>>MOD WARNING<<Germany threatens retaliation if U.S. sanctions harm its firms

Yes.... That's just how we like it. But "who" had those dogs turn against their owners?

By the way, I watched this movie called "Patriots day". Dude, this is no joke, the director has just made me think that he got the entire scenario directly from the FBI HQ. Comey may have taken part in script writing, I'm telling you... You should see Kevin Bacon's face when he says "damn, the bombers were on our guardian list"...
He's sort of saying it like "damn, this beer is not that cold"... Lol...

When you see Mark Wahlberg in "based on real events" sh.t like this, be sure the movie goes nowhere other than pentagon/fbi/cia direction. "Lone Survivor" for example, it's telling you; "OK we lost those seals but they died in this heroic way because our seals can never be eliminated just like that by bunch of goat f.ckrs in the middle of nowhere. They must have been raining down on our guys dude".. Stupid but thanks to the special effects right?

 

Sure it has, didn't say something other but to be a superpower you have to be able to global power projection.

So legendary as the GDP of 1.300 billion, all the world wants to learn Russian, the people who line up when the newest russian products are coming to the stores and not to forget all the academics who rush to Russian universities.

And again military blah blah

LOL, call me ignorant.

Look at China, they will end the unipolar world.

 

I have already read a lot of posts and comments from you and actually should not surprise me of you any more ... but you do it again and again!
Every time you come with the nonsense that the West has supported the Chechen Rebels = terrorists, even if even the Russian FSB says thate s Schwachsinn is.
But I can simply say simply that Russia has deliberately sent Chechen Jihadists to Iraq in order to kill US sldates there. Fought amazingly Tchetschenen in the Battle of Fallujah! Has Putin sent as revenge?

Likewise, I can remember well that you just before not even so long time Erdgan to hang his balls, when a Turkish F-16 the russian SU-24 illegally shot off! And you were the one who rightly accused Erdogan of supporting terrorists in Syria with weapons ... this Al Nusra or whatever name they have at the moment, for example.

But now? All forgiven and forgotten with Erdogan?
Really hypocritical!

 

First of all, I must admit, I've seen better heads on nickel beers. That's a fact... Lol...

Is it just you, or are there other Germans, Kurdish immigrants maybe, who show this type of "forced" arrogance when they understood their plain ignorance is surfaced for good?

Throwing words of sh.t like you know something is cool but be careful, only the existence of the SCO alone would blow you.

But I will educate you too because I feel bad when you just proved you don't even have no clue about the term "soft power", don't worry, you'll be alright...

This is from the famous Brookings Institution (2004) :

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/russias-newly-found-soft-power/

 

1. Once again - look at the Middle East, Iran's nuclear program, North Korea, outer space, non-proliferation of nuclear weapons ... etc. None of this can be solved without the participation of Russia. Nothing. And you say that Russia is not a global power?

2. Yes. The people line up when the newest russian products are coming to the stores. Only these shops do not sell panties and socks, but high-tech products. For example. There are so many orders for the acquisition of the S-300 and S-400 that wishing to wait for their turn. S-400 Russians supply only for the select ones - to Turkey and China. For other are not sold.
In addition, Russia is building the best nuclear power plants in the world. Also creates the best rods in the world for nuclear power plants. For example, Rosatom displaces the American Westinghouse Electric Company from the market not only in Europe, but also in the USA.
Russian "Monocrystal" is recognized as the largest producer of artificial sapphires in the world. By the way, "Monocrystal" delivers sapphire crystal plates for Apple Watch.
The Russian corporation VSMPO-Avisma supplies titanium for Boeing, Rolls Royce, Airbus, etc.
Icebreaking fleet. Russia has the world's largest icebreaking fleet, as well as the only nuclear icebreaker fleet in the world.
Russia №1 in space.
Russia ranks first or one of the first places in the world in terms of the number of television stations / TV channels
Russia operates the GLONASS system - one of the world's two fully deployed global navigation satellite systems, along with the US GPS
All new chemical elements recognized by world science, since 1999, have been synthesized in Russia
And so on. It is possible to enumerate endlessly the achievements of Russia.....And you say that Russia is not a global power?

