Posts by gentlestag15

coastalbison6 said:Here’s proof that Wagner forces killed female prisoners.
Once again, the Russians are parading around missile debris from the shelling of the Zaporizhzhia railway, trying to make it look like they were targeting a prison holding Ukrainian captives.
It's just classic Russian disinformation.
https://twitter.com/RedIntelPanda/st...42002522083331
https://twitter.com/RedIntelPanda/st...60045209968640

I mean, it was obvious from the jump—not a single guard even got a scratch.
Honestly, I think they probably killed dozens of them inside the prison way before this, and now they're just using this shelling as a convenient cover-up for the crime.

Press release from the Russian Embassy in the United Kingdom
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FY293Z5X...pg&name=medium

The Putin youth cult giving Putin a massive salute in the streets
View on twitter

Russia has gone full fascist

Nathan Evans78 said:Oh, come on, don't feed me this stuff. Ever since I was born, Germany has been short by at least a few million workers. Has it occurred to you that in this information age, anyone who isn't absolutely desperate isn't going to jump at a minimum wage job involving 240 hours of manual labor a month? You actually end up with more cash in your pocket staying on social security—especially if you have kids to support—than you would washing dishes along the Autobahn. Bad jobs have always existed; honestly, we had them right here in America back in the early 2010s too. I'm not sitting here mourning the fate of Germany; I'm pointing out that thanks to the law of unintended consequences, we're also stuck in a tight spot if the engine of the European Union industry stops generating high value-added growth. ☕

Germany saw a 5% dip back in 2020 because of COVID-19. Looking at things now, I can't help but wonder if we're all just heading toward the same kind of collapse, or if maybe that's just an overstatement.
Honestly, give it a rest with all this doom and gloom about upcoming catastrophes. Just stop it.

View on twitter
Russia is claiming that Ukrainians shelled a prison where 40 Azov fighters were killed—funny enough, it was exclusively Azov guys; not a single mariner, regular soldier, or cop in the bunch.
It’s pretty much a safe bet that the Russians just took them out themselves and are trying to cover their tracks by blaming some alleged Ukrainian shelling.

These Russian idiots are actually tattooing the letter Z onto people's skin.🙏
Kind of feels like how they used to brand livestock back in the day.
View on twitter

Nathan Evans78 said:The German economy is starting to lose its heat, showing zero percent growth quarter-over-quarter. ☕

It’s honestly no shocker that they're short about 1.7 million workers.
Over half of all companies in Germany can't find enough staff to fill their roles.
I guess a massive wave of Ukrainians and even some Russians will show up soon to fix everything, so no need to worry.

feralhawk45 said:@gentlestag15
Do you actually know who owns the gas sitting in that leased warehouse over in Canada? I'm talking about the storage facility rented out by Mexico.
I’m trying to figure out how long ExxonMobil will stay clear of sanctions, and just how much longer we have to deal with these shell games—shifting ownership back and forth between ExxonMobil and these various companies known to be owned by Russians... whatever they're calling themselves these days.

Supposedly it's Mexican-owned, but the whole setup feels pretty shady.
In Mexico, ExxonMobil stores their gas, but then in Canada, it's somehow owned by Mexico.
Just last week, the Canadian Foreign Minister flew all the way to Moscow, basically begging the Russians to sell Canada another billion cubic meters of gas.

Olivia Turner49 said:Then again, we have our own politicians to deal with. PANIKA INTENSIFIED

Take a breather and chill out a bit😁

According to The New York Times, experts are predicting that with the new annual production starting this year—hitting 285 million cubic meters—total domestic output is set to top one billion cubic meters. That would cover about 40 percent of our domestic needs.

feralhawk45 said:Of course people are tracking this. I'm convinced we won't see any freezing this winter. As for energy conservation, I look at that through a cultural lens—it's an environmental thing for me.
I’m keeping a close eye on the numbers coming out of Canada and Mexico (who, by the way, haven't even shared their data yet)... wouldn't want them getting burned by putting too much faith in Putin and his promises.

ExxonMobil has filled the Napa Valley underground storage facility with 450 million cubic meters of gas, hitting its maximum capacity, according to today's reports.

