Sanctions on Russia

Linda Collins3 said:Judging by how this thread has spiraled, we should just rename it "Self-Imposed Sanctions."

Look, sanctions are essentially just economic warfare—a different beast than kinetic warfare involving physical weapons and direct combat against people. Both approaches come with a massive price tag, and frankly, we won't truly know if either was worth the cost until the war finally reaches its conclusion.

That being said—and let's be real here—if someone attacks you, whether they do it directly or through some indirect scheme, you don't really have a choice. You fight back using whatever tools you have at your disposal.

swiftjackal11 said:Sanctions hurt Russia just as much as they hit Europe. But there really isn't any other way. Europe could have stepped up and said, just like Al Gore once did, "this isn't our fight." If they had, fuel would be $3.25 right now and we wouldn't be seeing so many Ukrainians or even the existence of Ukraine being
.

Then you'd have issues near the Baltic Sea, then Poland would be in trouble, and before you know it, we're looking at a whole new conflict breaking out across the North America....

crimsoncyclist71 said:Why are you so hell-bent on justifying one country's aggression against another?

I haven't said anything about justifying anyone's actions—not just Russia's "aggression" toward Ukraine.
It feels like if you aren't standing right here next to us and thinking exactly like we do, then you must be our enemy, which is such a flawed way to look at things.

I made my position very clear a long time ago, and I’ve stayed consistent about where I stand.

And just so I don't go off on a tangent—which I know you all love to accuse me of doing—

my perspective aligns closely with what Pope Francis has shared, and while I'm not a religious man myself, I have a great deal of respect for him as a human being.

Whether people call him Pope Francis Putofil or debate whether he's actually justifying aggression against anyone, that's beside the point.

I'm asking you please to stop veering off-topic and projecting things onto me that I have never said and certainly don't believe.🙂🙂

He’s just worried about gas prices. He couldn't care less about the war. It isn't happening in his own backyard.

swiftjackal11 said:Sanctions hurt Russia just as much as they hit Europe. But there really isn't any other way. Europe could have stepped up and said, just like Al Gore once did, "this isn't our fight." If they had, fuel would be $3.25 right now and we wouldn't be seeing so many Ukrainians or even the existence of Ukraine being
.

And then you'd see Putko knocking on Moldova's door in a few years. He'd start poking around the North America through the Mexicans, messing with things in Canada and Mexico... essentially testing out how NATO breathes near the Baltic Sea.

urbanotter said:I haven't said anything about justifying anyone's actions—not just Russia's "aggression" toward Ukraine.
It feels like if you aren't standing right here next to us and thinking exactly like we do, then you must be our enemy, which is such a flawed way to look at things.

I made my position very clear a long time ago, and I’ve stayed consistent about where I stand.

And just so I don't go off on a tangent—which I know you all love to accuse me of doing—

my perspective aligns closely with what Pope Francis has shared, and while I'm not a religious man myself, I have a great deal of respect for him as a human being.

Whether people call him Pope Francis Putofil or debate whether he's actually justifying aggression against anyone, that's beside the point.

I'm asking you please to stop veering off-topic and projecting things onto me that I have never said and certainly don't believe.🙂🙂

Spot on. You voted in the polls supporting the Russian side, so why try to muddy the waters now?

Just so there's no confusion or anyone claiming I'm making stuff up, here's the link to the poll right here on the forum.

hollowdriver13 said:Spot on. You voted in the polls supporting the Russian side, so why try to muddy the waters now?

Just so there's no confusion or anyone claiming I'm making stuff up, here's the link to the poll right here on the forum.

There are just certain people who love to take what isn't theirs, claim credit for others, and act like saying "one Russian or one Mexican equals all of Russia or all of Mexico" is a rule. If you don't agree, they come after you. It's always the same—they pick on someone weaker.

brightheron64 said:But why would they bother? Do you truly believe anyone in this administration is actually thinking strategically or looking at the long term...

Just take a look at the prices for flour, bread, and pastries lately... meanwhile, farmers are being offered buyback prices as low as 2-$0.70 cents per pound (compared to the much higher rates on the European Union market).
Whoever owns the silos will just store their stock safely and wait out the harvest season, and once those prices skyrocket again... well, they'll be laughing all the way to the bank.

It’s also worth noting who actually controls the storage infrastructure (for instance, companies like PPK Valpovo—where 45,000 tons are held by Stipa Matić, the owner of M-san and King ITC).

