Trump should send Vance covertly to one of these German cities, to begin touring off the beaten path
 

Replies: @songbird, @Philip Owen

I thought that weirdo who stalked Karlin (Oliver or whatever he was called) might actually have had a point when he claimed Kierkegaard was doing pseudo-science and publishing only in fake journals specifically set up for this purpose.
 

But I 100% agree with Kirkegaard about journals: it is a racket. And a woke one. Does it make sense to pay $10,000 to publish an article? Or hundreds of dollars to subscribe to a journal? The replication crisis has shown us that a lot of the published stuff is fake. Not to mention, we know journals decline articles on political grounds.

And there is a lot wrong with journals beyond that. The delays to being published have grown very significantly. And we don't get the negative data from the experiments that don't work and aren't published.

So at least in such regions you might have about 600 years for genetic pacification through executions.
 

I don't really know the facts, but impressionistically it feels wrong to me. For example, I wonder whether Brehon Law would have been in effect in a lot of Ireland until about 1600. A lot of historians consider the Famine a remarkably peaceful time, where the average person showed a shocking lack of aggression. Of course, there was some violence, and, perhaps, more importantly, the country was heavily policed or garrisoned.

But there were parts of Ireland where people were still kidnapping their bride into the 1800s, that sounds pretty lawless, even if one considers it was often done with consent.

The borderlands in the UK seem another place with a questionable level of law enforcement, and I am sure there are many others. I think really, almost any rural area, and people mainly came from the farms.

Btw, I didn't realize until recently that serfdom existed in parts of Germany into the 1800s. I guess i was thinking too much about the Hanseatic League.

Not clear to me though how you could prove such a thesis.
 

But I guess there are always the different human races, as well as violent offenders, plus archeo finds.

Replies: @Philip Owen

Replies: @Philip Owen

Progress in the Russian space program seems to have very much ground to a halt, if there was any to start with. A lot of their plans seem to only be on paper. How many years ago did I first read about the Amur? Have heard some plan for a rotating station at 1/2 g - but who could believe it based on the current record?

IMO, a lot of countries' space programs are quite pathetic. I am thinking especially of the EU, but also somewhat Japan and Korea, who should combine their programs.

The only programs with some significant future progress seem to be the US and China. (Maybe, India?) The US almost purely through fixed-price contracts, which the Chinese have noted and begun to emulate.

On total spent, I don't think the US program is impressive at all, beyond the new commercial companies that have been fostered - that part at least was money well-spent. But not SLS, which seems pathetic when you consider all the Somali fraud (I mean of the current $9 billion figure from MN) would have only paid for three launches.

The most fantastic space engineering could have been done even in small countries like Denmark or Sweden - Mars missions, etc., based on what has been spent on migrants. All these "I effing love science" people, and they have whittled and misspent all this capital on blackamoors. Amounts that could have cured diseases or maybe even led to space elevators.

Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @Philip Owen

Although not from the military, you can count as incompetent degenerates in Russian high positions Nabiullina and Dimitriev. I know, I insist too much on these characters but their level of imbecility is staggering and I didn't fully processed that there is a country in the world where such idiots can reach top brass, make huge blunders and still remain there... It's unbelievable to me. I still wonder...

Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @Philip Owen

Two days ago, I was able to watch a short clip on Youtube where RFK Jr, went on a rant pointing out problems with the popular diabetes medication metformin. Although not going into a lot of details, he said that when younger this medication caused him a lot of problems with his diabetes. He stated that one could tackle the problems of diabetes without using metformin. He made it very clear that the pharmaceutical giants would try and do everything to remove this video clip from the public domain. He was right, I’ve searched high and low and can no longer find this video clip. 🙁

I don’t know how much the pharmaceutical companies made on the sale of metformin last year, but have come across data indicating that world wide, one trillion dollars in sales was made through the sale of the darling and controversial class of statin drugs. One trillion! Couldn’t be any corruption lurking any where near with these sums of money?…

This is just the kind of a story that I would love to read written by the head researcher and excellent writer of this blog, Ron Unz. What do you say Ron, a story right up your alley, similar to the one you’ve printed about the evils of sugar and carbs.

 

Replies: @Mikel, @Philip Owen

I've had the pleasure of meeting Anglo-Burmese people like Kate Beckinsale (subset of Anglo-Indian?), but never an Anglo-Indian.

It's telling that Diana Hayden chose to marry an American from Nevada, rather than a member of her own community.

But I guess, in a sense they're still "Anglo-Indian".

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQcz2dbuBKRYMB4xA56lrKnPGcCGx8LT5JfkzxyOuycU_JU5bMXqUXNh6Lo&s.jpg

Replies: @Coconuts, @Philip Owen

American occupiers, critically, helped Japan take down a Russian-sponsored ninja operation

The Red Purge (Japanese: レッドパージ, Hepburn: reddo pāji) was an anticommunist movement in occupied Japan from the late 1940s to the early 1950s.[1][2][3] Carried out by the Japanese government and private corporations with the aid and encouragement of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP), the Red Purge saw tens of thousands of alleged members, supporters, or sympathizers of left-wing groups, especially those said to be affiliated with the Japanese Communist Party,
 

Replies: @Torna atrás, @Philip Owen, @Torna atrás

Replies: @Philip Owen

...read the comments under the video
 

By the way, the Pripyat nature is blossoming, it's a wilderness paradise. It clearly pleases many in the West - their private dreams of getting rid of the troublesome Slavs by any means in practise. They wouldn't mind a gigantic Chernobyl if they could keep it in the east...

Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard, @Philip Owen

https://www.yahoo.com/news/britain-failing-prepare-itself-war-201632069.html

https://youtu.be/LPXBzc5Y7to?si=yvGVnjawHBXS3RBz

https://youtu.be/XpSSqary570?si=D3cQlHAzWOawnXCJ

“This is something that we now have to be ready to do without the US lead and it means gearing up to be ready for war in every respect,” he said.

Britain is failing to prepare itself for war with Russia, top general warns

Britain is not properly prepared to defend itself in a war with Russia and cannot rely on the United States and Nato, a retired senior general has warned.

Writing in The Independent, Sir Richard Shirreff, who served as Nato’s deputy supreme allied commander in Europe from 2011 to 2014, said another global conflict will only be prevented if there is a “band of deterrent steel from the Baltic to the Black Sea" – something he said the UK may have to be prepared to help realise without the support of Washington.

His dramatic intervention comes alongside warnings from former defence secretary Ben Wallace and Labour peer Admiral Lord West that a failure to prioritise defence would be a grave error for the prime minister.

Lord West’s warning follows a foreboding speech by Nato general secretary Mark Rutte who said the West is not ready to deal with the threat of war from Russia, declaring it is “time to shift to a wartime mindset and turbocharge our defence production”.
 

Cont.

Mr Rutte said: “Russia is preparing for long-term confrontation, with Ukraine and with us,” adding: “We are not ready for what is coming our way in four to five years.”

There is growing concern about the strength of Donald Trump’s commitment to Nato, following repeated threats to pull out of the alliance if member states do not spend more on defence. Sir Richard warned that Britain can make “no assumptions that Trump would honour Nato’s doctrine of collective defence”, adding: “If we are to deter a third world war, Europe must step up to the mark.”

A number of Nato member states do not yet meet the 2 per cent of GDP threshold for defence spending. Meanwhile, there are also concerns over the failure of Keir Starmer to specify a timescale in relation to his pledge to increase UK spending to 2.5 per cent.

Sir Richard said the West will “only achieve peace for ourselves, our children and grandchildren and prevent a third world war between Nato and Russia with a band of deterrent steel from the Baltic to the Black Sea”.

“This is something that we now have to be ready to do without the US lead and it means gearing up to be ready for war in every respect,” he said.
 

Sir Richard said the UK must demonstrate “moral courage and exemplary leadership” to “make the necessary sacrifices to preserve peace by deterring war”.

“We have to fight a second cold war to avoid a third world war,” he warned. “If we fail to do this the costs, in terms of blood and treasure will be appalling.”

So far, he said, the new government’s approach to defence is falling far short of what is required.

“While the new UK government talks of defence being the first priority, notably it did not figure in the prime minister’s recent ‘top six’ priorities,” he said.

Keir Starmer has been urged to prioritise defence in an increasingly unstable global landscape (AFP via Getty)
Last month, Sir Keir unveiled six milestones to measure the government’s progress – but the targets did not include defence or security.
 

Former defence secretary Ben Wallace told The Independent that the UK has become “overdependent on the US which has limited our choices and left us vulnerable”, calling for Britain to commit to spending 3 per cent of GDP on defence.

“The world is sadly getting more insecure and more anxious. Technology has enabled enemies to compete in a way that was impossible to do in the past.

“Now is the time to commit to 3 per cent GDP by 2030. For Starmer to not invest in our security would be a dereliction of duty”, he warned.

Lord West of Spithead, a former security adviser to Gordon Brown and a retired admiral of the Royal Navy, said Sir Keir had made a “terrible political error” in not including defence in his six milestones, saying the decision was worrying and “beyond belief”.

While he expressed doubt that Mr Trump would abandon Nato, he called for European nations to spend more on defence.

“There is absolutely no doubt from anyone who knows anything about the military and about defence that our forces are underfunded.

“I think the fact that defence wasn’t mentioned in that list is a political error, and it’s a terrible error, full stop. It is beyond belief, really. With the world as dangerous as it is, knowing how underfunded we are, that he’s not willing to mention that as one of the priorities – I find that very worrying”, he told The Independent.

Lord West added: “I don’t believe that even Trump will just suddenly pull out of Nato. But should European nations be pulling more weight in defence terms? Yes, absolutely they should.”
 

Colonel Tim Collins, a former army officer who gave a stirring eve-of-battle speech at the start of the Iraq War, expressed concern that Labour is not taking the defence of Britain seriously enough, warning that the UK is facing a situation similar to that of the mid-1930s in the lead-up to the Second World War.

While he dismissed some of Mr Trump’s remarks about Nato as rhetoric, he admitted that the UK has “very little leverage over the United States”.

Speaking about the new government’s commitment to defence, he said: “I don’t think it is taken particularly seriously by Labour. To the extent that they’re threatening to pull funding from the Tempest programme.”

Withdrawing from the Tempest programme, he said, would be comparable to cancelling the Spitfire programme just before the Second World War.

The Tempest project, part of the Global Combat Air Programme alongside Italy and Japan, is designed to replace the ageing Eurofighter Typhoons by the mid-2030s. But its budget was slashed by 10 per cent this year.
 

Shadow armed forces minister Mark Francois warned that Russia will not be deterred by “empty platitudes from the chancellor and the Treasury”, and called for the UK to urgently increase defence spending.

“During the 1980s, at the height of the Cold War, Mrs Thatcher’s government spent around 5 per cent of GDP on defence, which helped keep the peace in Europe until the Berlin Wall fell.

“With Putin’s Russia now at war in Ukraine and threatening further expansion, for instance into Nato’s Baltic states, we urgently need to increase defence spending to deter the Russians again – which we won’t do with empty platitudes from the chancellor and HM Treasury”, he said.

