quote:

Originally posted by chellim1:
<snip>
Meanwhile the United Nations Environment Programme announced that the gas leaks in the Baltic Sea caused by the sabotaged pipelines created the single biggest release of climate-damaging methane ever recorded in human history.
<snip>

Well, if the United Nations Environment Programme said so it must be true.

Sounds like Russia is getting worried about the unidentified object the Danes found on another pipeline. Also, per this Reuter's article, only Russia, China, and Brazil voted for it, the rest abstained.
Reuters


Of coarse we against it Comrade. The resolution directly implicates the US as the person who blew up the pipeline. What should we have done? Said sure, admit to something we didn't do, so Russia can score political points against the USA? Here is our Ambassador's response to the UN and why we are against the resolution. Worth a read:

Link

quote:

Ambassador Robert Wood
Alternate Representative for Special Political Affairs
New York, New York
March 27, 2023

AS DELIVERED

Thank you, Mr. President.

Let me begin by reiterating our deep concern regarding the sabotage that took place on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines in September 2022. The United States categorically refutes Russia’s unfounded allegations leveled against us in relation to this act of sabotage. The United States was not involved in any way. Period.

As we have said previously, the international community cannot tolerate any deliberate actions to damage critical infrastructure.

However, let us be clear on what Russia’s draft resolution was, and what it was not. It was an attempt to discredit the work of ongoing national investigations and prejudice any conclusions they reach that do not comport to Russia’s predetermined and political narrative. It was not an attempt to seek the truth.

The competent national investigations by Sweden, Denmark, and Germany are proceeding in a comprehensive, transparent, and impartial manner. As many Council members have said, they must first be allowed to conclude. That is why we did not support this draft resolution and voted to abstain today.

We must ask why, despite having failed to make its case to the Council, Russia still chose to bring this resolution to a vote. It is difficult to accept Russia’s posturing that it only seeks an impartial, independent investigation.

Let it be clear for the record that the first draft of Russia’s resolution clearly implicated the United States, based on mischaracterizations of statements made by U.S. officials. The first draft criticized the investigations of other UN Member States. Over the course of many rounds of consultations, Russia failed to provide any credible new information to justify a UN investigation at this time.

I repeat: Russia has consistently sought to advance a political agenda based on unfounded accusations and predetermined culpability. Russia’s decision to call for a vote on a resolution that has such little support should make us all question what its true intent is.

UN resources for UN investigations should be preserved for scenarios where states fail or are unable to carry out genuine, impartial investigations. That is not the case today. We cannot allow Russia’s continued spurious allegations to distract this Council or unnecessarily divert the UN’s scarce resources from other pressing matters deserving of this Council’s attention and resources.

If Russia were truly committed to protecting civilian infrastructure, it would demonstrate this through its actions. Russia’s claim to be concerned over the sabotage of critical infrastructure belies the fact that Russia is relentlessly attacking its neighbor. It is striking cities and towns across Ukraine, damaging and destroying residential areas and medical facilities.

Russia’s attacks against Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure have left millions displaced, without power, and in need of humanitarian assistance.

Russia’s calls for accountability today ring hollow.

Thank you, Mr. President.

Whichever Propaganda Comforts You...

quote:

Originally posted by nhracecraft:
Whichever Propaganda Comforts You...

And we all know the Soviets/Communists/Russians are master propagandists. And we see what side you picked...

You both derail any information you post by the back and forth school girl arguing that you both continue with. Post the info let member read and decide. I have never used the ignore button. You two might be the first.

I don’t care if we blew the pipeline. I don’t care if Russia did. It is done. You think Russia is gone nuke us over it? No way we are going to war over it with them.

quote:

Originally posted by chellim1:
Al-Jazeera News —
the Russians have prepared a draft UN Security Council resolution requesting an independent international investigation of the recent NordStream state-sponsored terrorism incident. Do you agree that sounds completely understandable? Well, guess what.

The United States and its allies OPPOSE the Russians’ legal request for an international investigation, even though the State Department claimed Russia blew up their own pipeline, so you’d think we’d welcome the investigation, to shame Putin and whatnot.

The Russians have or will be rotating into chairmanship of the Security Council, and have been planning to use their time in that position to pursue a number of "investigations", including whether the rest of the world has somehow been "provocative" to them.

If there were such a thing as an independent third party to conduct the investigation (only national governments seem to have the resources), then this might seem suspicious. As it is, it's at least equally likely to be the US trying to deny the Russians yet another opportunity to use the UN for a distraction or to insert misleading or confusing information into the 'report'.

