WAR of the World

[BlackPeter]

What europe needs now is a bank like what morgan did in world war 1...

https://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/trumps-threat-how-prepared-is-the-german-defense-industry-a-8666a348-8654-4626-9dca-9bdc4f4609e8

europe will need funds if its to increase defence manufacturing..

Not sure funds are the biggest issue - hey, Europe (generating something like 15% of the worlds GDP - and if we include the UK its more than 20%) should be able to provide more funds than Russia which has roughly the economic power of Northern Italy ...

What Europe needs is just the political will - and what the European weapons manufacturers need is some long term committment. Who would want to invest in an ammmunition factory if nobody needs ammunition after Putins demise ...

One of these dilemmas - to keep the peace you need to invest into the war - difficult to explain to pacifists ...

[Waltzing]

"difficult to explain to pacifists"

might not be many left in europe ...

Ruttee for Nato chief... video of him speaking...

and of course looking forward to visiting the new https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/visit

was due to visit in july 2020 but still waiting... first trip was in 1983 while sculling (rowing) on the Bosbaan....who does not like living in amsterdam in the 80's...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosbaan

[Waltzing]

The UN cant verify if NK shells and missiles were used in Ukraine...

maybe Helen Clarke could lead a delegation of experts to ukraine to find the evidence...

oh hang on shes busy in GAZA ....

[Waltzing]

Maybe sending ukraine lots of older tanls like Leo 1's isnt a silly idea and the russian are down to T55's.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2sYCabtQX0

[Waltzing]

It looks like a world that is a power keg waiting to blow...

NK could be the flash point....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmykRCGyums

[BlackPeter]

It looks like a world that is a power keg waiting to blow...

NK could be the flash point....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmykRCGyums

No doubt the world today is a black powder keg with too many people running around close to the keg with open flames and torches.

Not even sure, whether the speculation about whether it will be Putin, Xi, the Ayatollahs, a hard right Israel or the Dear Leader who will bring the powder keg to explosion will bring a lot of benefits. Somebody will, this is all which counts - and the West is lamed by a bunch of braindead populists who will (as they did in WWII) make sure we allow the explosion to happen and only send the firefighters when the big carnage is already done.

More interesting about who triggers the explosion would be a discussion whether there is a way to extinguish the flames and defuse the powder keg before it explodes.

If there is a way to prevent this, then it doesn't looks like we are currently very effective in going it, but at least we should start thinking about how to best survive the explosion (i.e. a rather likely nuclear WW III) and how to create afterwards a world order which stops repeating the same mistakes again and again.

But hey - humans never managed to achieve that before, why should they now? The cycle of history just stands on winter ... and after plenty of killings and suffering no doubt the wheel will turn forward to spring, summer, autumn and then - shudder - the next winter. Good thing is, while we have to live through this winter, we won't see the next - this will be the challenge for generations to come.

So - better prepare for the war - maybe we should buy our navy another inflatable and supply our army with some stones and sticks to throw?

[Waltzing]

its a re run of the 1930's and how the world got here this quickly but the 2001 twin towers could be seen as the early flash point...

the real question is when does one dump stocks and go to gold...

defence stocks in europe have already doubled ...

it maybe that the only saving the situation is that there is no alignment of interests and china is linked into west trade in a way that limits its choices going forward....

china cant afford to have a complete collapse of the housing market as the population could revolt....

even military dont want their homes to be worth nothing much...

china population is apparently no longer confident that the economy is investable...

XI got a problem ... and it called banking and double entry book keeping which it looks like they dont understand how it works...

after all they invented gun powder? and europeans created book keeping...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luca_Pacioli

[Waltzing]

Have you ever been the target of industrial warfare or involved in aquiring assets from weak players in a market.

If you have ever seen or been exposed to this you will realise human nature is a very very dangerous creation of nature...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkkwqiG0zjU

[BlackPeter]

its a re run of the 1930's and how the world got here this quickly but the 2001 twin towers could be seen as the early flash point...

the real question is when does one dump stocks and go to gold...

defence stocks in europe have already doubled ...

it maybe that the only saving the situation is that there is no alignment of interests and china is linked into west trade in a way that limits its choices going forward....

china cant afford to have a complete collapse of the housing market as the population could revolt....

even military dont want their homes to be worth nothing much...

china population is apparently no longer confident that the economy is investable...

XI got a problem ... and it called banking and double entry book keeping which it looks like they dont understand how it works...

after all they invented gun powder? and europeans created book keeping...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luca_Pacioli

Agree with your assessment re Chinas problems. Only issue is - what does a tyrant do if he has too many homemade problems? He creates a scapegoat and starts a nice little war (which can easily get out of hand) to distract and unify the homebase.

That's the risk I currently see with China.

[Waltzing]

Yes agreed and apparently china is creating local military units inside business to control local populations....

Once you start down the central control model it only wants more and more control destroying the economy ...

a ground hog day probem ...

GDP spirals down and down ....

your right ....

[Waltzing]

Germany in economic contraction ...  its going to be a struggle for the europeans to get the job done.. and the UK and NZ with its 26 million,,,, big effort from NZ... probably needs pub charity raffles ...

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/02/23/opinions/general-david-petraeus-ukraine-war-second-anniversary-bergen/index.html

[Waltzing]

Its obvious the professional elements of both armies may be gone and its a mess... no one wins..no one has any idea what they are doing...

https://kyivindependent.com/this-week-in-ukraine-s2e7-ukraines-messy-withdrawal-from-avdiivka/

[Waltzing]

Churchills words echoing down the halls of westminster ...

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/02/24/west-seize-russia-central-bank-assets-ukraine-war/

[Waltzing]

Ukraine may be facing a much bigger war than the west wants to imagine..

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/23/iran-reportedly-sends-hundreds-of-ballistic-missiles-to-russia.html

[Waltzing]

And now they are saying ... sending troops is not out of the question... but troops to do what?

https://edition.cnn.com/europe/live-news/russia-ukraine-war-news-02-27-24/h_708e0f292439a526b8c11c0aa7c212c3

After Waterloo europe enjoyed 100 years of peace? and what now?

Would Wellington recognise this war on the east of europe that threatens all europe and prehaps even more...

A return to the 16 century of no rules but who has the biggest guns and the most or are we already here yet again...