Talking to automated bots. But I don't think the objective is to have a discussion. Just to express their views and dominate the thread and ad hominem others. — ssu
May I commend to you both the power of silence. This is too tedious to even try to understand. — unenlightened
The point was that corporate profits have done virtually nothing but rise at an increasingly large margin above nominal GDP. Inflation, no inflation, crash, no crash, crisis, no crisis... none of it's had the slightest impact on the overall trend. — Isaac
They have an appetite for war that doesn't show, doesn't affect them and what they can finance by simply printing more money. People likely don't even know that the US is still in Iraq still fighting the "War on Terror". Among other places.I cannot imagine how stupid one has to be to argue that the US does not have the 'appetite' for more war. — Streetlight
Biden and other Western leaders understand that there's no appetite for a decades long war in order just to keep Russia bleeding. — ssu
...only a few countries left to go, then they'll have the full set. — Isaac
The Countries That Have Had The Most Wars
1. Spain: 300+
2. France: 250+
3. Hungary: 190
4. United Kingdom: 180
5. India: 148
6. Austria: 115
7. Poland: 115
8. The Philippines: 110
9. Iran: 104
10. United States: 101
11. Argentina: 90
12. Brazil: 78
13. Russia: 75
14. Nigeria: 67
15. Denmark: 66
16. Sweden: 64
17. Afghanistan: 61
18. England: 61
19. Germany: 57
They behave like automatons. It's hard to have a conversation with bots saying "NATO caca" over and over again.
— Olivier5
Was there some hidden text in there? Some cipher maybe? Because it looks (to those of us so attentionally challenged) as if it contained absolutely nothing but an insult to those critical of the west. — Isaac
now completely broken - unlike it was in the 70s - and the US is a dying Empire so will do what it takes to prioritize its global reach over what is still seen as short term pain. — Streetlight
Their global reach is intact at the moment. — frank
And now the nominal profits can be up, but substract inflation and those winning aren't so big. We finally have the inflation problem and likely it won't go away easily. — ssu
Again, still the stupidest statement in this entire 228 page thread. — Streetlight
That's quite a truthful graph. — ssu
That's quite a truthful graph. Calling it an "Central Bank bubble" is quite apt. — ssu
NATO doctrine: Russia is wrong even if right, enemy even if not. — SpaceDweller
None of that has anything to do with NATO's mission. — Olivier5
To a deranged mind, I can seem lots of things, I guess. — neomac
Even in the best case, if Zelensky wants a negotiated settlement, he will likely have to make significant concessions to Russia—as he has acknowledged. Any such concessions will probably be bitterly opposed by many in the United States and Europe. Ultimately, though, it is not their call. The democratically elected government of Ukraine should get to decide what price it is willing to pay for an end to the slaughter of its citizens and the preservation of Ukraine’s existence as a sovereign state.
Lord Hastings Lionel Ismay was NATO’s first Secretary General, a position he was initially reluctant to accept. By the end of his tenure however, Ismay had become the biggest advocate of the organisation he had famously said earlier on in his political career, was created to “keep the Soviet Union out, the Americans in, and the Germans down.”
Looking forward to converting Germany into a country primarily agricultural and pastoral in its character ....
"Perfidious Albion" is a pejorative phrase used within the context of international relations diplomacy to refer to acts of diplomatic slights, duplicity, treachery and hence infidelity (with respect to perceived promises made to or alliances formed with other nation states) by monarchs or governments of the United Kingdom (or England prior to 1707) in their pursuit of self-interest.
Perfidious signifies one who does not keep his faith or word (from the Latin word perfidia), while Albion is an ancient name for Great Britain - Wikipedia
Come to think of it, was the painting approved by Churchill’s propaganda bureau? — Apollodorus
I think Seignac got Belgium right, but is he trying to say that France is the heiress of Rome? And why is England a redhead? Is that supposed to be an insult to Churchill's "Anglo-Saxons", or is it a sneaky allusion to Britain’s Celtic and, therefore, “Gallic” heritage? — Apollodorus
It's just a simple fact that the Biden administration is actually hindering diplomatic efforts to negotiate an end to this war, and that it has refused to provide Ukraine with any kind of diplomatic negotiating power regarding the possible rollback of sanctions and other US measures to help secure peace. Washington's top diplomats have consistently been conspicuously absent from any kind of dialogue with their counterparts in Moscow.
Statements from the administration in fact indicate that they expect this war to drag on for a long time, making it abundantly clear that a swift end to minimize the death and destruction is not just uninteresting but undesirable for the US empire. Ukrainian media report that UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson told Zelensky on behalf of NATO powers that "even if Ukraine is ready to sign some agreements on guarantees with Putin, they are not."
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...The imperial political/media class are not even denying that this is a US proxy war anymore. In an alarmingly rapid pivot from the mass media's earlier position that calling this a proxy war is merely an "accusation" promoted solely by Russia, we're now seeing the use of that term becoming more and more common in authorized news outlets. The New Yorker came right out and declared that the US is in "a full proxy war with Russia" the other day, and US congressman Seth Moulton recently told Fox News that the US is at war with Russia through a proxy.
"At the end of the day, we've got to realize we're at war, and we're not just at war to support the Ukrainians," Moulton said. "We're fundamentally at war, although it's somewhat through proxy, with Russia. And it's important that we win."
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...And it's not just a proxy war, it's a proxy war the US knowingly provoked. We know now that the US intelligence cartel had clear vision into Russia's plans to launch this invasion, which means they also knew how to prevent it. A few low-cost maneuvers like promising not to add Ukraine to NATO as well as promising Zelensky that the US would protect him and his government from the violent fascist factions who were threatening to kill him if he honored the Minsk agreements and made peace with Russia as Ukrainians elected him to do. That's all it would have taken.
Many, many western experts warned for many years that the actions of the US and NATO would lead to the confrontation we're now being menaced with. There was every opportunity to turn away from this war, and instead the US-centralized empire hit the accelerator and drove right into it. Knowingly.
The whole thing was premeditated. All with the goal of weakening Russia and effecting regime change in Moscow in order to secure US unipolar hegemony.
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