I had a Ukrainian person correct me on this once. Putin is always threatening this or that. They said just stop being afraid. They were absolutely right.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Thursday, March 13, 2025 - 07:10 pm: Edit

There's one other factor that is a bit of a thing with regard to Putin and the nuclear option.

Putin is noted as, well, decidedly adverse to health risks. He's a germophobe, desperately afraid of potential poisoning, etc. He's somewhat famously been trying to find ways to extend his lifespan, to the point of delving into the whole range of "longevity" pseudoscience. The idea of using nuclear weapons when the fallout is effectively guaranteed to drop on Moscow is likely even more terrifying to him than it would be to nearly anyone else for the purely normal reasons.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, March 13, 2025 - 11:40 pm: Edit

TRANSCRIPT
Jessica: I bet Putin, or his oligarchic successor, will never launch a nuclear war.
Steve C: I bet he starts one and kills us all.
Jessica: let’s call it a thousand dollars. Where do I send the check if you win?

By Carl-Magnus Carlsson (Hardcore) on Friday, March 14, 2025 - 06:59 am: Edit

Well, we survived the previous collapse so the odds may be in our favor.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Friday, March 14, 2025 - 09:04 am: Edit

That's a good one, Steve. (After all, if you win, the bet would clearly be settled with Nuka-Cola bottle caps.)

By Mike Erickson (Mike_Erickson) on Friday, March 14, 2025 - 09:17 am: Edit

I think Skippy the SuperVirus would settle up.

--Mike

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Friday, March 14, 2025 - 10:45 am: Edit

Oooh, nice reference. I used to have that card game (with both expansions); it was lost in a move.

By Douglas Lampert (Dlampert) on Friday, March 14, 2025 - 12:15 pm: Edit

It's still available from Amazon, google Flying-Baffalo Nuclear war.

By Mike Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Friday, March 14, 2025 - 12:46 pm: Edit

Sooner or later someone will get Putin. I'm betting on a stealthy FPV glide bomb launched from a mortar.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, March 15, 2025 - 12:23 am: Edit

I can see a new game… GET PUTIN

I think the killer was Engineer Marshal Shaposhnikov in the parking lot with a borscht mug.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Saturday, March 15, 2025 - 09:53 am: Edit

I'm going with:

Killer: populace of Moscow
Location: Red Square
Weapon: assorted knives and bludgeons

By Mike Curtis (Nashvillen) on Saturday, March 15, 2025 - 10:57 am: Edit

Beware the ides of March...

By Jeff Anderson (Jga) on Saturday, March 15, 2025 - 12:51 pm: Edit

As a person who likes poetry, I'm going with Putin accidentally falling out of a window, but to be honest, in reality, I don't have a CLUE(tm)...

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Saturday, March 15, 2025 - 04:28 pm: Edit

The truth might be even stranger than we know.

The real Putin died years ago, but has been replaced by an experimental U.S.S.R. Android (originally designed for a Soviet Television Show titled “Star Trioca” where a star ship from the “Union of Soviet Socialist Planets” explores and colonizes the Galaxy…)

Sadly, the warranty has expired and the android factory went bankrupt and the whole enterprise ((sic)) sold to a Chinese robotics factory in Shanghai.

The remains of the KGB (before it was renamed) created the Putin persona and wheeled the android out for photo ops, recorded televised speeches and the occasional state dinner where the guests were prohibited from being any closer to the android than thirty meters.

The actual point of death will be a government ceremony when the miniature power plant in the android explodes killing virtually all surviving members of the government, the body guards and all foreign journalists in Russia at the time of the ceremony.

The weapon is a computer virus that caused the cooling system in the android to fail leading to the inevitable explosion.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, March 15, 2025 - 06:37 pm: Edit

Jeff: I like it. Amazon? Netflix?

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Saturday, March 15, 2025 - 09:19 pm: Edit

Hulu.

Title: Ukrainian Candidate.

Star actors:

Android Putin: Jason Stratham
Premier of China: George Takai
Head of KGB: Chevy Chase (seen in flash backs.)
TV Journalists: Whoopi Goldberg, (and the rest of the cast of The View.)
Various members of the Russian government: just about 95% of the screen actors guild in America, easier to list the conservative Republicans who would not be cast for the final death scene.)

And for the producer, I wonder if they could get him out of prison on a work release …. That Wienstein guy that got convicted a couple of years ago.

By Mike Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Sunday, March 16, 2025 - 11:12 am: Edit

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, March 16, 2025 - 12:21 pm: Edit

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Sunday, March 16, 2025 - 04:16 pm: Edit

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Monday, March 17, 2025 - 12:29 pm: Edit

Portugal, Switzerland, and Canada are all giving very serious consideration to alternatives to Lockheed's F-35. Long story short, they're not confident that the U.S. would honor access to software upgrades and spare parts. There are mutterings in other NATO member states along the same lines.

Under consideration as alternatives are the Eurofighter Typhoon (Tranche 4+), Saab JAS Gripen-E, and Dassault Rafale. All are older designs, but all are also well past initial teething problems, and have not been plagued by the run of continuing issues seen with the F-35. None are as good on paper as the F-35... but they don't need to be; they just need to be better than the current Russian superiority fighters, which they are.

By Mike Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Monday, March 17, 2025 - 02:59 pm: Edit

By Mike Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Monday, March 17, 2025 - 03:04 pm: Edit

By the way, the Gripen uses a GE F414G engine. Neither the Rafaele or Eurofighter uses American engines.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, March 17, 2025 - 10:36 pm: Edit

From now on, failure to capitalize a proper name of an American public official will result in the deletion of the entire message. Quit being petty.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, March 18, 2025 - 03:04 pm: Edit

Supposedly, Trump and Putin are on the phone right now. CNN says this is Trump selling Ukraine down the river; Fox says this is Putin caving in.

I might comment that sometimes news people (and polling companies are the worst of those) "report" things that are said to influence events and public opinions not report what they actually are. A good example is THE FIVE, the only "news" I consistently watch any more since it gives me a mixed view. [They have a lawyer, a Democrat, an anchor, a political insider (usually from Admin 45), and a comedian as a "panel".] Jessica, one of the rotating pair of Democrats, is always saying things like "the latest polls show Trump is sinking" at which point the other four say "no poll we have seen says that." She is quoting Quinnipac, which has a reputation of being horribly wrong (consistently in the Blue direction) and is more interested in creating a false impression that reporting the actual mood of the country. If you (as they do) poll 60% progressives, 20% liberals, and 20% conservatives you're going to get "60% hate Trump" every time.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Tuesday, March 18, 2025 - 05:17 pm: Edit

To quote Trump's social media post, "We agreed to an immediate Ceasefire on all Energy and Infrastructure, with an understanding that we will be working quickly to have a Complete Ceasefire and, ultimately, an END to this very horrible War between Russia and Ukraine."

There's no word from Zelenskyy on whether he will agree to this; considering that damaging Russia's oil facilities has been one of Ukraine's more successful strategic efforts in the war, it's uncertain.