Posts by analogbear5

crimsoncyclist71 said:This reads like a pamphlet from the Communist Party of the USA, preaching about the superiority of the USSR over a decaying capitalist West that's barely hanging on.

Meanwhile, there's a printing press running three shifts in the background 😁

From what I can tell, Putin's crowd can’t distinguish between wild imagination and actual reality.

"Russia could theoretically be self-sufficient"—in their heads, that somehow translates to "Russia *is* self-sufficient."

I guess it all ties back to that myth about the Russian being this hyper-stoic, ultra-masculine specimen who can survive naked in an Alaskan blizzard while living solely on vodka and buckwheat.

crimsoncyclist71 said:Every nation is self-sufficient. The only real question is what kind of standard of living they'll be left with.

Some stuff is just impossible to mass-produce commercially—think Russian coffee, cocoa, or bananas—but nothing hits the realm of pure science fiction quite like Russian electronics.

Noah Diaz said:Things will get hilarious this winter. It’ll be even funnier when the European Union vassals realize they’re completely tethered to outside suppliers. Imagine if the Suez Canal gets "accidentally" blocked, or a few tankers "coincidentally" sink near Hormuz. Throw in some "accidental" explosions at LNG terminals or sudden shortages of basic supplies, and you’ve got a comedy of errors.😁

Forget the Suez, man... look at Russia... "self-sufficient"... ha ha... ha.

Noah Diaz said:Russia is one of those incredibly rare countries that is truly self-reliant in almost every sense.

During the Cold War, they manufactured everything under the sun—from sewing needles to space stations. Frankly, talking about sanctions against them feels a bit ridiculous. For instance, they won't just jump on a Boeing or an Airbus; they'll simply stick to their own Boeing or Lockheed Martin models.

LOL enough

Give this one a "Pearl Summer" award.

urbanotter said:Look, it's already done, so do you really need me to serve it up to you on a silver platter or fine bone china?

I honestly can't tell if people just don't know how to use Google anymore or if they actually need a computer to hold their hand through every little search.

Anyway, I'll leave you to it. Have a good night and sweet dreams—I'm heading off to catch a show on TV.

Nah. That data is classified state secret territory. There's no way for you to know exactly how much they're exporting from Russia, or just how deep the hole in their budget actually is.

So, how much did we pull in back in June, and where does the federal budget actually stand? Give me some specifics.

Linda Collins3 said:Give me a break. They keep preaching about how Ukraine is fighting this war for them and instead of them—which is literally true—and now they want to charge them for the very weapons being used to effectively fight for US geopolitical interests too... Americans are using this conflict to reshape the global landscape, or does anyone honestly believe they're just helping Ukraine out of pure humanitarian concern?

I'm not saying Ukraine shouldn't get help—they definitely should—but we need to be realistic. Charging Ukrainians for weapons in this specific context would be pretty pathetic.

If you're going to claim they say that constantly, then give me names and dates.

They'll settle up in the future for what they already should have provided, but nobody planned for Russia trying to wipe out the Ukrainian military entirely. You've got donations, financial aid, humanitarian stuff, and finally, Lend-Lease.

hiddeneagle98 said:Yeah, you're spot on; in America, commodity reserves are a total myth.

I was watching this program where they explained that America imports wheat because even though we produce plenty of everything, there isn't enough space to store it all, so a huge chunk gets exported and then we end up importing it back later...

Wouldn't it make more sense to just store it in silos instead of exporting it? Then, instead of importing it down the road, we could just pull it out of storage. Why doesn't that ever happen?

Try looking at it from the perspective of a small-scale farmer who's never going to see a return on that kind of investment—then it might click.

haha Sledg 😁

"trust me, i know What I'm doing."

Mirzijojev was looking to tighten his grip through some constitutional overhauls—basically trying to centralize everything, including stripping Karakalpakstan of its autonomy. Turns out, after people hit the streets to protest, he backed off.

Noah Sullivan said:The whole mess in 2022 was really just the inevitable climax of those lower-intensity conflicts we saw from 2014 to 2021—all kicked off by that externally directed coup involving the Right Sector back in early 2014.

So, what exactly do you think is inaccurate about Oliver Stone's documentary "Ukraine on Fire"?
They even let it back up on YouTube, so it might actually be worth your time to watch it.

It’s much like that lecture by Mearsheimer in Florence I linked earlier—where he dives into (especially toward the end) the actual moral implications of the policies being carried out.

