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Russia could default on its debt within days

M'Lady @MaryP; As long as he is begging FOR THEM, he is saying he does not have them... They can do this much more effectively with the new switchblade300 system... REAL BADASS... We really did not want to give this technology to anyone... but shit happens... Remember I told you that there are hundreds of other Migs in NATO other than Poland's... .. (NO MORE Loose Lips, then we can sink some Russian ships...) On a side note; tens of thousands of volunteers are flooding into Ukraine... Now if I am a member of a NATO military unit and I take my uniform off... WHO AM I??? I am a fully trained BADASS Volunteer warrior...

Ukraine Will Get Switchblade Suicide Drones​

As Part Of New U.S. Aid Package Lawmaker Says​


This SHIT SHOW is almost over... One Way or Another...
Russia has been shown to be a weak paper tiger...
-peace

ps:
There will be some dumbass rePuke's that will whine
"paper tiger with nukes" Don't pay those fools any attention...
Enjoy your evening M'Lady
So these switchblade drones will take out missile launchers from the ships? From Russia?
If so, good enough; send plenty.

:) Don't be surprised if Ukraine's Migs start having babies and their Air Force start growing.

Yes, we need to stop being so blazing transparent.

And you enjoy your evening too.
 
So these switchblade drones will take out missile launchers from the ships? From Russia?
If so, good enough; send plenty.

:) Don't be surprised if Ukraine's Migs start having babies and their Air Force start growing.

Yes, we need to stop being so blazing transparent.

And you enjoy your evening too.
i add a little more...
 
M'Lady @MaryP; As long as he is begging FOR THEM, he is saying he does not have them... They can do this much more effectively with the new switchblade300 system... REAL BADASS... We really did not want to give this technology to anyone... but shit happens... Remember I told you that there are hundreds of other MIGs in NATO other than Poland's... Don't be surprised if Ukraine's MIGs start having babies and their Air Force FAMILY start growing... (NO MORE Loose Lips, then we can sink some Russian ships...) On a side note; tens of thousands of volunteers are flooding into Ukraine... Now if I am a member of a NATO military unit and I take my uniform off... WHO AM I??? I am a fully trained BADASS Volunteer warrior... Maybe even a MIG pilot... or Drone operator... or Finnish sniper(best in the world)...

Ukraine Will Get Switchblade Suicide Drones​

As Part Of New U.S. Aid Package Lawmaker Says​


This SHIT SHOW is almost over... One Way or Another...
Russia has been shown to be a weak paper tiger...
-peace

ps:
There will be some dumbass rePuke's that will whine
"paper tiger with nukes" Don't pay those fools any attention...
Enjoy your evening M'Lady
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You mentioned 'China doesn't need globally exchangeable currency'.

Seems the Chinese have aims to displace the US dollar as the world's reserve currency.
What if Saudi oil is purchased with Chinese Yuan instead of US dollars?

Saudi Arabia is in talks to sell oil to China and be paid in yuan instead of dollars, according to a Wall Street Journal report. About 80% of global oil sales are done in dollars, and Saudi Arabia ...​

China buys more than 25% of the oil that Saudi Arabia exports, and if priced in yuan, those sales would boost the standing of China's currency, and set the Chinese currency on a path to becoming ...​

The Wall Street Journal reports active talks between Riyadh and Beijing about pricing some Saudi oil sales to China in yuan instead of dollars. Chatter about this sort of arrangement has been ...​
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Well, seeing as how Slovakia has now thrown in with Moscow, it's doubtful any Slovakian tubes will make their way West for a while.
Yes, I realize Mullard and Tung-Sol aren't US made.
I still say there's a chance that vacuum tubes may wind up becoming a revival industry like vinyl LP records started out a few years ago.
Now vinyl is back, it's a major player again. Same might happen with tubes.

Of course, note I said "might"... :)

It could be a good opportunity for someone.

It will always be a niche market (guitar amplifiers, super-audiophile power amps, and...?). If East European tubes become unavailable, we might see some production in the West. At higher prices than in the past, to be sure. A "boutique" product, perhaps.

NOS supplies are getting to be well picked-over.
 
So these switchblade drones will take out missile launchers from the ships? From Russia?
If so, good enough; send plenty.

:) Don't be surprised if Ukraine's Migs start having babies and their Air Force start growing.

Yes, we need to stop being so blazing transparent.

And you enjoy your evening too.

