It’s not as strange as it sounds. NATO nations, including those in Eastern Europe sharing a border with Russia, have depleted their weapons stockpiles sending ammunition, artillery, tanks and other hardware to Ukraine to help that beleaguered country defend itself against Russia.
I read the other day that “the one that can’t be named” and Putin seemed to be planning the world’s future. Now we have seen how his words and Putin actions are moving the world closer to Armageddon. I know a small percentage of people are idiot red hat wearing fools but what is wrong with the rest of America and the mainstream press? Ok, they and the other Republicans in power are controlled by America’s version of Oligarchs but come on, you think your money will buy you anything if “he who can’t be named” and Putin scorch the planet? Wake up!
Way back in Junior High School, my older friend Peter encouraged me to attend picket lines and protest demonstrations. l joined a Ban The Bomb campaign and wore peace buttons to create an awareness about the very real dangers of nuclear war.
It was the early 1960’s a spokesperson from the US Civil Defence Agency spoke at public schools to reassure the students that we had nothing to fear. Those were the days of shelter drills when we were instructed to hide under our desks.
During the question and answer period, at the assembly, l was called upon. I stood to my feet and asked the guest speaker on the stage if he was suggesting that nuclear, ratio-active fallout was harmless. He hemmed and hawed and appeared visibly uncomfortable.
Later in our Social Studies class, Mr.Brennon singled me out in front of my peers: “Young lady, you’re stepping on mighty soft soil.” I remained silent, but took that as a call to arms and redoubled my efforts to actively support the Protest Movement.
I was not alone and recruited others. Mrs Farber, our science teacher wrote in my autograph book: Keep asking questions!
Another science teacher, Mr Simon praised my work and encouraged my involvement.
Everyone, young and old, has an important part to play. Stay focused and don’t let anyone stand in your way. And don’t let them bring you down!
I can relate to shelter drills and hiding under desks as a child. An unofficial survey among friends my age some years back showed that those of us who had grown up in cities had such drills. My late husband in a little town in Massachusetts did not.
In elementary school in the early '60s we had drills where we either hid under our desks, or trooped out into the windowless hallway and hid under our coats. I would add "LOL" to the end of that sentence, but it would be a grim, anxious and rueful "LOL." It is so hard to see that for my boomer generation we have come full circle to real threats of nuclear armageddon late in life, after getting past it in our youth due to various international treaties and cooler heads in the leadership of nuclear nations. Is it any wonder that we despair of a safe and optimistic future for our children and grandchildren?
I thought we were already in some dystopian nightmare. I was aware of all of the facts laid out in your column LT, but reading your succinct chronology amidst the latest news is bone chilling. We have to do everything in our power to defeat that orange excuse for a human being. Once and forever
Great summary, Lucian, Again it should be on the op-ed pages everywhere. *Rump knows how to ratchet up tension, and disunity wherever he goes. It’s how he rolls. It’s how he gains power through chaos. He’s already getting the reaction he wants from NATO countries, and he hopes to cause a nuclear buildup to reverse all the nuclear disarmament treaties. He is so mentally ill as to want a nuclear holocaust that somehow is going to make him richer. He is the most despicably evil person alive in the past 70 years since Stalin died, and he has to be stopped. The survival of civilization depends on stopping him.
Just when I thought I was going to relax this evening. Is it time to dance the night(mare) away yet Lucien? Of course Mikey Johnson needs a two week vacation. I hope Biden can get some action using the War Powers Act, or did they get rid of that too, so Trump could not use it?
BBC (via NPR) this morning reported that Ukraine is already so short of munitions that artillery support of some front line troops has virtually stopped. Orange twerp is going to get a lot of people wounded and/or killed if he continues to get his way on blocking Ukraine funding. Knee-capping NATO might be the down payment for tRuMp tower casino hotel Moscow et al.
They do need more munitions, but I am reminded that they were firing off cannons and mortars for two years as if the resources came from some magic cornucopia. I want them to be armed-up for sure, but I'd like the Ukrainians to learn to use their weapons a little more judiciously. Aim, then fire.
"In the Trump case, it always gets worse," to paraphrase Jim Di Eugenio on the sprawling JFKJ assassination case, and here's more and on an international crisis level, too.
February 15th and barely has the primary and caucus voting begun, yet the once grand "Grand Old Party" has nailed the Trump cult's colors to the mast, voyaging on into stormy seas (no pun intended) captained by a deranged, pathological liar, yikes!
Very succinct, Lucian, and scary as hell. My eyes involuntarily glazed over some of the middle paragraphs. I'll have to come back and read the column again tomorrow morning.
I tamp down my terror and rage at TFFG by writing voter postcards. Recently mailed 100 to NY-03, and then Dem Tom Suozzi very satisfyingly won. Writing another 50 now to a district in California. It feels better to be taking action, however small.
