Sunday, August 31, 2014

EU threatens Russia with more sanctions over Ukraine

Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it. And failing to learn from history is even worse when that history is only a few months old.

from PressTV

The European Union has threatened to expand its economic sanctions against Russia over the crisis in neighboring Ukraine.
On Sunday, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy said the 28-member bloc was working urgently on further restrictive measures.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel also said that the EU would decide on more Russian targets for sanctions within a week if the situation became more chaotic in Ukraine.

“We said that should there be a further escalation as we had actually experienced, we may need to take additional decisions. We mandated the Commission to prepare the grounds for measures that can be taken and they have to decide on that within a week,” Merkel said.

This comes shortly after Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said his country was close to the “point of no return” in its conflict with Moscow.

The European leaders had gathered in Brussels to draw up new measures against Moscow. The EU has already warned that the escalating conflict in Ukraine is putting all of Europe at the risk of war.

Continue reading 

So what the Europaean leaders are saying is: If the first thing you try fails abysmally, try the same thing again. You see its only a few weeks since this blog's parent Boggart Blog was writing:

 

Game And Set To Putin - Sanctions Hit EU Economies

Do you remember how the lefties cheered just a short while ago when in retaliation for Russia not obliging the warmongers of the military / industrial complex by starting World War Three in response to numerous provocations.
They praised Obamas's statesmanship when he threatened to crush the Russian economy and then cancelled the bus passes of superannuated Russian gangsters living in Florida. They went wild when Cameron and Osborne froze the bank accounts of Russian oligarchs domiciled in London, having first warned they would do this if Putin did not do as he was told. That of course gave the oligarchs plenty of time to move their money before the sanctions bit.
They creamed their pants when the EU joined in by saying if Russia did not comply with instruction on Ukraine, the EU commissioners would be very annoyed.
And they rilled on the floor laughing when The Kremlin said OK, you want to play with the big boys, here's some real economic warfare.
And now we learn this:
eu farmers hit by russian food embargo
EU farmers say the Russian embargo on food trade is hitting them hard
(via Russia Today)
Austria is warning of catastrophic falling prices, and the Netherlands is saying losses could be triple initial estimates. A third of Lithuanian milk producers say they are facing problems.
The wholesale price of a kilogram of fruit or vegetables could halve due to excess supply, the Austrian newspaper Salzburger Nachrichten cites Rupert Gsols, a federal coordinator of the Austrian Union of Market Gardeners.
There is a bumper crop of European apples in 2014; around 12 million tons against the normal 10-11 million tons. About 370,000 tons are harvested in Poland.
The economic damage to the Netherlands from the Russian boycott could be triple the original estimate and reach €1.5 billion, Dutch News cites Hans de Boer, the chief of VNO-NCW Dutch employers' organization.
“That calculation did not take into account the Dutch dealers who operate from Eastern Europe,” de Boer said.
In Lithuania, Russian countermeasures to Western sanctions are hitting milk producers the hardest, as about a third of firms face problems in finding alternative markets, RIA cites Jurate Dovydeniene, the head of the Lithuanian Association of Agricultural Cooperatives.
Pieno Zvaigzdes, one of Lithuania’s five largest milk processing plants, suspended buying milk from farmers in the middle of month.
Even those who didn’t supply the products to Russia will suffer, Andriejus Stancikas the head of the Agricultural Chamber of Lithuania said.
“The situation became too dangerous especially for the agricultural sector, as the blockade is imposed not only on Lithuania, but to all the European Union. It would be difficult to reorient the deliveries to the West, these markets will be filled with their own production,” Stanchikas explained.
Now it's almost inevitable that some stupid little tit will come along and tell you nothing that's published by Rusia Today can be believed. Ignore them, sucvh people are pathetic lefties who cannot tolerate anyone disagreeing with them, but aren't bright enough to get anything right. I don't speak German but do speak some Swedish and with that plus help from Google translate I can tell you the article is reasonable translation of the new story from the Austrian newspaper.

Isn't it typical of politicians on being told their economic sanctions are hitting their own nations economies harder than the nation they imposed sanctions on, to say "Hey that's great, we're really teaching those Ruskies a lesson. Let's impose MORE sanctions.


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"Anti-Putin" Alliance Fraying: Germany, Slovakia, Greece, Czech Republic Urge End To Russian Sanctions

When I posted a blog yesterday, Game and set to Putin (it wasn't quite match) which commented on how while Russia has shrugged off the American and EU sanctions, European farmers were being hit hard by Russia's retaliatory ban on foodstuff from the EU, Mike St. Mark replied that while the Russian leader was running rings round the USA, EU and Ukraine, he didn't think it was quite game and set at that point.
It is now. And possibly match too. I just has a belated look at US financial services news site Zero Hedge and found this. Tyler Durden who writes the posts has feeds from AP, Reuters, Press Association and all the rest at his fingertips so he's way ahead of us workaday bloggers:
Anti-Putin" Alliance Fraying: Germany, Slovakia, Greece, Czech Republic Urge End To Russian Sanctions

Last week Germany reported that in the second quarter, its GDP declined by 0.2%, worse than Wall Street consensus. This happened a few shorts days after Italy reported a second consecutive decline in its own GDP, becoming the first Europen country to enter a triple-dip recession. What's worse, Europe's slowdown took place before the brunt of Russian sanctions hit. Surely in the third quarter the GDP of Germany, a nation whose exports accounts for 41% of GDP, will be even worse, with whisper numbers of -1% being thrown casually around, but one thing is certain: Europe is about to enter its third recession since the Lehman collapse just as we forecast at the end of 2013, a "triple-dip" which may become an outright depression unless Draghi injects a few trillion in credit money (which will do nothing but delay the inevitable and make it that much worse once the can can no longer be kicked), and unless normal trade ties with Russia are restored.

