According to Senator Ron Johnson, this is the reason (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, March7, 2022):
“I don’t think Vladimir Putin would have moved on Ukraine were it not for the weakness displayed ― certainly by the Biden administration, but by the West in general.”
In other words, Putin had to invade because of mistakes made by the Biden administration.
RonJon is JohnH!
Former national security aide Alexander Vindman accused Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson and others of having “blood on their hands” as Ukraine withstands a withering assault from Russian troops. In an interview with the Journal Sentinel, Vindman included Johnson on a list with former President Donald Trump, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Fox News host Tucker Carlson, claiming they undermined U.S. national security. “Civilians are dying, Ukrainians are providing a formidable defense, defending democracy for Americans as well as for themselves and their homes. And Ron Johnson is trying to distract and obfuscate,” Vindman said. Vindman was responding to comments made Feb. 27 by Johnson on Fox News.
Good for Vindman. It’s interesting that RonJon never told us what the alleged mistakes Biden may have made. But I know what the big mistake was – letting a treasonous loser like Trump get elected back in 2016.
What was it in Hershel Walker that made Trump think he would be a good Senator?
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/herschel-walker-embodies-every-negative-stereotype-black-americans-have-fought-against-for-decades/ar-AA12UgRv?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=e681122c7d404691a367706a6b3b9e6c
For some Republicans, any warm body that can be used as a pawn is sufficient. The fact that Herschel Walker happens to be Black is an irony too delicious to resist for some voters who have chosen to rally behind one of the most unqualified political candidates in recent memory. To some voters, Walker is that malleable warm body, ready to be used. His difficulty in articulating a comprehensive sentence, his documented history of violence, his obvious lack of understanding and his moral hypocrisy regarding abortion do not matter. Certainly, Black leaders are entitled to have different thoughts, ideas and political ideologies. Some may disagree with conservative leaders like Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, but they would not describe him as incompetent. Black political leaders can be conservative without being a walking stereotype. Walker’s history of terrorizing women through violent threats and stalking is well-documented, as well as his shameful failure to recognize the multiple children he has fathered.
I generally do not like the use of the term Uncle Tom but Walker is highly qualified to be Trump’s Uncle Tom. MAGA.
The other part of Walker’s appeal to MAGA is that MAGA is a movement driven, ironically, by showbiz shallowness. It’s why Trump won a presidential primary with zero political or policy experience and fluked his way into the White House. “They let you do anything …”
Difference is, Trump has actual showbiz skills – really, they’re his only skills. Walker’s a fantastic football player (with the Hollywood-star following in GA to prove it) and a terrible everything else.
He has other skills. Strategic bankruptcy and non-payment (“I’m the king of debt!”). Delaying civil action. Intimidation. All kinds of skills.
Oh, come on!?!?!?!? You didn’t find Walker’s horny cow by the barbed wire fence story the stuff of Hollywood sparkle??
That little joke was the kind of stuff high school football players tell in the locker room. I doubt if he told that story in the locker room of a professional football team that anyone would find it remotely funny. After all – most of them are married taking care of their kids. Something Hershel would never do.
they do not care about the hypocrisy. they only care about winning the senate. they will make a deal with the devil if that is what it takes. republicans admitted as much on television the other day.
Jimmy Kimmel had the best take down of Hershel Walker yet:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQJG963LWto
At 4:30 of this clip he starts talking about Hershel and the first couple of minutes are pretty funny. But starting at 6:30 into the clip, there is ad for an app called 34andme. Check it out – you will be glad you did!
Here is an interesting twist which may eventually lead to an end to Putin’s war crimes:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/russian-troops-in-donetsk-ordered-to-stop-fighting-amid-desertion-ukraine/ar-AA12VlRU?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=90c588349e5b4f5cb954051e8667ec15
Russian army leaders recently ordered their troops in the Ukrainian region of Donetsk to temporarily stop fighting amid low morale and desertion, according to Alexander Štupun, the Ukrainian spokesperson of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Russian army leaders recently ordered their troops in the Ukrainian region of Donetsk to temporarily stop fighting amid low morale and desertion, according to Alexander Štupun, the Ukrainian spokesperson of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. “In some areas of combat, including in the Donetsk region, enemy units began to receive orders from higher leadership to temporarily suspend offensive actions,” Štupun said in a military operational update posted on Facebook late Wednesday night. “The main reason is the extremely low moral and psychological state of replenishment, numerous facts of desertion from the number of mobilized and non-compliance of combat orders.”
If more rank and file Russian soldiers refuse to follow Putin’s orders, this invasion ends fast.
While the Ukrainian leadership and military has been a surprisingly reliable source of information about what’s actually happening on the battlefield (I suspect they cherish their reputation in the West as truth-tellers; arms flows may depend on it), I think it’s still hard to tell what’s actually happening. Russia apparently still claims small advances in the east. Are *these* claims credible? In any case, they’re not being countered by Ukraine just yet.
That being said, the trajectory is obvious: Russia’s military is spiraling into oblivion. The question is (as you suggest) just how fast things end. Hopefully fast – for Ukraine’s sake, for our sakes, and for the sakes of hundreds of thousands of Russian men heartlessly being used as cannon fodder.
Small advances are part of battlefield operations. Being driven out of one location means moving to another. Along any line which is not currently heavily contested, the line is likely to move. It’s not necessarily a sign of progress against an enemy.
Ukraine has been somewhat reluctant to speak out about what villages they have taken – in part because they have found those villages (civilians) then immediately become targeted by Russian artillery. Apparently the Russians trust Ukraine more than their own peoples claims. Russia have claimed having taken the same village again and again and again. That could be real if they take-lose-take-lose…. But more likely Russian commanders are making false claims.
Russia has been stuck in a failed march against fortifications from 2014 in Donetsk since June. But there may be small Russian advances there. Ukraine has admitted that the situation in Donetsk is “very difficult” using very similar language to just before they had to abandon Lysychansk. Would be great if the Russians took a pause in offensive operations there right now so Ukraine can regroup and recover.
Oh, this way overstates the favorable quality of Russia’s situation in Donetsk. This reported possible cessation of offensive operations, which may or may not have happened, involves the one and only place they have made any advances at all anywhere in Ukraine since early July when they took Lysychansk, namely near the militarily irrelevant town of Bakhmut, which they have failed to take in all this time, despite conquering some villages near it. Those attacks reportedly have been carried out by the mercenary Wagner group.
If indeed they have been ordered to stop attacking and pull back, that is the end of any offensive operations by the Russians in Ukraine, although reportedly they are trying to push back against recent conquests by the Ukrainians in Kherson oblast, although without any success.
So, Ivan, no, the Russians are not making any gains right now, even if this report that they may have finally given up trying to take Bakhmut ends up proving to be incorrect.
It does seem that the Russians, again presumably mostly Wagner Group people, are back to attacking near Bakhmut. They might even have taken a couple of fresh villages, although not Bahkhmut itself, despite over three months of trying to.
Having spend more than 4 month attacking and then being repelled is extremely expensive. You lose soldiers as casualties and those who are not lost will be demoralized. That is why armies normally rotate those on the frontline. They need to get out of the danger zone to recharge/relax before you can send them back to be effective fighters. Since the leadership cannot rotate them much (for lack of trained replacements) they instead give them a brake by ordering a suspension of offensive actions. Not sure if that will actually work, but it may reduce the large daily loses at the front line. Offense always cost more casualties than defense.
It doesn’t matter whether it’s true or not in the year 2022. It matters that there are a significant portion of poorly educated Americans who want to believe it, and all they need is someone to tell them what they want to believe. And Ron Johnson knows this, and that’s why he says it.
It’s the same thing as telling a bald man “Bald ‘is in’ in the year 2022”. He reads it, and he feels very happy. He doesn’t need to know what 98% of women actually think about baldness. And he feels warm feelings to whatever hack sociologist told him what he wants to hear.
I’ve seen this argument many times from Trump voters.
