More Ukrainian Events

Your sentence is a good example of Skitt's Law.

LOL, ONE FIRST NEEDS SOMETHING TO BE EMBARRASED ABOUT. :) The only one proven to be wrong and worthy of embarrassment here is you my friend.

Gold coins as minted by the US government are indeed legal tender - and as fiat currency, a US $1 coin is worth $1 no matter what it is made of. Here's the applicable law:

"United States coins and currency (including Federal reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal reserve banks and national banks) are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes and dues. Foreign gold or silver coins are not legal tender for debts."

This is the actual quote from the Treasury website, "The pertinent portion of law that applies to your question is the Coinage Act of 1965, specifically Section 31 U.S.C. 5103, entitled "Legal tender," which states: "United States coins and currency (including Federal reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal reserve banks and national banks) are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues." http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/faqs/currency/pages/legal-tender.aspx

Two, foreign currency be it gold or otherwise is not legal tender in the United States AND it wasn't the subject of discussion nor is it relevant to this discussion. That isn't radical and it isn't news. The fact is gold, silver, cows, a piece of cloth or anything else the government designates as a currency is a fiat currency, anything else is barter. And contrary to your previous claims, the US government does mint gold and silver coins with a currency value which is less than its metal value. It's a great example of a metal based fiat currency.

Now let me ask you a question. Let's say you have a US gold coin, face value $1, minted in 1887. Let's say you are in a store, and want to buy something small. The price is $0.79 and all you have is that gold dollar in your pocket. Are you going to use that legal tender to pay for your purchase?

That really isn't relevant to the issue at hand. It has nothing to do with legal tender. It has nothing to do with fiat currency. Every year a number of individuals spend currency that has numismatic value for its fiat value rather than its numismatic value. That doesn't change the fact the currency is legal tender or that it is a fiat currency. Now if you want to pursue this to ad nauseam as you typically do, I suggest you begin another thread in an appropriate forum. The topic of this thread after all is Ukrainian developments/events.
 
That really isn't relevant to the issue at hand. It has nothing to do with legal tender
So let's see. So far from you we have:

1) gold coins aren't legal tender
2) US gold coins are legal tender
3) you can't answer if you would use one as legal tender.

Well, at least you haven't tied yourself down to a position.
 
So let's see. So far from you we have:

1) gold coins aren't legal tender
2) US gold coins are legal tender
3) you can't answer if you would use one as legal tender.

Well, at least you haven't tied yourself down to a position.

Oh I have tied myself to a position, you just don't like it. And misconstruing/lying about my statements doesn't enhance your argument. This might be news to you, but foreign currency be it coin, gold or otherwise is not legal tender in the US. Only US currency is legal tender in the US. Now how about stopping the trolling. Start a new thread in an appropriate forum if you want to discuss this further and do your homework.
 
How about if I start extolling the virtues of you both. You both have a gift. You keep me glued to this site when I could be out robbing a gold merchant, selling it for bitcoin and retiring in Monaco. No Lichtenstein. No across the street from Ft Knox. Hey, not to change the subject but I missed the news lately. Have they collected the rest of the body parts?
 
Not sure, work at the crash site has been suspended because of the fighting. It sounds like Donetsk could fall at any minute.
 
Putin responds to Western sanctions by cutting off his genitalia -- metaphorically speaking. Putin's Russia is heavily dependent on Western food imports. About 70% of the food sold in Russia's major cities is imported. Putin's sanctions against the West will have almost no negative effect on Western nations. US food exports to Russia last year totaled slightly over 1 billion dollars, and in a nearly 17 trillion dollar economy, that is nothing. So if Putin actually implements these sanctions, Putin will enhance the effect of Western sanctions.

I suspect Putin's food sanctions are nothing more than an attempt to save Putin's precious face and will never be implemented. Because if they are it would be self destructive. So what does this say about Putin's intentions in Ukraine? I wish I knew. Is Putin self destructive? Hitler certainly was.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/russia-extends-import-ban-ukraine-sanctions-24875076
 
Putin responds to Western sanctions by cutting off his genitalia -- metaphorically speaking. ...
Well, he has made me mad. Brazil's exports will surge and the dollars I brought back from my recent visit to the US will not buy as many Brazilian Real as I expected. Even worse, Brazil's inept socialistic leaning president who was slipping in the poles may get re-elected in the October 2014 election! Dam Putin, double dam Putin.
 
US food exports to Russia last year totaled slightly over 1 billion dollars, and in a nearly 17 trillion dollar economy, that is nothing.
It doesn't amount to very much in Russia's 2-3 trillion dollar economy either--more-or-less tied with Brazil as the world's sixth largest.

