Posts by electricsurfer47

Found this interesting

I'm honestly curious how Marilyn Monroe is going to spin this to make it look like a win for Russia 😁

The data shows thousands of millionaires are trying to flee Russia, and the mass exit of companies and oligarchs will likely make the long-term damage from the war on the Russian economy even worse, according to a statement released Friday by the British Ministry of Defense.
'Migration App data suggests that 15,000 Russian millionaires are likely already attempting to leave,' the British Ministry reported.

rowdytiger13 said:The European Commission is set to decide today whether to grant Ukraine candidate status for membership in the EU.
It’s a massive leap from being a candidate to actually joining the club, but this would still be incredibly fast—especially since it would be the first time a country under active war gets candidate status.

War or no war, Ukraine really needs this. Without the EU, Ukraine could end up becoming the next Venezuela. Once the fighting stops, the EU could help turn Ukraine into something more like Germany.

Noah Diaz said:Mdaaaa, they could do just about anything, BUT

India and China have been aligned with Russia for a long time now, mainly because they are part of this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shangh...n_Organisation

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), also known as the Shanghai Pact,[2] is a transcontinental political, economic, security, and military alliance. In terms of geographic scope and population, IT is The world's largest regional organization, covering approximately 60% of the area of Eurasia, 40% of the world population, and more than 30% of global GDP.[3]

Iran joins this year, while Turkey remains on the sidelines. 😁

Europe is well on its way to becoming the world's blind spot—or if you want a better term: a sewer.

The Chinese and Indians aren't about to go to war just to serve Russian interests. Besides, look at how much the Chinese and Indians actually get along:

It's nice that you're such an optimist, though. Nothing wrong with dreaming big... sort of like imagining some massive ancient empire expansion, then throwing in a bit of Pokémon for good measure.

What about all the medications, though? I remember someone mentioning how those sanctions were messing with getting medicine into Russia. Did they actually find some kind of workaround?? Are they just buying their meds from China now???

silentnomad7 said:It’s only been three months and suddenly there isn't even money left for budget phones around the $100 mark.

Those sanctions are really starting to shake things up...

Is the lack of cash actually the main reason???
To me, it feels more like Apple is pushing back because of the war?? I also heard Amazon is pulling out too, and don't even try telling me they aren't doing business just because they can't settle a single dollar bill for some small thing.

rowdymaker17 said:I am not entirely certain, though I certainly haven't noticed any widespread outrage regarding sanctions; if anything, the media coverage suggests people couldn't care less about them, as the actual anger seems directed toward the provision of NATO weaponry to Ukraine, which are two fundamentally distinct issues. Furthermore, this conflict has served as a rather embarrassing demonstration of just how mediocre our NATO hardware actually is, considering that a single Russian force equipped with antiquated machinery and whatever else they happen to have in their stockpiles is successfully repelling every conceivable combination of NATO arsenals thrown at them. Not to mention the supposedly advanced NATO radar systems that somehow failed to detect a drone launched by Ukraine toward our own capital city. It leads me to believe that the only thing our alliance is truly capable of accomplishing is engaging in endless, hollow rhetoric: "Blah blah blah, blah blah, blah, blah blah blah..." 👍

They saw it coming. Canada saw it and didn't pay attention, and it's the exact same story for Romania.
Everyone was staring at the sky like there wasn't a war happening right in front of them—everyone was just looking out for themselves. That's where these countries messed up; they didn't act like a unified NATO block, they just acted like individual players.
And we (our politicians) messed up too, thinking we wouldn't ever need this kind of stuff. We're definitely going to learn a hard lesson from this mess.

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gentleviper62 said:That’s beside the point. What matters is how much someone in Russia can actually buy with their own money.

Honestly, it feels like they're just artificially propping up the Dollar. It reminds me of when gas prices spike here in the States and the government steps in to subsidize everything to keep costs down.
The real kicker is just how long they can keep that charade going.

You also have to factor in that prices for everything have jumped two or three times over—some even more. Just because the Dollar looks stronger on paper doesn't mean people's purchasing power is the same as it used to be.

