politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Now the US orders sanctions against Russia for interference WH

Poor Vlad.

Even Trump’s turning against him, how long before Seumas and Jez follow suit?

"their was"? tut tut.... too keen to be first to worry about spelling. Bad show....

Pulpstar said:

TheScreamingEagles said:

But the House Intelligence Committee said their was no interference

But was they're ?

Sodding auto correct.

Tempted to move to Samsung/Android now.

TheScreamingEagles said:

Poor Vlad.

Even Trump’s turning against him, how long before Seumas and Jez follow suit?

Oh I think it might be a while.

DavidL said:

I can't help thinking voter suppression is getting out of hand if that is what you need to wear to be allowed to vote.

With Trump in the White House, the atmosphere in Washington DC is getting toxic.....

williamglenn said:

In other news:
https://twitter.com/rtenews/status/974306664269713408

I was just thinking that we may be heading towards global thermonuclear war but at least we are spending less time on Brexit and you go and spoil it.

TheScreamingEagles said:

Poor Vlad.

Even Trump’s turning against him, how long before Seumas and Jez follow suit?

Well, perhaps. Trump himself has remained curiously quiet on all the Russian issues of the day, bar that impromptu press briefing under the helicopter.

The change in tone / policy from the White House is notable. Has someone locked him in the toilet?

Christine Lagarde not a fan of a trade war, in the most unsurprising news of the day...
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2018/03/15/trade-war-risks-de-railing-world-economy-imf-warns/

https://twitter.com/afneil/status/974303761572286464

david_herdson said:

TheScreamingEagles said:

Poor Vlad.

Even Trump’s turning against him, how long before Seumas and Jez follow suit?

Well, perhaps. Trump himself has remained curiously quiet on all the Russian issues of the day, bar that impromptu press briefing under the helicopter.

The change in tone / policy from the White House is notable. Has someone locked him in the toilet?

There was a story a while back that if there was a major military/diplomatic moment, Mattis, Kelly, and McMaster would all quit as well many other staffers if Trump wouldn’t let them do the right thing.

I think they may have implemented their plan.

TheScreamingEagles said:

david_herdson said:

TheScreamingEagles said:

Poor Vlad.

Even Trump’s turning against him, how long before Seumas and Jez follow suit?

Well, perhaps. Trump himself has remained curiously quiet on all the Russian issues of the day, bar that impromptu press briefing under the helicopter.

The change in tone / policy from the White House is notable. Has someone locked him in the toilet?

There was a story a while back that if there was a major military/diplomatic moment, Mattis, Kelly, and McMaster would all quit as well many other staffers if Trump wouldn’t let them do the right thing.

I think they may have implemented their plan.

Yup, it certainly looks like the three of them went into the Oval Office together in the past few days - and told Trump in no uncertain terms that it’s now their way or the highway

williamglenn said:

https://twitter.com/afneil/status/974303761572286464

Is this not, you know, war?

Oh those Russians...

It would be good to have some concrete evidence of the latest claims about Russia's cyber-espionage. It would be all too easy to descend into hysteria.

Yesterday someone suggested to me - without any explanation - that Russia is manipulating Bitcoin prices. I mentally gave them a full 10/10 for conspiracy theorising.

TheScreamingEagles said:

Pulpstar said:

TheScreamingEagles said:

But the House Intelligence Committee said their was no interference

But was they're ?

Sodding auto correct.

Tempted to move to Samsung/Android now.

Its no better

Edit: And I am a big Samsung fan.

DavidL said:

williamglenn said:

In other news:
https://twitter.com/rtenews/status/974306664269713408

I was just thinking that we may be heading towards global thermonuclear war but at least we are spending less time on Brexit and you go and spoil it.

It doesn't seem five minutes ago that the only nukes we needed to worry about were North Korean.....

18% think Corbyn is doing a good job on Russia

TGOHF said:

https://twitter.com/skynewsbreak/status/974314997701599232?s=21

Thank f... for that. Although one does wonder who are the 31% who clearly think Britain should roll over in the face of a chemical weapon attack on our country. Hopefully they just hate Tories or governments and will tell pollsters anything to reinforce that view.

Big_G_NorthWales said:

18% think Corbyn is doing a good job on Russia

They must have a different definition of what a good job is from the rest of the population

Mr. Flashman (deceased), I'd suggest that that polling indicates the current floor for Labour is around 31%.

Mr. Borough, actually, he usually gets something like 60-80%.

Sandpit said:

Big_G_NorthWales said:

Theresa getting flowers given her and applause from the crowds in Salisbury

Well I’m not there and you’re not there, so who are all these other people that support the PM?

Just ordinary folks of Salisbury

david_herdson said:

DavidL said:

I was just thinking that we may be heading towards global thermonuclear war but at least we are spending less time on Brexit and you go and spoil it.

