About 12 years ago, a colleague at work was telling me how his brother, who had a shoe making factory in China, had relocated to Kenya in Africa due to ever increasing costs. It was no longer economic for him to produce his shoes in China, and sell them in Europe. India and Africa are now serious competitors for China. Just it will take a bit of time for the dynamics to work through the global system. but work it's way it will, and not to the benefit of China. Putin has really triggered a massive rethink in global affairs. It may be the only worthwhile thing to emerge from this war.
The sad thing here is the sheer amount of Russian troops who I'd imagine are not happy about being there. We've seen mass desertions already, and the miserable conditions of what they are dealing with like out of date food rations. It'd be great of Elon Musk's threat of 1-1 combat could happen, because all this loss of life is due to one madman's delusions
Not suspicious - I think she was aiming her protest message at people in the West as much as the Russian public. 'Russians against War' at the foot of her poster was self explanatory.
For the "greater good" right now it cant be justified NATO going in but it d be glorious to see the Russians get a right good hiding and sent packing.
Setting aside the fact that many people don't seem to think it's possible for Putin to achieve virtually any of his objectives in Ukraine at this stage...
The EU and NATO are now in a position to prepare carefully for the "what next" should Russia continue down this path:
All of these issues become rushed and forced if EU/NATO engages in a shooting war with Russia; and this is all ignoring the escalation routes open to Russia should they become cornered.
I mean I'm deeply conflicted about it and wish the EU/NATO could just pile into Ukraine and knock seven shades of shite out of the Russians; but I genuinely don't see the risk versus reward for doing so right now.
Macron is Zelenskyy lite.
Or maybe, more accurate in alcohol terms, Zelenskyy.. 0%.
Thats what he should have been met with a "You launch at us we will Launch all our nukes at you" attitude and told out right and not the appeasement he was met with to encourage his bullshit even further, self serving scum like putin would never risk his own safety to launch nukes provided they even have some maintained if the army is anything to go by they cant even change tires!
Ive been saying it from the start that the whole "he'll stop at Ukraine" approach is very naïve, NATO should have went in "peacekeeping" with putin when he went into the Donbass region and make a war awkward to fight.
During the Cuban missile crisis, the Americans acted so spooked till the point that Kennedy's advisors were actually considering and suggesting a nuclear strike on the soviet union just for having the audacity to move their nukes into the western hemisphere, the soviets almost shat in their pants once they found out what the American response was about to be. Granted they ended up doing a trade turkey for cuba, however and most importantly the whole crisis came to a conclusion rather quickly.
70 years later, Putin is blackmailing us with his nukes yet we keep forgetting that NATO is also a nuclear deterrent superpower.
I am not an expert in these matters, however i can already feel that Putin, while losing the battle in Ukraine, is winning in blackmailing the west and prolonging the crisis to his advantage.
He should've been dealt with swiftly and more decisively.
Thread:
Nobody abroad is really thinking about Daly and Wallace. I can say with some confidence that they are not the only cranks in the European Parliament, so it's not too shocking, if annoying. I wouldn't even think about them myself, only they keep getting brought up here.
They arent men they are subhuman scum that prey on these poor people.
All the same I wish we could somehow hide them from the rest of the world and just suffer them internally without the added mortification of having to export them abroad.
In war, not everything is as it seems.
I'm glad I got my playstation 5 console..at Christmas. No chips coming out of China now .or consoles .
That may be because they didn't have the Wiley Coyote on the team back then.
Also the ACME equipment was 20-25 years less out of date and the soldiers may have received proper training.
A Russian commander of the twelfth engineering brigade aka Red-Knowledge Brigade (tactical joint of the Russian Ground Forces), Colonel Sergei Ivanovich Porokhnya was eliminated today.
they should nail that ribbon of Saint George to his forehead.
https://real-vin.com/v-ukraine-unichtozhen-komandir-brigady-vs-rf-sergej-porohnja/amp
I've stopped looking at much of the reported footage as I find it takes a heavy toll on me personally. I can't imagine what effect it has on the people living it day in day out.
As I understand it, U.S. special forces had been in Ukraine prior to the Russian invasion providing weapons training. The Americans had what turned out to be solid intelligence on the Russian plan to invade.
If the Russians backed off in 2008, it makes me wonder what would have happened if Biden had moved to put a visible US military presence in Ukraine (at Zelenskyy's invitation) in the weeks leading up to Russia's invasion time. Would Russia have backed down? Maybe they'd have negotiated terms without bullets being fired.
Where is the anger tonight in Ukraine about her?. What she did is more than "one stunt". She has probably and bravely signed her own death warrant..😢
Yes, I can definitely see that in my industry. Around 2004-6 'Chinese' still meant cheap and low quality, but there were a few breakout brands that were starting to offer excellent quality at a much cheaper price than US or EU brands. Probably based in large part on theft of intellectual property. Now many of these same brands sell the same quality but just slightly undercutting western brands. It seems to be causing the tide to turn, if their prices are not that much better than western brands, more people are likely to go with the brands with that have a better presence in the west.
The fact that the lady printed No War in English was and is highly suspicious.
Her stunt should be treated with scepticism.
Obviously the usuals on twitter have jumped all over it in their normal rush and will delete their tweets tomorrow.
China is no longer the low cost production Country it once was ( but by world standards, they are still cheaper than most Country's ) a rising class of people with a liking for the good life and all the trimmings, means that production costs are rising sharply...China has lost quite a lot of foreign business to Africa and India,,,the new "Low Production Cost's" Countrys, and this trend has been happening for several years now, and predates the Chinese Covid lockdown, which brought the world to a shuddering stop....then to make matters worse, you had the massive container ship getting stuck in the Suez canal. So drawing the ire of the civilized world on them if they chose to support Putin, will only accelerate the drive away from Chinese goods.
Wow, that's intense. It must take some guts to drive around in that with tanks on every third or fourth street. There's a mad mix of sounds in there, the vehicle sounds almost like a Dublin Bus with an autocannon fitted on it.
Some anger tonight in Ukraine that a Russian broadcaster is being labelled a hero after one stunt, when she has been pedalling Russian rubbish for years.
I was prompted to read more on what you said, you may not be far wrong @Danzy
Instead, Orwell believed that Soviet Communism shared the same defects as Nazi Germany. Both were totalitarian states where the desire for total power and control crowded out any room for truth, individuality or freedom. Orwell did not think Soviet Communism was truly socialist, but rather that it only had a socialist façade.
I'd say there's two chances of that happening, and they know it too.
Being on the left and not being right can have very different meanings
Or they wil act quietly or in a way that means they won't lose face. I agree moral scrubals won't be involved eitherway.
Putin may not be a communist but he leads like one, treats his people like he is one, uses a lot of their language and so on.
To the Russian on the ground, it's a familiar story.
It was well co-ordinated, Condoleeza Rice publicly leaked that Lavrov demanded, during a private phone call, the removal of the democratic government as a condition for peace, but that she insisted this was not negotiable. The Georgian government were still there after the Russians left.
It should be pointed out W sanctioned that as he was afraid they would head south into Florida
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