Economists here are saying prepare for civil unrest. And yes, they do mean here inside the US. CA is out of water. Crops here are not producing what they once did. Gas for cars is closing in on $5/gal where I am and has already hit $10/gal in parts of CA. Thankfully, the Abbott baby formula plant is back up and running. And many places are asking people to wear masks again. 2k+ new cases a day where I live…and none of that really has anything to do with Russia…the world is a mess
5 Likes
I confess to being a little puzzled. The whole world is now paying 20% more than last year for everything. That’s billions per day of extra revenue being generated for someone. This is not pocket money. It’s more cash than some whole countries generate in a year, every day, and it’s going somewhere.
If we want to find and solve the problem, it seems to me that a good starting place would be to discover where all this money is going. But governments, the United Nations, academics, and seried ranks of economists and financiers appear unable to do so.
I mean, come on. It’s an AWFUL lot of money. Where has it gone?
5 Likes
Probably to the Russian oligarchs… 
Let’s hope not anyway. However, there may be more truth in that than we realize. From what I am reading, it mostly investor’s pockets. The rise in crude oil prices is purely greed. There is no shortage. Here in the US, we used like almost no Russian oil at all and never needed it anyway. Investors know that the days of oil are coming to a close for the sake of the planet and they want to squeeze every dime out of it they can. They also want to pressure us into electric cars because they will switch their investments from oil to electric…thus they continue to roll in the dough will we struggle to catch a breath.
6 Likes
I suspect for the most part, in no certain order,
- governments
- banks
- a tiny club of billionaires
- Gek oligarchs
Okay, maybe not that last one. 
Hey, I have to poke fun at this mess somehow to fend off the creeps. This planet is resembling conditions at the beginning of World War II… and some naughty old prophecies…
4 Likes
Some people are earning themselves a golden nose, for sure. It always happens.
But the more sad truth is, in the case of grain, this is because it’s not going to last through the year. There will be overall less value in the grain market than last year, it will just have been spent in a much shorter time, because whoever can afford it (on a national level) is stocking up before it’s all gone.
That’s where the export ban in India comes from: India knows that they won’t be able to compete with the highest bidders on the global market, so they’re making sure that the grain produced in India will feed Indians in the coming year.
Not really. In fact, Governments will be the ones doing most of the spending in this case. At least democratic governments, because if they can’t get their hands on enough food stock, they’re pretty much done for. Nothing kills a democracy faster than hunger…
5 Likes
I don’t know if I can find the article now but, Germany has proposed forming a cartel of countries for buying natural gas for this coming winter. They would also like one for oil. Basically, instead of governments competing against each other for supply, which raises the price, they would unite and set a price. Will be interesting to see if they can pull it together.
5 Likes
Well, in 2010 our US Govt took in a little over $2 trillion in revenues, mostly taxes on us folk and business. In 2021 it’s estimated to be nearly double that at almost $3.9 trillion, because it takes the government a while to count up all those monies they got from us. And they aren’t spending it on baby milk formula. Most of it is recycled back to us in social spending. With as much as 95% cost.
Admittedly if things go south, the govts of the world will be doing everything they can to keep us happy, almost, and most of them seem heck bent on making sure things aren’t going north. And not just Russia, China and Iran, which is why I’ve been praying for good leaders to get elected to protect us from our own governments for the past several months. 
4 Likes
That had me laughing so loud that my wife thought I was nuts.
5 Likes
3 Likes
I’m feeling nervous lately. Dreams which seem like they’re of Russian troops being rotten in Ukraine aren’t helping. It seems to have something to do with events coming in July. I usually don’t share my paranoid angsties, but they often preface things. So I thought I’d use this as a catharsis. 
As a token of solidarity, I’m using bits of Ukranian in my fic.
4 Likes
I believe the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, may be forced to resign very soon. Developments today make it seem inevitable. It is possible the government may collapse.
Johnson has been a firm supporter of Ukraine, and it is hard to see a successor with the political clout and strength to follow his efforts.
4 Likes
and meanwhile, here in the states, lawyers, historians and others are saying that America is in fact, in a state of civil war. Regardless of how a person feels about the issues the Supreme Court has thrown out, the legal void left behind will trigger a rash of state by state legal battles that some lawyers say may run for many years. The rulings left for courts to fall back on are laws from the 1800’s, things like ‘separate but equal’. Many experts also feel this will eventually end in violence as religion will now be forced upon children in schools and people in the workplace. (It has already begun in Florida) Conform or be fired, expelled. Many here have no idea what has been unleashed. It will get ugly. I think most people have grown up ignorant of the violence that arises when religion tries to dictate to people how they should live. And I am a religious person myself, but no one has the right to force their beliefs on others. One Constitutional lawyer summed it up this way, “The time of self evident truths is over. We now have a system of belief.” This is what I believe and so everyone must abide by it…
Never in my lifetime have seen the world set to implode this way.
5 Likes
Considering we’re in a world which is increasingly resembling 1984, with a monopoly of thought coming from one socio-political direction in most organisms of power and influence in this world, I expect there will be a civil war for completely different reasons.
As for Russia and Ukraine, I’ve been worrying about our friends over there who have been receiving token support from the west, while Russian forces can play the long game and squat, and attrition the free areas of Ukraine out. I have some indie game maker friends who might be Russians, and have had enough. Wherever they live - and admitting you’re Russian can cost you support and grief - they’ve been trying to emigrate for the past few months somewhere else. I’ve tossed $10 a month to help them as my single income budget is rather limited. 
5 Likes
Johnson resigning at noon…holding my breath…
5 Likes
Well, he just did - sort of. Typically, Trumpily, he tried to stay on long after his position was completely untenable - and now he’s trying to stay on until his successor is appointed, which could take months.
At least he did not use the nuclear option, and force a general election, bringing the whole government down. That said, the Labour Party may now force a “no confidence” vote, which, if successful, would force an election anyway.
Interesting times.
4 Likes
In the meantime, Medvedev says if the US launches an international tribunal into war crimes, there will be ‘the wrath of God’ as Russia ‘takes back’ Alaska…
4 Likes
Always puzzled me why people imagined WW3 as missiles flying across the Atlantic, when you could pretty much spit across the Bering Straits.
6 Likes
So this is airing in NewYork
5 Likes
Ah yes, shutting doors and windows helps a lot. If the shutters are made out of 30cm thick lead-lined concrete. Which is a feature I have only ever seen in swiss houses. This reminds me of the old fun cartoon showing children hiding under a table…
6 Likes
As an elementary school kid, we had atomic bomb drills where a local siren went off and we ducked under desks or went into hallways.
No real protection and likely increased anxiety. Not too smart.
5 Likes