Poland already has F16's, they would trade for more. This is part of the issue, how to transfer them over while offering plausible "it wasn't from us" cover for the countries that donate them. It's stupid, but even if it's not a secret, if you can still offer a plausible reason they weren't from you, it changes geopolitical responses available. The F22 was developed in anticipation to F15's ending their expected service life and it's replacement have the ability to counter any new fighter an adversary could develop at the time. As far as potential adversary aircraft during initial development, the Su-27 was the more potent threat it was designed to counter. Mig-29's were also considered a threat as they were thought of as the Soviet "F16" smaller, and likely more exportable. Due to that, it was anticipated that it would more likely encounter the Mig-29 more often.
My guess is that Putin's "retirement" becomes the starting point for any negotiations to the end of sanctions and economic penalties. He's essentially Napoleon at this point: exile is the goal. Also, it's spring. The need for Russian energy to heat Western Europe is diminishing by the day. OPEC countries have a lot of lost ground to make up for due to the pandemic, and no individual player wants to be seen as inadvertently helping Russia by keeping the energy pressure on allies. On the economic front, unless nukes are aired, time is against Russia. They could essentially become North Korea within weeks. Anything nuclear, tactical or strategic, would be seen as unacceptable, and would be tantamount to genocide. I don't see how even China could still ally with them if they used nukes in Europe. If Putin uses tactical nukes, he essentially is saying "I can and will escalate to strategic, and I have committed genocide and in terms of fucks, I give no fucks." That means assassinating him is now priority #1. Nuclear is one category of WMD's, but it's far from the only one. I have to imagine as some of the dirty plans are dusted off, some of them feature some truly dark shit. We have to have some idea of where the Russian sites are and thus some plan on how to neutralize them. The evil shit I recall reading about had a lot to do with water supply or rendering key infrastructure ineffective. Right now the action is in Ukraine, but if I was a security guard in a Moscow water or electric plant, I'd be trying to find another line of work. I don't think Putin is stupid, or crazy. He took a calculated risk with bad math. Let's be real here: he could turn the entire country into a sheet of glass if he wanted to. This might be a foregone conclusion and an exercise in restraint. There maybe a little doubt in the vein of "they might intercept a few", or "they could be in shitty working order like the rest of our military", but I wouldn't take any bet lower than high 80's on that. He's going to let this play out just a tad longer to see if his original math pans out, and then readjust. It's extremely unlikely he was caught completely off guard by the atrocious supply conditions, I think like in Georgia and Chechnya, he didn't think it would matter. "In 72 hours, how many supplies could they need? Also, it's Ukraine, they are kinsmen, this will be a show and a parade and a return trip home. The people don't care if it's our puppet in charge, since when does a Ukrainian give a fuck about elections? What country sees Russian tanks and soliders rolling down their streets and thinks they can win a direct military engagement?" That's not an echo chamber of yes men, that's pretty solid logic. Politically, weirdly, I think this plays in his favor: "the military is decaying and corrupt. I must resign, but the Russian people should demand reform and strengthen our ability to defend the Russian people." This fight becomes his successor's primary platform. Also, the moment Putin's out of the spotlight, the Russian population will want the sanctions gone. That's not how this works, so it's pretty easy for them to turn into victims, and further recoil from the international community.
I'll be honest, I have basically zero sympathy for the people whining about gas prices. For years it was "why should I buy a more fuel efficient car instead of a Truck/SUV? Gas is cheap." and "Why should we build public transit? Gas is cheap." and "Who cares that single family zoning forces sprawl? Gas is cheap." Now gas isn't cheap anymore and people are demanding we move heaven and earth to save them from the consequences of their choices. Quit whining and pay what it costs, and hopefully next time you'll make smarter decisions, even though we both know you won't.
The only thing I'm whining about is the lack of transparency around the price movement. Hint of some shit in the news, it goes up. But then takes weeks to come down, if ever. Price of a barrel of oil goes up on Russian speculation, and the pumps are immediately jacked up. That same cost of a barrel of oil goes down the following day to lower than previous, and nothing. Pump prices stay the same. All while Big Oil is recording record profits. Some shit should not be for profit, in my opinion. Fuck competition, because it usually degrades into collusion and price fixing. And if/when they get caught, it's a slap on the writs, cost of doing business.
Whining about filling up a gas guzzler isn't the issue. It's the higher costs to move shit, y'know like food to your table, or supplies to your doctor, that people are in pain about. I'm not a fan of gas subsidies, but for your average delivery driver, teacher or nurse, they didn't opt into this, and their choices to opt out are still pretty limited. I see a TON of 2005-era cars in the hospital parking lot, we're a ways from everyone being able to afford a Tesla and not caring about what oil/gas prices do. That said, for us to rethink that sprawl, we have to re-think zoning/housing/building codes in urban areas, or subsidize the cost of urban housing, something that's as popular as decorative circumcision. The sprawl exists for a reason, and one of the reasons is cheap transportation. That's still not the main reason, nor would removing cheap transportation disincentivize suburbia.
