Xerxes

No relation. Just a coincidence. It was always bound to happen. People had it with the elite pillaging the country. The actual trigger could have been anything. These things cannot be predicted in terms of timing. Now that is not to say Israel/U.S./Saudi are not taking advantage and doing what whatever that they do best. (I.e creating more problems and making life miserable for the commoners) @Spekulatius Nope. U.S. is always enemy number one.

anything is possible and clearly I am not the one who is going to guess correctly. But I would caution against extrapolating the trend line. You can have multiple reversion to the mean, for various completely unrelated non-military and military reasons. when a war goes on for 4 years or 6 years, it was never foreseen to last that long in the first year. There could periods where both sides just lick their wounds for months on ! Before another phase of high intensity activities starts.

damn. Paywall. But I got the first paragraph and the jest of it. Well, the general is a student of military history and a no non-sense military man. But he is also subordinate to his civilian commander in chief. And therefore should probably keep in line of the chain of command. I ll look to find that speech that he supposedly gave to the economic forum.

my guess is that they (Russia) has far better intelligence about Ukrainian infrastructure since Ukraine inherited the old Soviet energy, power etc infrastructure. And those are fixed and highly knowable targets. whereas the intelligence from command and control, weapons depot location is not there. As they are far more mobile. And probably better “managed” by the Ukrainians since the start of war given that they are obvious targets.. lastly, I also think the Russian missile campaign against infrastructure has been months in the making. The media here has painted it as knee-jerk reaction to the bombing of Kerch bridge and Ukrainian rapid advance in Kharkiv. But I believe it was always bound to happen. But the timing was set by the Kremlin to be on the eve of the Winter for maximum impact. Perhaps pulled forward by a few weeks so that can also “package” it as well as a response to Kerch, while they are at it.

Thanks for posting. Looks like Spain had caught the Dutch disease before the Dutch, they just did not know it at the time. Speaking of the curse and blessing of the Spanish gold, I went down to Xerxes's Imperial Archives and pulled out these two ancient scrolls, concerning the Curse. Here are the passages: "... At the sametime, the influx of bullions from the Americas, was begening to hole the Ottoman economy below the waterline, in ways there were barely understood. The Ottoman had resources to outstay any competitors in the business of war, but they were powerless to protect their stable, traditional, self-sufficient world against the more perinicious effects of modernity. There were no defensive bastion against rising European prices and inflationary effect of gold. In 1566, the year after Malta, the gold mint in Cairo - the only one in the Ottoman world, producing coins from limited supplies of African gold - devalued its coinage by 30 percent. The Spanish real became the most appeciated currency in the Ottoman empire ... " Empires of the Sea: The Siege of Malta, the Battle of Lepanto, and the Contest for the Center of the World: Crowley, Roger, Lee, John: 9781400157228: Books - Amazon.ca Second passage: "Once the gold began to arrive in quantity, the Spanish were far more proficent at spending than at producing. The massive import of gold and silver stimulated the spending skills at the sametime that they stifled Spain's incentive to produce. Spain acted liked a poor man who makes a great windfall at gambeling tables but comes to believe that the money is his destiney rather than a nonrecurring event. ..... the more gold that came in, the less the Kingdom has, Though our Kingdom should be the richest of the world ..." The Power of Gold: The History of an Obsession: Bernstein, Peter L.: 9780471003786: Books - Amazon.ca

finally someone who knows what he is talking about. I mean within the circle of officials. Not commenting against anyone in this thread. I am equally ignorant.

Here is another situation, where in this case NATO bombed the Chinese embassy, an entire building, and called it an accident. If that was an accident, than I think one can let go suspision of Kremlin targetting poor farmers in Poland and for what. The night the US bombed a Chinese embassy - BBC News United States bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade - Wikipedia

President Andrzej Duda said the projectile was “Russian-made” and variously referred to it as either a missile or a rocket. “What happened was an isolated incident,” said Duda, who added that an investigation is underway. “There is no indication that more will take place” Poland is a member of NATO. The development set off a chain of diplomatic activity among members of the alliance and Ukraine, which is not a NATO member but which gets massive military aid from the alliance. U.S. President Joe Biden spoke with Duda and “offered full U.S. support for an assistance with Poland’s investigation,” the White House said. “President Biden reaffirmed the United States’ ironclad commitment to NATO.” From CNBC Missile strike Poland called 'isolated incident'; allies 'on standby' (cnbc.com)