Thanks again for alerting us all on here how to take that step. It's clearly empowering, a kind of pragmatic political and psychology therapy alternative we might find ourselves using as one of the few "upsides" of our collective encounter with Trump and Trumpism.
Thanks for this shock information therapy. To see this laid out so clearly brings home the danger powerfully. Trump's remarks about nuclear weapons (why can't we use them) shows immense unawareness and/or stupidity. Who in their right mind wants to use nuclear weapons. The user will quickly be obliterated. There is no adequate defense; all it takes is for one big one to get through.......
All of this because a suppurating orange infection in the American body politic is ready to infect the rest of the world. The Deranged Convicted Rapist (Come on! That's a little harsh! He only finger-f**ked her!) literally hasn't the intelligence to imagine that the nuclear war he's inviting would result in the site for his Trump Tower Moscow being an unbuildable radioactive wasteland for a lot more years than he'll be around.
Thanks again, Lucian, for the road map to suicide DCR Trump is drawing with his Sharpie. No, you can't romanticize or glorify what Trump is enabling by calling it "armageddon" any more than you can call what he was convicted of doing to E. Jean Carroll anything but rape.
Waiter! Leo! I'll have what she's having. No. Not her. That other one, over there, in "The Thin Man," six mar-toonies. Line them up on the table just like hers.
Oh, dear. I assume you know that DCR Trump was adjudged in a New York court of having put his fingers into E. Jean Carroll's vagina. (Just what he boasted about on the "Access Hollywood" tape and then alibied as "locker room talk." What a studly stud. All fingers, no talk.)
If you missed "I'll have what she's having," Google Meg Ryan I'll have what she's having scene from "When Harry Met Sally." A waiter named Leo brought six martinis to Myrna Loy (Nora) to match what her husband Nick (William Powell) had already had in "The Thin Man," a 1934 movie highly recommended, and then some.
Reading about these Putin threats to all these countries, I have to think of the massive military forces needed by Russia to make that threat real. All of these countries have armed forces, just as Ukraine did two years ago when attacked. While Ukraine lost about 20% of its land mass, it still stands.
I think Putin's Russia is punching way above its weight class.
Russia is a nation of 145 Million, while the combined population of just France and Germany (two countries with nukes) is about the same. And the USA has 340 Million. NATO now includes Turkey with its 85 Million people. Putin is going to deploy how many troops along his borders, while half his troops are in Ukraine? He is going to bring Russia to ruination in all ways, as it cannot afford all this military/manpower expense.
This is an excerpt from an an article almost a year ago about these devices in Belarus: ". . . . . This is the first time since the mid-1990s that Moscow will base arms outside the country. In his televised statement on Saturday, Putin also said Russia will have completed the construction of a storage facility for these weapons in Belarus by July, although he did not specify when the transfer of weapons would take place.
Concerns over growing nuclear tensions between Russia and the US have reemerged, with Russia recently suspending participation in the US-Russian New START agreement on nuclear arms reduction. Shorthand for Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, the deal caps the number of strategic nuclear weapons each country may have, but does not specify numbers for smaller tactical nuclear weapons.
While there have been no confirmations on the current number of Russia's tactical nuclear weapons, according to a Reuters report, Washington believes Russia has around 2,000 such working tactical warheads, which is approximately 10 times more than the US.
And . . . . ""Tactical nuclear weapons are launched purely for winning a battle, and are not designed to attack a city. They're smaller warheads and can be up to 100 kilotons depending on the target," William Alberque, director of the strategy, technology and arms control division at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told DW.
By comparison, strategic nuclear weapons are intercontinental and have the capacity to destroy an entire city.
"These weapons can be fired or delivered from, let's say for example, Russian territory to hit US territory. So back in the Cold War, for a warhead to be considered strategic, they would say that it should have the capacity to be launched from Siberia to Montana. They're more than 100 kilotons, or at least five times the size of the Hiroshima-Nagasaki bombs, and can cause a lot of damage," Alberque said. https://www.dw.com/en/russian-tactical-nukes-in-belarus-what-does-this-mean/a-65140922
I read the other day that “the one that can’t be named” and Putin seemed to be planning the world’s future. Now we have seen how his words and Putin actions are moving the world closer to Armageddon. I know a small percentage of people are idiot red hat wearing fools but what is wrong with the rest of America and the mainstream press? Ok, they and the other Republicans in power are controlled by America’s version of Oligarchs but come on, you think your money will buy you anything if “he who can’t be named” and Putin scorch the planet? Wake up!
“Get up, wake up!
Stand up for your rights!”
