Russia

[Nonc Hilaire]

You guys are chromatic Philistines. I bet you think ecru is an Australian marsupial.

That said, all socks should be black. It is very hard to wake up on a cold, dark winter morning and try to feel the difference between a navy sock and a black one.

[Simple Minded]

You guys are chromatic Philistines. I bet you think ecru is an Australian marsupial.

That said, all socks should be black. It is very hard to wake up on a cold, dark winter morning and try to feel the difference between a navy sock and a black one.

Wow! We may be chromatic Philistines, but at least we're not sock racists!

According to Zack's posts, I would imagine that black socks and navy socks feel differently about a whole range of issues.... especially compared to the feelings of say white socks or brown socks. Grays are the toughest to read in terms of feelings. Lets ignore gender issues for the moment and leave panty hose out of the discussion.

This thread proves two things:
1. Intellectuals can find correlation between any two subjects: ie: The Phoenix like resurrection of the Russian bear and yuppie chic fashion!
B. Not only does the free market produce so much wealth that we don't have to wear Mao suits unless we want to (they seem very slimming, one would think they would be more popular in the US), but also so much wealth inequality that <50%ers spend time worrying about whether their socks match each other or match their tee shirts!

Viva la accident of birth!!!

[Endovelico]

That's nothing... Just forget it...

[Simple Minded]

That's nothing... Just forget it...

Looks like a sell signal for gold to me.......

[Alexis]

That's nothing... Just forget it...

It's a BRICS thing. India also is increasing her gold holdings regularly.

And the first governmental buyer of gold is none other than China, which has for several years forbidden a single gram of gold to leave the country - preempting buying of all Chinese mined gold - at the same time as it bought internationally large scale, at the same time as it was setting up a Hong Kong based repository for gold... so that each and every gram of gold bought by China can be held on Chinese territory rather than in New York.

The basic reason for such large scale purchases is BRICS' leaders unability to understand that gold serves no purpose and is merely a "barbaric relic". Whereas holdings in US dollars are very useful, modern and cool.

[Heracleum Persicum]

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... so that each and every gram of gold bought by China can be held on Chinese territory rather than in New York.

The basic reason for such large scale purchases is BRICS' leaders inability to understand that gold serves no purpose and is merely a "barbaric relic". Whereas holdings in US dollars are very useful, modern and cool.

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Holding any currency, say Dollars, means being in mercy of the nation of that currency, say America.

America holding 50+ billions of Iranian money, money that Shah's Iran got selling oil for 5 dollars a barrel.

Had Shah kept all Iranian asset at home in "gold" (gold at 1978 being 40 4/Onz), Iran would have 1.5 Trillion dollars in Iran in central bank

Dollars and Pound and Euro are either paper or "zeros" in electronic accounts .. Gold is physical and not traceable, no serial number etc .. payment by Gold ideal.

All signs indicate west will print and print and print, and , at the end, put "dick" on the table

That is why Russia, China (Iran and others) now buying Gold

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[Alexis]

Holding any currency, say Dollars, means being in mercy of the nation of that currency, say America.

HP, you know, when I was writing "gold serves no purpose and is merely a "barbaric relic". Whereas holdings in US dollars are very useful, modern and cool"

... there was more than a bit of irony inside

[Heracleum Persicum]

Holding any currency, say Dollars, means being in mercy of the nation of that currency, say America.

HP, you know, when I was writing "gold serves no purpose and is merely a "barbaric relic". Whereas holdings in US dollars are very useful, modern and cool"

... there was more than a bit of irony inside

.

Yes, printing own nations currency IS "very useful, modern and cool" for that nation

One prints basically own currency, and buys with that physical goods, including GOLD .. and .. prints more and more devaluing that currency holders, but in the meantime one got hold of all those GOLD and other things.

Trick here is, to make others accept those paper dollars .. that is when "you terrorist" and military comes into play.

Lots of news that Saddam was not accepting anymore dollars for Oil, Ghaddafi not accepting dollars for oil .. and Saudi pledge selling oil in dollars for US protection guaranty, seems, coming to an end

All in all, China hoarding Gold a sign things to come

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[Endovelico]

If Russia or China succeed in covering all its currency with gold holdings, and then will go on issuing rubles or yuan only in so far as it has the equivalent gold to cover for it, we will see who will control the whole planet. All other currencies will no longer be convertible nor serve for any international trade. Other countries will have to go back to barter trading or beg for rubles or yuan... It will be fun to watch...

