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Japan Breaks with U.S. Allies, Buys Russian Oil at Prices Above Cap

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Re: Japan Breaks with U.S. Allies, Buys Russian Oil at Prices Above Cap

#151

Post by boringg »

csomar wrote: post #63
boringg wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you describe why you think the US has "significantly abused their position with the US dollars hegemony."

FATCA, protectionism hidden behind AML/KYC, money printing at the expense of the other countries' reserves, sanctions or the threat of sanctions, political requests for IMF/WB funding, etc... Really, it's a shitshow and the US is rarely the good guy here.

I mean you are just throwing everything that the US does into one bucket called "US dollar hegemony" without discrimination. I'm not saying they don't leverage their dollar power I disagree that it "significantly abused their position" via the alphabet soup of complaints above.

Re: Japan Breaks with U.S. Allies, Buys Russian Oil at Prices Above Cap

#152

Post by boringg »

samarthr1 wrote: post #150
boringg wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In this case you're talking about the moves by the Trump GOP administration.

For good or bad, it's still the legitimately elected US government. The Trump government represented the population of the USA, and was elected in accordance with its own rules. The consequences or fruits thereof belong to the citizens of the nation.

I understand - but to use that as an example of a pattern of the US government significantly abusing their US dollar hegemony doesn't equate.

Re: Japan Breaks with U.S. Allies, Buys Russian Oil at Prices Above Cap

#153

Post by 0xDEF »

csomar wrote: post #35

The next few weeks/months are going to be very interesting. Saudi Arabia has doubled down on its new direction. Japan/EU seems at edge with the war in Ukraine. China is making new moves in the global financial scene. The US has accumulated significant political debt in the recent years. They have significantly abused their position with the US dollars hegemony. In this recent conflict, the cost burdened Europe and th…

>Europe, except for Poland and the Baltics, does not seem to be too enthusiastic for this war.

Why do blatantly false statements about Europe keep getting upvoted on HN?

The European public overwhelmingly supports Ukraine and military aid to Ukraine:

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20221205IP...

Re: Japan Breaks with U.S. Allies, Buys Russian Oil at Prices Above Cap

#154

Post by st4lz »

user3939382 wrote: post #126
simonh wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that there's a major land war in Ukraine, which the US did not start and had no power to prevent, has come at a huge cost. This is true. Given that Ukraine patently was not just going to roll over, and even if the US hadn't supported them, much of Europe absolutely would. I think it's petty plain the war would still be raging fiercely anyway. Most likely Russia would be on the skirts of or in Kyiv and Odessa…

[flagged]

Well, the victory in Ukraine is low cost high profit business for the US.

There is unprecedented growth of oil and natural gas sales to Europe, which completely displaced Russia as the biggest supplier. The arms contracts are rising heavily, making at least half of the world's armies interested in replacing old equipment. Prices are rising as well as profits.

Secondly, securing Ukraine would add up to the capitalistic market huge amounts of resources like grains and metals. This is a huge area of future investments that would provide gains for capital markets for years. Not to mention educated, hard-working populace.

There is also a matter of prestige. It is hard not to see the military advantage that western weapons have over the soviet ones. The risk of any other conflict is lower elsewhere. Still, the US is considered a worthy ally, whose guarantees are reliable.

Those are the advantages. Costs? Old military equipment that should be replaced anyway. Some money as well, but hey, banks are being given free cash as well. No boots on the ground, NATO expansion, many of the help come from allies. You can't make it cheaper.

And above all, morally you are still on the right side. Incredible.

Re: Japan Breaks with U.S. Allies, Buys Russian Oil at Prices Above Cap

#155

Post by pintxo »

ceejayoz wrote: post #31
EGreg wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then what was the point of your example? What does Japan gain from the idea that one country cannot take another country's territory by force, if it is in fact Russia that is in control of these islands? If anything, Japan would like them back eventually. All attempts at diplomacy have failed, so force would be the only other option.

