The All Things Political Topic - Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities

[Amentep]

1 minute ago, BruceVC said:

Why is it that obesity is only caused by poverty and inequality in first world countries because  poverty and inequality is much worse throughout Africa ?

I think what you'll find is in cases where there is a correlation between poverty and obesity, poverty leads to less choice in food options (resulting in choosing between various cheap, prepackaged or precooked, foods with loads of salt, sugar and fat), as opposed to poverty leading to a scarcity of food.

[Darkpriest]

Effin braindeads just made comments about imminent R invasion and made oil go up by 5-6usd to almost 100usd a barrel. 

 

As i said, too much emo, too little brain and foresight... 

 

OR perhaps Pelssi has some of the holdings of those sweet call options at 100USD Oil. 

Seems US lawmakers were the best fund mangers in 2021... No conflict of interests there at all. 

Edited February 11, 2022 by Darkpriest

[BruceVC]

4 minutes ago, Darkpriest said:

Effin braindeads just made comments about imminent R invasion and made oil go up by 5-6usd to almost 100usd a barrel. 

 

As i said, too much emo, too little brain and foresight... 

Im watching this on CNN now, the invasion may happen during the Olympics....it seems unlikely but you never know with Putin ? 

[Darkpriest]

15 minutes ago, BruceVC said:

Im watching this on CNN now, the invasion may happen during the Olympics....it seems unlikely but you never know with Putin ? 

In no way, shape or form is the Russia invading full scale Ukraine. Maybe in some alternative universe from comic books, but there is not much to gain, and everything to lose... 

[rjshae]

34 minutes ago, BruceVC said:

Im watching this on CNN now, the invasion may happen during the Olympics....it seems unlikely but you never know with Putin ? 

I'm expecting it'll happen after the Olympics. He's a sports fan and China is his buddy.

[Darkpriest]

44 minutes ago, rjshae said:

I'm expecting it'll happen after the Olympics. He's a sports fan and China is his buddy.

I have no idea what drives this thinking. Seems like some kids level of imagination or some comic book villan level of logic. 

 

What does Russia gain in case of conflict? What is the end game for it that would mark a success? 

 

How does it retain gains and control over a large swath of land with hostile populace? It's not Chechenia, Syria, and its way more difficult than Afghanistan. 

 

What's the social and economic benefit? 

 

There is a reason why Russia runs it pressure through diplomacy, economic pressure and maybe some third world countries politics like middle east, which is rich with oil. 

They want to make sure that NATO is not stationed near its border, and they want to make UN more contrarian to US, to show US in a bad light as the ones who ignore international community (something that they were doing well together with China during the Trump era). 

If they will have the UN on their side, they will be able to run referendums in ethbic russian heavy regio s to make them buffer states or even joi  Russia itslef.  Thats their end game. 

 

UK and US are poised to hurt EU economics (UK to hrut to show that Brexit was a good idea, and US wants more trade, especially in resources to make EU dependent on them) and the leaders need some area in which they can gain some better ratings as both Boris and Biden are tanking. 

Their diplomacies are a failure though. Just most recent examples

1.unprepared and clearly domestic policy driven UK trip to Russia with a lot of gaffes and errors

2.Biden acting as if Germany was US vassal state and threathening to get rid of Nordstream 2. (not his place to make such decisions!) 

3. UK and US undermining all the efforts at easing the conflict and progress that was made by France openly and backdoor Germany, and those two retard english speaking admins are stoking fears to a level that even Ukraine is saying is too much...

 

Bloody dumbasses, but you can't get more out of idealogical zealots like modern democrats. There is **** for brains in those skulls... 

 

 

 

Edited February 11, 2022 by Darkpriest

[Zoraptor]

Meh, they still don't have enough troops. Indeed, the propaganda about that has been pretty ludicrous. Enough for an "imminent" invasion, supposedly spend another couple of weeks adding troops and readiness was... down to 70%? Guess it's the old anxiety habituation in action, ie you can't tell people they're in immediate danger too long or they start to ignore it. Now we're back to 'imminent', just avoid mentioning the word itself.

At least Pentagon spox or whoever it was got to the meat of the issue- making NATO relevant again. Didn't see if he mentioned the attempts to get Europe to buy overpriced US gas, but he didn't really need to.

1 hour ago, Darkpriest said:

Effin braindeads just made comments about imminent R invasion and made oil go up by 5-6usd to almost 100usd a barrel.

