Politics

[Tundra Tiger]

Thanks @Ray B .... Now I have a mental image of Kerry and Thunberg going all Mike Reno and Anne Wilson and singing a duet of Almost Paradise.

 

[Vashper]

Putin stated that if anyone interferes in the invasion of Ukraine, that they would meet retaliation in the likes that has never been seen before.

Bluster, or a veiled nuclear threat?

I have not heard exactly such statements. But this is implied, and it is clear to all participants.
As for the use of nuclear weapons, it is regulated by Russia's military doctrine, which is not secret. There, the grounds for use are called a nuclear attack on Russia, its allies or their armed forces, or a non-nuclear attack on Russia, endangering the very existence of the state.
The conflict in Ukraine, thank God, does not yet fall under these definitions.
In general, Putin once answered a similar question about the destruction of the world in a nuclear war: "I don't need a world in which there will be no Russia."

 

[Vashper]

Yeah, a nuclear war between the United States and Russia under the slogan "together we will save the world from global warming."

 

[CoElkHunter]

Thanks @Ray B .... Now I have a mental image of Kerry and Thunberg going all Mike Reno and Anne Wilson and singing a duet of Almost Paradise.

In the middle of the Sahara desert where Brandon has them studying climate change for the next two years.

 

[Hogpatrol]

Like in the '50s, I guess the schoolchildren in the U.S. will go back to the "hiding under your desk" drills. Yeah, that's the ticket.

 

[Hogpatrol]

The supreme irony of it all is humans looking for intelligent life in outer space. Methinks we ought to first start right here.

 

[BourbonTrail]

Yeah, a nuclear war between the United States and Russia under the slogan "together we will save the world from global warming."
View attachment 454287

товарищи-экологи?

 

[spike.t]

BBC News - Ukraine invasion: Is this a new Cold War, asks John Simpson

Ukraine invasion: Is this a new Cold War, asks John Simpson

Vladimir Putin might turn Russia back to the days of the USSR, our world affairs editor writes.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[spike.t]

Got sent this....And not sure how accurate this is..or if accurate at all...but if there is even bit of truth....makes Ukraine look like a pretty good piece of real estate...

"We are all watching the news like hawks... And maybe like the rest of us you are wondering why are Russia "possibly" going to invade Ukraine.

For those who ask: “Why does Ukraine matter “
This is why Ukraine matters.

It is the second largest country by area in Europe by area and has a population
of over 40 million - more than Poland.

Minerals:
Ukraine ranks:
⚗1st in Europe in proven recoverable reserves of uranium ores;
2nd place in Europe and 10th place in the world in terms of titanium ore reserves;
⚙2nd place in the world in terms of explored reserves of manganese ores (2.3 billion tons, or 12% of the world's reserves);
2nd largest iron ore reserves in the world (30 billion tons);
2nd place in Europe in terms of mercury ore reserves;
3rd place in Europe (13th place in the world) in shale gas reserves (22 trillion cubic meters)
4th in the world by the total value of natural resources;
7th place in the world in coal reserves (33.9 billion tons)

Ukraine is an important agricultural country: ‍

1st in Europe in terms of arable land area;
3rd place in the world by the area of black soil (25% of world's volume);
1st place in the world in exports of sunflower and sunflower oil;
2nd place in the world in barley production and 4th place in barley exports;
3rd largest producer and 4th largest exporter of corn in the world;
4th largest producer of potatoes in the world;
5th largest rye producer in the world;
5th place in the world in bee production (75,000 tons);
8th place in the world in wheat exports;
9th place in the world in the production of chicken eggs;
16th place in the world in cheese exports.

Ukraine can meet the food needs of 600 million people.

Ukraine is an important industrialised country:

1st in Europe in ammonia production;
Europe's 2nd’s and the world’s 4th largest natural gas pipeline system;
☢3rd largest in Europe and 8th largest in the world in terms of installed capacity of nuclear power plants;
3rd place in Europe and 11th in the world in terms of rail network length (21,700 km);
3rd place in the world (after the U.S. and France) in production of locators and locating equipment;
3rd largest iron exporter in the world
4th largest exporter of turbines for nuclear power plants in the world;
4th world's largest manufacturer of rocket launchers;
4th place in the world in clay exports
4th place in the world in titanium exports
8th place in the world in exports of ores and concentrates;
☄9th place in the world in exports of defence industry products;
⛓10th largest steel producer in the world (32.4 million tons).