[Heracleum Persicum]

If Russia or China succeed in covering all its currency with gold holdings, and then will go on issuing rubles or yuan only in so far as it has the equivalent gold to cover for it, we will see who will control the whole planet. All other currencies will no longer be convertible nor serve for any international trade. Other countries will have to go back to barter trading or beg for rubles or yuan... It will be fun to watch...

That could be the plan


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[Typhoon]

If Russia or China succeed in covering all its currency with gold holdings, and then will go on issuing rubles or yuan only in so far as it has the equivalent gold to cover for it, we will see who will control the whole planet. All other currencies will no longer be convertible nor serve for any international trade. Other countries will have to go back to barter trading or beg for rubles or yuan... It will be fun to watch...

Gold is no different than another other medium of exchange.

Its value is determined by people's belief in its value.

The one difference is that it is a bit more troublesome to dig it up only to bury it somewhere else.

[Typhoon]

Putin critic taken to hospital following sudden illness after eating 'spoiled yoghurt'

Life under Vladimir "Borgia" Putino.

[Alexis]

Gold is no different than another other medium of exchange.

Its value is determined by people's belief in its value.

The one difference is that it is a bit more troublesome to dig it up only to bury it somewhere else.

The other difference is that people's belief in its value has endured for the last 3 or 4 millenia, in Western and Eastern civilizations alike, no matter what empires rose and fell, what wars destroyed and revolutions transformed.

Contrast with Roma's denarius (almost silver-free) or with China's first banknotes during the Middle Ages, which are no longer traded at Forex.

[Alexis]

Russia's Communist leader: Lenin and Christ are alike

What do Vladimir Lenin, founder of the officially atheist Soviet Union, and Jesus Christ have in common? Not much, one would think. Yet according to Gennady Zyuganov, the veteran leader of Russia's modern-day Communist Party, both men sought to "save humanity" with a message of "love, friendship, and brotherhood".

Speaking in Moscow in front of a crowd of red-flag-waving supporters on the 145th anniversary of Lenin's birth late last month, Zyuganov also declared that the Soviet Union was an attempt to establish "God's Kingdom on Earth".

Had he heard that speech, Lenin would likely have turned over in the Red Square mausoleum, where his embalmed corpse has been on public display for the past 91 years. After all, some 200,000 members of the clergy were murdered during the first two decades of the Soviet era, according to a 1995 Kremlin committee report, while millions of other Christians were persecuted for their faith.

(...) While nostalgia for the Soviet Union is common in today's Russia, Orthodox Christianity plays an increasingly important role in political and social affairs.

"There is a craving for something sacred among the Russian people," says Maria Lipman, a Moscow-based analyst at the European Council on Foreign Relations. Lipman also notes, however, that while some 70% of Russians regularly identify themselves as Orthodox Christians in opinion polls, only a tiny percentage of those regularly attend church services or observe religious fasts.

(...) Most analysts believe that while the Communist Party has no genuine desire to challenge Putin's rule, it requires strong performances at parliamentary polls in order to maintain its privileged status as Russia's official "opposition".

(...) This fusion of Soviet and Christian beliefs works both ways. Online footage of a Russian Orthodox priest singing a popular Soviet-era song at a church service recently went viral in Russia, while religious icons with images of Stalin are a common sight at gatherings of the religious Right.

(...) Russian Orthodox Church officials also display ambiguous attitudes towards the Soviet era. "While there was no place for God in the Soviet system, Christian values were far more apparent under Communist rule than in the West, where material wealth has always been of utmost importance," says Vsevolod Chaplin, a spokesman for the Russian Orthodox Church. Chaplin has also described Stalin as a contradictory figure, with both "positive" and "negative" sides.

(...) But not all Russian Orthodox believers are comfortable with this startling Soviet-Christian symbiosis. "Christianity was once persecuted by Rome, and then assumed Roman forms and won Rome over from within," says Andrei Zolotov, a journalist and Orthodox believer.

"I would like Russian Orthodox Christianity in its present form to transform our Soviet heritage from within. But I'm not sure this can occur. That's why it's important for me to distance myself from Soviet symbolism. For me, communism is a satanic religion."

St Vladimir (Lenin), pray for us!

[Nonc Hilaire]

If Russia or China succeed in covering all its currency with gold holdings, and then will go on issuing rubles or yuan only in so far as it has the equivalent gold to cover for it, we will see who will control the whole planet. All other currencies will no longer be convertible nor serve for any international trade. Other countries will have to go back to barter trading or beg for rubles or yuan... It will be fun to watch...

Gold is no different than another other medium of exchange.

