the ~*~anti-imperialist leftists~*~ are having themselves a good time on Twitter trying to explain away the genocide taking place
"The scope of the potential U.S. retaliatory measures was not exactly clear, but senior Biden officials have previously discussed potentially devastating “secondary sanctions” that would target countries that continue to trade with Russia. The Biden administration could also impose sanctions on sectors of the Russian economy that they have not hit so far, including mining, transportation, and additional parts of the Russian financial sector. The world continues to buy billions of dollars worth in Russian oil and gas, giving the Kremlin a direct financial lifeline. Officials stressed planning was preliminary and no decisions had been made about potential responses." from the new wapo article
i think people make a mistake of assigning idiocy as a component of ideology, i follow a bunch of marxist historians who regularly mock the people I assume are being referenced here as "ultra left". basically the Jimmy Dore/Krystal Ball faction aren't more left wing than most they're just morons.
Russia is making countries pay for nat gas in rubles, hard for Germans and other European countries to avoid. Because of that RUB/USD has reversed course significantly from when the sanctions were first announced, and is now right around pre-war levels. The above is the result of owning the European energy supply chain. Obviously they also have capital controls on Russian citizens so they can’t exchange rubles for foreign reserves which helps keep a lid on things as well.
If you feel there is an absolute moral obligation to act, there is a middle ground between doing nothing further and sending others to die: https://visitukraine.today/blog/161...oin-international-legion-to-fight-for-ukraine
Good perspective. I am 100% for arming Ukrainians but thread below deals with why you can’t just send them everything
In addition to the stupidity is the complementary and far more corrosive hubristic imperative of absolute monopolized moral superiority. Whether fascistic or collective, the true poison in highly centralized autocratic governance is the repulsion of self-examination and self-critique for your methods. When you know you’re right, such traits are inconvenient at best and a threat to your power at worst. We’re seeing it in living color in Moscow.
I know that Germany at least has. The Baltic States also announced they were cutting off Russian O&G after the Bucha pics and vids started making the rounds.
Looks like so far the 7 countries have rejected paying in rubles but I believe putins “deadline” was friday, either way sending him euros or dollars still benefits the strength of the ruble.
Not if they have no way to exchange them. I believe the reason that Putin wants payments in rubles is to inject them directly into the Russian economy to ease the loss of the frozen reserves overseas. This way, you aren’t having to print more physical cash that will cause inflation.
Wow Jose Andres telling on himself for not providing meals in every war zone on the planet right now.
thats fine, Jose Andres is an international treasure and love how globally recognized that is becoming
Yeah I think people confuse the idiots that get fed to them for engagement vs people who are actually far left
They’ll have ways to make it benefit them, the ruble already has recovered somewhat (even if some of it is bs as I said before w/ capital controls, but there is definitely a portion of it being western countries still sending $$ via gas purchases.) Based on this Reuters article that doesn’t sound like his intention. If your them is rubles, but it does ease the loss of frozen FX reserves when you are sent foreign cash for gas. https://www.reuters.com/business/en...n-gas-must-be-paid-roubles-friday-2022-03-31/
you can also call it a Qanon rally, an anti-vax rally, a crypto rally or whatever you want to call it, its all the same group of idiots
Curious what he considers evidence. Do the Russian soldiers need to make a video saying “Yeah, our bad”?
Im not an economist, but this guy is and he says it’s just currency manipulation. Not suggesting that isn’t your point, just furthering the convo.
While I agree part of it is window dressing, there is definitely some fundamental base strength for Russia as long as European countries keep purchasing russian gas deliveries. Side note: weather right now is not helping Europe as it is pretty cold at the moment. Another economists take.
That’s fine but people need to realize as it stands you do need fossil fuels to produce renewables, if fossil fuels are not relatively inexpensive then these costs roll into renewables. Which is why you’ve seen solar prices increase over the past couple of years.
For sure, the point is doing that in a way shoots yourself in the foot as a removal of subsidies which would increase the costs of fossil fuels and would also de incentivize companies putting cap ex into them. Long run means higher renewable energy costs.
Obviously a simplistic view: Option A: Subsidize O&G - no incentive for renewables Option B: Subsidize Renewables - slightly higher cost for renewables but that cost is subsidized
I mean personally I’d subsidize both for a while. And in general it’s going to take government fiscal intervention at or above the level of the pandemic stimulus checks/PPP loans to make serious progress on this issue.