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Additionally, the forum gets a "bounty" for various offers at Amazon.com. For instance, if you sign up for a 30 day free trial of Amazon Prime, the forum will earn $3. Same if you buy a Prime membership for someone else as a gift! Trying out or purchasing an Audible membership will earn the forum a few bucks. And creating an Amazon Business account will send a $15 commission our way.
If you have an Amazon Echo, you need a free trial of Amazon Music!! We will earn $3 and it's free to you!
Your personal information is completely private, I only get a list of items that were ordered/shipped via the link, no names or locations or anything. This does not cost you anything extra and it helps offset the operating costs of this forum, which include our hosting fees and the yearly registration and licensing fees.
Stay safe and well and thank you for your participation in the Forum and for your support!! --Deborah
Here is the link:
Click here to shop at Amazon.com
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Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects
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A few interesting developments in Ukraine and on the efforts by what is being called the "Global South" to increase their clout within the UN, the IMF, the WTO and the World Bank.- In Ukraine there is general agreement among war analysts that UA forces have "breached" Russia's first line of defense in the occupied territory of Zaphoresia Oblast in southern Ukraine. It is in the direction of Melipitol, a stated objective of the UA in it's attempt to split Russian forces at this strategically important territorial bridge to Crimea. Ukrainian commanders have said 60% of Russia's defensive posture has been allotted to defending this allegedly breached line of advance and that the 2nd and 3rd lines of defense are not as well defended with about 30% of Russian efforts devoted to these two rear area defenses. Forward progress of the UA should now increase.
- The other noteworthy circumstances involving the war in Ukraine are efforts by administration spokespersons to back away from a alleged unauthorized intelligence analysis, released last week, that stated Ukraine will not reach Melipitol and will fail in it's overall offensive strategy. Instead, these spokespersons are doubling down on the US commitment to continue to support Ukraine, "for as long as it takes," and it is not at all clear what that really means. Most of us here want to be told what are the goals of the western alliance in Ukraine in objective terms.
- It remains hard for even the best military analysts to get a solid picture of UA successes and Russian defeats. I'm just a close observer of the war in Ukraine and what I see described by various sources isn't threatening the bear (IMO). Putin continues to portray Russia as more or less inconvenienced by UA's counter offensive, now 2 full months old. There is so much destruction and death being reported by every source covering the war that it overshadows what are even miniscule reports of the facts on the ground. From a news perspective, the news of the war in Ukraine is being pushed to the back pages of the western press by its editors.
- On the global political stage there has been a lot of reporting on BRICS replacing more detailed accounts of Russia's war in Ukraine. This is a complicated issue that describes BRICS member's efforts to actually re-order the western dominated world order and the infrastructure that supports it ....... the UN, the IMF, the WTO and the World Bank. Both Russia and China see it as a distraction from Russia's war and in turn a good thing.
- Early in the time frame (we're now at day 556) of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the reported line connected the preservation and restoration of Ukraine's legal boundaries to the larger issue of preserving the current rules based world order while punishing Russia with sanctions instituted by western (NATO) powers. There seems to me to be less and less connection of the survival of a liberal democratic Ukraine at it's pre-2014 boarders and stopping the Russian invasion to the preservation of the rules based world order. IOW, the outcome of this war between the Russian Federation and the current Ukrainian government has become more decidedly regional in terms of outcomes.
Dozens of nations want to join the club as an alternative to the US-led order. But internal fissures could limit BRICS.
Mission to CFB's National Championship accomplished. But the shine on the NC Trophy is embarrassingly wearing off. It's M B-Ball ..... or hockey or volley ball or name your college sport favorite time ...... until next year.
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[QUOTE=Jeff Buchanan;n1860705]
On the global political stage there has been a lot of reporting on BRICS replacing more detailed accounts of Russia's war in Ukraine. This is a complicated issue that describes BRICS member's efforts to actually re-order the western dominated world order and the infrastructure that supports it ....... the UN, the IMF, the WTO and the World Bank. Both Russia and China see it as a distraction from Russia's war and in turn a good thing.
This is the real cost of the Ukraine War to the US in that Biden and his foolish advisors gave up the US's role as the provider of the globe's reserve currency. When Biden took Russia's currency reserves, it meant that all countries now have to consider what the US would do if THEY got cross-wise with the US. China is winning the Ukraine War, and it is a damm shame.
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I'll probably be back in a mask again when I'm driving my bus. We are subject to federal transportation laws, and The Chairman controls those. But once I leave for the day, the mask goes into the trash."The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, .. I'd worn them for weeks, and they needed the air"
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