At least they could think about their own kin for once—rigging up some family-run contract for silo construction so that even if we end up paying three times the market rate, at least we’d actually have the damn things built.

Just take a look at what we're paying for flour, bread, and pastries... meanwhile, the farmers were offered a buyout price of just 2-$0.70 per pound (on the European Union exchange, it's closer to $0.37).
Whoever owns the silos is going to store everything perfectly, wait out the harvest rush, and then strike when prices skyrocket again... and that's where the real money is made.

It’s worth noting who actually controls the storage capacity here (for instance, a massive facility like the one in Valpovo—45,000 tons sitting right in the hands of Stipa Matić, the guy behind M-san and King ITC).

urbanotter said:I suppose they're all just cruising around on electric scooters instead.😁

Honestly, the elderly are out there struggling to fill up their tanks—and once they actually have enough cash to pull into a gas station, they’ll probably be too broke from the price of gas and groceries just to even enjoy the meal on their table.

hollowdriver13 said:Spot on. You voted in the polls supporting the Russian side, so why try to muddy the waters now?

Just so there's no confusion or anyone claiming I'm making stuff up, here's the link to the poll right here on the forum.

The problem is that the poll only offers two options, much like this one of yours:

Either you're with us, or you're against us.

But I don't see the world in such black and white terms, personally.

Is there any news regarding the sanctions, or should I chime in with my own thoughts for a bit?

Here are some little pamphlets that the "Seven Samurai" crew "arranged"—everything is moving exactly according to their champagne-soaked plan.

A cold shower for Europe from Canada: 'Sure, we can send you gas, but we only have enough for one single LNG terminal...'

Nancy Gomez26 said:

fgzcvijetic As stated by:
And why would they? Do you honestly believe anyone in this administration is capable of strategic, long-term thinking?

Just take a look at the prices for flour, bread, and pastries lately. It’s absurd. Meanwhile, they offered farmers a buyout price that barely covers the cost of seeds.$0.70 Per kilogram (currently trading at about $0.37 on the European markets).
Anyone with enough silo capacity will play it smart. They’ll store their harvest, sit tight through the peak of the season, and wait for the dust to settle. Once those market prices skyrocket again? That’s when they strike.

It is worth examining who actually controls the storage infrastructure. For instance, take a look at John Deere—they hold 45,000 tons in their silos under the control of an unknown owner tied to Mitsubishi and King ITC.

Gentlemen and ladies—do you honestly believe that wheat is harvested and corn is gathered all year round, making storage capacity entirely unnecessary?
Of course silos exist. They are almost entirely privately owned, which is a stroke of luck since they have zero connection to the government. History shows that whenever the state manages strategic reserves, those supplies have a funny way of vanishing right when things get tight. One day the silos are brimming with wheat; the next, they’re bone dry. I suppose we should just blame the security guards for pocketing the grain while they walk out the gate. It is the same old story we see with bank bailouts or those massive subsidies for failing shipyards—whenever the government hands out taxpayer money to fix a crisis, that cash inevitably evaporates into thin air.
Wheat is a global commodity. Seriously, walk me through the logic here. As a producer, why on earth would you ever sell your grain below the current market price? It defies all common sense. Unless, of course, you are actively trying to drive yourself into bankruptcy—or perhaps you’re just an executive at someone else's firm, motivated by some "special interest" to dump stock below value. It makes zero sense.
Government-run grain silos won't do a damn thing to drive down wheat prices. It’s a fallacy. You still have to fill those silos in the first place, which means you have to buy the grain from someone else. That requires massive amounts of capital. Suddenly, your liquidity is tied up in bushels of wheat or corn sitting in a bin, and everyone knows the market is a gamble—prices could skyrocket or crater overnight. Then there's the matter of shrinkage; even with perfect storage, you're looking at about a 1% loss in mass annually. But that’s a whole different headache.

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?

darkdriver said:Honestly, the elderly are out there struggling to fill up their tanks—and once they actually have enough cash to pull into a gas station, they’ll probably be too broke from the price of gas and groceries just to even enjoy the meal on their table.

Unfortunately for me, I’m running a much larger setup with a 1,000-gallon tank, and my engine burns through fuel a bit faster at about 5 gallons an hour.
It seems these "sanctions" have kept my boat tied to the dock for two months now, and it’s genuinely threatening the livelihoods of four or five families who depend on this work.

Sadly, these sanctions don't just impact the people sitting around, waiting for an excuse to walk down to the local coffee shop to kill time by coming up with clever nicknames for Vladimir Putin.

