[AgentR11]

Lol, I agree with Cog. The dollar is the most liquid currency there is, petro or no petro. Buying Iranian oil in Euro, Yuan, Ruble or even gold bars is no threat to anything.

[dissident]

Lol, I agree with Cog. The dollar is the most liquid currency there is, petro or no petro. Buying Iranian oil in Euro, Yuan, Ruble or even gold bars is no threat to anything.

In theory. But Washington acts like it is an existential threat and there is a string of regime-changed states that tried to wean themselves off the dollar.

Unlike the chest thumping true believers in fora, I suspect the deciders actually know that there is a phase change aspect to currency use. If some currency loses faith, it is dumped, en masse.

[Tanada]

Meanwhile as the USA and EU grow increasingly stagnant in technological matters we get this,

Russia to bring back the supersonic passenger airliner

The United Aviation Corporation (UAC) will develop Russia’s newest supersonic passenger jet starting 2022, according to the Russian Ministry of Industry, over five decades after launching supersonic travel with the Tupolev Tu-144.

The flight simulator demonstrating the new jet’s capabilities should be developed within three years, said Denis Manturov, the head of the ministry.

He added that research studies will be conducted to improve the aircraft’s aerodynamic characteristics and increase the load ratio.

Serious work will have to be completed during the same period to prepare a package of documents aimed at regulating the processes of assessing conformity for ultrasonic passenger jets,” Manturov said.

Russia launched the world's first supersonic passenger plane. The Tupolev Tu-144 made its maiden flight in 1968 and began passenger service in 1977. However, it operated for only a year and was deemed economically unfeasible and potentially unsafe. The same eventually happened to the only other similar aircraft, the British-French Concorde, which made its last flight in 2003.

Last year, while watching a test flight of Russia’s new Tu-160 strategic bomber, President Vladimir Putin suggested that a civilian passenger version of the supersonic aircraft could be a viable commercial prospect.

Designed by the Tupolev Design Bureau in the Soviet Union, the Tu-160 is the largest and heaviest Mach 2+ supersonic aircraft ever built, and second only to the comparable XB-70 Valkyrie in overall length.

LINKY

Russia did have the first supersonic passenger airliner, but after a few crashes it was deemed unsafe by the international market and air travel within the USSR was limited compared to NATO or other regions so it was allowed to die within a decade of its development. Technology today for quality control (often an issue in the old USSR, their lunar program was destroyed by poor workmanship) is very efficient and Russia has abundant resources to draw upon. If they decide to build SST their is nothing to stop them. International sales would still be subject to the insane sonic boom over land rules, but rules change at political whim. Besides flying from say Mumbai to Chicago most of the trip is over Siberia and the Arctic Ocean, and Canada used to give waivers for SST flights north of 55 degrees latitude. That would make 80-90% of the flight path available for hypersonic flight even if the current rules don't get rationalized. I am sure passenger flying for 14 hours would be amenable to making the trip in 6 hours instead.

[vtsnowedin]

To me it would all come down to the ticket price. You could probably charge $150 extra for every hour of cramped conditions saved.

[Cog]

Drunk airplane mechanics, drunk aircraft designers, and drunk pilots. Yeah, that is going to get passengers on that flying death trap.

[Tanada]

To me it would all come down to the ticket price. You could probably charge $150 extra for every hour of cramped conditions saved.

I hate flying with a passion so to me any reduction in time is worth a lot. On the other hand most of those flights are for business and as they used to say when I was growing up 'time is money'. Would a businessman drop and extra $1,000.00 to save half a day in a plane? I think many of them would/will given half a chance to do so.

