Alas, poor Europe. I knew it well, Horatio.
POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Tuesday, August 18, 2026 23:33
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The dread spreading across Germany over inflation — which hit a 71-year high of 10% this month — and energy shortages have not gone unnoticed in Washington, where there are concerns about whether Europe’s largest economy could become a weak link in the chain taking a firm line on sanctions against Russia.
The unmistakable German trepidation has also been followed closely in Moscow, where Putin — the erstwhile KGB agent in East Germany and still a fluent speaker of the language — is reported to be an avid consumer of German media.
Putin is likely aware of opinion polls showing Germans to be more wary than others about the war and haunted about inflation, energy scarcity and warfare spreading to their peace-obsessed land.
Exacerbating Germans' anxiety of a dark, cold and possibly even hunger-filled winter ahead have been the ominous saber-rattling from Russian President Vladimir Putin about possibly turning to nuclear weapons against Ukraine and the West. The mystery-shrouded explosions at the bottom of the Baltic Sea, damaging natural gas pipelines that had not long ago delivered nearly half of Germany’s supplies, have unsettled the country even more.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/i-ve-given-up-on-all-my-dreams-dr
ead-in-germany-deepens-over-war-in-ukraine/ar-AA12x1VX
I foresee $200 billion in windfall profits for the energy business: On Thursday, the German government announced a $200-billion relief package designed to help Germans pay heating and electricity bills that for many have already doubled or, in some cases, tripled.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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In other words, fuck Ukraine.
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Falsus in unum, falsus in omnibus
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Germany’s economy minister accused the U.S. and other “friendly” gas supplier states of astronomical prices for their supplies, suggesting they were profiting from the fallout of the war in Ukraine.
“Some countries, including friendly ones, sometimes achieve astronomical prices [for their gas]. Of course, that brings with it problems that we have to talk about,” Economy Minister Robert Habeck told regional German paper NOZ in an interview published Wednesday which was translated by NBC News. He called for more solidarity from the U.S. when it comes to assisting its energy-pressed allies in Europe.
“The United States contacted us when oil prices shot up, and the national oil reserves in Europe were tapped as a result. I think such solidarity would also be good for curbing gas prices,” he said.
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/05/german-minister-criticizes-us-over-ast
ronomical-natural-gas-prices.html
When old-style Capitalists see weakness, they raise prices until buyers can pay no more. To make the process of taking all the buyer's money seem bloodless and merely a technicality, it is called maximizing profit.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Yup. It wasn't enough that Biden* made it a first day priority to shot down the Keystone XL pipeline, but now he blew up the Nord Stream pipeline.
Energy prices were just fine while Trump was in office.
Gas prices by me are up $0.50 a gallon in the last two weeks. Heating your house is going to cost even more than it did last year when it doubled from the previous year.
As an aside... Elon is buying Twitter by the end of the week. Just in time for midterms.
Democrats are toast.
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Falsus in unum, falsus in omnibus
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Garry Kasparov, the former chess world champion and anti-Putin regime campaigner, has given an interview to the German news magazine Spiegel in which he says that “every Russian who is living in Russia now is part of the war machine” and demands that those who want to stand on the right side of history should leave.
Kasparov tells the magazine that he has spent 20 years fighting against Vladimir Putin. “I always said that his regime would unavoidably become a fascist threat – not only for Russia, not only for its neighbours, but for the entire world. It would have been nice if a few more people would have taken this warning to heart.”
Asked by Spiegel if being abroad – he has lived in political exile since 2013 – he wasn’t in too comfortable a position to be making such demands of those who have yet to leave Russia, he said: “This is war. Either you’re on one side of the front or the other. Every Russian citizen, including me, carries collective responsibility for this war, even if not a personal responsibility. Today Russia is a fascistic dictatorship, which, while we’re speaking here, is carrying out crimes against humanity. And everyone who is still living in Russia now, is a part of this war machinery, whether he wants to be or not.”
Kasparov said Russians who want to be given asylum elsewhere should first have to sign a three-point declaration in which they would “declare the war to be criminal, the Putin regime illegitimate and Ukraine indivisible”, Kasparov said. By signing it, the individual would be liable for prosecution in Russia on three counts according to laws Putin has put in place, he added.
The 59-year old chess grandmaster makes the interesting claim that Putin “never played chess, but poker, and he was good at geopolitical poker. He often played with bad cards and won, because his opponents fell for his bluff.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2022/oct/05/russia-ukraine-war-
live-dozens-of-towns-recaptured-in-east-and-south-says-zelenskiy?page=with:block-633d6eab8f08cd903079a659#block-633d6eab8f08cd903079a659
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Yup. It wasn't enough that Biden* made it a first day priority to shot down the Keystone XL pipeline, but now he blew up the Nord Stream pipeline.
Energy prices were just fine while Trump was in office.