A government spokesperson said: “This government will always do what it takes to defend this country, with threats increasing, the world becoming more volatile and technology changing the nature of warfare.

“That is why the Budget increased defence spending by £2.9bn for next year and we are committed to setting a path to 2.5 per cent of GDP on defence in spring. The Strategic Defence Review is working at pace to look at the threats we face and the capabilities we need to meet the challenges, threats and opportunities of the 21st century."

 

Replies: @Philip Owen

As the US Secretary of State himself implied, it’s ridiculous to think that making the Russians place their air and munition bases further back will have any strategic effect

Well then I disagree with the Secretary of State. It's actually possible for a US government official to be wrong.

The Russian glide bomb has a 65km range and is one of their most effective weapons:
https://www.rand.org/pubs/commentary/2024/06/how-ukraine-can-defeat-russian-glide-bombs.html

If you push their air bases back even 25% that's a massive increase in jet fuel that has to be used. It also gives the Ukrainians more time to prepare.

You did much worse during Kiev’s aggression against Donbas. You not only supported a government bombing its own cities and killing scores of innocent civilians, you were also outraged at the idea of the Russians defending the victims of that aggression.

Oh stop already, that isn't going to work in an open forum. It only works on pro-Putin websites where they censor dissenting views.

We have gone over this a thousand times.

I've asked every Putin defender here to cite the worst attack against Donbas civilians by the Ukrainian government.

Most common response:

(crickets)

Feel free to break the pattern or just be another Putin defender that can't back his own bullshit.

Replies: @Sean, @Philip Owen, @Mikel

There is no risk of nuclear war in supporting Ukraine against Russian aggression
 

The glide bombs have to be launched from planes without unlimited range.
 

There is something disgusting about so-called “peace” advocates whose idea of peace is to deny defense to the victims of aggression.
 

Replies: @AP, @John Johnson

Islam is, in theory, racially agnostic, with all believers being equal regardless of race or origin. Theory and practice don’t always align, of course. Malaysia is a great example of Islam being very tied into racial identity, and the Saudis casually treat people from poorer Islamic countries poorly, even if they are there as engineers rather than day laborers.

Nevertheless, the implicit “non-white” racialization of Islam by leftists as in a tool against MAGA-hat wearers or guys with statues of Sulla on their Twitter profile tends not to resonate with actual, believing lay Muslims, whom affluent Globalists are unlikely to ever interact with on any non-trivial level. They are raised from childhood to believe that their religion represents the final, correct form of monotheism which will eventually be embraced by all mankind. That’s not compatible with “woke” theories on morality being intrinsically tied to race.

Replies: @Philip Owen

...material lend lease shipments from USA to USSR started in 1941 winter
 

UA people perfectly know they aren’t fighting for the NATO membership
 

Replies: @Philip Owen, @AP, @sudden death

For 2 1/2 years after Germany declared war on US almost nothing happened – minimal skirmishing in N Africa-Sicily. US was already fully supplying Britain and didn’t start supplies to Russia until late 1943
 

organization that says stuff just to say it
 

On a more serious note, never it's been claimed some official timetable/date for joining, official invitation never was done and even official preparation process of MAP was not allowed due to veto of
France/Germany, so it was exactly just declarative goal of an open possibility like EU membership goal for Turkey was.

UA people perfectly know they aren't fighting for the NATO membership as it is defence from predatory attack and official traditional territorial expansionism with the de facto goal of stealing mineral resources along eradicating UA population, culture and language from those conquered places.

Replies: @Beckow

...some sobriety could be expected without the need to take on another war with super huge country directly
 

Germany's fatal strategic error was attacking Russia. But then the war on Russia and Slavs in general was the main purpose of Nazism - lebensraum was not in France or Belgium, it was in the east. Hitler didn't really have much of a choice, did he?

NATO in UA goal was just as declarative and had the same perspective as EU membership eternal goal for Turkey
 

Replies: @sudden death

You haven't done it properly, I can still see your comment.

The Riyadh-Tehran-Ankara triad

Iran made known its interest to join BRICS even before Saudi Arabia. According to Persian Gulf diplomatic sources. Turkey will soon follow, certainly on BRICS and possibly the SCO, where Ankara currently carries the status of extremely interested observer.

Now imagine this triad – Riyadh, Tehran, Ankara – closely joined with Russia, India, China (the actual core of the BRICS), and eventually in the SCO, where Iran is as yet the only West Asian nation to be inducted as a full member.

The strategic blow to the Globalist will go off the charts. The discussions leading to BRICS+ are focusing on the challenging path towards a commodity-backed global currency capable of bypassing Globalist primacy.

Several interconnected steps point towards increasing symbiosis between BRICS+ and SCO.

I accept your surrender 😇

As long as you keep reading my comments like you do with Mr. Hacks.

Deal?

Replies: @Philip Owen

I do not think testing is the issue. The flaw is in their current culture, or lack thereof.
 

Replies: @LatW

Right now, as we all know, Globalist ships are being forced to travel around Africa rather than through the Suez Canal. Anyone who really understands the situation knows that the military options will not work, at least on any reasonable time horizon. The trip around Africa adds around 40% on to the journey time.

Now, here's why this isn't just a question of having to tolerate higher costs. We know that the Houthis are letting Russian tankers through. What this signals is that it is only Globalist ships that are being targeted. This means that Globalist shipping now has an enormous cost premium relative to ships from the BRICS+. This in turn means that, as time goes on, Globalist shipping becomes a dud from a pure business point-of-view.

We have seen something similiar with BRICS airlines undercutting Globalist carriers for certain trips as they have access to Russian airspace. But of course shipping is much more important than shaving some flight time off for a commercial carrier. If the Globalist shipping industry is rendered structurally uncompetitive then the BRICS countries will take over shipping. Obviously this is something that Globalist simply cannot tolerate.

