The clash of civilizations | The new global axis of power?

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Re: A new Global axis of power; Putin on top

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Mr. Perfect wrote:It's amazing to watch end times unfold before your eyes. Russia has long been assumed to be one of the end times players but it was hard to see how it would tie in to what will be a ME centric drama. Now it couldn't be clearer. Instead of an Eastern Europe centered federation gathering client states in the ME looks to be even better.

With it's existing portfolio of Iran and Syria as allies/client states, this pickup of Egypt not only adds to the Putin power play but really turns the page on the post 9-11 world. The old Western concern of a hostile and united ME rising up can be replaced with another concern, a Russian led coalition with appetites of it's own. With an already deballed Europe and a plummeting US President, Putin can fill the void without impedance.

We are now in a post Milo Doctrine world. It will end badly for people who live in nuclear strike target cities. New York for example.

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/6f10930c ... z2k7WzBtiH
The Russian foreign and defence ministers will travel to Egypt next week on a visit seen as signalling a growing rapprochement between the two countries as the military-backed authorities in Cairo reach out for new allies and seek to lessen dependence on Washington.

A Russian official spokesman said that Sergei Lavrov, the foreign minister, and Sergei Shoigu, the defence minister, would discuss issues touching on “military and technical co-operation” – seen as a Russian euphemism for arms sales.

Cairo’s relations with Washington, its primary aid donor and military supplier for four decades, have frayed since the coup in July that ousted the Islamist Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first elected president.

As tensions with Washington increased over the summer, culminating in a US decision to withhold part of its annual $1.3bn in military aid, Egyptian officials started to hint that their country would seek a realignment in foreign relations.

Nabil Fahmy, the foreign minister, went to Moscow on one of his first trips abroad after the coup. The second of two “popular diplomacy delegations”, made up of intellectuals and public figures, is currently visiting Russia.

“Our government was always very apprehensive about the Muslim Brotherhood and might feel that with Abdel Fattah al-Sisi [the defence minister and de facto leader] in power, Egypt could resume its status as the leading Arab nation and help Russia restore its influence in the Middle East,” said Georgy Mirsky, a Mideast expert at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations at the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Though the US administration has been at pains to avoid labelling the change of leadership in Cairo a coup, criticism in Washington of the ousting of Mr Morsi unleashed in Egypt a torrent of nationalist and anti-US sentiment, amplified by a combative and partisan press. Some in the Egyptian media have gone as far as accusing President Barack Obama of close personal ties with Mr Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood.
Any one want to volunteer to tell tinker and Zack the birthers have taken over Egypt? :lol:

Amid the nationalist frenzy and talk of US conspiracies against Egypt, rumours of an imminent visit by President Vladimir Putin – cast almost as a saviour coming to Cairo’s aid – began to circulate in the press and social media soon after the ousting of Mr Morsi.

But Badr Abdel Atty, Egypt’s foreign ministry spokesman, dismissed as “nonsense” any suggestion that Cairo sought “to replace one ally with another”. The strengthening relations with Russia, he said, were an attempt “to provide Egyptian political decision makers with alternatives in the national interest”.

“As far as Russia is concerned, we have had very strong historical relations since the fifties and sixties and we fought with Russian weaponry in the 1973 war [against Israel] ,” said Mr Abdel Atty. “So there is solid ground on which we can build for the future.”
There is an old saw about Poker. "There is a fool at every table and if you can't figured out after 10 minutes who it is it is you." The same applies to national Leaders playing diplomacy as well.
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Re: The new global axis of power

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The natural consequences of voting Democrat.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/ ... anize.html
Fast forward, this last time -- as I talked to people around the world -- there was a sense like, 'if you guys can't get your act together, we need to de-Americanize the world.' Which was a phrase used by a high-ranking Chinese official. That is not good news for us. That is a very unfortunate conclusion.

So we have to pull ourselves together. We have to stand up, solve our problems. Everybody is not going to get everything they want. We have to get back to good old fashioned compromise and we have to make those decisions that reassure America's leadership at home and abroad.
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Re: The new global axis of power

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http://www.politico.com/politico44/2013 ... html?hp=r3
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said Saturday the United States is “deeply concerned” over China’s move to establish an air defense zone over a string of disputed islands in the East China Sea.

