The US & NATO are no longer seen as a net positive force, quite the contrary. US/NATO are only effective now at imposing control on & adversely affecting their own populations. And nations too tightly tied into US/NATO are suffering, ie. Japan, S. Korea, Canada, & Latin America. The key beneficial strategy now is not to terminate all contact with US/NATO, maintaining markets there. Plus be very cautious in signing official agreements with them as they routinely violate such accords. They're not reliable. Yes, it's very heartening seeing Russia benefit from the West's attempts to coerce & bludgeon & take them down. Go Russia!!
Indeed, Stephen. Your point about agreements is dead on! That is why Putin knows he has nobody to negotiate with over Ukraine. Zelensky's regime is illegitimate, and the US cannot be trusted to honor any agreement.
Ask Ghadaffi how well the US honored its agreement with him. 🙄
The rest of the world is looking at the way the collective west has treated Russia.
Their reaction is literally the geopolitical version of the reaction to the Trump conviction.
The west going after Russia has been over the top, and so desperate, that it brings the legitimacy of their claims into question.
Similarly, none of those countries watching [what's happening to Russia] want to be part of a system that will punish their people if the collective west disagrees with their position.
Lindsay Graham just told precisely why the west is involved in the Ukraine conflict -- and it has to do with natural resources! NOTHING TO DO WITH FREEDOM.
It's not as bad as it seems. Their competence is as always vastly overestimated. A few years ago the IRS estimated that around 30 million people were underpaying taxes, mostly in gray market "gig economy" and under the table / secondhand markets (day labor, ebay/etsy/amazon marketplace/etc).
That's part of the real reason the blues have been trying to eliminate 1099 contracts and push everybody into wages: income tax withholding is much easier to collect since it's enforced on the employer side, where 1099 contractors have to cut quarterly checks, and often simply don't.
Also why Biden hired all those new IRS agents: not to "make the rich pay their fair share" but to go after people doing marginal work. Unfortunately for them the influx of staff has not yielded a proportionate increase in revenue.
How could it? They are going after people who don't have any money. The gig worker types make very little money compared to middle class, upper middle class, or rich people. So what exactly did they think they were going to achieve by going after poor people? You can't get blood from a stone.
Exactly. And that's how voracious prog governments push people into gray and black markets in the first place: by proving to them that the only way to make ends meet if you're not tied into the aristocracy is to work off the books.
Russia has a robust tradition of this, left over from the soviet era, when the only way you could put food on the table if you weren't part of the inner party was to be engaged with the black market.
Americans are learning. Of course people brought up in prog ideology think that the unsanctioned economy is outrageous and immoral. But it is just how almost all of life worked before the progs came along and propagandized the public into the idea that everything should be regulated and taxed; IOW it's the normal mode of economic behavior that has worked for thousands of years before progs tried to “fix” it with their “scientific management”. So shifting back toward gray/black market activity is un”fixing” things.
The only downside is it prolongs the survival of the regime by making its economy work in spite of the regime's best efforts to break it. Some estimate I read somewhere figured that in Russia this staved off collapse in the Soviet Union for a decade or two. But people have to live, and can't just maliciously comply and starve to hasten the collapse even if it would be a win for them on paper.
Screwing over the gov't/IRS will come to be seen as a moral good & even deeply moral people will actively withhold away! How long till people start withholding 100% of taxes owed? It's not a moral debt so most of us will fully support it. Then the level of withheld such extorted funds will exceed funds paid. Most taxes paid are done so on the honor system, but this will change.
More or less the only way of sending money to Russia at the moment is via crypto using a peer to peer network with some random crediting your Russian bank account (you’ll need one as no Western currency cards work there) with the equivalent in roubles. It works quite well. Definitely faster than SWIFT (which you cannot use to Russia anyway)
Saying that I did see some people using Visa to pay when I was there last time. I expect that’s a dual Visa/MIR card for when Russians go to the West.
I think bureaucrats everywhere need some sparse times. They’ve been too focussed on looking after themselves and the former Soviet Union is the head of that sort of shit.
The elections in the EUSSR (European Union Socialist Soviet Republics), by the deep state scum called EU, have shown that the people of Europe are mad of the system.
They were largely faked as always, but this time the people became aware. The fake was on the level of 2020 here. But thousands of election observers disturbed the regime this time and uncovered the unbelievable amount of fraud. Germany's election system is far behind North Korea, as in the US. Manipulated boxes, thousands of communists (from the regime called democrats) posted on Twitter proudly how many ballots for the AfD (Alternative for Germany) they have destroyed. This election was a landslide for the AfD, called by the sociopaths from the regime "Nazis".
Being called "Nazi" in this German nightmare by the regime is the biggest compliment you actually can receive.
The people in Europe are friends of Russia as we must be. We, the people must take back the power and fight the system on every level.