Replies: @A123, @Philip Owen

US is slightly better off than Europe

 

The USA has a higher mean wealth than even Norway, but the distribution is relatively more unequal there, so most Americans have less wealth than even most British, French and Dutch people.

https://i.imgur.com/DvTH0gg.jpeg

That is not the case in Russia – they track everyone and fewer people reside there permanently than the official numbers
 

I haven't lived in Russia for so many years, I even forget the country exists most of time. I don't do anything in Russia except occasional visiting like vacations inside Russia, but the government don't even seem to think I've been on a vacation outside Russia.

Replies: @AP, @Philip Owen

Get real. I was obviously saying that is a best case for Russia. If it avoids nuclear war, it might be a best case for everyone.

The best case for the US would be to drop this entire dangerous, illegal project like a hot potato and tell Ukraine to make nice with Russia. I don't think Russia is likely to accept that at face value, but it is worth a try.

Most of you Ukie backers are intentionally blinding yourselves to the risk of WW3 and nuclear conflict. You are like bloodthirsty little children playing a game or watching Saturday morning cartoons. Grow up, this is serious adult business. The West intentionally created this conflict to break Russia. The Ukrainians are willing pawns in a proxy war started by the West. There is a risk of nuclear war from both sides. If the puppet masters behind this thing run out of ideas, they might do something really stupid with nuclear weapons. If the Russians are cornered they might resort to nuclear weapons. The best case for humanity is for the West to drop this project today and rat out all of their disposable co-conspirators to Moscow. The whole thing is very ugly.

Replies: @Mr. Hack, @John Johnson, @Philip Owen

There will be no new BRICS joint currency for trade like some theorized. Everyone will trade in their local currencies and settle excess balances in gold instead (now the entire gold market is shifting East and rising btw).

Thanks to the rise of CBDCs, this won't be much difference in terms of efficiency than the current USD system over time - you won't need a global trade currency like that anymore.

Also, thanks to the rise of digital currencies, it will be much easier to trade and bypass the G7 financial architecture and surveillance, the possibility of sanctions.

Previously it was much harder and costlier to build a financial architecture and ecosystems needed to trade in some currency outside of the USD, but now thanks to CBDCs it will be much easier.

Less reliance on intermediaries obviously means greater transaction speed, and you don't need to use US banks to convert everything into dollars in between so no geopolitical risk there as well.

What I think that the BRICS is doing, not creating a new trade currency (that's a smoking gun), but exploring technical aspects of this new CBDC blockchain system.

Also, if you follow gold markets, and some dates, it is obvious that they coordinated the current re-emergence of physical gold as a neutral reserve asset as well. Those are the main plays in terms of de-dollarization.

This is similar to the China-led mBridge project, with digital yuan, that Saudi Arabia joined in the BIS recently. It is called the BRICS Bridge multisided payment platform.

A bunch of other smaller local projects as well in the UAE and elsewhere, but this is still in its beginning stages. I think that this will eventually become the main global financial model going forward.

That's the thing, you just need to narrow the spread of difficulty of trading in the USD vs not trading it and many would jump ship over time, no matter if the G7 also bets fully on digital currencies (although China is leading currently in this field).

You just need to blunt their advantage in terms of existing traditional banking ecosystems. They are a fully financially dominated economy after all, and have a huge tradition of global dollar use.

However, with the rise of pretty innovative and breakthrough technology now, those kinds of advantages won't matter, as with fewer banking employees, you could still do great local, secure, cross-border trading, thanks to local CBDCs of countries, of the same or even better quality.

Replies: @A123, @Philip Owen

I think Russia's general response to the Western provocations in Ukraine was shaped by the situation more than it was shaped by some guy named Putin. It still seems that he is holding out for a less traumatic outcome for Ukraine. I assume there are a great many Russian military hawks who want this thing to go harder faster.

You pretend to be stung and shocked (as in: 'shocked I tell you, shocked') by public statements by the Russian government which turned out not to be exactly correct in a war context that started in 2014. There is no way you are that naive, so please find something more substantial to discuss.

Both NATO and Ukraine were obviously on a course to add Ukraine to the anti-Russia military alliance. This was stated publicly by all involved many times and is completely consistent with the very aggressive NATO expansion. It was also completely predictable that Russia would use force of arms to prevent it. You know this, so stop playing stupid. The exact timetable is not so important because rules and laws can always be amended to make things happen, even if these things are ostensibly against the rules.

Replies: @Philip Owen

Get real. I was obviously saying that is a best case for Russia. If it avoids nuclear war, it might be a best case for everyone.

The best case for the US would be to drop this entire dangerous, illegal project like a hot potato and tell Ukraine to make nice with Russia. I don't think Russia is likely to accept that at face value, but it is worth a try.

Most of you Ukie backers are intentionally blinding yourselves to the risk of WW3 and nuclear conflict. You are like bloodthirsty little children playing a game or watching Saturday morning cartoons. Grow up, this is serious adult business. The West intentionally created this conflict to break Russia. The Ukrainians are willing pawns in a proxy war started by the West. There is a risk of nuclear war from both sides. If the puppet masters behind this thing run out of ideas, they might do something really stupid with nuclear weapons. If the Russians are cornered they might resort to nuclear weapons. The best case for humanity is for the West to drop this project today and rat out all of their disposable co-conspirators to Moscow. The whole thing is very ugly.

Replies: @Mr. Hack, @John Johnson, @Philip Owen

My understanding is that the US evacuated the Kiev embassy when it all started, they expected it all to go pearshaped. Maybe if Russia had gone in harder - their "full scale invasion" was what - 180k against probably 4x ?