“We view this development as a destabilizing attempt to alter the status quo in the region,” Hagel said in a statement. “This unilateral action increases the risk of misunderstanding and miscalculations.”
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Re: The new global axis of power

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Mr. Perfect wrote:http://www.politico.com/politico44/2013 ... html?hp=r3
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said Saturday the United States is “deeply concerned” over China’s move to establish an air defense zone over a string of disputed islands in the East China Sea.

“We view this development as a destabilizing attempt to alter the status quo in the region,” Hagel said in a statement. “This unilateral action increases the risk of misunderstanding and miscalculations.”
WOW !! Obama really has made the world a safer place !!! :roll:
"I fancied myself as some kind of god....It is a sort of disease when you consider yourself some kind of god, the creator of everything, but I feel comfortable about it now since I began to live it out.” -- George Soros
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Re: The new global axis of power

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It's like I'm some kind of Prophet. Me and Mitt and Sarah. Prophets. Seers.
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Re: The new global axis of power

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Typhoon wrote: As much as Putin would like to re-establish a neo Soviet [Forced] Union, behind a new Iron Curtain, I would not bet any money on it happening.
Looks like you are losing that bet.
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Re: The new global axis of power

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He's not.
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Re: The new global axis of power

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You'll be the last to know Ymix.
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Re: The new global axis of power

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An economic hissyfit between the US and Russia would be the largest failure of the President's foreign policy, even if the situation generated more heat than light- his whole policy seemed to cater to including Russia to an extent...unusual...for America. From the push of the reset button, I thought President Obama was taking some generally good moves in this direction; some things to positively point to in his administration.

So where did this go wrong?

Was it placing Kerry in as Secretary of State. Clinton could do plenty of stupid things, but I don't remember her folding like FrankenKerry here. Every time he opens his mouth, we seem to have some sort of diplomatic gaffe, lose ground, or end up in a position we don't really want to be in.

It's the only change I can see explaining why we went from thoughtful and conservative maneuvering with Moscow to game after game of 52 card pick up.
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Re: The new global axis of power

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NapLajoieonSteroids wrote:An economic hissyfit between the US and Russia would be the largest failure of the President's foreign policy, even if the situation generated more heat than light- his whole policy seemed to cater to including Russia to an extent...unusual...for America. From the push of the reset button, I thought President Obama was taking some generally good moves in this direction; some things to positively point to in his administration.

So where did this go wrong?
You have been incredibly blind and naive on this point. This was the inevitable result of obama policy from his first campaign. Deference to an ambitious aggressor never results in anything than an increase in appetite for the aggressor.

The reset was monumentally stupid for anyone interested in American interests. You should be ashamed for falling for it. I'm disappointed in you.
Was it placing Kerry in as Secretary of State. Clinton could do plenty of stupid things, but I don't remember her folding like FrankenKerry here. Every time he opens his mouth, we seem to have some sort of diplomatic gaffe, lose ground, or end up in a position we don't really want to be in.
You weren't paying attention with HRC (Benghazi for starters).
It's the only change I can see explaining why we went from thoughtful and conservative maneuvering with Moscow to game after game of 52 card pick up.
You bewilder me.
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Re: The new global axis of power

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Mr. Perfect wrote:You have been incredibly blind and naive on this point. This was the inevitable result of obama policy from his first campaign. Deference to an ambitious aggressor never results in anything than an increase in appetite for the aggressor.

The reset was monumentally stupid for anyone interested in American interests. You should be ashamed for falling for it. I'm disappointed in you.


Perhaps. Being an open and optimistic sort and fully aware that I wasn't looking at the map from the top-down here, I was willing to give the benefit of the doubt.

The reset button was a cheesy and superficial gesture, this is true; but you got to start somewhere when the 1000 pound bear in the room hasn't gone anywhere while you spent the last 20 years of the party high fiving the guests in celebration because you brought that bear to her knees and made her wear a party hat.

