German newspaper claims Ukraine is losing the war.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopoliti...aper-claims-ukraine-crumbling-orban-was-right
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopoliti...aper-claims-ukraine-crumbling-orban-was-right
Global Events & Politics Überthread
- Thread starter Hawk
- Start date
Impossible!
BL showed us several times how the war was almost over and Ukraine was going to win!
acesfull86
Well-known member
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/11/what-is-the-global-strike-demanding-an-end-to-israeli-war-on-gaza
Palestinian organisations and grassroot activists have called for a worldwide strike on Monday demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, which has been devastated by more than two months of Israeli bombardment.
Palestinians and supporters across the world plan to take part in a global strike involving “all aspects of public life” to express solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza and call for an end to Israeli bombardment.
People have been urged to skip school and work. Additionally, people striking are staying home and refraining from going out to restaurants, banks and stores. They are also not making any online transactions or shopping online.
—————
Glad I saw this so I can go out of my way to do all my online Christmas shopping today. And it helps me narrow down where to go out for lunch.
Palestinian organisations and grassroot activists have called for a worldwide strike on Monday demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, which has been devastated by more than two months of Israeli bombardment.
Palestinians and supporters across the world plan to take part in a global strike involving “all aspects of public life” to express solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza and call for an end to Israeli bombardment.
People have been urged to skip school and work. Additionally, people striking are staying home and refraining from going out to restaurants, banks and stores. They are also not making any online transactions or shopping online.
—————
Glad I saw this so I can go out of my way to do all my online Christmas shopping today. And it helps me narrow down where to go out for lunch.
Once you let them have a larger percentage they will take over that country.
acesfull86
Well-known member
[tw] 1735886698360586367[/tw]
cajunrevenge
Well-known member
Yeah, just demolish homeless peoples encampment, that's certainly solved the problem of people being homeless.
sturg33
I
How would you help them
cajunrevenge
Well-known member
It certainly wouldn't be bulldozing their shack they set up and declaring the problem solved.
57Brave
Well-known member
Michael McFaul
@McFaul
Without any direct U.S. involvement in fighting Russia, U.S. assistance has helped substantially degrade a major military threat to U.S. allies and potentially the United States itself—a strategy called“offshore balancing.” A defeated or vastly depleted Russian army will allow the United States to spend less on European defense, send fewer soldiers to NATO bases in the Baltics and Poland, worry less about being drawn into a future European war, and shift its money and attention toward other problems at home and abroad.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/11/16/ukraine-russia-war-us-congress-aid-weapons/
@McFaul
Without any direct U.S. involvement in fighting Russia, U.S. assistance has helped substantially degrade a major military threat to U.S. allies and potentially the United States itself—a strategy called“offshore balancing.” A defeated or vastly depleted Russian army will allow the United States to spend less on European defense, send fewer soldiers to NATO bases in the Baltics and Poland, worry less about being drawn into a future European war, and shift its money and attention toward other problems at home and abroad.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/11/16/ukraine-russia-war-us-congress-aid-weapons/
The 3847292x take that Russia is depleted. All the while Ukraine begs for money like a cheap hooker and the rest of Europe destabilized from Merkels naive leadership.
acesfull86
Well-known member
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2023/12/argentina-reform-impressions.html
I didn’t have much time in Argentina, but I can pass along a few impressions about how Milei is doing, noting I hold these with “weak belief”:
1. He is pretty popular with the general population. He is also popular in B.A. in particular. People are fed up with what they have been experiencing. It is incorrect to think of him as mainly a candidate for the elites.
2. Even if you think he “plays a clown on TV,” he is not a clown. He is a serious thinker who has facility with economic arguments, including at the academic level.
3. If he can lick hyperinflation, but that causes a recession for a year or two, the population will accept that trade-off.
4. Licking hyperinflation will not be so easy. The currency is still declining in value, and Milei has to solve major fiscal problems with 10-15 percent representation in the two-house legislature. For this reason alone, the whole project still could very easily fail, and it would be a long time before libertarian-style ideas would be given another chance in Argentina.