Russia has used disinformation as a common, everyday tactic since the Bolsheviks took over, if not before. Russia has spent decades learning how to use its position at the UN to block or divert problems that Russia would have to deal with otherwise.

Without more, it's hard to believe that the US is trying to hide involvement in the Nordstream explosions rather than trying to prevent Russia from exploiting the UN for its own agenda.

Look next for an attempt to position Ukraine as 'anti-Christian' in the UN (and press) because they threw out Russian Orthodox priests and closed their churches. The intermingling of church and state in Russia made those priests and churches part of a pro-Russia, anti-Ukraine cabal. No other Christians (or members of any other religion) are being treated in the same way, and the Orthodox Ukrainian church is certainly not being shut down.

A friend of mine just mentioned this while in a conversation:

So basically China and Russia are joining forces to dominate the world while America tries to tackle climate change and focus on pronouns. What a joke.

More countries are trying to align with Russia and China who are working on a new currency to provide an alternative to the dollar.

Mexico Plans to Join BRICS Amid Growing Tensions with US

https://eurasiamedianetwork.co...ng-tensions-with-us/

BRICS to expand soon, Saudi Arabia keen to join

https://www.financialexpress.c...een-to-join/2737102/

“The case of Saudi Arabia, however, is both curious and interesting. Saudi Arabia has traditionally been a close ally of the US in West Asia. But in the last few months, the relationship has undergone a roller-coaster ride. During his electoral campaign, President Biden projected Saudi Arabia as a pariah states due to Prince Salman’s alleged involvement in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post journalist. After coming to power, however, he changed his course and visited Saudi Arabia. This visit was intended to ensure the low price of oil to punish Russia,” opines Prof Rajan Kumar, School of International Studies, JNU.

As reported earlier, South American nation Argentina’s President Alberto Fernandez had asked Chinese President Xi Jinping about joining the group. Iran too has sent in its request to join. Both countries have already applied for the membership of the bloc earlier this year in June. The other countries including Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt are set to formally apply for the membership of BRICS.

BRICS represents more than 40 percent of the global population and nearly a quarter of the world’s GDP and if it is expanded it will help in bolstering the BRICS bloc’s global influence. At the BRICS summit this year, according to reports quoting Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian, many countries have expressed their interest to join the bloc of emerging markets. And stated that China actively supports the member countries to start the expansion process for BRICS Plus Cooperation. At the 14th summit this year the members talked about the procedure and the standards for the expansion.

https://issafrica.org/iss-toda...re-brics-in-the-wall

Collectively BRICS is home to 26% of the world’s geographic area and about 42% of the world’s population. Moreover, the group is under-represented in the global financial system. The five nations combined hold less than 15% voting rights in both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), yet their collective economies are predicted to surpass the G7 economies in size by 2032.

More at links

quote:

More countries are trying to align with Russia and China who are working on a new currency to provide an alternative to the dollar.

Mexico Plans to Join BRICS Amid Growing Tensions with US

It's all about energy...
Mexico refuses to follow us down the climate change, green new deal path of self-destruction.

I'm fine with Mexico aligning with China and Russia. I'm sure the cartels will appreciate the vast new territory to explore and exploit.

quote:

I'm fine with Mexico aligning with China and Russia.

Be careful what you wish for.
The end of the petro-dollar will be the end of the dollar as the world's reserve currency. That will also mark the end of our ability to print vast quantities of dollars, accepted for trade with the rest of the world.

We won't be able to deficit spend, essentially financed by the rest of the world. In short, we will have to drastically cut government or drastically raise taxes. I would be fine with this if it meant drastically cutting government, but I'm afraid it won't. It will mean raising taxes to the point that we are no longer free.

^^^Yup, the US.gov borrows/prints 30% of what it actually spends, so interest rates would skyrocket! Just think crushing taxes, AND potential hyperinflation! You know, think Venezuela!

Even with Saudi Arabia joining in, no one seems to be ringing any fire bells about the "death of the petro dollar". Since its demise has been predicted for some years now, shouldn't we be asking when and whether that's actually going to happen?