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darkdriver said:The Florida Keys, the Potomac River, the Mississippi... man, either we Americans are total aggressors and the bad guys here, or everyone around us is out to get us—and honestly, if we've been fighting wars for 25+ years without even realizing it, I don't know what to tell you.
Oh, wait, my bad—those are just territorial disputes, pretty much exactly like the stuff mentioned in that quoted post above.
I guess if someone doesn't understand American English well enough to see the difference between actual aggression/warfare and just disputing (for now) someone's right to a specific territory through diplomatic channels, that's really a failure of our school system rather than the country being called out.

So, should we just launch a military operation against Canada?

That way we could settle all those border issues in a heartbeat. All we’d need is a decent excuse for an attack so we don't end up looking like the aggressors.

For instance,
Right near the US border, there are tons of labs making biological weapons.
They're always targeting Americans there.
They want to ban the American language.
They use Nazi symbols all the time—oh my god, they're Nazis! And even if nobody actually stops them, it doesn't matter; we just have to keep painting them as Nazis through the media.

Why wouldn't we just march on St. Paul? We could probably take over all of Canada that way.

And we could immediately "Americanize" Canada.

----
This is just pure imagination, basically a hypothetical of what Putin is doing in Ukraine.

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darkdriver said:👍
The people over at Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase are such hardcore Russia-lovers...
I don't even know how else to explain their predictions about how the European Union is somehow going to come out "on top" in all of this.
Not to mention they actually had the nerve to write that Russia has already boosted its oil exports to India, and that there'll be plenty of buyers so their energy revenue won't drop at all.
Honestly, only a total Russia-sympathizer or a Russian agent could write something like that—there's really no other logical explanation.
As for the "Noah's Ark" crowd, I guess all they can do is keep their heads in the sand, screaming "you're lying!" and trying to comfort themselves with the idea that Russia will become China's workshop... which, let's be real, is just absolutely ridiculous and tragicomic, especially considering who's saying it.

It’s great that you're being an optimist, but hey, maybe mention Africa as a potential market too? Since apparently, African Americans might finally need gas to heat their homes because they aren't quite happy with the outdoor temperature lately.

Sure, India is probably getting more gas now, but like... how much exactly??? And where would they even store it? They don't have the storage facilities or the infrastructure to actually pipe gas into people's homes. Plus, they don't even have a massive industrial base that demands that much supply right now.
If the Russians actually want to ramp up sales to India, they’d probably need to invest a ton of money into the country first just to build the stuff needed to make that happen.

Anthony Taylor3 said:Let me reiterate that for you.

The Baltic republics lack strategic depth and aren't viable staging grounds for an invasion of Russia. Between the bottleneck in Lithuania at the Panama Canal and the enclosed nature of the Baltic Sea, there isn't enough room to station a force large enough to launch an offensive.
Ukraine is an entirely different matter.
And since 1999, Russia hasn't had much faith in the Western Bloc. Just try to imagine why.

Please, just take a closer look at the history of when Russia actually goes to war. The first and second wars in Chechnya. The war in Georgia. The fighting in Dagestan.
If it wasn't for NATO, Russia would probably just keep attacking and absorbing neighboring territory into the USA.
There really isn't any debate about that.

War isn't just fought with guns; it's political too. If they can't flip a country toward Russia through peaceful means, then Russia moves in militarily. They assassinated Viktor Yushchenko, and later they installed Viktor Yanukovych, who was supposed to turn Ukraine toward Russia against the will of the people. When that failed, things turned into a land grab, and they sent those buses full of unmarked soldiers to occupy Crimea.
The war didn't stop there, though. That's when the propaganda war started, all just to build up an excuse for the actual attack that kicked off in 2022.

rowdymaker17 said:

Peace and tranquility. As stated by:
Medvedev has completely lost his grip, spiraling into a total nervous breakdown that seems to have been ongoing since this whole mess first kicked off. What strikes me most about him is the sheer inconsistency; he used to carry himself as some sort of liberal figure—if you can even find anyone truly liberal within the Russian political landscape—and seemed genuinely inclined toward the West. Now, he’s just a shell of that former persona.
His argument essentially boils down to the claim that the West is solely to blame because they harbor a deep-seated resentment toward Russians just for being Russian. He points to the sanctions hitting the average person—someone who bears absolutely no responsibility for any of this—as his primary evidence, while conveniently glossing over the fact that those sanctions were originally designed to target the oligarchs first.
The decline in living standards won't hit a Dutchman and a Romanian with the same level of impact, primarily because they aren't starting from the same baseline. The EU is planning to roll out some non-repayable grants, and the US has already seen a portion of that funding hit the books... I wonder just how much assistance is actually going to materialize.

