MemberlistThe Library Index  FAQFAQ   SearchSearch   RegisterRegister   ProfileProfile   Log in to check your private messagesLog in to check your private messages   Log inLog in 
Questions Of The Day (Politics)
Reply to topic Goto page Previous  1, 2, 3 ... 242, 243, 244 ... 299, 300, 301  Next
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Wile E. Coyote


In: Arizona
View user's profile
Reply with quote

So the Ukrainian idea appears to be take land and equipment and ignore capturing the enemy (they will always have superior numbers), particularly if this is slowing the advance down. Lyman falls, the enemy is driven back in disarray towards Kremina. Wiley totally outfoxed. It's tough. I hand in my notice as Assistant War Correspondent,(logistics). The title used to be Assistant War Correspondent (tea boy) but I negotiated a better job title in exchange for it becoming unpaid.
Send private message
Mick Harper
Site Admin

In: London
View user's profile
Reply with quote

Hatty needs someone to operate her fly whisk.
Send private message
Wile E. Coyote


In: Arizona
View user's profile
Reply with quote

Mick Harper wrote:
Hatty needs someone to operate her fly whisk.


I have had previous probationary experience, but it is a poorly worded JD, it says specifically "the post holder may strike flies and other unwanted pests". So surely, either Hatty should not have invited the Archbishop around, or she should have given me that day off.
Send private message
Mick Harper
Site Admin

In: London
View user's profile
Reply with quote

You're so ignorant. 'Fly whisk' is mercenary slang for a helicopter gunship.
Send private message
Mick Harper
Site Admin

In: London
View user's profile
Reply with quote

Two fascinating liberal media reactions to the very surprising Brazilian election results. Channel Four News carried a long on-the-spot report which managed to avoid saying the one thing we wanted to know, the result (48% to 43%). But was instead full of circumlocutions about Bolsonaro doing better than expected, Lula getting a higher vote than last time, nobody gets in on the first round etc etc.

Al-Jazeera riposted by not leading with the story, which it would have done (by a mile) if the results had been what it was hoping for. Instead the whole thing was relegated to the 'wrap-up' spot before the half-hour ads. The anchor even used the word 'best' in relation to Lula getting elected.

Still it spiked Bolsonaro's guns. He had to tear up his speech about the election being rigged.
Send private message
Mick Harper
Site Admin

In: London
View user's profile
Reply with quote

Meanwhile in the print meedja, some lovely examples of bogosity from the Guardian explaining how a notably violent country of 215 million people managed to nearly elect the wrong man

A lot of people on the left have been frightened – one Lula supporter said to me on Saturday that "it’s the first time in my life I’ve been scared to put a sticker on my car.”

Yeah, I never wear my Arsenal scarf at Spurs games.

Those fears are not idle: a Lula supporter was brutally murdered by a Bolsonaro supporter last month

Let's see... 215 million divided by 43% and 48%... what are the probabilities a party of the first part will kill a party of the second part...

one of a string of violent attacks by supporters of a candidate who has demanded leftists “be eradicated from public life”.

In Portuguese, "I want each one of you to go out and murder one of them."
Send private message
Wile E. Coyote


In: Arizona
View user's profile
Reply with quote

I suspect she wants to do long term good. Worse, she might actually believe that she can if she surrounds herself with "loyalists", ie folks that climbed on her bandwagon during the leadership election. Look behind you Liz!

Big mistake not having Gove, Dorris and a sprinking of Sunak supportters on the payroll. Look to the front Liz!

New policy of U turning after the front pages are published to minimise the headlines is the type of thing that will work for one day only. Look at the Sunday papers Liz!

It's all mightily unfair as there were good ideas in there, but MPs look at the polls Liz!
Send private message
Mick Harper
Site Admin

In: London
View user's profile
Reply with quote

They would do well to appoint Keir Starmer as their new leader. He will soon be available as Labour hates winning. Or slips in a heavy leftie if it looks unavoidable.
Send private message
Wile E. Coyote


In: Arizona
View user's profile
Reply with quote

I get that Vlad is super clever, but he really needs to declare war, mobilise and declare martial law if they are going to turn this round. A glitzy annexation party, with lots of Europop bum wiggling, simply will not encourage folks to go to the front, or work 14 hour shifts to build the new tanks. At time of war, you need a serious leader not a comic. Vlad is in danger of losing to an ex-comic by not taking him seriously enough. Zhelensky signalled real intent with martial law and full mobilisation, from day one. Vlad will need to do something similar, and soon.
Send private message
Mick Harper
Site Admin

In: London
View user's profile
Reply with quote

He would have to if Russia was, like Ukraine, a country where the Rule of Law operates. Since it does not, Putin will do all these things (for all I know, has done all these things) without making a song-and-dance about it. You are in great danger of employing the popinjay theory of history to make your case. In the Great Book it is described thusly

But then a great deal of history seems to be an unrelenting account of government-by-popinjay, interspersed with regimes that are not and which invariably turn out to be worse.... Not much has changed. At the time of writing, both the world’s leading power and my own dear country are being run by joke figures, Messrs Trump and Johnson respectively. Is it true or do we just want to believe it? Is it true or do governments just want us to believe it?

