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"42% of business enterprises in Russia are experiencing a shortage of workers[...]"

Something like that is happening here in Vermont. Many businesses have shortened hours, there are very long waiting lists for appointments at everything from auto mechanics to courthouses, and "help wanted" signs are everywhere. Something happened in the last couple of years to cause this, and I just can't imagine what it might be! I'm baffled! I know this sounds like a crazy idea, but maybe the same baffling cause is afflicting Russia, too.

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Same here in West Virginia. Help wanted signs abound. Owner / managers constantly carping that it’s nearly impossible to find good workers. Also that new employees stick around for just a few days and disappear - and their work was often substandard anyway.

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It is the same in Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, the Czech Republic, and Russia. We are sitting on a powderkeg.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbWRfBZY-ng

James McMurtry "We can't make it here" - YouTube

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Aug 13, 2023
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Not even impossible. That's the weird thing.

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So what are all the invades doing, robbing Wallmart instead of working.

Same here in Tasmania. and around Australia as far as I can tell. Where did everybody go?

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Aug 13, 2023
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I don't know. Didn't see any robots lately... And AI... What we currently have is a text and image generation machine, that cost hundreds of billions of $s to create and just uses what people produce. And there isn't anything else besides that. It cannot calculate chaos theory or produce goods.

It's quite powerful and can be a valuable tool, though.

Will it take our jobs? I hope so. At least jobs people don't want to do. More free time. We should be happy. Why aren't we? Because the problem is not better tools, but a society where you must be a whore and are not allowed to be a human.

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Julius Zeyer Monument, Prague, Czech Republic.

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It’s beautiful. Things like this amaze me. Today people can’t even cook their own meals anymore “who has the time!?” and how many years did it take to carve/work such a wonder? It’s no surprise that we are in such a state of decay.

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If it helps : take a pic --> go to Google Images and paste this pic --> unless you are searching a private photo of someone's uncle Rudolph (the red nosed drinker) showing off his 5 tooth smile, google should be able to identify it.

Soak up the weekend sun everyone before Eris variant gets us, DO drink and drive while you can

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Drinking and driving! thanks for the great suggestion for my Sunday outing!

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Just watched the interview on V.O.X. NEWS, recommended to everyone.

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I loved the VOX interview. So concise and captivating. Thank you, Mr. Waggaman, for not being a bombastic prick.

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The IMF making strides in China:

IMF approved as qualified foreign institutional investor; China's medium- and long-term growth prospects recognized

"The IMF was approved for the qualified foreign institutional investor (QFII) status by China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), after it was approved for Renminbi Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (RQFII) in 2019, domestic media outlet cnstock.com reported on Friday.

The QFII/RQFII system is one of the most important systems for the liberalization of China's financial market. Overseas institutions, including the IMF, have accelerated their applications for QFII and RQFII, which indicates that overseas investors, especially long-term investment funds, recognize China's medium- and long-term development prospects, experts said.

The IMF investment funds that obtained the qualification of QFII are responsible for reserve assets investment. Upon obtaining the new QFII status, the IMF plans to transfer long-term investment assets through the Stock Connect to the QFII/RQFII mechanism, according to the Xinhua News Agency."

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202308/1296113.shtml

And so is McDonald's (and technocracy):

"McDonald's China said it is on track to open a total of 10,000 stores by 2028, propelled by deeper localization in its expansion, digitalization and supply chains, said its top executive.

On the sixth anniversary of McDonald's China's partnership with CITIC Ltd, CITIC Capital Partners and The Carlyle Group, with McDonald's maintaining 20 percent of the Chinese unit, the company has thrived with store numbers doubling, covering more lower-tier cities, offering wider digital services and creating more local delicacies to better serve Chinese consumers, McDonald's China said.

Phyllis Cheung, CEO of McDonald's China, said in an interview with China Daily that the company has more than doubled its 2,000 outlets in five years to over 5,400 restaurants currently. This year alone, the firm will open more than 900 new stores.

"The company has invented new store formats including the M2go shops, which offer contactless pickup lockers just by scanning a code. The format is designed to fit face-paced lifestyles in urban China, where more than 70 percent of our business is delivery and takeaways," Cheung said.