All rational players are now friends of Russia. It's unique in our time. It experienced full-bore atheist communism for 70 horrific years, & lived to tell the tale. It is now the most anti-communist, anti-atheist, & anti-moral relativism entity in the world today. It's the inverse of the literal NATO 'underworld'. And the Left understandably hates Russia as much as they hate Trump & populism & the whole Christian ethos. So Russia now is who we were, & in a sense what we want to restore in ourselves.
China by contrast is what the Left emulates, aspires to become, & that speaks volumes. So it's a strange triangle. The only certainties are the decline of US/NATO & the continuing steady development of Russia. A coming multipolarity also seems fairly certain. Take this as our emerging foundation & plan accordingly.
The spiritual war that underlies this physical war (atheist autocratic globalism & hot wars) continues. And metaphysical 'breakouts' of the former into our dimension are becoming more frequent. It's important now to have a daily spiritual practice to counter this.
Globohomo screws up yet again; as you say, Morgthorak...HA HA HA HA HA!!!!! HA HA HA HA!!!!
The combination of the evil party and the stupid party (in the US) have conspired to create a situation that leaves Russia set to become one of the two leading powers in the world over the next 50 years; just as the GAE collapses into well deserved 2nd rank status. And believe me, as a Brit, I know how that feels...I have seen your future, America, and it ain't much fun.
I bet you 100 globalist bucks that the “globalists” nuke Russia since they’re doing so well. This would help them to have Russia nuke them back and reduce the “carbon footprint” of their countries…
Despite many thinking that Putin is an alternative to the corrupt shits in the West he still pushed vaccines and “green passes” on Russians a year or two ago and has, like Trump, never backed away from it.
In regards to war he has built a new holiday home on the Karelian lakes which is pretty damned close to Finland, enough for a slingshot to reach probably.
Correct me if I'm wrong on this, but isn't the Russian shot different than the American one? I don't think they used mRNA in theirs. However, my recollection here could be foggy.
Also, nobody said Putin or Russia is perfect, but the point is that somebody is standing up to the empire, and stopping it from getting what it wants.
Go Russia! Hip hip hooray!
The US & NATO are no longer seen as a net positive force, quite the contrary. US/NATO are only effective now at imposing control on & adversely affecting their own populations. And nations too tightly tied into US/NATO are suffering, ie. Japan, S. Korea, Canada, & Latin America. The key beneficial strategy now is not to terminate all contact with US/NATO, maintaining markets there. Plus be very cautious in signing official agreements with them as they routinely violate such accords. They're not reliable. Yes, it's very heartening seeing Russia benefit from the West's attempts to coerce & bludgeon & take them down. Go Russia!!
Indeed, Stephen. Your point about agreements is dead on! That is why Putin knows he has nobody to negotiate with over Ukraine. Zelensky's regime is illegitimate, and the US cannot be trusted to honor any agreement.
Ask Ghadaffi how well the US honored its agreement with him. 🙄
The rest of the world is looking at the way the collective west has treated Russia.
Their reaction is literally the geopolitical version of the reaction to the Trump conviction.
The west going after Russia has been over the top, and so desperate, that it brings the legitimacy of their claims into question.
Similarly, none of those countries watching [what's happening to Russia] want to be part of a system that will punish their people if the collective west disagrees with their position.
Lindsay Graham just told precisely why the west is involved in the Ukraine conflict -- and it has to do with natural resources! NOTHING TO DO WITH FREEDOM.
https://x.com/LindseyGrahamSC/status/1799832487285465244
Miss Lindsey is a scumbag, but likely right about it. It’s never about “freedom” and “democracy.” 🙄
Maybe we need to start building black and grey markets and cutting DC out of the loop.
Very difficult to do, they can smell money a mile away, and they always come for their cut.
It's not as bad as it seems. Their competence is as always vastly overestimated. A few years ago the IRS estimated that around 30 million people were underpaying taxes, mostly in gray market "gig economy" and under the table / secondhand markets (day labor, ebay/etsy/amazon marketplace/etc).
That's part of the real reason the blues have been trying to eliminate 1099 contracts and push everybody into wages: income tax withholding is much easier to collect since it's enforced on the employer side, where 1099 contractors have to cut quarterly checks, and often simply don't.
Also why Biden hired all those new IRS agents: not to "make the rich pay their fair share" but to go after people doing marginal work. Unfortunately for them the influx of staff has not yielded a proportionate increase in revenue.
How could it? They are going after people who don't have any money. The gig worker types make very little money compared to middle class, upper middle class, or rich people. So what exactly did they think they were going to achieve by going after poor people? You can't get blood from a stone.
Exactly. And that's how voracious prog governments push people into gray and black markets in the first place: by proving to them that the only way to make ends meet if you're not tied into the aristocracy is to work off the books.