Even global thermonuclear war wouldn't make the Irish border problem go away.

How about a nice game of chess?

Sandpit said:

TGOHF said:

https://twitter.com/skynewsbreak/status/974314997701599232?s=21

Thank f... for that. Although one does wonder who are the 31% who clearly think Britain should roll over in the face of a chemical weapon attack on our country. Hopefully they just hate Tories or governments and will tell pollsters anything to reinforce that view.

So far as I know Corbyn has merely said we need more evidence. I don't trust him and certainly not Milne but maybe many people will at least take him at his word.

MarqueeMark said:

Sandpit said:

Big_G_NorthWales said:

Theresa getting flowers given her and applause from the crowds in Salisbury

Well I’m not there and you’re not there, so who are all these other people that support the PM?

Me neither. TSE finally falling for her charms?

The poll I took part in I disapproved of Mrs May's handling of the event.

She hasn’t gone far enough in her actions.

She should be taking financial action against Putin’s cronies.

Why is it I can’t deposit 5k cash in the bank without being interrogated by the bank staff about where it came from but Ruskies can deposit billions in the UK no questions asked.

Sandpit said:

Big_G_NorthWales said:

Sandpit said:

Big_G_NorthWales said:

Theresa getting flowers given her and applause from the crowds in Salisbury

Well I’m not there and you’re not there, so who are all these other people that support the PM?

Just ordinary folks of Salisbury

I can vouch for that, I lived there before I moved to the sandpit.

Never going to be a marginal seat, put it that way.

Used to be a Liberal/Conservative marginal. But yes, the Tories (In any form) have never got less than 43% of the vote there.

Richard_Tyndall said:

Now that was a surprise.

Just went to look at how many tanks Poland has (following in from a comment someone made on the previous page). Officially they have 1,065 MBTs (Leopard 2s PT-91s and T72Ms). The UK by comparison has 250.

I wonder what the serviceable numbers are for each country.

Oh and the European country with the most tanks - Greece. Although a lot of them are very old.

A surprise? Compare naval fleets and then look at a map.

TheScreamingEagles said:

MarqueeMark said:

Sandpit said:

Big_G_NorthWales said:

Theresa getting flowers given her and applause from the crowds in Salisbury

Well I’m not there and you’re not there, so who are all these other people that support the PM?

Me neither. TSE finally falling for her charms?

The poll I took part in I disapproved of Mrs May's handling of the event.

She hasn’t gone far enough in her actions.

She should be taking financial action against Putin’s cronies.

Why is it I can’t deposit 5k cash in the bank without being interrogated by the bank staff about where it came from but Ruskies can deposit billions in the UK no questions asked.

Spot on. Having the financial centre of most of the world in London should mean we effectively police transactions passing through our territory. And even more so when there is a threat such as this to the country.

Mr. Tyndall, I remember reading on Twitter recently (might've been Andrew Neil's account) that the vast majority of Germany's hardware is, in reality, not effective.

TheScreamingEagles said:

MarqueeMark said:

Sandpit said:

Big_G_NorthWales said:

Theresa getting flowers given her and applause from the crowds in Salisbury

Well I’m not there and you’re not there, so who are all these other people that support the PM?

Me neither. TSE finally falling for her charms?

The poll I took part in I disapproved of Mrs May's handling of the event.

She hasn’t gone far enough in her actions.

She should be taking financial action against Putin’s cronies.

Why is it I can’t deposit 5k cash in the bank without being interrogated by the bank staff about where it came from but Ruskies can deposit billions in the UK no questions asked.

Yep, and there’s probably a lot of high-level talks going on right now as to what can legally be frozen and/or confiscated from various Russians in London.

As someone said on the previous thread, we’d look like right idiots if we confiscated Chelsea FC only to have a court overturn it.

How long do things like tanks remain effective? I know guns can remain (both individually and the design) of use for a very long time.

Chainmail (or mail, to be historically accurate) was in use for thousands of years. Although I suspect spears and bows probably hold the record for military longevity.

Richard_Tyndall said:

felix said:

Richard_Tyndall said:

Now that was a surprise.

Just went to look at how many tanks Poland has (following in from a comment someone made on the previous page). Officially they have 1,065 MBTs (Leopard 2s PT-91s and T72Ms). The UK by comparison has 250.

I wonder what the serviceable numbers are for each country.

Oh and the European country with the most tanks - Greece. Although a lot of them are very old.

Do you mean those chariots left over from Ben Hur?

Not quite. But a fair few M48 Patton's which came into service just after the Korean War

Russia seemingly has over 20,000 (way more than any other country). As with Greece, I'd expect a large number (possibly the majority) to be unusable. Couldn't find a breakdown (ha, ha) though.

TheScreamingEagles said:

MarqueeMark said:

Sandpit said:

Big_G_NorthWales said:

Theresa getting flowers given her and applause from the crowds in Salisbury

Well I’m not there and you’re not there, so who are all these other people that support the PM?

