Russia - threadbanned users in OP

EltonJohn69

This is all sounding too much like world war 3…… shower/beer/phone is going off….

good luck folks

Bayonet

This dingbat

https://twitter.com/KareemRifai/status/1503445092945866756?s=20&t=27EkszCvQejd50Y62E5Yeg

Curious_Case

Could the Chinese arms supply angle be the first Western curve ball thrown. In other words, the US is floating the possibility in order to build up advance resistance to it.

I would have thought that the Chinese need a market to sell to. A financially crippled Russia is hardly a lucrative market.

Strazdas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118785148#Comment_118785148

Fair play to her. it needed to be done (and hugely embarrassing for the regime that an editor who works for the propaganda outfit / lying machine was the one to do it).

threeball

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118781503#Comment_118781503

You missed my point completely. Given that they hold no territory west of Kiev they themselves run the risk of being encircled by ukranian troops to the west. They would then be sandwiched between the Western troops and the city troops with only one avenue to escape.

A position of advantage would become one of serious peril extremely quickly.

Bayonet

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118785154#Comment_118785154

Remind me not to have you in my platoon. The state of this capitulation 😂

Wibbs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118785036#Comment_118785036

And I think the Chinese know this all too well. They're not stupid. Russia going rogue is one thing and not exactly without precedent, China tend to be more measured and they've built up huge relationships with Western companies and buyers. A trade war would certainly hurt us yes, but it would really hurt them. I doubt they're that stupid to do that, especially over Russia. Even if they got trade and economic stuff from Russia, a) they know they can't trust them, b) they've a long history of distrust of Russia that sometimes went hostile and c) it wouldn't make up a fraction of the trade and back and forth with the rest of the world who are against Russia.

technocrat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118785147#Comment_118785147

That's a good point actually

I can still buy a good quality Samsung Korean made phone.

Muahahaha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118785088#Comment_118785088

yeah Ive no doubt Merkel was under pressure from industrialists in Germanys south who wanted lots of cheap energy to keep manufacturing humming but becoming more than 50% dependent on Russia seems like a huge error by them now

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118785147#Comment_118785147

In fairness (going waaay off topic here) the people I know who went to the effort of figuring out which cheap Chinese phone was worth it were fairly savvy. I got 2 years out of a 100 quid phone til I broke the screen and got another one for Christmas just over a year ago as a gift for a little bit more and it's going strong now with 2 days battery life and pretty much as fast as anything for under €6/700. Xiaomi sell stuff that's way, way higher quality than it has any right to be at their pricepoints.

Wibbs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118785110#Comment_118785110

Your "mate" Mick. We believe ya, thousands wouldn't. 😁

threeball

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118785058#Comment_118785058

You don't even need to bring it home. There's plenty of countries within the EU and greater Europe who will provide medium cost labour and produce better equipment. These could then feed into the higher cost countries where higher value products could be designed and assembled. Also helps Climate change as the volume of transport is significantly reduced and there's actual controls on emissions and pollutants produced during manufacturing whereas China has none.

Heraclius

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118785174#Comment_118785174

Surely it would wreck their chances of taking Taiwan too because the US would be much more overt arming Taiwan.

As far as the masks stuff, a lot of people will have heard of "fast fashion" but would be surprised how much of that kind of "light" industry has fallen beyond China and is now in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Cambodia etc. Masks were still being handstitched by people for pennies a day then wrapped up together in a factory that had a Made In China sticker available to use to export them. All football jerseys and the like are made in the same places. The Chinese have basically re-outsourced a lot of light industry to poorer countries with no Quality Control, Health and Safety or workers rights whatsoever.

technocrat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118785136#Comment_118785136

In some ways it will be a good thing.

The 'throw away' society and wanting the newest and latest model might become a thing of the past.

Let's face it their is a trend mainly amongst younger people who have got used to cheap products whereas our parents generation are more thrifty in that respect.

Bayonet

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118785193#Comment_118785193

All very true. The one problem is energy. We need energy and it just so happens that dodgy countries have a lot of energy and the EU don't. Also mass manufacturing within the EU means even more energy needed.

Curious_Case

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118782702#Comment_118782702

Interesting question. I reckon the minions know by now that the game is up, but Spew Tin himself might believe that this is his destiny and that he can't fail.

What happens when the penny drops might be a revisit of Hitler's mode of exit, they're definitely both of the same ilk.

Saddam Hussein was evil and bad but not absolutely barking like the two aforementioned examples. With him, the survival instinct kicked in.