-Bob Marley
Way back in Junior High School, my older friend Peter encouraged me to attend picket lines and protest demonstrations. l joined a Ban The Bomb campaign and wore peace buttons to create an awareness about the very real dangers of nuclear war.
It was the early 1960’s a spokesperson from the US Civil Defence Agency spoke at public schools to reassure the students that we had nothing to fear. Those were the days of shelter drills when we were instructed to hide under our desks.
During the question and answer period, at the assembly, l was called upon. I stood to my feet and asked the guest speaker on the stage if he was suggesting that nuclear, ratio-active fallout was harmless. He hemmed and hawed and appeared visibly uncomfortable.
Later in our Social Studies class, Mr.Brennon singled me out in front of my peers: “Young lady, you’re stepping on mighty soft soil.” I remained silent, but took that as a call to arms and redoubled my efforts to actively support the Protest Movement.
I was not alone and recruited others. Mrs Farber, our science teacher wrote in my autograph book: Keep asking questions!
Another science teacher, Mr Simon praised my work and encouraged my involvement.
Everyone, young and old, has an important part to play. Stay focused and don’t let anyone stand in your way. And don’t let them bring you down!
I can relate to shelter drills and hiding under desks as a child. An unofficial survey among friends my age some years back showed that those of us who had grown up in cities had such drills. My late husband in a little town in Massachusetts did not.
In elementary school in the early '60s we had drills where we either hid under our desks, or trooped out into the windowless hallway and hid under our coats. I would add "LOL" to the end of that sentence, but it would be a grim, anxious and rueful "LOL." It is so hard to see that for my boomer generation we have come full circle to real threats of nuclear armageddon late in life, after getting past it in our youth due to various international treaties and cooler heads in the leadership of nuclear nations. Is it any wonder that we despair of a safe and optimistic future for our children and grandchildren?
Thanks Babette ! When our leaders get drunk on power and endanger human existence it takes people like you to save the rest of us from them.
SDS
WEATHERMEN
THE COMPANY YOU KEEP
I thought we were already in some dystopian nightmare. I was aware of all of the facts laid out in your column LT, but reading your succinct chronology amidst the latest news is bone chilling. We have to do everything in our power to defeat that orange excuse for a human being. Once and forever
It's amazing that he is still alive. I will celebrate when he's dead, no matter how it comes about.
Puncture his balloon?!
I believe Stormy Daniels offered an explanation why DT might like big powerful explosive devices.
Gives a new meaning to Mushroom Cloud!!!
Great summary, Lucian, Again it should be on the op-ed pages everywhere. *Rump knows how to ratchet up tension, and disunity wherever he goes. It’s how he rolls. It’s how he gains power through chaos. He’s already getting the reaction he wants from NATO countries, and he hopes to cause a nuclear buildup to reverse all the nuclear disarmament treaties. He is so mentally ill as to want a nuclear holocaust that somehow is going to make him richer. He is the most despicably evil person alive in the past 70 years since Stalin died, and he has to be stopped. The survival of civilization depends on stopping him.
Many would likely have dismissed that as sheer hyperbole a few years ago - now it's simply common sense!
Stop Trumputin
Every time he opens his ignorant mouth he makes the future darker for our children.
Just when I thought I was going to relax this evening. Is it time to dance the night(mare) away yet Lucien? Of course Mikey Johnson needs a two week vacation. I hope Biden can get some action using the War Powers Act, or did they get rid of that too, so Trump could not use it?
BBC (via NPR) this morning reported that Ukraine is already so short of munitions that artillery support of some front line troops has virtually stopped. Orange twerp is going to get a lot of people wounded and/or killed if he continues to get his way on blocking Ukraine funding. Knee-capping NATO might be the down payment for tRuMp tower casino hotel Moscow et al.
Trumputin 's goal is/are to get a lot of people killed.
They do need more munitions, but I am reminded that they were firing off cannons and mortars for two years as if the resources came from some magic cornucopia. I want them to be armed-up for sure, but I'd like the Ukrainians to learn to use their weapons a little more judiciously. Aim, then fire.
If we make it to November…VOTE.
Gallows humor goes a long way in these deathly serious matters!!
It certainly does!
W T F INSANITY!,
"In the Trump case, it always gets worse," to paraphrase Jim Di Eugenio on the sprawling JFKJ assassination case, and here's more and on an international crisis level, too.
February 15th and barely has the primary and caucus voting begun, yet the once grand "Grand Old Party" has nailed the Trump cult's colors to the mast, voyaging on into stormy seas (no pun intended) captained by a deranged, pathological liar, yikes!
Very succinct, Lucian, and scary as hell. My eyes involuntarily glazed over some of the middle paragraphs. I'll have to come back and read the column again tomorrow morning.