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Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Australian Teenagers Rebel Over Plain Cigarette Packaging

I've commented many times on but never devoted an article to the deluded nature of the anti-smoking campaign, which claims great success in curbing smoking but completely ignores unofficial estimates that for every cigarette sold legitimately in the UK, another one (or possibly two) are contraband. This news item from Breitbart London on the reaction to the latest and most irrational personal liberty curtailing anti smoking measure, plain packaging, in Australia sums up the state of the game pretty well.

from Breitbart London
Australian Teenagers Rebel Over Plain Cigarette Packaging

It has been recently reported in New South Wales (NSW), Australia that cigarette plain packaging, along with the hike in taxes has seen a resurgence in illegal tobacco. Some of the biggest buyers are teenagers.

The illegal smokes are sold without any health warnings and are half the price of those than can be bought legally, eight Australian dollars as opposed to nearly 16. They are either purchased from under the counter at legitimate stores or on street corners. Seizures of contraband according to the Australian Customs and Border Protection for 2007-2013 have risen from 107 million sticks to nearly double at 200 million.

A week ago in the suburbs of Fairfield and Bankstown $1 million in cash was appropriated along with 500,000 cigarettes and 70kg of loose tobacco.

The added worry to anti-smokering campaigners is that they are seen as "cool." Rosie aged fifteen noted: "It just makes people more excited about original packaging," she said: "It helps that they are cheaper." Ashley who is also fifteen concurred, "The only thing plain packaging does is make original packaging cooler." [ READ ALL

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Saturday, August 23, 2014

UK Must Work With Assad To Combat ISIS? Laugh, I Nearly Shat

When Obama first called for military intervention in Syria, Cameron and Hollande were all for it and only public opinion in the west and Russian / Chinese Intransigence in the UN Security Council averted full scale war. I came in for a lot of flak for 'supporting the tyrant Assad when I suggested the last thing the west's troubled economies needed was another messy and unwinnable middle east war.

One person in particular, who in every comment informed me he 'worked in a university (but he never said what as - a janitor maybe)  seemed determined to convince me that the people of Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Egypt,  Syria and Ukraine - not to mention the African nations destabilised by actions of the FUKUS axis (France, United Kingdom and the United States) would rather live in the lawless chaos the western powers always seem to leave behind rather than the relative order maintained by the tyrants.

I warned him that on a long timeline I am always proved right (a lifetime of experience and I'm very well connected) and when I was, he would be mercilessly belittled.

Revenge is a dish best served cold. Its Showtime!

MH17 Downing: CIA Analysts Decline To Support White House Allegations Of Russian Involvement

MH17 Downing: CIA Analysts Decline To Support White House Allegations Of Russian Involvement.
As the controversy over who shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 grinds on, the case made by President Obama that Russia was in some way involved is looking weaker and weaker. The latest blow to barack Obama's credibility and the reputation of The White House came when after examining evidence from the wrecked Boeig 777 airliner, Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, independent American aviation experts and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA forensic technologists) agreed there is absolutely no evodence to support allegations that either the Russian Government or pro Russian separatists in east Ukraine were responsible.

Read full post: American Experts decline To Support White House On MH17 Story

Thursday, August 14, 2014

Britain’s maths policy simply doesn’t add up - but neither does overstating the importance of maths

posted by Xavier Connolly
As an engineer, mathematics has been an important part of my career but I have always been aware that it is a tool. In the past there have been many attempts to develop a 'philosophy of everything' base on mathematical speculations that took maths into areas it was never designed to go, areas of human thought and enquiry that rightly belong to philosophers. This talk of mathematicians being creative jarrs with me somewhat, inventors, engineers, designers are creative. Mathematics is just part of our tool kit.

Britain’s maths policy simply doesn’t add up - but neither does overestimating the importance of maths

Monday, August 11, 2014

Shock, horror! Human Barbie Doll Has Her Own Opinions

The human Barbie girl Valeria Lukyanova has become something of an online phenomenon and is regarded as a sex symbol by many young men of the kind who have more computers than friends. Personally I find her appearance bizarre and about as sexually alluring as cold porridge. Still each to there own, where would we be without diversity of opinion.

Which is a nice segue into the other reason Valeria Barbie Doll is causing sensation. Barbie has a mind of her own and is not afraid top talk about her opinions. And her opinions on race, which are totally unremarkable for an east European, are just proving too much for American liberals.

Read full post on human Barbie's view on 'race mixing'.