How do you write a condolence card to a nation where you sent your best Harvard Democrats (and David Goldman) to stripmine her of value which in hindsight looks to have been done for the sole purpose of humiliating her?

Are Russian policy has been to kick her in the teeth again and again, speak nostalgically of our Reagan-boners and ignore that she is a beast of a country, insanely patriotic, and with a long memory.

Any change in policy, even with awkward party favors, is welcome.

There was some good: sharing airspace, giving them an olympics...and of course, I figured some of our stranger moves were a way to appease Russia- even the Ukraine; boy, that was all President Wilson who just keeps on giving and giving....

but now we are back to it's the USSR! Rocky IV! Let's kick'em in the balls! We should bomb'em for the Gipper's sake!
You weren't paying attention with HRC (Benghazi for starters).


Benghazi is a lot of things, I wouldn't put that in gaffe category. Or are you arguing that a complex diplomatic (CIA-involved) situation, in the middle of a crapfest we already involved ourselves in, where Americans get killed brutally and the subsequent stonewalling is the equivalent of Kerry getting schooled on Syrian weapons 'cause of some throw away line he said? And we weren't even stuck on that stupid yet....

Our definition of what constitutes a gaffe may be slightly different here.
You bewilder me.
and here I was going for beguile.
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Re: The new global axis of power

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NapLajoieonSteroids wrote:An economic hissyfit between the US and Russia would be the largest failure of the President's foreign policy, even if the situation generated more heat than light- his whole policy seemed to cater to including Russia to an extent...unusual...for America. From the push of the reset button, I thought President Obama was taking some generally good moves in this direction; some things to positively point to in his administration.

So where did this go wrong?

Was it placing Kerry in as Secretary of State. Clinton could do plenty of stupid things, but I don't remember her folding like FrankenKerry here. Every time he opens his mouth, we seem to have some sort of diplomatic gaffe, lose ground, or end up in a position we don't really want to be in.

It's the only change I can see explaining why we went from thoughtful and conservative maneuvering with Moscow to game after game of 52 card pick up.
Clinton was not Skull & Bones.
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Re: The new global axis of power

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NapLajoieonSteroids wrote: Perhaps. Being an open and optimistic sort and fully aware that I wasn't looking at the map from the top-down here, I was willing to give the benefit of the doubt.
This very well could be your problem. For example, you should not be open and optimistic about lobotomies.
The reset button was a cheesy and superficial gesture, this is true; but you got to start somewhere when the 1000 pound bear in the room hasn't gone anywhere while you spent the last 20 years of the party high fiving the guests in celebration because you brought that bear to her knees and made her wear a party hat.

How do you write a condolence card to a nation where you sent your best Harvard Democrats (and David Goldman) to stripmine her of value which in hindsight looks to have been done for the sole purpose of humiliating her?

Are Russian policy has been to kick her in the teeth again and again, speak nostalgically of our Reagan-boners and ignore that she is a beast of a country, insanely patriotic, and with a long memory.
And always ambitious and dangerous, which is why you always kick it in the teeth. That is what you do to ambitious, dangerous people. Always.
Any change in policy, even with awkward party favors, is welcome.
No.
There was some good: sharing airspace, giving them an olympics...and of course, I figured some of our stranger moves were a way to appease Russia- even the Ukraine; boy, that was all President Wilson who just keeps on giving and giving....

but now we are back to it's the USSR! Rocky IV! Let's kick'em in the balls! We should bomb'em for the Gipper's sake!
Welcome back to reality.
Benghazi is a lot of things, I wouldn't put that in gaffe category. Or are you arguing that a complex diplomatic (CIA-involved) situation, in the middle of a crapfest we already involved ourselves in, where Americans get killed brutally and the subsequent stonewalling is the equivalent of Kerry getting schooled on Syrian weapons 'cause of some throw away line he said? And we weren't even stuck on that stupid yet....