Its funny, the reason Concorde was grounded was because Airbus refused to continue keeping the maintenance equipment and parts on hand to make it safe. There were never more than a dozen Concorde's on active flight status, and they had to dedicate shop facilities and spare parts bins for those aircraft because they were nearly unique. If there had been hundreds or thousands the costs would have been negligible to keep the maintenance crews equipped and trained, but that was not the case. It all boils down the the insane FAA rules about SST overland flights from the early 1970's that caused every airline outside of British Airways and Air France to cancel all their orders for aircraft. Instead of a targeted rule that SST supersonic flight was say restricted within 50 miles of city centers they made it a blanket rule of all overland flight forbidden. A no over city supersonic flight rule and a high altitude before breaching the sound barrier rule would have eliminated 90% of the complaints and all of the valid complaints were in that group. The other 10% NIMBY crowd is never satisfied unless you cut your own throat.

[Tanada]

Drunk airplane mechanics, drunk aircraft designers, and drunk pilots. Yeah, that is going to get passengers on that flying death trap.

That was true in 1960 and 1989, but it is manifestly not true today. Russia has a modern way of life with no more accidents than the UK or Canada, and a skilled workforce.

[Cog]

You know Russia ranks 105th in the world in life expectancy? The embrace of the vodka and cigarette lifestyle hasn't changed any.

Russia makes continual claims of some superior tank or plane they are going to produce. They build a few prototypes but can't seem to mass produce them. This supersonic passenger plane is pure fantasy.

[dissident]

You know Russia ranks 105th in the world in life expectancy? The embrace of the vodka and cigarette lifestyle hasn't changed any.

Russia makes continual claims of some superior tank or plane they are going to produce. They build a few prototypes but can't seem to mass produce them. This supersonic passenger plane is pure fantasy.

Ah shaddup, ignorant bonehead. You have no way of knowing any of this and just trust CNN to give you the "truth". Half my family is in Russia, the other half is in Ukraine. I know pretty much first hand what is going on there. And it is nothing like your fake stream media BS fantasy narratives which you lap up with relish.

In 2016, life expectancy was 71.59 years in Russia and 78.69 years in the USA. One of the prime factors explaining the difference is smoking. That is right, all the US tobacco companies moved their dope racket offshore over the last 30 years and smoking rates outside of the "developed world" are high.

[dissident]

BTW, smarmass, you are also a bonehead on population dynamics. Russia experienced a super-depression during the 1990s. The total GDP contracted by 60% compared to 25% in the case of the USA during the 1930s. Average life expectancy for males fell to 58 years during the 1990s. So there will be an impact of the 1990s on the life expectancy in Russia today and until such time as every last Russian who lived during the 1990s dies off. Which means decades from today.

So the life expectancy statistic reflects the cumulative state of the population spanning decades into the past. It is not an instantaneous value. Comparing Russia to the USA with this statistic is comparing apples to oranges since the USA has not had any depressions over the last 60+ years. An apples to apples comparison would only apply when the people born during the 2000s start to die off. So we are looking at the 2070s.

But the trend is already apparent and the average life expectancy value of 75 years will be reached in the next 20 years. Which means that conditions have normalized today and not in 20 years.

[dissident]

Some facts that break the propaganda drivel:

https://www.awaragroup.com/blog/russian ... s-warfare/

- Oil and gas industries account for less than 10% of Russia's GDP (10% includes mineral extraction).

- 17% of the consolidated national budget is based on oil and gas exports.

- Idiots who look at the composition of Russia's exports to judge its level of diversification need to be laughed out of the room: see here the lil peep punk hair
Russia has one of the lowest import rates on the planet because it manufactures what it needs domestically. An oil based
banana republic would be importing everything aside from oil.

Russia relies on oil revenue for only 37% of its budget, compared with 65% for the kingdom, according to Argus Global Markets. Analysts said Russia can balance its budget at just $42 a barrel oil, compared with around $80 for Saudi Arabia.
That country's Finance Ministry on Monday issued a statement saying the country can withstand the drop in oil prices for “six to 10 years” by tapping the Kremlin's foreign currency reserves. Another factor is the amount of money it costs to get oil out of the ground – the so-called break-even price

37% is for the narrow Russian federal budget. The broad or consolidated budget depends 17% on oil and gas.