So what does this say about Putin's intentions in Ukraine? I wish I knew. Is Putin self destructive? Hitler certainly was.
There's quite a bit of Russian pride at work here. The USSR was a mighty nation by most measures. On top of that, it had a number of satellite countries (the Warszaw Pact nations) whose economies had been converted to communism much later than Russia's, so their productivity was a bit higher and they still had some leftover capital from their previous incarnations--resources that Moscow simply helped itself to while the Czechs, for example, couldn't even buy the automobiles they were manufacturing.

Today, many of the most productive former Soviet Republics, such as Estonia and Azerbaijan, are well on their way to becoming Western capitalist democracies and are lost to Russia both culturally and economically. And of course the entire Warszaw Pact has reinvented itself as the new eastern frontier of Western Europe, with the nations queueing up to join NATO and/or the EU.

To a patriotic Russian (and former enthusiastic communist) this is his worst nightmare. Sure, after all those years of toiling for the Party he finally gets to be in charge... but of what?

Putin comes by his insanity honestly!
 
To a patriotic Russian (and former enthusiastic communist) this is his worst nightmare.

I am a patriotic Russian, you are a nobody. To every Russian this war is against USA and those in Europe who are pawns of USA. Every action that Putin has made has been correct and for benefit of the nation and sustaining peace overall.
 
I am a patriotic Russian, you are a nobody.
Quick reality check here - you are just as much a nobody. (Although it has been interesting to see your posts; they are a good indication of what sort of propaganda the Russian people have been fed, which is useful in understanding the situation over there.)
Every action that Putin has made has been correct and for benefit of the nation and sustaining peace overall.
So "firing artillery into Ukraine" = "sustaining peace overall." Next we will hear how "poverty"="rich", "draconian government control"="freedom" and "high death toll"="ideal outcome."
 
I am a patriotic Russian, you are a nobody. To every Russian this war is against USA and those in Europe who are pawns of USA. Every action that Putin has made has been correct and for benefit of the nation and sustaining peace overall.

So you feel good supporting a murderous dictator? Two, if this war is against the US, why are you (I.e. Putin) attacking a country that isn't the US or a US ally or major trading partner? How has the US hurt Mother Russia. When your country collapsed, it was the US that fed you (e.g. Bush Legs). When you had no money, it was the US who financed you. Even as recently as last year, the US gave Mother Russia nearly a hundred million dollars in aid.

So is this about the US or your oversized ego? You are angry because you discovered you were not as big or as bad as you like to think you are? You are no Genghis Kahan. And as much as you want to blame the US for your failures, it doesn't legitimize your scapegoating.

And you think Putin's move to eliminate 40% Russia's food supply is a good thing for Mother Russia? For that to be construed as good, Russians must be morbidly obese and in need of dieting. But I don't think that is the case. No wise or sane leader would needlessly wipe out almost half his nation's food supply. It's crazy.
 
I am a patriotic Russian, you are a nobody. To every Russian this war is against USA and those in Europe who are pawns of USA. Every action that Putin has made has been correct and for benefit of the nation and sustaining peace overall.

Tell that to the 298 innocent civilians shot down in a passenger jet.

Tell that to the thousands of Syrians being slaughtered by his favoured arms buyer.

To every Russian, they will run out of food, since Russian growers are unable to maintain and sustain the Russian population, which is why Russia imports so much food... You won't have to feel or suffer that fate because you enjoy the comforts, food and protection that living in America buys you. To every Russian that is force fed lies and propaganda, they have become mere puppets to a big breasted buffoon who likes to prance around on horse back while extolling the virtues of Mother Russia. When the food starts to disappear off the shelves, 'every Russian' might start to open their eyes and realise that they are being led by a racist, bigoted, homophobic megalomaniac. Then again, Putin has made sure that Russians are only force-fed his obscenities, with Russians never being truly free, with no free media, with no any opposition being jailed, tortured.. This is Mother Russia. At the very least, we get free elections. Not puppet elections where there can only ever be one winner. As a patriotic Russian, you support this type of regime, however the only difference between you and Russians is that you are doing so while enjoying the freedoms Russians in Russia will never get again while Putin remains in power.

You are a brain-washed fool, who has brought into the only message your demi-god allows you to hear. And frankly, you are someone to be pitied. And you should be made to return to Mother Russia, so you can enjoy what it really means to be a patriotic Russian, with all that will now entail.