I tamp down my terror and rage at TFFG by writing voter postcards. Recently mailed 100 to NY-03, and then Dem Tom Suozzi very satisfyingly won. Writing another 50 now to a district in California. It feels better to be taking action, however small.
I completely agree. It is satisfying to have “something” to do. Constructive? Yes! Effective? I hope!
Thanks again for alerting us all on here how to take that step. It's clearly empowering, a kind of pragmatic political and psychology therapy alternative we might find ourselves using as one of the few "upsides" of our collective encounter with Trump and Trumpism.
Thanks for this shock information therapy. To see this laid out so clearly brings home the danger powerfully. Trump's remarks about nuclear weapons (why can't we use them) shows immense unawareness and/or stupidity. Who in their right mind wants to use nuclear weapons. The user will quickly be obliterated. There is no adequate defense; all it takes is for one big one to get through.......
Birth of the "MAD" doctrine, "mutual assured destruction."
All of this because a suppurating orange infection in the American body politic is ready to infect the rest of the world. The Deranged Convicted Rapist (Come on! That's a little harsh! He only finger-f**ked her!) literally hasn't the intelligence to imagine that the nuclear war he's inviting would result in the site for his Trump Tower Moscow being an unbuildable radioactive wasteland for a lot more years than he'll be around.
Thanks again, Lucian, for the road map to suicide DCR Trump is drawing with his Sharpie. No, you can't romanticize or glorify what Trump is enabling by calling it "armageddon" any more than you can call what he was convicted of doing to E. Jean Carroll anything but rape.
Waiter! Leo! I'll have what she's having. No. Not her. That other one, over there, in "The Thin Man," six mar-toonies. Line them up on the table just like hers.
I don’t get all the references, but l take your point!
Oh, dear. I assume you know that DCR Trump was adjudged in a New York court of having put his fingers into E. Jean Carroll's vagina. (Just what he boasted about on the "Access Hollywood" tape and then alibied as "locker room talk." What a studly stud. All fingers, no talk.)
If you missed "I'll have what she's having," Google Meg Ryan I'll have what she's having scene from "When Harry Met Sally." A waiter named Leo brought six martinis to Myrna Loy (Nora) to match what her husband Nick (William Powell) had already had in "The Thin Man," a 1934 movie highly recommended, and then some.
Love The Thin Man. I am going to watch it again.
Imagine a smiling emoji here.
Or, a mushroom...
Reading about these Putin threats to all these countries, I have to think of the massive military forces needed by Russia to make that threat real. All of these countries have armed forces, just as Ukraine did two years ago when attacked. While Ukraine lost about 20% of its land mass, it still stands.
I think Putin's Russia is punching way above its weight class.
Russia is a nation of 145 Million, while the combined population of just France and Germany (two countries with nukes) is about the same. And the USA has 340 Million. NATO now includes Turkey with its 85 Million people. Putin is going to deploy how many troops along his borders, while half his troops are in Ukraine? He is going to bring Russia to ruination in all ways, as it cannot afford all this military/manpower expense.
Russia is not Sparta or Stalin's USSR.
All the more reason to fear Putin's nuclear trigger finger.
Fingers crossed here!
This is an excerpt from an an article almost a year ago about these devices in Belarus: ". . . . . This is the first time since the mid-1990s that Moscow will base arms outside the country. In his televised statement on Saturday, Putin also said Russia will have completed the construction of a storage facility for these weapons in Belarus by July, although he did not specify when the transfer of weapons would take place.
Concerns over growing nuclear tensions between Russia and the US have reemerged, with Russia recently suspending participation in the US-Russian New START agreement on nuclear arms reduction. Shorthand for Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, the deal caps the number of strategic nuclear weapons each country may have, but does not specify numbers for smaller tactical nuclear weapons.
While there have been no confirmations on the current number of Russia's tactical nuclear weapons, according to a Reuters report, Washington believes Russia has around 2,000 such working tactical warheads, which is approximately 10 times more than the US.
And . . . . ""Tactical nuclear weapons are launched purely for winning a battle, and are not designed to attack a city. They're smaller warheads and can be up to 100 kilotons depending on the target," William Alberque, director of the strategy, technology and arms control division at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told DW.
By comparison, strategic nuclear weapons are intercontinental and have the capacity to destroy an entire city.
"These weapons can be fired or delivered from, let's say for example, Russian territory to hit US territory. So back in the Cold War, for a warhead to be considered strategic, they would say that it should have the capacity to be launched from Siberia to Montana. They're more than 100 kilotons, or at least five times the size of the Hiroshima-Nagasaki bombs, and can cause a lot of damage," Alberque said. https://www.dw.com/en/russian-tactical-nukes-in-belarus-what-does-this-mean/a-65140922