Posts by George Robinson43

urbanotter said:That’s just your opinion, and it speaks volumes about your crystal ball.
You're entitled to it, even if it's wrong, and the future will soon prove that point.

As for us here in America, Russia has already overtaken us, and I am certain they will pull even further ahead.
Looking at GDP per capita, we find ourselves right alongside them on the charts,
with the reality that the purchasing power of an average Russian citizen is actually higher than that of an American citizen due to lower costs of living.
The sanctions, which have caused massive spikes in food and energy prices, will only serve to widen that gap.

China is currently the world's second-largest economy and is growing at a faster rate than any Western nation, so all serious analysts and economists expect them to overtake the US within two or three years.

Here is the projected 2022 GDP per capita based on purchasing power parity:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...PP)_per_capita

52. America $36,201
58. Russia $30,013

That is the direct impact of sanctions on the self-sufficiency of the Russian economy. Back when the US population was calculated differently, there was a decline, and this year the drop is even more significant. It keeps getting worse.
I am convinced that even a state as deeply corrupt and dysfunctional as America would possess double the GDP per capita of Russia if it held a comparable amount of natural resources for export; this simply highlights how profoundly corrupt and incompetent the Russian state truly is.
It is a nation that is literally incapable of producing ten products relevant to the global consumer market. Zero. Nothing. Their only outlet for subpar goods is Russia, Belarus, the Caucasus, and the Turkic states in Central Asia, plus a few tech items sold to the developing world.

China is to Russia what the James Webb telescope is to Sputnik; we are talking about a country where, once you strip away the flashy facade, all you see is filth, decay, and a medieval mindset.

gentlestag15 said:Funny enough, there are massive protests breaking out in China today because some bank collapsed.
Naturally, you’ve got hundreds of undercover cops swarming the area and things getting physical with the protesters.
Turns out even "paradise" has its issues. Who would've thought? 😁
View on twitter

Here is a little slice of heaven:
The China they DON'T want you to SEE
But wow, look at that mess. Truly appalling.

brightheron64 said:With what? Well, even just having access to Kornet missiles and Igla systems would be more than enough for them... If they could manage to learn how to use Stingers and Blowpipes back in the day, surely they could master Kornet and Igla technology now.

Even if we assume the Houthis are slightly more "sophisticated" than your average shepherd, you see how quickly things change when they actually have the right equipment in their hands... It’s quite a predicament when you find yourself needing Patriot missiles to defend against people wearing sandals...

The Missile War in Yemen
https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep24837

Which Taliban from 40 years ago? What are you even talking about?
You are confusing the mujahideen with the Taliban. One group actually took down the first, while the first took down the communists.
And where did you get the idea that the Taliban didn't have access to Russian unknowns, Chinese HN-5s, or even old Soviet ZPU-1s and ZU-23s?

brightheron64 said:Well, that sounds just wonderful.

The only problem is I don't plan on being around to watch the fireworks from the front row...

And how exactly would that work?
Are we talking about him saying, "We're bored now, let's call it quits," while keeping everything else exactly as it is under the status quo?
Or is he going to hand back everything, including Crimea?

If that's the case, why hasn't Putin been arming the Taliban to the teeth—if only as payback for that whole Soviet adventure back in the eighties and all that outside interference?
Why hasn't he sent the Iranians a full catalog with special pricing? You know, maybe an Onyx free with their first Patriot missile system purchase, followed by a 10 to 15 percent discount on the next ten...

With what?
AK-47s and Russian RPGs? The Taliban had those lying around by the truckload!
If you're suggesting they needed ballistic missiles, S-400s, Sukhoi jets, and things of that nature—fine. But are uneducated shepherds really capable of operating hardware like that?

Amanda Allen4 said:What is this ridiculous obsession with "self-sufficiency"?

Human progress didn't start by hiding in a cave—it started with trade. It goes back to the dawn of time when our ancestors were hunting mammoths. A hunter who couldn't make the kill simply pivoted—he started crafting stone axes to trade for mammoth meat instead.