According to them, threatening Zelenskyy with withholding military funds if he didn’t dig up Biden dirt, threatening to not live up to NATO obligations, pulling US troops out of Europe, heaping praise on Putin (among other dictators), that whole Helsinki summit fiasco, and pardoning your National Security Advisor after he plead guilty to lying to investigators about meeting with Russian agents, pardoning retroactively registered agent-of-Russian-agent Manafort … all of these things are “showing strength” to the Russian regime.
No facts or logic will ever, ever make these people admit that they voted for and continue to support an out-and-out corrupt traitor. Facts and logic hurt their feelings, because they show, repeatedly, how they’ve been duped, repeatedly, by Donald Trump. Can’t admit we were ever that stupid, can we? Just blame the trans woke communist Dems.
It’s all Ron Johnsons fault. Putin thought that if such braindead morons were in the US Senate, the US would be easy to fool into accepting his invasion of Ukraine. Too late did Putin realize that the ex-senator now President was one of the smartest people he has ever confronted and that Russia had been trapped and will slowly be drained into nothing.
“Too late did Putin realize that the ex-senator now President was one of the smartest people he has ever confronted and that Russia had been trapped and will slowly be drained into nothing.”
I agree with that but watch out – saying Biden may be smart is going to rile up MAGA moron Bruce Hall.
I know. But for those of us who live in the real world this has been a once in a lifetime opportunity to test Russian forces at all levels. Their strategic and tactical weaknesses have been probed and revealed. Their (in)ability to mobilize soldiers and military industry for a major conflict laid bare. Their main weakness as a fighting force was known to be their short logistics chains, requiring depots and reserves to be build up close to the front lines. We have been able to test that vulnerability and seen their counter-response strategies. We have seen and tested ways to exploit their fractionated command structure with private, DoD and regional leadership in competitions with each other – and strong influence from a web-based community of mill-bloggers. This conflict has exposed weaknesses in leadership and opportunities in the information space that we didn’t know about before.
This has only been possible because we have a smart and tough and competent guy in charge in the white house. Had the Orange clown been in charge, this would have been a catastrophe all the way and the conflict lost before we could learn much from it.
You are leaving out a key part of this. If Ukraine didn’t have a stellar leader in Zelenskyy, and if Ukrainians, as a people, didn’t have incredible reserves of national pride and toughness, nothing else would matter.
i will point out, those nice words you had for zelensky and ukraine, were not shared by the trump administration and maga hatters. trump has complete disdain for zelensky and ukraine. he would not have supported them during the russian invasion.
Uh – oh. Someone dared to say no thanks to Pooh Bear and his idiotic and harmful policies.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/13/china/china-party-congress-protest-banners-xi-intl-hnk/index.html
That is certainly not going to be acceptable in a brutal dictatorship like China.
I read a headline to an editorial in FT, which I doubt was facetious. It said in essence “I prefer Truss over having Xi Jinping lead my country”. And I thought, “Wow, what a ringing endorsement”. Here is a “conservative” woman who doesn’t even want to do a budget score on a tax cut for wealthy Britains, and then they all act like they’re “shocked” about sell off runs on gilts and pension funds. Are Conservative Britains the same as Republican/MAGA Americans~~they can’t read above a 4th grade level anymore??
If you’re going to sully the work of A. A. Milne by association with the anachronistic tyrant Xi, at least get the catchphrase right.
It’s …
Oh, bother!
Oh, bother!
Oh, bother!
[ceaseless racism]
Trump loses it again:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/no-crime-trump-posts-incoherent-late-night-rant-as-new-reports-further-implicate-him-in-docs-scandal/ar-AA12V00C?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=0262d69fa6ed440bae20f0ff6646d6d9
Former President Donald Trump late on Wednesday posted an incoherent rant on his Truth Social platform after the Washington Post reported that the government has an insider witness who has implicated the former president in potential obstruction of justice. Hours after the Post reported that a witness has told investigators that Trump personally ordered that top-secret government documents be moved to his personal residence even after he received a subpoena demanding their return, Trump took to Truth Social to claim that no crime had been committed.
By Brad Reed
President of the United States Donald Trump speaking with supporters at an
President of the United States Donald Trump speaking with supporters at an
© provided by RawStory
Former President Donald Trump late on Wednesday posted an incoherent rant on his Truth Social platform after the Washington Post reported that the government has an insider witness who has implicated the former president in potential obstruction of justice. Hours after the Post reported that a witness has told investigators that Trump personally ordered that top-secret government documents be moved to his personal residence even after he received a subpoena demanding their return, Trump took to Truth Social to claim that no crime had been committed. There is no ‘crime’ having to do with the storage of documents at Mar-a- Lago, only in the minds of the Radical Left Lunatics who are destroying our Country, and were just forced by the Courts to give me back much of what they took (STOLE?) during their unprecedented and unnecessary break in of my home,” the former president wrote….Trump concluded his rant by by falsely claiming that former presidents are the rightful owners of highly sensitive intelligence documents, including information about foreign nations’ nuclear programs. “The Clinton ‘Socks Case,’ which is law, says it all belongs to ‘the President,’ NO CRIME, and the Presidential Record Act is simple, ‘negotiate,’ and NO CRIME,” he wrote. “These people are CRAZY!!!”
You may think he is bananas but I’m sure he was told all of this BS by his favorite lawyer Rick Stryker.
Yes, yes, but at the exact same time as we believe the FBI *STOLE* *HIS* documents and he should get them back, we also believe that the FBI *PLANTED* the documents in the first place. Damned radical left, what’s so hard to get about all this? These people are CRAZY!!!
To all of Trump’s lying trolls who think he would have done better getting our friends out of Afghanistan, the facts bite you in the rear end again:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-signed-order-for-immediate-large-scale-troop-withdrawals-from-afghanistan-after-election-loss/ar-AA12VOnq?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=8cf91139d2874ca684e660b2a96895bb
After the 2020 election, then-President Trump rushed to sign an immediate withdrawal order to pull troops out of Afghanistan in what a member of the congressional committee investigating Jan. 6, 2021, described as evidence he knew his term was coming to an end. “Knowing that he had lost and that he had only weeks left in office, President Trump rushed to complete his unfinished business,” Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) said. “One key example is this: President Trump issued an order for large-scale troop withdrawals.” In swiftly signing the order on Nov. 11, 2020, to withdraw all American troops from Afghanistan and Somalia before incoming President Biden’s inauguration, Kinzinger argued, Trump “disregarded concerns about the consequences for fragile governments on the front lines of the fight against ISIS and Al Qaeda terrorists.” Military and national security leaders panned the order in recorded interviews with Jan. 6 investigators. “It is odd. It is non-standard,” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley told the panel. “It is potentially dangerous. I personally thought it was militarily not feasible nor wise.” Gen. Keith Kellogg, former Vice President Mike Pence’s national security advisor, said he told the White House Presidential Personnel Office and Douglas Macgregor, a former advisor to the Defense secretary, “that if I ever saw anything like that, I would do something physical, because I thought what that was doing was a tremendous disservice to the nation.” Kellogg said an “immediate withdrawal” from Afghanistan would’ve been “catastrophic” and a “debacle.”
Of course the entire 4 years of Trump’s Administration was a debacle. WORST. PRESIDENT. EVER.
Catch little Lindsey’s defense of Hershel Walker:
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/lindsey-grahams-defense-herschel-walker-odd-rcna52092
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Tuesday blamed the media for circulating recent allegations that Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker paid a former girlfriend to get an abortion, comparing the claims to the sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
We know what a creep Hershel has been to many women. We also know I Like Beer Kavanaugh tried to rape women in college. But to little Lindsey – that is fine as these people are Republicans. Now if a Democrat has consensual sex, that is impeachable. Yea little Lindsey is one small partisan pathetic clown.
Walker’s own kid says he did it.
Hershel says he loves his kids. Which sounds really hollow since he is basically calling them liars.
Mitch must be trying to shore up his cred with Trump voters. Comparing a credibly accused abortion facilitator to a credibly accused rapist isn’t a great tactic otherwise.