Our definition of what constitutes a gaffe may be slightly different here.
The gaffes were the lies. They didn;t have to lie. They could've actually stonewall ("we're not sure, ongoing investigation"/leak to the NYT later on). But they actively lied. Not all lies are gaffes, but these lies were. They did them out of stupidity.
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Re: The new global axis of power

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Mr. Perfect wrote: This very well could be your problem. For example, you should not be open and optimistic about lobotomies.


Like the old Chesterton quote I'm about to butcher: a mind is like a jaw, only useful if you know how to close it.
And always ambitious and dangerous, which is why you always kick it in the teeth. That is what you do to ambitious, dangerous people. Always.


But as the Russians ambitious and dangerous? I keep hearing this assertion and don't see much evidence for it outside of projecting the ghost of Stalin onto every Russian soul.

Dangerous and ambitious is more our M.O. or China's. You suggesting we go kick China in the teeth? Would it be fair play if they did it to us?
No.


The imperative of baby politics. "No!" "Russia bad!" "Where's my Reagan!"
Welcome back to reality.


reality is a broke and defeated nation without its empire and no discernible future holding onto a limited supply of oil they'd dare not stop selling to the Germans leaving them toothless to us, though the other Slavic nations may have legitimate gripes. On the whole though, they seem a particular dour and proud group anyway, and I'm not sure if they really want our involvement in their backyard to begin with.
The gaffes were the lies. They didn;t have to lie. They could've actually stonewall ("we're not sure, ongoing investigation"/leak to the NYT later on). But they actively lied. Not all lies are gaffes, but these lies were. They did them out of stupidity.

The lies were lies and no they couldn't have stonewalled through and election. They'd be insane to do it. They lied for whatever reason knowing full well that whatever they said would become political and have the backing of half the population. They weren't stupid- stupid is the Republicans not finding anything that can stick and allowing the Dems to label it under "partisan bickering."
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Re: The new global axis of power

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Are you Russian by ancestry Naps.
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Re: The new global axis of power

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NapLajoieonSteroids wrote: Like the old Chesterton quote I'm about to butcher: a mind is like a jaw, only useful if you know how to close it.
You should think about that. Never open your mind'jaw toa Democrat or Russian oligarch, unless to crush them.
But as the Russians ambitious and dangerous? I keep hearing this assertion and don't see much evidence for it outside of projecting the ghost of Stalin onto every Russian soul.
Do you know anything about the Cold War, Soviet Union. Do you know anything about the Post Cold War period. Are you watching Putin tapdance all over the world from Syria to the Ukraine. Do you get internet access where you live.
Dangerous and ambitious is more our M.O. or China's.
Sounds like you opened your mind to Democrats. This is what they tell people like you to believe, while they don't believe it themselves. Big mistake. Never believe Democrat lies, ever.
You suggesting we go kick China in the teeth? Would it be fair play if they did it to us?
China is kicking everyone in the teeth.
The imperative of baby politics. "No!" "Russia bad!" "Where's my Reagan!"
No. Some things are so off base all you can say is no.
reality is a broke and defeated nation without its empire and no discernible future holding onto a limited supply of oil they'd dare not stop selling to the Germans leaving them toothless to us, though the other Slavic nations may have legitimate gripes.
Sounds similar to post WWI Germany and the failed states that hosted Osama Bin Laden, for starters.
On the whole though, they seem a particular dour and proud group anyway, and I'm not sure if they really want our involvement in their backyard to begin with.
Mafias also don't want you to operate in their back yards.
The lies were lies and no they couldn't have stonewalled through and election.
They stonewalled almost everything else.

[quot]They'd be insane to do it. They lied for whatever reason[/quote]
We know the reasons.
knowing full well that whatever they said would become political and have the backing of half the population. They weren't stupid-
yes, they were.
stupid is the Republicans not finding anything that can stick and allowing the Dems to label it under "partisan bickering."
That's sort of like saying the People at the bottom of Pompeii were stupid. 2012 was the largest media bias election in my lifetime, outside 1996. No candidate you could come up with would have done better than Romney. So this is a false metric for evaluation.
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Re: The new global axis of power

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Mr. Perfect wrote:Are you Russian by ancestry Naps.
Nope.
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Re: The new global axis of power

