I grew up in a world in which Russia was an enemy, and the threat of MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) was a fact. By the early 1990's, it was thought that world was gone for good.

Now it's back.

Granted, there are differences, namely it's not Capitalism VS Communism this time, but the two key players are the same (U.S. and Russia). And we have China waiting in the wings this time as well.

Once again, thanks to that madman in the Kremlin, World War III is a real possibility. And if that happens, well, let's just say that Emily won't have to worry about overpopulation anymore.

We're two decades into the 21st Century, but now it feels like the 20th is back with us.

A political caricature in one of our local newspapers. Makes its point very well.

Yeah, it sure does.

Thanks to Putin, nearly 80 years of peace in Europe has been shattered (the Balkan Wars of the 1990's notwithstanding).

Usually, a politician would do anything to make his citizens like him.
How invading a country that's just sitting there minding its own business, that has allies like the U.S., Canada, and Europe, won't work against you is beyond me.
Ukraine wouldn't just dislike Putin as its new leader, they would despise him to the point of hostility. 41 million people! You're okay with 41 million people hating you and wanting you dead?! And that's how you want to run a country?!
A side note about my own dopey leader; I'm getting really annoyed by the way he's pronouncing that Russian jerk's name; Putin (always heard it pronounced as Poo-tin by everyone), is being called 'Poo-teen' by dumbass Prime Minister Trudeau here.
Hey, Justine! 'Poutine' is a great dish of french fried potatoes smothered in gravy and cheese curds. 'Putin' is a disgusting warmonger. Get it right! You can't blame your lisp on that mispronounciation!

Putin doesn't care what the Russian people think of him. And they are not behind him, as the protests n Moscow and St. Petersburg show.

And the invasion is not going to be the easy victory that Putin had hoped it would be. He probably thought that Ukraine would quickly fold. He was wrong.

Ukrainian President Zelensky evokes memories of Winston Churchill. Bravely standing up to the bully.

And even if Putin takes Ukraine, the fight will be far from over. One only has to look at what happened in World War II, with the French Resistance and over such partisan groups. They made the Germans pay for occupying their homelands. I mean how can you fight an enemy that you can't see coming, that can strike out of nowhere, and then disappear before you even know what's going on.

When young Russian soldiers start coming back in body bags, that might be the beginning of the end for Putin. The Russian people might just rise up and overthrow him, hopefully sooner, rather than later.

And the invasion is not going to be the easy victory that Putin had hoped it would be. He probably thought that Ukraine would quickly fold. He was wrong.

He forgot what happened during the siege of Leningrad in WWII. Or to the Americans in Vietnam. Or his beloved USSR in Afghanistan.

Leningrad or Stalingrad?

My grandfather was shot down in a plane during the battle for Stalingrad and held as a POW until 1950 in a Russian POW camp. He survived because he spoke fluent Russian and could translate what the guards were saying to the German prisoners. When he came back he was a shell of a man who died a few years later (loooooong before I was born)

As WWII was ending, German soldiers would rather surrender to the Americans or the British, rather than the Russians. What happened to Rodney's grandfather is the reason why.

Ironically, Putin is doing the same thing that Germany did to Russia, in 1941. He started a war for no good reason, a war that is getting people, on both sides killed.

I hope that, like the leaders of Nazi Germany, Putin will one day be held accountable for this unprovoked war.

I have a feeling the Putin could find himself on the receiving end of a coup if things don't start going better for him soon.

That could happen.

He's rapidly losing friends, even his allies are starting to back away.

I hope that, like the leaders of Nazi Germany, Putin will one day be held accountable for this unprovoked war.

Or, as one pithy post on my feed put it: Since Putin seems to be following the Hitler playbook, can we just fast-forward to the part where he shoots himself in a bunker?

I'm not a violent person, and I don't usually wish harm on anyone, but when it's one megalomaniac dictator versus the the lives of an entire country (possibly more)? Then I find myself wondering if anyone knows any assassins in Moscow looking for work.

Winston Churchill said, “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
I never thought I'd be alive to see some nutjob trying to recreate the U.S.S.R. Decades or centuries after I was dead and gone, maybe, with someone from the future that had an unhealthy admiration for a 20th century dictatorship (as in Star Trek's 'Patterns Of Force' episode and Professor Gill), but I'm actually living through it.
No wonder the aliens won't land and make themselves known once and for all-- humanity is STILL not worth the effort.

Winston Churchill said, “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

That was Santayana.

I never thought I'd be alive to see some nutjob trying to recreate the U.S.S.R.

Putin is not so much trying to recreate the Soviet Union, rather he's trying to restore the Russian Empire the preceded it. And it seems that he wants to install himself as a 21st Century Tsar.

Of course, those plans are not proceeded as smoothy as he had hoped. Putin no doubt thought Ukraine would be cakewalk. However, as we are seeing, the Ukrainians are fighting back much tougher than Vlad thought they would. And this is costly him both friends and support everywhere.

Santayana? Never heard of him. I Googled the expression and it attributed it to Churchill.
Oh, Well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Santayana

Churchill is one of those figures that gets a lot of pithy/insightful quotes mis-attributed to him (much like Mark Twain)

Next thing you're going to tell me is that Churchill never said, "Oh, good grief, that's not the Great Pumpkin, you blockhead!"

There was fighting near a nuclear power plant.

That is a BAD idea. One misplaced shot and you have Chernobyl 2.0

Such morons! And where will some of the radiation go? Back into Russia, I would think.

I'm sure it would.

Not that Putin gives a rip about the Russian people. Things get too hot, he'll run for the nearest bunker and leave them all for dead.

Today is Vladimir Putin's 70th birthday. A very happy birthday Vlad, I hope you celebrate with a blast, literally.

His country is a pariah, his military is falling apart, and he's rapidly running out of friends on the world stage.

Hope Vlad enjoyed his birthday.

He got a nice gift.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/pRRMxPIrTuk

A gift well deserved.

Well, South Africa has dodged a big bullet. This year's BRICS summit is to take place in that country, on august 22-24, and Putin was to attend the meeting in person. Except that there is an ICC arrest warrant on Putin for war crimes, which South Africa would have been legally obligated to carry out. Wow, can you imagine South African law enforcement taking Putin into custody as he stepped out of his plane? Putin had threatened to declare war on South Africa if that happened, which they obviously were not too keen on. But, as South Africa was seeking special permission from the ICC to disregard the warrant, Putin averted the potential crisis by announcing that he would attend the summit through video conference instead, whew! That's twice Putin has blinked when confronted to personal danger (first time being when the Wagner group took aim at Moscow), and he is looking weaker and weaker by the day. That's never a good place to be for a dictator.

Towards the end of his life, Stalin got more and more paranoid. He saw enemies lurking around every corner.

Putin is becoming the same way, IMO.

It is curious to note that Putin has not yet announced whether he will be running for reelection now eight months away.

I'm surprised Putin still bothers with the charade of having elections.