Malcolm Nance Tells Dean Obeidallah​

Fighter Jets Aren’t the ‘Game-Changer’ in Ukraine​

— Send Reapers​


Here’s what a game-changer looks like: We sell them MQ-9 Reaper drones.

A Reaper drone can carry up to 16 Hellfires or they can have regular bombs on a 2000-pound laser-guided bomb.

I just give’em Hellfires– you know it’s not hard to operate if you operated the [Turkish made] Bayraktar drone you can qualify on a Reaper in a matter of a few days.

Or what we do is we let him take off, we ship them over let him assemble them let them do some practice rounds over a few days, and give them all the Hellfire missiles they’ll need.

Here’s another thing about the Hellfire: you lock the Hellfire on, once you shoot it you can go to the next tank you can shoot another Hellfire. You don’t have to guide it in it’s all on its own, baby.
 
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Malcolm Nance Tells Dean Obeidallah​

Fighter Jets Aren’t the ‘Game-Changer’ in Ukraine​

— Send Reapers​


Here’s what a game-changer looks like: We sell them MQ-9 Reaper drones.

A Reaper drone can carry up to 16 Hellfires or they can have regular bombs on a 2000-pound laser-guided bomb.

I just give’em Hellfires– you know it’s not hard to operate if you operated the [Turkish made] Bayraktar drone you can qualify on a Reaper in a matter of a few days.

Or what we do is we let him take off, we ship them over let him assemble them let them do some practice rounds over a few days, and give them all the Hellfire missiles they’ll need.

Here’s another thing about the Hellfire: you lock the Hellfire on, once you shoot it you can go to the next tank you can shoot another Hellfire. You don’t have to guide it in it’s all on its own, baby.
I have no idea what any of that means, so I guess I'll take it as someone's opinion.
 
Didn't Putin have billions socked away before the invasion?
Biden slapped him around and took that bastard's lunch money,
and also took his suck buddy donald's house(it was White)...
I think Biden may take donnie's lunch money too...
Bad Ass Biden... bad Bad BAD Man...
-Peace
 
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Believe me I really do wish the vacuum tube audiophile market WAS a lot bigger.
Reason it isn't is because vacuum tube audio gear is now more expensive pound for pound than a Bugatti Veyron.
Seriously! I'm actually serious...a McIntosh audio amp STARTS at around 5000 bucks for the bottom of the line model, yes?
It weighs about...what, forty pounds?

A Bugatti Veyron weighs 4200 pounds and costs about $1.5 Million, so if you do the ciphering, you arrive at the conclusion that a McIntosh amp weighing 4200 pounds would cost
a dozen times more than a Veyron. High grade vacuum tube audio amps are simply UNOBTANIUM at this point.

Interesting numbers, there.

I'm into tubes. I love them in guitar amps, and ditto for headphone amps.

As to audio equipment with speakers, then I'm O.K. with solid-state.

--

But seriously, nothing quite sings like an early Les Paul or pre-CBS Strat (or Tele), through an old Fender, Marshal, or Vox tube head set wide-open!

Look no further than SRV; An old Strat through an old Fender Vibroverb tube amp, only using a pedal occasionally as volume boost.

Roy Buchannan had a similar set-up with his old Tele. I don't ever remember him using a pedal, either.

And the result of Roy's & Stevie's set-ups? Among the most beautiful and recognizable tones in the world. Pure, beautiful, tone; no other way to describe it!

--

As an aside, you can't overlook string gauges - either. Stevie used unbelievably heavy strings, 13's, and it shows in his tone! Roy used 11's, if I remember right.

I used 11's on my Strat, which gave beautiful tone, but is limiting in how you can play, particularly the bends. The flip-side is with good pegs and the whammy bar blocked, once broken-in 11's will stay in tune no matter what you do to them! Your slow chording and triads will always sound beautifully in tune. So, I found the trade-offs worked for me, because I always put tone first and I didn't like playing with effects. If I wanted effects & distortion, I had a bandmate's Les Paul I could use! :p
 
I want you to be informed and draw your opinion regarding Biden from a factual basis, whatever that may be. None of this needs inference, it only requires all to know the timeline of when parties made their statements, and when they announced revised public statements and new stances.

Timeline is self explanatory:

Feb 27th:
The EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell announced that 3 NATO countries are going to provide Russian made combat aircraft to Ukraine.