Its value is determined by people's belief in its value.

The one difference is that it is a bit more troublesome to dig it up only to bury it somewhere else.

Gold is the only physical type 1 collateral without the need for securitization and the inherent second party risks. As J.P. Morgan said, gold and nothing else is money.

[Typhoon]

Gold is no different than another other medium of exchange.

Its value is determined by people's belief in its value.

The one difference is that it is a bit more troublesome to dig it up only to bury it somewhere else.

The other difference is that people's belief in its value has endured for the last 3 or 4 millenia, in Western and Eastern civilizations alike, no matter what empires rose and fell, what wars destroyed and revolutions transformed.

Contrast with Roma's denarius (almost silver-free) or with China's first banknotes during the Middle Ages, which are no longer traded at Forex.

Gold effectively no longer used as a medium of exchange.

Nations no longer ship gold back and forth to settle trade balances.

[Typhoon]

If Russia or China succeed in covering all its currency with gold holdings, and then will go on issuing rubles or yuan only in so far as it has the equivalent gold to cover for it, we will see who will control the whole planet. All other currencies will no longer be convertible nor serve for any international trade. Other countries will have to go back to barter trading or beg for rubles or yuan... It will be fun to watch...

Gold is no different than another other medium of exchange.

Its value is determined by people's belief in its value.

The one difference is that it is a bit more troublesome to dig it up only to bury it somewhere else.

Gold is the only physical type 1 collateral without the need for securitization and the inherent second party risks. As J.P. Morgan said, gold and nothing else is money.

J. P. Morgan said this when banks and nations still shipped gold back and forth to settle account balances.

Today the gold market is a tiny, almost imperceptible, pimple on the butt of the global currency and bond markets.
Tracking who has how much gold today informs exactly bupkes.

The Gold Dilemma

The Power of Gold: The History of an Obsession

I suppose one should keep some gold as a theoretical hedge against Mad Max times, if and when such events come to pass in our lifetimes.

Anecdotally, everyone I know who became wealthy did so by either starting or investing in businesses that created some perceived new value, not by buying and holding gold.

[Typhoon]

Putin critic taken to hospital following sudden illness after eating 'spoiled yoghurt'

Life under Vladimir "Borgia" Putino.

Putin’s Russia: Don’t Walk, Don’t Eat, and Don’t Drink

[Typhoon]

Russian TV doc on 1968 invasion angers Czechs and Slovaks

The Czech and Slovak governments have accused Russia of rewriting history after Russian state TV broadcast a documentary about the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia.

The programme, aired on 23 May, argued the invasion was aimed at preventing a military coup backed by the West.

The Czech government has summoned the Russian ambassador and Slovakia has protested about the documentary.

The August 1968 invasion crushed months of reforms known as the Prague Spring.

Led by Alexander Dubcek, the Czechoslovak Communist Party had relaxed press censorship and pushed for "socialism with a human face".

But the Soviet leadership sent in 2,000 tanks and a 500,000-strong force, including soldiers from other Warsaw Pact countries, prompting clashes and the deaths of more than 100 people and the return of hard-line Soviet rule.

[Typhoon]

[Endovelico]

Our shogun has flipped!...

[Heracleum Persicum]

Putin makes sense

Russia is not building up its offensive military capabilities overseas and is only responding to security threats caused by US and NATO military expansion on its borders, Russian President Vladimir Putin told Italian outlet Il Corriere della Sera.

Speaking to the paper on the eve of his visit to Italy, Putin stressed that one should not take the ongoing “Russian aggression” scaremongering in the West seriously, as a global military conflict is unimaginable in the modern world.

“I think that only an insane person and only in a dream can imagine that Russia would suddenly attack NATO. I think some countries are simply taking advantage of people’s fears with regard to Russia. They just want to play the role of front-line countries that should receive some supplementary military, economic, financial or some other aid,” Putin said.

Certain countries could be deliberately nurturing such fears, he added, saying that hypothetically the US could need an external threat to maintain its leadership in the Atlantic community. “Iran is clearly not very scary or big enough” for this, Putin noted with irony.

Russia’s President invited the journalists to compare the global military presence of Russia and the US/NATO, as well as their military spending levels. He also urged them to look at the steps each side has taken in connection with the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Russia’s military policy is “not global, offensive, or aggressive,” Putin stressed, adding that Russia has “virtually no bases abroad,” and the few that do exist are remnants of its Soviet past.

