Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.
"I post this topic as off-topic but it has directed implication on future investment."
@Sven- Yes, many of my posts fall into the same category: perhaps not specific to any particular investment, but certain to affect financial matters generally. M…
@Sven- Again, yes... the Russians do seem to be predictable in their tactical operations. Destroy and flatten- leave nothing standing. As you may recall, that was also rono's definition of war.
By coincidence I just came across this article in The …
Is an outright Russian military victory in Ukraine possible?
And an additional good report from The Guardian, with a similar discussion of Russian military capability.
Yes, it is. A fairly "high-end" tourist destination, from what I understand. Sixty years ago there was absolutely nothing at Tarumpitao other than our small cinder-block Loran station, a native village with about a dozen bamboo & rattan shacks r…
Yeah- that top photo is just incredible. I never served on an icebreaker- they liked to send me to Loran stations. A year at Tarumpitao Point, an extremely isolated spot on Palawan Island in the Philippines, was one of the best years of my entire li…
@Crash- Talk is cheap, but how many in our country are clamoring to send American lives into yet another war? What you don't seem to be understanding is that at this point NATO is not involved, and if we go it alone that's exactly where we will be. …
Some countries, Egypt for example, import most of their wheat from Russia and Ukraine. Major shortages or steep price increases may lead to civil unrest in those areas.
"We beat Stalin during the Berlin Airlift using our right to resupply our allies. What is the difference?"
The difference is this: After Germany's surrender there was a documented legal agreement dividing Berlin into four zones, under the authority…
From the article mentioned above:
" He has shut down almost the entire independent media, threatened journalists with up to 15 years in jail if they do not parrot official falsehoods, and had anti-war protesters arrested in their thousands."
And her…
There's a parallel thread over in the Discussions that have Comments section. In case you've not been there, I'm replicating a post here that was also made over there.
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Below are extensive excerpts from a current article in The Economist. The article focuses on the parallels with the Soviet Union under Stalin. I've seriously abridged the article to include some of the more serious points that it makes.
Of those po…
Even smart people can make serious miscalculations. They may sometimes do things which turn out to have been stupid, but that doesn't make them stupid, unless they continue down that street. If Putin, after subjugating Ukraine, continues down that s…
I agree. Putin may be a lot of things, but stupid isn't one of them. Russia warned that arms shipments from NATO countries would be "legitimate targets".
Not: Russia warned that arms shipments within NATO countries would be "legitimate targets". If…
I'd be amazed if Putin deliberately sucks NATO into the present conflict. He's pretty much got his hands full as it is, and I really don't think that he's insane. But after he has Ukraine back under Russian control and he regroups and rearms he'll b…
Allow me to clarify a bit... in my case the "taking literally" would be with full understanding of the circumstances and a deliberate effort to discomfit and possible screw up the "system" under the guise of a "misunderstanding". As in: "Oh, I didn…
In my post above, I said:
"Some time or some place NATO is going to be forced to actively engage."
And I've just run across this from a current Associated Press article. Some excerpts:
HELSINKI — Sweden’s foreign minister is dismissing fresh warni…
As a former teacher you know damned well that some people (like me, for instance) will take things literally. Please report to the principal's office. :)
Hi Derf- That's a good question. At your request I downloaded, enlarged and enhanced that photo to see if I could get more detail. The photo has good pixel density, and I was able to get a pretty good enhancement.
That item you wonder about appears…
@hank- I'd surely agree on your comparison of the WSJ journalistic reporting to that of the Washington Post. The WSJ is one of the last sources of in-depth news coverage, at least here in the US.
Well Derf, it really hasn't changed in four months. Or four years. Or, probably, four decades.
And PLEASE- despite what @hank suggested, let's not all start putting everything in CAPS to see who can shout the loudest around here. He, of all people,…
You have to be kidding, right? The editorial and management-controlled pages are 295% far-far right radical Republican.
The value of the WSJ is that it's news and financial reporting is still neutral, without much underlying political slant at all.…
