Quoted post unavailable.
Or we could consider eating slightly less meat instead of supporting megalomaniac dictators like Putin.
US quietly urges more use of Russia fertilizer to ease food crisis
141–150 of 427 posts
Re: US quietly urges more use of Russia fertilizer to ease food crisis
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is exactly what everyone said about Putin invading Ukraine. Putin invading Ukraine was impossible because he's not unhinged and it would be an insanely stupid thing to do. He's just gathering his armies next to the border because he's flaunting his strength. >I'm afraid that conviction is actually growing Based off your in-depth research of casually browsing NY Times headlines?
> This is exactly what everyone said about Putin invading Ukraine. First, not everyone, Ukrainians knew. Second, after the end of WW2 we lived (wanted to live) under a spell that conquering whole countries with some opportunistic genocide on top is not going to happen anymore, or at least not in the "civilized" Europe. Now, I hope the spell is off, we can see the world more clearly, and it's a raw power competition i…
> First, not everyone, Ukrainians knew.
Sounds like you were not following the events because invasion was effectively "announced" by US Intelligence weeks before the actual declaration of war. Besides, this was not the only sign and if you know the way Putin talks and you listened to him days before the invasion (talking about Russian Empire's old glory) you'd see that he already made his mind up way before the actual day of invasion. Of course, it's easy to see things in hindsight (and I did truly predict the invasion before it happened) but sounds like you're not even aware of all the available data.
Re: US quietly urges more use of Russia fertilizer to ease food crisis
#143Quoted post unavailable.
Or maybe get off your carbon dependency?
Re: US quietly urges more use of Russia fertilizer to ease food crisis
#144Quoted post unavailable.
Taiwan is going to become part of China, so we should just stop wasting money patrolling those seas. North Korean nukes are going to level Seoul someday, so we should divest our electronics manufacturing from there and send it all elsewhere to secure low prices tomorrow. Also, Poland is bound to fall once Russia invades after being handed Ukraine on a silver platter, so may as well have the EU cut their losses while they can. More money in our pockets.
Re: US quietly urges more use of Russia fertilizer to ease food crisis
#145Meanwhile RUB to USD is at its highest in nearly 5 years. Cutting Russia off from SWIFT has only strengthened their ties to India and China. Russia is still invading Ukraine, and now we're dealing with soaring food and energy prices at home. At some point you have to consider whether this level of diplomatic incompetence is intentional.
Absolutely agree. Moreover, it's the diplomatic incompetence on both sides that led to this war, which in my opinion could be easily avoided.
Easily avoided!
OK, now let's hear how it could be "easily avoided".
Re: US quietly urges more use of Russia fertilizer to ease food crisis
#146Meanwhile RUB to USD is at its highest in nearly 5 years. Cutting Russia off from SWIFT has only strengthened their ties to India and China. Russia is still invading Ukraine, and now we're dealing with soaring food and energy prices at home. At some point you have to consider whether this level of diplomatic incompetence is intentional.
Since RUB exchange is so constrained, its "market rate" is also meaningless. I too can issue a currency, set its value at 1,000,000 USD per unit and declare monopoly in trading it.
How many ft3 of gas are you selling daily?
Re: US quietly urges more use of Russia fertilizer to ease food crisis
#147Quoted post unavailable.
No, it's really not that simple. Inflation causes are many fold and it was an issue prior to Russia's invasion. Might help, but inflation isn't going to vanish with a "simple" policy change.
Re: US quietly urges more use of Russia fertilizer to ease food crisis
#148Earlier quoted context omitted.
What kind of moronic dismissal is that? Avoiding nuclear war should be our #1 priority. "Oh those stupid idiots are scared of nuclear war"
I do believe that it's not "at all cost" though. Otherwise a nuclear power could do literally anything and you wouldn't be able to stop them "because nukes". If Putin started rolling tanks into Poland saying "don't stop me or I'll fire nukes" that would be the time to call his bluff, even if the consequences of getting this wrong are dire. The line has to be somewhere - right now it's the border of NATO member countr…
You forget there are two red lines and vague space between them.
For NATO the borders of its members are red line.
For Putin the red line is borders of Russia, that include Crimea and L/DPR for now.
There is no way Putin leaves Crimea and nukes are not send to the Washington.
Re: US quietly urges more use of Russia fertilizer to ease food crisis
#149Meanwhile RUB to USD is at its highest in nearly 5 years. Cutting Russia off from SWIFT has only strengthened their ties to India and China. Russia is still invading Ukraine, and now we're dealing with soaring food and energy prices at home. At some point you have to consider whether this level of diplomatic incompetence is intentional.
I’m concerned the following might play out:
-Russia wins in Ukraine
-The sanctions were ultimately ineffective, for the reasons you explain above
-China takes Taiwan during major US political unrest, at BEST destroying the fabs and at worst gaining full control of the leading 3nm/2nm etc process
-A deeper China-Russia alliance, which was expedited by our ineffective sanctions now, puts the screws to US/western companies by blocking access to the latest semiconductor tech
Re: US quietly urges more use of Russia fertilizer to ease food crisis
#150Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Russia has actually raised minimum wage and pensions by 10% due to the huge inflow of tax revenue This is less than inflation. (Curious to see a source spinning it as a result of tax revenues. Even for the Kremlin, that's an idiotic argument.) It's also about the amount Russia's economy is expected to shrink this year.
- https://www.businessinsider.com/putin-to-hike-russian-minimu... - https://fortune.com/2022/06/14/putin-russia-oil-gas-profit-r... - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-10/russia-cu... Keep mind that the Russian government budget operates on a $40 gallon barrel of oil budget.
Nobody has argued Russia isn't making a killing off its energy portfolio. But a quarter of a billion dollars of revenue, not profit, in a booming global economy no less, doesn't make up for a similar quantity of frozen reserves.
Russia is weaker and poorer than it was at the end of last year. The Russian state is doing far better than was expected, domestically. Credit due where owed. But it's a growing share of a shrinking pie situation.