The unimportant news thread

[JBS]

Is the Bosphorus/Hellespont truly one of the most strategically important places on the world.

The ability to keep Russia, Romania, Bulgaria, and Azerbaijan bottled up in the Black Sea and out of the Med is not a small thing, but this isn't 1453. I'm pretty sure the Suez and Panama Canals and the Malacca Straits are far more important to world trade.

[Todd]

Is the Bosphorus/Hellespont truly one of the most strategically important places on the world.

Yes.

I'm pretty sure the Suez and Panama Canals and the Malacca Straits are far more important to world trade.

You listed only three additional waterways, and then only for trade.  It does not support your argument, such as it is.  Indeed, you didn't even mention the Strait of Hormuz or the Bab al-Mandab Strait.  A much better analog for the Bosphorus is the Taiwan Strait, for non-economic reasons.

Also, note that Türkiye is critical to NATO for its large military and its geographical location - the US rather famously likes deploying missiles there. 

[AnotherSpin]

Is the Bosphorus/Hellespont truly one of the most strategically important places on the world.

The ability to keep Russihas a, Romania, Bulgaria, and Azerbaijan bottled up in the Black Sea and out of the Med is not a small thing, but this isn't 1453. I'm pretty sure the Suez and Panama Canals and the Malacca Straits are far more important to world trade.

You named Azerbaijan, which has no access to the Black Sea, but forgot Ukraine, and Georgia.

[JBS]

You named Azerbaijan, which has no access to the Black Sea, but forgot Ukraine, and Georgia.

Thank you for the correction. That's what I get for not checking a map first.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

A government thinktank in South Korea has sparked anger after suggesting that girls start primary school a year earlier than boys because the measure could raise the country's low birthrate.


https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/07/south-korea-thinktank-suggests-girls-start-school-earlier-to-raise-birthrate

[Karl Henning]

We can't keep you little people on, because the fat cats gots to stay fat

Call it one reason I don't donate to WGBH

[Todd]

Three obviously unrelated stories about the irrelevant actions of countries of no significance:

Saudi Arabia's petro-dollar exit: A global finance paradigm shift

Russia to export coal to India through Iran

Kremlin says Russia and Iran continuing work on cooperation pact, schedule may shift

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

A reformist candidate has been allowed by the govt to run in presidential election in Iran.


https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/11/iranian-presidential-vote-lone-reformist-candidate-faces-uphill-struggle-masoud-pezeshkian

[Todd]

59 Countries Show Interest To Join BRICS in 2024

Saudi crown prince cancels G7 Summit attendance due to Hajj commitments

Obviously, both stories are entirely unimportant on their face.  Beyond that, since they are not from outlets owned by trustworthy western corporations or billionaires, they are untrustworthy. 

[JBS]

59 Countries Show Interest To Join BRICS in 2024

Saudi crown prince cancels G7 Summit attendance due to Hajj commitments

Obviously, both stories are entirely unimportant on their face.  Beyond that, since they are not from outlets owned by trustworthy western corporations or billionaires, they are untrustworthy. 

Story number 1 is sourced to a Putin staffer. So much for that.

Story number 2 merely reflects the fact that maintaining its image and standing among the billions of Muslims on this planet is far more important to Saudi power than a photo-op with a bunch of Westerners.

[Todd]

Story number 1 is sourced to a Putin staffer. So much for that.

Incorrect.  Do note that the EU itself published fancy analyses earlier this year about the expansion of BRICS after five new countries formally joined.

Story number 2 merely reflects the fact that maintaining its image and standing among the billions of Muslims on this planet is far more important to Saudi power than a photo-op with a bunch of Westerners.

Incorrect.  Just last week the Crown Prince was announced as a guest by the western press.  The Crown Prince has power sufficient to do as he will.  This is a purposeful rebuke to the West.

You are an admitted cultural chauvinist.  You wrote as much on this forum.  You cannot see what is happening right in front of your face.

[JBS]

Incorrect.  Do note that the EU itself published fancy analyses earlier this year about the expansion of BRICS after five new countries formally joined.


Incorrect.  Just last week the Crown Prince was announced as a guest by the western press.  The Crown Prince has power sufficient to do as he will.  This is a purposeful rebuke to the West.