I guess that with total off the radar barkers like Hitler and Spew Tin, failure simply does not compute, so a voluntary exit is the only option.

threeball

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118785161#Comment_118785161

And people still claim he's nothing like Hitler.

DrumSteve

Smart from the Americans to come out with that all the same.

Force the Chinese to confirm or deny it.

goldenmick

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118785187#Comment_118785187

Honestly. She's not my type anyway... bright red lips and cost a fortune in puncture repair kits.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118785204#Comment_118785204

Yep. A major factor is that average manufacturing wages have been going up rapidly in China too, almost tripling between 2010 and 2020.

ronivek

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118785051#Comment_118785051

To be fair there is also an argument that attempting to make Russia dependent on the EU and Europe for trade and continuing to do business with them was an effort to try and avoid exactly what is happening right now: and you could argue that any rational/intelligent Russian government would never have invaded Ukraine given the fact they're also reliant on the European market for their energy exports.

Indeed if Europe and the EU had zero dependence on Russian energy exports or trade exports in general then they wouldn't have the same leverage they do now in terms of sanctions and economic punishment.

It's all well and good saying with what we know now that Germany and Europe's policies w.r.t. Russia have clearly failed; but I think it's not so easy to argue that they should never have tried in the first place.

Richard Hillman

Cutting China off may not be the end of the world. And let's be honest, they need to kept in check. They are the most powerful nation on the planet, only a United force can keep them in check.

India needs to be lured though. They know full well they have the economic potential of China. If Modi can bring mass production of the Chinese scale to India, he will secure his legacy.

Places like Morocco, Turkey, Albania, Macedonia, Moldova can also benefit greatly too, if we invested in mass scale production.

threeball

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118785222#Comment_118785222

China doesn't have access to vast domestic energy resources. With the right attitude we can become energy independent pretty quickly. People in ireland need to accept that that means nuclear power here and we shouldn't be afraid of that. Look at Ukraine with multiple successful reactors even coming from a communist background.

The likes of Ukraine are ideally placed to be one of those countries to replace China on the supply chain. Not afraid of nuclear. Close to the ME for any additional energy. Large population who are not yet gone soft like us in the west and are willing to do manual work.

riffmongous

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118785222#Comment_118785222

Raw materials too, China more or less controls the rare earth market. All the fancy high tech military equipment that gives us the edge needs chips are made using their materials.

ronivek

Also not really sure we should be surprised that China is taking a confrontational approach to the situation.

Naturally they're "open to offering military support to Russia" because they know full well the West and NATO don't want them to do so. Whether they actually do so and in any significant numbers is the question: I mean they also sent aid to Ukraine to the tune of some $700,000 so they can still claim "China has provided humanitarian relief to Ukraine". They could equally send 10,000 7.62mm rounds to Russia and claim "China has provided military aid to Russia".

They could also be trying to leverage for decreased support from Western nations for Taiwan in exchange for not supplying Russia; etc.

Gatling

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118785190#Comment_118785190

He was already screwed over the Russian s400 missle deal from ,and lost access to the F35 program

Bayonet

Brit journalist in serious condition. Both legs seriously mangled by shrapnel.

https://twitter.com/ELINTNews/status/1503458784617897988?s=20&t=27EkszCvQejd50Y62E5Yeg

DrumSteve

https://twitter.com/kaitlancollins/status/1503449963317104643?t=B6RwqOGkasYLLo9jZFtQuw&s=19

https://twitter.com/ASLuhn/status/1503389640862179334?t=VbNlbKR3zowLZX7dzI9_5Q&s=19

Interesting, so not set in stone yet.

Sand

If anything good comes out of this mess, it will be the end of western led globalism. It has been tottering since 2008. A new cold war with Russia and China would just about do it I think.

It isn't amazing that China would back Russia. The US is clearly hostile towards China and has been for a long time. Any effort to co-operate with the US and the West in general seems doomed to failure - The Uyghur crisis, the HK riots, US support for Taiwan, etc etc. Perhaps the Chinese feel it is better to support a friendly Russia that can supply it with gas, oil and food whilst tying up US/NATO attention in Europe. The benefits of supporting the US in the conflict are dubious and short term. If the US managed to crush Russia, they would then move on to attacking China next.

I have to admit, I'm impressed with total media control that exists. Russia claims the US and Ukrainians are researching chemical/biological weapons and within 24 hours the script is entirely flipped that it is the Russians who are planning to use chemical/biological weapons. Really remarkable stuff.