Anonymous wrote:I used to admire the bush era anti-war left but now know it was just politics.

Remember the bumper stickers?
"war is not the answer" blue with the dove
"End this war" crossing out "less" for "this"

The same people are ignoring 100% preventable actions of the west, possible peace deals, and cheerleading for endless war.

Don't worry. I think the war in Ukraine will end next year, in about 8 months.

The Russian Central Bank raised interest rates to 21% and according to the public statement made there was no consideration of keeping it unchanged and it almost went to 22%.

Not sure if you realize what means? The higher the interest rate goes, the less incremental impact it has on the economy. Why? Because there is (percentage-wise) less and less impact the higher that interest rates go, the less impact it has on the economy. Ex. going from 20% to 21% is about a 5% difference, whereas if the US changes from 4.61% to 4.83%, that's also about 5%. The main difference though is that if someone can't take out a loan to repay a 20% interest rate, why would they pay 21%? This means that Russia's private economy is effectively dead. The Russian Government is intentionally forcing all small businesses to shut down, to force their workers either into military service or state run military factories.

Add to this the Rouble is about 98.7 to the USD, and that "doing business with German pharmaceutical" statement is likely to be very very costly for Russians and certainly not affordable by the average citizen there.

I also believe the Russian hate for Ukraine driving the war is drying up. Even Solovyov is fighting to stay relevant.
Vladimir Solovyov disputes his falling ratings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=am0clAqNL4M
Here he is again, throwing a tizzy, yelling, while the facial expressions of the other guests snicker and look away:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVI4hNlmPlc
Did I mention that I think he'll be off-air between Jan and Mar?

I believe this winter will be especially harsh for average Russian citizens. It's unfortunate, but even if the West wanted to assist, nothing can be done. To coin a phrase from the first line of William Shakespeare's Richard III: "now is the winter of our discontent".

Again, 8 months.

I used to admire the bush era anti-war left but now know it was just politics.

Remember the bumper stickers?
"war is not the answer" blue with the dove
"End this war" crossing out "less" for "this"

The same people are ignoring 100% preventable actions of the west, possible peace deals, and cheerleading for endless war.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It does not matter who wins thr us election: Russia loses either way.

Kamala will keep up our funding of Ukraine. She has authorized long-range weapon use, and that will only increase. Our production of 155mm shells is expanding exponentially.

Trump may threaten to withhold funding, but he cannot unilaterally order Zelinskii to compromise or negotiate. If trump withholds all funding, South Korea will make up for some of it. And the EU will chip in the rest. Plus, the rate of the EU’s 155mm production is expanding even faster than ours. And one of trumps key issues is demanding NATO members contribute their agreed upon 2% of GDP to defense spending. All those billions of Euros will continue to fund weapons shipments to Ukraine.

China won’t save Russia. They want Russia to collapse to they can buy up the leftovers cheap.

Iran’s factories were just decimated and it’s fighting its own war now.

The NORKs are little more than cannon-fodder. Plus they motivate South Korea (and others) to increase aid to Ukraine.

Israel has stayed out of it. But when a shaky peace is restored, they will remember who Russia sided with, and come to Zelinskii’s aid (quietly).

Russia is finished

“expanding exponentially” is easy if you haven’t produced a single shell for over a decade prior.

I’m not sure why you’re so vested in selling this lie so hard, but it’s disturbing.

The truth is, we have almost zero manufacturing capacity for new shells now. ATK has two plants that have a production capacity of about a hundred shells each, per day. That’s not even enough production to keep up with a typical 4-tube battery’s daily consumption.

The Europeans are even worse - they don’t have the capacity at all in most cases. They bought their stuff from us, except for the Swedes, who along with Rhinemetal in Germany are the sole producers of ordnance.

DP.
Your info may be out of date. We're currently producing around 80,000 shells a month and that number is increasing. I can think of at least a half dozen US plants that are producing them - General Dynamics has plants in Arkansas and Illinois, American Ordnance has a plant in Iowa, Scranton Army Ammunition Plant in PA, and so on.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It does not matter who wins thr us election: Russia loses either way.

Kamala will keep up our funding of Ukraine. She has authorized long-range weapon use, and that will only increase. Our production of 155mm shells is expanding exponentially.

Trump may threaten to withhold funding, but he cannot unilaterally order Zelinskii to compromise or negotiate. If trump withholds all funding, South Korea will make up for some of it. And the EU will chip in the rest. Plus, the rate of the EU’s 155mm production is expanding even faster than ours. And one of trumps key issues is demanding NATO members contribute their agreed upon 2% of GDP to defense spending. All those billions of Euros will continue to fund weapons shipments to Ukraine.