Nothing braindead about that. Every increase in energy price helps out all the massively overexposed shale operations that were in trouble with the low energy prices of the early pandemic phase. Bad news for ordinary americans, but big stragetic advantage to the US, and neither party cares about poor people anyway.

Not a US only phenomenon, of course, we've got reports coming out about how historic high inflation disproportionately effect... the rich. The logic being, if you're poor and spending all your money anyway you don't spend extra when prices go up because you have no extra money to spend, so there's zero impact. OTOH, rich people pay more for the Jaguar or Cayenne, so are effected. This is mostly to run interference for the entire $50bn stimulus package that caused a a lot of the inflation going to rich people who bought houses, leading to a completely unpredictable 30% (no typo, thirty percent, and yes that's annual) appreciation in house prices. The average household would now have to save every cent- ie spend literally nothing- for 14 years to afford a house at current prices. Problem being, of course, that by the time that 14 years has elapsed on historic trends the house prices will have trebled again while wages will have gone up ~15%. Coincidentally, the average NZ member of parliament owns 3 houses... Wonder how many shares in defence production and energy US politicians have?

Edited February 11, 2022 by Zoraptor

[Malcador]

People play too much HOI4.  Although I guess that said, it would be cool to see a Kirov in action.

Edited February 11, 2022 by Malcador

[Sarex]

It's not even good propaganda... Worse yet it's rushed propaganda. Either Ukraine is getting antsy, or for some reason the US is in a hurry.

[Darkpriest]

4 minutes ago, Sarex said:

It's not even good propaganda... Worse yet it's rushed propaganda. Either Ukraine is getting antsy, or for some reason the US is in a hurry.

They want to kill an inflation topic in US? 

Tanking Biden approval? 

Worst UMich consumer sentiment in a long time? 

https://www.investopedia.com/consumer-sentiment-down-again-in-early-february-2022-5218847

 

You do not want to be grilled over weekend with such topics. 

Edited February 11, 2022 by Darkpriest

[rjshae]

Supposedly the Ukraine has had a mild winter and the snow is starting to melt. Generals Mud and Snow may work against Putin this time.

[Zoraptor]

But Joe Biden said the ground would freeze in February... Though that reminds me of one of the more obscure funny things from Liz Truss's visit to Moscow. She deliberately dressed up like Maggie Thatcher did, as if it was -20. It was actually a toasty 3 degrees, and she must have absolutely broiled herself.

If anyone wants an actual illustration of just how stupid the New Zealand economy is at the moment, our Prime Minister already has one of the highest pay rates in the OECD (strangely enough there's always money to give politicians salary and benefit increases, otherwise their, haha, "quality might drop"). She made more money, tax free, from her house appreciating last year than from her salary- 8 times the median household income. "There will never be a capital gains tax so long as I am PM" says woman who would have to pay extra 125k in tax if there were. Oh yeah, and the alternative leader owns no less than 7 properties...

Edited February 11, 2022 by Zoraptor

[Sarex]

Housing is getting stupid...stupider...everywhere.

[Darkpriest]

9 minutes ago, Sarex said:

Housing is getting stupid...stupider...everywhere.

Thays what you get when you remove housing prices from CPI and go to low rates environment. 

Check how CPI was measured in the past, when the housing was removed and when housing went statospheric in prices. 

[Darkpriest]

On cultural utopias

https://www.yahoo.com/news/chinese-woman-suffers-skull-fractures-012129115.html

I wonder if the offender will be accused of racial based hate crime. 

[Malcador]

1 minute ago, Darkpriest said:

On cultural utopias

https://www.yahoo.com/news/chinese-woman-suffers-skull-fractures-012129115.html

I wonder if the offender will be accused of racial based hate crime. 

If it's actually racially motivated, then would hope so.

[Darkpriest]

Seems Russian speakers are better prepared to their job. 

Anyone read or saw the information relayed by Zacharowa? 

[rjshae]

26 minutes ago, Malcador said:

If it's actually racially motivated, then would hope so.

That's in my neck of the woods, and it was pretty disturbing to watch on the news. This area is generally very tolerant. IIRC, they interviewed the perp's roommate and his description made the suspect seem like a sociopath. Hopefully the attacker gets locked away for a long time.

[Gfted1]

3 hours ago, BruceVC said:

Gfted1 I thought of something that confuses me. If inequality and poverty is the primary factor that  leads to obesity why is it that in the  12 African countries I have worked in  you will find that obesity is not a societal problem?

