Oil climbs back over $60. Ruble stable at 50 to 1?

[longhornfan1234]

Of course not. Why read and be informed when you can knee-jerk react to supporting a Communist Dictator.

I don't suppot Putin at all. I just wish Obama had Putin's toughness. World leaders are not scared of Obama and seem him as a weak man.

[Droid101]

I don't suppot Putin at all.

And yet any time he does anything, you cheer him on, and put down the President of the United States of America.

You're a traitor at worst, and just sort of a sleazy person at best.

[rufuspaul]

And yet any time he does anything, you cheer him on, and put down the President of the United States of America.

You're a traitor at worst, and just sort of a sleazy person at best.

Well you gotta admit he's a pretty hot dictator, especially with his shirt off.

[dunksby]

I don't suppot Putin at all. I just wish Obama had Putin's toughness. World leaders are not scared of Obama and seem him as a weak man.

Only Americans would think of their own president this way, Obama is considered a powerful man and is respected more than Bush.

[magic chiongson]

good time to get a V8?

[nightprowler10]

Nah man, time to get a hummer.

[rezznor]

Putin says don't call it come back.

you are a traitorous piece of shit

[Dresta]

Of course not. Why read and be informed when you can knee-jerk react to supporting a Communist Dictator.

Communist?

You really know nothing about Russia right now, do you? And the unintended irony of you suggesting someone else take the time to inform themselves, oh dear!

What's funny is that as Western nations have become progressively undermined by Marxian dogma and childish conceptions of 'equality' and 'rights', Russia has actually gone back in the other direction, and is a hell of a lot more 'capitalist' than the United States currently is. They have a 13% income tax rate for example, and actually value the family as an institution, generally leaving child-rearing to parents rather than the state as we presently do. Sounds like the opposite of Communism to me. You should actually read Marx and some of his followers, then listen to contemporary political and socio-economic discourse, and you may realise how strongly the opinions and sentiments of the time have been fixed by the moralisers (and thus superficial thinkers) of the past.

Funny that none of you idiots care that this international criminality will be costing jobs and livelihoods around the world, including the US? Guess that's just more on welfare, eh? I know that's a good thing in the mind's of some deluded people. Dependency is good because it makes their own purposeless lives appear more meaningful (i.e. no purpose can be found in their own lives, so they find meaning in the lives of others, in 'helping' them - which actually means helping themselves through the medium of power and control). I can understand how this makes nobodies feel important and valuable, but come on, it's damn counterproductive and incompatible with the concept of democracy, where each man must stand on his own, lest it become nothing except the domination of the herd.

edit: also notice how no one appreciates that Russia was capable of raising its interest rates to 16% to combat this clandestine and coordinated international attack on their economy and currency. No one talks about this, why? Because Russia (unlike us) was actually running a sustainable model, didn't have to bail out its banking sector, hasn't socialised the losses of its citizens (again, unlike us). With the economic mess the US is currently in, imagine if they were attacked in such a way: they wouldn't even be able to raise interest rates above 1% to protect the dollar without defaulting on debt payments. This collusion is also an attempt to make Western powers appear in a less vulnerable than their moronic economic policies have made them.

It's also pretty amusing how people don't even see NATO and EU expansion as an imperial project, and jump up to support it as if it were some great democratic and humanistic expansion where concepts such as power and the annexation of territory have been struck from the dictionary. Every time Empire has been repudiated as a moral barbarism, it has mutated into a new form of Empire and a new expression of power, but is again blindly accepted by the credulous and unthinking masses.

[KevinNYC]

The price of Brent crude oil has fallen, further taking it to a new six-year low.

The price of a barrel of the North Sea benchmark dropped by 5.6% to $47.27, its lowest level since Spring 2009.

US crude oil was also at its lowest level since that time, down by 4.8% to $46.01 a barrel.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-30775577

Russia just got a lousy credit report from Fitch. Bonds cut to one step above junk with further downgrades possible.