Russia has a robust tradition of this, left over from the soviet era, when the only way you could put food on the table if you weren't part of the inner party was to be engaged with the black market.
Americans are learning. Of course people brought up in prog ideology think that the unsanctioned economy is outrageous and immoral. But it is just how almost all of life worked before the progs came along and propagandized the public into the idea that everything should be regulated and taxed; IOW it's the normal mode of economic behavior that has worked for thousands of years before progs tried to “fix” it with their “scientific management”. So shifting back toward gray/black market activity is un”fixing” things.
The only downside is it prolongs the survival of the regime by making its economy work in spite of the regime's best efforts to break it. Some estimate I read somewhere figured that in Russia this staved off collapse in the Soviet Union for a decade or two. But people have to live, and can't just maliciously comply and starve to hasten the collapse even if it would be a win for them on paper.
Bravo! Well said! 👍🏻
Screwing over the gov't/IRS will come to be seen as a moral good & even deeply moral people will actively withhold away! How long till people start withholding 100% of taxes owed? It's not a moral debt so most of us will fully support it. Then the level of withheld such extorted funds will exceed funds paid. Most taxes paid are done so on the honor system, but this will change.
More or less the only way of sending money to Russia at the moment is via crypto using a peer to peer network with some random crediting your Russian bank account (you’ll need one as no Western currency cards work there) with the equivalent in roubles. It works quite well. Definitely faster than SWIFT (which you cannot use to Russia anyway)
Saying that I did see some people using Visa to pay when I was there last time. I expect that’s a dual Visa/MIR card for when Russians go to the West.
Let's start paying our taxes to the Russian gov't & not any Western gov't just for the hell of it. 😜
I think bureaucrats everywhere need some sparse times. They’ve been too focussed on looking after themselves and the former Soviet Union is the head of that sort of shit.
The elections in the EUSSR (European Union Socialist Soviet Republics), by the deep state scum called EU, have shown that the people of Europe are mad of the system.
They were largely faked as always, but this time the people became aware. The fake was on the level of 2020 here. But thousands of election observers disturbed the regime this time and uncovered the unbelievable amount of fraud. Germany's election system is far behind North Korea, as in the US. Manipulated boxes, thousands of communists (from the regime called democrats) posted on Twitter proudly how many ballots for the AfD (Alternative for Germany) they have destroyed. This election was a landslide for the AfD, called by the sociopaths from the regime "Nazis".
Being called "Nazi" in this German nightmare by the regime is the biggest compliment you actually can receive.
The people in Europe are friends of Russia as we must be. We, the people must take back the power and fight the system on every level.
All rational players are now friends of Russia. It's unique in our time. It experienced full-bore atheist communism for 70 horrific years, & lived to tell the tale. It is now the most anti-communist, anti-atheist, & anti-moral relativism entity in the world today. It's the inverse of the literal NATO 'underworld'. And the Left understandably hates Russia as much as they hate Trump & populism & the whole Christian ethos. So Russia now is who we were, & in a sense what we want to restore in ourselves.
China by contrast is what the Left emulates, aspires to become, & that speaks volumes. So it's a strange triangle. The only certainties are the decline of US/NATO & the continuing steady development of Russia. A coming multipolarity also seems fairly certain. Take this as our emerging foundation & plan accordingly.
The spiritual war that underlies this physical war (atheist autocratic globalism & hot wars) continues. And metaphysical 'breakouts' of the former into our dimension are becoming more frequent. It's important now to have a daily spiritual practice to counter this.
Globohomo screws up yet again; as you say, Morgthorak...HA HA HA HA HA!!!!! HA HA HA HA!!!!
The combination of the evil party and the stupid party (in the US) have conspired to create a situation that leaves Russia set to become one of the two leading powers in the world over the next 50 years; just as the GAE collapses into well deserved 2nd rank status. And believe me, as a Brit, I know how that feels...I have seen your future, America, and it ain't much fun.
I bet you 100 globalist bucks that the “globalists” nuke Russia since they’re doing so well. This would help them to have Russia nuke them back and reduce the “carbon footprint” of their countries…
Let's hope you are wrong, Luc. 😂
I hope I’m wrong too!
Despite many thinking that Putin is an alternative to the corrupt shits in the West he still pushed vaccines and “green passes” on Russians a year or two ago and has, like Trump, never backed away from it.
In regards to war he has built a new holiday home on the Karelian lakes which is pretty damned close to Finland, enough for a slingshot to reach probably.
Correct me if I'm wrong on this, but isn't the Russian shot different than the American one? I don't think they used mRNA in theirs. However, my recollection here could be foggy.
Also, nobody said Putin or Russia is perfect, but the point is that somebody is standing up to the empire, and stopping it from getting what it wants.
It’s the same as Astra Zeneca. Made in the same factories in India.
And ask a Russian about Putin.