Meanwhile, for those who thought Putin was carefully considering China's peace proposal for Ukraine, it appears not. Fresh from the mouth of Russian Deputy Foreign Minister in Moscow, it's Putin's Preconditions!!:

- the West has to stop supplying weapons to Ukraine

- all armed forces have to cease hostilities

- foreign 'mercenaries' (or, I guess, foreigners who've enlisted in the Ukrainian military and are therefore NOT mercenaries) have to leave Ukraine

- Ukraine has to abandon attempts to join NATO and the European Union

- Ukraine must swear to keep nuclear weapons out of its borders

- Ukraine has to 'restore its contractual and legal base with Russia and the CIS' - which, I suppose, means re-inking the disadvantageous contracts it had with Russia for buying and allowing the transit of oil and gas

- Ukraine has to recognize the annexation of Donesk, Luhansk, Zaporozhye and Kherson to Russia

- Ukraine and the West have to lift sanctions against Russia and end lawsuits against Russia as well as 'cease legal proceedings against Russia, Russian individuals and Russian legal entities (like corporations)

So much for China's peace proposal going anywhere.

http://english.pravda.ru/news/..._settlement_ukraine/

The thing about what everyone calls the Chinese "peace plan" is that it's not really that, rather than a statement of principles based upon which China hopes to set itself up as a mediator between both sides. Russia has endorsed the part that says "all powers should respect each other's security interests", since it plays to their narrative that they were forced to launch a defensive war of aggression by NATO encroaching upon their borders and angling to make Ukraine a member, too (clearly the security interests of smaller guys like Ukraine itself don't play a role in either the Chinese or Russian view). They want to hear nothing about the part that says "everyone should respect each other's national sovereignty", however.

Per a Japanese media report, the Chinese are also wildly optimistic that both sides will be exhausted enough to be amenable to them facilitating negotiations by late summer this year already, based upon simulations by a military think tank which seem to assume that the current American aid package will not be renewed by the Republican majority in the House of Representatives after it runs out at that point. That's supposedly why they are moving forward now. It's a bit of a gamble, since if they don't manage to get negotiations started this year, they might look impotent rather than gaining status as a true global power with sufficient influence to make bitter enemies end wars.

Everyone else is not so hopeful. Some time ago a British estimate was that the war will go on for at least another year; a US opinion was that it will burn itself out within the next one or two years. Most recently Estonian intelligence claimed that Putin is definitely prepared to continue for another two; which may also suggest a hope for a change of government in the US and stop of Western support for Ukraine after 2024, delivering the country to him and thus allowing him to claim belated victory. Any negotiated peace leaving him with less than at least the four Ukrainian regions he annexed will be dangerous for his rule, and possibly liberty and life.

If France is paying in Yuan for LNG, the cascading effect might happen rather quick. Beginning of the end for the petro dollar?


France Buys 65,000 Tons Of LNG From China In First Ever Yuan-Denominated Trade

https://www.zerohedge.com/mark...an-denominated-trade

China has just completed its first trade of liquefied natural gas (LNG) settled in yuan, the Shanghai Petroleum and Natural Gas Exchange said on Tuesday. As OilPrice notes, the Chinese state oil and gas giant CNOOC and TotalEnergies completed the first LNG trade on the exchange with settlement in the Chinese currency, the exchange said in a statement carried by Reuters.

The trade involved around 65,000 tons of LNG imported from the United Arab Emirates (because China will never admit that it is re-exporting Russian LNG even though it now does it all the time) the Shanghai Petroleum and Natural Gas Exchange added.

More at link.



Former assistant US Treasury secretary warns of dollar collapse, ‘raging inflation,’ digital currency

‘If Saudi Arabia decides to join with America's enemies here and start trading oil in different currencies,’ the result will be ‘a complete implosion of the global economic system, but certainly the American economic system,’ Monica Crowley said

https://www.lifesitenews.com/n...-29&utm_medium=email

Introducing the interview topic on the Fox and Friends Weekend show, Fox News host Will Cain reviewed the strengthening partnership between Russia and China, with the former committing to make more international transactions in the Chinese yuan instead of the U.S. dollar, which has been the world’s reserve currency for many decades.

In addition, China is recognized as helping to successfully broker a peace agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia earlier this month, which one commentator called a “diplomatic master stroke that contrasts the U.S. as a warmaker with China as a peacemaker.”

With this strengthened relationship with China, Cain explained how Iran and Saudi Arabia were also considering joining the BRICS economic alliance with Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

“What happens if these emerging economies move away from the U.S. dollar towards the Chinese yuan?” Cain asked Crowley.

“It’s really hard to overstate exactly how catastrophic the abandonment of the U.S. dollar would be as the world’s global reserve currency,” the former Trump official stated.

Since the U.S. dollar is not backed up by any hard asset such as gold anymore, its strength lies in the “economic power of the United States, and the fact that oil has always been traded in dollars. If that were to end, that would mean the end of the U.S. dollar,” she said.

A former Fox News contributor herself, Crowley explained how U.S. government officials have abused the privilege of having the world’s reserve currency with “wholly reckless monetary and fiscal policy … printing money like crazy” especially in “the last couple of years, which has really devalued the dollar.”

