Posts by analogbear5

It’s basically a Chinese design built under license—kind of like how they used to make those old Chevys.

Anyway, we’re missing some key voices on this forum: people from Brazil, India, China, and South Africa.

Instead, we’ve got the Canadian Foreign Minister acting as their spokesperson.

wiredseal7 said:Antony Blinken admitted sanctions actually work
https://twitter.com/Sprinter99880/st...307536901?s=20

but they’re basically a boomerang—we've dumped $700 billion in stimulus and aid out there—sourced from Microsoft-style coffers—so now we're just sitting here dealing with the inflation.

Bad translation from Russian to English. Borrell never actually said that.

steelfox98 said:Let’s look at the other side of the coin—how the rest of the world actually views things. Close Western allies, like those Gulf monarchies, are pivoting hard toward China and Russia. Israel is playing dumb, and Mexico is openly pushing back against American policy. South Americans were just waiting for their moment; they haven't forgotten decades of CIA-related terrorism. Even Africa still views itself as a colony of the European Union, while maintaining excellent ties with Russia dating back to the USSR era, where they enjoyed much more equal footing than Western politics ever allowed. It’s hardly surprising that they are shedding European influence so fast; look at how French troops were recently kicked out of several countries. Then there's this whole circus regarding Ukrainian grain, supposedly meant to "save starving Africans," yet it mostly just ends up in Europe while every effort is made to block shipments from Russia. I highly doubt African nations are impressed by such hypocrisy.
After over a year of pressure, not a single non-Western nation has joined the sanctions. In fact, what some people on this forum predicted is actually happening: the rise of the petro-yuan. It doesn't take a genius to see how the petro-dollar serves as America's primary lever of coercion, paired with endless wars and the destruction of any nation that won't fall in line. Immediately following that shift, Argentina negotiated a swap into yuan, Egypt made its announcement, India moved to bilateral exchanges, and Brazil...

It’s no wonder a clueless guy like Kirby only makes matters worse with his idiotic statements:

US national Security Council spokesman John Kirby accused lula of "parroting Russian and Chinese propaganda".

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-65307553

Decades of the Western philosophy "what is permitted to Jupiter is not permitted to the bull" are finally coming due, and the events in Ukraine are the catalyst accelerating everything. This is especially true regarding sanctions, because the rest of the world is rightfully asking, "Are we next?" I recently read somewhere that a third of all countries are currently under some form of sanctions; I'll try to find the link.

Somebody from a developing country said to me, 'what we get from China is an airport. What we get from the United States is a lecture.

https://twitter.com/LHSummers/status...67949297700872

The British left railways and infrastructure all over their empire—but let’s be real, it wasn't about local growth; it was about exploitation.

And why's that?

Nancy Gomez26 said:It appears they intend to reinvest their oil revenues domestically rather than dumping it all into US Treasuries. In theory, that isn't necessarily a bad move. However, I see an excessive obsession with pouring money into concrete and infrastructure projects, while the actual investment in manufacturing seems disproportionately thin.

I'm not even getting into whether the investment makes sense—that's beside the point. The real issue is looking at the numbers putting massive pressure on their budget. Which means—and I'll say this again—they aren't cutting production to help out the Russians like the post I'm replying to suggests; they're doing it for their own sake.

Not sure where you got the idea that the Saudis are buying up U.S. Treasuries when they’ve actually been selling them more than buying them lately. Just for context, Ireland holds about 2.5 times more U.S. Treasuries in its fund than Saudi Arabia does.

nimbleviper3 said:This.
If there's smoke, there's fire. Hopefully, the European Union will finally come to its senses.

And how exactly is the European Union supposed to "wake up"?

Nancy Gomez26 said:Which project specifically are we discussing?

Saudi Vision 2030.

Once the Russian GDP actually crawls back to where it sat in 2013, then you can start bragging about growth. To hit those "good old days" levels this year, they’d need a massive 29% jump.

And that’s all assuming the most productive part of the population—the guys actually driving the economic recovery—doesn't just keep dying off.

Whatever, if that's how you see it, just dump your savings into the Russian economy. I'm sure they'll appreciate the capital injection—and hey, you might actually see a return. Win-win.

Must be tough for you.

The Saudis are basically just trying to bail themselves out because that utopian megaproject they dreamed up isn't exactly cheap.

Topic:
Famous artists covering folk songs and ballads

1. The Animals - The house of The Rising Sun
2. Loreena McKennitt / Cedric Smith – Carrighfergus

Yeah.

The ruble’s been sliding against other currencies since early December—not exactly great news. It makes imports into Russia pricier while exports lose their edge. Meanwhile, Chinese people and Indian people are just sitting back, rubbing their hands together.

Noah Diaz said:Misunderstanding? Misunderstanding what? Everything about this is crystal clear.

Up until now, you guys were busy comparing Russia to Spain using this PDF. Now that it doesn't fit your narrative anymore, suddenly we have to compare them to NATO or the EU.