You are an admitted cultural chauvinist.  You wrote as much on this forum.  You cannot see what is happening right in front of your face.

I have been on this planet 65 years.  I don't remember a time when the Saudis were not doing something to rebuke the West.

And I do see what is happening: a tale told by an idiot* full of sound and fury and signifying nothing.  Power goes to where the money is,  and money goes to where power is, and most of both lies in Europe and North America, and will be there long after you and I shuffle off this mortal coil.

*tbc: the idiot being the media, and not anyone on GMG

[Spotted Horses]

Rebuke to the West, maintain standing among Muslims, are these inconsistent?

The main consort of Muslims that the crown prince must placate are the Wahhabis in Saudi Arabia, since his Western orientation must be tolerated by the largely conservative Muslim population. I would imagine that Saudi Arabia's move towards normal relations with Israel makes the crown prince vulnerable, in the wake of the Israel-Hamas conflict. That might make the crown prince feel some urgency to demonstrate his piety.

[JBS]

Meanwhile French politics is getting interesting.

https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1801114239572328663

As a reply to the thread sums it up:

Macron: do you want me or chaos?
French: chaos!

[Florestan]

Macron: do you want me or chaos?
French: chaos!

I'd say that if Macron's irresponsibly Napoleonic policy towards Russia really went beyond strictly declarative levels, it would result in really dangerous chaos --- and I say it as a staunch and intractable political Russophobe.   

I mean,, helping Ukraine with money, arms and training is one thing, which I support, up to a point; sending NATO troops in Ukraine is quite another, which I don't support at all.

[Todd]

And I do see what is happening: a tale told by an idiot* full of sound and fury and signifying nothing.  Power goes to where the money is,  and money goes to where power is, and most of both lies in Europe and North America, and will be there long after you and I shuffle off this mortal coil.

You very clearly do not see what is happening.  This is typical among western cultural chauvinists, especially admitted ones.  Europe is weakening year by year, and the data is readily available from European sources, starting with the EU and Eurostat.  The US faces reduced structural economic growth and declining strategic advantages in military power, and the data is readily available from multiple US sources, starting with the federal government.  The dollar has begun to lose its preeminence, as reflected in the rise from 0% of global oil and natural gas transactions occurring in non-dollar currencies in 2021 to 20% in 2023, something new in the post-war world.  The US lost two much touted wars to small countries in only a few years.  China has become the second most economically powerful country in the world, and the third most powerful militarily, and it cannot be defeated on land.  This is a material change from decades ago.  India has leapfrogged most European countries economically and has been a major player in moving away from the dollar.  And the recent action by Saudi Arabia to not renew the long-standing arrangements with the US is something new in the post-war era.  To be sure, these shifts have been underway for decades and will be for decades more.  Unless there is a great power conventional war, in which case the decline of the west will accelerate significantly because the west, collectively, cannot defeat its military opponents in expeditionary wars.  Appeals to WWII, inevitable in such cases, are of no value.  It takes a special kind of cultural chauvinism to disregard empirical data.

[Todd]

Rebuke to the West, maintain standing among Muslims, are these inconsistent?

They are consistent, but the rebuke is a diplomatic setback for the west and a diplomatic victory for the Crown Prince.  It likely helps burnish his reputation with the Saudi population, but the more important audience is other non-western leaders.

[Todd]

i do wonder: is there any greater cultural chauvinism in the whole world than to believe that a document signed 237 years ago by only 39 white, male, Anglo-Saxon Protestant delegates representing only 12 states --- should be regarded as unconditionally, and for all eternity, binding on a nation which, as per today, comprises tens of millions of non-white, non-male, non-Anglo-Saxon and non-Protestant citizens spread over 50 states and a Federal District? 

Unconditionally?  I guess you know nothing of US history.

[Todd]

One may twist and tweak these words as much and as long as one wants until one is blue in the face and the kingdom come --- that won't make these words any less true.

The words are stale.  Spooner's beefs have been addressed.  It really is best to live in the 21st Century, not the 19th, though some people on this forum are hopelessly stuck in the past.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Pope Francis hosts a gathering of more than 100 comedians from 15 countries.


https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/14/europe/pope-comedians-vatican-intl-hnk/index.html