@ Macroduck
Did you see the stuff in FT recently about Barclays Bank notes and quanto CDS spread?? Worth a read. I’m kinda surprised the quanto spread thing hasn’t gotten more attention than it has.
Thanks. Gonna look.
Here’s a pretty good bit of research on the very issue:
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3268890#:~:text=Quanto%20CDS%20spreads%20are%20differences,exchange%20rate%20and%20default%20risk.
Turns out, math cannot be denied. CDS spreads plus expected FX rate performance shows up in CD currency risk, so in CD pice/rate performance.
I’d never heard of these instruments but it makes perfect sense. Again, thanks.
@Macroduck (or anyone who has thoughts on it)
Dumb Guy Question of The Day: I wonder how much the quanto spread explains the “UIP Puzzle”?? That is~~what portion or what percentage of the quanto spread would be the reason for the”UIP Puzzle”, if any at all?? I’m thinking if nothing else there has to be an indirect relationship there.
Less of a dumb question (IMHO), is there some place which quotes a “live number” (continually updated) for the quanto spread, that you wouldn’t have to pay for, like people pay for Barclays Bank research.
https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3195864/cifi-defaults-bond-triggering-sell-developers-fears-chinese-property-debt
I don’t know, maybe it makes sense. Do we think if Kavanaugh had been “successful” in his rape attempts he wouldn’t have encouraged the victims to get an abortion if he knew a DNA test was imminent??
The Catholic Church also thinks divorce is horrid when a domestically abused wife goes to talk to a clergy priest about how her husband chokes her and throws her up against the wall. Divorce in that moment is a ghastly ghastly thing. But when a male member of the Kennedy family sends the Catholic Church a bank deposit it becomes the stuff of congratulatory Hallmark cards.
Brent Oil trading at $92.22 this Friday morning. Anyone seen BlueStatesResidentKopits lately??
https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-biden-business-saudi-arabia-middle-east-ea75287315c4e8a78014a4eccb114abe
“Biden suggested he would soon take action, as aides announced that the administration is reevaluating its relationship with the kingdom in light of the oil production cut that White House officials say will help another OPEC+ member, Russia, pad its coffers as it continues its nearly eight-month war in Ukraine.
Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Rep. Ro Khanna of California introduced legislation that would immediately pause all U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia for one year. This pause would also halt sales of spare and repair parts, support services and logistical support.”
It’s like that age old proverb your parents used to tell you when you were just a little sprout “It’s amazing what the threat of further aggression against white people in East Europe can bring to fruition when genocide and starvation of darky children in Yemen just can’t get it done”
Moses,
The weird thing going on with gasoline prices in the US, which people really do pay attention to, is that they have been going up a lot in western states and less so elsewhere not because of the Saudi move to limit production, which as you note is not showing up much on crude oil prices, which have actually fallen some. Rather it seems to be due to the very bizarre shutdowns of SIX refineries on the west coast for repairs, an almost unheard of coincidence.
This may yet cost Dems control of the Senate, or at least make it very difficult to expand their number of seats. The problem is Nevada in particular where a lot of polls show GOP Laxalt gaining a lead over Dem incumbent, mostly due to gasoline prices being exceptionally high there. This will be hard to overcome. This is even affecting the reelection of Patty Murray in Washington state, where gasolione prices are also through the roof, and with George Will saying she might lose in WaPo today.
I doubt Patty Murray will lose here, but who know. People do dumb things when the price of fuel for their cars go up. There are far more important issues, you would think. Apparently not.
That has nothing to do with Ukraine, though.
Folks,
Apparently the worst of this refinery situation has passed and some have reopened, with gasoline prices beginning to decline again in the West, hopefully long enough before and by enough not to lead to excessively bad political outcomes in that region.
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2022-10-13/Chinese-mainland-records-372-new-confirmed-COVID-19-cases-1e5CQnY44lq/index.html
October 13, 2022
Chinese mainland records 372 new confirmed COVID-19 cases
The Chinese mainland recorded 372 confirmed COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, with 322 attributed to local transmissions and 50 from overseas, data from the National Health Commission showed on Thursday.
A total of 1,252 asymptomatic cases were also recorded on Wendesday, and 14,345 asymptomatic patients remain under medical observation.
The cumulative number of confirmed cases on the Chinese mainland is 254,855, with the death toll from COVID-19 standing at 5,226.
Chinese mainland new locally transmitted cases
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2022-10-13/Chinese-mainland-records-372-new-confirmed-COVID-19-cases-1e5CQnY44lq/img/724af49052524f69b175564182e101e6/724af49052524f69b175564182e101e6.jpeg
Chinese mainland new imported cases
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2022-10-13/Chinese-mainland-records-372-new-confirmed-COVID-19-cases-1e5CQnY44lq/img/f6f1abfb14c94e1aa40b03d37c1b1680/f6f1abfb14c94e1aa40b03d37c1b1680.jpeg
Chinese mainland new asymptomatic cases
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2022-10-13/Chinese-mainland-records-372-new-confirmed-COVID-19-cases-1e5CQnY44lq/img/8cf4a0a77af74d13aec9f37fde8e1ded/8cf4a0a77af74d13aec9f37fde8e1ded.jpeg
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
October 12, 2022
Coronavirus
United States
Cases ( 98,727,136)
Deaths ( 1,089,385)
Deaths per million ( 3,251)
China
Cases ( 254,855)
Deaths ( 5,226)
Deaths per million ( 3.6)
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202210/1276729.shtml
October 9, 2022
Global Development Initiative a constructive approach toward building a cooperative system: Jeffrey Sachs
Jeffrey Sachs (Sachs), director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, told Global Times (GT) reporter Yu Jincui that the Global Development Initiative, proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping, is a powerful call for cooperation and is very helpful for building an open international cooperative system.
GT: You have visited China many times. How do you comment on China’s development in the past 10 years? What impressed you most and why?
Sachs: I’ve seen China change since my first visit in 1981. This has been more than 40 years, and China’s continuing progress is absolutely remarkable. China went from a country that was filled with poverty to a remarkably prosperous country. And I always so much have benefited from seeing this remarkable progress and also learning from how China succeeded, because the lessons from China are very relevant for other regions of the world, such as Africa today which is still witnessing great poverty, but also has tremendous potential based on the kinds of strategies that China used.
Regarding China’s development in the past 10 years, China has moved from being a prosperous manufacturing country a decade ago to becoming a cutting-edge global technology leader. This is of course a major step. China is also becoming a leader in a wide range of environmentally sustainable technologies. The shift to sustainability is crucial for China and for the world.
GT: China has eliminated absolute poverty. You once said it’s one of the most remarkable economic achievements in human history. Why did you give so much credit to it? What can other countries learn from China in terms of poverty reduction?
Sachs: China showed that it is possible to go from pervasive absolute poverty to the end of poverty in 40 years, from 1980 to 2020. This is not only a wonderful and remarkable accomplishment, but also a road map for Africa and other places still facing extreme poverty. The key to China’s success was high rates of investment in human capital (health and education), infrastructure (power, transport, digital), and business capital. The combination of long-term planning and market forces was essential, as was China’s opening-up to the world.
We know that in the 1970s and indeed, at the time of China’s opening-up in the late 1970s, most people in China lived in rural areas in great poverty. The estimates vary, but by some accounts, the rate of extreme poverty was more than 60 percent of the population, even up to 80 percent by some measures. By 2020, this extreme poverty has been eliminated. I saw that with my own eyes, because at various times, government ministries invited me to join groups to visit different parts of China so that I could help make an assessment or give recommendations. And I visited some of the poorest areas of China on several occasions during the past quarter century.
But even for those who were poor in China, I saw their living standards were rising. This was accomplished by a combination of measures, especially investment in people that is in education, healthcare, improving nutrition, investment, infrastructure, especially in transport, in power, in building new industrial zones, so that production and trade could take place efficiently, of course in a lot of hard work, because Chinese people worked very hard and very long hours for many decades, also in very high saving rates, so the Chinese people saved for the future. This allowed for these big investments to take hold….