4b. Right now Argentina is auctioning off (FT) $3.6 billion USD worth (but denominated in pesos) in fresh debt. The goal is to clear off central bank debt, and to put fiscal instruments where fiscal instruments ought to be, and sever them from the monetary authority. Right now short-term central bank debt is about 10% of the country’s gdp, a bad place to be. But how well will this new borrowing go? How far can it be extended? The fate of the whole plan may rest on the efficacy of this very particular transition, and if more central government borrowing in Argentina makes you nervous it should. Keep in mind hyperinflation is not just “money printing” (though it is that too), it is after a while an entire interwoven web of corrupt and malfunctioning institutional arrangements. Just how easily and how quickly can those be untangled?
5. Milei’s political enemies are not entirely keen to seize power right now, since they would have to deal with a hyperinflation and possibly a recession. This is operating in his favor.
6. Some of his support is based in a kind of “free lunch” voter desire to simply have more dollars, as some of the populace expects “dollarization” to bring. That is one reason why he won, but it is worrying for his ability to sustain support.
7. What I understand from his deregulatory measures I am very much in support of. But until a broader business confidence is restored, they may not help economic growth much. I don’t think we are going to see a Ludwig Erhard-style economic miracle in Argentina.
8. So far he has yet to make an obvious mistake.
9. Fossil fuel megaprojects (WSJ), such as “Vaca Muerta” may prove Milei’s ace in the hole, if he can hold on long enough.
10. U.S. mainstream media are not doing a good job covering these developments, or even devoting much attention to them.
I didn’t have much time in Argentina, but I can pass along a few impressions about how Milei is doing, noting I hold these with “weak belief”:
1. He is pretty popular with the general population. He is also popular in B.A. in particular. People are fed up with what they have been experiencing. It is incorrect to think of him as mainly a candidate for the elites.
2. Even if you think he “plays a clown on TV,” he is not a clown. He is a serious thinker who has facility with economic arguments, including at the academic level.
3. If he can lick hyperinflation, but that causes a recession for a year or two, the population will accept that trade-off.
4. Licking hyperinflation will not be so easy. The currency is still declining in value, and Milei has to solve major fiscal problems with 10-15 percent representation in the two-house legislature. For this reason alone, the whole project still could very easily fail, and it would be a long time before libertarian-style ideas would be given another chance in Argentina.
4b. Right now Argentina is auctioning off (FT) $3.6 billion USD worth (but denominated in pesos) in fresh debt. The goal is to clear off central bank debt, and to put fiscal instruments where fiscal instruments ought to be, and sever them from the monetary authority. Right now short-term central bank debt is about 10% of the country’s gdp, a bad place to be. But how well will this new borrowing go? How far can it be extended? The fate of the whole plan may rest on the efficacy of this very particular transition, and if more central government borrowing in Argentina makes you nervous it should. Keep in mind hyperinflation is not just “money printing” (though it is that too), it is after a while an entire interwoven web of corrupt and malfunctioning institutional arrangements. Just how easily and how quickly can those be untangled?
5. Milei’s political enemies are not entirely keen to seize power right now, since they would have to deal with a hyperinflation and possibly a recession. This is operating in his favor.
6. Some of his support is based in a kind of “free lunch” voter desire to simply have more dollars, as some of the populace expects “dollarization” to bring. That is one reason why he won, but it is worrying for his ability to sustain support.
7. What I understand from his deregulatory measures I am very much in support of. But until a broader business confidence is restored, they may not help economic growth much. I don’t think we are going to see a Ludwig Erhard-style economic miracle in Argentina.
8. So far he has yet to make an obvious mistake.
9. Fossil fuel megaprojects (WSJ), such as “Vaca Muerta” may prove Milei’s ace in the hole, if he can hold on long enough.
10. U.S. mainstream media are not doing a good job covering these developments, or even devoting much attention to them.
cajunrevenge
Well-known member
I hope he does well. Wish we would give Libertarians a chance in this country. And no, thethe, Trump is nothing close to Libertarian. Nowhere in Libertarian doctrine does it say kiss my ass or you are the enemy.
When did I ever say Trump was that?
We live in the real world so being Libertarian is a childish position but for a country that is in such despair like Argentina you need an opposite extreme to recalibrate.
cajunrevenge
Well-known member
Because he gets compared to Trump. I don't know enough about the guy to know if he is anti-free speech and believes in weaponization the government against his political opponents like Trump but I don't think he would be considered a Libertarian if he was. I am all for fighting against the craziness of the left, just not with an authoritarian wannabe like Trump.