to an astronomical 30 trillions debt. Coupled with a global rising urge to diversify into non-dollar reserves caused by the US’ sanctions to 39 countries, the dollar is in a creditability crisis. This is the major development which shapes geopolitics in the world today.

    The US cannot have direct wars with Russia and China because they are nuclear armed. Proxy wars put the battlefields outside of the US, and the US would looked like an outsider. Remember in the 1980s, the US supported the Afghan Mujaheddin in a proxy war against the USSR. Russia and China have clearly defined their redlines. US would use its collaborators Zelensky and Tsai to push across the redlines to trigger the wars, and it would sell weapons to its allies in NATO and AUKUS, and get them to support the wars.

    After the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, US President Bill Clinton had two choices: (a) to integrate Russia into Europe and abolish NATO, OR, (b) to slowly alienate Russia to keep Russia and Europe divided. Clinton chose the latter, because if there’s no more Russia “threat”, there would be no more NATO to control Europe. As the first NATO Secretary General, Lionel Ismay described the military role of NATO: “To keep America IN, to keep Russia OUT, to keep Germany (Europe) DOWN”. NATO also allows the US to place missiles in Europe, so if a war break out in Europe, missiles would be flying between Moscow the East and Lisbon in the West, while the US remains safe across the Atlantic.

    And politically, the EU is an American creation, as much as a European one. It’s much easier for Washington to control ruling elites at Brussels than having to control all politicians in Europe. The EU is used an ally or a sacrificial depending on the geopolitical needs of Washington.

    The proxy war in Ukraine: 1.Divided Europe from Russia and divided Eurasia. 2.Killed Nord Stream II gas pipeline and German firm Energie Baden-Wuerttemberg has signed up for gas from America Venture Global LNG for 20 years. The US gained control over energy supply to Europe. 3.Created continuity for the Military Industrial Complex after pulling out of Afghanistan. 4.Most importantly, the war strengthened the dollar. Dollar against Euro is now the highest since NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia in Mar 1999 (happened two months after the official launch of Euro as the currency of the EU, which threatened the dollar). A strong dollar together with the Fed’s interest rise in 2022 cause capitals from all over the world to flow into the US’ economy, while collapsing other economies, like Sri Lanka.

    Else where, two months after ignoring a warning from Washington against his visit to Moscow, highly popular Imran Khan was ousted from the PM post of Pakistan on 9 Apr 2022. A month after ignoring Biden’s demand to increase oil production, secretary-general of OPEC, Mohammad Barkindo died unexpectedly on July 6 2022.

    The US isn’t relinquishing its privilege to loot. Remember after WW II, Europe and Asia were devastated, but the US emerged as the world leader and the dollar became the world’s reserve currency.
    Last edited by georgeib; 10-01-22 at 09:03.
    “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” -Augustine

  5. #1055
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    Ukraine forces enter Lyman, Kyiv says Russian troops surrounded

    https://www.reuters.com/world/europe...rce=reddit.com
    Religion is doing what you are told no matter what is right. Morality is doing what is right no matter what you are told...

  6. #1056
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    good post georgeib.

    We are going to print our way to prosperity until we can't...

    And that day is coming. Going to royally suck for US when that day arrives.

  7. #1057
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    Quote Originally Posted by The Dumb Gun Collector View Post

    Anyhoo, they aren't going to be joining NATO anytime soon unless the Ukrainians can get NATO to use the same vote counters that the Russians use in the annexed areas.
    Yup. Only our elections are truly free, fair and 'counted correctly'.

    Sarcasm off now.

  8. #1058
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    Quote Originally Posted by georgeib View Post

    The US isn’t relinquishing its privilege to loot. Remember after WW II, Europe and Asia were devastated, but the US emerged as the world leader and the dollar became the world’s reserve currency.
    A good read. I can't however confirm the accuracy of all that. I am happy to see the US has made various moves to continue its dominance for the foreseeable future, and the world is ultimately better off for it keeping Russia China as contained as possible. Anyone who thinks the US treats other nations badly and "loots" them, needs to take a look at what happens with the Russians or Chinese do their style of "business." If one wants to view it from the "lesser of evils" POV, that's fine by me. Cold war never ended, Communism and related still not just our enemies, but the enemies of all nations and humanity, and will only fill/take advantage of any vacuum created by the US if/when its influence - economically and or military - and the world will be a far darker place.

    Such articles make some good points, the US is far from perfect, could and should do a better job in various areas (1), but also fails to see the forest for the trees.

    The main problem with articles like that which focuses on US hegemony, it's one sided vs examining the alternatives, net effect of US losing ground, zero sum game related issues as to what happens when/if the the US does not remain the the dominant power.

    Obviously, if you're the leader or power elite from those countries, you resent the US for keeping you under its far reach. Tough chit is my response to that.

    (1) Q, what could and should the US do to improve on that without creating a vacuum filled by China or Russia that would benefit the world and US? I'm open to discussion/learning there.
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  9. #1059
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    U.S. grapples with risk of nuclear war over Ukraine

    https://www.axios.com/2022/10/01/put...weapons-threat

    Russia should use low-yield nuclear weapon after new defeat in Ukraine

    https://www.reuters.com/world/europe...rce=reddit.com
    Last edited by tn1911; 10-01-22 at 11:40.
    Religion is doing what you are told no matter what is right. Morality is doing what is right no matter what you are told...

  10. #1060
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    Russian MoD has announced that Russian forces have withdrawn from Lyman in Ukraine.

    https://twitter.com/Global_Mil_Info/...KOq_k53Gw&s=19
    Religion is doing what you are told no matter what is right. Morality is doing what is right no matter what you are told...

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