“I thought,” he said, “that if the world was going to end we were meant to lie down or put a paper bag over our head or something.”
“If you like, yes,” said Ford.
“Will that help?” asked the barman.
“No,” said Ford and gave him a friendly smile.Friends are not big help in this scenario…
Plan is to paint my hallway and staircase today. Family is coming over.
I believe with how this is going, one of his advisors or generals will kill him before allowing him to actually fire nukes and initiate MAD.
These people might be ok letting him play war in the Ukraine but inviting annihilation from the rest of the world? I'm not so sure.
But then again, it doesn't seem like there's a lot of rational behavior coming out of Putin's Russia.
I don't think anyone has a real appetite for nuclear war.
Putin is in a very bad situation right now. And having his nuclear "deterrents" in high-readiness doesn't help.
- Its either a trap from Russia signals intelligence to be able to track Zelenskyy location. Hopefully he will not be there himself and is being well advised on that aspect by local foreign military experts. I love his Twitter posts, but I am sure all Russian military satellites are collecting signals intelligence and they can pick up their phones.
or
- Russia is really in a difficult spot militarily, knows about the advanced weapons coming in. Sadly that means the situation becomes more dangerous. I wish all the best to Ukraine but the sad true is the better things go for them the more dangerous it becomes for the world.
I have been tracking also lot's of US Black Hawks helicopters close to the Ukrainian border. The potential for an accident is high.
Slava Ukraini!
[0] https://twitter.com/Bundeskanzler/status/1497632817450266632
Nuclear weapons create huge EMP bursts which disrupt communications. One popular type of theoretical first strike is to detonate one or two missiles in the atmosphere to cause confusion, then follow up with the main salvos while peoples' main sensors and communications are blind.
Any launch regardless of trajectory will be considered act of war against the world. There will be no warning shots here.
There are more options available to US than just "fire all the missiles".
It's doubtful that Americans would choose to turn their cities to glass because Putin launched a single rocket in a non-US trajectory. I just don't see that happening.
In any case, there's no coming back from this. My earlier prognosis of being trapped in a slavic North Korea technologically enslaved to China is starting to sound like an optimistic outcome.
Sberbank - 1$ = 110,49₽
Tinkoff - 1$ = 153,75₽
And the markets are not even opened.
For the reference, before Putin started full-scale war against the Ukraine:
1$ = 78.66₽ (23rd Feb)
Russian Federation is mostly not slavic. Secession of federation regions (as it happened with USSR) is the next step on the path of the least resistance.
Obviously I'm not an expert, but this looks like a symbolic gesture at best.
Many missile defense systems have been worked on, sattelites with high powered lasers, planes with high powered lasers, intercepting missiles like Israel's irondome, phalanx anti missile systems, and many others. No idea how effective but we shall see if we need them.
Canada is probably kicking itself pretty hardcore for not accepting the USA's offer to join missile defense. You can read how dumb we are here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Missile_Defence_in_Ca... lol or not.. Cold Lake Alberta is probably pretty quiet right now.
My city is tiny and probably not a target. If Toronto is hit, I'm jumping in my car and driving to help anyway I can. I recommend we all do the same, a pair of hands is enough to help.
The converted Boeing 747 airborne laser was a colossal failure and would have only been able to target a missile nearby in its boost/launch phase. It's now dismantled.
You think you can send fighters to gun down an icbm MIRV in its re-entry phase? Seriously?
You need approximately a 5KW laser to do the job. Virtually all satellites have this much power available.
So this 'fantasy' is that you don't believe these sattelites are in orbit? It's quite obvious that this wouldn't be public knowledge. I admit I have no idea.
>The converted Boeing 747 airborne laser was a colossal failure and would have only been able to target a missile nearby in its boost/launch phase. It's now dismantled.
So to be clear, an ICBM flies at like mach 15-30. So it quickly leaves range of the 747. It was indeed scrapped, but was it? Did missile defence agency in around 2009 just decide they don't know what to do and havent done anything since?
They received 9 billion $ in 2021 and this sentence is literally all we know: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army_Futures_Com...
Is it simply top secret or did they utterly fail in their job?
>You think you can send fighters to gun down an icbm MIRV in its re-entry phase? Seriously?
If all you have is that, like canada, then that's what you have to do. It doesn't matter how probable the success is.
> it defeats the nuclear parity.
Ukraine gave up its nuclear armament in a peace treaty with the US and Russia. Russia is the one who violated this treaty.
> isn’t it reasonable to see it as an existential threat?
Only since Putin sees all former USSR as illegitimate states and as de facto part of the Russian empire. It has nothing to do with Russia's existence, but Putin's fantasies as what he sees as Russia. The entirety of this conflict follows Russian imperialism.
All attempts to be reasonable with Putin's Russia have been mistaken - the sanctions too weak - they have only proved to be appeasements and delaying the inevitable.
They've gone from level zero preparedness to level one. What else can be expected here?
I appreciate that any threat of nuclear war is disturbing, but I don't read this as reason to head for the bunker. It isn't nuclear brinksmanship as much as an order for nuclear forces to be slightly more ready than the baseline.
If you are concerned, do the prudent thing and stock up on non-perishables. Have barterable commodities on hand. These are reasonable and non-hysterical actions which are appropriate in all situations. Taking proactive measures will reduce doomscroll induced anxiety.
Now, with this war going badly for Putin, with his soldiers not really willing to fight and Ukrainians resolved resistance, I am really worried he might order a launch. If someone would want the world buried with him in his tomb, it's him.