And honestly, nothing has fundamentally changed since then:

🙂
That’s exactly how things worked right up until Kim Il Sung introduced Juche!

bluewalker6 said:If you can't specify exactly which technologies we're talking about, I’m going to assume you’re just talking nonsense...
Russia is a nation capable of manufacturing rocket engines for space flight.
And that—right there—is the pinnacle of technology. There isn't much beyond that.
There isn't a single piece of Western tech that they can't eventually master, or that the Chinese haven't already mastered.
Sure, Russia will face a recession and significant struggles, but they are simply a country built to weather those kinds of storms. They are arguably the most self-sufficient nation on the planet.
By its very nature, they possess the fundamental resources the entire world requires—resources without which no advanced technology is even viable.
Food, energy, a massive military... these are the ironclad determinants of any nation's survival.
That is why it is impossible to truly isolate them or destroy them...

That right there is a perfect example of myth-making. 🙏 🙏
Rocket engines aren't the end-all, be-all.
And here I was thinking things like the JWST represented the true height of modern space tech.
But apparently, I was completely mistaken based on that one fact!

There isn't a single piece of Western technology that they can't master—or haven't already mastered via a Chinese person.

Exactly, whether it's through simple time delays or by snatching intellectual property while it's still in development.
Though, if we are talking about leading the way in virus research and then releasing them into the wild, they truly are in a league of their own.

Russia will face recessions and hardships, but at the end of the day, it is a country capable of weathering such storms. It is the most self-sufficient nation on Earth.

North Korea claims to be self-sufficient too.
It's just that their version of self-sufficiency looks like the 1950s, whereas Russia's looks like the mid-1980s.

brightheron64 said:It’s quite something how when Joe Biden releases oil from the American strategic reserves, the Republicans absolutely lose their minds, even though gas prices haven't really budged and those strategic reserves have plummeted to their lowest point in thirty-five years...

unknown
“President Biden drained our Strategic Petroleum Reserve to dangerously low levels just so that we could turn around and send 5,000,000 barrels of oil to Europe and Asia? America Last Presidency!” tweeted Rep Jim Banks.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-b2117432.html

Tucker Carlson is absolutely livid: Biden should be impeached for this

It really is worth taking a look at this...😁

To put things in perspective, 5,000,000 barrels represents a staggering 40% of the total daily oil production in the USA!
To be more precise, they moved 5 million barrels in just ten hours!

Melissa Rivera5 said:Man, we’re getting pretty close to that point where people might actually start saying the USA won the Cold War just because they decided to back off out of the goodness of their hearts... I guess.

It is quite obvious that the USA didn't lose the Cold War—they certainly didn't—but if you've swallowed all that Western propaganda, that’s really your own burden to bear.
The USA chose to withdraw from its NATO allies of its own volition, and history has clearly shown how those nations regressed while Russia surged forward at light speed!

analogbear5 said:The Jeep Wrangler is a whole different beast. It’s a solid benchmark for off-road performance when you're looking at SUVs.

True, but I was specifically referring to their best-selling car, not their SUV.
That vehicle was essentially an unmanageable disaster; taking even a mild corner at 44 miles/h felt like a genuine fight for survival.

analogbear5 said:So, everyone's just hating on everything Russian now?

The only thing I actually have a problem with in Russia is Putin and his whole kleptocratic inner circle—those guys are basically sacrificing Russians just to line their own pockets.

I don't go out of my way hating on their soldiers by default either—unless they're committing actual crimes, which applies to both sides of any conflict.

As for what the "anti-Russia" crowd was saying about the Arabs, who knows. Anything goes on this subforum—it’s become a real dumping ground for nonsense lately.

OPEC announced they'll bump up production in July and August. It's nothing massive, though, and they don't even have that much extra capacity to work with—at least the Arabs are already pushing their limits.

It's more about the ripple effect: since the Chinese and Indians started picking up Russian oil at a discount, it frees up supply elsewhere that can then head toward Europe instead of just flowing into China and India.

Crude prices have cooled off quite a bit over the last month, wouldn't you say?

With things trending steadily downward lately,
unknown was at $98, while Brent hit $100.