Ukraine matters
That is why its independence is important to the rest of the world."

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

I wish I was as certain as you. All it will take is one miscalculation and a train of escalation can be loosed over which no one has control. The results obviously would be catastrophic.

We were convinced back in the seventies that elements of the Russian military were confident of national survival in a nuclear exchange with NATO. We thought that was mildly insane, but last I looked, Hiroshima and Nagasaki are both thriving cities.

The big differences today are the nukes are much more powerful than the two atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and there are lots more of them. I agree a miscalculation can quickly spiral out of control.

 

[Red Leg]

The big differences today are the nukes are much more powerful than the two atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and there are lots more of them. I agree a miscalculation can quickly spiral out of control.

Of course. The only point I am making is that the strike point of a tactical nuclear weapon today leaves no more lasting effect than those of 1945 - perhaps less due to the more precise detonation altitude.

Obviously, a general exchange of multi-megaton nuclear weapons at strategic targets would be a very different thing. The modeling I saw twenty years ago would lead one to assume the Northern Hemisphere would be essentially uninhabitable.

 

[Vashper]

товарищи-экологи?

comrades democrats

this is a poster of the Provisional Government in 1917 (which overthrew the tsar). It used democratic rhetoric. Then he was overthrown by more leftists.

 

[BourbonTrail]

comrades democrats

this is a poster of the Provisional Government in 1917 (which overthrew the tsar). It used democratic rhetoric. Then he was overthrown by more leftists.

I got the comrade democrats with Ivan & Uncle Sam (I had to translate “freedom” and the bottom text)

I was trying to make a joke about saving the world from global warming, by commenting comrade environmentalists (which translated to ecologists )

 

[spike.t]

Part of putins speech just now to the Russian security Council....really lost the plot....I wonder how many Russian people believe this delusional garbage....seriously shovelling misinformation down their throats

 

[Red Leg]

Part of putins speech just now to the Russian security Council....really lost the plot....I wonder how many Russian people believe this delusional garbage....seriously shovelling misinformation down their throats
View attachment 454320

All those poor enslaved ethnic Ukrainians just secretly praying to become part of the greater Russian Empire.

 

[Vashper]

I'll tell you a story about it, it's hardly possible to read it anywhere. My relative, a second cousin, was present at all nuclear tests from 1949 to 1953, including the first Soviet nuclear bomb and the world's first thermonuclear bomb. He served in the protection of the nuclear test site. He said that a nuclear explosion is just a very big explosion. But the explosion of a thermonuclear (hydrogen) bomb is something incredible, it's like the sun, which is growing, growing, and as if it's going to absorb everything. Then it went out, and then the shock wave came - and the whole cordon in the village rolled over - no one expected such an explosion power. He himself was repeatedly irradiated, but then no one knew how to properly deactivate, get rid of radioactive dust.
In his presence, the cameraman was seriously injured - he dismantled the automatic camera, but it got stuck, and the operator took more time with it than it was possible. It had to be removed, otherwise the film would have been highlighted. The cameraman was taken to the hospital, and my relative does not know what happened to him afterwards.
Nevertheless, my cousin lived 99 years. He participated in a military parade on Red Square in 1941, when the Germans were 20 km from Moscow.

 

[Wheels]

 

[spike.t]

View attachment 454322

Read the interior ministry says they have handed out 18,000....and out on their website how to make molotov cocktails....

 

[Wheels]

I hope Putin doesn't make a similar miscalculation as he looks at the Baltic States.

If there is another move in this chess match, in your opinion are the Baltic States next?

It seems logical to reconnect the landbridge to Kaliningrad. Obviously that would trigger the entire NATO scenario however.

 

[spike.t]

As you said @Wheels it seems civilians do need weapons when the shit hits the fan..