I don't understand, what does that mean?
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Ukrainian Conflict - Donetsk Boogaloo
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I don't understand, what does that mean?
Funky Papa
FUNK-Y-PPA-4
The fuck is this bullshit.
PuppetSlave
Member
CyclopsRock
Member
We spoke about the far-left's bizarre response to events such as these a few days ago courtesy of the mental StopTheWar list, but here's an incredible piece by Nick Cohen (a lefty himself) about it which I think sums it up perfectly:
http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/nick-cohen/2014/03/chomsky-in-the-crimea/
http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/nick-cohen/2014/03/chomsky-in-the-crimea/
KillerMan91
Member
-Plasma Reus-
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Last slice of the salami is ready.
It's pretty bad for Germany, since gas turbines are one cornerstone of the renewable energy plan. You can turn them off and on at will (unlike coal or nuclear plants) to smooth out valleys of energy production caused by renewable energy.
Image that shows how much the consumption is by percentage for Russian natural gas imports into EU. Crazy how much Finland, Sweden, and others rely solely on Russia, while many rely on them for almost 30-50% etc. I imagine oil numbers are also similar. Any knee-jerk change to this will devastate the countries relying on Russian Oil/Gas.
We will be highly dependent on natural gas in the future, that's also why there are a couple of plans for synthetic natural gas production from renewable energy.
Sorry but that article is utter garbage. It's the strawman of strawman. A statue should be erected to it, for future generations to gaze up and learn "this is how you write crap".
I would also hardly call Nick Cohen a lefty. The guy has made his *career* writing books slamming the left for exactly the same sins he outlines in the above article. It's been his entire gimmick for the last decade.
I think it's incredibly disingenuous to pretend that a few complete nutbags are the entirety of the left wing political movement, or even anything approaching a majority. The only people defending Putin I know of, or read about, are either the ultra insane (on either political wing), or those so determined to bash Obama they will use any stick that comes to hand.
OminoMichelin
Member
Ministry of culture writes for the onion, confirmed.
Funky Papa
FUNK-Y-PPA-4
Gas and renewable energy should never go in the same phrase.
If the clowns at Brussels are not going to help Ukrainie, I hope they start pondering why we cannot remain dependent of fossil fuels at least. We need alternatives and we need them ASAP.
Spain may not get gas from Russia (we do get a ton from North Africa, which is a different mess) yet we could basically be energy independent using wind and solar energy alone. It's ridiculous.
Gentle Rodriguez
Member
So this is how they try and convince everyone everything is alright? By potentially getting them murdered.
Yeah, you didn't understand my post at all.
Image that shows how much the consumption is by percentage for Russian natural gas imports into EU. Crazy how much Finland, Sweden, and others rely solely on Russia, while many rely on them for almost 30-50% etc. I imagine oil numbers are also similar. Any knee-jerk change to this will devastate the countries relying on Russian Oil/Gas.
Natural gas apparently provides about 10% of the total power consumption in Finland. And this posturing by Russia will probably make it easier to get new nuclear plants approved.
Despite all the rhetoric around Crimea, the state of Russia never cared for well-being of Russians inside or outside the border. Look no further than Chechnya, Turkmenistan and Russian region of Yakutiya (Yakut nationalism is on the rise there).
Funky Papa
FUNK-Y-PPA-4
CyclopsRock
Member
And that's exactly who he's talking about. He's not talking about various European governments or left wing political parties. He's talking about - obviously - your Naom Chomskys and the rest of the far left who, in their need to damn everything western and capitalist, throw the human-rights baby out with the free-market bathwater. He's not talking about Miliband and Hollande.
Oh come on, I'm a left guy and I condemn Russia for what is doing, but what else can I do unless be vocal about it? I can't vote in Russia, I only can vote in Portugal and to European Parliament, so when my country got involved on Iraq I was against it, but i didn't the same with Afghanistan. I'm a left guy who doesn't have a problem to support the use of military force, when the cause is just and diplomatic means are fruitless.
