State of the play...
https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...attack-ukraine
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State of the play...
https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...attack-ukraine
Irish fisherman block russian naval drills:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBUKJ2V3W0E
Dont F*** with the Irish.....
The luck of the Irish ...
https://edition.cnn.com/videos/tv/20...n-newsroom.cnn
Ukraine is the main exporter of wheat.
Damn I like bread too. food prices to go up I suppose.
More inflation to hit Grant's basket of hard questions as BREAD threatens to leap ;)
OZ: Omicron Hit Businesses in line for a new SUPPORT package
Where is NZ on this ? Robertson still hiding under the table (probably asleep)
Maybe the Kiwi Business Organisations / Chambers can wake him from slumbers again ? :)
Suggest you deploy lower buy orders if you have cash just in case...
US, Russia clash sharply over Ukraine at UN meeting - WP - 1 Feb 22
https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/europe...-at-un-meeting
Meanwhile without the Americans there.
https://www.dw.com/en/russia-ukraine...lks/a-60556387
Maybe the Ukraine will stick to the agreements they signed...
"Maybe the Ukraine will stick to the agreements they signed..."
maybe the russian's could stop invading places.
Not many in Kharkov want russians running the city and they actually speak Russian.
[QUOTE=Waltzing;939225]"Maybe the Ukraine will stick to the agreements they signed..."
maybe the russian's could stop invading places.
Not many in Kharkov want russians running the city and they actually speak Russian.
My post was about peace talks which i hope work. If you read the link Germans French trying to work things out around an agreement all sides have signed previously
Maybe the russian could do the same and stop killing old ladies and destroying their homes on the demarcation line.
Ireland spends about 0.3% of its GDP in defence; the UK about 2.3%. So Ireland freeloads off NATO countries for much of its defence? I guess it may mean it can offer a low corporate tax rate compared to the rest of the EU to entice American businesses?
Irish defence spending is the lowest in Europe as % of GDP.
https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-20471594.html
Given the logistics buildup being unprecedented since the cold war, (which reminds me of the logistics buildup for Iraq), it doesn't look good.
The wheels have been set in motion...Russia appears to have made its decision.
Moscow warns Ukraine may ‘destroy itself’ as Russia and US clash at UN
https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...curity-council
Attempts to defuse the Ukraine situation, but NATO exercises continue...
U.S. Offered Russians Aegis Ashore Inspections to Ease Ukraine Tensions; More American Troops Headed to Europe
https://news.usni.org/2022/02/02/u-s...eid=cc0f71bf89
Reports by the US of Fake videos to trigger invasion... its getting wilder and wilder... its a MIX of the same stuff as in the 1900's and 1930's....
Looks like social science courses arnt all the rage east of St Petersburg after all.
The russian's are gas lighting it.
Things are going to get very very hairy...
Why are they not showing the fake videos? I wonder.
US has pre-empted them by finding that out, the tactic won't work now (or shouldn't)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...ideo-us-claims
So its a bit of he said she said type thing without any real proof to show us... I dont know whats really going on
"showing the fake videos"
still looking for a director ....
WOMD.
Amazing how many in the world and even on this site are blindly buying into the US narrative of Russia invading Ukraine.
I had to google WOMD. It gave me two options;
Woman of my dreams
Weapons of mass destruction
The first one sounds better but i guess you are talking about the weapons one. And how they didnt find any. Like that movie with Matt Damon running around Iraq looking for them. 6/10 movie that one
Ok i have just watched the statement and questions about this quite funny really.
Reporter asks where is the evidence.
Gov official, The evidence is i just told you,
Reporter, Thats not evidence thats you telling us.
Gov official, Thats the evidence.
Iraq anyone...... :confused:
Next steps...S400 and EW systems etc - with evidence...
Russian Hybrid Threats Report: Missile battalion confirmed in Belarus
https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blog...HkY6ajFLCGInBh
Well at least the SALT I & II treaties and IRNF agreements were a start (for strategic nuclear and intermediate range nuclear forces).
Imagine if the world could do the same for conventional weapons. The problem is Russia and China only respect Military strength...
And when Russia & China were both weak during the 1980s and 1990s, which country was busy promoting wars and mayhem around the world?
None of us want war but it is a fact that the US has invaded and killed more people in foreign wars than any other country in the decades after WW2.
And it is a fact that the US sells more military weapons and machines than any other country.