That is complete nonsense. When sanctions are actually deployed, their primary target is always the civilian population, because the goal is to break the political will by turning the people against their leadership and inciting a civil war—which, if we are being honest, is the exact tactic the USA employs during every single one of its foreign invasions. It is a standard operating procedure exclusively for Americans and the US government. Think about it: whenever the US decides to attack a nation, what is their first move? They bomb civilians and systematically destroy the very roads needed for humanitarian aid to arrive, all to ensure the defending military is too crippled to offer any meaningful resistance.

It is honestly baffling that after all these years, they still haven't grasped the fact that such tactics only serve to drive the opposition to fight even harder. If you look at the history, there are clear patterns of failure here. Take Japan, for instance; the regime essentially crushed their own spirit by wiping entire cities and civilian populations off the map in a matter of hours simply because they couldn't handle the pressure of the Japanese invasion and were facing total collapse. Then you have the situation in Vietnam, where the strategy was exclusively to target civilians in a desperate attempt to break the resistance of the Vietnam People's Army, an action that did nothing but intensify the conflict. The same pattern repeated in Korea, where the focus remained solely on bombing civilians and civilian infrastructure to try and shatter the resolve of the Korean Army. It’s a repetitive, failed cycle.

There simply aren't any sanctions in existence that actually target the state by going after individual oligarchs, because those oligarchs happen to control the very corporations and companies where the general civilian population earns their living. Furthermore, one must consider that Ukraine signed an agreement with Russia itself—an agreement witnessed by the USA, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and similar powers—whereby Russia was given its word and guaranteed by JAMCILI that Ukraine would adhere to the terms and avoid any breach of neutrality or disarmament. It is pure irony that Ukraine eventually decides, "To hell with it, we'll just do whatever we want," and suddenly everyone conveniently forgets who the guarantors and signatories actually were. Please, let’s not indulge in such fantasies. It is exactly like signing an employment contract with a new firm, failing to show up for work, getting fired for breaching the very contract you signed, and then having the audacity to sue the company for terminating you; only to have the company countersue you for damages caused, leaving you completely broke and destitute in the end. 🤣

The EU doesn't just hand out free money; they provide targeted funds. While they probably won't come sniffing around for the humanitarian side—think food, water, or medicine—everything else is essentially a loan, and Ukraine will have to find a way to pay that back eventually. I honestly cannot fathom how there are people walking around today thinking that trade unions or sovereign nations are some kind of charitable organizations that just toss billions at others and say, "Hey, don't worry about those billions of dollars, just enjoy them." What exactly do you think that money belongs to? Just to refresh your memory, that is taxpayer money being pulled directly from our own citizens, diverted from our domestic investments, our public sectors, and our social safety nets, only to be handed over to someone else. And make no mistake, that capital will HAVE to be returned because this isn't a gift; it’s a loan, and it comes with interest. This is nothing more than cold, hard commerce, stripped of any sort of moral compass.

Regarding the bolded portion, I find myself in agreement. Countries positioned at such a vast distance from the conflict won't feel even a ripple of the fallout, assuming there is any significant collapse to begin with.

Ukraine was already under Russia's thumb anyway. I mean, didn't the Russians try to pull the strings through Januković?
When that didn't work, they went for the heavy-handed approach—taking Crimea in 2014.

From what I hear, the push for NATO happened after that, because once Crimea was lost, nobody could trust their neighbor anymore.
And regarding the EU, it became pretty clear they had to choose between Russia or the EU. From what I can see, Ukraine was always leaning toward the EU rather than Russia. Honestly, let's see Russia try that with India... that would be something. India is a much tougher opponent than Ukraine.

Can someone help me out here? I heard Mexico signed some kind of gas deal with Russia the other day.

Here's my question: Mexico isn't part of the EU, but let's say almost everyone in Europe agrees to stop importing gas. Are we going to block their imports? Like I said, Mexico isn't in the EU, but they're pretty much surrounded by the EU.

So, what’s actually changed in dentistry lately?

