Glenn Shadrake

@TimRider13373 @BowesChay You need to go read the transcripts of the various meetings, not just between Baker & Gorbachev but in Bonn, Paris, Prague, London, etc.E Germany alone was meaningless, as you should appreciate with a little logical reflection.

@GShadrake @BowesChay "Not one inch east" referred to what had been East Germany only. That was the context in which it was given. If Russia would stop attacking its neighbors, countries wouldn't have to beat a path to NATO's door step for protection against Russian aggression.

36 years ago the Berlin Wall began to come down. 5 years later, Jack Matlock, US Ambassador to the Soviets 1987-1991 revealed the promises made to the Soviets for allowing a Unified Germany to join NATO unhindered. They were lied to, and here we are.

@StartupArchive_ Bernie & Pocahontas haven’t figured this out yet. They’re too pissed off about not being able to grab more of Jeff’s wealth for themselves to spend, to actually register he’s done far more for Americans than they could accomplish in a hundred of their envious lifetimes.

Jeff Bezos explains why he didn’t take additional equity building Amazon Jeff is asked why he only paid himself $80,000 per year and never took additional equity during his tenure as CEO of Amazon. He responds: “I asked the comp committee of the board not to give me any comp. My view was I was a founder. I already owned a significant amount of the company, and I just didn’t feel good about taking more. I felt I had plenty of incentive. I owned more than 10% of the company, and earlier — before it was diluted by various things — more than 20% of the company. I just felt how could I possibly need more incentive?” Jeff continues: “Most founders own big chunks of the company. They’re more like owner-operators. The way they increase their wealth is not by getting more equity. They just want to make the equity they have more valuable. And so I just would have felt icky about it. And I’m actually very proud of that decision.” Jeff is especially proud of how much wealth he’s created for other people: “Somebody needs to make a list where they rank people by how much wealth they’ve created for other people — instead of the Forbes list where it ranks you by your own wealth. Amazon’s market cap is $2.3 trillion today. I own about $200 billion-ish of it. So if you take $2.3 trillion and subtract out the piece I kept for myself, then I’ve created something like $2.1 trillion of wealth for other people. That should put me pretty high on some kind of list. And that’s a better list — how much wealth have you created for other people?” Video source: @nytimesevents (2024)

@robertgraham Ticket cost, one way? Cost of running the train + maintenance + tax + $200 interest on $126b loan. Round trip airline ticket typically < $200.

Socialists shrug their shoulders at such costs. But capitalists do math. They estimate once completed there will be 30 million rides per year between SF and LA. But paying interest on a $126 billion loan is still more expensive than simply providing free airplane rides for those riders. That's why socialist countries are poor, they spend huge amounts of capital on political-but-wasteful projects so there's no capital left to spend on useful stuff, like factories. The California high-speed rail isn't economically viable.

@kolasi78083 @ripinieks @BowesChay Of course Eastern Europeans fear Russia. There’s too much history not to. But Washington’s post-1991 strategy of driving Moscow into alliance with Beijing has to be the dumbest strategic error of the last 250 years. Nixon & Kissinger did the opposite in 1972.

@GShadrake @ripinieks @BowesChay If you read what Putin actually writes, and you look at his actions, even that of Yeltsin before him, the fear of Russian aggression is extremely rational, especially for countries East of the Elbe.

@kolasi78083 @ripinieks @BowesChay Why? Russia was a natural British ally when France was Western Europe’s greatest power. Likewise when Germany supplanted France. Post-1991, for a decade, Russia had a broken military & wrecked economy. Other than its nuclear arsenal, it was no threat to the EU.

@GShadrake @ripinieks @BowesChay You're delusional.

@kolasi78083 @ripinieks @BowesChay Britain’s fear of Russian expansion back in the 1800s ended up costing the country a series of very expensive campaigns that turned into utter disasters. Once the history books were written, many decades later, it was agreed the fear was hyped to an irrational level. same today.

@GShadrake @ripinieks @BowesChay You are extremely naive about Russians. They have been imperialists and expansionists their entire history, always trying to dominate the next neighbor. Russia began aggression against its neighbors very quickly after the fall of the ussr. Putin doesn't hide his imperial goals.

@TinglyRelic @WW3finalboss The vote was on what day, exactly.

@GShadrake @WW3finalboss Yes there is video of the vote happening and a list of those who voted

🇺🇦🇷🇺 THIS is what was promised The United States, the United Kingdom, and Russia signed the Budapest Memorandum in 1994 Ukraine gave up the world’s 3rd largest nuclear arsenal, thousands of warheads, strategic bombers, everything In return? Guarantees of sovereignty and territorial integrity And then Russia invaded anyway So when people talk about “trust”, “agreements”, “guarantees”… this is the reference point Ukraine disarmed, and got war in return

@kolasi78083 @ripinieks @BowesChay Your heritage is Polish, I presume? My father’s family is from Northolt, home to both 302 and 303 Squadrons. He watched them fight the Battle of Britain. Two of their kids were in my class. Played rugby together. I’ve yet to meet a Pole who likes Russians.

