Luke

Hope you enjoy your amusement! It's amusing to me that you think Russia won't notice that and will immediately retaliate that move. If the us decides to push their military bases further and further to russia, i understand that they are doing something about it. What do you think will happen if china builds military bases at the border to mexico? Do you think the US will "negotiate"

If the US wants to fight an active war against russia, they can decide to do that but i hope for our own lives that germany wont join the madman move.

And regarding your proposal of sending ukraine Taurus KEPD 350 cruise missiles. 1. In order to correctly program these weapons you need highly qualified personal which ukraine lacks. That means that german personal need to take these weapons into one of our bases, program it before use and then give it back to ukraine. 2. Our constitution is different from UK, France and US which is why programing these weapons here would mean actually entering this war within our own legal system, which we obviously dont want and our chancellor also doesnt want. 3. The taurus missiles can fly up to 500km and can enter into deep concrete layers. It is highly likely that IF ukraine uses these that they will fly deep into the russian territory to destroy important bases and more. Russia will significantly escalate the situation if that happens and also escalate the situation with the country who programmed these weapons. Id would be the start of a new phase were we really get involved. 4. Its highly likely that russia escalates the war with tactical nuclear weapons to protect them in that case, something nobody wants. Its time to deescalate, get back to the negotiating tables and stop sending more and more deadly weapons that do nothing. Our politicians are voted for so they protect our safety and freedom, sending taurus to ukraine actively interfers here and IMO politicians who further deescalate should be banned from being in politics and go to prison for treason.

Because these are accusations without any basis and they are used to gag criticism. Kujat is a highly respected general and does not deserve conspiracy theories. They basically show that ukraine is in a pat situation and not winning this "war". Ukrainian General Zaluzhny said that publicly (he also got lots of criticism for doing that by selensky. selensky of course needs to maintain the image that they are progressing to get further funding) : https://www.economist.com/europe/2023/11/01/ukraines-commander-in-chief-on-the-breakthrough-he-needs-to-beat-russia 1. Ukraine drafted 500000 man because they are losing way more soldiers than Russia: https://www.ft.com/content/d7e95021-df99-4e99-8105-5a8c3eb8d4ef 2. They can not break through the barriers Russia set up with the current gear, that's why they are desperate for even stronger weapons (Taurus) 3. In order to break through the line Russia set they need proportionally 3x+ more soldiers because so many die in the front fire, it just so hard to break through and they don't have the personal nor the weaponery. 4. Russia mass produces drones that kill the tanks they got too easily. I never said it's not nuts what russia is doing to ukranians. I do think it's nuts to keep fighting when losing is inevitable. They could save ten thousands, hundred thousand lives when they get back to negotiating. Right now they are running into their deaths, which doesn't make sense. You have, in my opinion, a completely wrong assessment of the leadership in Russia. We have to agree to disagree on that. Putin IS willing to negotiate and negotiations were even quite successful before Ukraine was deterred by foreign forces that have significant investments in this war, as you already summarized. This is a misplaced analogy, and we are not in WW2 times anymore. Russia has nuclear weapons, the game changed. It is not a logical fallacy, it is an observation. You sit in your american basement and propose that other countries fight a war that could get them in significant danger while facing 0 of the consequences. What is "cowardly" about accepting that losing is inevitable and saving ones life? Absolutely nothing. Putin didnt want this to happen but the developments happening in Ukraine posed significant danger to russias security, hence the invasion. And again, you dont simply "significantly respond" to a country with nuclear weapons. So you are actively using WW2 analogies to this war in ukraine, that shows your motive and assesment of the size of this conflict and the willingness of how far you would go here. I fundamentally disagree with your assesment of the motives of the russian government, this is not japan in 1945. Negotiations about ukraines neutrality, armistice and resolution are realistic and possible. Do you know with how many soldiers putin came into ukraine? It was 200000 vs 400000 active ukranian soldiers with western weapons. How do you infer here, that his goal was "taking the whole of ukraine".

Holy moly, tik tok ban more likely? :(( https://www.wsj.com/articles/tiktok-bill-ban-house-vote-af4d0800

I am eyeing on nintendo but have to wait till my margin use gets down a bit over the next months.

Added to PDD

I have exchanged a large part of my alibaba position for tencent, reduced some prosus and added to tencent. I am planning to play it with 60% Prosus 40% Tencent as a full position and think thats optimal. My opinion on alibaba did not change but i think tencent is just the better business with better tailwinds. Small gain on the alibaba position in this short time frame.

That was so long ago man...i am talking about putin era

Lol, we had perfectly fine business relations with russia for decades, and got the ressources we ordered. Raping women what? Never said russia should GOVERN our country, but we should have good relations with them and increase ressource trade. Culturally they also have SO much to offer...

Some good russian music

Besides that i have no opinion on gold and no position. Highly interesting to observe these connections of old generational capital...the road also leads towards russia and of course the sophisticated putin network...

This is where these folks live btw: Not a suprise that putins lifestyle fits well with them ha!

