carpoftruth [any, any]

Does China have really advanced train guys too to go along with their really advanced trains? Really makes you think

I’m skeptical that ansarallah has truly hypersonic missiles (hypersonic maneuver). That is absolutely top of the line missile technology.

Damn that trailer hits hard

He was probably a mod of the nafo subreddit

this article isn’t worth reading, but I’ll post the bait and switch headline anyway

> Stoltenberg says NATO could have done more to prevent Ukraine war, FAS reports

hmm headline is off to a good start

“Now we provide military stuff to a war - then we could have provided military stuff to prevent the war,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told German weekly newspaper FAS.

oh, you just mean you think NATO should have sent more weapons, earlier to ukraine

this isn’t really news, but still a good object lesson in why you can’t rely on just the headline

This is always the way, I hate this kind of thing. Permits (legal requirements) are established for normal operating conditions but greater levels of scrutiny don’t automatically kick in when there are accidents.

Also the news site linked here, bne intellinews, is quite good and worth reading. There is a fair amount of lib opeds but it is centered on the material reality of the resource industry and geopolitics in Europe. The founder, Ben Aris, is very sympathetic to ukraine and dislikes Putin, but those facts haven’t made him completely turn off his brain like so many other western journalists. He’s appeared on the radio war nerd podcast a few times, and is most worth listening to when discussing eastern European energy issues.

Biden needs to get kamala to teach him how to say “fuck you, I’m warmongering” in wokenese

https://archive.is/Q7jFV

Bolivia inks $976mn deal with Russia to tap world’s largest lithium reserves

Bolivia has clinched a significant deal with Russia’s Uranium One Group, owned by state-run nuclear corporation Rosatom, to establish a lithium carbonate production facility in the Salar de Uyuni, one of the world’s largest lithium-bearing salt flats.

The $976mn project will use Russian Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) technology, enabling the production of up to 14,000 tonnes of battery-grade lithium annually. This is a key step in Bolivia’s ambition to industrialise its vast lithium reserves, which are estimated to be the largest globally, at around 23mn tonnes.

Last year, Uranium One, along with Chinese companies CBC and Citic Guoan Group, was chosen to set up pilot DLE plants in Bolivia, which are expected to expand to industrial-scale operations over time. The Bolivian government has set a target of exporting 50,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent each year, aiming to establish the country as a key player in the global lithium supply chain, particularly for electric vehicle batteries.

This is fairly significant. Bolivia has a lot of lithium reserves (hence elon musk’s threat to coup bolivia) but their reserves are jot amenable to the same type of extraction technologies as are used further south in Chile/Argentina in the salt flats. Conventional techniques involve drilling wells to pumping lithium containing salt brine to the surface, evaporating it in the sun, then processing the leftover salt. This requires a lot of disturbance area and leaves a bunch of salt waste. It also requires the right kind of dry climate. Direct lithium extraction involves pumping up that same brine and then recovering lithium through chemical means, then returning the lithium depleted brine back underground. This approach is akin to SAGD oil recovery in Canada or insitu uranium leaching in Kazakhstan.

Setting aside the technical aspect of this project, obviously the ties to Russia and China are an important bulwark against the American Monroe doctrine.

Cw this please

https://archive.is/l2bQD

The Prime Minister held talks with Joe Biden in the White House to discuss pleas from Volodymyr Zelensky to let the country use the Storm Shadow missiles.

But John Kirby, a spokesman for the US national security council, said there would be no announcement on long-range missiles after the meeting. He did not rule out one at a later date.

The Ukrainians aren’t allowed to use stormshadows or atacms inside Russia, at least not yet. Kid Starver went to the US to do a bit of warmongering but presumably the pentagon told everyone no. Clearly the state department is pushing a more escalatory line on this than the pentagon, which I suppose makes sense because the pentagon represents the people that would actually have to fight and die and have their widgets blown up.

And it’ll be just great eh

How many genders are there now, sir?

Oh shit now they can pinpoint target the on base McDonald’s

the last couple days there’s been a vid of putin talking about potential Russian escalation in response to US authorization of long range missile strikes against Russia, with putin’s rationale being that this type of missile is different than previous munitions in that they require active NATO servicemen involvement in the launch, as well as guidance from NATO ISR capacity (e.g. satellites). (see discussion on latest MoA and simplicius). I don’t understand how this is different than use of storm shadow missiles/ATACMS - both of those require active NATO servicemen to do the launch as well as NATO ISR capacity (which has been provided for all kinds of things, not just missiles anyway). It seems bizarre to lay out a red line that’s already been crossed. I don’t know if I’m misunderstanding something or if the russian doomers are correct about how much their state loves to allow their red lines to be crossed.

I didn’t chase down all of his references, but the latest simplicius is about the uncertainty and caveats on this topic.

How much is this informed by rising life expectancy? Chinese life expectancy was 64 years in 1980, 78 now. Increasing working years by 3 while life expectancy has increased by 14 doesn’t seem wild, especially with aging population.

America should return to the recruitment ads where the marine fought a dragon with a sword, but recast it as a Chinese style dragon. That way they will get the right type of recruit

the US/puppets couldn’t keep the strait of bab al-mandab open against only ansarallah. What is the theory of victory for taking on China right off their coast?

If it makes you feel any better, even trump as president wouldn’t stop things. Under his administration, the cia and pentagon armed the shit out of ukrainian nazis. He doesn’t have the attention span or the juice to change course on this.