How's this for a conspiracy theory ?

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Then just when the Ukrainians make rapid advances into those self-same areas, their front line troops who rely extensively on Starlink suddenly found it not working.
There is another explanation

“Roman Sinicyn, a co-ordinator at a foundation that donates Starlink systems to the Ukrainian armed forces, told FT the issue could be caused by SpaceX representatives working to make sure Russian soldiers couldn't use the technology, as the liberation of some of the areas had not been made public yet at the time of the connectivity issues.”

So coverage does not extend to areas controlled by the Russians so they cannot use it. Ukraine goes rapidly in to those areas and find that the internet does not work. Not exactly a surprise.
 
Equally I think we should be taking a much firmer line with China and not funding their regime through trade
To late for that, if you think Putins oil and gas has caused ecomomic crisis then taking Chinese trade out of the equation would be on another level, there would be public outcry because no one could buy all there xmas decorations. To get an idea of the impact China has just take stock of the things around you, see how many are not made in China because it is amazing and these are just the obvious ones. Then you have all the other stuff that may not be made in China but will contain many component parts made in China so they are just an integral part of the economy. Again it comes down to acceptance where the west needs to accept that we are entering the time of the east, the west has had it's time at the top and now the east will be at the top.

Pastor Martin's speech is applicable but only in the right situation, with any problem you must look at the min / max / the end goal or potential end result and this is problem is like a logic AND gate with the output = 1 & X , where X is your contribution.
 
The west failed to respond with any vigour to the annexation of Crimea in 2014, reinforcing a Russian perception that they could act without regard for western reaction.
Grozny, Aleppo, Crimea, Donbas, Ukraine 2022.

The western response to Crimea was
1. continue building Nord stream 2
2. buy more Russian gas
3. go to the football World Cup
4. continue investing in Russia.

Complete lack of statesmanship on the part of the west. Crimea invasion in 2014 should have been a wake up call and the above items all stopped. Putin may then have got the message. Instead we have the current situation with huge loss of life, our economies disrupted, huge cost, Putin backed in to a corner and risk of nuclear war.

Reminds me of Rhineland, Austria, Munich, Sudetenland, Czechoslovak, Poland.
 
I remain neutral on the war and refuse to take sides, we shouldn't be involved in any way, I honestly wish somebody would hack twitter and take it down forever, same thing with facebook so we can go back to normal life again.
I do not think Facebook and Twitter has any impact on Putin. Russia would continue with its war of conquest in Europe.
 
To late for that, if you think Putins oil and gas has caused ecomomic crisis then taking Chinese trade out of the equation would be on another level, there would be public outcry because no one could buy all there xmas decorations. To get an idea of the impact China has just take stock of the things around you, see how many are not made in China because it is amazing and these are just the obvious ones. Then you have all the other stuff that may not be made in China but will contain many component parts made in China so they are just an integral part of the economy. Again it comes down to acceptance where the west needs to accept that we are entering the time of the east, the west has had it's time at the top and now the east will be at the top.

Pastor Martin's speech is applicable but only in the right situation, with any problem you must look at the min / max / the end goal or potential end result and this is problem is like a logic AND gate with the output = 1 & X , where X is your contribution.
I disagree it is too late but agree that rowing back is much harder than if previous governments (of all political persuasions) had been more alert and savvy to the emerging risk of being beholden to a totalitarian regime. We need a concerted effort to back China out of being an integral part of our economy.

Here's one place we could start:

uk-dragging-its-heels-over-trade-links-to-forced-labour-in-china-as-one-survivor-prepares-to-sue-trade-secretary-12715275
 
To late for that, if you think Putins oil and gas has caused ecomomic crisis then taking Chinese trade out of the equation would be on another level, there would be public outcry because no one could buy all there xmas decorations. To get an idea of the impact China has just take stock of the things around you, see how many are not made in China because it is amazing and these are just the obvious ones. Then you have all the other stuff that may not be made in China but will contain many component parts made in China so they are just an integral part of the economy. Again it comes down to acceptance where the west needs to accept that we are entering the time of the east, the west has had it's time at the top and now the east will be at the top.

Pastor Martin's speech is applicable but only in the right situation, with any problem you must look at the min / max / the end goal or potential end result and this is problem is like a logic AND gate with the output = 1 & X , where X is your contribution.
Basically agree with what you are saying. Issue with China is they are a dictatorship and have an unswerving aim of getting Taiwan to be part of China. We are dependant on certain items from Taiwan, mainly chips. Missiles firing over Taiwan and in to the seas around it could stop this chip supply, grinding our industries to a halt. They do not necessarily need to invade to get their way.