 

Since trump alienated her with his rhetoric, she has now responded. What concerns me is that the EU will not support us with troops and planes, as we attack our adversaries.

 

Because why should we do when you start a war with whatever enemy?

Look, particularly Germany, France and Turkey showed Bush still in 2003 the middle finger for his criminal unreasoned and on lies based attack on Iraq.... but others did follow as we know.
We are allied in NATO to defend us together, not to back us if one of us runs amok ...

 

We may discover that since Trump said that the Paris Accords are not binding (they are for 3 yrs), some of our EU countries may not
honor their agreements either.

 

Which agreements are not fulfilled by whom in Europe?

 

2004? Nothing important happend in the last 13 years?

New energy revenues have not been used to boost military spending or to revive Russia’s defense industry at the expense of every other sector as in the Soviet period. Oil wealth has been transformed more into butter than guns. Not in 2017!

Consider the persistence of the Russian language as a regional lingua franca—the language of commerce, employment and education—for many of the states of the former Soviet Union. Regional!

Instead of the Red Army, the penetrating forces of Russian power in Ukraine, the Caucasus and Central Asia are now Russian natural gas and the giant gas monopoly, Gazprom, as well as Russian electricity and the huge energy company, UES—and Russian culture and consumer goods. Not in 2017!

But Russia is well on its way to recovering the degree of soft power the USSR once enjoyed in its immediate sphere of influence. Regional!

Most of all, it would succeed if the heavy-hand of Moscow is pulled back—and the hand of commerce is extended instead in Russian foreign policy. Not in 2017!

No, I did say that Russia is not a super power!

No, I did say that Russia is not a super power!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_power
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superpower

 

Exactly, the US presence there isnt part of the solution, but part of the problem.

 

Wow, how could anyone miss the point so badly? The point is we have the greatest navy the world has ever seen, unlike Germany, who has a tug boat and a couple of rubber rafts. We can cross any ocean with ease, and bring a full scale invasion force to 3 nations at once, while protecting our own shores. Germany on the other hand, has not one single aircraft carrier. I'm not sure how you even would attack us, if you wanted to.

 

I agree with your distinction between economic and military power. The reason the US has been able to throw its weight around so casually (project power) over the last 5 decades has not been because of its military might but, because of it's economic power.

The megapolitical nature of the chessboard changed with the advent of nukes. Prior to nukes, if one country's economy went downhill they could just attack their neighbor and steal their stuff. For this first time in history this is no longer possible in the case of nuclear superpowers (which Russia is one). The most powerful piece on the chessboard is not "economic".

The problem is that the US has been ignoring this truth - still living in the illusion that military might is the strongest factor (piece).
Conventional weapons are only for non nuclear countries. The idea a massive conventional army can threaten a nuclear power is silliness ... well "MAD" - mutually assured destruction - if you want the more technically correct term.

The other problem with our conventional forces is that they are rapidly becoming relatively obsolete in the face of changing technology. In particular the advances in missile technology. Our carrier groups - floating cities of metal - are now sitting ducks against modern missile technology - and this gap widens further by the day.

We made a big mistake by focusing on obsolete military ideas while letting our economic power slip. More cars are now sold in China per year than in the US. Our manufacturing base is gone. We mainly keep afloat because of our multi national corporations exploitation of opportunities and resources in other countries. We were able to achieve this economic hegemony through a combination of military, economic and political factors.

This can all change in the blink of an eye. Venezuela went the old fashioned route an just took over foreign industry. Methods do not have to be this crude. There are other ways such as increasing royalty taxes, tariffs, partial employee and/or state ownership, unions and so on.