Same i will pay what ever because i need it but ffs quit fucking gauging me. It pisses me off when i started driving in the late 90's mid 200's oil was 25 to 50 a barrel and and it was 60c a liter from what i remember.
I remember a couple of months ago when the price spiked a little and the Biden admin threatened to investigate illegal activity and then suddenly the price dropped again. My tinfoil hat makes me think the oil companies prefer a Republican administration so they fuck with the gas prices to make people blame the politicians. Same with foreign exporters of oil. They had a lemon party with trump but won’t take Biden’s calls? FOH
The last Democrat administration made a lot of fuss about investing in clean energy, with the public perception being a mixed bag (see: Tesla and the Texas grid failure, was that the fault of shitty regulators, or wind farms? Your bias may surprise you....). There's always been price fuckery, and magically in the information age, we think that companies are afraid of insider trading when you can literally do it with emojis and never get caught? FOH, indeed. So much of it is driven by speculation that they will raise prices when the administration talks energy policy, subsidies or even highway tax structure. Biden's ability to win in 2024 (or whoever the fuck) hinges on economic recovery, and right now it ain't looking good. Ultimately, Jimmy Carter pushed for energy independence in 1976 and Regan rolled it back, and we're still suffering the consequences for it. Until we see some serious decentralization, where energy providers commit to going oil/gas free, these companies have the nation by the balls and are used to squeezing.
Relative fuel prices are driven by so many economic and geopolitical factors that anyone claims to have a “simple” explanation is either lying or is another tragic victim of the Dunning-Kruger Effect. There are entire fields of study dedicated to fossil fuel economics. The war in Europe is just one of many factors that are in play. For me personally, though, I blame @Aetius.
Those stupid airlines should be flying electric planes, dammit! And, all those developers using heavy equipment need those 4 cylinder bulldozers!
Gas will be unreasonably cheap forever and ever. Nothing could ever interrupt this gravy train. "Sustainable" is a word I've never heard, it sounds French.
I think I got the wife talked into letting me buy a Honda Grom for me to do my errands on. With fuel efficiency more than five times even the wife's Element, it will pay for itself in no time. 134 mpg, baby!
I'm fucking excited. So excited you would think I was getting some awesome supercar, but it's a minimoto bike, basically a step up from a scooter.
Yea but they improved the model for 2022. I think they added a gear and improved the appearance. I really like them too, but a little bike like that in houston, even on smaller roads is a death trap here.
Know it isn't the same thing, but the honda ruckus is pretty dam amazing for what it is. It can go anywhere.
In some places, they are the default form of transportation and for good reason: cheap, reliable, easy to work on, not complicated to operate, generally safe and given the size of roads and parking spaces, you can cram a ton of them in a space without upending development. Ego and DUI's are about the only reason they're not more popular here, they aren't much more dangerous than any other size bike. From this: https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2022/03/russia-economic-sanctions-wheat-oil/627004/ "Ukraine and Russia feed the world. They account for about 30 percent of global wheat exports, along with 20 percent of global corn and 80 percent of global sunflower-oil exports. Several countries, including Egypt, Turkey, Bangladesh, Sudan, and Pakistan, receive half or more of their wheat from Russia or Ukraine. Altogether, one out of every eight calories traded between countries comes from Ukraine and Russia, according to NPR. And now they’re at war. Russia and Belarus are also major fertilizer exporters. Rising fertilizer prices could disrupt crop farming on top of the spiraling cost of bread." Not sure about Canada, but for US farmers, this is a boon. If you think about an increase in global prices of food and fuel, coupled with instability caused by the pandemic, a global recession seems inevitable. We'll see some acceleration in alternative farming and food processing, as well as clean energy in Europe. The rest of the article says that Russia can become a giant North Korea, which....doesn't sound unlikely. The issue is whataboutism. As in, "if Russia did this, and suffered all these consequences, what about...Palestine/Israel? Or NK/SK? Or China/Taiwan? How come McDonalds and Visa didn't shut their shit down?" I'm not saying the corporate and "soft power" response to Russian aggression isn't correct, but it does open Pandora's box a little bit. Scary to think about how McDonald's and Visa are international political players in a conflict that could escalate to WW3 and that definitively ended the Pax Americana. I need to see Ronald McDonald's draft card.
This also illustrates how silly the idea that the US could insulate itself from rising gas prices by being "energy independent." We're food independent, and domestic food prices are still going to rise because food is a global market, just the same as gas is.
Yeah, I think back when I had my Shadow and all the times people nearly killed me. But we're much more rural than where I was riding to work back then. I plan to ride super defensively. Hell, the new Honda Navi is only $1,800. That is what I originally suggested to the wife, but she likes the Grom better. It's even supposed to get better fuel economy than the Navi or Ruckus.