China won’t save Russia. They want Russia to collapse to they can buy up the leftovers cheap.

Iran’s factories were just decimated and it’s fighting its own war now.

The NORKs are little more than cannon-fodder. Plus they motivate South Korea (and others) to increase aid to Ukraine.

Israel has stayed out of it. But when a shaky peace is restored, they will remember who Russia sided with, and come to Zelinskii’s aid (quietly).

Russia is finished

No Israel will not come to their aid. The Israelis are very close to Putin and Russia. Also Israel has nothing to offer the Ukrainians. Israel military is tiny and weak.

That would be pretty sad, pathetic and hypocritical for Israel to join Russia to destroy a country headed by a Jew. And, it would guarantee backlash from the US.

So in short, I think you are laboring under delusions.

Anonymous wrote:It does not matter who wins thr us election: Russia loses either way.

Kamala will keep up our funding of Ukraine. She has authorized long-range weapon use, and that will only increase. Our production of 155mm shells is expanding exponentially.

Trump may threaten to withhold funding, but he cannot unilaterally order Zelinskii to compromise or negotiate. If trump withholds all funding, South Korea will make up for some of it. And the EU will chip in the rest. Plus, the rate of the EU’s 155mm production is expanding even faster than ours. And one of trumps key issues is demanding NATO members contribute their agreed upon 2% of GDP to defense spending. All those billions of Euros will continue to fund weapons shipments to Ukraine.

China won’t save Russia. They want Russia to collapse to they can buy up the leftovers cheap.

Iran’s factories were just decimated and it’s fighting its own war now.

The NORKs are little more than cannon-fodder. Plus they motivate South Korea (and others) to increase aid to Ukraine.

Israel has stayed out of it. But when a shaky peace is restored, they will remember who Russia sided with, and come to Zelinskii’s aid (quietly).

Russia is finished

“expanding exponentially” is easy if you haven’t produced a single shell for over a decade prior.

I’m not sure why you’re so vested in selling this lie so hard, but it’s disturbing.

The truth is, we have almost zero manufacturing capacity for new shells now. ATK has two plants that have a production capacity of about a hundred shells each, per day. That’s not even enough production to keep up with a typical 4-tube battery’s daily consumption.

The Europeans are even worse - they don’t have the capacity at all in most cases. They bought their stuff from us, except for the Swedes, who along with Rhinemetal in Germany are the sole producers of ordnance.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I support Ukraine and I’m happy that we’re giving them some money and supplies, and frankly I think we should probably just let them use our weapons to strike all military targets in Russia no matter how “deep” they are, but can someone please explain to me why we’re giving more $$$ than countries like Germany and France who are much closer? We’re on the other side of the world and I doubt the leaders in Europe are giving much to support Latin American countries like we do. Like I said, I’m happy to give some, but I feel like what we give should be (in absolute terms) far less than what countries in Europe are giving. And yes if that means European countries need to scale back their social welfare programs or other domestic spending in order to pay for it or go into debt then that’s what they should do. There should be more responsibility to look after the situation in your own backyard. We’re not the blank check for the entire world, especially when our government is increasing our already insanely high debt in order to pay for it.

We pay for it because we're the only ones that want this war. Everyone else wanted business as usual with Russia to come back ASAP. So much so that we, er someone, had to blow those pipes to Germany to keep them from getting any ideas. Whatever European enthusiasm for the war there was, has largely burnt out.

Ukraine is pretty much out of men now anyway, so it doesn't really matter what we send them.

An obscure example in support of that: at a recently wrapped up Global Book Exhibition and Fair in Frankfurt, Russia could no longer participate as an official delegation, yet they sent one general interest publishing house, and three children literature ones, and all were booked solid with agent meetings and negotiations all day long. Because business is ready to do business just as soon as it can.

A friend working for a pharmaceutical company told me that their German branch is still doing business with Russia, they just don’t publicize it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It does not matter who wins thr us election: Russia loses either way.

Kamala will keep up our funding of Ukraine. She has authorized long-range weapon use, and that will only increase. Our production of 155mm shells is expanding exponentially.

Trump may threaten to withhold funding, but he cannot unilaterally order Zelinskii to compromise or negotiate. If trump withholds all funding, South Korea will make up for some of it. And the EU will chip in the rest. Plus, the rate of the EU’s 155mm production is expanding even faster than ours. And one of trumps key issues is demanding NATO members contribute their agreed upon 2% of GDP to defense spending. All those billions of Euros will continue to fund weapons shipments to Ukraine.

