War in Eastern Europe, what's it good for ....

[HankB]

He'll appoint KJP to head the spin team

Kamala solved the border crisis, so her next assignment is to smooth things over with the EU.

[Brad Johnson]

US Embassy is warning Americans in Russia to leave immediately under the possibility of dual-citizenship folks facing possible conscription.

https://www.foxnews.com/world/americans-should-flee-russia-immediately-wake-mobilization-us-embassy-urges

Brad

[Lennyjoe]

US Embassy is warning Americans in Russia to leave immediately under the possibility of dual-citizenship folks facing possible conscription.

https://www.foxnews.com/world/americans-should-flee-russia-immediately-wake-mobilization-us-embassy-urges

Brad

Does that include Snowden?

[sumpnz]

Does that include Snowden?

One can hope.

[WLJ]

Now he'll claim the Ukrainians are invading Russia

Russian-backed officials had earlier claimed the five-day exercise secured almost total popular support.
So-called votes were held in Luhansk and Donetsk in the east, and in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson in the south

The exercise began across 15% of Ukraine last Friday with only a few days' notice. Russian state media argued that the use of armed guards was for security purposes, but it was clear that it had the added effect of intimidating residents.

"You have to answer verbally and the soldier marks the answer on the sheet and keeps it," one woman in Enerhodar told the BBC.

Russia to formally annex four more areas of Ukraine
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-63072113

[MillCreek]

Interesting editorial about Putin signaling his future plans:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/01/opinion/putin-speech-nuclear-russia-ukraine.html

[MillCreek]

Soldiers everywhere sound the same:

https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/putin-is-a-fool-intercepted-calls-reveal-russian-army-in-disarray/

[WLJ]

Happy thoughts

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov on Saturday urged Moscow to consider deploying low-yield nuclear weapons in Ukraine after Russian forces retreated from the city of Lyman.

In a post shared on Telegram, Kadyrov said he believes "more drastic measures should be taken, right up to the declaration of martial law in the border areas and the use of low-yield nuclear weapons."

Other top Putin allies, including former president Dmitry Medvedev, have floated the idea that Russia may need to use nuclear weapons, but Kadyrov's suggestion was the most explicit.

Putin said last week he was not bluffing when he vowed to use "all available means" to defend Russia's "territorial integrity." The U.S. has said it would respond decisively to any use of nuclear weapons and has threatened "catastrophic consequences" if Moscow were to deploy the weapons.

https://www.foxnews.com/world/putin-ally-recommends-russia-use-low-yield-nuclear-weapons-ukraine

[RoadKingLarry]

The U.S. has said it would respond decisively to any use of nuclear weapons and has threatened "catastrophic consequences"

When I hear this I imagine a very, very sternly worded letter of condemnation and much table slapping at UN security council sessions.

[WLJ]

When I hear this I imagine a very, very sternly worded letter of condemnation and much table slapping at UN security council sessions.

Biden and the DOJ will announce the rounding up of the Trump supporters responsible

[MillCreek]

I honestly thought that if I saw tactical nuclear weapons used during my lifetime, it would be between India and Pakistan, or Israel vs. Iran.  After all those decades of MAD between the Warsaw Pact and the West, Russia was not high on my list of using nukes.

[RoadKingLarry]

I honestly thought that if I saw tactical nuclear weapons used during my lifetime, it would be between India and Pakistan, or Israel vs. Iran.  After all those decades of MAD between the Warsaw Pact and the West, Russia was not high on my list of using nukes.

I suspect that once it happens, and eventually it will, and the perpetrator is not promptly and decisively wiped from the face of the earth, we will see a lot of it.

[WLJ]

[Perd Hapley]

I don't spend a lot of time (here or elsewhere) reading about Ukraine, but I'm curious. Is anyone talking about how both the Russian and American regimes are fighting imaginary Nazis?

[cordex]

I don't spend a lot of time (here or elsewhere) reading about Ukraine, but I'm curious. Is anyone talking about how both the Russian and American regimes are fighting imaginary Nazis?

In Ukraine’s case there are legitimately self-identified Nazi groups and militias with not insignificant manpower. They don’t run the country or anything, but the horrors of Stalin’s Dekulakization caused the horrors of the Nazi invasion to pale by comparison - at least for some Ukrainians.

Of course, from Putin’s perspective they are simply a convenient excuse to do what he was going to do anyway.

[MillCreek]

I suspect that once it happens, and eventually it will, and the perpetrator is not promptly and decisively wiped from the face of the earth, we will see a lot of it.

The problem with that, of course, is if the perpetrator is able to do some wiping from the face of the earth of it's own.  If Russia does a decapitation strike against Kyiv, is the US going to a full-bore nuclear attack against Russian cities and defense sites?  Next thing you know, all of us will be missing the good old days of APS as we stagger through a nuclear wasteland from Russian missiles. Or at least I will be staggering, living seven miles flight distance from the Jim Creek Naval Radio Station, one of the very first C3 sites on any target list.