You’re just a total Mearsheimer and Stone fanboy—basically worshiping them because they tell you exactly what you want to hear. To me, they're just guys cashing in on controversy through books, movies, and paid speaking gigs. This whole debate between us? It's just followers versus skeptics—totally pointless.

That doesn't mean Mearsheimer's take is totally useless—you've gotta factor it in if you want to wrap your head around global politics. But leaning on nothing else and ignoring the counterarguments? That's basically just cult behavior.

As far as Stone goes—I’ve actually sat through both of Putin's speeches, the one before the DLNR recognition and the one right before the invasion of Ukraine. Honestly, his whole dramatic routine feels pretty redundant at this point.

Nancy Howard4 said:Alright, but why don't you explain to us how borders were ever drawn before now?
The only real difference is that we used to just read about this stuff in history books, but now we're watching it happen live on a 24/7 news cycle.
And what was the Dayton Agreement if not just drawing lines on a map? Or look at Mexico, or those territorial disputes in the Mediterranean, and so on.
Humanity has been sketching out borders since the beginning of time, and it usually ends in some massive massacre a century later, and this whole mess will probably just be taught in schools as the defining event of 2022.
History just keeps looping back on itself; we'll have another crisis in ten years, some new Hitler or Putin will pop up out of nowhere, and then we'll head straight back into bloodshed—maybe even a total nuclear reset of the planet. 😉

Nihilism makes for pretty lousy international policy. Not everyone on this planet is a sociopath cheering for war and ethnic cleansing from the comfort of their couch.

urbanotter said:Either you didn't hear them clearly, or those weren't actually the experts you think they were.

In reality, pulling oil out of the ground in places like Saudi Arabia costs roughly $9 per barrel, while American shale oil from fracking sits closer to $44 per barrel.

Maybe do a little more digging.

Different sources put it anywhere from $30 to $50, though $40–$45 is probably the sweet spot. Russian production runs at about $19—that’s just an average, obviously, since things vary based on the site, distance, and how tapped out the wells are.

The big question marks, though, are the capital expenditures and whether they can even keep pumping from the southern fields, given they were relying heavily on American tech and know-how.

crimsoncyclist71 said:I honestly didn't expect a coherent response from you—considering you've spent the whole time spinning fairy tales. It’s just like how everyone was peddling those myths about Russia's military might right before the war in Ukraine kicked off. I still remember all that hype about their "unstoppable" army and state-of-the-art tech—only for them to struggle miserably while fighting literally 100 miles away from their own logistics hubs back in Russia.

I honestly can't wrap my head around how some people keep pushing so hard for fascist Russia. It's wild.
Look, you gotta remember that history is basically life's toughest teacher—and if there's one thing she's taught us, it's that fascism always ends up losing in the end. Period.

Polish Nobel laureate Czeslaw Milosz—who wrote "Grateful Mind," a book where he dives into how people navigated life in post-war Stalinist Poland—once described democracy as being like a raft, where everyone’s just paddling in their own direction. Authoritarian regimes, though? They're more like massive ships that occasionally smash into the rocks the raft is trying so hard to paddle past.

Michelle Young50 said:I was watching a serious segment on HR1 recently where industry pros were explaining that, due to extraction technology, Russian oil becomes unprofitable below $100 a barrel, whereas Arabian oil sits around $70. Anything above that is profit; anything below is a loss.

That’s absolute nonsense—honestly pretty easy to debunk. I've heard numbers in the 60-80 range before, but $100? That's just laughable.

The deglobalization everyone keeps dreaming about looks exactly like what you’re describing regarding Western economies. Next step—hopefully—is bringing some industrial capacity back from China, starting with chips.

De-dollarization is already creeping in, thanks to those frozen Russian reserves.

So how much have they actually managed to pull in lately? Is there enough to patch up the budget?

Mainly, I think the Russ will figure things out long-term—though it won't be easy—but in the short to medium term, they’re going to struggle quite a bit.

urbanotter said:I hear what you're saying,

but the problem is I have no idea when that actually happens.

And since your crystal ball seems to be so incredibly accurate, I'm sure it could tell me the exact day when things will turn around.

p.s.

I really don't want to end up making a massive mistake out of pure greed, much like those folks who got crushed by those Swiss franc loans back in the day.
Help me out here, friend, because I'm starting to think my own intuition is totally failing me.🙂🙂

Right now? Nobody has a clue. But it’s definitely coming—unless we all go up in smoke in some nuclear standoff, at which point stocks and gold won't mean squat compared to a can of beans.

Gold’s commanding a pretty hefty premium right now. Once this war finally wraps up—God forbid—prices will likely take a dip.