He explained that there were small contingents of Russian armed forces in Tajikistan on the border with Afghanistan, mainly due to the high terrorist threat in the area. There is an airbase in Kyrgyzstan, which was opened at request of the Kyrgyz authorities to deal with a terrorist threat there. Russia also has a military unit in Armenia, which was set up to help maintain stability in the region, not to counter any outside threat.

In fact, Russia has been working towards downsizing its global military presence, while the US has been doing the exact opposite. “We have dismantled our bases in various regions of the world, including Cuba, Vietnam, and so on,” the president stressed. “I invite you to publish a world map in your newspaper and to mark all the US military bases on it. You will see the difference.”

Meanwhile, it would take only 17 minutes for missiles launched from US submarines on permanent alert off Norway’s coast to reach Moscow, Putin said, noting that this fact is somehow not labeled as “aggression” in the media. The US has carried out the oft-cited strategic bomber flights along Russia’s borders since Soviet times without interruption, while Russia stopped them in the early 1990s and has only resumed them just recently.

The combined military spending of NATO countries is ten times higher than that of the Russian Federation, Putin stressed.

America has been setting up “anti-missile systems, bases and radars located in the European territory or in the sea,” despite Russia’s repeated warnings that this undermines international security.

Revealingly, it is the United States that chose to withdraw from the ABM treaty limiting anti-ballistic missile arsenals, which Putin believes was “the cornerstone of the entire international security system.” The Russian leader questioned the move: “Did someone expect Russia to disarm unilaterally?”

He explained that Moscow had tried to dissuade the US from withdrawing from the treaty, and instead “create an ABM system together, the three of us: Russia, the United States and Europe.” This proposal was declined, and Russia had to, likewise, begin developing “overpowering anti-ballistic defense” systems to ensure strategic balance. According to Putin, Russia has made “significant strides in this area.”

“Everything we do is just a response to the threats emerging against us. Besides, what we do is limited in scope and scale, but is, however, sufficient to ensure Russia’s security,” Putin underlined.

Nevertheless, Putin said he views America not as Russia’s rival, but rather as a partner and ally on many pressing world issues, such as global terrorism, Middle Eastern crises and Iranian nuclear program.

“We are not just partners; I would say we are allies in addressing the issues related to non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. We are undoubtedly allies in the fight against terrorism. There are some other areas of collaboration as well. The central theme of Expo Milano…is yet another example of our joint work,” Putin said.

Expo Milano 2015 is an international gathering in Milan, Italy, which this year has been promoted under the slogan “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life,” and which Putin will also be visiting. Russia is taking part in the event, presenting own technologies and innovations.

Makes perfectly sense

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[NapLajoieonSteroids]

Nah, wasn't nagging. She isn't the nagging type. And besides, she was right- we actually figured out that there is a very narrow range of dark blues that I have some trouble distinguishing.

Nap,

Of course she was right. Women are always right in matters of fashion. You have to be a masochist to argue fashion with a woman.

Well, I am a man who spends free time arguing over the internet. So...

I solved that problem a long time ago by only buying socks that are either gray or dark blue, and primary color shirts.

It gets easier after you're married. Rather than ask "Does this look OK?" you say "Let's not play that game. Just tell me what you want me to wear."

My revenge is every time she refers to the stainless steel shelves I say "We don't own any stainless steel shelves. Those are chrome plated shelves!"

Revenge is a dish best served often!!!

Here's to health!

[Simple Minded]

Nah, wasn't nagging. She isn't the nagging type. And besides, she was right- we actually figured out that there is a very narrow range of dark blues that I have some trouble distinguishing.

Nap,

Of course she was right. Women are always right in matters of fashion. You have to be a masochist to argue fashion with a woman.

Well, I am a man who spends free time arguing over the internet. So...

I solved that problem a long time ago by only buying socks that are either gray or dark blue, and primary color shirts.

It gets easier after you're married. Rather than ask "Does this look OK?" you say "Let's not play that game. Just tell me what you want me to wear."

My revenge is every time she refers to the stainless steel shelves I say "We don't own any stainless steel shelves. Those are chrome plated shelves!"

Revenge is a dish best served often!!!

Here's to health!

Us Dicks need to stick together!

Bad visual I know..... sorry!

[Heracleum Persicum]

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haven't yet figured out what's bothering you guys with Russia

Russia more capitalist than America, Europe pretty much socialist

Russia pretty much minding own business, unlike you guys

Looks to me, wolfs are eyeing Siberia (natural resources)

But, guys, push comet to shove, Siberia goes to Mr. Chin Chan Li

Relax and let go of the rubbish

Amen

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