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Will the results of the referendums, be the deciding factor in Putin’s final move?
Good question.And will those referendums be voted on with as much fan fare as the Trump’s phone claim of rigging it?
Who forgets Trump and Putin were ignoble bedfellows.
Badgering, your Honour…
businessinsider.com/ukraini … igh-2022-9
This is so outrageous just thinking of the veritable blood bath during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, children mere teens slaughtered by hordes of invadors from the East;
"Russian President Vladimir Putin proclaimed the biggest annexation of territory in postwar Europe on Friday, claiming control over swaths of Ukraine in defiance of international law and in spite of his forces facing another significant battlefield setback.
At a grand ceremony in the Kremlin, the Russian leader vowed to use “all available means” to defend the four regions he was coopting, repeating a renewed nuclear threat that has escalated the seven-month war alongside his call-up of military reservists.
“This is the will of millions of people,” Putin said Friday, words that few outside Russia see as credible for a move condemned in the West as a land-grab in brazen violation of international law.
His speech was followed by the pro-Russia leaders of the four areas of southern and eastern Ukraine signing documents proclaiming them part of Russia, before joining hands with Putin and singing the national anthem.
The United States, Ukraine and others have promised to retaliate with sanctions while Kyiv has vowed to keep fighting to retake its occupied land. The annexation was also overshadowed by a deadly attack on a civilian convoy in the country’s south."
[b]'President Vladimir V. Putin on Friday asserted that Russia would take control of four Ukrainian regions and decried the United States for “Satanism” in a speech that marked an escalation in Moscow’s war against Ukraine and positioned Russia, in starkly confrontational terms, as fighting an existential battle with Western elites he deemed “the enemy.”
‘Speaking to hundreds of Russian lawmakers and governors in a grand Kremlin hall, Mr. Putin said that the residents of the four regions — which are still partially controlled by Ukrainian forces — would become Russia’s citizens “forever.” He then held a signing ceremony with the Russian-installed heads of those regions to start the official annexation process, before clasping hands with them and chanting “Russia! Russia!”’[/b]
New York Times
Once the rhetoric goes beyond us vs. them in Ukraine to us vs. them in “the West”, that can only be an ominous indicator of things to come.
How far will he go?
And, if you were Biden, how far would you go to stop him?
All the way?
If we are going to start a war with oppressive others, we must address our internal oppression.
Escalation :
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Seen on KTS…
At last… common sense.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fg4NgUG8FY[/youtube]
From the Washington Post
[b]'Russia’s annexation puts world ‘two or three steps away’ from nuclear war
LONDON — President Vladimir Putin’s declaration of the annexation of four regions in eastern and southern Ukraine signals the onset of a new and highly dangerous phase in the seven-month old war, one that Western officials and analysts fear could escalate to the use of nuclear weapons for the first time in 77 years.
Putin has previously threatened to resort to nuclear weapons if Russia’s goals in Ukraine continue to be thwarted. The annexation brings the use of a nuclear weapon a step closer by giving Putin a potential justification on the grounds that “the territorial integrity of our country is threatened,” as he put it in his speech last week.
He renewed the threat on Friday with an ominous comment that the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki created a “precedent” for the use of nuclear weapons, echoing references he has made in the past to the U.S. invasion of Iraq as setting a precedent for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
U.S. and Western officials say they still think it unlikely that Putin will carry out his threats. Most probably, they say, he is hoping to deter the West from providing ever more sophisticated military assistance to Ukraine while the mobilization of an additional 300,000 troops allows Russia to reverse or at least halt its military setbacks on the battlefield.
But the threats appear only to have strengthened Western resolve to continue sending weapons to Ukraine and the Ukrainian military is continuing to advance into Russian-occupied territory.[/b]
Now, my own particular existential bias in regard to the Ukraine war is still the same. I don’t believe in an afterlife. And, in the event of a nuclear war, living about 30 miles from Washington D.C., I stand a good chance of being vaporized. So, from my frame of mind, let Putin seize Ukraine. In fact let him seize all of those new nations that came into being only as a result of the break up of the Soviet Union. in other words, this assumes that he is not another Hitler, hell bent on gobbling up the entire globe and sending me to a death camp if I don’t think exactly like he does.