Russia is driving the world into a new cold war era, with all the talk and actions of what the cold war meant. And the only ones who will suffer will be the "patriotic Russians" who are too stupid to remove him from power, because all they have ever been fed has been his new version of history.

There is actually nothing fundamentally new about the Russian history textbooks recently unveiled by a working group headed by State Duma speaker Sergei Naryshkin. Although the textbook ostensibly advocates freedom, constitutionalism and the paramount value of human life, the main value embraced by the authors — and the book's chief client, President Vladimir Putin — *remains the supremacy of the state.

The intrinsic value of the state is the common thread running throughout the textbook. The result is that schoolchildren will be taught the same lessons that they learned in both tsarist and Soviet times — that the state's interests always take precedence over the interests of individual citizens. In practice, that means the state can arbitrarily sacrifice people and their freedom for its own interests. The new textbook aims to cultivate obedient "servants" of the state, not independent and free citizens of a democratic Russia.

The "new concept" of Russian history is a disturbing throwback to previous times. It cobbles together the old, official tsarist history prior to 1917 and elements of Soviet history. Simply put, it suggests that all tsars and Communist Party general secretaries were enlightened autocrats, no matter what they did to their own people. The text overlooks the fact that this pantheon of leaders did little or nothing to improve the lives of their citizens, develop the economy or introduce personal freedoms, and it lavishly praises them for the far more important accomplishment of strengthening and expanding the state.

Thus, the bloody reign of Ivan the Terrible is depicted as a period of "reforms," and his seizures of Kazan and Astrakhan are euphemistically described as "annexations." The authors refer to Peter the Great's reforms with the buzzword "modernization," even while failing to mention the cost of his wars or the fact that about one-fourth of the population of the Russian Empire died during his reign.

The new textbook also takes a positive view of Emperor Nicholas I, who began his reign by punishing and exiling the Decembrists, continued with a heavy-handed and oppressive autocracy, and led Russia straight into a shameful defeat in the Crimean War. It turns out that even he was a reformer who "tried to carry out economic modernization with authoritarian methods." As for Alexander III, the new textbook respectfully describes his counter-reforms and policy of unification for minorities as "politically conservative stabilization."

The Soviet period as a whole is praised. The Bolsheviks are credited with restoring a strong state, instituting broad social reforms and carrying out the successful industrialization of the country. Although the authors acknowledge the enormous sacrifices made by the people in the mass famine of the 1920s and 1930s, the mass repression, the gulags and the deportation of entire populations, they are all presented as unavoidable costs of what the authors call "Soviet modernization." Stalin's regime, which killed millions of innocent people, is called "Stalinist socialism."

The textbook concludes that the Soviet system had many strengths and achievements. Yet this "new concept" of Russian history does nothing to explain why the great superpower called the Soviet Union imploded so quickly and easily in 1991 like a house of cards.

The problems of the late Soviet period are attributed to low productivity, the poor quality of manufactured goods and low worker motivation. The West's relative success is attributed to its vague "ability to evolve." Such crude, superficial explanations make it impossible for a school student to understand the inherent superiority of a free-*market economy over a planned economy or why the Soviet Union completely lost its economic and political struggle with the West.

The authors expressed particular praise for Alexander II, who, we are told, multiplied Russia's power, glory and territory. At the same time, few good words are reserved for leaders who attempted to reform the gross inefficiencies of the Russian state. The authors found nothing positive about Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's bold and much-needed perestroika and glasnost programs and instead harped on about the mistakes he made during his rule. Similarly, school children will learn that there was nothing redeeming about the 1990s or President Boris Yeltsin. That entire period is presented as the "wild 1990s" that consisted of an unrelenting series of economic and political crises. No mention whatsoever was made of how Yeltsin introduced individual freedoms, free and fair elections, the parliamentary system, federalism, democratic institutions or the market economy.

Meanwhile, the book's main patron, Putin, is described with glowing superlatives. Putin, we are told, stabilized the country after the "disastrous '90s," built a much-needed autocratic system called the "vertical-power structure" and achieved strong economic growth, even amid the sharp global slowdown of 2008-09. Notably, readers will find no mention of the 2004 Beslan terrorist attack, the sinking of the Kursk submarine in 2000, the sharp rise in corruption under Putin's rule, the enrichment of Putin's close friends and associates, the monopolization of the economy or the jailing of the wealthiest man in Russia, former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky, or the government's subsequent seizure of his company.