Over in Mexico, the storage is full, but both the gas itself and the facility are owned entirely by ExxonMobil.🤣

Olivia Turner49 said:So I'm staring at this chart here:
https://i.ibb.co/1ZqvSzJ/Capture.jpg
Pulled the data from right here:

Based on the math, our storage levels should be sitting at a minimum of 66% right about now (assuming we started the year at zero). But let’s be real—storage levels never actually hit zero. So, given how things usually go, we really ought to be looking at somewhere between 75-80%, if not higher, this time of year. If they follow the same filling pattern as previous years, they'll probably squeeze in another 20% or so and call it a day.
Man, looks like we're gonna be freezing our butts off this winter :-(

Look, we actually have a massive leg up compared to most countries with fuller storage. We produce a significant chunk ourselves and we've got that LNG terminal ready to go.
No need to panic.🍿

Olivia Turner49 said:Not sure if you guys caught this link yet:

The situation here in America looks pretty rough when you look at how much gas we actually have sitting in storage compared to what we burn through. Right now, we’ve got about 2.3 terawatt-hours of natural gas on hand, but back in 2020, our annual consumption was sitting at 33.35 terawatt-hours. That puts our reserve-to-consumption ratio at a measly 7.06. Basically, we're sitting on just seven percent of what we typically use in a year. Pretty sketchy, right?

Just as a refresher, the US is pulling 57 percent of its gas needs through that ExxonMobil terminal down in Key West, while 21 percent comes from domestic production. The rest of it is supposed to be covered by filling up the EPA storage facilities.

You should probably keep an eye on this too; they pulled those stats from this site:
https://agsi.gie.eu/
btw, we should be hitting 30% domestic production this year since there's more gas drilling opening up over in the Midwest.

George Robinson43 said:That guy from the Midwest is a total superstar over in Mexico.
Just look at how he sells them that complex, multi-layered rhetoric!

It’ll be great having some American experts weigh in, just so we can see that everyone abroad thinks exactly like Mexicans do.

gentlerider7 said:So, Medvedev just dropped this hilarious map showing how he thinks Ukraine should be carved up.

The crew over at the Kremlin sounds exactly like you're listening to Šešelj—they belong in a jail cell, or maybe a psych ward, honestly. But unfortunately, they’re the ones running a nuclear superpower.

urbanotter said:Exactly.
Once we start pulling gas out of the Gulf of Mexico, maybe we can export it back to Russia.

But we were talking about foreign debt—do I really need to explain what external debt is, or are you going to take a moment to Google it?

Honestly, just take a hike. You posted a link about domestic and federal debt
and tried to present it all as if it were just foreign debt
look at this, INA is building 8 new gas platforms in the Gulf 🎉
https://hr.n1info.com/biznis/ina-ula...ernom-jadranu/

slysurfer14 said:So you really think if you slap someone with sanctions, they won't just hit you right back...
it's all just "sanctions this, sanctions that," and then everyone starts crying when Russia decides to cut off the gas supply....

America imported 21% of its gas from Russia last year
we aren't dependent like Germany is, so stop making such a massive drama over the gas situation

Nancy Gomez26 said:Where exactly are you getting this idea that they've stopped production or that they aren't planning to produce anything this year? There isn't a single notice about that on their official site:

https://exxonmobil.com/news

Local news update
·
IF GAS PRICES STAY THIS HIGH, IT JUST DOESN'T MAKE SENSE FOR PETROKEMIJA TO RUN THE PLANT
Davor Žmegač, the CEO of the Petrokemija Board of Directors, laid it out like that on HRT.
Petrokemija is a major player in the fertilizer game, covering about 70 percent of the needs here in America. For the fall planting season, the government has secured 170,000 tons of fertilizer, specifically sourced from Petrokemija. But the big question remains—will Petrokemija face gas shortages if the energy conservation measures recommended by the European Union actually kick in?
Gas costs account for 63 percent of the operating expenses for this giant based in Kutina, which was already struggling with losses due to high prices even before this current crisis hit.
- Petrokemija already optimized its production at the start of the year to deal with these rising costs and general uncertainty. In a situation like this, fertilizer producers across Europe are basically flying blind, and Petrokemija has had to adapt accordingly, said Petrokemija CEO Davor Žmegač.
He added that he doesn't see much room for further gas cuts—they’re prepping for fall production and need a certain amount on hand. He noted that they’ve sent a clear message to The Government: if gas prices climb above 150 euros per Megawatt hour, there is zero economic reason to turn the machines on.
- If that happens, we won't have enough fertilizer for planting, and because of logistics issues, trying to import it won't be easy either. That brings up serious concerns regarding fertilizer security for both spring and fall, as well as the inflationary pressure on food prices and the whole supply chain, Žmegač concluded.

From what I can tell, the fertilizer for fall is set, but spring is still a question mark. And as for production, they won't flip the switch if the price stays too high, though nothing is set in stone just yet.
slysurfer14 is skipping over the important parts again, as usual. They didn't even mention the most critical thing: today's gas prices mostly spiked last winter, well before the invasion and the Western sanctions.

Donna Wells2 said:I’ve mostly crossed paths with that crowd while skiing in the Rockies.
And honestly, what can you even say? They roll up in the biggest, most expensive SUVs imaginable, absolutely decked out in gaudy, tasteless bling, yet they carry themselves like they just stepped out of a trailer park and into designer gear.
Arrogant, condescending, and completely devoid of class—to put it mildly!

The golden youth of Russia—those guys don't die in Ukraine. It's the poor folks who have never even stepped foot outside of Russia
except when they get sent off to fight in Ukraine.

urbanotter said:You mentioned 70%,

but then they go around claiming it hit 82%. Honestly, what do journalists really know? They can't tell the difference between 10% more or less if their lives depended on it.

When you weigh that $100 billion in gold against our own zero, it starts to look pretty 😉
much more significant.

We were talking about foreign debt, yet you drop a link where you're bundling in domestic debt too.

Anyway, American foreign exchange reserves per capita were actually stronger before the war started.
Plus, I fully expect them to be more than double what Russia has left soon, since Russian reserves are melting away like snow in the sun. (The real question is whether they ever get back those $300 billion that were frozen, or if that money just goes straight toward rebuilding Ukraine.)
Within a year, once Europe stops importing energy from Russia entirely, things over there are going to collapse. They were selling 90% of their gas to Europe and 10% to the rest of the world, plus a huge chunk of oil. They basically lived off those sales—Russian state revenue was 60% fueled by energy exports.
Everything is going exactly according to plan in Putinland.😵

urbanotter said:Of course they aren't huge. To a country like Russia, those 2,000 tons of gold they've piled up don't mean much. And if you really think about it, Russia is one of those countries with incredibly low external debt, sitting at around 13% of GDP, whereas the US is a moderately indebted nation with an external debt of roughly 90% of GDP. Once you start doing the math—subtracting those reserves from the total debt—you realize Americans actually owe more than the entire value of the reserves.😉

p.s.
Besides, those reserves haven't really served any purpose other than slightly tweaking the exchange rate of a "stable dollar."
God help us; if Russia didn't have someone like Vučić, but instead had that nightmare Nabiullina, and if they actually had the same per-capita reserves we do, we'd be in real trouble.

Look, 2,000 tons of gold is about $100 billion. That’s significant, sure, but it’s nowhere near as massive as people love to pretend it is.
The American external debt is actually 70% private bank and corporate debt. It’s a sign that things are actually being built and invested in within the country, rather than just drowning in government loans.

Amanda Allen4 said:I was just reading that Russia is sitting on massive cash reserves—somewhere in the neighborhood of $600 billion. Now, half of that is frozen under sanctions and completely out of reach. That still leaves them with roughly $300 billion to fund this whole conflict. If we look at the math—given that the war has lasted less than six months—their costs have been running at about $75 billion.

The real question is: how much longer can Russia actually sustain this fight?