> Then what was the point of your example? That Japan most certainly doesn't want territorial disputes to be resolved by might and current possession status. > If anything, Japan would like them back eventually. Yes, and they'd prefer "Russia currently holds them, so they get to keep them" not to be precedent. Russia is attempting to set that precedent in eastern Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova currently.

So Japan can get a win out of the Crimea situation either way?

If Russia „wins“ they could justify using force to free their „historic“ possession.

And if Russia „looses“ they can argue having military control does not imply ownership. And that usage of force to revert military occupation is legal.

Re: Japan Breaks with U.S. Allies, Buys Russian Oil at Prices Above Cap

#156

Post by ceejayoz »

whitemary wrote: post #97
boringg wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you describe why you think the US has "significantly abused their position with the US dollars hegemony."

[flagged]

Hersh thinks, as of Feb 23 2023, that "the Russians have yet to put any of their main forces in". (https://twitter.com/JimmySecUK/status/1628898816953909251) I dunno what happened to him, but you should probably read his allegations with that context in mind.

Re: Japan Breaks with U.S. Allies, Buys Russian Oil at Prices Above Cap

#157

Post by adriancr »

EGreg wrote: post #101
adriancr wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems you can't really handle OP being right and have resorted to what-about-ism. So it seems you have conceded the argument and agree that Russia is mindlessly belligerent and now are saying that's fine because you think x-y-z are also belligerent? (Wrong but eh, not the subject of discussion).

If by "the OP being right" you mean that Russia is pretty much like every other "Great Power" then yeah. Not only can I handle that, but I'm saying the same thing. But that's not what the OP seems to be saying. He seems to be saying that, history has shown Russia is uniquely a bloodthirsty country that wants to attack its neighbors for no reason, any chance it gets. In a "normal" analysis of countries since, say, 198…

If at first you don't succeed...

You now feign agreement with the first point only to say it's because of what-about-USA... and then disagree again.

All the while you're polluting the whole argument with needless arguments in the hope that something sticks or at least draws discussion somewhere else.

Re: Japan Breaks with U.S. Allies, Buys Russian Oil at Prices Above Cap

#158

Post by imwithstoopid »

starkd wrote: post #130
5040 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Demand for American currency abroad brought stability to the currency. If that demand should diminish significantly, future American financial excesses will become a lot more dangerous. This might speed along decline or motivate a return to more disciplined economic policies. Time will tell.

The end of the ability to run deficits. Social Security and medicare financial problems become exponentially more urgent and dire.

no I'm talking about the part where poor Americans who join the armed forces go to foreign countries, are asked to kill people and sometimes die themselves

Re: Japan Breaks with U.S. Allies, Buys Russian Oil at Prices Above Cap

#159

Post by ceejayoz »

pintxo wrote: post #155
ceejayoz wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Then what was the point of your example? That Japan most certainly doesn't want territorial disputes to be resolved by might and current possession status. > If anything, Japan would like them back eventually. Yes, and they'd prefer "Russia currently holds them, so they get to keep them" not to be precedent. Russia is attempting to set that precedent in eastern Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova currently.

So Japan can get a win out of the Crimea situation either way? If Russia „wins“ they could justify using force to free their „historic“ possession. And if Russia „looses“ they can argue having military control does not imply ownership. And that usage of force to revert military occupation is legal.

Any diplomat that can't spin both a spin and a loss is not a very effective diplomat. That said, "Russia shouldn't be able to force resolutions to territorial conflicts with military might or mere possession" is consistent across both scenarios.

Re: Japan Breaks with U.S. Allies, Buys Russian Oil at Prices Above Cap

#160

Post by dang »

mjburgess wrote: post #50

I think we need a HN policy on paywalled articles. I cannot read this -- what's the value of this being on the HN front-page?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10178989

If there's a workaround, it's ok. Users usually post workarounds in the thread.

This is in the FAQ at https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html and there's more explanation here:

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so...

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