March 1st: Bulgaria and Slovakia deny that that that is their intent. Polish President Andrej Duda said after a press conference with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg: "We are not sending any jets to Ukraine because that would open a military interference in the Ukrainian conflict. We are not joining that conflict. NATO is not a party to that conflict."

March 5th:
Multiple US news outlets reported that US officials told them of a possible deal, in which Poland would send Soviet-era aircraft to Ukraine in return for American F-16 fighter jets. IChancellery of the Prime Minister of Poland said "fake news." "Poland won't send its fighter jets to #Ukraine as well as allow to use its airports. We significantly help in many other areas."

March 6th:
US Secretary of State Blinken, in Moldovia: "We are looking actively now at the question of airplanes that Poland may provide to Ukraine and looking at how we might be able to backfill should Poland decide to supply those planes." And on face the nation: "That gets the green light. In fact, we're talking with our Polish friends right now about what we might be able to backfill their needs if in fact they choose to provide these fighter jets to the Ukrainians".

March 7th/8th:
Polish Foreign Ministry suddenly confirms its choice: "The authorities of the Republic of Poland, after consultations between the President and the Government, are ready to deploy – immediately and free of charge – all their MIG-29 jets to the Ramstein Air Base and place them at the disposal of the Government of the United States of America. At the same time, Poland requests the United States to provide us with used aircraft with corresponding operational capabilities. Poland is ready to immediately establish the conditions of purchase of the planes."

March 8th:
Fiasco. That afternoon Victoria Nuland, a top official at the State Department, surprised everyone by saying that Poland’s statement about the MiGs wasn’t “preconsulted” with the U.S. Which seemed … unimaginable.

Later comes a statement from the Pentagon (Kirby) dismissing the Poles’ plan to transfer the MiGs to Rammstein.

March 9th:
Poland said on Wednesday that it (still) wants to work with NATO countries to send fighter jets to Ukraine one day after the U.S. rejected Poland's proposal.
"Such a serious decision as supplying planes must be unanimous and unequivocally made by the whole North Atlantic alliance," Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said at a press conference, Reuters reported.

March 10th and aftermath:
Poland's offer to continue to seek a way was moot. The Pentagon lobbied Biden to kill the deal.

From Politico:


So let's all agree; at first Poland denied the idea or planning for the idea of a transfer (March 1st and then March 5th statements). Blinken and Poland arrived at the outline of a possible solution and gave a green light. Poland then announced a (or the) plan on their own. Biden did not like it and killed it - and killed further efforts to come up with a solution.

The idea that everyone was always "adamantly against it" BEFORE Biden killed is incorrect. Poland changed its stance and Biden had sent Blinken on a pointless mission, one that Biden never had faith in.

Let the context and facts speak for themselves.

Argh, I had no intentions on getting into this rabbit hole, assigning blame retrospectively, but you obviously spent a lot of time & effort here, so I will thank you and try to touch on it.

I'm happy to accept your timeline, as I believe you are acting in good faith.

--

So yeah, something seemed to go sideways on March 8th.

If I were hard-core debating, I could simply claim The Pentagon shut the idea down, and it can't be proven Biden did it. But that would be disingenuous, and in reality it is likely Biden did sign-off on it, even if it only was to ratify the Pentagon's decision.

However, I think we also need to be open to Poland having gotten wet feet, and put America in a position where they had to say, 'no'. I've seen copy claiming the U.S. problem wasn't in giving Poland planes, but it was having the U.S. send the Polish jets from an American airbase. It may be neither Poland or the U.S. had the guts to send the planes from their own bases.
 
Argh, I had no intentions on getting into this rabbit hole, assigning blame retrospectively, but you obviously spent a lot of time & effort here, so I will thank you and try to touch on it.
I'm happy to accept your timeline, as I believe you are acting in good faith.
--
So yeah, something seemed to go sideways on March 8th.

If I were hard-core debating, I could simply claim The Pentagon shut the idea down, and it can't be proven Biden did it. But that would be disingenuous, and in reality it is likely Biden did sign-off on it, even if it only was to ratify the Pentagon's decision.

However, I think we also need to be open to Poland having gotten wet feet, and put America in a position where they had to say, 'no'. I've seen copy claiming the U.S. problem wasn't in giving Poland planes, but it was having the U.S. send the Polish jets from an American airbase. It may be neither Poland or the U.S. had the guts to send the planes from their own bases.