Still, Russia seems to make a habit of losing at first and winning at last.

Replies: @AP, @QCIC

That was incredibly long winded and insubstantial. You did not answer the question:

What tangible gains does a nation obtain when they become a BRICS member?

You are proving me correct. However, for some reason you do not see it. BRICS is much like G7 or G20. It does not actually *do* anything. All three are talking shops and PR exercises. None have any tangible power or enforceable obligations.

You have yet to list a single concrete & enforceable rule that applies when a nation joins BRICS. It is not a trade grouping. BRICS has no explicit obligations about market access, tariffs, currencies, cross border banking, business dispute resolution, etc.

To the extent there has been a change of economic relations it is bilateral (not BRICS) between Iran and China. And, they had a solid arrangement long before Iran joined BRICS.

Here is a suggestion that might help -- Try answering the question without becoming highly emotional over indigenous Palestinian Jews living in the Jewish homeland of Judea. There is no reason to believe that Israel is instrumental to BRICS rulemaking.

PEACE 😇

Replies: @Torna atrás, @Philip Owen

I don't know what that "Product manager" does but where I work (a famous company producing advanced technology physical products), a product manager is a very important position. Usually he/she is the only person who knows all the product requirements, knows how to use the product both like a simple user as well as an expert user. Without that person, different subgroups (mechanical design, electronics, software, user interface, reliability, manufacturability ....) will do their own things well but the product will be a disaster. A camel is a horse designed by a committee.

Replies: @Philip Owen

Russia doesn't want anything Ukraine has except her role as a somewhat neutral buffer zone. If Ukraine cuts military and espionage ties with the West Russia might leave them alone after a fashion. Russia doesn't want the land, they want NATO and NeoNazi trouble out of Ukraine since it is only there to cause serious problems for Russia.

This entire Western project in Ukraine is a pressure campaign against Russia. If Russia backs up there is every reason to believe the West will keep pushing at the border. They will ratchet up regime change efforts in Belarus, Georgia and Kazakhstan. The pattern has already been established. The West has dropped and scoffed at important treaties so there is no reason for Russia to trust any agreements involving the West. That means Ukraine must either cut geopolitical ties with the West or Russia will drive them out.

The West gradually made this war inevitable, starting three decades ago. You are starting the clock in 2022. That is ridiculous.

The West would use a nuke against Russia in a way that responsibility was unclear so that retribution would be delayed and possibly bluffed away. On the other hand, maybe in the chaos a dumb Ukie agent on the Belgorod will accidentally launch a Poseidon torpedo at New York. I've heard Brooklyn needs a fresh start anyway.

Replies: @sudden death, @Philip Owen

BRICS is a very weak grouping, more for discussion rather than action. What tangible gains does a nation obtain when they become a member?
 

the aspirations of BRICS in the sphere of transforming the world
...
but as an element of Beijing’s policy
 

Replies: @Torna atrás, @Philip Owen

There are no real "Japanese" people in the America and most Westerners will never know the cultural baseline for someone “Japanese”. This is much more the case for Japanese than for Chinese or Koreans.

Whenever a hot button issue regarding China comes up (ex. Hong Kong), there is at least an appreciable however marginalized, group of mainland-educated English-speaking Chinese willing to provide a second opinion and anchor the discourse. They ultimately have no voice in public opinion, but you can at least talk to them in private. But there is no such Japanese equivalent. It is simply impossible to find something that resembles an authentic Japanese in America because those types simply wouldn’t come to America right now and the rest have faded away.

To observe this phenomenon, try eating Japanese food in the United States (you can’t). Most supposedly Japanese restaurants are owned by Koreans intentionally catering to an audience that can't differentiate between yellow people.

Replies: @Philip Owen

You should watch chad wright's video about training African soldiers when he was in the service. They are f'n retards on average. The title of his video is something like the worst place I have ever been.

Replies: @Torna atrás, @QCIC, @Wokechoke

What kind?

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8c/President_Obama_Chats_With_Mozambique%27s_President_Guebuza_and_Zambia%27s_Vice_President_Scott.jpg/962px-President_Obama_Chats_With_Mozambique%27s_President_Guebuza_and_Zambia%27s_Vice_President_Scott.jpg

Replies: @Philip Owen

Meanwhile, unacknowledged by anyone, the European Space Agency led on launching instrumentation probes.

Replies: @Derer, @QCIC

I don’t think any country has (space) technology remotely comparable to the US
 

Replies: @QCIC, @Philip Owen

"The UN voted that Crimea belongs to Ukraine and Putin agreed in 2008"

But that was before the Nuland Coup of 2014. Russia did what any responsible nation would have done.

I'm sure Biden's handlers agree that Mexico is a sovereign nation - right up until a Chinese-organised coup replaces their government. Still, that's a few years away yet.

Replies: @Philip Owen

...Zelensky did not initiate the referendum required to join NATO and in fact at that time both Germany and France were opposed.
 

Germany and France only said 'not yet', they are vassals. It was a cheap charade - at any point when it was desirable they would simply be told by Washington to agree. That answers your question why Russia attacked Ukraine - NATO-in-Ukraine is a red line for them and rightly so.

But you will repeat your desperate lying points that only display the desperation of the losing side. At least have the balls to admit that NATO tried to get into Ukraine, Russia started the war to block it and is winning - and we can all move on...It would be more honorable, if you still know what that means...

Replies: @John Johnson, @Philip Owen

I've just sponsored to join the British Army. The terminal bonus is enough to but a decent small business when service is over. There are over 50 countries in The Commonwealth whose citizens may legally join the British Army. Only the Gurkhas get residence.

