Thank you for those videos 'Plum they filled in a few angles I had not previously understood.
Unfortunately Ben is by no means unique in his apparently poor understanding or even desire to learn. Then there are those with their fingers even now poised to type
'LOL, this is rich. John Pilger being quoted as an authority on things historical...'
Been in data comm since we formed the bits individually with a Morse key.
I don't think there's much doubt about which side won the Cold War. It was a very costly war in material terms.
The real question ought to be 'Could we have avoided fighting it in the first place?' and 'Why did we fight it?'
Looking back to 1960, it seems Khruschev might have cooled things down, had he been allowed to.
Americas' obsession with imaginary 'bomber gap', and 'missile gap' led to the highly provocative U-2 overflights, which poured petrol on the fire.
Yes it was a costly war but the monetary cost who paid the money to whom? Western governments paid their people's money to the world's arms dealers.
The human cost, who cares about a human cost? If someone gets rich that is what matters.
Unfortunately the Soviets apparently did believe that US and their Patsies would actually attack them if they did not invest their precious resources in matching the threat which they did until they finally could not do it any more and that's when the Cold War came to a pause but that was not the finish.
Fortunately the world wide communities of Islam could be nurtured and coaxed into picking up the cards and continuing the game. Seems like China is soon to take a place at the table too.
The Cold War will be over when there is no more wealth to be sucked up by the MIC.
Been in data comm since we formed the bits individually with a Morse key.
Here's an impressive and thought-provoking sales pitch for a wonderful marvel of modern civil engineering and I just hope they've got all their sums right;
Genuinely a dam "Made in China", but batteries not included. They may need some form of energy storage if the worst happens.
After a well-known UK bullion theft, the 'fencers' adulterated the gold with copper coins to reduce the purity, but some of the copper coins were not fully melted.
AK, going back to your Cold War theme, I am partly convinced that the Atom Spies, by giving the Russians atomic secrets actually averted war. In 1947 the drafted a plan one part considered a pre-emptive strike in 1957 before Russia had the bomb.
I think the Soviets had good reason to distrust the West. After WW1 the Allied powers sided with the White Russians and surrounded the communists. The Allies included the central European states that were subsequently behind the Iron Curtain.
Having defeated Germany they had the opportunity to create a buffer zone. They also tried to subvert the other States too with International Communism. Really this was only the other side of the coin from International Democracy.
Bob, the weight of gold is only a factor if you need to lift the bars. Since no one ever does this, at most they just look at the shiny bars in a vault, the weight is immaterial and only the looks matter. Nobody is going to enter a vault and lift several hundred bars of gold to check them, as long as the ones at the front are genuine that's it. I bet most securities backed by gold refer to gold that has never been seen for many years, it's the dumb trust thing based on reputations.
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the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.
Well Pontious.
As you get older you learn more, and even though I personally had a walk on part in the war, it's clear to me now that the real potential aggressor was us.
The Americans (and NATOs) policy post WW2 was unbelievably aggressive.
It included full SIOP implementation following battalion level confrontation with NATO forces, which could easily have happened in Berlin, for example.
So, a relatively serious skirmish in a disputed and divided city in East Germany could have led to all out Nuclear War against the Rooskies.....and China. Even though the Chinks had fa to do with it.
No wonder the Soviets were worried.
Btw.
Re the fake gold story.
People need to remember that the Chinese are *****.
They fake everything, steal anything and cheat everyone.
Why wouldn't they try and fake gold?
I can't see why you suggested that link, perhaps you could clarify? I am sure that you understand that "Zero Hedge" is not exactly an unbiased source. Perhaps if you were to expand on your comments so that they contained some actual argument or facts it may be easier to hold a useful discussion.
Wang Guangming, a lawyer at Dacheng Law Offices, said the key issue is what happened to the pledged gold and which party was aware of the falsification. If Kingold faked the gold bars and both the insurers and creditors were unaware, the insurers should compensate the lenders and sue Kingold for insurance fraud, Wang said. Insurers are also responsible to compensate if they knew of Kingold's scam but creditors didn't, Wang said.
If Kingold and creditors were both aware of the fake collateral, insurers could terminate the policies and sue the parties for fraud. But if insurers were also involved in the scam, then all the contracts are invalid and every party should assume their own legal responsibilities, Wang said.
A financial regulatory official told Caixin that previous investigations of loan fraud cases involving fake gold pledges found there was often collusion between borrowers and financial institutions.
It is still unclear whether the collateral was faked in the first place or replaced afterward. Sources from Minsheng Trust and Dongguan Trust confirmed that the collateral was examined by third-party testing institutions and strictly monitored by representatives from Kingold, lenders and insurers during the process of delivery.
"I still can't understand which part went wrong," a Minsheng Trust source said. Bank records showed that the vault where the collateral was stored was never opened, the source said.
the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.