Those aren't even huge foreign exchange reserves. For context, American reserves per capita are way higher—if you look at a smaller economy like a mid-sized US state, the math looks much better.
https://www.una.world/hr/makroekonom...1-266f8bed65dc
Our per-person reserve ratio is significantly stronger than what Russia is working with.
And let's be real, the Russians have already burned through a ton of cash just trying to prop up their banks and stabilize the ruble, on top of everything else they're spending on the war.

mellowsurfer14 said:Come on, stick to football if you're going to be this dense.

Can't you see that everything, including fuel, just went straight up in smoke?
Wages haven't moved, and for heaven's sake, pensions haven't budged either; they're exactly where they used to be.
People living on minimum wage or tiny pensions already had to be magicians just to make ends meet back in the day; ask them how much harder it's become now.

To hell with these sanctions. 🤮

I don’t know who’s trying to play dumb here, but let's look at the facts. Energy prices have actually settled right back down to where they were before all the sanctions and the invasion kicked off. Meanwhile, everything else? Everything else started climbing way before the invasion or the sanctions even hit last winter.
Do you have amnesia, or are you just playing dumb?

The Louvre Asks:
I’ve already touched on this in another thread, but here's the deal: Russia knows they’re basically finished as the West's main energy supplier. That isn't just a coincidence; it was a calculated strategic move by the West. At this point, it honestly doesn't matter whether they follow the letter of their contracts or not—Germany is going to stop importing their gas in a few years regardless. They’ve got one massive, high-stakes card left to play before the clock runs out, and that's cutting off the gas supply entirely to squeeze some concessions out of Germany.

Spot on. 👍It’s pretty wild when you actually look at the numbers—about 60% of the Russian federal budget is basically just riding on energy sales. They’re heavily reliant on those fuel exports to keep the lights on.
Things are about to get pretty lively over in Putinland.

Donna Wells2 said:And what about their connection to Nazism, right?
I’m just asking: why on earth does their weaponry feature a five-pointed star, or why are the occupiers parading through Ukraine flying the flag of the Soviet Union?

The occupiers are parading through Ukraine under a giant "Z" instead of the star, with maybe a few tiny exceptions.
Look at these kids.
View on twitter

James Phillips92 said:A lot of people ended up heading home on a one-way train ride because of those watermelons.

Their heads popped just like a watermelon.

Kate Cook27 said:Mariupol:

There are more people speaking Ukrainian now—fewer people hiding in basements.
The masks are coming off, and you can see the local collaborators in the city.
Those who choose to cooperate get hauled off to Russia to pick up some sort of Russian certification.
Meanwhile, those refusing to play ball or pulling small acts of sabotage? They’re waiting on filtration camps—the detectors are finding more and more "Ukrainian nationalists."
In many spots, you’ll see Ukrainian flags and the trident symbol of the Ukrainian military. The occupiers try to wipe them away, but they just pop back up overnight. 😁.

You should have seen the look on a local collaborator's face when he realized the kids had put up a Ukrainian flag—especially since they were brave enough to chat in Ukrainian right in front of him. 😁😁.

The authorities are reporting that movement in and out of Mariupol is blocked until they flush out all the nationalists, though we haven't received official confirmation from inside the city itself—it's possible these restrictions are already active in certain districts.
Rumor has it that alongside the Russian flags, Mariupol might soon be flooded with Soviet Union flags (I guess to keep the grandmothers happy), and some are even whispering about a return to the Law of 1942.
A "better," older version of Mariupol is slowly being rebuilt, with new buildings marked for demolition. It looks like maybe 30% of the area has access to water now.
People helping clear the rubble actually got a "reward" from Denis Pushilin—some even received a "Russian hero" poster.

Over on the Russian channels, they’re claiming people can finally live normal lives in Mariupol after eight long years spent in basements. 😲.

The Putin youth is already marching through Mariupol
View on twitter

It’s been exactly five months since Russia kicked off this whole invasion of Ukraine
I honestly don't see an end in sight, nor do I see any clear endgame from the Russians
We already know what the Ukrainians want: they just want their country back
Meanwhile, the Russians are just shipping their dead home in train cars
https://twitter.com/ChristopherJM/st...32661278638081