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Mr. Perfect wrote:But as the Russians ambitious and dangerous? I keep hearing this assertion and don't see much evidence for it outside of projecting the ghost of Stalin onto every Russian soul.
Do you know anything about the Cold War, Soviet Union. Do you know anything about the Post Cold War period. Are you watching Putin tapdance all over the world from Syria to the Ukraine. Do you get internet access where you live.
:lol:

We've made ourselves look foolish but you've got too much of a 'thing' for fighting old, old wars. Wars my grandfather fought. It's over, we won...it's okay to change.
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Re: The new global axis of power

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People were saying that in the 1930's also.
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Re: The new global axis of power

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Mr. Perfect wrote:People were saying that in the 1930's also.
What are you always saying? "Whistling in the graveyard" "fighting the last war"

You're literally in the graveyard trying to fight the last war.

Did we want to beat back the Communists or did we want to eliminate the Russians?

I thought it was more the first one....or are you telling me all these American Leninists were right and we were out there to agitate us some Rus? :)

Or this is more Putin=Hitler....so its the same questions I asked Doc- you ready for total warfare? Is that what you are aiming at?
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Re: The new global axis of power

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NapLajoieonSteroids wrote: What are you always saying? "Whistling in the graveyard" "fighting the last war"

You're literally in the graveyard trying to fight the last war.
Not really. I'm on a hill top watching you guys from far off walking into a buzzsaw. Have fun with it.
Did we want to beat back the Communists or did we want to eliminate the Russians?
no difference. You do realize pUtin has waxed poetic on the glory of the old Union more than one time, correct.
thought it was more the first one....or are you telling me all these American Leninists were right and we were out there to agitate us some Rus? :)

Or this is more Putin=Hitler....so its the same questions I asked Doc- you ready for total warfare? Is that what you are aiming at?
HRC is the one going Godwin. Putin is just another Khan, or Napoleon, or Xerxes. Just a head of state working his way up the pecking order till he gets to the top. Do you know what guys who get to the top do to their former enemies.

Nothing new under the sun Napster.

And yes I am ready for total warfare. ALWAYS.
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Re: The new global axis of power

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Mr. Perfect wrote: Not really. I'm on a hill top watching you guys from far off walking into a buzzsaw. Have fun with it.


I'm a bull-in-a-china-shop sort, so I got plenty of experience walking into things. You can stay on that hill, in your bunker, under your pillow fort though. We'll be fine.
no difference. You do realize pUtin has waxed poetic on the glory of the old Union more than one time, correct.


Putin has said that anyone who doesn't miss the old Soviet Union has no heart and anyone who misses it has no brain. I think the point is pretty obvious.
HRC is the one going Godwin. Putin is just another Khan, or Napoleon, or Xerxes. Just a head of state working his way up the pecking order till he gets to the top. Do you know what guys who get to the top do to their former enemies.

Nothing new under the sun Napster.

And yes I am ready for total warfare. ALWAYS.
If you think Putin is anywhere near those three, you're looney tunes. Napoleon was the consummation of the revolution that swept away feudalism; Xerxes wiped away the remnants of the old kingdoms; and Khan was a war criminal who got out of hand, frozen and shot into space and then in the ultimate battle of wits and power was overtaken by the gut formerly known as William Shatner and sent to a prison planet. From there, he sought revenge and when Shatner least expected it, he took out his most prized wooden actor friend to just to make him experience the same sort of suffering that Khan felt, whereby Shatner was forced to face his own mortality. It was sorta like trying to get through the last two sentences.
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Re: The new global axis of power