Be curious to know how many village areas of China Jeffrey Sachs has been through. I’d find it even more interesting if he named specific cities. I suspect very few.
“I saw that with my own eyes, because at various times, government ministries invited me to join groups to visit different parts of China so that I could help make an assessment or give recommendations.”
This exhibits a level of naiveté that only those in the Ivory Towers and newborn babies could regularly exhibit. Does Sachs remember how international journalists, Bob Costas, and NBC were only allowed to cover the glossy/shiny parts of Beijing back in 2008?? And any journalist who went into the grimier parts of Beijing with a camera was violently attacked by the “PSB” and carted off to a jail cell. Sachs must be suffering early dementia at 67.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/23/media/bob-costas-beijing-winter-olympics-reliable-sources
But Sachs is so dumb he thinks Chinese government ministries are going to show him either the “worst” parts or the parts not already targeted for renewal/development?? I guess now we know how Sachs, like other University professor frauds, got pulled into the “Covid-19 created in a lab” theory.
https://www.jeffsachs.org/interviewsandmedia/2wts4jr6lccy9gxy9pdg99lzf2ntjn
I can’t believe I even felt pity for this man when Hugh Hendry used to verbally slaughter Jeffrey Sachs and rip him to shreds when they appeared alongside each other on live TV.
Moses,
This is not the most bizarre statement Sachs has made recently. He has been pushing the “US lab caused Covid” line, or appearing to, as well as also pushing that the US was behind the explosion on the Nordstream pipeline, something that nobody can determine who caused, but most observers think it was the Russians.
I have known Jeffrey and long respected him, despite disagreeing with him 30 years ago on his policies regarding transition economies. But I really do not know what is going on with him now.
BTW, I think it is probably one of the largely correct things that ltr has reported here with her repetitions of CCP propaganda that indeed China has largely succeeded in eliminating “deep poverty,” with many observers agreeing with this, not just Sachs, although obviously this depends on how one defines that.
Here’s an interesting story related to Chinese immigrants coming to America. You get bonus points if you can find Celine Dion and Steve Bannon in the photo:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/jeans-vintage-levis-1880s-auction-buyer-11665444076
what’s up with the cpi print released today?
ronjon might be playing to the aug 2021 ‘bug out from kabul’ that the right-wing fringe claim makes usa less trustworthy ally.
A.,
Probably. Which ignores that Trump wanted to get the US out on May 1 without getting anybody out. Biden’s delay until Auguest allowed us to get about 70,000 out, although the bad optics of some people grabbing onto airplanes when the Afghan government suddenly fell when its president suddenly resigned and fled when a guard falsely told him Taliban troops were in his palace made things look bad and damaged Biden’s poll ratings. But Trump would almost certainly have done it far worse than Biden did. His claims now that he would have kept troops at Bagram have no credibility.
Indeed, it is widely forgotten that Trump had outright surrendered to the Taliban in negotiations that excluded the Afghan government, almost certainly a major reason President Ghani fled so quickly when he did, leading to the sudden collapse of its government on the day that most of those optically bad photos were taken with people hanging on to airplanes. What would it have looked like if we had pulled out totally on May 1 as Trump was demanding?
I gather if the GOP takes the House, along with lots of hearings on Hunter’s laptop, we shall have ones on the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Will they talk about all this stuff that Trump pulled in regard to it? He left Biden with a done deal that Biden did his best to minimize the damage from.
Trump told the military to get us out before Biden took office. The military basically ignored the Idiot in Chief.
speculating is not logic…
the biden pentagon was not fired by trump!
What an evasive stupid comment.
A.,
What is the import of this bizarre comment?
It reminds me that neat the end of his term Trump fired a reasonable competent SecDef and installed in high positions at the Pentagon some totally incompetent cronies who tried to help him out with his coup attempt. Yikes.
Again, Anonymous, although those House hearings likely coming will probably ignore it, Biden got 70,000 people out of Afghanistan. If Trump had his way, none of those would have gotten out.
Well – those 70,000 had no white people so the MAGA crowd still thinks Trump got it right.
credit to macroduck
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-10-12/yellen-worries-over-loss-of-adequate-liquidity-in-treasuries
liquidity worries in treasuries. glad to know the treasury is ahead of the curve, rather than behind it. but this continues to raise a serious question about the market makers in our financial sector. they seem to disappear when needed the most.
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2022-10-14/China-CPI-up-2-8-percent-in-September-1e7iQfYBYT6/index.html
October 14, 2022
China CPI up 2.8 percent in September
China’s Consumer Price Index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 2.8 percent year on year in September, the National Bureau of Statistics announced on Friday.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=Gb0g
January 30, 2018
Consumer Prices for China, United States, India, Japan and Germany, 2017-2022
(Percent change)
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=MtVZ
January 30, 2018
Consumer Prices for China, United States, India, Japan and Germany, 2017-2022
(Indexed to 2017)
That moment when someone tries to pass off a ridiculous lie and all you can do is laugh in their face: Russian Ron claims he was set up by the FBI: https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1580709073053691905
Also as a PSA – The GOP has taken away your right to make a private care decision – they are now going to dismantle Social Security https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/gop-plan-cut-social-security-medicare-2023-comes-view-rcna51865
Do not vote GOP – unless you want to work till you drop dead on the job at 70. Ron Johnson has said Social Security is like “candy” – no Ron I’ve been paying that money in for years – it is an entitlement.
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2022-10-14/Chinese-study-provides-evidence-for-improved-stroke-treatment-1e7OrDP4USs/index.html
October 14, 2022
Chinese study provides evidence for improved stroke treatment
Clinicians have found in a new study that removing blood clots within 12 hours after a stroke can noticeably improve patients’ health and reduce death rates.
The findings by a Chinese team * were reported in the New England Journal of Medicine on Thursday. The efforts were led by researchers from the First Affiliated Hospital of the University of Science and Technology of China.
They conducted a randomized, controlled trial involving 340 patients with an average age of 66.5 at 36 clinical centers in China.
Two-thirds, or 226, of them were given medical care plus an endovascular thrombectomy, a surgical procedure to remove blood clots from arteries or veins, within a median of five hours after the ischemic stroke caused by acute basilar artery occlusion, while the remaining one-third were given only medical care as a control, according to the study.
It was found that the outcome of clot removal was remarkably better at 90 days, with mortality in the thrombectomy group at 37 percent and 55 percent in the control group.
“Doctors usually make treatment choices, be it endovascular thrombectomy or simply medical care, based on their clinical experience. This would bring confusion to both doctors and patients’ families,” said Hu Wei, the paper’s co-author and a neurologist at the hospital.
The study provided convincing evidence concerning clinical decisions for stroke treatment, said the researchers.
* https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2206317
Putin played semi-hardball and lost
https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/13/energy/europe-energy-crisis-winter-2023/index.html
Europe is perfectly fine fore a normal winter and will face minimal hardship in a cold one. Climate change goals will likely be fulfilled earlier than planned, although this year and next will be bad because of coal substituting for Russian hydrocarbons.
Thank you for your competence President Biden. Not only are we all shifting to alternative energy faster, but we will forever starve Putin of the hydrocarbon income he has used to build a belligerent Kleptocracy.
But —– is so dumb he thinks….
But —– is so dumb he thinks….
But —– is so dumb he thinks….
[ Such is the response when prejudice is contradicted; the essence of prejudice being psychologically irrational and especially difficult to overcome. ]
“Such is the response when prejudice is contradicted; the essence of prejudice being psychologically irrational and especially difficult to overcome.”
“Such is the response when prejudice is contradicted; the essence of prejudice being psychologically irrational and especially difficult to overcome.”
“Such is the response when prejudice is contradicted; the essence of prejudice being psychologically irrational and especially difficult to overcome.”
of course this is a racist response against a peaceful and caring American population, who have done much to raise awareness of tyrants around the world who wish to eradicate the uighyer culture in western china. responses such as this are prejudice against freedom loving people around the world. such commenters only bring hatred towards others.