Other supplier of chips is South Korea, right next to nuclear armed North Korea.

We need resilience in our supply chains, leaving it to “market forces” does not necessarily provide this.
 
The rise of China should come as no surprise because they were at the top thousands of years ago and were one of the great empires, was it not Napolean who said " Let China Sleep, for when she wakes, she will shake the world " . Well China is well and truly awake and shaking the world which is not all bad, they have the resources and wealth to progress technology and knowledge to levels we have only dreamed of and there is nothing to be frightened of.

A good article is

https://www.davidmurrin.co.uk/blog-entry/the-great-power-shift-from-west-to-east
And then it is only a mater of time before we trade in the yuan and not dollars

https://www.thebalancemoney.com/yuan-reserve-currency-to-global-currency-3970465
 
Don't people realise, Russier dare not start a nuclear war, we have as many warheads pointing at them as they have at us. Submarines in the Arctic, Australia and Canada have them two. They would be obliterated two minutes after sending one. And we must back Ukraine by sending longer range weapons
 
because for them, the life of Russia depends on stopping NATO from advancing further right into Ukraine, right to their borders. They cannot afford not to fight this war. They cannot afford not to win this war.
Prior to Crimean invasion keeping Ukraine out of NATO was perfectly negotiable. Even after Crimean invasion Ukraine was not allowed to join NATO. Look at Sweden and Finlands reaction. Sweden has been neutral for 200 years, back to Napoleon times, stayed out of ww1 and ww2, not neutral now.

I think the Russian invasion is an attempt to re establish the USSR. It’s a land grab pure and simple dressed up as something else.
 
there is nothing to be frightened of.
Only the simmering resentment of centuries of conquest and meddling in their affairs by the West - principally but not exclusively the British Empire.

I have lived in the Far East and the Chinese have a very poor opinion of 'the gweilo'. They play a very very long game and to them revenge is a dish best served cold.
 
Cerro you are still in the Cuban era with Kennedy and Kresnov because things have moved on, the only thing that has not changed is that no one can win.

Russia now has not only the largest number of nukes but also they have higher yields and with hypersonic capability so in theory they can hit us faster than we can retaliate. They also have more of these tactical battlefield nukes which are raising so many questions.

This is why I believe the only way to de escalate this is by talking and compromise, it is not like a war between Germany and Poland but more akin to Lancashire and Yorkshire because Ukraine has Russian history.
 
Don't people realise, Russier dare not start a nuclear war, we have as many warheads pointing at them as they have at us. Submarines in the Arctic, Australia and Canada have them two. They would be obliterated two minutes after sending one. And we must back Ukraine by sending longer range weapons
That is the logical answer. No one is threatening Russian territory, other than the illegally annexed parts. Problem is whether Putin will be logical.

Concern is Russia using a small tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine. Poland will see that as an attack on them due to the radiation. Russia has been told what the nato conventional weapon response will be. Let us hope that Putin does not go down this route and if he does that the Russian military do not carry it out.
 
personally I think putin actually has the balls to drop a nuke and we should not under estimate him, I really do think he might do it if pushed too far, that's why we need to be careful.
 
personally I think putin actually has the balls to drop a nuke and we should not under estimate him, I really do think he might do it if pushed too far, that's why we need to be careful.
I agree that we need to be careful but we also need (in my opinion) to be prepared to show that we are not going to let Ukraine's borders be changed just because Putin wants the USSR back.

Putin also needs to be careful. There may be those around him that would prefer to be without him than live with what could follow if he were to press the button.
 
putting this on ignore now to prevent myself from getting banned with a rant, I've been thinking about leaving this place permanently for a while now
 
You are missing the point, what can the good men actually do. There has to be a potential successful outcome for the good men otherwise it becomes a pointless exercise in just delaying the inevitable and ending up with more deaths than there would have been. We have reached the point where doing something far outweighs the consequences of doing nothing and perhaps we will stop wasting money on the nuclear option.
 
Equally I think we should be taking a much firmer line with China and not funding their regime through trade (probably the only thing I think Trump was right on). By all accounts the Head of GCHQ will have some points to make on this in a speech today.
The West seems to have become too dependent on China, it's true, but here's something on which to ponder:

‘Make America Great again’ - 'America First' - ‘America jobs for American People’ said former President Trump.
Like most of his simplistic sound bites, that statement might chime well with his fan base, (70 million Americans voted for him), but it has all the intellectual depth of a Kleenex tissue.