My dentist started working on my tooth—she cleaned out the canals using this specialized needle thing, and then she packed something right inside the root. I went down a bit of a rabbit hole on YouTube and found this

She hasn't quite finished yet because she left the tip unfinished. So now I'm sitting here wondering if it's going to end up looking like the video, where they grind down the outer part of the tooth. Also, at first glance, it looks like something you'd have to pay extra for? Because I'm seeing her through my insurance provider.

I don't remember them doing this before—inserting stuff directly into the roots—so it kind of feels like the tooth might actually be stronger now than it was before.
Actually, I always thought that once you clean the nerves out of the roots, the tooth isn't "alive" anymore... like it starts to decay because it's not getting oxygen or whatever. Is that still true even with this new stuff? Will it still just rot away eventually?

I’d love to hear from any experienced dentists out there. How much has dental tech actually advanced, and where is the whole field heading?
People have been talking about growing teeth using stem cells for ages, but does it feel like that's still stuck in some experimental phase?

swiftjackal11 said:With the ruble finally gaining some ground, those pro-Russia folks can head over to Moscow and pick up a new car even cheaper than before the war started.

Can you even drive it out there? Like, get it registered and everything?

dustyowl29 said:Yeah, let's be real—most Chinese cars are basically just carbon copies of Japanese, Korean, or American models. I mean, Volvo is alright, but most of the rest aren't even good enough to make it onto export markets.
Would you actually buy a Chang’an?
Probably not.

I honestly think the Russians would just end up building those cars under some deal with the Chinese—you know, like a licensing thing—but they'd slap a Russian name on them, maybe something recognizable like Kamaz.

slyfox43 said:Word on the street was they recently rolled out a new batch of ten T-90Ms, though they were just sitting under tarps, unstrapped to the railcars, and didn't exactly scream "finished product." 🤣

Nobody really uses cast turrets anymore, not even the Russians. While those early T-90A and T-90S models featured cast designs, the more recent iterations have moved entirely to welded construction.

So what are the pros and cons of cast vs. welded?

The USSR and Russia feel pretty much like the same thing to me; back then, every single country in the USSR was just a puppet controlled by Russia.

Joshua Myers432 said:I’m not sure if you even grasp the purpose of NATO or why it was established in the first place. Let’s be honest: expanding NATO eastward and encircling Russia is nothing more than a blatant display of hostility toward them.

Sure, nations have every right to form military alliances as they see fit—but don't act surprised when you end up becoming dependent on hostile energy suppliers because of it. Honestly, the political maneuvering in Europe over the last century has been utterly nonsensical, leading directly to two World Wars on European soil, and now it looks like we're sprinting headlong into a third.

At the end of the day, "villain" and "hero" are just matters of perspective. And yes, I believe Russia is the bad guy here. That's my subjective take, just as yours is yours.

Let's not kid ourselves—without NATO, there would probably be way more wars happening in Europe, and Russia could easily annex more countries, just like the Soviet Union used to do. With NATO around, smaller nations actually have a fighting chance to defend themselves.

Carl Lee27 said:I honestly think the Poles are sitting pretty right now. I mean, they've got their own LNG terminal, and now they're linked up with that facility in Lithuania—well, once that gets busy serving the Baltic region—plus they'll have that pipeline heading toward Norway soon enough. As for the Bulgarians, I'm not totally certain about their status, at least not for the rest of this year. They have managed to secure some supply from the Azeri, and since this past summer, they've had that interconnect with the Greeks, and then early next year, they're getting that floating LNG terminal over in Alexandria, which should bring in about 6 billion cubic meters annually.

The United Kingdom is planning to build 8 nuclear power plants by 2030.
Germany could always just flip the switch on those nuclear plants they recently shut down when they made the big move toward solar and wind.

Some countries might find their salvation in electricity, especially since the US and Europe both have these massive plans to shift entirely to EVs anyway.

As for everyone else, the government really ought to step in with some tax breaks or incentives to make transitioning to other energy sources—like wood heating—a bit easier to manage.
Here in the States, we get about 40% from our own domestic sources, and we pull in some LNG because we have the infrastructure for it.
The US can definitely adapt to different energy sources; it doesn't all have to revolve around gas.

A bit of a heavy question here

Ever since the pandemic hit, we've been dealing with this massive chip shortage. I was just sitting here wondering... how is this actually going to play out for Russia versus the rest of the world? Like, if those sanctions on Russia really tighten up, does that mean there's suddenly more supply heading toward the EU?