The Chinese booster will fall somewhere between 40.5° N and 40.5°S No need to duck.

NATO is having exercises at the moment. While I am betting on Musk’s littering, it could have been been a refuelling exercise with 707 sized tankers refuelling small fighter jets. But that wouldn’t have been over Switzerland.

Duck?

Soviets drilled us with gas masks against imperialist nucular attack! Glad we got those survival skills..

CaliDream - Totally. But it seems that anytime humans try to prevent something, it always makes things worse.



I got the piano sheetmusic. Should I start playing?

This could be NATO, but thats a massive amount of capital for "exercices". It could have been over German airspace as my POV is just outside of Zurich but they didn't seem to care whose airspace they flew over. They covered the whole horizon from west to east for several minutes and at an altitude that suggested they were flying over Europe as a whole. Why did I not have my phone with me?

That’s why I’m betting on https://www.space.com/see-spacex-sta...night-sky.html

Yup, that video looked a lot like last night. Case closed. No WWIII, for now. (Whew).

You sure?

You are not Swiss if you don’t already have a bunker.

China is a greater threat to everyone I fear. They seem to want to take a bigger piece of the world then they currently have and are making moves to do just that in every regard, even in the open sometimes. Claiming seas borders way beyond international agreements, disputing sovereignty of countries; Taiwan anyone and as someone already mentioned buying up companies and land around the planet as well selling/installing infrastructure/devices through which they'll be able to throw the world into chaos at the flick of a switch.

Taiwan makes more then half of all the semi-conductors used around the world for example and if China managed to get hold of that capability, it could be a game changer. The US might have the tech, but if think about it. How many chips inside an F-35 are actually manufactured in Taiwan and if the Chinese took control, do you think they would be nonpartisan on this. No.

India and China are also at odds with each other, with similar problems. The Indian population explosion due to over take the Chinese one by 2023, yes that soon. India like China are also a nuclear power and neither parties will shy away from conflict I fear. China may be number three in world powers ranking, but on the ground India is a formidable opponent, with plenty of scope for problems with a shared border some 3500 miles in length.

I think the flashpoint will be in Asia, not Europe. We can only hope the conflict says there and doesn't spill back into Europe.

Here's an interesting article on the subject. Maybe bias.

https://www.newindianexpress.com/mag...a-2204559.html

Oh! Bummer!
U.S. intelligence found that Russia is planning a military offensive against Ukraine involving 175,000 troops near the border as early as next year, according to an intelligence document who obtained by The Washington Post.

U.S. officials also spoke with the newspaper on the matter.

The document obtained by the Post shows Russia is planning to deploy 175,000 troops on the Ukraine border by early 2022. The document also contains satellite photos of the military buildup.

Saw that as well this morning, and thought WTF - the news report stated that intelligence had indicated that Russia has well prepared plans to invade the Ukraine. Now those articles have been removed - no idea what is happening over there.

OK, here another source still: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/04/u...ine-biden.html

I blame Hunter

I suppose the Russian Arms manufacturers have had a disappointing few years and need to increase sales.

And their US counterparts are chomping at the bit.

Little chance it would go nuclear but millions of lives are at risk.

And the Chinese manufacturers are just drooling.

This is all very concerning. Expect a bumpy ride. The fact that the Russia-controlled gas storages in Western Europe have been left empty looks like a long planned political move now.

Biden Expected to Offer Warnings and Alternatives in Call With Putin https://nyti.ms/3xWRA25

Biden does not have much of a big stick to wave.

If the Russians really plan to have 175,000 troops on the Ukraine border then there is little the US can do in a military way, I am sure they will not go nuclear.

There are always sanctions but while Russia has Europe by the balls over gas then there is not much scope.

To quote Nixon "when you have someone by the balls then their heart and mind soon follow".

Germany really needs to reopen their nuclear sites.

Anybody else following the cluster in Ukraine?

The rhetoric seems to be getting more and more nuke´-y and more and more troops are gathering on the border.

Russia trying to tell everybody not to worry, everything is just dandy, not going to invade. Just don´t cross the red line, NATO, aka America is all GRRR-WOOF, screw your red line and itching for a fight.

Thing is the checks and balances that were set up during the cold war no longer exist after being dismantled by the NeoCons.

One good thing about it If war were to break out. Corvid would be out of the news.

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

Russia being any kind of major military threat is like Nokia saying they're going to launch a new device that will kill off the iPhone.

I'm not buying it.

The US is not IMO itching for a fight. Their posture for some time now has been that Europe needs to stand on its own two feet, which it isn‘t. They like much of the West that was involved in Afghanistan (and Syria/ISIS) are war weary and I doubt can afford another war without turning on the printing presses again. The effects of which from COVID are finally manifesting in inflation.

They don‘t need to be a major military threat to the West. They are more than a match for Ukraine and ultimately just need to pose a credible enough threat of retaliation if US/NATO get involved to keep them out of it. That could be a war of attrition, it could be concerted cyber attacks, it could be attacks on infrastructure including satellites, it could be asymmetric war or proxy wars or ultimately it could be nuclear weapons.

The West hasn‘t got the stomach for a protracted fight any more (quite rightly IMO insofar as a civilisation we should have got past these games by now, but sadly other parts of the world haven‘t). Since at least Vietnam soldiers coming home in body bags has created a social and media disaster. Can you imagine the response to conscription in the US or UK to fight a war in Ukraine? The current generation of conscript age have no living memory of the Cold War. We did nothing of substance about Crimea and will do nothing again if they invade again. Putin knows this. The Baltic states become rather more interesting as NATO members. Again, I‘m not convinced we fancy the fight and if we don‘t, NATO will crumble.

We might not see eye to eye on this.

I would assume that a war in Ukraine would not be the long protracted debacle that was the asymmetric wars of Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq. I would assume there would be less Guerilla actions and a more "standard" scenario. Of course the losses would be higher on both sides and that in itself will be unpalatable for most countries.

In the end I think this is Russia sabre rattling.

Victoria Nuland and other Neocons causing the problems:

https://www.infosperber.ch/politik/e...h-reaktiviert/