MicroB

Complaining about your own people.

Is it?

https://aseannow.com/topic/1351963-president-jd-vance/#findComment-19824449 And its not "Democratic Union Party" but "Democratic Unionist Party". You make them out to be a friendly sort of bunch, not the bible tumping Holy Joes they actually are. And its Northern Ireland, not "north of Ireland". North of Ireland is Dundalk. I'm going with the theory that a great great great grannie slave was banged by the Master. Or he's a Cockney Vance. Either way, increasingly likely , he's a Plastic Hillbilly.

He's beyond being a billionaire. People profit from wars. People profit from other people being sick. People profit from other people being hungry. People profit from other people not being able to afford a house/new car/telly etc. Big Pharma lost out on revenue in Russia. Medicines in Russia are largely imported, mostly from Germany and US. 80% of medicines, and 90% of medical equipment. These are not sanctioned. The major players are still on the Russian market, invoicing in Rubles and taking a massive hit on profitability, as they defend market share (the expectation is that Russia will return to normality one day) The Pharma industry is MASSIVE compared to Defence. You moan about the alleged influence of defence companies (in my experience, they are not the Pied Piper in defence spending, Eisenhower was wrong). 2023 was considered a really good year for Defence M&A; a measure of the inward investment into an industry. There was $38bn in M&A. Sound like a big number. That's dwarfed by Pharma M&A of $191bn. R&D; Abbvie spends more on R&D than the 3 top defence companies combined. So Captains of Industry don't really want war. Eisenhower's MIC premise was based on the huge number of defence companies wanting a slice of the federal pie. In 2025, the industry has massively consolidated into a handful of prime contractors; thats what governments want, because between wars, defence companies go out of business or switch to doing non-defence stuff, which is more profitable, easier to export, easier to staff. That means far less voices into the ears of politicians, much less influence compared to other industries. Consolidation in US defence Ironically, Russia has seen a huge number of defence companies spring up, mostly producing crap, as a result of former state employees effectively stealing factories (this is how most of the oligarchs became rich. Men who took advantage of a crumbling USSR to essentially steal assets). Putin started the war to satisy his old man desire for a legacy (a Peter the Great masturbatory fantasy), and men making lots of money, were happy to go along with that. Originally, when this started, I had this thinking (flawed), that an increasingly professional Russian military would restrain Putin. I misinterpreted the non-involvement of the Russian Air Force as evidence of schisms in the military, of professionals wanting to protect their carefully curated empires. Indeed, early on, we saw among the Russian POWs, quiet professional officers, excuding an elitism that you hoped would be seen further up the chain. People like Col. Astakhov Mikhailovich; he was a OMON officer (a sort of gendarmarie), captured early on. Came over as a quiet professional, doing his job as a copper, and not a naive man. I thought there would be many more like him (Putin has literally broken Russian domestic law). Later on, a captured navy pilot based in Crimea (married a local lady, spoke Crimean), came over as an arrogant prick, but nevertheless, a professional. But the realisation is that the Russians promoted are incompetant syochophants, all to happy to sacrifice their men if it means lining their own pockets (eg, Russian soldiers getting donkeys instead of trucks is not because Russia lacks trucks. Its because some scumbag officer has sold the trucks). The Russian arms industry are the true profiteers, and they don't want the war to end, because so far they are getting away with it; receiving vast amounts of cash, in another grand theft of the Russian people, delivering very little. Russian tank factory. Yeah, they are refurbishing WW2 era T34s and SU100s.

So explain the Mutually Assured Destruction Paradox. I know what it is. Its usually a theory that comes from the Extreme Left and their Disarmament lackies.

Putin's making money on this. He's a thief. That's his MO.

I think the cost of this plane will be fairly limited; to whatever the monthly storage fees are. Its going to stand around for months, years, while they "figure" out what to do with it. At some point, they'll realise the 2 brand new AF1s will get finished before they can even start taking out the gold plated khazis from this one. And so it will sit, getting all dusty, and bleached looking, with dried out hydraulics, flat tyres. And come 2029, its scrap only. Not even worth anything in spare parts, as by then, even the freighter fleet of 747s will be on the decline. In 2020, a Qatari King realised a 8 year old 747 was too expensive to fly. In 2029 a pensioned off President is really going to have the moolah to gas up a 17 year old 747? Maybe it will make a great bar, souvenir shop. Someone needs to tell him if he recertifies Concorde, he will have the coolest looking plane on the apron. One of the Concordes is with the Smithsonian, which means its basically his, because the Smithsonian will have to give it to him, or their budget gets cut again.

I wouldn't bother debating with the Brit who is pretending to be a Russian.