Me neither. TSE finally falling for her charms?

.

Why is it I can’t deposit 5k cash in the bank without being interrogated by the bank staff about where it came from but Ruskies can deposit billions in the UK no questions asked.

I believe that you have answered your own question.

Charles said:

TheScreamingEagles said:

MarqueeMark said:

Sandpit said:

Big_G_NorthWales said:

Theresa getting flowers given her and applause from the crowds in Salisbury

Well I’m not there and you’re not there, so who are all these other people that support the PM?

Me neither. TSE finally falling for her charms?

The poll I took part in I disapproved of Mrs May's handling of the event.

She hasn’t gone far enough in her actions.

She should be taking financial action against Putin’s cronies.

Why is it I can’t deposit 5k cash in the bank without being interrogated by the bank staff about where it came from but Ruskies can deposit billions in the UK no questions asked.

They can’t

They get asked questions like, "How much will you give me not to ask questions?"

Richard_Tyndall said:

Now that was a surprise.

Just went to look at how many tanks Poland has (following in from a comment someone made on the previous page). Officially they have 1,065 MBTs (Leopard 2s PT-91s and T72Ms). The UK by comparison has 250.

I wonder what the serviceable numbers are for each country.

Oh and the European country with the most tanks - Greece. Although a lot of them are very old.

The Russia number includes a load of ancient rusting kit stuck in various warehouses across the country. They would be next to useless in wartime, and they don’t have enough trained men.

Russia’s armed forces are a curate’s egg. I know it’s obvious to point out, but Russia is not the Soviet Union. It’s not even a top 10 economy, with 2% of the world’s population.

Dangerous yes, world or superpower? Absolutely not, and it will decline further in relative terms.

RoyalBlue said:

Richard_Tyndall said:

Now that was a surprise.

Just went to look at how many tanks Poland has (following in from a comment someone made on the previous page). Officially they have 1,065 MBTs (Leopard 2s PT-91s and T72Ms). The UK by comparison has 250.

I wonder what the serviceable numbers are for each country.

Oh and the European country with the most tanks - Greece. Although a lot of them are very old.

The Russia number includes a load of ancient rusting kit stuck in various warehouses across the country. They would be next to useless in wartime, and they don’t have enough trained men.

Russia’s armed forces are a curate’s egg. I know it’s obvious to point out, but Russia is not the Soviet Union. It’s not even a top 10 economy, with 2% of the world’s population.

Dangerous yes, world or superpower? Absolutely not, and it will decline further in relative terms.

I think their nuclear arsenal qualify them for superpower status, despite what state their conventional forces are in.

RoyalBlue said:

Richard_Tyndall said:

Now that was a surprise.

Just went to look at how many tanks Poland has (following in from a comment someone made on the previous page). Officially they have 1,065 MBTs (Leopard 2s PT-91s and T72Ms). The UK by comparison has 250.

I wonder what the serviceable numbers are for each country.

Oh and the European country with the most tanks - Greece. Although a lot of them are very old.

The Russia number includes a load of ancient rusting kit stuck in various warehouses across the country. They would be next to useless in wartime, and they don’t have enough trained men.

Russia’s armed forces are a curate’s egg. I know it’s obvious to point out, but Russia is not the Soviet Union. It’s not even a top 10 economy, with 2% of the world’s population.

Dangerous yes, world or superpower? Absolutely not, and it will decline further in relative terms.

If Putin is really suffering from hubris he probably thinks he'll be able to add to that with some swift victories in Europe as the oppressed populations rush to embrace being liberated from the yoke of the EU.

Richard_Tyndall said:

Morris_Dancer said:

Mr. Tyndall, I remember reading on Twitter recently (might've been Andrew Neil's account) that the vast majority of Germany's hardware is, in reality, not effective.

Trouble is I think that applies to a lot of ours as well. I was not joking when I wondered how many effective tanks we have of those 250 on paper? Considerably less than 100 I would guess.

We also bought a lot of new gen APCs after the debacle in Afghan with the old NI “Snatch” Landies. I’d hope most of them are still serviceable, as well as the tanks. We can probably muster more hardware at short notice than the vast majority of our European friends.

HHemmelig said:

Charles said:

TheScreamingEagles said:

MarqueeMark said:

Sandpit said:

Big_G_NorthWales said:

Theresa getting flowers given her and applause from the crowds in Salisbury

Well I’m not there and you’re not there, so who are all these other people that support the PM?

Me neither. TSE finally falling for her charms?

The poll I took part in I disapproved of Mrs May's handling of the event.

She hasn’t gone far enough in her actions.

She should be taking financial action against Putin’s cronies.

Why is it I can’t deposit 5k cash in the bank without being interrogated by the bank staff about where it came from but Ruskies can deposit billions in the UK no questions asked.

