Get Real! wrote:Londonrake wrote: There was an interesting article in yesterday's DT. It mainly concerned how for some time Russia has been quietly buying and illicitly shipping out gold from Sudan mainly but also a couple of other African countries. Such that they now have a significant stockpile of the stuff. They've been assisted in this by the activities of their Wagner group, enabling a sympathetic Sudanese warlord to gain and hold on to power in the country. As well as the gold there have been moves into cryptocurrency and the Chinese Yuan. This has been going on quietly for quite some time, in order to build up a hedge against any sanctions.
All of that is principally to fund any war effort and the State payroll. Nothing causes more trouble of course than your soldiers or civil servants not being paid.
That IMHO doesn't detract from the points that DT makes. You only have to skim through any business tome to understand the weight of what's being inflicted upon ordinary Russians. For them it's 1998 all over again.
Interesting speculation in today's press. That Putin may impose martial law in Russia, thus giving him the opportunity to round up all the notable trouble makers.
Your politics 101 reality check:
What America announces in public (to show off) and what America does (behind the scenes faced with reality) are two entirely different things.
Write this on your forehead.
Wow! Off for an hour or so and it's - what page are we on now?
I posted about what I thought was an interesting DT article on Pypro's question of DT. Take it or leave it. Past actions taken by Putin to circumvent what would he perceived as the inevitable economic sanctions which would be aimed at Russia in the event of a war. Pretty clever really. I made no reference to your favourite demon, the US.
I've no desire to argue (because that's what it always is) with you GR. Despite not agreeing with many of your views. I'm fully conversant by now with your mindset and learned to appreciate the futility long ago. Which is why - as I said of others - I don't usually tend to bother. So, I suggest your short lecture and contempt were both wrongly aimed and inappropriate.
I've a philosophy similar to Lordo's I think. Respect given is returned. If you're going to adopt the keyboard hard-man stuff.......................... Frankly, I'm pretty immune, anyway (ask your soulmate, Hood).
I've been a member of various forums for 15 years or so now. You are, without doubt, the angriest, most hate-filled individual I've come across on any of them. Some of the things you post are nothing short of psychotic rants and although I suspect you're an interesting and perfectly amicable person in-the-flesh on the internet you seem to give vent to what can only be described as lunacy. I suspect the road to the gas-chambers, gulags and killing fields were built by people with your type of obsessiveness. Many of them very well-educated, intellectually brilliant individuals who were, nevertheless, fucking bonkers.
Enough?