In 2000, Total Military Spending was roughly 300 Billion. After 8 years of Bush spending had risen to over 900 Billion and under Obama eclipsed 1 Trillion/year. Had we maintained 2000 spending levels we could have diverted 500 Billion/year over 16 years = 8 Trillion dollars towards infrastructure, technology, ramping up our economy to compete in the 3rd millennium.

Instead we threw this money down the toilet fighting unnecessary wars with no return on investment. All to feed the international financiers justified on the basis of the "necessary illusion" that military is the strongest piece on the board.

We now pay 450 Billion/year in interest on the 20 Trillion dollar debt (add this to the 500/year total above) again to feed the international financiers.

It is a wonder we can still survive wasting so much money. This is a tribute to how great our economic empire is/was.

We are still - and will be for many years - a scientific powerhouse. However we will be just one at a table of many. The cultural fortitude you spoke of has mostly disappeared. US culture is not respected like it once was. Our foreign policy is a mess and just seems to get messier. (Arming Al Qaeda and the Islamist Jihadists who went on to form IS ? ... who came up with that brilliant idea).

We are suffering from the same problems as did previous economic empires. From a historical cycle perspective we are in the last phases of past glory. This does not mean we will disappear. Britain is still around as is Spain (previous economic empires). We will no longer be the only game in town with the ability to bully others around however. We will still be a major player at the table but, our status will be that as just another player.

We need to start planning now ... and stop doing stupid stuff, of which we are doing a whole lot.

 

NO !

Not the economic power... ""The Rite"" to print money !

 

Nothing is forgotten. And there is no hypocrisy. This forum discusses world politics. I will remind you that in politics there are other criteria. A few quotes for you.

Churchill - Great Britain has no constant friends or enemies but rather constant interests "
Machiavelli - "politics is the art of the possible"
Russian Tsar Alexander 3 - "For Russia has only two friends - the Russian army and the Russian fleet"

But if you propose to use interpersonal relations in politics, then you suggest that the Russians should be totally exterminate the Germans. For what they did in Russia during the Second World War?
By the way, only thanks to Stalin, Germany was preserved as a state. And only thanks to the Russians, Germany was able to become one....Although ... perhaps you think that the Russians showed hypocrisy, Not destroying totally all Germans? Is not it?

 

It is my view that some of the EU countries may decide that their commitment to NATO is not binding, since Trump may not honor our commitment to the Paris accords. Just an observation.

 

I wasn't talking about amok. I f we don't honor out agreements, why should they?

 

There is a historical experience of battles between Americans and Germans. For example, the shameful for Americans operation of Overlord. And even more shameful for the Americans battle in the Ardens. If only Stalin refused tearful request Roosevelt and no started Russian offensive, the Germans did not weaken their troops in the Ardennes and could completely destroy 850,000 American soldiers. You must say thank you to Stalin, for the saved lives of Americans in the Ardens.

Are you talking about the strongest American fleet in the world? Maybe you should not brag, but better remember Pearl Harbor?
In addition, I recommend reading about "Wolf packs" of submarines Karl Dönitz. This will immediately reduce your fervor.

 

?? The US dollar being the world reserve currency is part and parcel of US economic power.

The main coercive force that has compelled so many nations to toe the "party line" so to speak, to not buck against US foreign policy over the last 5 or so decades is because they want to be able to trade into the massive US market. The point made in the previous post was that it was economic force that represented the major coercive force rather than military threat. So called "soft power" rather than hard.

Part of maintaining this economic clout is maintaining the US dollar as the world reserve currency. This is so critical that countries that have tried to establish alternate or competitive means of payment have been targeted.

There will be a global financial reset at some point in the future (probably the relatively near future). A speculative but somewhat informed guess would be in the next 10 years which, from a historical perspective, is very soon.

There have been cracks in the foundation for many years and these cracks continue to get bigger. I can go on for pages on what these cracks are and why they are important but in simple terms ...

