Bought my first house

[Smitty-48]

Don't care.

Democrats do tho, they blame Russia for everything, they didn't lose the election, the Russians stole it from them

[DBTrek]

That's why I don't care.
The only role Russia-anything plays in the modern Western world is as a bogeyman for people to gin up support for their side.
The very word Russia should immediately be viewed as a likely tipoff to a domestic or foreign psyOp as soon as it is uttered, IMO.

[Smitty-48]

I don't care about Romania neither

none the less, I can see the Democrats flailing, then playing the bogeyman card with the media playing along, that's the oldest trick in the book

[DBTrek]

I don't care about Romania neither

none the less, I can see the Democrats flailing, then playing the bogeyman card with the media playing along, that's the oldest trick in the book

Especially when China is the actual threat, and Russia is the only thing stopping China from swallowing Asia.
...and maybe India.
Tho the Indian Army seems to have trouble containing Pakistan, which makes me think China would fucking roll them like a Play-Doh worm.

[Smitty-48]

I don't care about Romania neither

none the less, I can see the Democrats flailing, then playing the bogeyman card with the media playing along, that's the oldest trick in the book

Especially when China is the actual threat, and Russia is the only thing stopping China from swallowing Asia.
...and maybe India.
Tho the Indian Army seems to have trouble containing Pakistan, which makes me think China would fucking roll them like a Play-Doh worm.

China is more powerful than Russia, but that makes them more stable

the Russian weakness is what makes them a wildcard

the Chinese are not under the same pressure, Xi Jinping is not under threat like Putin is

[DBTrek]

But nukes, dude.
Both China and Russia (and maybe India) have enough nukes to melt Earth.
So they can't really fuck directly with eachother, unless they want to gamble global annihilation.
Russia isn't going to be invaded by China or India, and it's not going to invade China or India, because of MAD.
So even the wildcard is relatively stable, due to the Mexican standoff situation nuclear warheads have created.

Better to be the ruler of a broken economy than one more skeleton in a glowing wasteland.

[Smitty-48]

But nukes, dude.
Both China and Russia (and maybe India) have enough nukes to melt Earth.
So they can't really fuck directly with eachother, unless they want to gamble global annihilation.
Russia isn't going to be invaded by China or India, and it's not going to invade China or India, because of MAD.
So even the wildcard is relatively stable, due to the Mexican standoff situation nuclear warheads have created.

Better to be the ruler of a broken economy than one more skeleton in a glowing wasteland.

when it comes to nukes, the Russians are way ahead of the Chinese

the Chinese don't rely on their nukes, they have massive conventional forces and trillions of US dollars to pay for them

the Russians on the otherhand are totally reliant on using their nukes, it's the only card they have to play

in terms of MAD, or Mutual Vulnerability, that only applies to countervalue deterrence

counterforce tactical nuclear weapons are not subject to MAD, they are not deterrent nukes, they are made to be used

[Smitty-48]

nuclear weapons have their own logic which is inherent

if you are building tactical nuclear weapons at all, that means MAD is not in effect

if MAD is in effect, tactical nuclear weapons are destabilizing and so counterproductive

but MAD only applies to a strategic countervalue exchange over the pole against each others cities

theater thermonuclear counterforce is a totally different ballgame with its own separate rules

basically if you have a stalemate at the strategic level, you come down a level to theater and fight with tac nukes instead

[Smitty-48]

the way to employ a tactical nuclear weapon is actually as a shield

what it does is allow you to fight a conventional war which you don't actually have the mass for

you go in fast and light, take Crimea, then you move tactical nuclear weapons in to make sure the Ukrainians can't take it back

[SuburbanFarmer]

...and immediately after that? How does that not escalate into a strategic exchange?