According to the World Bank, resource rents in Russia account for 9% of GDP. This includes mining and forestry in addition to oil and gas. So oil and gas account for under 7% of Russia's GDP. And using tax revenue as some sort of "proof" of failure to diversify is retarded. Russians pay a flat income tax of 13% (as in real flat, not "progressive") thanks in part that the government taxes resource rents. That is called an economically optimal policy even if it does not fit the anti-Russian narratives.

The routine ploy by biased western analysts to "judge" Russia's diversification level is to use its exports profile. This is BS and would imply that
Canada is a banana republic. The critical factor is the import profile. Banana republics only have a few commodities which they sell and need to import all of their other needs. Russia, Poland and some other countries are at the bottom of the list globally for import dependence.

[JuanP]

"Putin keeps the door open for diplomacy with the US; too bad it’s falling on deaf ears."
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/521838-putin-d ... us-russia/

"Putin’s posture was consistent with the evaluation contained in the US intelligence community’s Global Threat Assessment for 2021, which described Russian intent as follows: “We expect Moscow to seek opportunities for pragmatic cooperation with Washington on its own terms, and we assess that Russia does not want a direct conflict with US forces.”

The document further noted that “Russia seeks an accommodation with the United States on mutual noninterference in both countries’ domestic affairs and US recognition of Russia’s claimed sphere of influence over much of the former Soviet Union.”

There is no sunlight between this assessment and the tone and content of Putin’s address."

I expect the US government to continue escalating its aggressive acts towards Russia for the foreseeable future to distract Americans from the USA's domestic problems and continuing national decline.

[aadbrd]

JuanP, could you, for once, really explain why it is you are an outright shill for Russia, and see nothing wrong in them?

[Outcast_Searcher]

I expect the US government to continue escalating its aggressive acts towards Russia for the foreseeable future to distract Americans from the USA's domestic problems and continuing national decline.

:
So Putin is all goodness and light, eh? I just happened to have seen this within the past day:

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/21/putin-w ... ed%20lines

So, what? Are you going to claim this is all some conspiracy theory? Did the US actually invade Crimea? Is the US or Russia in the news (AGAIN) re invading Ukraine in recent days?

You're not seeming exactly credible on this, given real world events re Russia and military aggression, vs. empty whining about US "aggression" re Russia.

[JuanP]

"Russia ramps up oil output and exports – media"
https://www.rt.com/business/556543-russ ... il-output/

"Russian oil production rose by 5% last month after a sharp decline in April, the newspaper Vedomosti reported on Friday, citing an industry source.

May output amounted to 10.2 million barrels per day, up from 10 million in April but still 2.5% down on production in May 2021.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said that oil production in 2022 could drop to 480-500 million tons, from 524 million tons in 2021. According to the official, however, the government expects a gradual recovery in production by about 1 million barrels per day this month.

According to the Vedomosti report, over January-May, Russian oil producers increased output by some 3.5% compared to last year to 219.9 million tons. This was led by Surgutneftegaz (up 13%), Lukoil (up 10%) and NNK (up 9%).

Oil exports rose by almost 13% to 102.7 million tons, statistics show. This comes despite some foreign oil traders being hesitant about buying Russian crude due to the risk of secondary sanctions."

More at link.

[vtsnowedin]

So Russia has increased oil production by 0.2 million barrels per day? So wow the world oil supply is secured and prices have dropped?
NOT
Reason being that US domestic production has dropped 1.2 million barrels per day after the Biden attack on the industry. So Russia is 1.0 million barrels a day short of making up the difference.
https://ycharts.com/indicators/us_crude ... production

[theluckycountry]

Imagine a subway system of shining metal and beautiful natural wood paneling. And No graffiti! If it's one thing the Russian's have always excelled at it's mass public transit. Just what a modern civilization will need in an oil starved future.

