Russia Invades Ukraine 2022

[temporal1]

That’s the counter case? Saying that Russia is lying about their GDP numbers? I’m sure they aren’t the only one.
There seems to be widespread consensus on the specific issues that I raised, namely, availability of goods, low unemployment, a ruble is decent shape.
Any of their large banks failing? Are people still buying their oil?

If sanctions are working, it sure doesn’t seem like much is impacting the basic population much yet. All the goods are just going through other countries first. Prices aren’t much different than a year ago either.

“They told us” losing Vietnam was The End of the World. It wasn’t.
My daughter’s peers think of it as a tourist destination; an interesting country to teach ESOL.

As Christians, we can have faith, God promises His way out.
When the world frantically and absolutely claims there is “only 1 way! - our way!” Christians can step back with confidence and trust, God (not the world) will provide His way. The world LOVES “frantically and absolutely.” Powerful tool.

Christians can beware lies. 1Cor 10:13

[Soloist]

Well logic would answer some of these questions about Russian economics.
Outside of food, I have never seen any Russian products in the USA. I know petrol is obviously an export as well as military equipment.

The fuel loss in sales in some way would benefit Russia as early on western powers were crowing about Russian tanks running out of gas although the use of effective anti tank weapons has nullified much of the tank advantage.

Russia is running on a war time economy right now and if we are going to speak to propaganda, we all know that inflation numbers at the checkout are higher then the government admits on paper.
Every government is going to lie about anything to discredit the enemy and inflate their own reputation. I would expect Russian economy to be worse then they claim but better then we claim.

[Neto]

Neto, I can't tell whether Barnhart believes your stories or not.

Poor college student working himself through school = taking all sorts of jobs. It was actually a great deal. Close to the school, and not difficult work. Production expectations were also pretty low, as our supervisor really didn't want us to surpass day-shift production levels by very much (and they were very low). We did by-pass some safety standards, which greatly increased production speed. Mainly this was that the machine that pressed the powder into the shell casings was designed so that you had to have both hands on safety paddles outside the "danger area" in order to bring it down. We used our knees to activate the safety paddles. That way we could much more quickly refill the powder funnel between each shell casing. Never any close calls, even though we were working nights and attending classes in the daytime. Maybe mostly the grace of God.

Years ago, i stopped referring to scriptures as “stories,” replacing the word with “accounts.” “Stories” aren’t always fiction, i prefer to remove doubt when possible.

i, also, enjoy your personal life accounts. thank you.

Your comment raises another thought, related to Portuguese. Although the one term has largely fallen out of use, and the remaining one taken on both applications or meanings, Portuguese actually has two different words for a historically accurate story, and a fictional one.
Historia is a, you guessed it, a historically accurate account.
Estoria is a fictional account, as in a novel.
(They also used to have two words for the English word 'ear', one meaning the outer ear, the other being the inner ear. The medical field wasn't too happy when they changed that, and in our experience, continued to use the more specific words as they had before the official change. This was during the time we were living in Brazil. Another example is having one word for 'chicken' if it was living - galinha, and a totally different one for 'chicken meat' -frango.)
I guess none of this has anything to do with Russia's war against Ukraine....

[Neto]

“They told us” losing Vietnam was The End of the World. It wasn’t.
My daughter’s peers think of it as a tourist destination; an interesting country to teach ESOL.

Vietnam is an interesting case. "The West" sort of won in Korea, resulting in two Korean nations. It took a long time, but a friendly relationship has apparently been established with (communist) Vietnam. Some of the computer components I use in my business are manufactured there. I cannot think of ever seeing anything made in even SOUTH Korea. But abandoning South Vietnam was a critical factor in my own attitudes, coming as it did, at a very "formative age" for me - 19 years old. I had been pro-war before that, and when the USA pulled out of South Vietnam, my confidence in the USA was shaken, and it brought about a lot of new thoughts, and a new direction for me personally.

[Josh]

North Korea has a 2.0 TFR (total fertility rate, per woman) and South Korea is 0.7. Looks like the West may very well lose the war in the end.

[Szdfan]

Well logic would answer some of these questions about Russian economics.
Outside of food, I have never seen any Russian products in the USA. I know petrol is obviously an export as well as military equipment.

The fuel loss in sales in some way would benefit Russia as early on western powers were crowing about Russian tanks running out of gas although the use of effective anti tank weapons has nullified much of the tank advantage.

Russia is running on a war time economy right now and if we are going to speak to propaganda, we all know that inflation numbers at the checkout are higher then the government admits on paper.
Every government is going to lie about anything to discredit the enemy and inflate their own reputation. I would expect Russian economy to be worse then they claim but better then we claim.

Yes. Russia's primary exports are gas and oil. They also export railroad equipment and heavy machinery, but it doesn't sell them to the West. They also export military equipment. About a year ago, I read that Russia was selling passenger rail cars to Egypt. Lada for a while was selling cars to Canada.

At this point, Russia has been able to replace its sales of gas and oil to the West with sales to India and China. I think you're right that things aren't as rosy as they seem nor as bad as the West says they are.

[Josh]

The U.S. has had Cuba, Iran, and other places under harsh sanctions. Those countries have been steamrolling ahead just fine - for decades, despite the propaganda about how bad they are.

[RZehr]

Maybe this is why Russias banks haven’t failed:

Russia is so cut off from the international financial system that the Kremlin thinks Western sanctions have 'insured' the country against the banking crisis

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/russ ... 30273.html

[Neto]

Lada for a while was selling cars to Canada.

Is that the same marque as during Soviet rule? I don't remember the name anymore, but one of our pilots in Brazil owned a vehicle produced in the USSR. (Well, it was probably assembled in Brazil, as it was pretty closed to import in that era.) The advertising for those vehicles was kinda' funny - They showed one going down a badly pot-holed and rutted road, and the inscription said "The car designed for roads like yours, in a country with roads like yours."

[Ken]

The U.S. has had Cuba, Iran, and other places under harsh sanctions. Those countries have been steamrolling ahead just fine - for decades, despite the propaganda about how bad they are.

I'm not sure all that many Cubans, Iranians, and Venezuelans think that their countries are steamrolling ahead just fine.