[Politics] Russia invades Ukraine (24/02/2022)

[GoldstoneVintage]

Yes Birdie, it's always been shit, but it's got 33% worse, and at the same time inflation is rapidly increasing and they're running out of reserves.

Russia aren't making any headway in the war and their economy is collapsing. As long as Ukraine can continue to fight, it's difficult to see how Russia can get out of this mess.

Yes, I've been thinking this too. It's hard to imagine Ukraine being able to win on the battlefield. Retaking all that land from entrenched Russian defenders would take more men and material than Ukraine currently has or is ever likely to have in the future.

But, what if they don't need to win? Maybe all they need to do is hang on long enough for the Russian economy to collapse. If the military and defense contractors don't get paid, they won't fight. Simple and I really hope this is right.

 

[Eric the meek]

What a c***. Unfortunately he has bought his way to unwarranted power and influence.

It beggars belief doesn't it?

Zelenskyy's country has been invaded. Hundreds of thousands of people have died. Musk is one of a team, with the huge responsibility to smooth the path to get the two leaders to arrive, somehow, at a peace agreement. And he does this. Words fail me.

 

[Birdie Boy]

Yes Birdie, it's always been shit, but it's got 33% worse, and at the same time inflation is rapidly increasing and they're running out of reserves.

Russia aren't making any headway in the war and their economy is collapsing. As long as Ukraine can continue to fight, it's difficult to see how Russia can get out of this mess.

Yes that makes sense and I agree, 33% is huge!
I've only been a lurker on this thread but I have learnt a lot from it, a hell of a lot!
The more Putin suffers the better, along with his cronies but not the general population. They only hear what he tells them...

 

[raymondo]

What a c***. Unfortunately he has bought his way to unwarranted power and influence.

Yes. He's yet another person whose arrogance exceeds his abilities a 100 fold.

 

[Mackenzie]

Hopefully folk will start walking away from Tesla.

 

[GT49er]

Yes. He's yet another person whose arrogance exceeds his abilities a 100 fold.

...........whose arrogance exceeds his worth to the human race, I would have said!

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

...........whose arrogance exceeds his worth to the human race, I would have said!

He can barely function as a human. He is weird in the extreme.

 

[GT49er]

He can barely function as a human. He is weird in the extreme.

Don't be fooled. He functions too bloody well (without the restrictions of having to distinguish wrong from right) - long term may prove to be a bigger menace than Trump (who is 80ish, and hopefully going to die soon)

 

[Sirnormangall]

Escalating fast. The opposition now reportedly have weapons.

On one hand it’s good to see another distraction for Putin to deal with, but on the other hand it’s a worrying indication of how Russia might disintegrate into numerous other violent disputes when Putin is eventually overthrown.

 

[Cotton Socks]

Elon Musk does his 'please join us at the negotiating table' routine:

He gives off the vibe of such a 'creepy' person. If he hadn't turned out to be the richest person in the world, he gives the impression that he would have been a school shooter instead. It's a very unfunny joke that the creepy guy seems to be gaining a lot of power in the US (creepier than Trump, as he does seem to be intelligent). I'm kind of hoping that Europe can gather all our shit together & say to the US that we don't actually need you & if you want to pull out of NATO that's fine. Who wants to deal with an overgrown kid who's treating the human race as a computer simulation with his media control? Musk trolling Zelensky with that tweet gives a lot of insight.
In my opinion (based on nothing) the best option for Ukraine would be for the US to say to Ukraine & Russia 'No we're not getting involved, we're too busy making ourselves rich'. Musk sounds like he's trying to be clever & play mind games. Playing mind games on a social media platform with countries, when innocent people are getting killed everyday doesn't exactly sound like he has any idea what he's doing when it comes to government. On the other hand maybe he knows exactly what he's doing. Trump & Musk are a bad combination for everyone judging by that tweet from Musk. Hopefully Trump will not appoint him if he gets too many likes from his tweets. So many mixed messages coming from Trump & Musk that it seems simpler just to tell them to f**k off.

 

[Eric the meek]

Elon Musk is getting flamed on social media.

 

[seagullwedgee]

The hyper-inflation in the Russian economy suggests that money supply is growing much faster than real economic output. We don’t have any hard information on money supply in Russia, but it’s likely, maybe even probable, that Russia is now printing/creating new money, to use to prop up its currency, because it has no accessible reserves left. Remember when you did history back at school, and citizens in Nazi Germany were literally resorting to using wheelbarrows to move the amount of cash required to go shopping. Not there yet, but maybe not far off. That’s his last resort, to create new money to prop up his currency and this is an exponentially slippery slope. If only we had access to his genuine M0 and M4 (money supply) statistics, trends and trajectories.

