Anyone watch the Real Hunt for Red October on SKY History? If true, the story of K-129 is the biggest single story of the twentieth century - because a rogue group of Soviets tried to engineer a nuclear war between the US and China that would have seen us entering the twenty-first century with both countries as nuked wastelands.
And Russia the remaining super power.
I doubt a nuclear holocaust would have seen the USSR remaining. The moment nukes started flying, they'd have flown at Moscow etc too.
There are a lot of silly stories about K-129. Having wandered round a Foxtrot, which the Golfs were based on, I have not difficulty in believing that either a battery explosion or a depth excursion sank K-129.
The build quality was startlingly bad. And the design was as confusing as you could possibly make it - a haphazard mess of controls.
Hopefully the reports of evidence of dieseling are true, and it was quick.
Surreal prospect of watching a false flag event unfold in real time, its falsehood so clear, its timing so ludicrously convenient, it’s a wonder Putin even bothers.
Anyone watch the Real Hunt for Red October on SKY History? If true, the story of K-129 is the biggest single story of the twentieth century - because a rogue group of Soviets tried to engineer a nuclear war between the US and China that would have seen us entering the twenty-first century with both countries as nuked wastelands.
And Russia the remaining super power.
I doubt a nuclear holocaust would have seen the USSR remaining. The moment nukes started flying, they'd have flown at Moscow etc too.
And of course once Moscow and St Pete's have been done there isn't that much of Russia left. It was more true once but it still remains the case that Russia is basically just two cities.
The Irish historian Cormac Ó Gráda rejected the claim that the famine was a genocide. He argued that "genocide includes murderous intent, and it must be said that not even the most bigoted and racist commentators of the day sought the extermination of the Irish", and he also stated that most people in Whitehall "hoped for better times for Ireland". Additionally, he stated that the claim of genocide overlooks "the enormous challenge facing relief agencies, both central and local, public and private".
Historian Donald Akenson, who has written twenty-four books on Ireland, stated that "When you see [the word Holocaust used with regard to the famine], you know that you are encountering famine-porn. It is inevitably part of a presentation that is historically unbalanced and, like other kinds of pornography, is distinguished by a covert (and sometimes overt) appeal to misanthropy and almost always an incitement to hatred.".....
Kennedy himself does not believe that the Famine constituted a genocide: "There is no case for genocide when you think of, as part of British government policies in Ireland, three-quarters of a million people working on public relief schemes. When you have three million people at one stage receiving soup from soup kitchens right across Ireland in their locality
Just had a list of the areas and roads that will be inundated from the sea tomorrow and it is going to affect large areas around us with lots of flooding and danger
All schools and rail services closed and looks as if everyone is staying inside tomorrow
We have had many storms but I cannot recall so many specific locations under direct threat as this
I'm disappointed that you haven't managed to find a way of blaming Drakeford for this drastic lockdown.
Not sure this is the time to be cynical
There are a lot of very worried residents in North Wales tonight
Just had a list of the areas and roads that will be inundated from the sea tomorrow and it is going to affect large areas around us with lots of flooding and danger
All schools and rail services closed and looks as if everyone is staying inside tomorrow
We have had many storms but I cannot recall so many specific locations under direct threat as this
I'm disappointed that you haven't managed to find a way of blaming Drakeford for this drastic lockdown.
Not sure this is the time to be cynical
There are a lot of very worried residents in North Wales tonight
It was just a little joke, not cynicism! I share your concern.
Meanwhile where is @BartholomewRoberts these days. Very interested to read his higher wages and higher prices and higher wages is a good thing posts. .
You’ll have noted that there was strong growth in real wages in 2021 being confirmed earlier this week? The increase in inflation since the beginning of the year has left wages behind temporarily but hopefully only for a few months.
"hopefully" indeed. But where does the cycle end? Costs and therefore prices rise so wages rise and costs and prices rise and wages rise.
This is good in your opinion? What are you some kind of pre-Thatcher era Union leader?
