Posts by Gregory Ramos3

I think I saw someone bringing up Kotoromanović earlier.

Man, you can just tell people are totally stunned by this ☕

- This is honestly one of the biggest deceptions since World War II. I seriously can't believe the Russians pulled a stunt like this.

loneskipper3 said:I was actually planning on posting this myself, but I scrolled through two pages just to see if anyone had beaten me to it. Remarkable. (And yes, I'm using the English word because, frankly, why bother with anything else?)

Absolutely wild 🙂

Whoa, looks like a few people over in Russia are finally starting to realize what a massive mess they've gotten themselves into:

https://mobile.twitter.com/JuliaDavi...70513909022720

You really gotta watch this (or just skip to the end), because man, he absolutely nailed it with that last response 🙏 🙏

View on twitter

So, I'm seeing some talk here claiming the EU has officially suspended issuing Russian visas.

Honestly, it feels a little bit out of left field to me, mostly because I haven't really seen the big news outlets making a massive deal out of it yet.🤔

Paul Anderson7 said:Sanctions tend to bite slowly, and by the time you actually feel the teeth sinking in, they’ve already done enough damage to make turning back impossible.

Then there's Putin, who seems hell-bent on ensuring history books credit him personally for expanding Russia's borders and playing the protector of Russians living in Ukraine. Nothing else really matters to him—not the collapse of the Russian economy, not widespread hunger, and certainly not some bleak future for his people. He’s carved out pieces of a neighboring country because he truly believes that's how he'll be remembered as one of the greatest figures in Russian history.
As for the Russians themselves? It feels like they're mostly just there to marvel at his ego; they could all suffer for all he cares, as long as there's someone left in the crowd to applaud.

👍

Exactly... It's just like a nasty tumor... once you finally realize it's there, it's basically game over.

gentlerider7 said:https://www.jeffsachs.org/newspaper-...yhzwxc5f72ancr

Look, we’re living through some seriously sketchy times, right? And honestly, if you ask me, instead of just following whatever Washington decides to do, European leaders really ought to be chasing after what actually matters—The true source of European security : not US hegemony. We need actual European security arrangements that respect The legitimate security interests of All European nations , certainly including Ukraine, while also keeping in mind that Russia isn't exactly thrilled about NATO pushing its way into the Black Sea. Europe should reflect on The fact that The non-enlargement of NATO and The implementation of The Minsk ii agreements would have averted this awful War in Ukraine. Seriously, at this point, if we want any hope for European and Global security, we've got to lean into diplomacy rather than just cranking up the military tension, don't you think?

Is Jeffrey Sachs just a total shill?

Honestly, it kind of reminds me of those folks back home here in the States who say, "well, if Ukraine hadn't fought back, there wouldn't be any deaths or war to begin with." 🙄

https://www.zeit.de/2022/27/ukraine-...kipedia.org%2F

AN APPEAL FROM:
Jakob Augstein (publicist), Richard A. Falk (professor of international law), Svenja Flasspöhler (philosopher), Thomas Faith (professor of agricultural economics), Josef Haslinger (writer), elisa Hoven (professor of criminal law), Alexander Kluge (filmmaker and author ), Christoph Menka (professor of philosophy), Wolfgang Merkel (professor of political science), Julian Nida-Rümelin (philosopher), Robert Pfaller (philosopher), Richard d. Precht (philosopher), Jeffrey Sachs (professor of economics), Michael von der Schulenburg (former UN diplomat), Edgar Selge (actor), Ilija Trojanow (writer), Erich Vad (retired general, former military adviser to Angela Merkel), Johannes Varwick (professor for international politics), Harald Welzer (social psychologist ), Yogeshwar (science journalist), Jul Zeh (writer)

Man, this is a total mindfuck...

The oxymoron of all oxymorons 🤣

Turbine Adventures Vol. 3

According to Bloomberg, ExxonMobil says they can't reopen their main pipeline to Europe, Nord Stream 1, this Saturday as originally planned because some fresh technical glitch popped up out of nowhere.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...echnical-issue

Just as you'd expect from 🤣 🤣

Good grief, I honestly can't tell if you just have zero reading comprehension skills or if you're just intentionally trying to wind me up here 🤦

My colleague was actually trying to point out that you’re implying certain people on this forum—the ones you don't quite see eye-to-eye with—think everything in the European Union is just sunshine and rainbows, rather than suggesting that *you* personally think it's all wonderful (which is pretty obvious given your usual takes and posts)🙄

In the real world ☕ :

Russian banks have bled out a whopping 1.5 trillion rubles (about $24.95 billion) during just the first six months of this year, according to a top official from the Russian central bank speaking with the business daily RBC on Friday.

Roughly two-thirds of those banking losses stem from foreign exchange operations, per Dmitry Tulin, who serves as the first deputy governor of the Russian central bank.

