What we can learn from Crimea

[NorthernRaider]

SS I think 99% silver coins are more tradable and useful than gold coins.

[Straight Shooter]

Yes NR your bang on! And silver will gain more than gold percentage wise...so the people in the know say,back in time silver was valued more than gold , a better buy maybe and more could stretch to get some , this is just my view no one needs to follow my view..play it as YOU see it ....that's what I do.

[NorthernRaider]

Agreed and you can utilise silver into Colloidal Silver to use as a medical product as well, and use it in silver bullets to kill were-terriers with

[Jace]

I've got a mate who I've worked out is a prepper too (from some of the odd things he's said), who also happens to be an analyst for one of the financial publications in the US. He's been banging on about buying silver for at least a year, always emphasizing getting the tangible stuff (coins etc) rather than online trading, so wonder what he knows but can't tell us due to confidentiality?

[River Song]

I've invested in 3 dozen cases of Harveys Bristol Cream

[Straight Shooter]

Good for you RS! .....got FG wiskey myself....

[NorthernRaider]

River Song Offline

"I've invested in 3 dozen cases of Harveys Bristol Cream "

thanks for making me spill my coffee

[ErikEst]

(30 March 2014, 11:41)Little Lou Wrote: Thanks, NR and RS - I feel a prat for not realizing before about coffee. Green beans is an inspiration too.
(But I disagree with you on the politics, NR. I can't stand Putin, but the only Nazis here are the ones in the new Ukrainian government that our beloved leaders are supporting!)
RoadWarrior - yes, absolutely. It's the 'community' aspect of it that fascinates me most, and I fear you're right that we've lost it in UK. But you can still find that spirit in the older people, and communities where they're in a majority usually start to soak it up themselves.
In my own village more than half are elderly, and that's made a huge difference. We have street parties (Jubilee and Royal Wedding) and neighbours are always helping each other out. One of mine has cancer, for instance, and we have a rota on the street of people who take turns driving her in for chemo. My half of my road had power cuts in a storm this January, and we had endless knocks on the door from neighbours coming to see if we were all right or needed a hot drink!
I'm also the Neighbourhood Watch co-ordinator here, and have a huge database of people willing to be called in in an emergency - eg if there's a missing child. Three times a year I get a band of volunteers to go on a big 'litter pick' to clear the roads, playing field, and recreation ground, and I always get at least 40 people who turn up. There are problem areas, but I think on the whole we'd pull fairly well together if we had to. Though probably not like Crimea!
SS - yes, good question on the gold. I've asked if it's possible to get figures, and will report back.

wow Lou,
living all my life with the russians and the other former soviet republics nationals in my country i can tell it is load of bs!
even nowadays it is enough the smallest hint of a rumor (came fom russia by internet) that for example the buckwheat is becoming deficit to cause the shopping spree and subsequently creating the buckwheat deficit. same thing were with toothpaste and eggs a few years before. it spreads like wildfire.
even though i and many others consider buckwheat as parrot food, now every russian home has a load of it in their cupboards.
how come you never complained earlier? it is only now when russian troops occupied the crimea suddenly "the nazis" started to oppress the crimean population?

and please spare me about the nazi crap. anyone who say anything opposing to the current russian policy is automatically classified as fascist and nazi.

i know how ukranians in my country feel about russians, they know their nations history apart from russian who are constantly brainwashed from the first grade at school.

well it is amazing how far the putins propaganda has reached!

[Little Lou]

Hello, ErikEst,

I don't know much about other former Soviet territories, and see no reason to doubt what you say about them. However, I'm talking specifically about Crimea - which I do know very well indeed.

You're quite right that 'nazi' and 'fascist' have long been the favoured names for anything the Russian government doesn't like, but I was replying specifically to NR's Appeasement analogy, which indirectly implies Putin is the Nazi in this situation. In fact the Nazism in Ukraine is very real, as any historian will tell you. You might like to look up their history in the Second World War, for instance, or wonder why so many camp guards in Auschwitz were Ukrainian.