China won’t save Russia. They want Russia to collapse to they can buy up the leftovers cheap.

Iran’s factories were just decimated and it’s fighting its own war now.

The NORKs are little more than cannon-fodder. Plus they motivate South Korea (and others) to increase aid to Ukraine.

Israel has stayed out of it. But when a shaky peace is restored, they will remember who Russia sided with, and come to Zelinskii’s aid (quietly).

Russia is finished

Yeah, we know some Russians here and they still seem so proud about teaching their kids Russian and doing Russian things and I’ve honestly started to wonder why. Russia is no longer a superpower and there’s little value in learning Russian at this point. It will be a poor country when all this is over.

Parents teach kids their legacy no matter how small and insignificant it is to an outsider. It’s not driven by any objective relevance or significance or any objective factors really.

Anonymous wrote:Of course there is a winner. Whoever fills up the markets Russia vacated is a winner. I mean if you could sell your LNG for 20% more, why wouldn't you? And why wouldn't you make sure nothing interfered with this?

Its a great short-term move with long term negative consequences. If being a US vassal starts to hurt too much, looking at you Germany, then the whole thing falls apart. Eastern Europe is already wavering.

Of course there is a winner. Whoever fills up the markets Russia vacated is a winner. I mean if you could sell your LNG for 20% more, why wouldn't you? And why wouldn't you make sure nothing interfered with this?

Anonymous wrote:It does not matter who wins thr us election: Russia loses either way.

Kamala will keep up our funding of Ukraine. She has authorized long-range weapon use, and that will only increase. Our production of 155mm shells is expanding exponentially.

Trump may threaten to withhold funding, but he cannot unilaterally order Zelinskii to compromise or negotiate. If trump withholds all funding, South Korea will make up for some of it. And the EU will chip in the rest. Plus, the rate of the EU’s 155mm production is expanding even faster than ours. And one of trumps key issues is demanding NATO members contribute their agreed upon 2% of GDP to defense spending. All those billions of Euros will continue to fund weapons shipments to Ukraine.

China won’t save Russia. They want Russia to collapse to they can buy up the leftovers cheap.

Iran’s factories were just decimated and it’s fighting its own war now.

The NORKs are little more than cannon-fodder. Plus they motivate South Korea (and others) to increase aid to Ukraine.

Israel has stayed out of it. But when a shaky peace is restored, they will remember who Russia sided with, and come to Zelinskii’s aid (quietly).

Russia is finished

This is far too optimistic. This is a war of attrition. Russia continues to have the advantage in manpower and ammunition. Ukraine cannot continue this level of death and destruction indefinitely. And the Russians are betting on Ukraine losing its tolerance for heavy losses sometime in the next year. Ukraine is roughly a third of the size of Russia. And they are running out of men. The under-25s have so far been spared, but there aren't a lot of them. Not enough to make much of a difference. Best case scenario is that Russia hits an economic wall and spirals into hyper-inflation and social collapse. Russia can't sustain this war indefinitely either. There really is no winner in this war. And absolutely no one on either side survives the front lines for long.

Anonymous wrote:It does not matter who wins thr us election: Russia loses either way.

Kamala will keep up our funding of Ukraine. She has authorized long-range weapon use, and that will only increase. Our production of 155mm shells is expanding exponentially.

Trump may threaten to withhold funding, but he cannot unilaterally order Zelinskii to compromise or negotiate. If trump withholds all funding, South Korea will make up for some of it. And the EU will chip in the rest. Plus, the rate of the EU’s 155mm production is expanding even faster than ours. And one of trumps key issues is demanding NATO members contribute their agreed upon 2% of GDP to defense spending. All those billions of Euros will continue to fund weapons shipments to Ukraine.

China won’t save Russia. They want Russia to collapse to they can buy up the leftovers cheap.

Iran’s factories were just decimated and it’s fighting its own war now.

The NORKs are little more than cannon-fodder. Plus they motivate South Korea (and others) to increase aid to Ukraine.

Israel has stayed out of it. But when a shaky peace is restored, they will remember who Russia sided with, and come to Zelinskii’s aid (quietly).

Russia is finished

Tell me: will they find a way to produce new men to fight for Ukraine.

EU can't wait to do business with Russia again. In many ways, they never stopped.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It does not matter who wins thr us election: Russia loses either way.

Kamala will keep up our funding of Ukraine. She has authorized long-range weapon use, and that will only increase. Our production of 155mm shells is expanding exponentially.