So I read everything which comes out of the US these days with that perspective in mind.
WOMD.
Russia was never weak in the 80!! And China was and is a persistent authoritarian regime spreading its version of Communism throughout South East Asia in those decades.
And you Balance, are a great benefactor of those attempts to defend and uphold democracy in the world at large as are all of us here.
If the US is so evil in your eyes - why don't you go live in China, where you would clearly be much more contented!
Hang on to your Yankee Doodle hat!
I am simply giving you my perspective of why I do not share the war mongering views coming out of the US.
You really have no idea of the unbearable suffering the US exacted on the civilian population of countries like Vietnam, Laos, Iraq, Afghanistan, do you?
You are aware that the US does not allow its military personnel (charged with war crimes) to be tried outside of the US? Do you ever wonder why?
https://www.france24.com/en/20180910...han-war-crimes
https://time.com/5202268/calley-trial-my-lai-massacre/
WOMD.
What do you think war is about Balance? Politics by other means. TWO SIDES engaged in deadly combat. Civilians will die. Atrocities will be perpetrated by both sides in an actual war! For God's sake - don't pretend to be so naive and virtuous in your own biased opinions by selectively presenting a single well-publicised atrocity by the US as evidence, when the other sides atrocities are ignored! What hypocrisy!
As USUAL you are only selectively presenting one side of an argument, observing matters thru your own narrow perspective with regards to the US, presenting your own (or probably CCP ?) propaganda and expecting that something will stick and imply guilt to one side only.
What a hypocrite you are - living in freedom, in a well functioning democracy where your views will be tolerated, rather than living under an authoritarian regime.
In a democracy at least all viewpoints can be represented freely and mistakes can be admitted and introspection can freely occur.
That's what we are standing up for at the end of the day...
"well functioning democracy "
says who...better than china, yes, better than russia, Yep..
No place is perfect but most democracies are dis functional but they try to get there and you can still vote them out.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/127682814/when-did-our-public-service-get-so-arrogant
Well, one thing I am pretty confident about is that if war does come to Europe, stock markets around the world including our own will tank. At least by 50% I would have thought. I have no idea if war will come or not. But I'm wondering what contingency plans investors are putting in place now or thinking about (if any) in case it does? Taking profits, moving to cash, doing nothing? Panicked selling? I'm sitting on my hands at the moment. I took profits some months ago, updated a number of home appliances, and have now sat on the balance since. Not because of the Ukraine situation though, but because of the rise in interest rates and the reemergence of inflation.
Stems from the arrogance and incompetence of this current government.
Unable to deliver on anything of the huge promises they made to get elected, Cindy & her nincompoops instead attempt to control the narrative 100% so the public only can read & see what they want the public to read & see.
Excerpt from The article :
‘I have never encountered anything quite like this in any other democracy I’ve worked in: Not when I was a White House correspondent during the Obama administration, not when I worked in Japan or South Korea.
To be clear, our country is free and open compared to many other parts of the world. But I’m not comparing us to Iran (where I used to ask pointed questions at foreign ministry press conferences all the time) or China (ditto).
I’m comparing us to other proudly open and democratic societies. And I’m comparing us to the us we used to be. Where a journalist could ask a straight question and get a straight answer and deliver it to you – straight.’
Yes Balance some members of the press the "Worldly" ones are showing the local groupies what the reality is.
Does this country now have some of the elements of the extremes scene over the centuries in europe.
Yes the mind set in a small isolated island can become very occupied with the small stuff.
Like the east germans were in monitoring everything.
Xi and Putin urge Nato to rule out expansion as Ukraine tensions rise
https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...ions-grow-west
Excerpt:
"The statement also devoted an entire section on the two sides’ shared understanding of “democracy” and claimed both countries “have long-standing traditions of democracy”. But they said that the advocacy of democracy and human rights “must not be used to put pressure on other countries”."
Almost fell off my chair laughing...!:lol:
Russia will implode one day when its people rise up and demand democracy (held down by assassinations & imprisonment) and the same for China (when its American educated diaspora spread democratic ideals within the populace, by word of mouth if necessary)...
Otherwise, a very well written article with good points to consider for all sides of the argument...
"On August 29, in the final days of its 20-year occupation of Afghanistan, the United States launched a drone strike,
firing a 20-pound (9-kilogram) Hellfire missile at an aid worker named Zemari Ahmadi as he parked his car outside his
home in a residential neighborhood of Kabul.