Fitch has downgraded Russia's credit rating and painted a horrific picture of a struggling economy rocked by a collapsing rouble, falling oil prices, high inflation and declining international reserves.
The ratings agency cut the country to BBB- from BBB with a negative outlook, meaning further downgrades are possible.
But it was the language Fitch used in its reasoning that was most shocking.
Russia's economic outlook "has deteriorated significantly" in just six months, Fitch stated. Gross Domestic Product will shrink 4pc this year, the agency added, far worse than the 1.5pc contraction it previously expected. "Growth may not return until 2017," Fitch said.

[KevinNYC]

http://zenrus.ru/

Oil is $48 a barrel.
Ruble is almost 65 to the Dollar.

The central Bank of Russia is shaking things up

Oil layoffs hitting Texas and elsewhere

Venezuela is just about in a crisis


Lines at supermarkets have gotten so bad, Venezuela has just made lining up at a supermarket after dark illegal.
[QUOTE]Governors in three Venezuelan states have banned overnight queuing amid huge and sometimes rowdy lines around shops across the scarcity-plagued country.

Shortages of basic consumer products from milk to toilet paper have worsened since a lull in distribution over the Christmas and New Year holidays, prompting many to wait from the early hours on foot - or in hammocks - before shops open.

The ubiquitous lines and frequent jostling for places when shop doors finally open are an embarrassment and irritation to Venezuelans across the political spectrum.

There have also been scattered protests and arrests.

[KevinNYC]

Venezuela not looking too good

There's a booming new profession in Venezuela: standing in line.

The job usually involves starting before dawn, enduring long hours under the Caribbean sun, dodging or bribing police, and then selling a coveted spot at the front of huge shopping lines.

As Venezuela's ailing economy spawns unprecedented shortages of basic goods, panic-buying and a rush to snap up subsidized food, demand is high and the pay is reasonable.

"It's boring but not a bad way to make a living," said a 23-year-old man, who only gave his first name Luis, as he held a spot near the front of a line of hundreds outside a state supermarket just after sunrise in Caracas.

Ukraine
The Ukraine war has just gotten real hot again with one of its bloodiest days. The Ukrainian President says there are 9,000 Russian troops within the Ukraine. There are fierce battles happening over the airport at Donetsk and then someone blew up a bus in Donestk.

Moscow and Kiev trade bitter blame for a trolleybus shelling in the rebel stronghold of Donetsk that killed 13 mostly elderly passengers.

Moscow called the incident a "crime against humanity" orchestrated by Kiev's pro-Western government, whose rise to power 11 months ago infuriated the Kremlin and prompted separatists to launch a revolt across the Russian-speaking industrial east.

Kiev for its part blamed the bus attack on "Russian terrorists" while monitors from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe who raced to the site said all they could say for certain was that "the weapon used was most likely either a mortar or an artillery piece."

Monitors from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) who raced to the site said all they could say for certain was that "the weapon used was most likely either a mortar or an artillery piece."

[KevinNYC]

BBC two days ago

Barely a week ago, there were hopes of an international peace summit for eastern Ukraine. Now, with fighting around Donetsk reaching an intensity not seen for a long time, the chances of such a breakthrough look increasingly slim.

Russia's deputy foreign minister talked on Monday of "serious consequences for Ukrainian statehood" following a surge in violence that has claimed increasing numbers of casualties.

[KevinNYC]

https://news.vice.com/article/shell-...nian-unity-day

Footage released on a pro-rebel television station NovoRossiya shows what appears to be a Ukrainian prisoner war being brought to the bloody scene of the bus shelling and surrounded by an angry crowd. Escorted by armed men and handcuffed the prisoner has a bruised face and remains silent as television crews and shouting locals surround him. Eventually he is bundled into a car and escorted away from the scene with his head bowed as enraged locals start kicking and punching him in the back and head.

Another 18 military prisoners were reportedly also taken to the scene, accompanied by the head of the self-proclaimed People's Republic of Donetsk Alexander Zakharchenko.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6TbpeZkwtI

[KevinNYC]

Christopher Miller @ChristopherJM

[Rodmantheman]

No one cares about Ukraine.