Trump may threaten to withhold funding, but he cannot unilaterally order Zelinskii to compromise or negotiate. If trump withholds all funding, South Korea will make up for some of it. And the EU will chip in the rest. Plus, the rate of the EU’s 155mm production is expanding even faster than ours. And one of trumps key issues is demanding NATO members contribute their agreed upon 2% of GDP to defense spending. All those billions of Euros will continue to fund weapons shipments to Ukraine.

China won’t save Russia. They want Russia to collapse to they can buy up the leftovers cheap.

Iran’s factories were just decimated and it’s fighting its own war now.

The NORKs are little more than cannon-fodder. Plus they motivate South Korea (and others) to increase aid to Ukraine.

Israel has stayed out of it. But when a shaky peace is restored, they will remember who Russia sided with, and come to Zelinskii’s aid (quietly).

Russia is finished

Yeah, we know some Russians here and they still seem so proud about teaching their kids Russian and doing Russian things and I’ve honestly started to wonder why. Russia is no longer a superpower and there’s little value in learning Russian at this point. It will be a poor country when all this is over.

You don't understand business OR politics.

Anonymous wrote:It does not matter who wins thr us election: Russia loses either way.

Kamala will keep up our funding of Ukraine. She has authorized long-range weapon use, and that will only increase. Our production of 155mm shells is expanding exponentially.

Trump may threaten to withhold funding, but he cannot unilaterally order Zelinskii to compromise or negotiate. If trump withholds all funding, South Korea will make up for some of it. And the EU will chip in the rest. Plus, the rate of the EU’s 155mm production is expanding even faster than ours. And one of trumps key issues is demanding NATO members contribute their agreed upon 2% of GDP to defense spending. All those billions of Euros will continue to fund weapons shipments to Ukraine.

China won’t save Russia. They want Russia to collapse to they can buy up the leftovers cheap.

Iran’s factories were just decimated and it’s fighting its own war now.

The NORKs are little more than cannon-fodder. Plus they motivate South Korea (and others) to increase aid to Ukraine.

Israel has stayed out of it. But when a shaky peace is restored, they will remember who Russia sided with, and come to Zelinskii’s aid (quietly).

Russia is finished

No Israel will not come to their aid. The Israelis are very close to Putin and Russia. Also Israel has nothing to offer the Ukrainians. Israel military is tiny and weak.

Anonymous wrote:It does not matter who wins thr us election: Russia loses either way.

Kamala will keep up our funding of Ukraine. She has authorized long-range weapon use, and that will only increase. Our production of 155mm shells is expanding exponentially.

Trump may threaten to withhold funding, but he cannot unilaterally order Zelinskii to compromise or negotiate. If trump withholds all funding, South Korea will make up for some of it. And the EU will chip in the rest. Plus, the rate of the EU’s 155mm production is expanding even faster than ours. And one of trumps key issues is demanding NATO members contribute their agreed upon 2% of GDP to defense spending. All those billions of Euros will continue to fund weapons shipments to Ukraine.

China won’t save Russia. They want Russia to collapse to they can buy up the leftovers cheap.

Iran’s factories were just decimated and it’s fighting its own war now.

The NORKs are little more than cannon-fodder. Plus they motivate South Korea (and others) to increase aid to Ukraine.

Israel has stayed out of it. But when a shaky peace is restored, they will remember who Russia sided with, and come to Zelinskii’s aid (quietly).

Russia is finished

Yeah, we know some Russians here and they still seem so proud about teaching their kids Russian and doing Russian things and I’ve honestly started to wonder why. Russia is no longer a superpower and there’s little value in learning Russian at this point. It will be a poor country when all this is over.

It does not matter who wins thr us election: Russia loses either way.

Kamala will keep up our funding of Ukraine. She has authorized long-range weapon use, and that will only increase. Our production of 155mm shells is expanding exponentially.

Trump may threaten to withhold funding, but he cannot unilaterally order Zelinskii to compromise or negotiate. If trump withholds all funding, South Korea will make up for some of it. And the EU will chip in the rest. Plus, the rate of the EU’s 155mm production is expanding even faster than ours. And one of trumps key issues is demanding NATO members contribute their agreed upon 2% of GDP to defense spending. All those billions of Euros will continue to fund weapons shipments to Ukraine.

China won’t save Russia. They want Russia to collapse to they can buy up the leftovers cheap.

Iran’s factories were just decimated and it’s fighting its own war now.

The NORKs are little more than cannon-fodder. Plus they motivate South Korea (and others) to increase aid to Ukraine.

Israel has stayed out of it. But when a shaky peace is restored, they will remember who Russia sided with, and come to Zelinskii’s aid (quietly).

Russia is finished