Yes i have been but i dont remember it being such a big deal. What i can say is that current voter estimates are pointing towards 20-25% for the alternative for germany, a right wing party that has a DEXIT, own national currency (gold backed) and stronger relations with russia on their plan. Interestingly, the AFD was sponsored in their early days partly by DEGUSSA Goldhandel (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degussa_Sonne/Mond_Goldhandel), a gold selling company that was bought by august von finck, the father of von finck was once germanies wealthiest man and called "hitlers banker" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_von_Finck_Sr.). Even stranger, the von finck family bought the rights to the name "DEGUSSA" for several millions in the early 2000, back in the nazi days the company that supplied the gas to kill the jews was also "DEGUSSA AG": https://www.hagalil.com/archiv/98/12/degussa.htm So you have a right wing party, with a focus on national currency, sponsored by germanies wealthiest family of which the ancestors were significant hitler supporters and then BUY the NAME RIGHTS of the company who supplied the gas to kill jews on an industrial scale to support a right wing, nationalist party... Times are interesting guys!

ETF trading at 17x earnings, 2% yield and 1.7x book. 40x earnings in 2021 was probably a bit much also due to war, supply chains etc., but this could look more interesting from here indeed.

My friends and I learned russian in school and that was not long ago, why not include chinese too and create more exchanges? Oh but no, they are veeeeeryyy dangerousss and we should better do what the US says!

And Xi+Putin would be more than happy with an increase in cooperation in trades, sciences, cultural educational exchanges. Imagine China building up eurasias silk road...our talent and ressources combined here would be a massive threat against US business.

Its seriously time to level the playingfield, we all see how much europe, china, russia etc is down as a region. Do we seriously think the US will help us here? They are more than happy to take our markets and enrich their shareholders via wall street. We should build our own high margin businesses, make the same trump tariff play, use our monopolies against the US for pressure etc...only that way we will take a better share of the cake.

IMHO - we need russia and china badly. We can see the contracts by US LNG, we can see how trump thinks about things...nothing is free here and the US will use every way to make money off of our mistakes. Germany with a strong partnership with russia and China stands better against the economic power and coercion by the US then with the US against the two.

Unlikely he wants his peace disturbed!

Putins billion dollar palace is a couple hundred kilometers away from crimea...who would think he would give that piece back to ukraine so the US can build a military basis on it to bomb him away at some point...xD

I think one part of why americans are so easily bullish for sending all sort of weapons to ukraine is because they are so far away comfy at home i think I am sitting 2000km away from the conflict...

Your beloved future president trump said publicly on the telly that he "encourages russia to do whatever it wants" because countries didnt pay the 2% of their GDP. How nuts can politics in the US get? This guy is not the average joe talk show man but the possible president. If that doesnt ring bells to become independent from the US i dont know what should. Freedom is not free but freedom is also not bought with sending even more heavy weapons into this conflict...russia has tactical nukes...did you somehow forget? Anything can happen, thats why we have to upgrade our military, never said we shouldnt. Probably we should get access to nuclear weapons too but thats difficult. Germany does not look after its own interests and follows too much US orders, especially with trump coming up we really should look away from the US and towards stabilizing this region here without the US sending all their gear.

Yadda yadda yadda, he is a MEMBER of an organization of which the owner is a russian. Massive mental stretch and a disgrace to Kujat to throw out these allegations. Never was and never has been, also not 10-15 years ago and before. The russian empire thesis is massively stretched and unjustifiable. The bigger problem for germany russia relations is the US and not russia itself. I am not a military expert: The austrian army uploaded this 2 months ago, comparing to what it sometimes sounds like in the media, ukraine is in a stalemate. You are arguing for even more deadly far range weapons, UK and france is already helping with geodata and has personal in ukraine to help them operating devices...how nuts can it get? You are saying russia is a threat for germany and you want us to get even more involved with directly damaging that country...how does that make sense? Yes, if we help ukraine beating russias ass and are directly involved in this war, russia will be a threat obviously...our chancelor already said that taurus is off the table due to the range etc...majority of germans against taurus too. Pretty good summary of HOW MUCH your country is involved in that war haha! If you want to escalate further welcome to world war 3! I assume you wont get drafted and will sit at the sidelines shorting european stocks? Do you see how negotiating, armistice and diplomacy is non existent in what you write? You are coming from an opinion standpoint that negotiation is lost and russia has to be fought actively against with a whole bunch of other countries, sizeable amount and getting close to WW2/WW1 involvment. At the same time putin repeatedly said publicly they are willing to negotiate.

We are spending the 2% of our GDP now annually, no idea why you guys are so fucked up about apparent "US" taxes that are being spend on "germany". Who said pacifists? You are putting words in my mouth, I said it's not wise to engage into this war with Russia for us and that diplomacy is smart here...why would he want to attack us at all, the facts are pretty clear what this is about. This is such a shameful comment, you should be ashamed for saying these things as a US citizen honestly, no idea why you react so agressive.