Not to belabor the point, I think the paragraph I bolded in your reply is mainly correct. Poland was persuaded by Blinken of some kind of 3 party transfer, while Poland was attempting to publicly keep the lid on by denial, and then Poland announced agreement with the three party proviso discussed with Blinken.

Nato, not Poland, had to provide the Polish planes. It wasn't Blinken that weighed in, who didn't say much publicly, it was the Pentagon. As happens in executive politics, they seemed unaware of what Blinken had been discussing and thought it a bad idea and the same day lobbied Biden to kill it.

You are quite right, nobody wanted to be the point of dispatch... which made the whole effort DOA long before Blinken began his efforts.
 
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Not to belabor the point, I think the paragraph I bolded in your reply is mainly correct. Poland was persuaded by Blinken of some kind of 3 party transfer, while Poland was attempting to publicly keep the lid on it, and then Poland announced agreement with the three party proviso discussed with Blinken.

Nato, not Poland, had to provide the Polish planes. It wasn't Blinken that weighed in, who didn't say much, it was the Pentagon. As happens in executive politics, they seemed unaware of what Blinken had been discussing and thought it a bad idea and the same day lobbied Biden to kill it.

You are quite right, nobody wanted to be the point of dispatch... which made the whole effort DOA long before Blinken began his efforts.

Yes, I pretty much agree with this.

There's a lot of possible sub-variables in this, but I suspect this is the rough framework.

Sorry I took so long to respond.
 







--

So, who's going to shed a tear?

--

I will say I'm starting to get a greater appreciation of the depth & ramifications of the sanctions levied.
There's also a "shades of 2008" aspect to the current russian sanctions that could blowback with a magnitude greater than the impacts of 9/11, the Great Recession, and Covid combined:

https://wallstreetonparade.com/2022...41-billion-on-credit-default-swaps-on-russia/

"There is a known $41 billion in Credit Default Swaps (CDS) on Russian debt.

"There is likely many billions more in unknown amounts.

"There are also billions more in Credit Default Swaps on state-owned Russian corporate debt and non state-owned Russian corporate debt.

"In addition to Wall Street not knowing which global banks and other financial institutions are on the hook to pay out on the Credit Default Swap protection they sold in case of a Russian sovereign debt default (or Russian corporate debt default), there is also approximately $100 billion of Russian sovereign debt (whose default is looking more and more likely) sitting on the balance sheets of foreign banks.

"Put it all together and you have the makings of a replay of the 2008 banking crisis when banks backed away from lending to each other because they didn’t know who would fall next from toxic subprime exposure.

"That led to a liquidity crisis and the unprecedented involvement of the Federal Reserve secretly pumping trillions of dollars into the megabanks on Wall Street and their foreign derivative counterparties."
295f5a2e-34f1-4fa4-acfe-fff36bc9918d.jpg

https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/03/16/678686/PUSH-FOR-DE-DOLLARIZATION
 
So these switchblade drones will take out missile launchers from the ships? From Russia?
If so, good enough; send plenty.

:) Don't be surprised if Ukraine's Migs start having babies and their Air Force start growing.

Yes, we need to stop being so blazing transparent.

And you enjoy your evening too.
,
No, they won't intercept ballistic or cruise missiles. Used against a ship they won't do more than randomly hit somewhere (probably center mass). Their maximum warhead is that of a Javelin multi-purpose warhead, which is sized to take out vehicles or enclosed small structures, not ships. Moreover, they are very slow for a shore to ship weapon and should be easy prey to a ships gatling gun defenses (And I have no idea if they are rated for long overwater functioning).

So, your original concern about the denial of aircraft is warranted. Whenever someone tells you that "you don't need that" what they really mean is "we don't want to give it up, or we don't want you to have it". It's the all-purpose dodge, trying to gaslight those requesting it.

Combat pilots, air defense officers, and soldiers and their officers are well aware of costs of not having enough aircraft. Tell any NATO commander he doesn't need to have air cover or attack aircraft and he'd have you sacked or checked out by military physiatrists.
 
Whenever someone tells you that "you don't need that" what they really mean is "we don't want to give it up, or we don't want you to have it". It's the all-purpose dodge, trying to gaslight those requesting it.
I've been suspecting that.
Tell any NATO commander he doesn't need to have air cover or attack aircraft and he'd have you sacked or checked out by military physiatrists.
LOL For sure.
 
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