Reducing America's dependence on China is not quite as simple as might be imagined. Take that quintessential American company Apple. Most people believe that Apple manufacture their own products, but they don’t make anything – they’re basically a design and marketing company, and a rather successful one too.

No wonder the Apple logo is an apple with a bit taken out of it. It's evocative of the 'Big Apple' but the bite taken out if it is rather larger that the logo suggests, and the country that took the bite in China.

China assembles most of Apple's iPhones in factories in Shenzen, China, (500,000 a day), though Foxconn maintains factories in countries across the world, including Thailand, Malaysia, the Czech Republic, South Korea, Singapore, and the Philippines.

Take a look at the back of an iPhone, iPad, or any Apple product and in minuscule text you’ll see: "Designed by Apple in California - Assembled in China" Many may wonder why Apple chose to outsource all of its production overseas, specifically to China. They might believe that Apple are just out to make tons of money and that’s the sole reason for the relocation, but that's a mistaken assumption.

So why can’t Apple’s gadgets be assembled in the USA? Or in general terms, why can’t most international consumer electronics and computer businesses in the Western World do their manufacturing work internally to create local jobs and boost their economy?

The reason is quite simple - iPhones aren’t manufactured in America because they can’t be - there’s not enough manpower to support the scale of manufacturing of Apple’s products. The factory in China where Apple products, specifically iPhones, undergo final assembly has approximately 230,000 workers. In the USA, there are only 83 cities that have populations as high this one factory’s number of employees. Hence, the number of possible workers in the US is just not enough to cover Apple’s needs.

In China, an estimated 25% of their workforce lives in company-owned dormitories located on the factory property. Many people live and work at the factory. Such jobs are in high demand in China, and they can hire as many people as they need overnight. The speed and efficiency of Chinese manufacturing surpasses anything the US is presently capable of.

In addition to the manpower that China offers, most of the raw materials used to make Apple products are also manufactured overseas rather than in America - a lot are within a short distance of the final assembly plant. Shipping those components to any US-based factories would mean higher costs and potentially, possible manufacturing delays. It would also cost more money to manufacture in America because workers are paid more. There are also expenses on worker benefits, health insurance, and higher taxes. Since companies want to generate revenue, added costs inevitably result in increased prices for goods. This would mean that American-manufactured Apple products would cost more, would become uncompetitive and unaffordable.

Apple’s decision to outsource its manufacturing to China is about who can build the greatest number of Apple products in the shortest time. China is able to remain flexible and immediately adaptable to the needs of Apple. In a report, an Apple executive also stated that the US no longer has the people with the skills that they need. One example is the release of the iPhone. There is a huge demand for it, and Apple knew it needed to come to market as fast as possible. Apple was aware that it wasn’t attainable in US manufacturing and would result in delays. With this, they sought out the service of Chinese factories, and were able to quickly get the iPhone to market.

This is because in China, manufacturers can ask a large number of engineers to work on the required manufacturing overnight. As they have an abundant supply of labour force, this allows them to finish a large capacity of workload quickly. The US simply cannot employ 250,000 workers overnight. This makes China a flexible and capable supplier.

Yes, Apple is reaping the financial rewards, but that’s because China has an abundance of hard-working people with the right skills, which America does not. They are willing to accept demanding jobs which are the norm to millions of Chinese, including workers who have technical skills.

The Chinese are also consumers of course. Greater China (which includes mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan) is the third-largest market for Apple by revenue, behind the Americas and Europe.

As to "Designed by Apple in California", well yes Apple products are – but by an English designer.

Sir Jonathan Paul "Jony" Ive - Apple’s Chief Design Officer joined Apple in September 1992, where he remained for 27 years until his departure in November 2019. Sir Jony Ive's first design assignment was the iMAC’ G3’ desktop computer in 1998. It helped to pave the way for many other designs such as the Macbook laptop PC range, iPod, iPhone and iPad.

An ironic twist to the Covid pandemic (or as Trump calls it "The China Virus"), is that not only did they export the virus to us, they also supply the disposable blue mask that now litter the streets, and the LFT/PCR testing kits.

Why Apple is Manufacturing Products in China? Read to Know More!

Apple diversifies supply chain but keeps China at the center

David.
 
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