And any journalist who went into the grimier parts of —— with a camera was violently attacked by the “—” and carted off to a jail cell. —– must be suffering early dementia at 67.
[ This is of course false, then demeaning in the extreme to justify the falseness. ]
RonJon at the debates:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/debate-audience-laughed-at-republican-ron-johnson-s-claims-and-it-only-got-worse-from-there/ar-AA12Y3Yc?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=85667f20e77d4a03950941798d73a7da
So RonJon thinks being for a minimum wage law and for Social Security benefits is being “against America”.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=CgJo
January 15, 2020
Sticky Consumer Price Index and Sticky Consumer Price Index less Shelter, 2020-2022
(Percent change)
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=w3Wk
January 15, 2018
Sticky Consumer Price Index and Sticky Consumer Price Index less Shelter, 2017-2022
(Percent change)
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=UQC8
January 30, 2020
Consumer Price Indexes for New and Used cars & trucks, 2020-2022
(Percent change)
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=UQCH
January 30, 2020
Consumer Price Indexes for New and Used cars & trucks, 2020-2022
(Indexed to 2020)
“Doctor” Oz is such a fraud:
https://theintercept.com/2022/10/13/mehmet-oz-campaign-black-voter/
A TOUCHING MOMENT at a recent campaign event for Mehmet Oz, better known as Dr. Oz, in Philadelphia — in which a Black woman broke down in tears as she described the fatal shootings of her brother and nephew, and was comforted by the Republican Senate candidate — made for riveting television, and brought to mind the former daytime TV host’s old namesake show.
Three weeks later, after the encounter was featured in local and national news reports, journalists who covered the event discovered that they had been duped by the Oz campaign into reporting as news a scene that had more in common with reality TV.
The woman, Sheila Armstrong, sat next to Oz at a September 19 event his campaign described as a “community discussion” in Philadelphia’s Germantown neighborhood. Armstrong held a handmade sign which said that her lost relatives were “gone but not forgotten,” and her anguished tears were broadcast to the city that day by the local NBC News affiliate, and described in reports on the event by the Philadelphia Inquirer and KYW Newsradio.
….
As the text and photo accounts of the exchange between Oz and Armstrong were reproduced by news organizations across the country that subscribe to the AP’s wire service, Fetterman’s campaign manager, Brendan McPhillips, complained on Twitter that the AP had failed to share a pertinent fact with readers: that Armstrong is not an ordinary voter but a paid member of the Oz campaign staff. As evidence, McPhillips posted a screenshot of a business card Armstrong had shared on her public Instagram account in June, identifying her as the Oz campaign’s “Philadelphia County Coordinator,” above a “doctorozforsenate.com” email address.
Old man Grassley wants to regulate Brookings in a way that his Republican masters might end up regretting:
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/10/14/republicans-laws-think-tanks-00061763
When the president of the Brookings Institution stepped down last summer amid a federal probe into whether he had illegally lobbied on behalf of Qatar, the news elicited a certain schadenfreude among think-tankers to the right of the august Washington research outfit. But now, three months after the Qatar controversy rocked Brookings, the uproar has sparked a new wave of Congressional scrutiny and proposed legislation — driven largely but not exclusively by conservatives — that could ultimately complicate life at the same right-leaning institutions where people giggled at John Allen’s dramatic fall from grace. Qatar has been a spate of calls to have the government mandate various sorts of disclosures by think tanks dealing with the often uncomfortable question of where they get their funding and whether they tailor their supposedly research-based conclusions to the tastes of the folks writing the checks. “Congress, the executive branch, and the American people deserve to know who’s influencing research and public policy in our country,” is how Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, a co-sponsor of the most stringent recent proposal, put it. Yet while the proximate controversy, and the subject of Grassley’s bill, involve money from foreign sources, the logic of the criticism is that think tanks have an outsize effect on public policy and the public is therefore entitled to know who’s calling the shots. It’s a logic that doesn’t necessarily stop at the water’s edge.
Grassley and his Republican colleagues have no genuine intention to pass this bill or any such related legislation. It’s a carnival show for the MAGA white trash. The same as Republicans say they are against illegal immigration but never make any moves to punish employers who hire illegals. It’s a sh*t show for the illiterates.
This is how unbelievably dumb American media is or American “journalists” have become (there are few media members who fit the true meaning of journalist anymore). They run these stories in the subtextual tone of “WOW!!! The Republicans are doing something,,,,, they have something in the works…. but they are about the ‘set a trap for themselves’ as they don’t know what bad winds they will commence for themselves!!!!!” Hey dumbsh*t media member #10,0001, did you just get off the bus?? Republicans (Grassley et al) knew before they got on the floor of the Senate to “speak/lobby for the bill” , or sent the bill to the Senate leader, they had no intention of ever passing the legislation, EVER.
Politico, I expect better from you—grow up. When Republicans give you a vaudeville song and dance for the cheap seats, don’t tell us they are about to step in the cattle shit. Act like you had at least one Poli sci class.
I think the balance of evidence suggests Johnson is indeed correct. The Ukraine invasion of February was a failure of deterrence. Your statement, Menzie, that Putin “had to invade” does not correspond to Johnson’s statement as you quote him. Rather, a failure of deterrence greenlighted Putin to start his invasion. I would imagine that, if Putin knew then what he knows now, he would not have started the war.
Here’s how I wrote about the topic in early March:
Whether we are speaking of a lack of deterrence in Ukraine, a potential loss of that country to Russia, the failure to control the border, or soaring crime in the inner cities, at the bottom of it all is the philosophy behind the Biden Doctrine.
So what is it? Last April, President Biden laid down the doctrine during his Arlington Cemetery Address:
How many more generations of America’s daughters and sons would you have me send to fight Afghans? How many more lives — American lives — is it worth? How many endless rows of headstones at Arlington National Cemetery?
Biden doubled down during his State of the Union address, saying, “Let me be clear: our forces are not engaged and will not engage in conflict with Russian forces in Ukraine.”
This reveals the essence of the Biden Doctrine. In its general form, the doctrine holds that the rights and interests of the individual must supersede those of the group…that the individual lives of U.S. military personnel should take absolute precedence over national security interests. We will not fight if our soldiers could be hurt.
Those rulers bent on conquest, notably Russia’s President Putin and Chinese President Xi, will interpret the Biden Doctrine as a green light for invasion to the extent that ex-post sanctions look like an acceptable price to pay. The math worked for President Putin. The Biden Doctrine has proven itself unable to deter invasion and provides no military remedy once the conflict has started, as is the situation in Ukraine today [March 5].
I would note that the Biden doctrine was largely abandoned. Mercifully. Of course, this came as a surprise to Putin, but not to readers here. I have many times noted the tendency of democracies to sucker punch dictators into thinking they had leeway for an incremental invasion when such was not the case, to wit Galtieri in Argentina and Hitler and the invasion of Poland, to name just two.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/03/the_biden_doctrine_abandons_americas_common_welfare.html
There you go again pretending getting your trash into the American “Thinker” is an accomplishment. It is a dumb rag who lets arrogant bozos publish the usual garbage.
Since Princeton Steve is so proud he gets to publish in The American Thinker, be aware that this rag has spread Trump’s election fraud BS. And there’s more:
https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2014/04/23/american-thinker-needs-start-thinking
Today, American Thinker, a not so thoughtful far-right online publication that likes to publish anti-LGBT folks like Concerned Women For America’s Janice Shaw Crouse and World Congress of Families spokesman Don Feder, really outdid itself. It devoted an ungodly amount of words to a fawning profile of Jared Taylor, one of the most prominent white nationalists in America.
What could they possibly be American thinking over there? Taylor is a guy who publishes a racist newsletter, American Renaissance, which argues ad nauseam that people of color are lesser beings than white folks. His biannual conferences are filled with major white supremacists, Klan lawyers and their ilk. At one point, there was even a dispute among Taylor’s followers on the “Jewish Question,” if you can believe something that ridiculous.