The main cause of inflation now is that we put the cost of the pandemic on the QE tab 2 years ago. We have a bit of that to work through but my hope is that increasing wages will drive increased investment to boost productivity and the general standard of living.
Blimey. You think that is going to happen. Now. When everyone is battered and businesses are having to pay more to get hitherto plentiful labour and raise prices just to stand still.
You think amidst this there will be a boost to increase productivity and the general standard of living.
At present price growth is outstripping wage growth. Once inflation takes hold then it is very difficult to get it out of the system. Better economists than you or I (and much better ones than @BartholomewRoberts) are praying that it will work its way through once energy price rises have worked their way through, etc. .
The main problem since 2008 has been deflation not inflation. The price of oil fell 5% yesterday and gas even more. No doubt they will be back up again today given the latest shenanigans but there is a big war premium in the price right now.
Yes of course, those rises are volatile and likely temporary. But if wages continue to go up then that will mean higher prices which leads to higher wages and that is not temporary; inflation becomes permanent or embedded and then we have a problem. And policy responses are equally problematic.
I got a notification that I was tagged in this by @TOPPING . Sorry, I'm not online as much as I used to be anymore as I'm quite busy IRL so not spending as much time here.
Wages going up is a good thing, so long as the wages are going up because of demand for the labour. Inflation for inflation's sake is a bad thing of course, but then wages aren't rising in real terms if that's all it is. Real wages rises are a good thing and David is entirely right that rising real wages leads to an increase in investment for productivity and it is productivity growth that makes us all better off.
What we're seeing now is really still very moderate inflation. We're not talking Zimbabwean thousands of percent inflation, we're talking about inflation of ~5.5% as the highest inflation in thirty years. Yet as I've pointed out before house price inflation has averaged 6.2% for the first two decades of this century.
So people are losing their minds and all perspective from inflation that is below inflation that we've been used to in recent decades. Its just that now prices are going up on things homeowners need to pay for and not just everyone else instead of them.
This is true, but like most things needs to be mildly caveated:
(1) Inflation is - fundamentally - a response to demand outstripping supply. To bring them back into balance, wages increase, which both brings people back into the workforce, and demand falls. We should be keener on the first that than the second, and it's important the policy response is calibrated to that.
(2) Rising wages will mean rising prices. Wage costs - whether in your local grocery store, or Amazon or Macdonalds - are passed on, or businesses go out of business. This is fine for those benefiting from higher wages, but will be less fun for those on fixed incomes.
(3) So far, the willingness of Central Banks to use interest rates to counter inflation has been minimal. It is generally considered (not without merit) that worldwide labour shortages are mostly transitory in nature as Covid recedes, and the spike in commodity prices is also likely to recede as drilling returns in the US. However, it is entirely possible that that attitude changes - especially if rising inflation means increased current account deficits.
(3) I'm not convinced interest rates will have as much impact on prices as it used to anyway. The amount of people who have a mortgage now is down to about 1/4 of the adult population - the elderly are generally living mortgage-free and the young generally can't afford to buy, so an interest rate change doesn't swiftly directly affect three quarters of the population now. That's without considering that many of those with a mortgage will have the rate fixed.
I think you're right that the transmission of interest rate rises to the wider economy has likely weakened, but it will still feed through eventually. And even companies will also be impacted through higher debt financing costs.
The difficulty will be for central banks to decide how high to go when inflation remains elevated. We will in a few months have interest rates higher than we've seen for over 13 years. There's a lot of uncertainty as to what the impact will be.
Breaking: Ukraine, the UK and Poland announce a creation of a trilateral alliance during the UK foreign secretary @trussliz visit to Kyiv. Countries will cooperate in the areas of defense, economy, trade and countering disinformation. More information to follow soon
Is it? That rather depends on what the terms of the arrangement are.
UK standing with Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic States in a way France and Germany are not
Yes you have hit the nail on the head Big G. That’s the mental bit. We need to be standing, voicing and acting in Union on these things don’t we?