And later
We prefer unravelling tangled tales, not using the standard ‘popinjays-in-charge’ assumption to ignore them.
Send private message
Wile E. Coyote


In: Arizona
View user's profile
Reply with quote

Looks to Wiley that the popinjay masterplan was to annex Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson so as to be able to control which chunks of these to give up in a negotiated settlement in order to secure Crimea and the water supply and a negotiated % of the Donbas.

The problem is the Russian military is collapsing in the Southern front close to the dam.
Send private message
Mick Harper
Site Admin

In: London
View user's profile
Reply with quote

Looks to Wiley that the popinjay masterplan, was to annex Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, so as to be able to control which chunks of these to give up in a negotiated settlement in order to secure Crimea and the water supply and a negotiated % of the Donbas.

That's what I said on Day One. Great popinjays think alike.

The problem is the Russian military is collapsing in the Southern front close to the dam.

Anyone who thinks Putin has lost should pay attention to OPEC's decision to cut production when oil prices are sky high. This is epochal. The original deal was between the Saudis (swing producer) and the Americans (world policeman). OPEC could push prices up as high as they were able (usually not very high) so long as they did not imperil world stability. This has clearly broken down. The OPEC countries can now clearly see they can have sky high prices forever with Russia on their side and America too weak to do anything about it.

The world (i.e. Europe) will not wear it very long. They will knuckle (to Russia) sooner or later. Russia has the oil'n'gas, America doesn't.
Send private message
Wile E. Coyote


In: Arizona
View user's profile
Reply with quote

You are talking about a 2% cut in global oil production, which is more like a 1% real cut.

Presidents always ask OPEC to produce more at lower prices. It's called acting in the national interest. OPEC always ignores them, if demand is up, they hold the price, if it's down they stick the prices up, so they don't lose out. It[s called acting like a cartel. There is just a worldwide drop in demand.
Send private message
Mick Harper
Site Admin

In: London
View user's profile
Reply with quote

You are talking about a 2% cut in global oil production, which is more like a 1% real cut.

Yes, so? Markets work on margins. The price now is $90. If they do nothing, the price will probably drift down. If they cut production it will go up. If they cut production too much the price goes through the roof and oil consumers will go ape shit. No OPEC member has the strength to resist ape-shit angry oil consuming countries.

Presidents always ask OPEC to produce more at lower prices. It's called acting in the national interest.

Not so. America is a large producer as well as a large consumer and has its own oil industry to consider. When, for instance, they were trying to get the fracking industry going, they encouraged high prices. Before that, ditto when they wanted the Arctic to be opened up. Their oil is high cost so the Americans never want very low prices, but, yes, they certainly do not like very high ones either.

OPEC always ignores them

I will take this as a jest. America (used to) control Saudi Arabia and Saudi Arabia (tries to) control OPEC. There aren't many OPEC countries that can thumb their nose at America. If they do they'll end up like Venezuela and Iran.

if demand is up, they hold the price

Good luck with that given the lag and lead times of the oil industry and the internal discipline of OPEC countries..

if it's down they stick the prices up, so they don't lose out.

That was the original idea of OPEC. I haven't spotted any times it happened. (Aside from political interventions.)

It's called acting like a cartel.

It's not acting like a cartel, it is a cartel. Though a very, very imperfect one.

There is just a worldwide drop in demand.

Demand has been going up ever since the end of COVID. It is true that the price has come down from $140 to $90 but that was driven by the futures market reckoning that Russian oil will get out sooner rather than later.
Send private message
Grant



View user's profile
Reply with quote

Get ready for a Russian counter offensive soon which will see off those pesky Ukrainians. Then we’ll have the first peace talks.
Go Pooty go!
Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic Goto page Previous  1, 2, 3 ... 242, 243, 244 ... 299, 300, 301  Next

Jump to:  
Page 243 of 301

MemberlistThe Library Index  FAQFAQ   SearchSearch   RegisterRegister   ProfileProfile   Log in to check your private messagesLog in to check your private messages   Log inLog in 


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group