“On top of that now, you do have this perfect storm of Biden’s weakness, his war on American domestic energy production, the Ukraine war, and as you point out, because of all of these things, we’ve got America’s enemies led by China forming a new economic bloc,” she explained.

At this point, “if Saudi Arabia decides to join with America’s enemies here and start trading oil in different currencies, that is going to undermine the entire global economic system,” she said, indicating that this would most drastically impact the American economy.

“If that were to happen, you’d be looking at sky-high inflation just raging Weimar Republic kind of inflation. If you think inflation is bad now, just wait. But more importantly, we would lose our economic dominance and we would lose our superpower status,” she said.

More at link

quote:

no one seems to be ringing any fire bells about the "death of the petro dollar". Since its demise has been predicted for some years now, shouldn't we be asking when and whether that's actually going to happen?

Meanwhile, The Petrodollar Just Got Smaller Today as The First LNG Shipment Between UAE and France Is Traded in Yuan

Two major energy trade developments today highlight how the Western Alliance is quickly losing a grip on the world energy market, as an alliance between China, Russia, Iran and the Middle East Gulf Cooperation Council starts to take shape with actual trade exchanges that are not in dollars.

Last year, in response to big panda’s own interest and seeking to exploit two western alliance self-created weaknesses; (1) sanctions against Russia and (2) weakened investment in LNG production; China spearheaded the Shanghai Petroleum and Natural Gas Exchange.

The exchange was aimed at group purchasing services for liquefied natural gas (LNG) though the use of the yuan to replace the dollar. Essentially, team Gray operating without the global trading system of team Yellow (map). The Shanghai exchange allows purchases of LNG portions by small and medium-sized buyers in yuan.

Today, CHINESE national oil company CNOOC and France’s TotalEnergies have completed China’s first yuan-settled liquefied natural gas (LNG) trade through the Shanghai Petroleum and Natural Gas Exchange, the exchange said on Tuesday (Mar 28).

Approximately 65,000 tonnes of LNG imported from the UAE changed hands in the trade, it said in a statement. TotalEnergies confirmed to Reuters that the transaction involved LNG imported from the UAE but did not comment further. (read more)

This exchange between the UAE and France is taking place without dollars. If the process continues the dollar weakens. In the geopolitical world of currency valuations and trade, this might be considered the Archduke Ferdinand moment for the end of the petrodollar. The question will become, can they grow this process with OPEC+ support and begin eventually trading oil in yuan?

https://theconservativetreehou...in-yuan/#more-244904

Il Cattivo's favorite source for all things Ukrainian, The Institute for the Study of War analysis.



Wagner Group Fighters Make Major Bakhmut Breakthrough—ISW

https://www.newsweek.com/wagne...kthrough-isw-1791032

Troops from the private military company Wagner have likely seized the industrial complex in the north of Bakhmut as they continue to make gains in the city fiercely fought over for months.

Kremlin-friendly media outlets reported in mid-March that Ukrainian troops were holed up in the corridors of the Vostokmash building in the Artyomovsk Metal Processing Plant (AZOM) zone. Bakhmut's Russian name is Artyomovsk.

Russian military bloggers chronicling the Kremlin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine said on Tuesday that Wagner fighters had captured the complex. The troops were working to clear the area of Ukrainian forces who were left there.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said these claims chimed with geolocated footage of Kremlin-friendly journalists moving about the complex with ease. The hosting of media personalities meant that it must be under Wagner control.

The mercenaries are likely to consolidate gains in the north and center of the city, push towards the city center, and expand the zone of control to the west, the ISW said.

Other Russian military bloggers said on Tuesday that Wagner fighters had gone closer to Bakhmut's city center and taken control of the city market. These claims were backed up by geolocated visual evidence.

The U.S. think tank said that Russian forces have made territorial gains of 5 percent over the last week and now controlled around two-thirds (65 percent) of Bakhmut.

Newsweek has emailed the Russian and Ukrainian defense ministries for comment.

More at link.

The last two Democratic administrations have this country so screwed up on all fronts that Russia China have to be looking at us as an easy target.

I'm sure this was the plan all along. They sure got quiet when Trump was in office.

quote:

Il Cattivo's favorite source for all things Ukrainian, The Institute for the Study of War analysis.

You're thinking of someone else - I'm not the one who's been quoting their articles (or versions of those articles that have been bowlderized for Putin's fans, anyway).

Long article. The U.S. under Biden is assuring that our enemies are strengthened while the West is diminished. These decisions may haunt us for decades.


Why Saudi Arabia Is Following Iran to Join China and Russia's Security Bloc

https://www.newsweek.com/why-s...ecurity-bloc-1791326