American Thinker doesn’t start its puff piece with any mention of those issues. No, sir. Here’s their first line about Taylor, “Good manners are infectious.” Seriously?
Well, let’s just take a look at some of the “good-mannered” things Taylor has written. There’s this: “When blacks are left entirely to their own devices, Western civilization — any kind of civilization — disappears.”
And now let’s kick the good manners up a notch. Here’s Taylor on Hurricane Katrina: “Our rulers and media executives will try to turn the story of Hurricane Katrina into yet another morality tale of downtrodden blacks and heartless whites… . [But m]any whites will realize — some for the first time — that we have Africa in our midst, that utterly alien Africa of road-side corpses, cruelty, and anarchy that they thought could never wash up on our shores.”
For American Thinker, Taylor isn’t a rabid racist who tries to gussy up his hate with big words. Rather, he is a guy who “like[s] ideas,” has “good manners,” and who wishes his “commenters [meaning white supremacists] were better behaved.” Sure, American Thinker points out that there is anti-Semitism and racism associated with Taylor’s group, but even so, the article’s author, Jeff Lipkes, wonders if racist beliefs – i.e. white nationalism – can “be the basis for a political movement.”
Maybe if they put their thinking caps on at American Thinker, they’ll come up with the right answer to that question. But in case they can’t, here’s the answer: no.
I am certainly happy to read your published articles. Feel free to link them.
At least what I write does not abuse the English language the way your trash does. And no – I would never write for a lying right wing rag like “The American Thinker”.
Bark, bark says: ” I would never write for a lying right wing rag like “The American Thinker”.” He doesn’t need to write anywhere else since he is always lying when he does write. Just look at how many times he has run away to his NYC cave after being challenged to support his claims.
CoRev
October 17, 2022 at 5:10 am
CoRev always comes to the defense of even the most blatant racist garbage. Hey CoRev – better hurry to the dry cleaners as they have your KKK ropes ready.
Did they ask you to submit your “American Thinker” article, or did you submit it of your own accord??
https://www.discoursemagazine.com/culture-and-society/2021/07/28/the-press-now-depends-on-readers-for-revenue-and-thats-a-big-problem-for-journalism/
That is an interesting discussion on the new economics for the publishing sector. Now I have to wonder why any legitimate publication would pay Stevie for his incredibly worthless writing. But The American Thinking is not like Newsweek or the NYTimes. No – it is MAGA racist rightwing rag. And we have seen how Trump milks the passions of his racist base. I guess Stevie has found a new revenue stream given his consulting business has to be on the skids.
The Biden doctrine? WTF? Trump’s doctrine maybe. Come on dude – you are a light weight so stop pretending.
When I read Stevie’s dishonest partisan rant, I thought he just made up the term the Biden Doctrine. Actually Steve Clemons coined that term and explained what the true Biden Doctrine is. Read for yourself:
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/08/biden-doctrine/496841/
No it was not a made up term. But Princeton Steve blatantly misrepresented what the Biden Doctrine is. Of course this is what Stevie has to do to be invited on Fox and Friends so he can spread his anti-immigration garbage.
My effing God:
This reveals the essence of the Biden Doctrine. In its general form, the doctrine holds that the rights and interests of the individual must supersede those of the group. In security policy, for example, the doctrine prioritizes the fate of individual soldiers over national interest. This is a liberal perspective that discounts the national welfare as a whole, and it serves both socialist and libertarian agendas.
Look – I made a big mistake reading this stupid intellectual garbage. Now that I want to kill myself for being so retarded to read a word this arrogant moron has written – let me be clear.
If Princeton Steve had his way we would still be fighting in Indochina. LBJ knew by 1968 he made a mistake but Nixon the creep dragged our futile efforts out for 5 years at enormous costs. But at least he pulled the plug by 1973. The 2001 take down of the Taliban should have take at most 2 years. But no Bush43 expanded this to Iraq. How did all of that work out.
Colin Powell got it right back in 1991. That is the Biden Doctrine which anyone with a brain knows is smart. But not forever war Princeton Steve. Neocons are dangerous nitwits but even they are not as dumb as Princeton Steve who BTW has never been on the front line of a war. Princeton Steve is a Chicken Hawk.
I don’t know if the US could have prevailed in Vietnam. I know that the failure of the US there doomed the South Vietnamese to forty years of communist rule, some of it brutal and cruel. Where the US prevails, prosperity often follows. South Korea is an example of that. Where the US fails, dictatorship and poverty are often the norm, as in North Korea, Vietnam for decades, Cambodia, Laos, Nicaragua, etc.
In general, the US is good at winning wars, but poor at winning the peace. Something to keep in mind for Ukraine.
My God – you have no clue what this episode was about. We were propping up a hated dictator whereas the Viet Minh were fighting for freedom. It was the Viet Minh that pushed Pol Pot out of Cambodia. It was the Viet Minh that has turned Vietnam into a developing nation. And of course a moron like you only knows the word “Communism” without the slightest clue as to what has transpired in Indochina.
Thanks again Stevie for proving once again you are the most clueless clown ever.
Ho Chi Minh thought the US would come in on his side since he was throwing off a colonial yoke, namely the French. Funny how that is. But instead, we came in on the side of the French. When there’s a war, the US and the French are historically always on the same side, for better or worse.
BTW comparing Vietnam to North Korea has to rate up there with the dumbest statement in the history of mankind. You can stop now – we know you are one incredible IDIOT.
“I don’t know if the US could have prevailed in Vietnam. I know that the failure of the US there doomed the South Vietnamese to forty years of communist rule, some of it brutal and cruel.”
40 years? Well the first 10 years were rough in part because the US did all sorts of things to mess up the unification of Vietnam. But maybe Stevie boy has been asleep since 1986 when Vietnam adopted something called the Doi Moi reforms:
https://www.braumillerlaw.com/doi-moi-reforms-modernizing-nietnams-trade-economy/
Now I thought everyone knew about these reforms and the economic growth they brought to Vietnam. Everyone except our Village Idiot Stevie boy Kopits.
Colin Powell? WMD in Iraq Colin Powell? The guy who made the case for the Iraq War? That Colin Powell?
Seriously dude – you do not have the right to shine Colin Powell’s shoes.
“If liberalism is about the rights of the individual, conservatism is about the rights of the group (as I regularly note).”
You regularly note that up is down? WTF? Conservatives are generally all about free markets and the right for rich people to keep their riches. Liberals are the ones in economic discussions that consider the well being of everyone including people who are not so rich.
So WTF do you get that nonsense? I guess words have no real meaning to Princeton Steve. Oh that’s right – he makes up his own stupid definitions such as suppression when discussing macroeconomics and tortures the eff out of words like recession and depression.
Stevie boy – who taught you the English language, which you routinely torture to death. I guess some alien from another planet taught you English as your writing is the worst BS I have ever read.
Steven,
Wow, you have really fallen flat on your face on this one, and I have at times earlier this year agreed with you on some of your analysis of the war.
Do please note that the “Biden doctrine” as you describe it REMAINS IN PLACE. There are no US troops involved in fighting Russia in Ukraine, and Biden continues to insist that none will. You argue that Putin decided he could handle sanctions, which indeed the Russians have to some extent, although those are increasingly beginning to bite and have taken a toll on Russian military capability due to crucial imports not coming in.
What Biden never said anything about and what Putin seems not to have taken into account, aside from underestimating massively the motivation of the Ukrainian people and leadership to oppose his invasion, was the willingness of the US and NATO allies to supply the Ukrainians with high quality military equipment. He also seems to have overestimated substantially the quality of both his own military personnel and their equipment.
