“In response to the use of American and British long-range weapons, on Nov 21 of this year, the Russian armed forces launched a combined strike on one of the facilities of the military-industrial complex of Ukraine.
“In combat conditions, one of the newest Russian medium-range missile systems was tested, among other things. In this case, with a ballistic missile in a nuclear-free hypersonic equipment.”
The attack comes two days after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a revised nuclear doctrine that formally lowers the threshold for the country’s use of nuclear weapons. Ukraine on Tuesday fired several American-supplied longer-range missiles and reportedly fired U.K.-made Storm Shadows on Wednesday into Russia. ...
The developments come as the war has taken on a growing international dimension with the arrival of North Korean troops to help Russia on the battlefield — a development that U.S. officials said prompted U.S. President Joe Biden’s policy shift on allowing Ukraine to fire longer-range U.S. missiles into Russia. The Kremlin responded with threats to escalate further.
From the Gallup survey:
For the second straight month, immigration leads Americans’ unprompted
answers about what most ails the nation, with inflation also figuring
prominently. ...
Gallup also measures Americans’ views of national concerns monthly by asking them to name, unprompted, what they believe is the most important problem facing the country today. This question format is asked before the list of issue concerns in the survey and yields a slightly different conclusion, finding immigration ranking ahead of inflation. Overall, 28% of Americans, the same as in February and the most for any issue, name immigration as the top problem. That essentially ties the 27% reading from July 2019 as the highest since Gallup started compiling mentions of immigration in 1981.
But here's the Boston Globe:
Late last month, the venerable Gallup company released a survey listing the most pressing concerns in the United States. Predictably topping the list were inflation and crime, followed by hunger and homelessness, the economy broadly, and the high cost of health care. Farther back were things like illegal immigration, drug use, and the environment.
When Gallup asks Americans to rank their concerns about a list of problems, immigration is placed seventh in the list. By the time your average person gets to number seven, he's already forgotten what he said about one, two, three, four, and five.
But you can see from that list what really concerns most people: their weight.
Take the combined "worrying a great deal" and "a fair amount" about any of the fourteen problems and you will see that NUMERO UNO is . . . hunger and homelessness at 80%.
Yet homelessness affected fewer than 600,000 people in 2022.
And hunger? Hunger is now about "food insecurity", not starving. My fat cat is food insecure if I fail to keep her food bowl full. Two-thirds of adults are overweight, 40% of whom are obese, and there's a weight-loss-drug mania out there.
No, Americans are worried about the obscenely high cost of housing and that they'll end up on the street begging for the food Joe Biden's inflation made unaffordable if they lose their jobs, which is highly likely with 10 million illegals he let in competing for their positions.
But yeah, worry about nuclear war with The Boston Globe.
Referring to French President Emmanuel Macron’s refusal to rule out sending western troops to Ukraine this week, Putin said Russia remembered “the fate of those who once sent their contingents to our country. “Now the consequences for possible interveners will be much more tragic,” he added. “We also have weapons that can strike targets on their territory.”
CNBC similarly here:
The comments appeared to be a direct response to French President Emmanuel Macron’s suggestion earlier this week that European heads of state and Western officials, who had met in Paris on Monday, had talked about the possibility of sending ground troops into Ukraine.
The French leader on Monday said there was no consensus on the idea, but that it had not been “ruled out.”
The comments have since sent NATO countries scrambling to deny they’d send troops into Ukraine, with Russia warning that such a deployment would prompt an “inevitable” Russia-NATO conflict.
Biden's weakness has emboldened Iran, which is betting that the superpower which cut and run in Afghanistan has no stomach to stop the aggression of the religious dictatorship in Tehran.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Within 24 hours, Iran launched missile
and drone strikes on targets in three countries — Iraq, Syria and
Pakistan — and took the extraordinary step of announcing its
responsibility for the attacks, triggering anger from its neighbors. ... Baghdad recalled its ambassador to Iran after the Monday night attack ...
Pakistan’s foreign ministry said Tuesday that it “strongly condemns the unprovoked violation of its airspace by Iran” which it said killed two children and injured three more. It added that “it is even more concerning that this illegal act has taken place despite the existence of several channels of communication between Pakistan and Iran.”