Regarding the old Lada Riva, I remember back when I was a kid, my dad picked one up, which meant I spent about six or seven months driving that thing.
It was, without a doubt, the most absolute junk I have ever had the misfortune of operating. Aside from the ridiculous gas mileage and a top speed comparable to a snail, I have never experienced such terrifying instability on the road.

hiddeneagle98 said:Yeah, right... 18 square meters of mediocre solar panels fully charging a Tesla in 45 minutes? That would mean they’re pumping out 100-200kW of power. Come on, think about it. You can't get nearly that much solar energy hitting an 18-square-meter area, even if you converted every single photon into electricity. If that much radiation was actually hitting us, we'd all be toast.

I reckon you’d need something like 100 square meters of actual, legitimate solar panels (not some rolled-up gimmick) to get maybe 10kW of power; that's roughly the right ballpark...

They’d be sitting there trying to charge him for a week instead of 45 minutes with just 18 square meters of solar, assuming even that would be enough.

Actually, if I remember correctly, they were hauling dozens of those rolls, maybe twenty of them. They basically took over a whole football field once they unrolled everything. I can't quite recall the exact number...

Bottom line is, they’d end up covering every meadow and pasture in sight with cars parked like that. Plus, you can't fit anything else in a car. If you could even fit the gear in there, they must have been driving a support truck with those rolls. I don't see how twenty of those things fit into a Tesla Model 3. Honestly, it sounds to me like they were just pulling a fast one to bait investors and hedge funds...

EVs, solar, renewables—it's all the ultimate investment hype train. Throw in 3D printing on top of that, and if they sprinkled a little bit of AI buzzwords over the whole thing, there wouldn't be any limit to it... people would be throwing money at them by the bucketload.

Is this what you meant?
The charge around Australia Project to test printed Solar panels with Tesla misliti ok

I mean, fine, let's assume it works perfectly. But do they honestly think people are going to drive around unrolling solar rolls by the side of the road? It would be absolute chaos!

Dana Robinson4 said:Honestly, I think the real shocker for you should be the fact that the US has essentially occupied Guantanamo, Cuba, for 120 years now, operating under the logic of "I'm just a tenant, I'll pay whatever I feel like, and I'll stay as long as I please..."

The US took control of Guantanamo alongside the Spaniards. They even grabbed Puerto Rico. Honestly, it was shameful. Back then, Cuba wasn't even its own sovereign entity—it was just a geographic term. Later on, the Americans essentially charged the Cubans a small fee for that "tenant" arrangement in Guantanamo...
They really shouldn't have intervened in that war. They could have simply watched as the Spaniards dealt with colonial rebels. That cursed state of Maine!

Donna Wells2 said:Oh, absolutely... old man Joza was basically best buddies with them.
He was tight with Gaddafi, Saddam, Ceaușescu, that monster Idi Amin, and the list goes on and on.
Quite the respectable roster of friendships, wouldn't you say? ☕

He even shared a friendly connection with the notorious Jean-Bédel Bokassa. 😉

analogbear5 said:The max capacity for that pipeline (Alaska) sits at 38 billion cubic meters per year.

My mistake!
That 60 billion figure actually combines the current Alaska project with the planned expansion phase two.
Plus, we won't even hit that agreed-upon 38 billion mark for the first stage until 2025.

They might aim to ramp up exports to China to $60 billion, but they first have to connect that pipeline directly to the main fields while maintaining that exact same flow rate. We're likely looking at somewhere around 2030 before that happens.

Sandra Harris2 said:If only being a communist was the only problem we had to deal with... 😉

Putin's biggest supporters in Italy aren't even as radical on the left as the Five Star Movement—you know, the group that led to Conte and Grillo's influence and why Di Maio eventually walked away from them—or even the Lega.

The political landscape in Italy is shifting once again. With the Five Star Movement facing internal turbulence, the influence of figures like Conte, Grillo, and Di Maio continues to shape the direction of the party. It’s becoming increasingly clear how much the friction between these leaders impacts their ability to present a unified front against the current administration. As Matteo Salvini and the Lega push their own agendas, the struggle for control within the movement remains a central theme in the national conversation.
(you're gonna need to translate this, I'm feeling lazy) 🕺 )

Even within the ruling coalition, there was pushback against sending weapons. Not to mention the constant stream of "experts" in the media who, fueled by this deep-seated anti-American sentiment, love to blame NATO for everything. Then you have a segment of the public that thinks this "isn't our war"—meaning they’re perfectly fine with sending money or humanitarian aid, but the idea of shipping arms absolutely terrifies them.