Replies: @Philip Owen

isn’t likely to be rectified anytime soon (e.g. Britain’s army is somewhere around 70 000 in strength now iirc).
 

Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard, @German_reader, @Philip Owen, @Sean

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/08/Roman_Baths_in_Bath_Spa%2C_England_-_July_2006.jpg/1177px-Roman_Baths_in_Bath_Spa%2C_England_-_July_2006.jpg

I don't know man. I don't think I need a government G9 officer to tell me not to go into that water.

Replies: @songbird, @Philip Owen

We talked not about the things that separate us—because we don’t agree on everything—but about the values and the issues that bind us together. One of the issues he talked about was having safe food and ending the chronic disease epidemic.

Our children are now the unhealthiest, sickest children in the world. Don’t you want healthy children? Don’t you want the chemicals out of our food? Don’t you want the regulatory agencies to be free from corporate corruption?

That’s what President Trump told me he wanted. He also told me that he wanted to end the grip of the neocons on U.S. foreign policy.

He said he didn’t want any more $200 billion wars in Ukraine—that we could use that money back here in the United States. The best way to build a safe America is to rebuild our industrial base and the middle class in this country.

Don’t you want a President who’s going to get us out of wars and rebuild the middle class in this country?
 

Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard, @Beckow

Do you still play those CDs in the old fashioned way or are those just ripped to a hard disk?

I have a feeling few people even like to play their CDs directly nowadays.

Replies: @QCIC, @Mr. Hack, @Philip Owen

To be fair, it is Russia that has been holding its fire and keeping it contained.
 

Replies: @German_reader, @Philip Owen, @Beckow

German/Italian/Japanese pact was defensive. Since Germany started the war with Russia and Japan started the war with USA neither Axis power was required to assist the other in its struggle.
 

Replies: @Colin Wright, @Philip Owen

Not specifically related to this particular video, which is not exception, but most peculiar thing that AK somehow manages to speak with the soft(?) accent in both of his used languages. When speaking in English, it sounds like Russian one and in his Russian speech English accent could be noticed. Wonder if it's common linguistical thing in RF diaspora communities of his generation or just personal trademark quirk?

Replies: @Philip Owen, @Torna atrás

Replies: @LondonBob, @Philip Owen, @Wokechoke

The abolition of slavery was a great thing for the few souls who really worked at it, like the inventions of so many tinkers that happened about the same time, alas, like these technical inventions made by a few which did not prevent anglo-saxons to despise culture and the quest for truth as a general rule, it happened once England had wreaked more havoc in that domain than any other world power to the point of emptying that source of revenue worldwide. It is no use accusing the elephants in the living room no one dare mention, nor the Barbary pirate Arabs, because for all practical purposes nearly ALL Barbary pirate operations were commandeered by Southern Italian entrepreneurs and by English ones in a proportion of about half and half, so as to catch the Latin catholic nations into a kind of pair of scissors.

The Arabs and Turks proper were not very good at sea warfare (in particular they panicked when they were forced to navigate beyond the visibility of the coasts they knew) without allying with better navigators than themselves such as the Vikings and Normans and then the English when coastal England became a Norman country. Cities such as Algiers were operated by Whites from more Northern latitudes that were called Turks of Profession because of the purely perfunctory conversion to Islamic rituals they performed before embarking in their devastation campaigns (anyway the Church of England approved such fake conversions as long as it helped more money to accrue to the oligarchy of England : the Southern Italian Catholic Church also knew how to make like excuses in a typically Jesuitic fashion) : the proof of it was that these Barbary pirate dens did not speak Arabic nor Turkish but a kind of syntactically English Italian-sounding pidgin called sabir or lingua franca, though the language of military orders in the legal part of their army was Southern Italian even in Constantinople. In brief these Barbary havens were already like the expat-peopled Emirati : most slaves captured there worked for European entrepreneurs (banked by Jews) who especially enjoyed having no Christian Church intervening in their business in some way by the customs of their country.

They ravaged the coasts of Ireland, Cornwall, Wales and Scotland because they knew them in great detail as inferior peoples to keep down by all means. Another main reason that drove towards the abolition of slavery was that in the British Empire of that time salaries were falling lower than the keeping costs of a slave. That abolitionist movement also failed to address the enslavement of Irish people being literally sold to the United States. Slavery was not abolished at home but only as regards people other competitor powers in Europe were still deriving profits from. Slavery had been far more effectively abolished throughout the Kingdom of France in Europe (though not in their overseas dependencies the government of which was outside the Royal domain proper but only in diplomatic alliance : Saint Domingue (future Haiti) for instance was not a French catholic colony but a Jewish-masonic one). Even under the French Ancien regime any slave from any country that touched continental French ground was freed on the spot with no compensation for his former owner (American revolutionists such as Franklin or Jefferson who came with their closest slaves to do business in France knew they were about to lose them unless they knew how to keep them as friends), contrary to England where despite the abolition going on the slave to be liberated had to wait for his owner to be compensated : in general what he lost in slave labour in the West Indies he gained in free labour in East India.

The biggest slave trading port of the Mediterranean that harboured nearly all the headquarters of the multinational companies that operated from the nominally Turkish cities of Barbary and Levant was definitely Venice. Its final capture by Napoleonic France sounded the utter disorganization of Barbary piracy, even though Napoleon himself was moved by no sentimental argument and had legalized slavery again in his overseas possession.

Replies: @Philip Owen

Non Russian media largely covers Russia in response to Russian provocations.
 

IF Russia got on with the job of building prosperity for itself, nobody outside the business press would have anything to say.
 

