China would make Russia reconsider. Russia couldn't even start before the Winter Olympics closing ceremony.

Are those iodine pills at arm's distance in the nightstand?

M. Poutine will not tolerate this disrespect from CH



https://twitter.com/srfmeteo/status/1519932717638508545

The next step for Putin is to use nukes. How can it be that we are sliding into oblivion and unable to stop it. We all know that nukes mean „game over, somebody has to back down soon or else…!
I for one am going to miss you guys.

The terrorists have won!

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dic...lish/terrorism

When one considered how Ukraine stopped the Russian army with mostly Soviet era weaponry then imagine the results from attacking Poland who has modern weaponry.

UA didn't use just soviet era weaponry. For a start, a huge portion of soviet era weapons design know-how and production was in UA.

Furthermore, UA is (or at least was until the 2014 invasion) the biggest arms exporter after US, RU and China and has a world class design knowledge and engineering.

The recent conflict has also shown off successes of UA weapons including the Stunah-P and the Neptune cruise missile which, if reports are to be believed, sank the Moskva.

i wouldn't worry too much. i really doubt it will get that far, as you correctly said previously, people aren't too fussed to watch the ukrainians fighting and dying but probably won't see their own kin as expendable.

Having said that, cruising down the Autobahn recently I must have zoned out and had a vision...
Nuclear war in Europe and Trump president in 2024...
Now ask me about my nightmares.

My most immediate nightmare is a Slammer zoning out and having visions while driving on the Autobahn.

At 210 km/h, below 200 and the visions tend to be fuzzy.

So, Slammer, tell me about your nightmares.

This one brought a smile on my face. The poor guy allegedly has to live on the UK government's allowance

https://english.elpais.com/internati...outputType=amp

Siiigh! Sighs Slammer as he sinks on the tooled green leather couch.
„What keeps me awake at night“ He mumbles to the guy with the pen and notebook while looking at some place beyond the ceiling in a thousand yard stare. „Is a future living in squalor, after the bombs took out most of the infrastructure, cold, hungry and feeling my age.“
A tear runs down Slammers cheek. „I feel the pain of my children when the first born died of a preventable illness when the medicine ran out. I see the few friends I have die from despair after simply losing the will to live. I see rich people with a chiefs control over sycophants and yes men taking their pick of the few remaining resources. I see a rise in religious fanatics proclaiming that it was all gods will. I see them being the few islands of stability in a wasteland, and if you want food or water from them then you bend to gods will.
I see the Voyager spacecraft and other marvels of the age transmitting amazing findings to a world that no longer cares.
I see children growing up without the capabilty to read or write.
…Nobody in command of the skills needed to rebuild a civilization, woodwork, farming, metalworking.
…No resources to build anew, no easy obtainable metals, no energy source, no way to sustain the survivors.
I see a slide back to the Stone Age without any means to rebuild a civilization.

Uhhh! Shall I continue?

__________________
Back in Bavaria, god´s own belly button.

After catching up on Telegram...

Morning meeting in the Kremlin.
President: We have tirelessly banned, prohibited, forbidden or restricted and we have made incredible progress in protecting our Great
Motherland. We have achieved so much, comrades! But now is not a time for complacency. I expect specific proposals for further action by lunchtime.

Calm yourself Slammer and look on the bright side, they would be MAD to trigger Mutually Assured Destruction.

It doesn´t have to be "the big boom" I don´t think that the US will allow things to get as far as to having the continental US threatened or even attacked. But Europe will be fair game. Ukraine seems to be a proxy war and if that were to expand into the rest of Europe? America won´t carp too much.

If this were the case then for America any major land war in Europe will be a win, win, win, win situation..
Europe will be totally under US control, Rebuild will be from American companies, Money will come from America, wall street will be over the moon. Russia as a major power and a competitor will be gone and the Chinese Belt and road initiative will be dead in the water.
If this wasn´t the plan all along then they missed a bet.

__________________
Back in Bavaria, god´s own belly button.

Two great new podcasts with people who know more about this than Slammer or I do.

Tom Nichols at Michael Steele - "Putin has chosen a forever war" https://open.spotify.com/episode/4Xm...urce=copy-link

Anne Applebaum at Charlie Sykes - "Putin has created an alternate reality for Russians"
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0Ui...urce=copy-link

I managed over half an hour before getting tired of waiting for them to get to the point. This was more for American tastes and I can´t say I learned anything to change my mind, in fact it was rather in line.

It might surprise you that I did not post this to change anyone's mind, but to offer what I think are interesting perspectives.

The Ukraine war will not expand into the rest of Europe, Ukraine has so weakened the Russian army that it has had to pour all its remaining resources into Ukraine.
There are currently reports of Russian "colossal losses" as they try to preserve their own troops by pushing forward poorly trained conscripts from Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts, Chechens and Syrian mercenaries.
The Russian army has no remaining capability to expand to other countries, plus it never managed to reach west Ukraine so is anyway blocked from a large part of East Europe.

Meanwhile "Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said a nuclear war must never be launched as there could be "no winners," and he urged countries to adhere to this in an interview with the Dubai-headquartered news outlet Al Arabiya Friday."

Is he talking to Putin, or trying to deescalate, or what?