More.
Pakistan is believed to possess over 100 operational nuclear warheads which can be delivered from a number of different platforms.
Would Iran attack Pakistan like this without having the same capability, or are they just fools?
Are Putin & Co. bluffing with this implied nuclear threat?
More.
What Pat gets wrong is that Putin hasn't threatened to use "tactical atomic weapons". Putin's threats are deliberately ambiguous and not specific. But they are linked to the new tests and deployment of hypersonic delivery systems, which can carry nuclear or conventional warheads. Putin thinks his hypersonic missile is "the most powerful handgun in the world".
Putin is Dirty Harry.
But what's in the gun? 180gr jacketed hollow points or 320gr flat-nose?
From her irresponsible column, here:
Mr. Putin talks about nuclear weapons a lot. He did it again Wednesday: In a meeting with politicians in St. Petersburg, he said if anyone intervenes in Ukraine and “creates unacceptable threats for us that are strategic in nature,” the Russian response will be “lightning fast.” He said: “We have all the tools for this that no one else can boast of having. We won’t boast about it, we’ll use them, if needed.”
He’s talked like this since the invasion. It’s a tactic: He’s trying to scare everybody. That doesn’t mean the threat is empty.
There are signs the Russians are deliberately creating a historical paper trail, as if to say they warned us. On Monday Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the risk of nuclear conflict is “serious” and “should not be underestimated.”
No he doesn't. No he hasn't. And neither has Lavrov. Listen for yourself. It's Peggy who is supplying "the risk of nuclear conflict", not Lavrov. Lavrov is clearly referring to the dangerous increased rhetoric about the possibility of nuclear conflict, which is precisely the hysteria Peggy Noonan is engaging in. The Russians have been very circumspect. They don't actually use the terminology. They're not bluffing. They're beating around the bush to create uncertainty, to keep their enemies off balance.
Putin has never used the phrase "nuclear weapon" in any of these examples which have been reported in the press since the beginning of the war in Ukraine. Putin's hypersonic capability is clearly in focus in his statements. He has them and the West does not. He's threatening to use them with conventional warheads against Western targets, which is bad enough. But nuclear warheads? That's what he wants us to think, to create fear. But he's never actually said it.
The nuclear talk is all Western hype, exaggeration, and lying. And Drudge is a major aggregator of such headlines. It's irresponsible and it must stop, because to continue it is to make the unthinkable, thinkable, and then actual.
Try exercising your free speech absolutism then, as your tongue vaporizes inside your mouth.
Meanwhile Peggy Noonan appears not to have considered that Putin has daughters, to whom he might really want to leave something other than smoking embers.
Hysteria has a way of blinding one to important facts.
NOONAN: Putin Really May Break the Nuclear Taboo in Ukraine!
Moscow warns 'do not underestimate threat of nuclear war'... ^
Putin test-fires 'Satan' nuclear missile... ^
Cronies 'flee to bunkers' in sign might turn nuclear... ^
UN Warns: Nuclear War 'Within Realm of Possibility'... ^
Putin actions trigger long-buried fears of nuclear war for generations of Americans... ^
Accused of Nuclear 'Terrorism'... ^
Putin nuclear threat part of new escalation policy... ^
Even Putin's generals look stunned after being ordered to put nuclear forces on 'alert'... Decree that shocked the world... ^
PUTIN WARNS HE'LL NUKE WEST ^
Nuke-capable missiles loaded onto subs... ^
NUKE BOMBER BUZZES UKRAINE... ^
POPE NUKE WARNING ^
ZELENSKY NUKE WARNING TO WORLD... ^
CIA Director: Nuke threat not taken 'lightly'... ^
Nuke Fears Stoked With Atomic Weapons Warnings... ^
Senators mull unthinkable: Vlad detonating nuke... ^
FEAR: More Putin Nuke Threats... ^
Likely More Nuke Threats... ^
PUTIN NUKE FEARS GROW ^
NUKE CONCERNS RISING ^
Nuke threat part of new escalation policy... ^
NUKE CRAZY! ^
ORDERS NUKE FORCES ON HIGH ALERT ^
ORDERS NUKE FORCES ON HIGH ALERT ^