 

[seagullwedgee]

Whether we can trust the data or not is questionable, but I did find some numbers implying that Russian M2 money supply has grown 19% in the last year alone, rising from 91 billion to 108 billion roubles.

And 108 billion roubles is now worth US$1billion. Which is a p155 in a pot compared to what he would need to fully defend his currency against the increasingly steep downward slope he is facing.

 

[raymondo]

On one hand it’s good to see another distraction for Putin to deal with, but on the other hand it’s a worrying indication of how Russia might disintegrate into numerous other violent disputes when Putin is eventually overthrown.

For now, id be happy if Russia disintegrated into numerous disputes,- they can fight each other for a few years.(I'm not saying Abkhazie is Russia)

 

[Eric the meek]

I was wondering why Paul Warburg was being so quiet. It's because he's been doing his research on Trump, in preparation for the video below.

Here he discusses what may happen in Ukraine. He has clearly thought about it, and has some very good points. It's a 21 minute watch.

 

[raymondo]

He gives off the vibe of such a 'creepy' person. If he hadn't turned out to be the richest person in the world, he gives the impression that he would have been a school shooter instead. It's a very unfunny joke that the creepy guy seems to be gaining a lot of power in the US (creepier than Trump, as he does seem to be intelligent). I'm kind of hoping that Europe can gather all our shit together & say to the US that we don't actually need you & if you want to pull out of NATO that's fine. Who wants to deal with an overgrown kid who's treating the human race as a computer simulation with his media control? Musk trolling Zelensky with that tweet gives a lot of insight.
In my opinion (based on nothing) the best option for Ukraine would be for the US to say to Ukraine & Russia 'No we're not getting involved, we're too busy making ourselves rich'. Musk sounds like he's trying to be clever & play mind games. Playing mind games on a social media platform with countries, when innocent people are getting killed everyday doesn't exactly sound like he has any idea what he's doing when it comes to government. On the other hand maybe he knows exactly what he's doing. Trump & Musk are a bad combination for everyone judging by that tweet from Musk. Hopefully Trump will not appoint him if he gets too many likes from his tweets. So many mixed messages coming from Trump & Musk that it seems simpler just to tell them to f**k off.

Lots to agree with in your post. Yes, I hope Europe sorts itself into a serious regional military defense - so we're less at risk if US threatens to pull out of NATO. Some discussions starting instigated by Poland I think.
It's hard to know what to think about Musk - he's become a horrible, narcissistic, manipulative piece of shit who treats the world like his playground, and he's one of the wealthy bully elites. Sadly, I'm sure he'd sooner have dinner with Putin than Zelenskiy, bully big boys together marvelling at their power - incredulous really.
Ok, hopefully he'll be off to Mars soon as king.

 

[Eric the meek]

A disturbing, but not entirely unexpected result of Russian veterans returning home and being violent.

What also is happening, is that the violence tends to go unpunished and is becoming normalised.

Russia's soldiers bringing wartime violence back home

Many of the attackers have previous criminal convictions and were released from prison purely to fight.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Eric the meek]

For now, id be happy if Russia disintegrated into numerous disputes,- they can fight each other for a few years.(I'm not saying Abkhazie is Russia)

I suspect you will be proven correct. Russia appears to be descending into lawlessness.

 

[Triggaaar]

A disturbing, but not entirely unexpected result of Russian veterans returning home and being violent.

What also is happening, is that the violence tends to go unpunished and is becoming normalised.

Russia's soldiers bringing wartime violence back home

Many of the attackers have previous criminal convictions and were released from prison purely to fight.

www.bbc.co.uk

I know it's not the point of the article, but from that: "When Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed in a plane crash last year"

So it wasn't shot down, it simply crashed did it? I appreciate they may be attempting to be ambiguous and leave the cause of the deaths to us, but saying it crashed actually acts as though it wasn't shot down. When tanks are blown up by mines and rockets, we don't say they crashed

 

[GoldstoneVintage]

I was wondering why Paul Warburg was being so quiet. It's because he's been doing his research on Trump, in preparation for the video below.

Here he discusses what may happen in Ukraine. He has clearly thought about it, and has some very good points. It's a 21 minute watch.

Thanks, this is actually pretty encouraging and seems logical.