"16 Psyche is a large M-type asteroid discovered by the Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis, working in Naples, on 17 March 1852 and named after the Greek mythological figure Psyche. The prefix "16" signifies that it was the sixteenth minor planet in order of discovery." That will change the stock-to-flow ratio for gold, until someone clever comes up a normalized stock-to-flow ratio that normalizes for "cost of extraction" rather than weight. Is it weight, i dont know

Yes ! Yes ! Yes 1

One of the intersting thing about gold is that, all the gold that has ever been mined since the dawn man, are in some shape and form part of that gold hoard that is "above ground", as they got re-melted and recasted hundreds of times over. Even what is use for industrial use/electronics, finds itself back given that it is not "used-up" as barrel of oil would be. If i recall the last major gold supply increase was either (1) california or (2) Russia and since than no mega increase on the supply. Can you imagine today world economy with currencies backed by gold, it would just choke on itself, sense supplies of gold have not leapt the way economies have grown in the past 4-5 decades.

Sorry for your loss

Viking agreed that we don’t know anything nor have all the facts.

I guarantee you (IMO) that of all the things that has happened here in the past six months, the two missile that accidentally (allegedly) went on the other side is not going to high on the list. Once the powwow settles down and once media are done amplifying it and moved on to the next story to amplify.

Shhughes you seem to be pretty close to the situation. Or following very closely. The only part of your post I could relate too or comment about is that it was fall of Sevastopol that gained Von Manstein his Field Marshal’ Baton !!

It was a late Tuesday humourless humour.

What if we get to that last iteration where we get very close to the cap of 21 million and than miner is able to create 1 more, and than 1 more past 21 million. Whhhhhops. the cap is not real !!!. It was a fiction.

Bloomberg spend more than an HOUR on this news. Jesus ! A business network. The Iraqi drove a French Exocet missile straight in the belly of U.S.S. Stark in the 80s. Their own ally. U.S.S. Vincennes in turn shot down a passenger airliner, few years later. mistakes and error happens. And frankly this is hardly groundshaking. Find ways to give Ukrainian more and more defensive tools they have to defend themselves. Don’t waste airtime/energy on “uhhhh 2 missile came in … within inches or accidentally came on that side”

Episode 3 of Crown was powerful !!

I recently sign up back on Netflix after 8 months of abcense, but cancelled Crave (HBO) now that the House of Dragon is finished. I signed up for the ad-suported version of Netflix and have a backlog to burn through. I randomely watched different shows from that backlog, some thoughts: Crown -- as captivating as always, at episode 3 now. All Quiet on Western Front -- watched the first half, was somewhat bored. It is a good story, the two stories going in parallel. The top brass eating like pigs, as normal people just get killed. Will finish it. Peaky Blinders -- the new season is a complete disaster. I did learn in the first episode that there is French own island next to New Foundland. That was interesting. Ozark -- an ok show to watch; grinding slowly This show got me intersted (have not watched it yet) Taboo (2017 TV series) - Wikipedia with Tom Hardy, related to the East India Company

My view is that would have happened regardless, the OPEC+ production cut was largely in reaction to Federal Reserve interest rate hike. if the latter was/will kill aggregate demand, than that takes away demand from barrels. So a cut was natural step.

'Putin's Brain' Turns On Russian Leader With 'King of the Rains' Warning (msn.com) Warning to Putin from Twyin Lannister, oh i mean Alexander Dugin

Me and you both. The men couldn't do it, so hopefully the women can .... lol

There is no need for the West to play the “victim card” vis a vis China. We chose that relationship because supporting Chinese economic development helped our multinational, creating jobs at home etc. lower cost etc. Economy trumped national interest. Same goes for Saudi Arabia, we arm them to the teeth, creating jobs locally for our defence contractors, knowing full well that only means a more angry Iran, which in turn turns it into a self fulfilling prophecy and a virtuous cycle, with its aggressive actions. Saudi defence budget of $45 billion vs Iran defence budget of $15 billion. That is great business to be in !!! That said, I don’t expect my fellow westerners to understand these things.