"We have completed one of the longest subway lines, the Solntsevskaya Line," he said. "For this we had to build 70 kilometers of tunnels and some of the deepest stations in the area of the Victory Park."

The stations unveiled on Wednesday - Pykhtino and Vnukovo - are the last two on that line, he said. The trip from Moscow city center to the Vnukovo Airport on the line takes about 40 minutes, according to the mayor. By car, the journey takes about 1 hour, he said.

https://tass.com/economy/1670645




Compare that to NYC where even they Mayor says he doesn't feel safe.
https://news.yahoo.com/nyc-mayor-says-e ... 53093.html



Moscow stations pictured on
https://pavelpodolyak.blogspot.com/2009 ... isons.html









Oh dear. People have no eye deer, they just watch the western TV and believe that Russia is a slum full of drunks and broken down old cars. Russia is more like the US in 1950. When the US still had abundant oil. Oil to enrich the lifestyles of its citizens. In Russia wealth is more distributed now, less billionaires, more money in the pockets of the people.

[Newfie]

Lucky,

Those are good points and deserve hearing. IMHO it is wrong to condemn the Russian people for the Ukraine War or other adventurism as it is wrong to condemn the UK people for the British Empire, Americans for Vietnam, the French for Napoleon, or the Germans for Hitler. In each case the population itself did jot set up the situation but were called upon to support the current leader.

The basic idea that people inherently the same everywhere seems to be a truth. That we seem not to be is because our individual situations are different and our leadership is different. How hard is it for our grandchildren to look at Germans and Japanese and see them as congenital purveyors of genocide? Yet that is where our parents were.

We individually have far less control than we like to think, we are mostly products of our situation. Same for the Russian peoples.

Once this was is over I pray there is an opportunity for the West to rebuild both Russia and Ukraine. I pray that Putin is the last of a foul breed that waste lives for their own goals. I suspect I will be disappointed for there seems no end of these opportunists everywhere. And for some reason they gain sway over us. Yet I pray for a different outcome.

[theluckycountry]

Yes, a worthy set of sentiments Newfie. I'm pretty sanguine about out future prospects myself, the world being what it is and the scramble for the last of the planets' oil being what it is. But that is no reason for you and I to get too caught up in what dictators or geriatric corporate tools do. They may have sway over their nations paths but not over our individual lives, unless we invite them into our heads.

Out here my biggest issue is arranging the colored solar lights in my front garden, or choosing a route for a motorcycle ride. We have a particularly divisive referendum coming up but since I don't vote and care not one whit what the federal government does I give it no thought. If anyone brings it up in conversation I just shut them down and change the subject. Sometimes these law changes effect me and when that happens I look for the loophole and exercise it, regardless of the legality. I don't try to change the wind, only my sail.

[Plantagenet]

People... just watch the western TV and believe that Russia is a slum full of drunks and broken down old cars.

Have you ever been to Russia?

Yes, Moscow has some nice areas, but it also sucks up much of Russia's wealth, leaving the rest of the country to wallow in drunkeness and poverty.

I've been to Russia several times, once back in Soviet times and a couple of times since. I've travelled to several areas across Russia. My first visit was on the invitation of the Russian Academy of Sciences. When the Russian Academy of Sciences invited me, they arranged for me to visit several cities and other interesting sites in Siberia. I really enjoyed my time with the Russian scientists, but there were definitely huge problems with the Russian economy in areas outside of Moscow.

Anyone who tries to do scientific work in Russia finds out quickly that Russia is notoriously corrupt, and when I went back on additional scientific projects we needed a slush fund to be able to bribe local Russian officials to get the internal passports we needed.

And, I hate to break it to you, but good parts of rural Russia actually are slums full of drunks and broken down old cars, broken down old Soviet shipyards, broken down old Soviet factories and buildings and broken down and drunk old Soviet apparatchiks.


Typical town in rural Russia

Cheers!