Replies: @Philip Owen, @Dmitry

I’ll remind you that America went all the way to the other side of the world and captured all of Iraq in 5 weeks.
 

I know that you in your pea-sized brain will come up defending your idiocy as usual.

Replies: @AP, @John Johnson

...most people probably wonder why Kiev was not leveled a long time ago.
 

When the war went full steam Russia wanted to be the 'good guys' and not antagonize Ukies too much - so they held back the firepower. In the long run too much destruction would be a huge headache and an emotional black spot NATO would exploit.

NATO desperately wants a no-holds-barred war with lots of dead Ukies and Russians. That's the way West fights its wars, it shows us that the lives of Iraqis, Libyans, Palis, or even Serbs and Albanians are of zero interest to them. The problem with Russia's caution is that in an all out war the more desperate side sets the rules. NATO wants an unlimited war and a destroyed Ukraine if they can't have it. It will not be too hard to slowly walk Russia to a total war.

Or Russians are waiting for winter when it will have most impact - the West will be internally transitioning...among the G7 June leaders three are gone, Macron emasculated and Scholz irrelevant. Maybe Kiev will be lucky and not too damaged, it's a beautiful city...

Replies: @A123, @John Johnson, @Philip Owen

I’m Welsh nobody thinks we are important.
 

Replies: @Philip Owen

No one could have anticipated a German strike into the Kursk Salient…right. Luckily the Russians dug in there and flooded the area with antitank guns.


The normal pro western argument is that the Allied amphibious landings in Italy required Hitler to redirect the elite SS divisions to Italy, thus decisively shutting down the German push on Prokorovka.

Replies: @Philip Owen

You are suffering from little England (do not count with Scots or N.Ireland) losing any importance. You better move from that island, it is on Russian target list.

Replies: @Philip Owen, @LondonBob

Russia doesn’t matter much unless you are Russian.
 

Replies: @Philip Owen

I like this.

NATo can just go home and nobody will care!

Replies: @Philip Owen

Some of the people in Congress honestly do seem pretty stupid. But I am not too sure it would improve things very much.

Lawyers are often thought of as being smart, (and a lot of Congress is lawyers.). But lawyers generally don’t have a great reputation for honesty.

Congress is filled with intelligent lawyers that lie to themselves.

Then there are all the nihilists that only pretend to have conservative or liberal beliefs. Giving them an intelligence boost would make them worse.

I've spent time around both liberals and conservatives. It's unnerving as to how many in a city like DC will privately admit that their side lies to the public. I have had both liberals and conservatives get annoyed over questions about race. I've gotten both to admit that their side has to lie to stop the other side. Both sides view rural Whites as children that need to be told tall tales for their own good.

It's also surprising as to how much intelligent people will flock to a group for social/identity reasons even when they know that it has major logic problems. If you want a career in politics then you have to keep your skepticism to yourself. You're not going to move up the ladder by pointing out how your side isn't being honest.

Democrats/Republicans in general are full of shit but the far-left is on another level. I've had multiple leftists admit that free speech can't exist until race is gone and that skeptics need to be imprisoned for the sake of equality. I had one tell me that racial equality will never exist but we need to lie anyways and make it a crime to talk about racial differences.

Replies: @Philip Owen

Unbelievable that you and others don’t have the sense to stop defending this stupid war.
 

Imagine in 2014 when civil war erupted in Ukraine targeting ethnic Russians in their historical Donbas land. All encouraged with a glee by the despicable US and EU warmongers and Russia pathological haters that had no business to interfere in a civil war against the minority. A repeat of the Bosnia civil war interference while there siding with the Ottoman remnants against Serbs.

The US Wall Street will function few more years until the collapse that will resemble the 1929 misery and the third world status will set in. Decaying urban centres and infrastructure is already in full progress. I have no pleasure from this prognosis since younger generation including my sons will face the bleak future.

Replies: @Philip Owen

What if the death toll really is 900,000 Ukrainians killed? Next year, when it is 2 million lost souls will you regret your cheerleading for this pointless war? Will you feel remorse for the part you played in leading good young men to their deaths?

This Western anti-Russia project in Ukraine goes back a long time. The people have been manipulated by 30 years of skillful propaganda, supercharged for decades in an unprecedented way through the use of smart phone communications. You seem articulate, maybe you will eventually see through the lies. Perhaps you are too emotionally vested because of your own personal culpability in spreading the subtle lies. Or are you simply more arrogant and prideful than anything else?

Remember that most of the dying so far comes from the left side of the bell curve. These men are counting on their wiser, older brothers for help keeping them out of harm's way in these dangerous complex situations. You and your ilk are making things worse and cheerleading for more carnage. Of course the deaths may soon be people from the chosen class who you actually care about. What will you do then? Will you double down and continue working to get everyone killed or can you admit that you were previously blinded by your pride and begin working to stop this horrible war?

Replies: @Philip Owen, @AP

Apparently according to the Guardian the Russians only won Kursk, 1943 because the British intercepts of Ultra warned them. Lol.

Replies: @James of Africa, @Philip Owen, @awakening observer

Replies: @AP, @Philip Owen

I am against a global nuclear war and never claimed to be a pacifist. AP is in a delusional nationalist mental bubble with a "Russia bad" mindset. He cannot realize that this conflict is the West against Russia and is only peripherally about Ukraine. The West against Russia is a nuclear conflict for many reasons which are recognized by sensible and non-brainwashed adults. Ukraine is just a pawn. Its master is playing a very dangerous game with Russia and China and eventually someone flinches or does something drastic. The raid into Kursk is a hint of more drastic possibilities. My role is to foreshadow important catastrophes before it is too late.