Why is it that obesity is only caused by poverty and inequality in first world countries because  poverty and inequality is much worse throughout Africa ?

Probably sugar and trans fat. Everywhere else starving people get skinnier.

[Gorth]

5 hours ago, BruceVC said:

https://www.cbssports.com/olympics/news/beijing-olympics-2022-roc-figure-skater-kamila-valieva-15-reportedly-tes-positive-for-banned-substance/

Another example of Russia cheating in a sports event, I suppose these Olympics are being held in a country where their is no regard for human rights or basic freedoms so its not a huge surprise 

You know it wasn’t a test done at the Beijing Olympics, right (where according to the BBC she’s returned two negative tests so far) ? It was a test from another competition last year. Makes for a better story conflating things I guess. 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

https://www.motherjones.com/crime-justice/2022/02/child-abuse-mothers-sexist-failure-to-protect-law-rebecca-hogue-oklahoma/

What the ****? Everything I hear about Oklahoma is just terrible and evil.

[BruceVC]

5 hours ago, Gorth said:

You know it wasn’t a test done at the Beijing Olympics, right (where according to the BBC she’s returned two negative tests so far) ? It was a test from another competition last year. Makes for a better story conflating things I guess. 

Yes because Russia would never cheat at any sports event, how silly of me

 

[BruceVC]

7 hours ago, Zoraptor said:

But Joe Biden said the ground would freeze in February... Though that reminds me of one of the more obscure funny things from Liz Truss's visit to Moscow. She deliberately dressed up like Maggie Thatcher did, as if it was -20. It was actually a toasty 3 degrees, and she must have absolutely broiled herself.

If anyone wants an actual illustration of just how stupid the New Zealand economy is at the moment, our Prime Minister already has one of the highest pay rates in the OECD (strangely enough there's always money to give politicians salary and benefit increases, otherwise their, haha, "quality might drop"). She made more money, tax free, from her house appreciating last year than from her salary- 8 times the median household income. "There will never be a capital gains tax so long as I am PM" says woman who would have to pay extra 125k in tax if there were. Oh yeah, and the alternative leader owns no less than 7 properties...

 Zora please dont be sexist and attack the UK foreign secretary because of the clothes she was wearing

I realize this type of criticism is normally  subconscious and most men dont realize they doing it but when was the last time you ever criticized any male politician on this forum " for the clothes they wearing". It reminds me of some the personal attacks Hilary Clinton received in 2016 where she was  judged for " how her hair looked "  or other similar fatuous  things ( Yes Trump also got personal attacks so maybe thats a bad example )

I dont think you are overtly sexist but you should be aware of what you  saying and how it comes across 

[Gorth]

1 hour ago, BruceVC said:

 Zora please dont be sexist and attack the UK foreign secretary because of the clothes she was wearing

I realize this type of criticism is normally  subconscious and most men dont realize they doing it but when was the last time you ever criticized any male politician on this forum " for the clothes they wearing". It reminds me of some the personal attacks Hilary Clinton received in 2016 where she was  judged for " how her hair looked "  or other similar fatuous  things ( Yes Trump also got personal attacks so maybe thats a bad example )

I dont think you are overtly sexist but you should be aware of what you  saying and how it comes across 

And that is relevant to her arrogance, incompetence and embarrassing her country repeatedly in public with her gaffes because...?

[BruceVC]

5 minutes ago, Gorth said:

And that is relevant to her arrogance, incompetence and embarrassing her country repeatedly in public with her gaffes because...?

Someone got out  of the wrong side of their bed this morning 

Its not relevant at all to any of those things you mention, I would have thought  my point was clear? Criticize what people say and do and not what clothes they wear 

And you sound like the Russian media calling her out for incompetence and arrogance....thats the state controlled and influenced media  of course

https://inews.co.uk/news/world/russias-sergei-lavrov-describes-liz-truss-talks-as-speaking-to-a-deaf-person-amid-ukraine-tensions-1452975

Lavrov claims " she was unprepared for the meeting" and it was like  "“speaking to a deaf person who listens but does not hear.”

Their is nothing to prepare for something which is blatantly clear to everyone but Russia and Russian apologists. Putin has built up troops on the border of Ukraine and threatens the sovereignty of Ukraine

What exactly should she had said? "Hi Lavrov, we have no issue with what you doing because you not doing exactly what we see you doing " 

How is she arrogant and how did she embarrass the UK over this meeting? Unless of course you referring to other incidents which I am not sure how they relevant to what Zora mentioned ?