Anyone think that Putin's war will spread across Europe and beyond?

Everybody is buying fuel forward in case Ukraine escalates, this puts pressure on the spot market where we are all buying what we need so prices rise, because demand exceeds supply.

I find it all so confusing, and my gut tells me there's something far bigger going on behind the scenes. What would be the point of a nuclear war? It would render huge areas of the world unusable for a hundred years due to radiation. But then again, if the leaders are waiting to see what Biden is doing and then follow suit, we are done for. He doesn't even know what country he's in half the time. Then the data from Pfizer is now coming out heavily redacted which makes you wonder what they're trying to keep from us. This is the most scared I've been in over 50 years, when I was a young teenager, and I thoght then that Russia was goign to nuke us.

What is the data that is being heavily redacted effalump? I’d like to know more about this if you can point me towards the source of your info. Thanks.

Oh, dear effalump we have been here before. You make a long detailed statement about something, produce no eveidence to justify it and then never come back to answer any of the questions we ask.

Why?

For goodness sake effalump, why are you so scared?

Germanshepherdsmum

For goodness sake effalump, why are you so scared?

I think it's obvious why people are scared. We haven't been so close to a global war, or a war that could involve missiles in the UK since WW2.

I'm not saying that I think it will happen, but I don't think it takes a great deal of empathy to understand why a lot of people are frightened.

Being unable to control something that is potentially very important to your life is a recognised trigger for stress and mental health issues, and this situation is the ultimate in that.

Doodledog Have you forgotten the Cuban Missile Crisis?

My reaction is the same as it was in 1962. There is nothing I, personally, can do about it, destruction will be total so I will not survive it. If the time left is short, enjoy it while I can.

I was a toddler then, but no, I haven't forgotten that it happened.

I agree that there is nothing I can do, and as I said, I am not personally convinced that it will end in nuclear war, but I can understand why people are scared, which is what I am saying. What you, or I, or anyone else does is down to personality and possibly experience, but it doesn't invalidate the feelings of others.

As people keep saying, we have just come out of a pandemic that has impacted on mental health for many, and now this. I am not surprised that a lot of people are scared.

*Doodledog, I am more pessimistic than you. I think it could easily end that way, because Putin is a rat caught in a corner and will do anything to get out of it. Since I think his thought processes at the moment are not entirely rational. I feel he could make the decision to go nuclear at any time.

From what I understand (based on not a lot), he can’t do it alone. He would have to persuade others to do it too, independent of him and of one another. He may (or may not) be willing to do it, but will they?

We don’t know, obviously, which is why people are scared. I don’t think that’s unreasonable, really.

Tim Saiet March 6th (taken from Facebook)

Since nuclear threats are rising again, I love the perspective offered here by C.S. Lewis in 1948 almost 75 years ago, but as relevant as ever.

“In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. ‘How are we to live in an atomic age?’ I am tempted to reply: ‘Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.’
In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways. We had, indeed, one very great advantage over our ancestors—anesthetics; but we have that still. It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.
This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.”

jocork

Tim Saiet March 6th (taken from Facebook)

Since nuclear threats are rising again, I love the perspective offered here by C.S. Lewis in 1948 almost 75 years ago, but as relevant as ever.

“In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. ‘How are we to live in an atomic age?’ I am tempted to reply: ‘Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.’
In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways. We had, indeed, one very great advantage over our ancestors—anesthetics; but we have that still. It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.
This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.”

Thank you so much for that ??????????????

Comparison is made with the Cuban Missile Crisis, that was a near disaster created by extremists on both sides - hawks who wanted a confrontation.
Thankfully Kennedy and Kruschev were moderates and overruled them, and missiles were removed from Turkey and Cuba.

Putin does not seem reasonable at all maybe a ceasefire will be agreed but he will loose in the long term war, Ukraine seems resolute in that.

What is the point of worrying and living in fear? It changes nothing on the world stage but destroys our today, when who knows how many tomorrows are allotted to us anyway?

Blossoming

What is the data that is being heavily redacted effalump? I’d like to know more about this if you can point me towards the source of your info. Thanks.

I may be wrong but I think effalump is referring to a youtube broadcast by Dr John Campbell www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YOD9drZasM

Papers were released under a FOI request.

This..

Dr John Campbell is hardly a reliable source.

Got your tin hat on M0nica?

M0nica

Dr John Campbell is hardly a reliable source.

He shouldn't be anyone's only source, and I stopped watching him regularly when I thought he was diverging outside his area of expertise too often. I only watched the beginning few minutes so no idea what he said, but saw where there did appear to be a redaction in the released papers. Doesn't he give links so people can check them themselves?

volver I did my research when people kept quoting him. Overall most ratings put him in that soft ground between being reasonably reliable on some subjects, those most closely related to his knowledge and experience, to wandering far too far into the long grass that borders conspiracy theories, when he drifted into areas he was not familiar with.

Plus,of course, a certain amount of hubris, when he realised he was getting a big following. There is nothing like popularity to lead people to think they are experts on everything!

Just quietly I think some of what effalump says is right. I don’t know about the Pfizer stuff but the rest of it could well be the case. Too many hawks in high places.

Germanshepherdsmum

What is the point of worrying and living in fear? It changes nothing on the world stage but destroys our today, when who knows how many tomorrows are allotted to us anyway?

Oh, GSM, you do make me chuckle. Go back and read all your covid-related posts. Where was your voice of reason then?

M0nica

volver I did my research when people kept quoting him. Overall most ratings put him in that soft ground between being reasonably reliable on some subjects, those most closely related to his knowledge and experience, to wandering far too far into the long grass that borders conspiracy theories, when he drifted into areas he was not familiar with.

Plus,of course, a certain amount of hubris, when he realised he was getting a big following. There is nothing like popularity to lead people to think they are experts on everything!

Oh, I agree M0nica. I've been saying that for months.

His You Tube channel is monetised now.

LilacChaser, don’t confuse my concern about keeping free from covid (the severe strains of which could well have seen me off) with worry. I don’t worry about things that are totally outside my control.

His You Tube channel is monetised now. I didn't know that, how do you tell which ones are and which ones aren't? That would make a difference I suppose, and would explain why he seems to have ventured so far from his original base. His videos explaining about the virus, antibodies and the immune system were interesting and understandable.