Replies: @Philip Owen, @A123

It is obvious it was meaningful to the Russians. Unlike the Americans and the British they put their lives on it.

Replies: @Philip Owen

You are factually wrong. NATO explicitly rejected Membership Action Plans for Ukraine and Georgia in 2008.

I was able to ask the former security planner for the UK, in the company of two Russian colleagues, in 2003 about the potential for cooperation with Russia over terrorism and NATO membership (we were applying for NATO Science for Peace money at the time). She was quite clear that there were concerns about Russia’s commitment to democracy even then. At the time I thought she was wrong and Putin was a positive influence. How wrong I was. Even when Putin’s mask came off in February 2004, it took me years to come round. Not until the 2012 presidential election in Russia was I wholly convinced Russia was becoming irreconcilably fascist.

 

Replies: @Philip Owen

I don’t think that it’s purely this factor. After all, Russia-Western relations were much better in the early 1990s, and yet Transnistria was still unrecognized. Heck, Russia-Western relations were OK until 2014, and yet the West never seriously considered recognizing Transnistria’s independence.

The same also goes for Nagorno-Karabakh, Somaliland, et cetera, none of which have as close of an association with Russia.
 

Replies: @Philip Owen

DC got nothing. The Veggie-In-Chief’s administration is against hydrocarbon expansion. To the extent the LNG sector benefited, that was a blow to the White House occupant’s regime.
 

liquefied gas (LNG) imports: the United States have increased its slice of the EU gas market
 

Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard, @Philip Owen

I have been reading older books of late.
 

Will George RR Martin ever finish A Song of Ice and Fire?
 

Replies: @A123, @Mr. Hack, @Philip Owen

You are obsessed with a non-existent timeline...:)

Why don't you post any official Russian statement where they say '2.5 weeks'? You are making it up because the coming loss is so painful. This is an infamous technique in the Western propaganda: say something you claim the other side is doing and then quote yourself endlessly...a sad collapse in rationality and honor.

even gotten to the city limits of Kharkiv
 

The point in a war is to destroy the enemy - all else is secondary and follows from that. Ask yourself: is Russia destroying the Ukie army? How long can they last? Russia destroyed Germans and their allies in Stalingrad, Kursk, Belarus in summer 1944... - that left too little to defend Germany. That's how you win wars. Russia did the same to Napoleon Frenchies in 1812, and Sweden, Poland, Ottomans. So how long can Kiev last?

Replies: @Mikhail, @John Johnson

Georgia lays blame for 2008 war with Russia

Tbilisi instigated the conflict with Moscow “on instructions from the outside,” the country’s ruling party has said

Former Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili was responsible for the country’s conflict with Russia in 2008, and acted on instructions from external forces, the ruling party in the former Soviet state has said.

The five-day war erupted on the night of August 8, 2008, when US-backed Saakashvili sent troops into Georgia’s breakaway region of South Ossetia, shelling a base used by Russian peacekeepers who had been in the republic since the 1990s.

Then Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered a “peace enforcement” operation in response, which led to the defeat of Tbilisi’s forces. On August 26, Moscow recognized the independence of South Ossetia and another breakaway region, Abkhazia.

The political council of the ruling Georgian Dream party said in a statement on Tuesday that a public legal process was necessary to establish “who committed a treacherous crime against our country and people [in 2008].” This was required in the interests of long-term peace and stability, the party stated.

"The majority of Georgian society rightly doubts Saakashvili’s adequacy. However, the fact is that Saakashvili’s reckless actions in August 2008 were not a result of his mental instability, but a result of the instructions from the outside and a well-planned betrayal,” the statement read.

Georgian Dream did not identify the external forces that it claims directed the actions of the Georgian president 16 years ago.

Last week, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said the government would address the Prosecutor’s Office, the Constitutional Court, or set up a parliamentary commission to look into the events of 2008. According to Kobakhidze, Saakashvili, who is serving a six-year prison sentence, could face additional charges of treason over his role in the conflict with Russia. Such an offense carries a maximum punishment of life in prison.

Saakashvili was voted out of office in 2013 and fled to the US. He also has a Ukrainian passport, which he obtained during a brief stint as governor of the country’s Odessa Region in 2015-16.

The former president was detained in October 2021 after secretly returning to Georgia during an election in the country. The authorities in Tbilisi accused Saakashvili of abuse of power, organizing attacks on political opponents, embezzlement, and other offenses during his time in office between 2004 and 2013.

The 56-year-old has remained in hospital in the Georgian capital since March 2022 due to deteriorating health. Saakashvili insists that the prosecution is politically motivated. His lawyers claim that the politician, who has lost a significant amount of weight in custody, is not receiving adequate medical care.
 

Replies: @Philip Owen

You are so completely wrong it would take too much time to address everything.

Britain was the empire superior to Germany in air & naval force & undefeated, it would have been squeezing continental Germany's dominance until it collapsed, one way or another. Even without the German-Soviet war. Even if it took 20-40 years.

Essentially, the type of society Hitler envisioned was doomed from the beginning- especially with Britain as the lodestar for-imperfect- freedom.

Hitler could have won only if he first developed nukes & bombed everyone from Ireland to Urals into submission- and even that victory would have been temporary.

Replies: @Philip Owen

Great Britain actually is the right answer. They could have easily negotiated peace with Germany after Dunkirk, in which case Nazi Germany would have sat prettily in Europe and then pursued a one front war against the USSR at a time of their choosing, very likely winning.
 

Moderns tend to forget how powerful the British Empire still was in 1939. It was not the cuckolded UK we know today. They had the combined industrial strength of the British Isles, Canada, Australia and South Africa at their disposal plus the manpower and resources of the British Raj and the African colonies.