This actually marks the very first time since the invasion of Ukraine kicked off back in February that the Russian regulator has actually released any hard data regarding the banking sector's performance.

Wait, does anyone remember how many billions they actually had left in reserves after everything got frozen overseas? I think someone posted a figure about eight hundred pages ago somewhere 🤔

Jessica Peterson2 said:In Moscow, they have this super specific way they handle heating bills: we basically pay an average amount based on what we used last year for twelve months straight, and then right at the start of the next year, we get hit with a final bill that’s either a little extra or a little back in our pockets depending on the math.

Honestly, I don't think it's quite as unique as you're making it out to be.

Back home in the States, whether it's your electricity or your gas, you usually just get these bills every few months based on what the utility company thinks you're gonna use, and then at the end of the cycle, they send over a reconciliation to settle the difference between what you actually used versus what you paid—we just call it the "adjustment"—and then the whole thing starts all over again.

Since I really can't be bothered to mess around with that, and I definitely don't want to get blindsided by a massive bill because their estimates were totally unrealistic, I just take it upon myself to read my own meter, calculate exactly what I actually consumed, and just pay for what I used instead of blindly following whatever number they slapped on the bill.🙂

The inspection crew finally made it:

14:01
The inspectors have arrived

So, even with all the massive hurdles in their way, the IAEA inspection team actually managed to pull through and reach the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. According to the BBC, the plant is currently under Russian occupation, so the IAEA mission had to be escorted there by Russian forces.

The folks over at Energoatom confirmed the news about them arriving.

Michael Ortiz68 said:Which "latest estimates" are we talking about here?

Russian:

12.36

The Russian government just dialed back its forecast for the 2022 economic slump.

The Russian economy is looking at a contraction of just over two percent this year—which is actually way milder than everyone was bracing for—and inflation should be staying relatively chill too, according to Vice Prime Minister Andrej Belousov.

While the Russian economy has definitely taken some hits from all those massive sanctions Western nations slapped on them following the invasion of Ukraine, it turns out the fallout isn't quite as catastrophic as the early doomsday scenarios suggested, per Reuters.

On Monday, Belousov mentioned that Russian GDP will drop by "a little more than two percent" this year, and they’re aiming for no more than a one percent dip in 2023.

I mean, the Russians have been pretty consistent with their story so far, so why wouldn't we just take them at their word instead of worrying about all those fancy independent analyses? It's all just a bunch of nonsense anyway, haha! ☕

goldenowl73 said:Honestly, I think we should rename Canadian Street here in Washington, D.C. to Ukraine Street.

Well, hey now, there’s already a Ukrainian street over in Quote 🤷

gentlerider7 said:Straight from the Russian newspapers—the Chechen leader is basically saying all he needs is one shot at finishing this "special operation" and it'll be wrapped up in no time:

"The Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov claims he’s gone to the Russian President Vladimir Putin to ask for the green light to finally wrap up the special military operation. He was venting about it on his Telegram channel.

“I am asking, and I am seriously pleading with the commander-in-chief to just give us the chance to finish this special operation once and for all instead of dragging it out forever. Look, if 15% of the global community is against us, that doesn't mean the whole damn world is standing against us. We can deal with that 15% pretty quickly; it's absolutely no big deal,” he said.

Kadyrov also threw in that we've been "fighting our entire lives, so we know exactly what we're doing."

Man, I can tell someone was paying way too much attention to math class back in school 🤣 🤣

goldenowl73 said:Man, Solovyov just had another massive meltdown on air. This time he’s gone after Scholz, actually imitating Hitler! It’s honestly wild how the average Russian TV viewer just swallows this stuff whole without blinking. I really hope someone clips this and pushes it out to the major news networks over in Germany today, because let's be real—any shred of intelligence left in Moscow just checked out for the night.

https://twitter.com/wartranslated/st...RczX3sek5-6aDA

What an idiot, honestly. If we’re going by that logic, every single president imitates Hitler at some point. 🤦

Like for example:

Honestly, I’m totally lost here—how big of a drop are we actually looking at by the end of this?

I was scrolling through some news site earlier and saw they were reporting a 2% annual increase for the BDI in the first quarter, but then it swung to a 4% annual decline for the half-year mark.
I’ll be the first to admit I don't know the first thing about this kind of nonsense, but if you just look at the logic, if this trend keeps up through the end of the year, that BDI drop should end up being way more significant than just 4%. 🤔

Larry Fox5 said:Let’s be real here—so far, these sanctions aren't doing a damn thing. We're talking six months in already...
The whole grand plan was that the sanctions would trigger a revolt from the American elite—you know, those oligarchs with their frozen bank accounts everywhere—and then eventually the public would follow suit.
The idea was that a critical mass would finally form and actually kick Putin out of power. But instead? His grip just tightened through pure terror, and that whole theory has completely fallen apart.