The last 3 economic empires (Dutch, Spanish British) all went into major economic decline roughly 20-25 year after going off Gold = something of intrinsic value backing the paper. This does not mean for every dollar printed one needs to have a dollar in gold in a vault. Even a fractional amount works to prevent the ravages of a pure fiat currency.

When the world reserve currency, or a national currency for that matter, is "fiat", the forces for politicians to create massive debt become irresistible. There are other factors involved but this is a key canary in the coal mine.

All of the other empires mentioned created massive debt after going "fiat" and went into major decline a few decades later.

The US went completely off Gold in 1973. The Dow peaked (in constant dollars) in Jan 2000. Since the Dow has yet to make a new high (constant dollars). The US beat the average by a few years ... woo hooo but, this is a "Grand Supercycle" wave. This wave is really big and encompasses the entire world.

Interestingly - after floundering for most of 8 years up to the 2008 crash - the Dow rallied to try and make a new constant dollar high. The high prior to the 2008 crash was 14,000 and the crash took it down to 6500. The 2000 peak referred to earlier was 12,000. The 2008 crash happened as the Dow was trying to make a constant dollar new high.

From the 2009 low of 6500 (just as Obama stepped into the WH) the Dow has gone almost straight up for
8 years to just over 21000. In particular the last move (from 18000 up) happened after Trump was elected "The Trump Bump"
http://bigcharts.marketwatch.com/quickchart/quickchart.asp?symb=djia&insttype=&freq=1&show=&time=8

What's very interesting is that if you look at the "Volume" at the bottom of the chart - something happens. It spikes up and stay there.

Something/someone is trying to prop this market up. All the kings horses and all the kings men are trying to put humpty dumpty back together again to keep this rally going.

The fed is out of bullets and wants to raise interest rates (as keeping them this low through artificial means is starting to cause market aberrations) .. all of a sudden, a white knight (huge trading volume) comes to the rescue ?

All I can say is that we are at a very interesting point here. This thing can continue to move higher for a little while (perhaps even a couple more years) but, that should be it. At some point this thing is going to top out. To me this looks like the last gasp. When the next downturn hits it is going to catalyze a whole bunch of unhappy events which will represent the start of the long road down from the top of the mountain and end with the US being just another player at a big table. An of course we will see a competitor to the US dollar as the world reserve currency in the short term and a replacement further down the road.

 

Now it's true. But soon it will not be a problem. In the EU, an army outside the NATO framework will be created. And the EU army, led by Germany, will easily overcome the Atlantic. Unless of course it Will be needed.

 

We do ! Germany leads the EU and without them our "we are going to sanction Russia" rhetoric is meaningless. It is the EU that enforces sanctions on Russia and not the US. US-Russia trade is insignificant relative to it's trade with the EU.

Saying "We are going to Sanction Russia" is essentially saying "EU - You are going to sanction Russia".

The EU flipping us the bird is of some moment.

 

EU is a sinking ship. They can flip us off all they want. We can't go down with them.

 

Ok, we will mark you down for being relevant militarily in about 25 years.

 

You only say that because you don't want Merkel.

My previous post remains true

They are deflecting.

 

You are right that the EU is a sinking ship. They have debt issues that is worse than ours.
The global financial system is intertwined. We are all sinking and will go down. It is just a matter of when.

Right now the EU is sinking faster than the US which is propping up the US dollar and its status as the world reserve currency. Were the EU actually to go down however ... we would go down with it.

The system would then go through an economic rebalancing - something that is desperately overdue and the cycle will start again. The difference in the next cycle however is that we will not be the "economic empire" we once were. We will still be a big player but - just another player among a table of many and not the only game in town.

I think this would actually be a good thing for the citizens of US. It would be a good thing if we were to do something other than finance the massive world police force . The Oligarchs are currently sodomizing middle class in this country. It is they who will be hurt most when the financial system collapses and we default on our debt .. as will the EU.