tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post515525135633330254..comments2024-03-29T11:07:51.893+13:00Comments on Bowalley Road: The Second Cold War.Chris Trotterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09081613281183460899noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-11216819626036258782022-03-22T11:22:39.146+13:002022-03-22T11:22:39.146+13:00Yep: an enemy with nothing to lose is an enemy to ...Yep: an enemy with nothing to lose is an enemy to be feared.<br />Ion A. Dowman<br />Archduke Piccolohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15533325665451889661noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-64288895768127669762022-03-21T11:27:15.332+13:002022-03-21T11:27:15.332+13:00The 'west' needs to very careful about the...The 'west' needs to very careful about the desire to subdue Russia. The expansion eastwards of NATO was in breach of a promise not to. <br />If Russia is pushed too much the leadership may feel that they have nothing to lose, that the 'west' isnt listening and the Russians could well decide to use battlefield nuclear weapons.<br />Pushing them into a corner may not be smart.Barryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14253074798445269827noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-20778046632002042192022-03-19T06:08:34.319+13:002022-03-19T06:08:34.319+13:00"ultra-nationalist guerrillas"..... just..."ultra-nationalist guerrillas"..... just to be clear when you use THAT phrase of ultra-nationalist. Do you mean the ethnic Russian "ultra-nationalists" fighting in for their homeland in Ukrainian army fatigues... or the ultra-nationalist Ukrainian president whose family were murdered during the Holocaust?<br /><br />Maybe it's time to admit that those on the liberal left were hoodwinked by their own rose hinted glasses when it came to Putin. The KGB has always when about holding power, & maintaining power through violence against its perceived enemies whilst assuming the motives of all others are as under handed as their own.<br />When I read phrases such as "ultra-nationalist" being peppered into the piece, I sense the backtrack<br /><br />A master political chess player?!.... never was; just a blunt force standover enforcer whose days inside the Kremlin are numbered.<br />The bond market deadline at the end of May will determine the end of this more <br /><br />thesorrow&thepitynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-11843676827888537882022-03-18T12:19:14.161+13:002022-03-18T12:19:14.161+13:00I doubt somehow if China and Russia will stay boso...I doubt somehow if China and Russia will stay bosom buddies for too long, although anything is possible. The Chinese economy makes the Russian look sick, and I don't think Putin wants to play second fiddle – there is still a great deal of racism in Russia with regard to Asians. <br />And the EC is itself close to being a superpower, it's GDP is much, much bigger than the Russian, and its armed forces are roughly on a par in numbers, but almost certainly superior in training and equipment, judging by Putin's conscripts'performance in Ukraine.<br />Economists would probably argue that the world is far too economically integrated to become as divided as it was in the Cold War. I don't know – 'interesting times' though right?Guerilla Surgeonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03427876447124021423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-25296318769854841412022-03-18T09:38:47.074+13:002022-03-18T09:38:47.074+13:00World War Three began, I think, in the 1990s. Not...World War Three began, I think, in the 1990s. Not a shooting war, withal - not to begin with. But certainly an economic war. And it was NEVER a war for 'democracy' and 'freedom' - at least not by the politicians and the Fat Cattists. It might be for the ordinary Joe and Jo trying simply to survive. It is a war of class against class (as in fact been openly admitted occasionally by some of the more human Fat Cattists). <br /><br />Russia has been demonised - how else was NATO to justify its continued existence and arms sales? - ever since. Especially in the wake of the eviction of US Chicago School Economic vandals from thence, Russia has been always under threat from NATO sabre-rattling these last 25-30 years. Paranoid Vladimir Putin might be (though I believe such Western jibes to be largely Western 'projection'); but they were sure lord 'out to get him.' <br /><br />Recall the comment of E. Wayne Merry:<br />"“We created a virtual open shop for thievery at a national level and for capital flight in terms of hundreds of billions of dollars, and the raping of natural resources and industries on a scale which I doubt has ever taken place in human history.”<br /><br />—E. Wayne Merry, a U.S. Embassy official in Moscow during the 1990s.<br /><br />Elsewhere he has spoken of Washington imposing an economic reform on Russia (under Boris Yeltsin's watch) DESPITE the will of the Russian (and other ex-Soviet) people, in the astonishing 'belief' (yeah, right) that somehow this would lead to some kind of Western-style democratisation. The 'economic reform' was, of course, the same Milton Friedmanite, Chicago School nonsensical 'let 'em eat shit' crappola that has bedevilled New Zealand's economic 'policy' since 1984.<br /><br />What the HELL is so special about Western 'democracy'? Do US politicians still imagine - or even bother to pretend - that the US is a democracy? The US has never been a democracy. An elective oligarchy does not a democracy make. And - guess what - Russia has an elective oligarchy. So what is the difference? Really. What is the difference?<br /><br />Russia has something the US covets. That is all this World War is about. Ukraine has simply been callously used by the US (NATO) as a cat's paw. What did they expect would happen?<br /><br />Cheers,<br />Ion A. Dowman <br /><br /> Archduke Piccolohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15533325665451889661noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-9906517945034752422022-03-18T07:52:04.109+13:002022-03-18T07:52:04.109+13:00Thank you Chris, first some good news: Australia i...Thank you Chris, first some good news: Australia is having a record wheat harvest - though much of it forward bought by canny Asian interests as it turns out. <br /><br />Events, the disruptions of war and disease, will surely force a re-think of over dependance on global supply chains - assuming anyone is actually thinking. Things fall apart, even global fertilizer supply will be severely impacted; heightening the food supply problem. The rush to end fossil fuel production and exploration in Europe and North America (and of course here in NZ) is being shown up for the foolishness it is. Leaving countries reliant on unreliable and inadequate alternatives or on supply from unstable and hostile, regimes. Let's hope wise heads are developing a strategy beyond the next election cycle though, in our case at least, there's not much sign of it. <br /><br />A Eurasian (wasn't that the name Orwell used in "1984") super entity, especially with anti democratic types like Putin literally calling the shots is certainly concerning. His latest rant against his own people is deeply worrying, they've as much to fear as anyone I suggest. He really is a psychopath, some sort of crazy anyway. Putin:<br /><br />Russians “will always be able to distinguish true patriots from scum and traitors and will simply spit them out like a gnat that accidentally flew into their mouths,” he said. “I am convinced that such a natural and necessary self-purification of society will only strengthen our country.”<br /><br />Sounds a lot like the sort of thing Hitler would have said, and we know where that ended up going.<br /><br /> David Georgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04883628159193125307noreply@blogger.com