Posts by hollowdriver13

Nathan Evans78 said:

Dow Chemical just announced they’re looking to cut about 2,600 jobs to trim down costs, following a pretty rough end to 2022. The company reported a massive net loss of $5 billion for the fourth quarter alone. It's quite a staggering swing when you consider that during the same period last year, they were actually sitting on a net profit of nearly $950 million.

If I recall correctly, these folks fought against sanctions until their very last breath. ☕

They really could have stepped up alongside ExxonMobil and the other Western oil giants back when they had the chance. But of course, they didn't. They were too busy banking on the idea that they’d get to scoop up cheap shares from everyone else who was bailing out. Instead, ExxonMobil ended up cleaning out $6 billion from the joint venture's accounts, and then—surprise, surprise—they finally had to write off the entire Russian operation.

Now they’re whining about the losses, but honestly, they're just using it as an excuse to lay people off. They actually announced workforce reductions in Germany way before the war even started, all while sitting on $10 billion in cash meant for a brand-new facility in China.

If Germany is hurting because of these layoffs, well, they can go ahead and deal with the consequences of their own companies' greed.

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-...box=1676957132

So, South Korea basically just pulled the plug on their space program cooperation with Russia. Up until 2022, the Russians were pretty much the heavy hitters handling most of the Korean Space Agency's needs, but now they're pivoting hard toward NASA and various European Union projects, along with ramping up their own domestic programs.

Looks like Russia is still picking up some economic wins here and there.

Of course, even the morning news crew can't get it right—it’s all just pure yellow journalism at this point.

There's a ban on exporting chemical weapons because, if you use a little imagination, the chemicals used to make them are easily classified as "dual-use" substances.

https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/eu-natural-gas

Man, look at that. Natural gas just hit $49.5 per unit—honestly, that’s the lowest we’ve seen since back in September 2021.

Melissa Peterson19 said:I assume you're a young man, so listen closely: don't let yourself get sucked into fanatical assumptions and prejudices. During the most intense periods of the Cold War, the USSR was capable of producing nuclear bombs, nuclear icebreakers, and submarines; they conquered space and even downed a US spy U2 from 19 miles altitude and captured the pilot... yet here you are asking about tractors and other trivialities. Are you aware that their heavy machinery in Alaska starts up perfectly fine at -40°C? Do some research and try to grasp the sheer scale of that nation. They can survive a nuclear war, whereas others likely cannot; their resources are inexhaustible. This is a country with deep roots, tradition, and a culture that has contributed to civilization just as much as powerful European nations like Italians, Germans, Frenchmen, or Englishmen.

And don't worry, the collapse of Russia as a state is impossible. There will always emerge a leader strong enough to hold it together, whether through diplomacy or force, regardless of the cost. The West won't allow a collapse either, because letting the world's largest nuclear arsenal fall into unstable hands would create a situation that is impossible to control.

Don't fall for the pipe dreams of Putinophobes.

Modern-day Russia isn't the USSR.

North Korea built a nuke, and China did too back when they were still a backwater, so what's your point?

Their equipment runs at -40° just like Western gear, provided it's plugged into electric heaters so the oil and fuel don't freeze up. Try unplugging those heaters or shutting the engine off and letting it cool down, then see how well it starts.

No one's resources are infinite, and that includes both Russia and the US. On the flip side, having something buried in the ground that you can't actually extract to sell or use is worth pretty much zero.

It's true that Russia won't fall apart, nor does anyone actually want that to happen.

Sam Alvarez4 said:The impact of sanctions 😬...

An American company, Viatris, has suspended Viagra supplies to the Russian market.

The Russian Ministry of Health announced today that despite this, pharmacy stocks remain steady because they've already kicked off production of a local Russian version of Viagra.

Meanwhile, the deflationary situation over in Russia is just getting worse.......

https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/...79938696359941

Apparently, "the wealthy" need to start footing the bill for the government. The logic is that it’s just not right for some folks to be sitting on piles of cash while the national budget is struggling—though, hey, luckily for them, those sanctions aren't actually doing anything anyway.

If you haven't heard about Uravnilovka 2023 yet (maybe because you aren't deep enough in the loop or you're on the wrong side of the powers that be), buckle up. Here we come.

Nathan Evans78 said:

State assets, such as central bank reserves, present a whole host of complicated headaches because they fall under this concept of "sovereign immunity." Essentially, it’s the legal principle that one nation isn't going to just swoop in and seize another nation's property.

In an overview of current legislation published last June in the Capital Markets Law Journal, Paul B. Stephen noted that "under customary international law, sovereign immunity generally protects state assets from seizure."

Well, damn...

It’s not quite as black and white as the headlines make it out to be. There are some pretty wild legal loopholes that could potentially allow them to seize that cash—though personally, I doubt they'll pull the trigger on it, mostly because messing with those assets would start raising some serious questions about how safe capital actually is in the West.

For instance, over in the US, foreign sovereign immunity laws actually leave the door open to seizing assets from entities that have violated international law (like crossing Ukraine's borders). Plus, there's the anti-terrorism legislation that allows for asset seizure if a country gets flagged as a state sponsor of terrorism.

In Europe, though, it all really depends on which specific country holds the assets and whether those local courts lean toward absolute or restrictive immunity when dealing with foreign states.

https://twitter.com/TheDeadDistrict/...52mgayOaBULukQ

Everyone was so hyped up about the idea of Europe freezing over, but hey, karma's a real bitch. Now it’s the Russians who are shivering and struggling to pay their bills. They're out here complaining that the government didn't help them enough last year—heating went from like $40 a month to $150 this year. Talk about a headache.