In addition to those glaring omissions, the textbook is conspicuously silent on Stalin's collusion with Adolf Hitler during the first two years of World War II and the secret protocol of the *Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact that divided Poland between Germany and the Soviet Union. The description of World War II differs little from *Stalin- and Brezhnev-era textbooks. It even combines the February and October Revolutions into a single "Great Russian Revolution," despite the fact that the two events pursued opposite goals and programs.

Despite claiming to rely on historical scholarship, the new textbook, which the authorities have presented as a "new concept of presenting Russian history," is highly politicized and grossly distorts historical facts. Like the textbooks tailored to serve the interests of the tsar and Soviet leaders, the new textbook furthers the interests of Putin and his inner circle. The new history textbook could have been written by the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell's classic "1984."



Keep buying into his lies, 'servant'. You are just the gullible type he preaches to.
 
... Tell that ... To every Russian, they will run out of food, since Russian growers are unable to maintain and sustain the Russian population, which is why Russia imports so much food...
The following is part of my post at another site. Read all here: https://www.kitcomm.com/showthread....ncy-amp-Sick-Dollar-USA&p=2318203#post2318203 and the referenced OP of that thread too.
... The Russia food import band is a great boost for the power of the BRICS. Chicken and even pork production, etc. in Brazil can expand to replace Russia's needed imports - I.e. Russian wealth that went to EU will now be going to Brazil, etc. The new 100 billion capitalized BRIC lending agency, alternative to the IMF, is another example of how economic power is shifting away from US controlled global agencies.

As I have noted in this thread, already China can destroy the dollar, but is delaying as still needs to complete the tasks listed in the OP, before it is to China's long term economic advantage to do so. Why do you think the West's gold is flowing to China, if not to back its bonds? - Making them the world's preferred reserve currency instead of US's fiat paper? What do you think was discussed at the highest level in the last 6 months by China's and Saudi Arabian oil ministers, if not replacing the petrodollar, with the petroyuan? (China buys ever more Saudi oil as US buys ever less. China, not the US, is now the main supplier of weapon systems to the Saudi government. - the precise conditions that let Nixon set up the petrodollar system, years ago now apply to the Saudi Arabia / China relationship) ...

I might also add: China has a huge surplus of dollar assets and is trying hard to spend or lend them to others. For example about 4 or 5 years ago, sent 10 billion to Brazil's PetroBras. China does not want that loan repaid in dollars. Instead China gets 200,000 barrels of oil daily average for 20 years. China has made much larger "paid up front" loans to get rid of dollar ASAP. If Russia should need dollars, China will be delighted to lend them, for gas as repayment. World's largest ever gas deal has just recently been signed between China and Russia. Under that deal China is already allowed to pay up front for much of the construction. China would be happy to supply all the large OD pipes needed, earth excavation machines,* etc. for more gas than they already will get. BTW China is very concerned about its air pollution problems and has already increased its use of natural gas by factor of 13 in the last decade!

* I see a lot of Chinese earth movers working here in Sao Paulo - they look well made and efficient. Some may be Japanese - hard to tell, but they sure are not Caterpillar's. China is Brazil's number one trading partner - bumped the US out of that position about four years ago.

SUMMARY: The Chinese empire is forming and US empire is on its way down. Americans understand this.
Read WSJ / NBC extensive survey, released just today, showing this at:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/poll-finds-widespread-economic-anxiety-152339072.html
Here is link to the Poll's results: http://graphics.wsj.com/wsjnbcpoll/
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I'm curious how Putin expects those brazillian consumables will reach Russia? Much of these products have a high expiration date meaning they would have to be flown in over Europe or have to pass denmark (St peterburg) or Turkey in special ships. I'm not sure why Putin doesn't expect the EU would tax these products when they fly over... also with all the respect for the EU But certainly Finland and the baltic are going to sell their products on the Russian black market meaning they could actualy profit from it. (food prices will definitly rise in Russia over this)
 
I'm curious how Putin expects those brazillian consumables will reach Russia? Much of these products have a high expiration date meaning they would have to be flown in over Europe or have to pass denmark (St peterburg) or Turkey in special ships. I'm not sure why Putin doesn't expect the EU would tax these products when they fly over... also with all the respect for the EU But certainly Finland and the baltic are going to sell their products on the Russian black market meaning they could actualy profit from it. (food prices will definitly rise in Russia over this)

Well that and it takes time to grow cows and crops.
 
no worries Europe can Always sell a surplus of food to brazil who can then again find a willing buyer the selling price for Europe stays the same but transport cost will be billed to the final buyer...this sound depressingly realistic (like you said apple trees don't grow in a year and people want their apples)
 
Back
Top