I disagree
Biggy , we are eternal beings.
Besides, Putin must get real mad not to realize the implications of MAD.
Note to the PN administrators:
See how many more emojis we have available to us here in reacting to the posts of others:
=D> 
[-o< :-" 
Does PN stand for Philosophy Never? 
Before Starlink:
newyorker.com/magazine/2005/06/27/fat-man
Here is an opinion piece by Maureen Dowd at the New York Times.
It resonates with me because she attempts to bring all of this inside the head of Putin. How he rationalizes his own rendition of the world we live in. The “existential parameters of dasein” as I would put it.
nytimes.com/2022/10/01/opin … clear.html
[b]'“The United States is the only country in the world that has used nuclear weapons twice, destroying the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. And they created a precedent,” he said.
Sounding demented, Putin charged that “the dictatorship of the Western elites” was an “overthrow of faith and traditional values.” It has, he said, come “to resemble a religion in reverse — pure Satanism.”
Wrapping up his own destiny with Mother Russia’s, noting that his country must occupy its rightful place in the world as “a great thousand-year-old power, a whole civilization,” he announced that he was formally swallowing four provinces in eastern Ukraine following fake referendums there.
We are awash in fear and anger at his unholy brutality, but Putin doesn’t care. Like Medea, he is unconcerned about the cries of the Greek chorus.
To justify his unprovoked attempt to subsume Ukraine, Putin made the absurd claim that the West is a “neocolonial system” that has always “dreamed about” dividing, weakening and breaking up Russia and turning it into a colony.
While President Biden and officials in Europe blamed Russia for sabotaging the Nord Stream pipelines, designed to carry Russian natural gas to Europe, Putin implied it was the work of the Anglo-Saxons. “Sanctions are no longer enough, and now they have turned to subversion,” he said.
Biden responded during a news conference at the White House on Friday, announcing that the administration was imposing new sanctions against Russia, and stating that the world would not recognize the fraudulent referendums.
“He’s not going to scare us or intimidate us,” Biden said. “He can’t seize his neighbor’s territory and get away with it.”
The Ukrainians are making successful military offensives in the northeast of the country, and Russian men are fleeing Putin’s Russia in droves; by some estimates more men have left Russia to avoid service in Ukraine than have served there.
Donald Trump posted on his social media site, “The Russia/Ukraine catastrophe should NEVER have happened, and would definitely not have happened if I were President.”
He may be right. If Trump were president, he would be in Putin’s pocket and America would not be helping Ukraine.
It has long been assumed that a nuclear weapon would never be used again because of the consequences. But what if you’re dealing with a malefactor with no concern for consequences? A modern Greek tragedy.'[/b]
No, really, this takes some of us way back. Back to the days of the Cuban Missle Crisis…the days when this pervasive sense of doom seemed to be popping up everywhere.
It hasn’t reached that level yet this time around but it certainly wouldn’t surprise me if it is just a matter of a few days around the corner before it does.
Only this time it’s not Khrushchev and Kennedy, it’s Putin and Biden.
nytimes.com/2022/10/01/worl … reats.html
[b]In Washington, Putin’s Nuclear Threats Stir Growing Alarm
In a gathering Cold War atmosphere, American officials are gaming out responses should Russia resort to battlefield nuclear weapons.
WASHINGTON — For the first time since the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, top government leaders in Moscow are making explicit nuclear threats and officials in Washington are gaming out scenarios should President Vladimir V. Putin decide to use a tactical nuclear weapon to make up for the failings of Russian troops in Ukraine.
In a speech on Friday, Mr. Putin raised the prospect anew, calling the United States and NATO enemies seeking Russia’s collapse and declaring again that he would use “all available means” to defend Russian territory — which he has now declared includes four provinces of eastern Ukraine.
Mr. Putin reminded the world of President Harry S. Truman’s decision to drop atomic weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 77 years ago, adding, “By the way, they created a precedent.” On Saturday, the strongman leader of the southern Russian republic of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, said Mr. Putin should consider using “low-yield nuclear weapons” in Ukraine, becoming the first prominent Russian official to openly call for such a strike.[/b]
Hope…?