McDonald's China said that thanks to digitalization, developed and operated entirely by its China team of about 200 engineers, nine out of 10 orders are placed from digital devices — 80 percent from mobile phones and 10 percent from restaurant ordering screens. "It means that only 10 percent of our orders are placed face-to-face," said Cheung. Its mobile application, with more than 260 million registered members, is rated 4.9 out of 5 points."

https://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202308/09/WS64d2df4da31035260b81b0a4.html

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ALSO, BLACKROCK FINANCIAL ALONG WITH OTHERS ARE VACATING AMERICAN CORPORATE INVESTMENTS AND MOVING THEIR FUNDS OFFSHORE! WONDER WHERE? MAYBE UKRAINE OR CHINA OR BOTH? CHINA WOULD BE THE CHOICE FOR THE CONSUMERISM ATTACK ON OVER A BILLION PEOPLE CAN INDUCE A LOTTA MONEY FOR FOREIGN INVESTMENT FIRMS! FRIED CHICKEN-RICE MCNUGGETS LOOK OUT BECAUSE HERE COMES BLACKROCK TO USURP YOUR LIFE!

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I just finished watching your interview with Cecílie Jílková and I admire your measured, positive approach to Russian politics. However I cannot see how present day Russia could suddenly take a real decisive turn in the right direction since, as everywhere in the West, there is so much corruption and thuggery and incompetence at the highest levels and therefore certainly no tolerance for any real opposition. It's too late for that, I'm afraid.

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All those wondrous sights, Riley, and I hope you're having a relaxing weekend. Thanks for the links.

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"42% of business enterprises in Russia are experiencing a shortage of workers, according to a new survey—the largest recorded labor shortage since 1996."

What a mystery, perhaps it's caused by the "Not War" resulting in either a mass exodus or conscription of the labor force and then of course there's the "clot shot" another important factor which can't be ignored when analyzing a dramatic workforce decline.🤔

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I think the universal nature of this rules out the Not War. Labor shortages are everywhere. The only businesses not severely affected are family ones. It's almost like the shots made people allergic to work. The contractors with whom I work always have to push work back with the attendant effects down the chain on projects.

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In Russia the "Not War" has definitely depleted the workforce as millions left in fear of being drafted.

In the US death rates among working age people – those 18 to 64-years-old – are up 40 percent in the third and fourth quarter of 2021 over pre-pandemic levels. I have no doubt it's from the clot shot.

https://www.wfyi.org/news/articles/insurance-death-rates-working-age-people-up-40-percent

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AGREED! THE NOT WAR HAS CREATED MORE JOBS AND SINCE THERE IS THE ABSENCE OF LABOR FOR BUSINESS THEN THE JOBS CREATED BY THE NOT WAR WOULD BE IN ESSENCE EMPLOYMENT FOR LABOR! THE CLOTSHOT MAY BE THE CULPRIT BASED ON THE GREAT MANY PEER REVIEWED SCIENTIFIC PAPERS THAT HAVE SQUEEZED OUT TO THE PUBLIC’S KNOWLEDGE!

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Aug 13, 2023
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You may not be wrong. Illegals fill almost every job that was for lower class even 25 years ago.

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"Universities in Moscow and St. Petersburg increased tuition fees by an average of 12% in 2023 [Vedomosti]". YAY!! Time to start the student loans scam, my dear Russian oligarchs! It worked so well in the US.

Riley, what's with the Russian educational system? I couldn't believe this guy, a member of the Duma, would say this: https://web.archive.org/web/20210922145733/https://business-magazine.online/fn_53098.html The original article got wiped out, but thanks the web archive... Here's the original link: https://business-magazine.online/fn_53098.html (404 Ошибка)

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Hope that busybody bureaucrat doesn't get his way. Chicory is godawful stuff. We have a chicory coffee substitute here in South Africa called Frisco, which one must avoid at all costs. We also have a "boere" (farmer) coffee called "moer koffie". "Moer" is a wonderful word meaning something between "murder" and "mess up". As in "Ek gaan jou moer", or "I'm going to murder/mess you up". A very satisfying phrase when feeling disgruntled with someone.

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And thanks, as always, for the great line-up!

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Monument to Julius Zeyer, 1841-1901, Czech writer, playwright and Romantic poet, 1931, by Josef Mauder, in Chotkovy Sady or the Chotek Gardens, Prague, Czezch Republic.

67,943 rain drops.

Did I win?

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Just another day on an Odessa beach in 2023. How is this possible in a war that supposedly has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives ? Please note all the men lounging around and not afraid of being drafted forcibly.

https://gab.com/system/media_attachments/files/145/224/086/playable/6c002868cc609eb1.mp4

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" Iran and Russia plan to jointly build and repair aircraft and helicopters [Rhythm of Eurasia] "

The weapons embargo against Iran expired in 2020, however, yet Iran has yet to receive any major, modern weapons from Russia or China. Very telling.

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Shill your URLs eh? Well I just published a post about racism in the Czech Republic:

https://alipmcg.substack.com/p/theres-racism-and-then-theres-racism

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Great thanks to Rolo encyclopedical work about Surkov in his blog, offered to us all " casual" readers. I would love to read his article about Shoigu also...

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