You have it the wrong way round. Putin runs a Kleptocratic State. He and his mob of thieving oligarchs have systematically robbed Russia, resulting in a country of 150 million having an economy now smalle When Putin came to power, he could have done good things for the Russian people. Instead, he did good things for himself. The war gave him the perfect opportunity for further grift, through switching to a so-called war economy, further centralising money into the hands of his mates. Object to a factory being stripped of employees for the SMO or to go build tanks? Unpatrotic, lock him up. One of the 17% of Russian businesses going under? Good, more workers happy to earn a few kopeks screwing together non-existant 60 year old build tanks. 40% of Russian government spending is now in the defence sector. Its not going into the pockets of the squaddies; headline eye watering bonuses are not getting paid. That money, going straight to the oligarchs. They don't really care, as many of the squaddies are either minorities, and therefore undermenschen in the eyes of many Russian slavs, or stupid gopniks who deserve to go into the grinder. I worked in the defence sector. We spent an awful lot of time looking to diversify into non-defence industries. Not because the board was a bunch of peaceniks. No, the reality is, if your two main customers are the DoD and UK MoD, they cut your margins to the bone, on the basis that if they buy from us, then surely all these other countries will follow suit, and we can add markups to the price on them (we did). Much of the equipment supplied to Ukraine was already in service. That was defence money spent 20, 30 years ago. Getting rid of these systems reduces in service support, so saves the various defence departments money. Now it has to be replaced, or so the service chiefs hope. It doesn't always. There are new rounds of bids, programme funding etc. If there is war profiteering going on, its on the Russian side. The Putin supporters here, if they are really Russian (I don't think they are), are just too stupid to understand their country is getting raped up the sphincter my men who have done this all their lives, laughing all the way to a Cayman Islands bank, with their Maltese passports. I hope Russians will wake up to this, and end Putin. Don't really care if he gets a fair trial or not.

Some sort of Freudian slip.

A film well known for its one liners. Colour Sergeant Bourne in the movie is played by a middle aged Nigel Greene, as a rather fatherly character. In reality, Bourne was 24 years old. Astonishing.

Echobelly, Dark Therapy. An under rated band 30 years ago

Fun Lovin' Criminals. I'm not in Love The late great Chris Cornell's genius mash up of U2 and Metallica. Captain James Blunt, Where is My Mind Puddles Pity Part, The Sounds of Silence

35 years since this was Number 1.

A South African complaining about BBC coverage, irrespective of the issue, does not constitute backlash in the way I understand the ter,. Generally, backlash is taken to mean a groundswell of public opprobrium against an organisation or individual. The BBC might be receiving complaints from a private South African citizen about its coverage of current events in his country, but in the UK, I am not sensing any sort of "backlash". His correct recourse is to the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa, which is responsible for the conduct of correspondants working for foreign news organisation in South Africa. Of course he is not some random South African businessman. He is one of the Hersovs; a prominant business family in South Africa for the last 3 generations. His father made an utter fortune in mining and arms during the Apartheid years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglovaal Why is a British South African dual national worried about how a British news organisation covers news relating to the United States? He is the former chair of BIPA; the British Internet Publishers Association, a trade body, and has been a long term critic. So really, his latest is nothing new. He's had a beef with the BBC probably his entire life. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2000/dec/09/internetnews.business1 https://variety.com/2000/digital/news/a-battle-for-supremacy-1117788816/ https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200001/cmselect/cmcumeds/161/1013114.htm And I get an idea about his bio here; https://www.ny-forum-africa.com/en/speakers/2014/ So he has a portfolio of board positions that include the media. He call to dismantle the BBC is based on commercial concerns. He's always been opposed to the BBC on principle. Maybe Gary Lineker said hurtey things about him. Notably, he made no such complaints about Channel4, ITV nor Skynews, who have lead with basically the same stance as the BBC. Nothing will come of his complaint, nothing. But its just theatre. Here he is joking with fellow South Africans that there is no white genocide going on.There is complex ZA domestic policies at play: Its all about who can invest in a Star Link South Africa subsidiary. As its in telecommunications, the South African government says it must have 30% investment from a historically disadvantaged group. It can't have investment from one of Hersov's media companies, because, as the son of Basil Hersov, he's never been disadvantaged. As soon as that is sorted out, I expect any American issue with South Africa to evaporate, and the refugees being politely told they are no longer refugees, and need to regularise their presence before ICE comes a knocking. And here is the change https://mybroadband.co.za/news/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/52712-3218-Comms-Policy-Direction-ICASA-BEE-2025-05May-23-1.pdf Musk's own tweets expose the lie about "white genocide". If white genocide is actually happening, why does he want to invest in that country? He knows its <deleted>.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_vacations HTH 49 - 12

1948 I guess. The Crisis didn't start in October 2023; things weren't all rose they day before. Some in the Israeli political scene have accused Netanyahu of facilitating the rise of Hamas. https://www.timesofisrael.com/for-years-netanyahu-propped-up-hamas-now-its-blown-up-in-our-faces/ Netanyahu had previously indicated opposition to withdrawal from the Gaza settlements. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/aug/08/israel As Prime Minister, he elevated recognition of Hamas, an organisation he had warned about, as some sort of counterweight to the West Bank government. He disregarded attacks on Israeli settlements in the south, I suspect because they weren't the people who'd vote for him anyhow. Cynicism or appalling judgement lead him to this point. Lord Carrington offered his resignation in the wake of the Falklands invasion. Netanyahu should have done the same. He's not a naive man.