As for the present situation, the 'Nazis' are a very real and present threat. You might like to look at this video, for instance, where the Right Wing groups actually compare themselves to Hitler, and declare that Ukraine should be for the Ukrainians. This isn't Russia Today, by the way - it's the BBC.

And if you wonder why I talk about such elements in the Ukrainian's own government, you might find this video of interest. It shows members of the new parliament physically intimidating the head of state broadcasting into resigning for the crime of showing a clip of Putin's speech on TV. Again, the source is the BBC. Please note, these are not just street thugs, but actual members of parliament, and in a democracy our MPs do not behave in this way.

As for why 'I' haven't complained before - why would I? I don't live in Crimea, and this is a forum about survival, not politics. The inhabitants of Crimea themselves have, of course, complained many times before, and if you're familiar with Ukraine you'll know that they tried for self-government as far back as 1992. In 1995 things got so bad that Ukraine broke its own agreed constitution by abolishing the role of Crimean President and announcing that from now on even the Prime Minister would be appointed by Ukraine rather than the supposedly Autonomous Republic of Crimea. There were more anti-Ukrainian riots there in 2009, shortly before I first visited. This isn't Putin propaganda - it's historical fact, and even Wikipedia acknowledges it.

I have no axe to grind in this, but as a historian I do like facts to be accurate. Beyond that is politics, and we have been told repeatedly that this is not the forum for that. I find what you have to say interesting, but let's not get drawn away from the main subject.

[NorthernRaider]

You make some damn good point Lou and I willingly accept them all, but I would like to raise just a few point for you to chew over.

When ever I hear socialists and many other center left types referring to Nazism and Nazi thugs I always consider the following

NAZISM is just a militarised style of SOCIALISM

SOVIET SOCIALISM is just an agrarian or communal form of socialism.

Putin IS using Nazi doctrine that is a fact EG create an imaginary bogeyman in a country you want to Annex, Putin chose Georgia first stealing 20% of it , Ukraine second grabbing the Crimea and eyeballing the southern part of the Ukrain, he has grabbed the Ukrainian navy and added it to his own, and is agitating like mad in Moldova.

Adolf grabbed Alsace Loraine a chunk belonging to France, he then snaffled the Sudatenland bit of Czechoslovakia and stirred up agitated like mad in Poland, when he invadec France he grabbed as much of the French navy as he could.

The Nazis killed 7 million Jews, Slavs, Russians Poles, Catholics, Mentally handicapped and quite a lot of us as well (Didn't stop the Soviet / US and UK government from hiring them to build rockets though)

The Soviets alone in the 1930s killed over 18 million people, plus millions more during the soviet era.

The Communist Socialists in China are thought to have killed nearly 30 million during the cultural revolution.

Then add the SOCIALIST oppression that rippled around the world for the 60 years after WW2

Any form of socialism breeds extremism as does uncontrolled nationalism.

Meanwhile over here we have not learned the lessons from WW1 & 2
(1) Stay out of Europe
(2) Don't cripple your military capability through cuts
(3) Dictators and Oligarchs only respect STRENGTH

In WW1 we initially could only dispatch a small expeditionary force to France and Germany laughed in our faces
In WW2 we initially could only dispatch a small expeditionary force to France and the Germans swept us aside
In the Cold War we severely cut the size of our military after WW2 but the Soviet kept over a million men at arms, when they stole Eastern Europe that could simply IGNORE us
Today its announced that the SWISS have more combat ready Leopard two tanks than the British have Challenger two tanks, and we with the fourth largest military budget on earth only have an army of 82,000 men versus Putins million plus, We have NO aircraft Carriers and NO carrier Aircraft, three weeks ago we only had ONE available warship to protect our entire coast. we have almost no strategic reserve left and Putin if he wants Eastern Europe can IGNORE us... Oh He has.

We never learn the most important lessons and that is stay out of Europe and Keep the UKs defences strong

BBC Bolshovik Broadcasting Company its further to the left than Pravda was