Why is that mental?
Or should we just offer Putin Schleswig-Holstein, for traditions sake?
Because if his plan all along is to split - first making us gas junkies, then sabre rattling - where there is more impact us all acting as one against him, it means he’s winning. Do you see my point?
Well, unanimity in sacrificing Ukraine will only mean that Putin moves onto the Baltics. Ask @Cicero....
Unanimity is nice. But stopping people from re-drawing maps with guns is more important.
If we are going to live in a world where re-drawing the maps with guns is cool, I have a list of territorial demands of my own.
Don't worry - they are absolutely my last set of demands.
If Putin’s design is to split us - like with how much money and resources Putin pumped into cheap gas pipelines and allegedly into securing Brexit vote he wanted, and now people as moderate and sensible as Big G are posting on here delighted we are split from EU allies, Putin’s useful idiots and traitors - straight away I’m not comfortable with that. We shouldn’t be should we? If What is ranged against him is weaker going forward?
Are we not influencing France and Germany enough because we’ve brexited? Genuine question that and deserves more than insults when asked.
Putin has spent a long time and a lot of money undermining western societies. Having us all fighting with each other is precisely what his money was trying to achieve.
This is true, which is why over this I tend to think twice over dishing criticism too liberally over this issue. I think the UK has got it more right than Germany, but I don't think it's helpful to be attacking anyone other than Russia right now. The eagerness with which some people are seizing upon this situation to attack Boris, Macron, the EU, Ukraine, Biden, NATO, etc. is a disturbing sign. It feels like arguing over whose deckchair is whose on the deck of a ship when we're at risk of hitting an iceberg. Lift your eyes up, people. If you think this crisis is useful ammunition in your longstanding grudge against [whoever], you're not seeing the big picture.
Which is not to say there aren't valid criticisms to be made here, but most of the criticisms I see on here about this are low-energy partisan snipes by people who probably couldn't even point to Kyiv on a map.
Hard to disagree with this analysis.
I disagree with @Farooq 's analysis. And I can point to Kyiv on map.
What Russia is doing over Crimea, Luhansk & Donetsk is not any different to what Britain did over Antrim, Armagh, Down, Derry, Fermanagh & Tyrone.
In fact, Russia probably has a far better claim to these territories than Britain to the Six Counties.
We should sort out our own dreadful record first. Then we will have earned the right to lecture Russia.
And I love the way pb.com has recently discovered there was a famine in the Ukraine and this was genocide. (Pretty sure it was wider than the Ukraine).
I have never, ever heard anyone on pb.com refer to the Irish Genocide of 1845-1849 or the Bengal Genocide of 1943-1945.
pb.com is in the mood for a lynching.
I've seen mention of both the The Great Famine and The Bengal Famine in recent weeks. Indeed, I even referenced The Bengal Famine myself in another context. I am personally convinced Britain's guilt in these two affairs. But as someone else has pointed out, this is pure whataboutery. So what that Britain has wronged people in the past? That does not prevent anyone talking about Russian aggression. I shouldn't have to avow my contempt for the decisions of long-dead British imperialists before speaking about Russian imperialism.
My point is this.
I am asking why is the Ukrainian Famine designated a Genocide?
But. famines caused by the British are not referred to as Genocides.
The British didn't set out to cause either the potato famine or the Bengal famine. They were caused by a parasite and a mix of wartime disruption and bad weather, respectively.* The British could - and should - have done more to mitigate them, but they did not cause them.
The Holdomar was a deliberate and systematic attempt to starve a potentially rebellious population into submission by wantonly destroying their agricultural systems. In which it was successful in the short term, at the cost of causing a burning and enduring hatred of the Moscow government that goes a long way towards explaining the current crisis.
If you can't see that that is materially different, then I am genuinely surprised.
*It is worth remembering that the famine was even more severe in Japanese occupied areas. Around a quarter of the population of Vietnam died of famine in the same period.