It’s a good thing they’ve got those $600 billion in foreign reserves tucked away, though. I guess they need that cash to keep the champagne flowing for the elites and the inner circle, sort of like how North Korea operates.

dustyowl29 said:It’s kind of funny that Apple hasn't slapped any sanctions on Russia yet. From what I can see, Russian leaders seem pretty obsessed with using iPhones and Apple Watches...
Instead of picking up some Chinese phone or whatever.

https://www.politico.eu/article/appl...20of%20Ukraine.

Actually, Apple pulled out of Russia right alongside Samsung at the very start.
But man, you gotta admit, that obsession those Russians have with Western brands is pretty fascinating. 😬

Joshua Myers432 said:Food production has actually ramped up significantly since 2014. They’ll need to scale things up even more now, but smuggling will definitely play a role. It isn't easy to isolate a country that massive; it’s not North Korea.

Local seeds or Western corporate stuff?

Are we talking homegrown herbicides/insecticides/fertilizers or the usual Western chemical imports?

I mean, they aren't even capable of manufacturing fireproof flight suits for their pilots, so they have to rely on shell companies and gray-market smuggling just to get the gear needed for training.

https://twitter.com/deanwingrin/stat...40951291478016

Nathan Evans78 said:They’re working, sure, but in a very limited capacity. I don't think the people who drafted these sanctions ever imagined this whole situation would drag on for this long.
And while we're talking about "proof," let's look at the reality on the ground: they can still pull off enough low-tech production to keep their war machine chugging along. I remember just six months ago, everyone was predicting their factories would be sitting empty because they couldn't produce even a simple shell without Western inputs. Yet, here we are, watching them launch over a hundred high-tech missiles every few weeks—missiles that cost millions of dollars apiece.

First off, they haven't launched 100 missiles in months.

2. The most recent strike involved 57 launches: 34 Shaheds, 17 KH-55s, and 6 KH-101s.

Are you seriously calling a Shahed or a KH-55 "high-tech"? 😁

Running low on paint in the Russian Federation

https://www.vedomosti.ru/auto/articl...itsitom-kraski

Honestly, if you want a Lada these days, you're basically stuck picking between black, white, or green. That's pretty much the whole palette.

Nathan Evans78 said:

The United Kingdom was actually the only major advanced economy where the IMF predicted a recession this year, forecasting a GDP dip of 0.6 percent. It’s a tough spot to be in, especially with families constantly feeling the squeeze from rising costs of living—everything from energy bills to mortgage rates is just climbing. Fox News reports that the United Kingdom is set to fare even worse than any other developed nation—and that includes Russia!

☕

Plus, their issues aren't even about the war; they're dealing with internal messes stemming from the fallout of Brexit.

Russia just wrapped up the year with a massive $47 billion budget deficit

https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blog...onomy-in-2023/

Even with energy prices staying pretty high, that hole in their pockets just keeps getting deeper.

wiredseal7 said:Since they’re playing on their own home turf, it’s pretty unfortunate because they can basically bend the rules however they want. All they need to do is revoke visas for Russian diplomats (and maybe some Chinese ones too, just so they don't cause any trouble), and then they can start "militarizing" the UN, turning the whole thing into their own personal playground.

Since the US hasn't actually managed to get most countries on their side regarding this whole crisis against Russia, we might be looking at the end of the organization itself. At best, it’ll just turn into a hollow little "circle-jerk" for a handful of Western nations hanging out in New York City.
Ironic, really—those Bastionicar types, with Joe Biden leading the charge, will likely be the ones responsible for tearing the UN apart, much like how Adolf Hitler was responsible for the downfall of the League of Nations.

Yeah.

wiredseal7 said:https://artsakh.news/en/news/258076
Estonia wants to claim a 24 nm zone outside their coastal waters.
The plan—according to this source—is to run inspections on Russian civilian and *military* vessels passing through international waters in the Gulf of Finland.

😵
Tell me they're joking.

Nah, that's just total nonsense—classic clickbait from that portal that eventually went viral.

Even the former President of Estonia already weighed in, calling it "complete nonsense" and totally untrue.

https://mobile.twitter.com/IlvesToom...0N7y5t99b41GgA

I mean, those guys and the Finns aren't actually that crazy; doing something like that would be a straight-up "casus belli" under basically every international law out there.

https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/us-natural-gas

Man, look at this... gas prices just cratered to 55€ MWh.

Look, monarchies aren't actually crazy enough to just ditch the petrodollar. It’s basically the only real global currency that everyone—including Iran, that one guy who absolutely hates everything 😁 about the USA—actually accepts. It's the ultimate source of wealth for all of them.

And let's be real, Russia barely lasted three months before they were like, "Okay, fine, we were just messing around. Dollars and Euros are totally cool if you guys want to buy stuff."

dustytiger8 said:Any move by OPEC nations to stop trading oil in dollars effectively means immediate war for them... on one side, it will be America.

If all those petrodollars suddenly flood back into the USA, the country collapses instantly. We're talking about being drowned by inflation unlike anything seen in human history.

The only ones really talking nonsense about the petrodollar are the Saudis (who act like they're this massive superpower 😂), even though whenever things actually get dicey, they're running straight to D.C. to beg for help.

Now that Iran has scored some F-35s, I'm honestly curious if we'll start hearing all that noise about "abandoning" the petrodollar again.

On top of that, let's not forget how those few folks who thought using the yuan as a dollar alternative was a bright idea ended up having to buy dollars anyway just to keep their trade moving. 😁