At this rate, this miserable status quo and this endless, drawn-out war will probably drag on until he dies—because there is zero chance he’s ever just stepping down on his own...

Yeah, there isn't much of a visible impact right now. But man, their reserves are getting absolutely hammered; I've already seen a few articles estimating how much longer those funds can actually last. Plus, they've pretty much lost the ability to borrow from abroad to soften the blow of the downturn.

Now it just comes down to who blinks first and cracks under the pressure. Or, if you want to put it in poker terms, Putin is raising the stakes while the West is footing the bill, and whoever folds first loses everything on the table.

I’d try to paint a picture of it like this...

Imagine you’ve got this nasty case of gangrene starting on one of your fingers, and it just keeps creeping up your hand. You try every little pill and ointment you can find to stop it, but nothing works—it just keeps spreading. A few years go by, and now the whole hand is infected, and it's racing toward your elbow
Eventually, you realize life isn't a joke and no amount of doctors or medicine is going to fix this, so you just have to make the tough call and amputate below the elbow.
Sure, in that exact moment, things suck—you’re dealing with the pain and all those immediate side effects. But looking at the big picture? You saved your own life, and you'll get a prosthetic that lets you get back to living a normal, functional life.

That’s pretty much how I’m viewing this whole mess with the Russia sanctions. Yeah, we’re going to feel the sting while the energy situation stabilizes, but honestly, any other alternative would have been way worse in the long run. 😬

Just to add a little more flair to the metaphor: you don't untie Gordian knots, you just cut right through them.

Arthur Miller7 said:It wouldn't be over because Putin would just threaten to turn off the taps if they kept helping Ukraine on a scale where he might actually lose. Do you honestly believe he wouldn't cut or shut off the gas if he started losing the war?

He'd do exactly what he's doing now. Any Western move he doesn't like would be met with energy blackmail. No matter how stupid the West thinks they are, they aren't *that* stupid. When things kicked off in 2014, heads started turning. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.

Actually, I think it works the other way around:

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. (And honestly, fool me three times, we’re both just looking pretty silly at that point!)

Back to the topic at hand:

The Hague in the Netherlands just announced they're going to ask for a temporary waiver on those European Union sanctions against Russia, all while they scramble to find a new gas supplier to step in and replace ExxonMobil.

https://www.nytimes.com/news/zelensky-...-child-856124

Timothy Williams5 said:I finally get it now—that hit list for NATO officers is sitting right there on the McDonald's servers. 👍

Man, 🤣 🤣

Nah, what you actually meant was that there's a DNS record on the McDonald's servers that redirects you to an external server containing that NATO officer hit list. 😉

But anyway, let's drop this stuff and just chat about something else entirely. 🙂

Matthew Young35 said:I’ve been following this casually, but did someone here mix up the domain and the hosting?
What exactly is the connection between a domain and an IP address?
(I mean, obviously they're linked, but you know what I'm getting at... a domain and an IP address aren't the same thing.)

They were pointing to the IP address that the TLD resolves to, which happens to be located at the NATO headquarters in Brussels.

Even though that's technically wrong, since the links on the page actually point to a subdomain that our buddy mentioned above, which is also hosted on Cloudflare and resolves to a completely different IP.

It's all connected because those DNS records have to point you toward the specific IP where the IIS (the actual site) lives, or to the load balancer sitting in front of the server farm...
(I guess they just gave out the wrong info, kind of like if someone gave me the wrong IP for a major US site like Yahoo or something)

Edit: actually, let me try a better example to make it click..

Take McDonald's, for instance—they have their own zone for mcd.com. For that zone, the SoA DNS servers live right there within McDonald's infrastructure. There are hundreds of web apps out there that belong to McDonald's, but most of them are built by various third-party vendors or services and are hosted externally, even though the records themselves are kept in that specific zone inside McDonald's.

If you run an nslookup on app.mcd.com, you're going to get the IP address of where that application or website is actually being hosted.

But if you run an nslookup for mcd.com, you'll get the IP addresses of the McDonald's DNS servers where that entire zone is managed.

Hopefully, I didn't make that sound way more complicated than it needs to be. 😬

The Zaporizhzhia plant is totally out of commission right now:

A fire broke out in some ash pits at a coal power plant sitting right near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear facility—which, by the way, is the biggest one in all of Europe. The flames actually managed to wreck the power lines that link the whole nuclear plant to the Ukrainian electrical grid.

So, basically, the last two active reactors over at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear site—which is currently under Russian occupation—went dark this Thursday because that nearby fire messed up the overhead power lines, according to what Energoatom, the state energy company in Ukraine, put out there.