Technically incorrect on two points. The Hamas action was an incursion not an invasion. Invasion involves seizing of territory. All accounts suggested Hamas terrorists went in to cause mayhem, and then left as fast as possible with hostages. There is no evidence that the IDF successfully caused them to withdraw. Russia, rather than Russians, invaded Ukraine, at the direction of their government. It was an official act. The terrorists who went into Israel were certainly acting on the direction of their political leadership, Hamas. Hamas is a political organisation that governs Gaza, but it does not govern Palestine. It has de facto control of the Gaza Strip. The Palestine National Authority is the body that is recognised as the legitimate sovereign power. There is no evidence that the PNA conspired with Hamas, so present your evidence. Ukraine is doing a valiant effort effort resisting a nuclear armed enemy, and is out numbered by 3 to 1. Israel enjoys a numerical advantage of 5 to 1 over the population of Gaza. Its been making a meal of it, largely through tactical incompetance, with enormous wastage of munitions, largely driven by a fear of casualties on its own side. More tonnage of bombs has been dropped on Gaza than Berlin during the whole of WW2., suggesting the IDF is either not very adept at using the weapons systems gifted to them, or their intelligence gathering is poor. I see this the result of the politicization of the IDF, compared to previous years, which is also why they were so blindsided by the Hamas attacks, a sort of thing that would never have happened in the past. This is an issue that is in discussion in Israel https://en.idi.org.il/articles/58356https://en.idi.org.il/articles/58356 https://www.inss.org.il/publication/idf-politics/ Its generally regarded that the appointment of Major General Eyal Zamir as head of the IDF at the insistance of the Mafdal–RZ Party is an intensely political and ideological decision.

No

Ditto China, Iran. DPRK, but you never criticise them, and call upon then to stop supporting the Russian war marchine for "some reason". I saw the same during the Cold War; those Soviet apologists, like Jeremy Corbyn, Diane Abbott, John McDonnell and Tahir Ali, constantly excusing the Soviets and always blaming the West. They have natural successors, who instead of tuning into Radio Moscow each night, instead, switch on their VPN, and watch RT because its "the truth". US military hardware is now less important than in 2022; BAE is now independant of US imports of nitroglycerine, through process changes, European production has scaled up, but also Ukrainian industry has increased. Both sides are facing front line shortages, but that seems to be down to not actual production and depot replenishment, but due to logistics. Russian logistics, from their factories in the far east, are degrading. Intelligence is another matter. RAF Rivet Joint patrols (UK version of the RC-135W) continue to supply data to the Ukrainian military, which helps with better targetting. However, even though the data is captured by the RAF, some of it is filtered through the US, as a NATO ally, and then spat back out. The US is at times actively now denying such data to a NATO ally. That doesn't mean the data stops, but it becomes less refined, less precise.

What with? Most Russian airlines lease anyhow, from Western brokers. Its not a state industry anymore. Even China will have a limit the orders it can take, and its probably eying the more lucrative APAC and MEA markets, who actually have money, maybe even Europe if they get certification. The Russian economy was about the size of Italy's, now its even smaller, more like Spain, so why do Chinese plane makers care about that. For the forseable, they will be stuck with whatever clapped out second hand Boeings and Airbuses they can lay their hands on. The entire Russian aviation industry is now supporting the SMO, allegedly, plus the knowhow really lay with Ukraine, but they screwed that partnership.

Russian economist more or less agrees

Some very interesting viewpoints on LCA. You are no doubt very familiar with James Lovelock, and peope like John Martin. I spent the early part of my career demonstrating the viability of CLAW. It boils down to the idea of perpetual motion machines.

Obviously, he's not in favour of wet flour. Time for him to mend bridges with the separatists in Scotland. Wee Mammy has gone. Alex Salmond is dead. Humza is sorting out his Gaza relatives. Jim Swinney recently met with Son Number 2 over tea and Tunnock's teacakes. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgw118nlkeo Or lock him in a beach hut with an old guy, a pile of beef sandwiches and a bottle of Whiskey, and he might emerge a different man. Great movie.

To be fair, if not for the crisis that Israel is in right now, the ongoing bribery-fraud trials that the Israeli PM is facing, might be proceeding at pace (in the latest, the Prosecution has rested). As in Westminster, Israeli political parties do change leaders. The crisis, on one level, has proven convenient for his own political survival, because it was previously decidely shaky (Israeli governments are mostly delicate coalitions of a sort Americans won't really understand). I think there is no doubt that Putin is a thief, and that his war is making a few of his mates very very rich. If it ended tomorrow, there would be problems for him, as what has he achieved?