But ... of course it is called the Irish Genocide.
But not normally by the British ... or the Irish. It is often so-called by Irish-Americans.
The use of the word "Genocide" often betrays the fact that no sensible historical discourse can now take place.
Because the use of "Genocide" is almost always an emotional appeal to further hatred.
And that is my objection to using it in this Ukrainian context.
However, if it is going to be used, let's talk about the Irish Genocide or Bengal Genocide as well.
Let us at least be consistent in our emotional appeals to hatred ... if we cannot desist from them.
The use of the term 'genocide' in the context of the Holodomor is widespread among historians. I would instance Westwood, Macauley, McCauley, and Service without even bothering to search hard in my mind. Even Hobsbawm, an absolutely unrepentant apologist for almost all of Stalin's crimes, couldn't excuse this one and was willing to call it a genocide. The only reason Nove doesn't call it that is because he was interested in the economic not the demographic catastrophe it caused. It has also spilled over into historiography on other similar actions, e.g. in Ditoller's Mao's Great Famine. It is definitely part of 'sensible historical discourse.'
I have heard the Bengal Famine referred to as a genocide, but only by political fanatics. Not by historians.
I have never heard the Irish Potato Famine so called, although I will take your word for it you have.
The Brits don't like it?
Nor do professional historians.
It would involve suggesting the British and Japanese collaborated to cause widespread death and destruction across a large swathe of south east Asia while simultaneously fighting a war. Which seems to anyone who isn't a raging fanatic a little improbable. Such claims are for political reasons only. I would point out that not even Ho Chi Minh accused the Japanese of genocide over the Vietnamese famine that happened a year later from exactly the same causes.
One thing I do agree with @YBarddCwsc on is that using the word 'genocide' loosely, whether that's by mad xenophobes in America or Nodi's outriders in India, does cheapen it and hide the worst excesses where it is appropriate. A genocide is, as defined by the UN:
In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
Killing members of the group; Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
Neither the Irish or the Bengal famines fall into that category. There was no 'intent to destroy' albeit there was appalling negligence once the catastrophe began to unfold which may, in practice, have had a not dissimilar effect.
In the case of Ukraine, however, the starvation was a deliberate act of policy designed to exterminate a large number of potential opponents based on their national grouping by depriving them of food. Hard to see how that doesn't meet the definition. And anyone who thinks it doesn't clearly doesn't understand the subject and should probably keep off it.
Anyway, I have work tomorrow. Have a nice evening.
So we can safely conclude YOU don't like it.
It’s factually inaccurate, ludicrous, and emotive blackmail for political reasons.
Strangely, I don’t think any of those are appropriate. So you’re right, I don’t like it.
Comments
The build quality was startlingly bad. And the design was as confusing as you could possibly make it - a haphazard mess of controls.
Hopefully the reports of evidence of dieseling are true, and it was quick.
https://twitter.com/KennyFarq/status/1494443512288493568?s=20&t=48zPZV2r4sFhawSB26MNrQ
Historian Donald Akenson, who has written twenty-four books on Ireland, stated that "When you see [the word Holocaust used with regard to the famine], you know that you are encountering famine-porn. It is inevitably part of a presentation that is historically unbalanced and, like other kinds of pornography, is distinguished by a covert (and sometimes overt) appeal to misanthropy and almost always an incitement to hatred.".....
Kennedy himself does not believe that the Famine constituted a genocide: "There is no case for genocide when you think of, as part of British government policies in Ireland, three-quarters of a million people working on public relief schemes. When you have three million people at one stage receiving soup from soup kitchens right across Ireland in their locality
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Famine_(Ireland)#Genocide_question
There are a lot of very worried residents in North Wales tonight
blown away
The difficulty will be for central banks to decide how high to go when inflation remains elevated. We will in a few months have interest rates higher than we've seen for over 13 years. There's a lot of uncertainty as to what the impact will be.
Strangely, I don’t think any of those are appropriate. So you’re right, I don’t like it.