Maybe read the rest of it? Gas turbines smoothen out the bumps of renewable energy production, which we have a lot of. In order to use more renewable energy, gas turbines help. I don't want to derail this thread further, though.
You are correct, while Russia is the only supplier of natural gas for a lot of those countries, they don't use it as much as Oil. Germany on the other hand uses natural gas much more. Though apparently countries like Finland and Czech Republic and Bulgaria and others import close to 70% or more of their oil from Russia as well. It's crazy how dependent EU really is, and how different it is for all of them.
Kadayi
Banned
Because they're neo-nazis. I'm all for democracy, but when people leveraging it do so with the intent of taking away the rights of others I'm less inclined to consider them deserving of a voice in the political arena, regardless of how popular their grass roots support might be as a result of economic issues.
Funky Papa
FUNK-Y-PPA-4
You did freedom twists bro.
Trying to see how this converts to how many barrels per day these countries usually go through. Did it for Finland and Germany, found that if you follow that graph, Germany consumes at least 35% of Russian oil per day, whereas for Finland, it's in between 65-80% daily. Netherlands usually consumes about 1 million barrels per day, and gets around 550,000 barrels from Russia, so it's almost half. It's really crazy how dependent on Russian energy, western Europe ultimately became. For Poland, it's very high, almost 90% of its oil is from Russia.
Josh Marshall at TPM has an interesting observation that a lot of people overlooked:
Here's what Yanukovych said (via WP):
Who knows what his interpretation of leverage is, but the "attempt at intervention" wording is unambiguous. Where is Yanukovych anyway? Is waving a letter around the best pretext the Russians can get?
Here's what Yanukovych said (via WP):
Who knows what his interpretation of leverage is, but the "attempt at intervention" wording is unambiguous. Where is Yanukovych anyway? Is waving a letter around the best pretext the Russians can get?
What would it take for his own party/regime to oust him?
I don't like far-right parties either, but I do believe in pragmatism in these types of situations. The government is only temporary, it's main purpose is to quickly stabilize the economy and get the country back on track. In order to calm down the far-right protesters, who also fought hard to get rid of Yanukovich, their already elected party was given representation in the new temporary government. It's not ideal, but it's also not like they will be able to turn the country into some fascist state in the few months before the new election, and the president has already showed that he is willing to veto questionable bills such as the repeal of the regional languages law.
Mr Obama stop posturing and making threats. For once let's let regions handle their own problem. Or if we have to get involved someplace pick one of the dozen African nations who are in severe need if help from horrible dictators warlords or general famine. Let the EU handle Russia. If they can't then what's the point of the EU?
Or better yet let's not get involved at all in case we need to invade another sovereign country.
Or better yet let's not get involved at all in case we need to invade another sovereign country.
That will never happen. Medwedew and Putin are a team.
The U.S. has supported the worst dictators in Africa, Mobutu Sese Seko is the most famous example.
When he drops dead. Everyone seems to be afraid of him.
But then renewable energy isn't viable at all.. not with current technology anyway. Power2gas etc. is still far away and will be very costly, so who knows if that is ever going to be implemented. The simple reality is that if you want renewable energy you're still dependent on fossil fuels. The point is to reduce the dependence, eliminating it is a dream for the future.
Either way renewables are mainly for electricty production while gas in Germany is mainly used for heating.
He's a smart politician. He's shown his usefulness to the Oligarchs by settling disputes, giving them contracts and investments. He's centralized political power in the Kremlin again, has started to once again have a state sponsored and state controlled economy, removed a lot of pro-democracy institutions etc.
It will be very tough to remove him and his influence from Russia for a while. Not unless the Russian people have their own revolution.
This isn't a problem that is going to be solved quickly, or by military.
The most likely scenario is targeted sanctions of Russian individuals and humiliation of Russia internationally, combined with (if the EU has the balls to do it), shutting Russia out of EU/US financial markets Iran-style.
Those sanctions worked well on Iran.