When a surviving member of Ahmadi’s family complained publicly about the errant strike, the Pentagon did what it has
been doing for 20 years in Afghanistan. It lied.
According to The New York Times, the Pentagon claimed that Ahmadi was a facilitator for Islamic State, and that his car
was packed with explosives, posing an imminent threat to US troops guarding the evacuation at Kabul Airport.
General Kenneth McKenzie, commander of the US Central Command, said the drone strike dealt ISIS-Khorasan a crushing blow.
General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called it a “righteous strike.”
When it was confirmed that children as young as two had died in the strike, the Pentagon suggested that any civilian
deaths resulted from the detonation of explosives inside the vehicle that was targeted. The military produced an
assessment that the occupants of the vehicle were wearing suicide vests and that the car itself was packed with explosives.
In the days following the deadly drone strike, reporters from The New York Times conducted a thorough investigation,
visiting Ahmadi’s home and place of work, viewing video footage from security cameras, and consulting with weapons experts.
This investigation quickly confirmed that every official statement of the Pentagon was false."
https://asiatimes.com/2021/10/us-kil...n-sea-of-lies/
Another blatant Lie. This was a US missile strike.
'desperate cowardice'
The only cowardice on display is from President Biden. He refuses to take responsibility for his murder of women and children.
Total breach of every tenet of respect for human rights, decency, and the rule of international law.
"US forces rehearsed the helicopter raid over and over, hoping to capture Islamic State's leader on the third floor of a residential
building in a Syrian town on the Turkish border, where he was holed up with his family.
But before they could reach him, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Quraishi detonated a suicide bomb, triggering a large explosion that
blew mangled bodies - including his own - out of the building into the streets outside.
President Joe Biden, who monitored the raid from the White House's Situation Room, called Quraishi's suicide a "final act of
desperate cowardice". It echoed of the self-detonation of a bomb by his predecessor, Islamic State founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
during a US raid in 2019 in Syria.
The explosion, which was more massive than would be expected from a suicide vest, killed everyone on the third floor and in fact
ejected multiple people from the building," McKenzie said, adding that Quraishi, his wife and two children died."
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/460...rate-cowardice
To be expected from the US, greater fool. Everything they do in military action in their minds is justified - their people cannot be at fault unless they say so.
That’s why we need, in this enlightened age after the revelations of the Iraq WOMD & the secret war in Laos (which decimated that small defenceless country & today is still clearing the hundreds of thousands of mines dropped by the US in addition to the two millions of tonnes of bombs dropped), we must question everything that comes out of the US.
The US has lost that most sacred of principles in conflict situations - trust when disclosing & telling the truth.
China & Russia are worse of course but then, we have always doubted and questioned everything they put out.
I was bemused when listening to an interview with the producer of the recent documentary about the Navy SEAL accused of murder to hear "America's moral authority" invoked, as in the incident weakened it. What Americans don't seem to understand, and I lived there for a number of years, is that if they ever had it - and Native Americans, the people of Haiti, for example, would dispute they ever did; but if they did, they lost it in the 1960s.
Thanks for reinfocring my point, g_f, the article you link to includes "Still, Powell may yet have the last laugh: Today, with 20 years of post-9/11 wars evoking the same feelings of regret that inspired the original doctrine, the arc of American foreign policy seems finally to be bending back in the direction of his prudent guidance.".
The last laugh???? Only an American would see the tragedy of American military intervention in such a light.
forget this doctrine, that doctrine wall paper the doctrine...
in the end it comes down to trade...
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/02/05/e...hnk/index.html
Interesting thought Mike...
Will the US carry on degenerating further if the Republican Party remains with its Trumpian grip at the upcoming midterm elections ?
Will China trend to becoming more peaceful in its transitions of power from President Xi to whoever else, or remain unstable as its power grows further ?
https://asiatimes.com/2022/02/china-...ed-xi-jinping/
https://time.com/6144109/russia-ukra...or-medvedchuk/
Poke a Lion long or hard enough and it is a matter of when it will retaliate.
And this lion, Russia, has sharp fangs and claws.
Interesting that China is only expected to grow at 4.8% this year (down from 8%!) and that its economy is nine times bigger than Russia's.
I wonder if we will ever see the nuclear option of removing SWIFT from Russia, and whether that might be considered a declaration of war...