As it is, a good deal of the problem here dates back to Trump, as I noted to the completely idiotic “Anonymous,” whom you seem to be imitating with this incredibly stupid remark. Trump negotiated with and surrendered to the Taliban behind the back of President Ghani of Afghanistan. After Biden managed to extend the exit date of US troops beyond the May 1 deadline Trump negotiated, thus getting 70,000 people out that probably would not have gotten out if Trump were president, President Ghani unexpectredly and suddenly quit and left the country after hearing a still unexplained false report by one of his guards that Taliban troops were in his palace. That led to the collapse of his government and all those awful optics of Afghans grabbing onto US planes.
It has been reported that Putin paid a lot of attention to that, something brought about largely by Trump’s abandonment of Ghani. It almost certainly encouraged Putin in his fantasy that Zelenskyy would abandon Kyiv when he invaded so he could just take the place over easily. I would grant that US encouraging Zelenskyy to prepare to leave, and the US moving its embassy out of Kyiv in anticipation of the Russian invasion US intel was accurately forecasting may have further encouraged this, even as I myself here raised doubts about the ability of the Russians to take Kyiv and said we should keep our embassy in Kyiv prior to the invasion.
Anyway, this is a pathetic collapse of intelligence on your part with this really abysmally stupid post. Do you want to get into that competition with Anonymous and CoRev and Bruce Hall for stupidest commenter on this blog? I know there are some people who think you are part of it, while I have not up until now not thought so. But this dumb comment puts you in there with that rabble of idiots.
Menzie,
I’m not clear on how one makes the jump from
“I don’t think Vladimir Putin would have moved on Ukraine were it not for the weakness displayed ― certainly by the Biden administration, but by the West in general.”
to
“Putin had to invade because of mistakes made by the Biden administration.”
In the link you’ve provided, it sounds like Johnson is suggesting that policy errors by the USandA weakened Ukraine via mismanaging its relationship with the country resulting in the Ukrainian people being more vulnerable to Russian aggression, destabilization efforts, and ultimately invasion.
You (again) seem to be confusing the meaning of words. In this case you’re having difficulty with “would have” and “had to”. That or you’re making assumptions of Johnson’s actual comments?
Are there any sources to actually support your claim that Johnson feels Putin ”had to” invade because of the Biden Administration? Or do you feel Johnson is implying Putin “had to” move now because the next administration will better manage the US-Ukraine relationship?
I thought you were RonJon’s economic advisor. Maybe you should ask your client to speak more precisely.
I agree with you Professor Chinn’s syntax could have been better “had to have invaded”. Maybe “never would have invaded if not for….. ” “was enticed to invade because of……. “was encouraged to invade because of….. ”
But really it’s kind of childish semantics. Like someone online losing the logical or factual side of an argument and then trying to score points by highlighting spelling errors. Professor Chinn’s underlying point is clear, and accurate.
“But really it’s kind of childish semantics.”
You do realize that this is Econned’s sole purpose in life. That is all he ever does.
Moses,
I agree with you. Menzie’s wording could have been better. But his point is still well taken.
It remains a mystery why “Econned” is so obsessed with his bizarre campaign to falsely accuse Menzie of egomania. The guy is capable of making reasonably intelligent comments about economic topics. Instead he continues with this pointless nonsense.
It has been speculated that he is motivated by jealously over a failed academic career. However he denies this. So it remains a mystery what is behind all this. Frankly, it just looks flagrantly sick.
“Barkley Rosser”,
I will clearly lay out why I call out Menzie. Again. Menzie will often attempt to play ‘gotcha’ by using someone’s words verbatim against them (exactly as I’ve done to him here). Menzie has a massive ego. Menzie goes out of the way to call out others. Menzie takes pleasure in using this public forum to publicly call out the comments of others for no tangible reason (a reply to the comment would often easily suffice but won’t be as public). Menzie enjoys the (trivial) power of having a near monopoly over the dialogue – he will happily author an attack post yet often prematurely abandons actual discussion of the thing/idea/commenter he decided to pen an attack piece on. Menzie often does this while also being disingenuously selective of the quotes and details he provides. Menzie is dishonest. Menzie is biased. I’m only doing to Menzie what Menzie does to others. You have a problem because maybe you see yourself in Menzie? Maybe you’re Menzie’s friend? Maybe you just like Menzie’s overall approach to blogging? Maybe you think Menzie is one of those “super important people” you’re always curiously infatuated with and randomly name-drop? Or maybe you think Menzie is so “unfluential” that he’s beyond reproach? In any case, you’re failing to be an objective actor in this faux discussion. Failing to acknowledge, or label “flagrantly sick”, the things Menzie does all the time. You’re only hilariously crying foul when others do it.
However, we all know the commenter known as “Barkley Rosser” is far worse of a culprit than Menzie – so absolutely no one would expect any better from you. I do hope I’ve untangled this mystery for you.
What a load of rubbish. A lot of these “gotchas” has to do with actual economics. Which I guess is why you have no clue what the discussions are about.
actually, prof chinn is usually quite accurate with his comments.
on the other hand, econned is a lot more like dick striker. both of them like to play the technicality game, usually as a distraction from the real issues.
econned, you don’t like that prof chinn has a near monopoly of the dialogue on his own blog? you are upset because he does not run the blog for the benefit of econned? what a selfish and naive comment you have made econned. and considering how you believe anonymous denigration of prof chinn is appropriate, i will add cowardly. but i have described you in those terms before. some things never change. you are just a sad individual.
Barkley questions: “It remains a mystery why “Econned” is so obsessed with his bizarre campaign to falsely accuse Menzie of egomania…. So it remains a mystery what is behind all this.” while ignoring Menzie’s history here.
As one of his loyal minions, you ?feigned? ignorance of his latest attempt in his NOAA full history graph while ignoring the comment re: past 8 years of pause. Do you actually know the difference between comparing ~150 years of history to 8? You haven’t yet shown you do.
BTW, Menzie did the same as these 2 graphs do: https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.economicsjunkie.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F10%2Fgisp-last-10000-new.png&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=79f9a94657ae1af448a55f32778fcf473123d6a90b5e029c5046730e4b8f2134&ipo=images and https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftse2.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DOIP.8L3WguaXBC4OkCw_yxgGowHaCc%26pid%3DApi&f=1&ipt=dfcb3aaae2a3c696d7cd19f2379e3d080d88489b7336f4d07c21c8269edfdd5d&ipo=images
Context change does not change the actual data.
You are still on this 8 year pause garbage? Barkley is right – you are the dumbest troll God ever created.
Oh why – a graph that goes back 100 centuries. Gee CoRev – why not tell us the history of nominal interest rates for the same time period. After all your fellow troll Princeton Steve wants us to believe mortgage rates have hit record highs.
Your latest comment completely undermines the latest gas bag from Econned. Good show!
BTW CoRev – your 10,000 years David Lappi dude is such a light weight when it comes to painting misleading BS. Up your trolling game with this 65 million year picture:
http://rocks.org.hk/images/News/2010-02-18%20The%20big%20picture%2065%20million%20years%20of%20temperature%20swing20131017104908.pdf
Look – if you want to mislead, go big or go home.
BTW the author of that 65 million year chart is Joanne Nova. Check this out!
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2015/sep/01/rick-santorum/santorum-cites-flawed-climate-change-figure-and-mi/
The figure likely comes from the blog Fabius Maximus (and repeated by the prominent climate change skeptic Joanne Nova)
Of course the whole posts notes how Rick Santorum was repeating a lot of intellectual garbage about climate change. Santorum is CoRev’s kind of dude!
CoRev,
Wow, and holy effing schess. You seem not to realize what a massive fool you have made of yourself here with this 8 year pause bs.
So, you put here the first figure from Monckton’s link showing anomalies off a temperature trend, with those anomalies showing no trend. You then declared that this was the evidence for your nonexistent 8 year pause.
But right after that figutre in Monckton’s piece, your link I remind you, there was a figure that showed the trend from which those anomalies were estimated. It was and is a steady UPWARD trend.
Really, did you ever have a brain, and if you did, when did you let it fall into a toilet that you then promptely flushed?
so it appears what corev and his ilk seem to be arguing is that the last 8 years have not risen faster than trend, and are using this to argue there is a pause. they have conceded a first order increase, and are now basing their pause on whether second order effects are increasingly larger. talk about dishonesty in an argument. although my guess is this dishonesty was accidental, as they are not really smart enough to come up with such an argument on their own.