Senior American officials say they think the chances that Mr. Putin would employ a nuclear weapon remain low. They say they have seen no evidence that he is moving any of his nuclear assets, and a recent Pentagon analysis suggests the military benefits would be few. And the cost for Mr. Putin — in a furious international response, perhaps even from the Chinese, whose support he needs most — could be tremendous.
Definitely stay tuned for this one.
Jerusalem Post World News
Russian bombers capable of carrying nukes detected near Finland
Published: SEPTEMBER 30, 2022 20:00
Updated: SEPTEMBER 30, 2022 22:42
A Russian officer takes a picture of a TU-95 bomber, or Bear, at a military airbase in Engels some 900 km (559 miles) south of Moscow. (photo credit: REUTERS/SERGEI KARPUKHIN)
A Russian officer takes a picture of a TU-95 bomber, or Bear, at a military airbase in Engels some 900 km (559 miles) south of Moscow.
(photo credit: REUTERS/SERGEI KARPUKHIN)
The bombers, capable of carrying cruise missiles and strategic nuclear weapons, have been active in the Ukrainian war since Moscow invaded in February.
Israeli intelligence firm ImageSat International (ISI) has detected an “irregular presence” of Russian TU-160 and TU-95 strategic bombers deployed to the Olenya Airbase near Finland.
According to satellite images taken by the firm, four TU-160s were detected on August 21rst and three TU-95s were detected on September 25th. There were no strategic bombers present at the airbase on August 12th.
“Through ongoing Patterns-of-Life, the system indicates that Engels air base is the possible departure point of the strategic bombers detected in Olenya airbase,” the report read.
Engels air base is home to Russia’s only strategic bombers stationed near Ukraine and is the home base for the 121rst Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment (121 TBAP) that flies the TU-160s and TU-95.
The bombers, capable of carrying cruise missiles and strategic nuclear weapons, have been active in the Ukrainian war since Moscow invaded in February. Throughout the war against Ukraine, the Russian Air Force has been unable to gain air superiority and has lost numerous aircraft.
Four TU-160s and three TU-95s detected by Israeli intelligence firm ImageSat International (credit: IMAGESAT INTERNATIONAL)
According to The Drive, the regiment was awarded the honorific title of ‘Guards’- a prestigious title for Russian military units- for “mass heroism shown by the regiment’s personnel in combat operations.”
While it is unclear why the bombers have been moved to the airbase, it comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to threaten the West that he could use strategic nuclear weapons, including after he announced a partial mobilization in the country, saying that “this is not a bluff.”
Olenya airbase is located on the Kola Peninsula near Murmansk. It houses Russia’s Northern Fleet and a significant number of arms and military hardware, including tactical and strategic nuclear weapons.
According to 2020 data released under the New START arms reduction treaty between Moscow and Washington, Russia has declared 1,447 deployed strategic warheads and has the capacity to deploy “many more than 1,550 warheads on its modernized ICBMs and SLBMs, as well as heavy bombers, but is constrained from doing so by New START.
The airbase is also a major Russian airbase which an enormous strike capacity that would send a signal to the United States and NATO. The base is also out of range of Ukrainian weaponry which have been striking Russian airbases with weaponry delivered by Washington and other European nations.
Ukraine’s military intelligence spokesperson Vadym Skibitsky said in an interview with The Guardian on Tuesday that Kyiv assesses the threat of Moscow using tactical weapons against the country as “very high.”
According to Skibitsky, the tactical strikes would likely target locations along the front lines where there is a high number of people, equipment, as well as command centers, and critical infrastructure.
Tags Russia ukraine Israel Russia intelligence Finland Ukraine-Russia War
Copyright 2022 Jpost Inc.
I can just picture Putin sniggering at his desk, as he attempts to scare the living daylights out of the world… or let’s hope that’s all it is. 
Three fricken stooges need to knock each other out already!
If we’re gonna war, let’s skip to MAD so we can respawn already!
reuters.com/world/asia-paci … 022-10-04/
If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball.
I live near the Martin State Airport in Baltimore County.
And every Wednesday at 1:14 pm, they blast out one of those “this is a test” messages from the emergency broadcasting system.
It’s just that today it dawned on me that any day now, it might not be a test at all!
Well, at least I’ll have some warning.