The absolute worst example of war-related populism had to be Matteo Salvini. He’s that right-wing populist who, just a few years ago... He was wandering around Moscow painting while wearing a T-shirt with Putin's face on it. He was strongly against the sanctions on Russia...And there's even a t-shirt for that occasion...Right at the start of the refugee crisis, he made quite the show of heading to the border with Ukraine, claiming he was just "deeply concerned about the humanitarian situation"—which we all know is just code for wanting to score political points off someone else's tragedy. Naturally, the mayor of a small town near the border called him out on his flirting with Putin and how his party, the Lega, has been cozying up to Russian capital.

The latest reports out of Washington suggest that Vladimir Putin is playing a very calculated game when it comes to his long-term strategy. It isn't just about immediate territorial gains in Ukraine; it looks like he's positioning himself for a much larger confrontation with the West. There’s a sense that the Kremlin is bracing for a prolonged period of tension, essentially preparing the Russian public for a reality where relations with the US and Europe might not recover for decades. It's a heavy, high-stakes gamble that could reshape global security for a generation...

It wasn't just Di Maio who left the party; a whole host of representatives and senators from the Five Star Movement departed as well, aiming to oust Conte and his crew from the ruling coalition.
Indeed, they cited Conte's Russophilia and his shameful stance on the war in Ukraine as the primary reasons.
Much like Farage, Salvini has retreated. It isn't because he lacks affection for Putin, but rather because he realizes that being a Russophile would damage his future career prospects.
The Five Star Movement will quite literally vanish in the next election.

Sandra Harris2 said:Hmm...
Next time, translate the description, because this is a textbook example of Italian propaganda against sending weapons to UA.
The caption actually reads:

Images you won't see on Italian TV
The Donetsk market destroyed by Ukrainian shelling using NATO weapons. There are dead and wounded.

You won't see these scenes on Italian news.
This is a market in Donetsk destroyed by Ukrainians bombing with NATO weapons. There are dead and wounded.

Meanwhile, the Italians, acting like true heroes, whine constantly about how we shouldn't send weapons because it just prolongs the war and increases casualties. They're pacifists in the Italian style—basically cowards.

That isn't Italian propaganda; it's the propaganda of a member of the Communist Party USA (which holds a mere 0.33% nationally) that was re-established in 2009. Let's take a guess at whose funding is behind it.😉

urbanotter said:Actually, it isn't just that; you have to look at what the Western news outlets are reporting too, not just the communist ones.

The new radar station is capable of detecting aerial targets at distances of up to 373 miles, as well as at altitudes exceeding 62 miles. At this range, it can even "lock onto" hypersonic missiles (including the warheads of intercontinental ballistic missiles).

https://hr.rbth.com/science/89573-ak...-sustava-s-500

https://www.google.com/search?q=russian...client=gws-wiz

I recall being told once that the quickest way to lose a game is to underestimate your opponent—thinking you're on top today, only to find yourself at the bottom tomorrow.
It’s enough to look at our own dear America; if you compare where we used to be to where we sit among the nations currently navigating major transitions, the decline is hard to ignore.

I would bet my life that within that garbage propaganda from CNN you are swallowing, there was once an article about the "unsinkable" cruiser Moscow being able to shrug off any threat—yet in reality, it was 2 out of 2.
Only 2 missiles needed to travel 93 miles toward that ship before it sank straight to the bottom without a fight.

hollowdriver13 said:🙏🙏

So, basically, you're just shooting yourself in the foot with your own logic.

Let's break this down step-by-step. When was the Boeing 737 MAX supposed to enter service?
How many have actually been built so far?
What engines are they using? Who designed and manufactures the core components? What happened to that whole setup once the sanctions hit? And whose avionics and electrical systems are tucked away inside?

Let me make it easy for you: almost EVERYTHING mentioned is Western—either from the USA or Europe.

Now those are some stellar examples of Russian self-sufficiency right there. Seriously, please, keep going with these "phenomenal" demonstrations of such incredible independence.👍

I suppose we're all just waiting for the return of the Boeing 747, which is basically a flying coffin.🙏 🙏