Ole bark, bark goes to his favorite ?SCIENCE? source, Politifact for reference. Is there a better example of how political zealotry blocks logic and increases ignorance?
I don’t know why he needed to prove his ignorance again, but his success rate at it is astounding.
A failed academic career? And I thought Econned was a tenured law professor at Wossamotta University.
“Econned,”
Yes, I am a friend of Menzie;s, as I am even more so of Jim Hamilton’s, whom I have known much longer. But if you dig through the past of this blog you will find that I have disagreed with both of them occasionally on matters of substance. I do not engage in making inappropriate personal ctiticisms of either of them, much less demanding apologies for utter nonsense. Menzie’s corrections are factually based, even if you might disagree with some of them.
No, why you engage in your sick conduct remains a mystery. You have clarified nothing with this latest rant.
“Barkley Rosser”,
You’ve shown you’re incapable of, or unwilling to apply reading comprehension . Your straightforwardness is appreciated. I suppose.
“Econned,”
Really proving that indeed you are just a worthless piece of crap, oh shame on me for calling you a name.
Can’t read? You rant was not worth reading or repeating, a pile of worthless accusations against Menzie. Oh, he is “biased” he is “dishonest.” The vast majority of your rant was just uttely worthless garbage, just what one would expect from a worthless piece of crap like you. The vast majority of his posts of this sort in fact highlight actual errors by other people, these usually having educational value. But given that you are not even a failed academic, you know nothing about education.
Your efforts to get at his nonexistent “egomania” involve excessively picky points that generally amount to nothing or at most a smidgen, but you puff yourself up as some great correcter. Do note that about the only person who seems to have stepped forward to defend you n all this is the clearly stupidest person here, CoRev, a clown who thinks that showing no trend in anomalies off of an upward trend in global average temperature somehow shows a “pause” in global warming. There is the sort of thing you should be going after, not your sick egomaniacal effort to poke at the highly capable and virtuous Menzie.
Yes, he is virtuous. Really, I know, because I am not. I am an egomaniac, you know, the sort of person who name drops all sorts or people who take me seriously. Want another one? The late Ken Arrow put a favorable blurb on the cover of one of my books. yeah, I am an egomaniac, which is why I know Menzie is not, and you are, just to repeat A WORTHLESS PIECE OF CRAP.
Have a nice day, loser.
“Barkley Rosser”,
1) Thanks again failing to discuss like an adult. Again. Tell me, if my “rant was not worth reading”, why are you replying? Logic failure.
2) this may be true “The vast majority of his posts of this sort in fact highlight actual errors by other people” but the “majority” isn’t the “entirety”. Logic failure.
3) I’m not “a failed academic”.
4) I know more than “nothing about education”
5) note that being “highly capable” is precisely the issue – we all know that Menzie is capable, he just isn’t applying himself. Logic failure.
6) is isn’t “virtuous” to be dishonest. Logic failure.
7) Ken Arrow (was he an “unfluential economist” or one of those “super important people”? Or both??) isn’t relevant here and neither is a single book that the real Barkley Rosser published. Logic failure.
8) your continual failure at logic is just one piece of evidence that you are not the real Barkley Rosser. Just “Barkley Rosser” – the doddering and garrulous Econbrowser town-ranter.
see, there we go again with your list of falsehoods econned. you are a failed academic, and furthermore, you have demonstrated no knowledge about education. but you do continue, to denigrate others anonymously. it is cowardly.
econned, let me give you a little insight on why you could not have a successful academic career. it requires that at times you show restraint in what you say, especially when you begin your career. you simply cannot restrain yourself, and so you selfishly denied your chances at such a career. and now you are jealous and angry about it, and project that towards others who had success. your problem is self control, and an inability to acknowledge that weakness. you basically wasted your time in grad school as a result. it is just sad.
baffling,
You’re off the deep end with you infatuation of me. How can I be a “failed academic” when I’ve never sought to be an academic? Of course I didn’t “have a successful academic career” – I never once attempted to pursue it as a career option. I’m seriously, well…. ‘baffled’ at how you come up with all of this. It is terribly entertaining though! Keep up the routine!!
“Econned,”
Nice try with your failing “logic failure” exercise, proving that not only are you a worthless piece of crap, but less intelliigent than I though you might be.’
1) The only way to determine that your worthless rant was not worth reading was to actually read it. How would I know otherwise? Sorry, boy, logic failure on your part, dummy.
2) Ah, you admit Menzie is right nost of the time. But the point made by others and me with nobody except maybe the seriously moronic CoRev supporting you, is that with some very rare exceptions you do not catch but someone smarter than you like me does, is that the points you go after him on are, to the extent they have any vaiidity at all, which they usually do not, is that they are utterly trivial while you blow them up into massive character flaws with demands for apologies and all sorts of other worthless crap.
3) I accepted your claim that you are not a “failed academic,” although maybe you are lying and you are. Not a logic failure on your part, but a reading failure, inability to read correctly, even more pathetic.
4) Oooh, maybe you know “more than nothing about education,” but you certainly have not demonstrated that so far here with nearly all of your comments. Oh, I suppose you did have some sort of college education in something, even if you are not a failed academic, and might have picked up some knowledge about education. But, again, you certainly fail to demonstrate it over and over.
5) This is a dispute abut facts, not logic, so logic failure on your part. You think Menzie is not “applying himself,” but nobody exept maybe the super pathetic CoRev (who thinks a lack of anomalies off an upward trend means the trend is not going upward) agrees with you. Where is anybody who agrees with you on this? He has shown errors by many people here, and many have disagreed with his analysis of their arguments, but have any of these people specifically joined you and said, “Yes, Menzie, Econned has nailed you, apologize!!!!”? No, again, aside from “CoRev.”
6) Also an issue of facts not logic, so logic failure on your part. As with 5), I do not see anybody aside from maybe the stupidest person here rushing forward to agree with you, “Econned.” You are out there on this limb just about all by youself. Have fun there.
7) You do not know who Ken Arrow was? Most would say he was both an “influential economist” and a “super important person.” It is widely accepted that on his death he was by far the most respected living ecnoomist in the world by a long shot. And, yes, sorry, he did write a blurb on one of my books, and I knew him well and had very friendly relations with him, despite my being not such a nice guy all the time, and you trying to pretend I am not me by putting quotation marks around my name. Curiously enough, he and I had substantial discussions about logic, a topic he was especially knowledgeable about. You can even go read an interview I did with him in the 2004 book, The Changing Face of Economics. So, on this one, you have a really big logic failure on your lap, much bigger than you even knew about.
8) So, you have failed to show one “logic failure” on my part, loser. I am who I am, an egomaniac, which is, again, why I know that Menzie Chinn is not one. But you clearly are, logic failure on your part.
econned, it is the professional jealous you display towards academics on this blog that give it away. such a deep level of disdain does not come out of nowhere. you could not even get your foot in the door, and that must have been frustrating to you. but I certainly can understand why you were not even given the opportunity.
“if not for the weakness displayed…”
probably is in reference to the trump administration withholding defense deterence in a mafia like act against ukraine. you remember that, don’t you econned? trump withholding military equipment from ukraine that would have been used to defend the country. unless zelensky paid a political ransom? strong character by the trump administration during that episode. and helped lead to a european war.
on the other hand, biden did provide military equipment. so we do have weakness, it is just in the trump administration, which econned will never admit.
BTW the author of that 65 million year chart is Joanne Nova. Check this out!
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2015/sep/01/rick-santorum/santorum-cites-flawed-climate-change-figure-and-mi/
The figure likely comes from the blog Fabius Maximus (and repeated by the prominent climate change skeptic Joanne Nova)
Of course the whole posts notes how Rick Santorum was repeating a lot of intellectual garbage about climate change. Santorum is CoRev’s kind of dude!