If only we could use trade alone to resolve our differences as NZ does as a small exposed economy, rather than competing ideology getting in the way between powerful nations...
Wouldn't it be great if ALL countries just simply did not invade others? China should stay out of Taiwan, Russia should stay out of the Ukraine and eastern Europe, America should stop doing every 20 year invasions of Iraq and the middle east, and so on. In a discussion around the risk of another russian invasion breathlessly harping on about America's litany of shortcomings is deflection and whataboutism . A spade is a spade.
Well said FM.
Russia and China are currently the ones looking to invade.
Harping on about what USA have done in the past is true but not what we are looking at right now
Balance looking a bit like a CCP sympathizer
I agree FM but sadly the fact is that absolute power corrupts absolutely.
I can't recall the markets reacting that badly when Russia invaded Crimea ? Maybe the old dog's memory had faded too much...
It sure does. It's wrong when anyone does it.
It's not like people here on this site or elsewhere are just hitting refresh on the pentagon's website looking to be spoon fed another piece of propo to regurgitate to someone. By and large I think most people's view of russia's intention is informed by Russia's previous invasion of crimea and the donbass region, their continuous threats both veiled and outright towards Ukraine, and the massive amount of offensive weapons they are encircling the Ukraine with. The later is there for the world to see - every private satellite images company has released the same images.
The french president will pop over to chat to Valery Gergiev and ask if he going to conduct the fire bird for the paris opera and have a cup of tea with the big man in Moscow. Asking if Valery is allowed out in 2022 to fill full his obligations to the world of classical music...
Big meeting coming up that for sure...
Getting back to normal in St Petersburg is at stake..
[QUOTE=Rawz;940176]Well said FM.
Russia and China are currently the ones looking to invade.
Harping on about what USA have done in the past is true but not what we are looking at right now
[QUOTE
Are they though? Do you remember the Cuban missile crisis and what inspired it? Same situation for both Russia and China. It's a terrible game of chess with devastating potential. Also foolishly the Russians gave huge amounts of land to Ukraine back in the old USSR days and now have Russian people left there.
I'm really confused now. Who is that and why is that relevant?
I am starting to get the feeling you have confused me with a user named simply as 'Moose' - someone you just plastered their full name and a photo of them (putting it up and quickly taking it back down) - while replying to me. You know Moose is a different user right and I'm sure that individual isn't thrilled about what you've done. I hope I am missing something as its starting to get a bit creepy.
And the Republican party hangs the entire US in the political balance...How much more screwed up can the US get ? (Midterms remember)...
The Republican Party is enabling Trump's politics of violence
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/02/07/p...nce/index.html
Particularly like the look of this book GF,
Trumpocalypse : restoring American democracy
Author: David Frum
Contents
Part I: The reckoning. The smash-up ; The wall of impunity ; World war Trump ; White terror ; "Real" versus "unreal" Americans ;
The deep state lie ; How to lose to Trump -- Part II: A new age of reform. Unrigging the system ; Uniting "us" and "them" ;
Greener planet, better jobs ; Great again ; Against revenge.
Summary
A huge swath of Americans see the rest of the country building a future that doesn't have a place for them. It's no wonder they'd
rather burn it all down. But the fire can be stopped by Americans who act now to protect their country and its democracy.
ISBN 9780062978417 (hardback)
Latest twist on the Ukraine situation. I hope both protagonists are running their negotiation strategies thru their "Game Theory" programmed computers - will be interesting to see who comes out on top...
Russia links U.S. nuclear arms talks to security demands - report
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe...rt-2022-02-07/
If Russia invades Ukraine am I right in thinking oil prices go through the roof?
Macron is over chatting about cultural stuff now. Big investor in cultural are the russians and french doesnt want to see all that hard work lost.
I don;t think they're mobilizing all those forces and weaponry so they can sit around and play tiddlywinks on the border in the middle of winter. I think some time this month the custard is going to start hitting the fan.
China will have suggested they wait until after the Olympics are over first. Can’t have the neighbours detracting from your open-home..
Or into March, I guess. Extra optionality for Putin to keep everyone guessing, see what he can extract, etc.
Hopefully a face saving end can be achieved. Putin can withdrawl, publicly saying it was the end of drills and gets to say how unnecessarily shrill the West was, get a few concessions. Problem is Ukraine is getting a boat of smaller weapon systems by the day that they can one day employ in the donbass (they have already used their turkish drones once to the ire of Russia). And ukraine is getting closer to some of their immediate european neighbours so if russia withdraws they are left with a worse position than they started off with. And Nato is now running more drills alongside ukraine in response to the build up and parking more troops along the border which russia defo doesnt want.