I shut down those little playground games of yours from the very beginning by laying out the actual frameworks:

SCO, BRICS and BRI

Frankly, these "sanctions" are about as effective as a screen door on a submarine. 🤣

Forget Chinese achievements—we already know they're a superpower. They invested $42 billion globally last year. Give me something Russian.

Let me kick things off: hard liquor sales went up 7.5% last year, hitting 6.8 liters per capita. So yeah, there's definitely a reason to celebrate.

Noah Diaz said:Many people are familiar with the term, which carries several layers of meaning. Even the ancient Romans understood the concept of 'cloaca maxima'..

https://www.britannica.com/
cloaca (Latin: cloaca).

1. In Roman times, an underground sewer system used to drain waste and wastewater.

2. Figuratively, a collection point for filth; the moral decay of a specific social environment.

3. In zoology → a common cavity for waste excretion.

Neoliberal? 🤣

Regarding this topic, that crowd basically botched the sanctions on Russia and managed to turn a tidy profit off the scraps left behind in the European Union. Beyond that, you have to consider this long-term political-economic framework:

Belt and Road Initiative

Of course, I'm probably just talking to a brick wall here. No matter how many years pass, I'll still be met with the same look of utter bewilderment and ignorance.

http://www.americanforum.com/showpost.php?p=9...postcount=9129

Right now, BRENT is at ~$80.

Based on the formula mentioned above, the Russians are selling/delivering:

ESPO: ~$73
URAL: ~$70

Sure, people can daydream about a massive project stretching from China to Europe—passing through Russia. But do you actually know how much China invested in the Russian portion of that last year? Let me help you out: the number is somewhere between 1 and -1.

On the flip side, moving in a logical direction via Kazakhstan-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan-Turkmenistan-Iran-Turkey there is actual movement.

BRI investments in Iraq: $10.5 billion (2021)
BRI investments in Saudi Arabia: $5.5 billion—cooperation is especially vital given the Saudi Vision 2030 project.
In the other 147 countries, Chinese investments total: $28.4 billion.

Russia, let me repeat: zero. And then there's Sri Lanka, which went bankrupt, but hey, let's not get bogged down in the negatives right now.

Beyond that, trading in Chinese currency has spiked significantly—instead of petrodollars, Russia is stacking up petroyuan. Last December, the Russian National Wealth Fund decided that 60% of assets would be held in yuan.)

This means Russian trade won't rely on the dollar rate, but rather on decisions made by the Chinese Communist Party and the People's Bank of China. And even then, it'll still loop back to the US dollar because the yuan's stability is largely backed by Chinese dollar reserves.

At the end of the day, Russia can only count on real, concrete help from China—and China knows it.

Noah Diaz said:

goldenorca11 Asks:
The sanctions really hit the European Union where it hurts most: exactly when they were forced to ditch their long-time gas and oil suppliers. That’s when prices truly lost their minds.
Prices have stabilized, so that influence has vanished.

You freeze prices and pretend inflation or a crisis doesn't exist. You panic and start throwing money out of helicopters, hoping the working class won't revolt over the cost of food and fuel, all while lying to everyone—including yourself—every single day. Look, we can play this delusional game where everything is fine and we’re all living the dream, BUT I lived through the collapse of the old regime in the South, and I know exactly what's actually happening here and exactly where this leads.

Let’s be real: those sanctions definitely hit the European Union, and there’s no point in pretending otherwise. But we have to look at the scale here. The EU is a massive bloc of 447 million people, while Russia only has 143 million. That means the EU has three times the population. Beyond just numbers, the technological gap between the two is immeasurable. Look at ASML in the Netherlands—they possess technology that even the US can't match!

The coalition backing Russia—the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation + BRICS—is actually a bit larger than the European Union. More importantly, they are the primary suppliers of goods and resources to those idiots. They are quite literally sawing off the very branch they’re sitting on.

The European Union is headed for a massive decline over the coming decades. The center of global power is shifting back to where it belongs: Asia. Eventually, the EU will officially become nothing more than the world's dumping ground.

Russia:
The energy market shift has hit Russia hard. They’re pumping out more oil and gas than ever, yet their revenue is actually shrinking compared to what they used to pull in. Basically, they're selling their energy for peanuts right now.

They’re selling at a discount, but don't be fooled—that's a distraction. Most of these are being moved well above a $60 cap, and I’ve already laid out exactly how that pricing formula works.

And what exactly have these neoliberal organizations actually achieved in their history? Give me something concrete—like an actual trade agreement or a customs union.

Joshua Myers432 said:Half of your questions don't have an answer because economics isn't an exact science (despite what some people claim), and the other half feels like you're just flailing, trying to prove that sanctions actually matter and haven't had any impact on the chaos we've seen over the last few weeks. You aren't entirely wrong, though; Ukraine is still standing, so you could argue that the sanctions have at least some level of utility.

His issue is that he went on the defensive—which, let's be honest, is basically admitting defeat when you're arguing online.

Now it's back to you to actually show how much—and in what ways—the war in Ukraine is hitting the global economy.