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NapLajoieonSteroids wrote: I'm a bull-in-a-china-shop sort, so I got plenty of experience walking into things. You can stay on that hill, in your bunker, under your pillow fort though. We'll be fine.
Yeah what's funny is the definition of fine keeps changing. Now invading countries is fine. China claiming more of the Pacific is fine. Hitler in the Sudetenland is fine. I imagine nuclear detonations will be fine also very soon.
Putin has said that anyone who doesn't miss the old Soviet Union has no heart and anyone who misses it has no brain. I think the point is pretty obvious.
Bill Clinton also said the era of big government is over. Do you understand what I'm saying.
If you think Putin is anywhere near those three, you're looney tunes.
Putin is exactly like those three. He is a seeker of unlimited power. He wishes to subject all men to himself. You are very naive in the ways of men, particularly political men.
Napoleon was the consummation of the revolution that swept away feudalism; Xerxes wiped away the remnants of the old kingdoms; and Khan was a war criminal who got out of hand, frozen and shot into space and then in the ultimate battle of wits and power was overtaken by the gut formerly known as William Shatner and sent to a prison planet. From there, he sought revenge and when Shatner least expected it, he took out his most prized wooden actor friend to just to make him experience the same sort of suffering that Khan felt, whereby Shatner was forced to face his own mortality. It was sorta like trying to get through the last two sentences.
Meant to say, Khan, Ghengis. Don't know anything about Star Trek.
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Re: The new global axis of power

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Putin’s Ukraine Gambit Hurts Economy as Allies Lose Billions
President Vladimir Putin’s brinkmanship in Ukraine has already cost some of his closest comrades billions of dollars. The other 144 million Russians may also pay a price.

Putin’s troop buildup in Crimea triggered the biggest stock selloff in five years on March 3. It also pulled the ruble to a record low, prompting the central bank to raise interest rates the most since 1998, when a cash-strapped government stumbled toward default. Longtime Putin ally Gennady Timchenko and his partner Leonid Mikhelson lost a combined $3.2 billion of their wealth after their gas producer OAO Novatek tumbled 18 percent.

“Russia will be the big loser of the crisis in Ukraine,” said Timothy Ash, chief emerging-market economist at Standard Bank Group Ltd. in London. “There’ll be a big hit to domestic and foreign confidence, less investment and likely increased outflows, likely losses for Russian banks with exposure in Ukraine, a weaker ruble and weaker growth and recovery.”
Oh for the days of the mostly closed economy of the former SU: import N Am wheat and export Stolichnaya.
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Ruble Rubble or Dollar Doldrums or Both........

Post by monster_gardener »

Typhoon wrote:Putin’s Ukraine Gambit Hurts Economy as Allies Lose Billions
President Vladimir Putin’s brinkmanship in Ukraine has already cost some of his closest comrades billions of dollars. The other 144 million Russians may also pay a price.

Putin’s troop buildup in Crimea triggered the biggest stock selloff in five years on March 3. It also pulled the ruble to a record low, prompting the central bank to raise interest rates the most since 1998, when a cash-strapped government stumbled toward default. Longtime Putin ally Gennady Timchenko and his partner Leonid Mikhelson lost a combined $3.2 billion of their wealth after their gas producer OAO Novatek tumbled 18 percent.

“Russia will be the big loser of the crisis in Ukraine,” said Timothy Ash, chief emerging-market economist at Standard Bank Group Ltd. in London. “There’ll be a big hit to domestic and foreign confidence, less investment and likely increased outflows, likely losses for Russian banks with exposure in Ukraine, a weaker ruble and weaker growth and recovery.”
Oh for the days of the mostly closed economy of the former SU: import N Am wheat and export Stolichnaya.
Thank You VERY Much for your post and Maintaining the Forum, Typhoon

Don't want this to happen but..........

Wondering what the result would be if President Prince Vlad the Imprisoner of Russia, Crimea etc. Putin decides to go off the US Dollar for petroleum as a counter sanction.....

IMO the Chinese Dragons might not be keen on helping the Bad News Russian Bears crash the Dollar right now but if the Killer Klowns From Financial Space at the Fudderal Federal Reserve keep debasing the dollar with things like qualitative easing the Dragons might change their mind.......

Or if the Dragons get into a tussle over those islands off the coast of Japan.......

Especially if the Dragons get the idea that the US is lead by a LYING Spendthrift Goofy Goof Off GOLFTUS like obama.....

Wonder what Mr. Perfect or any of the other economists here think............
Last edited by monster_gardener on Mon Mar 10, 2014 11:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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