@GShadrake @ripinieks @BowesChay Bullshit. The Soviet union collapsed because they ran out of money. They did not want to free the other countries, and if not for NATO expansion, Russia would be spreading its tentacles into Poland right now.

@kolasi78083 @ripinieks @BowesChay The nuclear agreements held. Russia was Britain’s ally against Napoleon, the Kaiser, & even the Soviets ended up as allies in WWII. Communism was inflicted on Russia as a result of the WWI defeat. Russians suffered the most from it. That aberration ended in 1991.

@GShadrake @ripinieks @BowesChay The soviets broke their word every chance they got . Those agreements were worthless. Reagan understood this. I lived through the Reagan years.

@kolasi78083 @ripinieks @BowesChay The USSR under Gorbachev ended the Cold War peacefully. E Europe was allowed freedom from Soviet domination. The Wall came down. All without violence. Liberal forces in Moscow desired friendly relations with the west, as an equal partner, as was the case pre-1914.

@GShadrake @ripinieks @BowesChay No, the American people should not be bound by some vague verbal statement made by a diplomat who had no authority to make binding agreements. Especially when the other party is a brutal expansion dictatorial power that frequently breaks its word.

@kolasi78083 @ripinieks @BowesChay It was an excellent idea. That’s how we got the nuclear treaties, beginning in 1963. That one ended atmospheric testing, which I remember but you likely don’t. If you lived through the Cold War, your perspective is more grounded. But as Reagan noted, also verify.

@GShadrake @ripinieks @BowesChay Trusting communists is always a bad idea.

@kolasi78083 @ripinieks @BowesChay You seem to believe that all that should bind behavior is treaties. Yet there has to be trust or the world becomes a far more dangerous place, as the current wars in Ukraine and Iran demonstrate. You think EU leaders trust Trump? Are we better off for that loss of mutual trust?

@GShadrake @ripinieks @BowesChay Yes. The treaty was just about Germany and that's it. The written terms are all that bind. The Russians weren't stupid. They knew this when they signed it. If they wanted to ban countries East of Germany from joining NATO, they could have asked for it in writing. They didn't.

@TinglyRelic @WW3finalboss You believe it’s verifiable there was no coup?

@GShadrake @WW3finalboss What I stated is verifiable what you are saying is not.

@kolasi78083 @ripinieks @BowesChay If you o back and study the 1962 Missile Crisis, you’ll find Khrushchev & JFK made promises that could not be made public. They trusted each other. They kept their word and future leaders honored those commitments. If you want to avoid nuclear war, that’s how it’s done.

@GShadrake @ripinieks @BowesChay There was no treaty with anyone. Not even an executive agreement. This while narrative is a giant lie.

@kolasi78083 @ripinieks @BowesChay The 3 + 1 Treaty concerned only Germany. You have to apply common sense. NATO troops are banned from E Gmny, along with nuclear weapons. What is the point of those terms if they can be installed in Poland? Nations have to be able to trust the word of leaders, not just treaties.

@GShadrake @ripinieks @BowesChay Wrong. There was nothing in the treaty preventing nations East of Germany joining NATO, nor anything about putting bases in them. Vague verbal "understandings" are meaningless and not binding. Unless it is in writing, it is worthless.

@arealmermaid2 40 years. Before retiring, I advised the likes of NM Rothschild, Deutsche Bank, Cr Suisse, BNP, Barclays, HSBC, TSB, Toronto Dominion, Morgan Stanley. It’s a long list. How about you?

@GShadrake WHERE do you think their Tax Money came from, a printing press in the basement? What current economists are you studying & how long have you been studying Macroeconomics VS Microeconomics?

Learn Macroeconomics! This can’t be repeated too often! We need a BALANCED Economy, NOT Budget! HOW do you think $’s get INTO the economy? A Public Sector Deficit IS a Private Sector SURPLUS! The Foreign Sector is another Issue!

@SenMarkey Do your job. Vote on Iran.

A war powers resolution will not be enough. Yes. We need to assert congressional authority and stop this illegal war in Iran. But, Trump is clearly an unstable warmonger at odds with the will of the people. Removal is the top priority. No more war criminal in the White House.

@Sir_Mondegreen A currency is not money. Money is an asset a (paper) currency is a debt instrument. That’s why it’s called a dollar bill or a pound note. Govts slowly debased the currency from being exchangeable at a fixed rate into money (typically gold or silver) to not anchored by any asset.

This may be hard to get your round, it appears contrary to everything we *think* we know about economics. But it makes complete sense. Money is not a scarce commodity to a govt that issues its own free floating fiat currency.