Politicians love hiding behind "public sentiment" or "the will of the people" because they never want to commit to anything real. If they actually said something concrete, everyone would see they're full of it.

brightheron64 said:

Larry Wilson25 As specified by:
If you hate the USA so much, then honestly, just go live in Russia or somewhere in Asia... I mean, there's plenty of democracy out there, like the Indian political system, if that's what you're looking for...
.

Honestly, the sheer level of trivialization here is just... staggering...

If you're struggling to make ends meet, you're struggling whether you're in the USA, India, China, or... well, anywhere else on the planet. It’s just a reality of life, really. Even though what the American poor have access to is different... n Even if they were pulling in higher revenues than anything seen in India, it wouldn't exactly revolutionize their day-to-day reality...
If you happen to be wealthy enough, honestly, it doesn't really matter where in the world you end up... everything feels pretty much the same...

Speaking of democracy, I have to say, the Indian political system isn't exactly some kind of circus...

Indian political system India's...
The American political structure is loosely modeled after the traditional framework used in many Western democracies. It features a President serving as the head of state, an executive branch led by the President, and a legislative branch comprised of a bicameral Congress—consisting of both the Senate and the House of Representatives—all overseen by a judicial system headed by the Supreme Court...

In the US, we elect 435 members to the House of Representatives through a first-past-the-post general election every four years... meanwhile, our Senators serve staggered six-year terms, which means about one-third of them are up for reelection every two years, chosen by the voters in their respective states...

The US Constitution serves as the ultimate blueprint for our nation, meticulously defining the framework of our federal system, the specific powers held by the government, and the fundamental protections guaranteed to every American... it lays down the essential principles of equality before the law and safeguards our core liberties, like freedom of speech, the right to assemble, and the freedom of movement, among so many others...

Honestly, when you look at India, the truth is just frustrating—it’s the sheer chaos of their entire political structure and how everything functions within it... And it makes you wonder if there’s really a massive difference between them and the way things work here in the US, whether we're talking about our own obsession with party loyalty or the way our supposed "democratic" progress unfolds within the parties... I can't help but feel like true knowledge, wisdom, actual ability, and raw IQ should be the priority, rising above any kind of political hierarchy or party affiliation...

On top of all that, we live in a country where the presidential candidate who actually earns the most votes through the electronic voting system isn't even guaranteed to become the president—which really makes you wonder about the state of our democracy... And as for the Senate and the House of Representatives, where it honestly feels like the seats are mostly occupied by lobbyists and the people they fund, there isn't much left to say...

And if I were to circle back to the sheer absurdity we were discussing at the very beginning...Well, if that's how you really feel about it, then I suppose you should just pack your bags and move to Russia or somewhere in Asia...It really boils down to one simple question: why are people so driven to chase their own prosperity and a better future that they’re willing to pack up and move to places defined by absolute rule and a lack of democratic values... choosing to live and build careers in somewhere like Dubai, rather than staying put in the beautiful embrace of a Western democracy like Washington, D.C.?...
An old colleague of mine recently told me, "Alright, I'm heading to Singapore (Asia, obviously)," and honestly, I think it might just be the smartest move he’s ever made in his entire life...
He’s retired now... and you know where he ended up? Living it up on the Cook Islands... I was just browsing through some travel inspiration online and stumbled upon this gorgeous site for the Cook Islands... it really makes you want to pack a bag and head straight for the tropics, doesn't it? There’s something about those turquoise waters and remote island vibes that just calls to you when life gets a bit too hectic...

P.S.
By the way, you really should check out last night's episode... A review of the past week with John Oliver on HBO... It’s just one more example of how "democracy" ends up siphoning away funds—millions upon millions... money that was actually intended for those who need it most, the truly underprivileged...

Yeah, in a democracy where you aren't afraid of anything, you can actually point out injustices to the people. Just look at the Russian equivalent to see that Russian garbage stinks just as bad.

But you don't speak Russian, you only speak English—and honestly, your "anti-Western" sentiment is just a Western phenomenon and nothing more than media consumerism. It's hard to act cool when you're just an average bourgeois like everyone else.

placidnomad87 said:Where were all these heavy-duty sanctions back when the USSR invaded Finland in 1939, or when they moved against Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in 1940? They even forced Romania to hand over what is now Moldova.

I don't usually weigh in much on this thread, but I have to admit, the war in Ukraine is starting to get under my skin. It’s hard to look at them as a model for anyone else when the Ukrainian people deal with some of the highest levels of corruption you'll find anywhere in the world.

It's the same old story from the West—they barely even acknowledge the Holodomor, treating it like a mere footnote or something just for show before the war actually broke out.

Same deal with Soviet imports and exports—basically nonexistent. Back then, Joseph Stalin was obsessed with autarky. He was terrified that Western capitalists would get a foothold in the Soviet economy.

Donna Harris11 said:Circumventing sanctions?

So, they're using these new General Motors machines over in Crimea... and I guess it's worth noting that General Motors is actually owned by the American company John Deere

The Chechen guys managed to get their hands on some John Deere tractors too. Not through official channels, though—mostly just straight-up theft.