Kadayi
Banned
What's incredible about it beyond putting the boot into Chomsky and an attempt to reduce the debate into 'you're either with us or against us', and the use of the word 'principle' when in fact he seems to be expressing a belief in adherence to an ideology ? The whole thing reeks of demonization somewhat akin to the accusations of being 'unamerican' simply for having the temerity to question the decision making of the president. That sort of black and white thinking might sit well in an article, but it serves little purpose in the real world where it's more important to evaluate matters on the ground in a rational manner.
She's a journalist, won a Pulitzer prize for her book about Gulag, privately wife of Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs .
As crazy as it may seem these type of thing do tend to happen. In Poland before elections in 1989 (first semi-free elections) 5 top tier politicians (and I do mean top tier, these included ministers and press secretary) of the Communist Party made a bet on the outcome of the elections. 4 of them actually marked down a victory over Solidarity, while one (press secretary I think) actually leaned more towards loss. Needless to say, they were demolished (won 1% of votes).
So yeah, politicians at this level do tend to fall so far as to believe their obvious lies.
Gas is nearly non-existent in Sweden's energy mix. Our 147 TWh consumption is provided by through 66 TWh nuclear, 65 TWh hydro, 12,3 TWh biofuels and 3,5 TWh wind.
Natural gas only contributes 1 Twh. Coal, oil and peat add another 4,7 TWh. We're essentially completely self-sustainable (if push comes to shove, we have the worlds second largest unexploited uranium reserve) and close to fossil fuel free at this point.
Some natural gas is used for heating but whatever we don't produce ourselves as biogas we import from Denmark. Russian gas has no impact on Sweden at all. We do import a third of our oil from Russia, but that can probably change if need be.
Partial Gamification
Banned
The author, james Kirchick, is a memeber of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a "nonpartisan" neoconservative thinktank in DC.
You hit the nail on the head with Cohen's treatment in that buzzfeed article.
From the IEA:
In 2011, Sweden imported nearly 18.8 Mt of crude oil, or an average of roughly 380 kb/d,
primarily from Russia (50%), Norway (20%), and Denmark (15%). Additionally, Sweden imported some 0.5 Mt of feedstocks in 2011. Russias share in Swedens total crude imports has risen significantly over the past decade, having represented less than 10% of total crude imports in 2000.
That's quite a lot of oil though that Sweden won't be able to make up anytime soon. The good thing though, is that oil and gas, only make up 30% or so of Sweden's energy needs. Meaning that most of the country can survive without oil/gas, but god help those who depend on oil there.
CyclopsRock
Member
Did you actually read the article? That's not what he's talking about at all.
Funky Papa
FUNK-Y-PPA-4
There's always nuclear. Which I greatly dislike, but it's preferable to being at Russia's mercy.
I'd rather bet huge on renewables and keep a few nuclear plants running to even supply and demand than using gas. Particularly if said gas comes from Russia. Not that I dislike the country per se, but the Russian government is known for using Gazprom to blackmail governments into submission, and that's something we cannot have.
Kadayi
Banned
They don't need a few months, they just need gains. By giving them a foothold they're going to be able to increase their influence with the disenfranchised and that is not a good thing. They already had a disturbingly high number of parliamentary seats as was.
http://www.ibtimes.com/euromaidan-dark-shadows-far-right-ukraine-protests-1556654
Yes I did. Its fucking drivel. I've already articulated why. I don't see the need to repeat myself, and beyond incredulity you're not presenting much in the way of a counterpoint.
CyclopsRock
Member
If you say so.
We don't have any pipelines to Russia. We import a lot of Russian oil because it's cheap, but there are no real structural reasons we could not buy it from other countries. Sure it would be more expensive, but that could easily be compensated for end-users by lowering taxes - at this point our gasoline tax is above 100 % of the original price of the gas itself. In 2013 gasoline prices were 14,53 SEK/liter of which 8,25 SEK were taxes.
As a reference that's a price equivalent of $8,5 per gallon. Or over twice the average US price in 2013. All from taxes.
2018 actually.
The problem with the article of the constitution that states presidential terms is poor wording. Thus Putin's third term is not 100% legal. If we had independent Constitutional Court, it would have cleared the issue.
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