[Nick1911]

Always been the problem of MAD.  It's a high risk strategy that depends on simultaneously having leaders that are unhinged enough for folks to believe they will end the world with a full on retaliatory strike, while also being sane enough to not do a first strike, gambling that the other side won't actually do it.

[RoadKingLarry]

We've seen too much "Russia gonna nuke Ukraine" propaganda. Are the nuke rumblings really coming from Russian sources or "western" sources trying to gen up "justification for a preemptive nuclear NATO/US first strike against Russia... ...

[Blakenzy]

It is unlikely that Russia will tolerate total defeat against Zelenzkiy. I don't understand where the sudden lack of fear of nuclear confrontation comes from. Is there intelligence that shows that the Russian nuclear arsenal is past the expiration date and can no longer reach western targets or something?

ETA: Perhaps people in power consider a few tens of millions of US and western European citizens incinerated is a bargain price to pay for permanently putting Russia in "it's place"?

[MechAg94]

It is unlikely that Russia will tolerate total defeat against Zelenzkiy. I don't understand where the sudden lack of fear of nuclear confrontation comes from. Is there intelligence that shows that the Russian nuclear arsenal is past the expiration date and can no longer reach western targets or something?

ETA: Perhaps people in power consider a few tens of millions of US and western European citizens incinerated is a bargain price to pay for permanently putting Russia in "it's place"?

Is there a lack of fear?  Maybe people just don't take the threat seriously anymore.  Back in the 1980's, there was some sort of nuclear war story somewhere in the news at least once a week. 

I sort of figure that the Biden Admin will not admit anything that might hurt them in November even if they saw Russia prepping their nukes and moving them into the area.  The media is going to go along with whatever they do. 

For myself, I can't do anything about it so there is no point is worrying. 

[Blakenzy]

Unlike the cold war this time around literal Russian motherland territory and citizens will soon be at stake. They are one bureaucratic step away from fully ratifying the incorporation of those provinces. Call it BS as much as you want, that is what russian law is now stating. Seeing how incapable ruskies are at sustaining conventional military operations my bet is on at least one western Ukrainian city getting glassed before this chapter of WW3 ends.

[MechAg94]

Unlike the cold war this time around literal Russian motherland territory and citizens will soon be at stake. They are one bureaucratic step away from fully ratifying the incorporation of those provinces. Call it BS as much as you want, that is what russian law is now stating. Seeing how incapable ruskies are at sustaining conventional military operations my bet is on at least one western Ukrainian city getting glassed before this chapter of WW3 ends.

Unfortunately, "chapter" may be right.

[MechAg94]

Turns out that Russian recruiting video loved by critics of the ‘woke’ US military was total BS
https://taskandpurpose.com/news/russian-military-recruiting-commercial-not-reality/?utm_term=Task%26Purpose_Today_10.03.22&utm_campaign=Task%20%26%20Purpose_TPToday_Actives_Dynamic&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email

Not sure I agree with the article completely as the video should represent the ideal soldier or what recruits think they will become.  Still, this parody is still funny and the state of the Russian Army is terrible. 
https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1566133126610526210?s=20&t=Jc_nHur5pT7U3D9aYAj8EA

[WLJ]

Turns out that Russian recruiting video loved by critics of the ‘woke’ US military was total BS
https://taskandpurpose.com/news/russian-military-recruiting-commercial-not-reality/?utm_term=Task%26Purpose_Today_10.03.22&utm_campaign=Task%20%26%20Purpose_TPToday_Actives_Dynamic&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email

A recruitment commercial that exaggerates

Not sure I agree with the article completely as the video should represent the ideal soldier or what recruits think they will become. 

And every American solider isn't Rambo either

[Ben]

Turns out that Russian recruiting video loved by critics of the ‘woke’ US military was total BS
https://taskandpurpose.com/news/russian-military-recruiting-commercial-not-reality/?utm_term=Task%26Purpose_Today_10.03.22&utm_campaign=Task%20%26%20Purpose_TPToday_Actives_Dynamic&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email

Not sure I agree with the article completely as the video should represent the ideal soldier or what recruits think they will become.  Still, this parody is still funny and the state of the Russian Army is terrible. 
https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1566133126610526210?s=20&t=Jc_nHur5pT7U3D9aYAj8EA

So I don't get how it's BS. It's a recruitment video, just like the ones the US used to do before "my two moms" to get people to join. I mean, did everyone who joined up after watching an Army Ranger/Green Beret/Delta recruiting video become a trigger puller? Or did a bunch of them do more mundane but necessary things, and/or become fuckups?

Seems it would be the same with a ruskie recruiting video.