They can’t

Precisely. There's so much misinformation on this it's laughable. The London oligarchs' cash holdings are largely in Jersey, Isle of Man, Cyprus, Cayman Islands and such like. The amount of money deposited in the UK is small. Their wealth in the UK proper is largely tied up in London property.

That seems like a distinction without merit.

How was the London Property purchased without getting cash into the UK?

RoyalBlue said:

Richard_Tyndall said:

Now that was a surprise.

Just went to look at how many tanks Poland has (following in from a comment someone made on the previous page). Officially they have 1,065 MBTs (Leopard 2s PT-91s and T72Ms). The UK by comparison has 250.

I wonder what the serviceable numbers are for each country.

Oh and the European country with the most tanks - Greece. Although a lot of them are very old.

The Russia number includes a load of ancient rusting kit stuck in various warehouses across the country. They would be next to useless in wartime, and they don’t have enough trained men.

Russia’s armed forces are a curate’s egg. I know it’s obvious to point out, but Russia is not the Soviet Union. It’s not even a top 10 economy, with 2% of the world’s population.

Dangerous yes, world or superpower? Absolutely not, and it will decline further in relative terms.

Which is part of why they're dangerous. They can only really play the super-power by being willing to out-escalate people, dumb gambles look more attractive when you're fighting against history, and nuclear weapons become an earlier resort because their conventional military isn't massively strong. Whereas somewhere like China has every incentive to not do anything stupid because the long run is looking great for them.

Richard_Tyndall said:

Morris_Dancer said:

How long do things like tanks remain effective? I know guns can remain (both individually and the design) of use for a very long time.

Chainmail (or mail, to be historically accurate) was in use for thousands of years. Although I suspect spears and bows probably hold the record for military longevity.

Age is not necessarily a problem of course. Just look at the B52.

There is nothing else of that size that can be refuelled anywhere. It’s entirely possible to keep a B52 airborne indefinitely, waiting for its moment to drop the bomb

MaxPB said:

Richard_Tyndall said:

TheScreamingEagles said:

MarqueeMark said:

Sandpit said:

Big_G_NorthWales said:

Theresa getting flowers given her and applause from the crowds in Salisbury

Well I’m not there and you’re not there, so who are all these other people that support the PM?

Me neither. TSE finally falling for her charms?

The poll I took part in I disapproved of Mrs May's handling of the event.

She hasn’t gone far enough in her actions.

She should be taking financial action against Putin’s cronies.

Why is it I can’t deposit 5k cash in the bank without being interrogated by the bank staff about where it came from but Ruskies can deposit billions in the UK no questions asked.

Spot on. Having the financial centre of most of the world in London should mean we effectively police transactions passing through our territory. And even more so when there is a threat such as this to the country.

This is an attitude thing, someone I know basically says that our intelligence services like to know what's happening and will only act as a very last resort if it loses them their source of information. I'm guessing that's why no action has been taken about the money, since the money would no longer route through London and we would have no chance of seeing where it ends up.

That’s a very good point. If we can see and trace the money, that’s better than refusing it.

Sandpit said:

Richard_Tyndall said:

Morris_Dancer said:

How long do things like tanks remain effective? I know guns can remain (both individually and the design) of use for a very long time.

Chainmail (or mail, to be historically accurate) was in use for thousands of years. Although I suspect spears and bows probably hold the record for military longevity.

Age is not necessarily a problem of course. Just look at the B52.

There is nothing else of that size that can be refuelled anywhere. It’s entirely possible to keep a B52 airborne indefinitely, waiting for its moment to drop the bomb

The B1 is superior in a lot of ways, but there are no way near as many of them, and they're (apparently) a nightmare to maintain.

31% of the public would prefer putins puppet in charge...jesus wept.

HHemmelig said:

RoyalBlue said:

They would be next to useless in wartime, and they don’t have enough trained men.

I imagine far far more Russians would be willing to fight in a Baltic ground war than Brits. They keep fighting fit, do military service and are indoctrinated in aggressive nationalism. By contrast even some of our professional armed forces may revolt and refuse to go. We might well have to re-introduce conscription.

The idea that there would be a mutiny because of being sent to fight in Eastern Europe against a direct threat to the UK when there was none over going to fight in Iraq is farcical

AlastairMeeks said:

Morris_Dancer said:

Mr. Tyndall, aye, but that'd be circa 40%, I think the Germans figure was closer to 5%.

Edited extra bit: yet another telling age divide:
https://twitter.com/Jamin2g/status/974319328907681794

Whenever anyone tells you that Remain supporters will get over it in time, remember this age split in this poll. Brexit has cemented a culture divide that means for many people there is nothing now that the Conservatives can do right.

Yeah just as the Blair loving 25-44 year olds of 1997 are unchanged and equally left wing 46-65 year olds now right?