I suppose governments come and go they may just bide their time until a pro russian gov comes or 'wins'. Ukraine wont ever join nato in reality, if russia pulls back nato will pull back the troops they put there over the last few months, some new arms control treaties, new found respect for russia, handful of other concessions, make the west look shrill - hopefully that is enough. They won't like it when the west says they deterred / forced russia to back down .
I saw the announcemet the nord pipeline won't go ahead if russia invades. sticky situation.
There was a link to all the media on Russian buildups on the Ukraine boarder since 2014 in QnAs under the breakfast briefing on Interest this morning, can't find it now but sure sounded the same all the way through.
Our kids and their kids aren't so different after all - Russian & Ukrainian...
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/...2_AVorSU-CU8Bv
Fact or Psych ops to undermine moral?
US intel indicates Russian officers have had doubts about full scale Ukraine invasion
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/02/07/p..._cMjpyILlHFrqh
Winne the Pooh is published in russian...and is well know and read..Posted this before..
It is a blatant excuse to put arms on Russia's boarder, typical US bullying. Russia, stop hitting yourself in the face. As per usual the US don't really care about the actual outcome because it isn't on their doorstep, untill it is.
I don't know why the US simply says Ukraine will not become a NATO member and be done with it for another 10 years. Perhaps they see a war as the best answer to inflation. Can't they see that allocating capital to war is folly? $6.4T spent on wars since 2001 for what? Surely that money could have been better spent
The $6.4T spent went back into the US economy in the main - because the weapons, war machines, bombs and bullets were manufactured in the US, generating economic activity. Likewise the salaries paid to the service personnel went back into the US economy.
The armaments industry in the US is huge huge business & that’s the way they like it over there.
No war or threats of war = little economic activity from the production of said armaments.
The US with the ongoing effects of the Monroe doctrine - Bernie Sanders
https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...ve-war-ukraine
If only it could come down to trade...
"Šimonytė questioned whether Germany’s past faith in changing autocratic regimes through trade remained valid. “For a very long time there was a consensus that if you increase trade, cultural and people’s exchanges, then somehow there will be a change in standards of living, and perceptions will become more similar. In many cases that has happened – it happened in Lithuania – but it is not universal. Perhaps empires do not change.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...ops-in-belarus
Belarus - will they or won't they support Russia?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...g-step-ukraine
For Biden, wreaking havoc on Russia’s economy is the least bad option
https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blog...1O_H6gk19mDpF0
Some background to the "Ukraine problem"
https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/wh...s%20a%20threat
Putin's last opportunity?
The view from Kyiv
https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/th...%20from%20Kyiv
Kim Hill:
Andriy Dubchak: reporting from the frontlines of Ukraine
&
Prof David Marples: Russia has reached point of no return
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/progr...urday/20220212
The Russian are coming, The Russian are coming, The Russians are coming...
US warns of ‘distinct possibility’ Russia will invade Ukraine within days
https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...inter-olympics
Too late?
Stocks slide and oil surges on renewed fears of Russia invasion of Ukraine
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/02/11/i...ine/index.html
Putin moves his private yacht out of german waters.
The germans are so soft. It should have been seized.
OPEC Production problems.. They cant actually pump what they say they can. Also there seems to be a Diesel shortage looming..
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-G...es-Higher.html
Good job putin on building a tinpot country.
20 years of your leadership so theres no one else to blame when the sanctions hit.
https://travel.state.gov/content/tra...-advisory.html
NYT has set up a live feed. US 50c / week we can all afford to do the right thing.
By all accounts if Putin does go ahead, it could all be over in one week, as Ukraine has no modern air defences and ground forces may be quickly overwhelmed...
If russia joined the EU and the russian economy was comprehensively reformed from Putin's mismanagement then Europe would be the number one world power even eclipsing the united states.
Make peace not war and rebuild together;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0zQw2MSrok
That would be the dream, the opportunity presented itself after the fall of the Soviet Union, but the oligarchs took control and let the dark forces of pure unmodified capitalism take over Russia.
Will the West ever get another chance, or will Russia retain too much pride in itself, flaws & all and refrain from joining?
Good questions to ponder as we wait possibly in the "calm before the storm".