Putler is [most likely] a sociopath. He’s has no morals but he’s not clinically insane. The only thing using nukes would guarantee for him is his own death, which he must certainly be aware of.
…if Russia even has any functioning nukes.
Bringing back Gnutella.
They couldn’t even keep track of the reactors from the nuclear powered lighthouses in Siberia.
if Russia nuked itself on its own territory.
The fact that it’s Russia substantially increases this possibility.
It’s kind of funny to me that a significant reason Russia is in its current predicament is because of rampant corruption. Putin runs the country like a Mafia state and then gets all surprised Pikachu Face when it becomes apparent that his underlings just stole all the money instead of using it to maintain their weapons stockpile, which is now aging and dilapidated.
You get what you pay for. Paying garbage prices [often] means you’re getting garbage.
Enemy resolve is such an important and yet tricky factor.
A big part of the reason the US failed in Vietnam, despite having an overwhelming military advantage, was an unwillingness by the US to just burn the whole country to the ground, and the attitude of the NVA and VietCong being that they would either win or die trying. Bombing campaign after bombing campaign didn’t change that.
I doubt the Russians have the same resolve. Especially since they’re the demoralized aggressor at this point. Ukraine has to work very carefully to achieve their strategic objectives without Galvanizing the Russian population. Quitting has to feel like a better option than fighting back.
“Made in USA” is well on it’s way from being a symbol of quality to implying a lack of. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big proponent of domestic manufacturing. But there are an outsized number of executives who don’t seem to get that when you make shitty products, you will alienate all your customers who will then no longer buy your shitty products. That kind of reputational damage is incredibly hard to recover from. Especially when you make airplanes that have a tendency to fall out of the sky which is sort of a deal breaker for people who want to buy an airplane. Hope it was worth jacking up their stock price for five minutes.
Oh, I wouldn’t if I could avoid it. The “fun” of tinkering with IT stuff in my very limited spare time vaporized many years ago. If I could pay for services that did exactly what I wanted, respected my privacy, and valued my business while charging a fair price, I would stop self-hosting tomorrow. But that’s not usually how it works.
Self hosting isn’t super high maintenance once you get everything set up but it still takes up probably 10-12 hours per month on average and I would not mind having that time back.
I think there were some legitimate concerns about the potential nuclear threat as well as uncertainty regarding Russia’s actual capabilities.
Now we’ve seen that Russia’s claims don’t hold any more water than a strainer, the west should be more aggressive with its assistance. The Ukrainians have already demonstrated that they are not just going to take it laying down and they’re the only reason Russia hasn’t moved on to invading other former Soviet states. I think we owe them all assistance we can give.