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.

urbanotter said:Unfortunately for me, I’m running a much larger setup with a 1,000-gallon tank, and my engine burns through fuel a bit faster at about 5 gallons an hour.
It seems these "sanctions" have kept my boat tied to the dock for two months now, and it’s genuinely threatening the livelihoods of four or five families who depend on this work.

Sadly, these sanctions don't just impact the people sitting around, waiting for an excuse to walk down to the local coffee shop to kill time by coming up with clever nicknames for Vladimir Putin.

Aren't you getting a little too old to be out on the water chasing fish? 5 gallons an hour? Man, a buddy of mine has a plane that burns less than that—and I mean literally.

urbanotter said:I haven't said anything about justifying anyone's actions—not just Russia's "aggression" toward Ukraine.
It feels like if you aren't standing right here next to us and thinking exactly like we do, then you must be our enemy, which is such a flawed way to look at things.

I made my position very clear a long time ago, and I’ve stayed consistent about where I stand.

And just so I don't go off on a tangent—which I know you all love to accuse me of doing—

my perspective aligns closely with what Pope Francis has shared, and while I'm not a religious man myself, I have a great deal of respect for him as a human being.

Whether people call him Pope Francis Putofil or debate whether he's actually justifying aggression against anyone, that's beside the point.

I'm asking you please to stop veering off-topic and projecting things onto me that I have never said and certainly don't believe.🙂🙂

The quotation marks tell me everything I need to know about you.
It’s an objective fact that this is aggression, yet you lack the decency to admit it. Your arguments are just as hollow as your rhetoric.

crimsoncyclist71 said:The quotation marks tell me everything I need to know about you.
It’s an objective fact that this is aggression, yet you lack the decency to admit it. Your arguments are just as hollow as your rhetoric.

I’d prefer we discuss the actual impact of sanctions rather than getting boggedED down in ideology and semantics.

It looks like you were so distracted by my punctuation that you completely missed the core point I was trying to make, which was far more significant than a few marks on a page.

My position aligns perfectly with what Pope Francis has stated; even though I'm not a religious person myself, I have a great deal of respect for him as a human being.

crimsoncyclist71 said:The quotation marks tell me everything I need to know about you.
It’s an objective fact that this is aggression, yet you lack the decency to admit it. Your arguments are just as hollow as your rhetoric.

Don't be like that. He's perfectly "neutral," isn't he?

Gerald Torres84 said:Don't be like that. He's perfectly "neutral," isn't he?

And like every other "neutral" party, he refuses to explain why rape isn't some gray area...
It's her fault. She was wearing a mini skirt. ☕

Melissa Rivera5 said:Aren't you getting a little too old to be out on the water chasing fish? 5 gallons an hour? Man, a buddy of mine has a plane that burns less than that—and I mean literally.

When I mentioned that I still plan on heading down to the coast, I meant there are plenty of ways to own a vessel without actually being out on the water myself.

I have some colleagues in the shipping industry who operate much larger vessels with far more powerful engines; they burn upwards of 50 liters per hour, which adds up to about 1,000 liters a day, 350 days a year. Their ships have massive fuel tanks holding 30 to 40 tons, and they rely on tankers to deliver their blue diesel.
It makes you wonder how much those sanctions actually hit them, because I’ve heard stories about owners having to lay up their ships simply because they can't turn a profit with current blue diesel prices.

Ultimately, though, the sanctions seemed to trigger a shift in other areas—things that actually hurt the USA much more deeply.

An Indian firm has made its first purchase of Russian coal using Yuan, according to the Wall Street Journal.

http://www.balkanspress.com/index.ph...san65eYWbL6hAY

This brief analysis really illustrates just how well-conceived these sanctions actually are.

Quote: dark forecast from Germany: Is this the end for electric cars? Lithium shortages predicted by 2030.

So, despite all the sanctions, it looks like we will be relying on hydrocarbons for a long time to come, and Russian oil continues to find plenty of buyers all over the world.

crimsoncyclist71 said:And like every other "neutral" party, he refuses to explain why rape isn't some gray area...
It's her fault. She was wearing a mini skirt. ☕

It doesn't even occur to you to look up what Pope Francis actually thinks regarding the Russian aggression against Ukraine and whether sanctions are morally effective.

Even if you aren't a Christian, a Catholic, or a believer, you should at least be following what the head of the Catholic Church has to say about this whole situation with the invasion and the sanctions.🙄