Gas prices by me are up $0.50 a gallon in the last two weeks. Heating your house is going to cost even more than it did last year when it doubled from the previous year.
As an aside... Elon is buying Twitter by the end of the week. Just in time for midterms.
Democrats are toast.
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Falsus in unum, falsus in omnibus
Gas prices just shot up another $0.35 by me in one day.
Now it's $0.85 more than it was a week ago.
Good. Election day is a month away.
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Falsus in unum, falsus in omnibus
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Quote:Exxon depends on people believing the U.S. President sets gasoline prices because if the people knew it was Exxon the corporate headquarters would be burned down and the CEO hanged. For example, see:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Gas prices just shot up another $0.35 by me in one day.
Now it's $0.85 more than it was a week ago.
Good. Election day is a month away.
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Falsus in unum, falsus in omnibus
ExxonMobil Makes Godlike Profits
https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/exxonmobil-quarterly-profit
s-challenges/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:Exxon depends on people believing the U.S. President sets gasoline prices because if the people knew it was Exxon the corporate headquarters would be burned down and the CEO hanged. For example, see:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Gas prices just shot up another $0.35 by me in one day.
Now it's $0.85 more than it was a week ago.
Good. Election day is a month away.
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Falsus in unum, falsus in omnibus
How many times are you going to repeat this stupid line, dipshit?
Joe fucking Biden* didn't directly set the gas prices. NOBODY IS SAYING HE DID.
But two years of bad policy created the clusterfuck we're all living through now. Not just the gas prices. EVERYTHING.
DEMOCRATS ARE FUCKING DONE.
DONE.
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Falsus in unum, falsus in omnibus
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Quote:It is NOT two years. It is two centuries that companies like Exxon have been able to set prices as high as the buyers have money in their wallets and take the maximum profit. There are inflation adjustments going back 200 years and we are paying 200 times more today than way-back when. That isn't the way America would run, except if Exxon and like companies had complete control of America and were squeezing all the money they can from Americans.
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
How many times are you going to repeat this stupid line, dipshit?
Joe fucking Biden* didn't directly set the gas prices. NOBODY IS SAYING HE DID.
But two years of bad policy created the clusterfuck we're all living through now. Not just the gas prices. EVERYTHING.
DEMOCRATS ARE FUCKING DONE.
DONE.
--------------------------------------------------
Falsus in unum, falsus in omnibus
CPI Inflation Calculator
https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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In Ukraine, Europeans will have to put their money where their mouth is | October 3, 2022
Jeremy Shapiro writes:
Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas enthusiastically joined the general outrage when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. He took to Twitter immediately to condemn the attack as “the greatest breach of peace in Europe in nearly 80 years”. He went on a trip to Germany and the Polish-Ukrainian border in March to visit US troops and observe the humanitarian operations there. On his return, the Republican senator implored President Joe Biden to “get them the damn weapons”, while praising the contributions of Poland and Germany to the Ukrainian war effort as “heroic” and “ground-shaking”.
But just a few weeks later, his outrage had apparently faded. He was one of 11 senators to vote against the Biden administration’s proposed $40 billion aid package to Ukraine. In explaining his vote, Marshall noted that “our NATO allies’ contributions have dropped off significantly, turning this essentially into a proxy war between the U.S. and Russia.” In the House, Representative Tim Burchett of Tennessee wondered why the United States would send “$40 billion to Ukraine, and we can’t get baby formula? It’s time for Europe to step up.” A growing chorus of leading figures began to ask: if the rich Europeans are not going to adequately fund a war on the European continent, why should America do it?
The bill still passed and – for now – only a minority of Republicans are taking this view. But, in private, administration officials doubt they will be able to pass big aid packages for Ukraine after the midterm elections. In their view, Congress has grown wary of the enormous sums required to sustain the Ukraine war, particularly given the various domestic priorities and the looming threat of China. President Vladimir Putin’s partial mobilisation of reservists means that the war will not end quickly. Administration officials expect budget-conscious Republicans to increasingly demand that Europe step up – and to point to Europeans’ inaction as a failure of Biden administration diplomacy. Even some anti-interventionist Democrats may join them.
One can see their point. The US has already pledged $44 billion in bilateral aid to Ukraine and the administration just asked Congress to approve another $13.7 billion. These are large figures even by Washington standards. Meanwhile, the combined contributions of the United Kingdom, the EU, and all 27 EU member states totals only $33 billion. In the key area of military aid, the gap is even wider: the US has pledged $24 billion, the Europeans only $12 billion. The actual difference may be greater, as key European donors have reportedly been slow to deliver on their pledges.
All this means that the current trickle of “blame Europe” arguments may turn into a torrent if the Republicans take control of Congress in November. The advantage of such claims is that they would allow newly empowered Congressional critics to oppose Biden’s policy without having to appear soft on Russia.
More at https://ecfr.eu/article/the-coming-transatlantic-rift-over-ukraine/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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