Psychology
- Thread starter sculptor
- Start date
Then he's not doing a particularly good job, as the first thing Biden would have done is put US boots on the ground in Ukraine, and dragged NATO into direct conflict.
But if he has, then it would be quite easy, as I think the US have a reasonable system of checks and balances, including removing a President on grounds of diminished responsibility etc.
But hey, while we're at it:
What if...
Putin is nuts and is trying to invade Ukraine for purely egotistical reaso... oh, wait.
What if...
Putin invaded Ukraine to show how superior his forces were by how quickly they conquered Ukrai... oh, no, wait.
Heck, there are many "What ifs..." that are just as nonsense.
But if he has, then it would be quite easy, as I think the US have a reasonable system of checks and balances, including removing a President on grounds of diminished responsibility etc.
But hey, while we're at it:
What if...
Putin is nuts and is trying to invade Ukraine for purely egotistical reaso... oh, wait.
What if...
Putin invaded Ukraine to show how superior his forces were by how quickly they conquered Ukrai... oh, no, wait.
Heck, there are many "What ifs..." that are just as nonsense.
Since the Surgeon General has not taken action and no news of Kamala D. Harris being sworn in I question your diagnosis of completely
Actually don't think even a little insane would be correct
More poorly in charge of his facilities with even poorer grasp of reality would be my assessment
Those in his sphere are the one's you need to ask about stopping what you are guessing he might do
exchemist
Valued Senior Member
It's interesting. Looks to me as if Biden's administration (it's a whole administration, of course, not just the president acting alone, so we can forget any silly notions of the president being nuts) has decided the way to deal with Putin is to meet tough words and actions with tough words and actions, rather than allowing him a nice diplomatic ladder to climb down.
I was struck by Lloyd Austin's frank statement - issued in Kyiv - that the goal is to weaken the Russian Army to the point at which it can't mount any more invasions of this kind.
That's a credible objective, it's defensive in nature rather than aggressive, and it implicitly invites Putin to withdraw if he wants to save his army before it becomes too badly damaged. But it also implies a determination to carry on supporting Ukraine, threats from Putin notwithstanding, until that goal is achieved.
Based on the relative performance of Ukrainian and Russian armies so far, it doesn't look as if Putin will really want to try his luck escalating to a war with NATO. That is probably the calculation.
Motor Daddy
Valued Senior Member
What if Trump asked Putin to invade Ukraine to rain on Biden's parade by dragging Biden into a war that only Trump can stop. Trump can then say that only he can stop the war, and "nobody has ever seen anything like it!"
Ah well, so many scenarios of crooked politicians ruining the world.
The real question is which is worse for the world, religious leaders or political leaders?
Ah well, so many scenarios of crooked politicians ruining the world.
The real question is which is worse for the world, religious leaders or political leaders?
sculptor
Valued Senior Member
What if Reagan asked Iran to keep the hostages until after the election, and offered them guns in exchange?
It's more like the UK and Boris Johnson is doing that -- or least provoking such in the imagination of Dmitry Kiselyov, on Russian television. Either way it is, I don't feel that the goading of a real BoJo or a propagandized BoJo could be stopped in terms of its effect on Putin's mouthpiece.
- - - - - -
Russian propagandist makes state broadcast threatening the UK and Ireland with nuclear strike: 'Just one launch, Boris, and England is no more'
https://www.businessinsider.com/russian-propagandist-threatens-uk-ireland-with-nuclear-strike-2022-5
EXCERPTS: "Why play with us? [...] It actually seems like they're raving on the British Isles. Why threaten never-ending Russia with nuclear weapons when you're on an island, which, you know, is so small?" Kiselyov said.
He added that "just one Sarmat missile" would be "sufficient to sink it once and for all."
Another way to "put England onto the seabed" would be to use Russia's "Poseidon" underwater drone, Kiselyov noted.
"It approaches the target at a one-kilometer depth at 200 kilometers per hour. There is no way to stop this underwater drone. The warhead on it is up to 100 megatons," he claimed.
Kiselyov then posited that the "explosion of this thermonuclear torpedo" off the UK's coast would raise a tsunami up to 500 meters high. "Such a water squall is also a carrier of extreme doses of radiation," he said. [...] "Having passed over the British Isles, it will turn what may be left of them into a radioactive desert, unfit for anything for a long time..." (MORE - missing details)
What if he hasn't, and he isn't?
exchemist
Valued Senior Member
This increasingly shrill, nuclear willy-waving by the Russians is reminiscent of Kim Yong Un.
Putin seems to be frustrated that his nuclear weapons are ineffective at preventing countries resisting his aggression. He seems not to have understood that the only purpose they serve is defensive, - unless a leader is mad enough to invite self-destruction.
Britain can incinerate Moscow with ease if London is destroyed.
I agree Bozo and Liz Truss are jerks, but that does not matter in this case. Any other UK government would adopt the same posture.
Let's all sincerely hope that Putin hasn't lost his marbles or that, if he has, there are enough people around him who haven't that can prevent him from doing something really crazy.
Best case scenario is that Putin was just very poorly advised. I think he assumed that he would be able to send him army into Ukraine and that NATO countries would be too disorganised and too much of a rabble to ever be able to agree how to respond; hence there would be no reaction that would make any difference. He also assumed, I think, that his army could achieve a rapid victory. It has an overwhelming numbers of troops, tanks, aircraft etc., after all. I think he thought he could remove the Ukraine government and install a puppet regime in, at most, a week or two. I also think that Putin is not used to having his advisors tell him that his assumptions are wrong. Telling him that would be a career-limiting move, so probably the ones who are left have stopped telling him. The result is that is he operating without reliable information, which makes for poor decisions.
Putin must realise by now that things aren't going the way he was told they would go. If he's still stable enough, he should be trying to find a way out of the mess has landed himself in. The stated aims of Putin's war keep changing, becoming more conservative by the day, which suggests that Putin is probably not a crazy man. If there's one thing we can rely in, it's that Putin will look after Putin's personal interests.
We can only hope.
exchemist
Valued Senior Member
We need hope, certainly, but not only hope. Our response can help to steer him towards wanting to get out of the mess and settle. There are a lot of rumours now about his health: Parkinson's, cancer and so forth. There is a video doing the rounds that seems to show him with a strong tremor in his right hand and a shuffling gait.
One theory is this is his last, reckless try at making Russia great again, as it were. There are even rumours he may announce on 9th May that he is standing down for surgery. But one has no idea how reliable such reports are. But I strongly suspect many of the people around Putin are not in favour of this invasion and are going along with it only out of fear of him. So if he does step aside, a new person may want to make his mark by extricating Russia from the quagmire.
foghorn
Valued Senior Member
If Putin has threatens use of nukes, come his May 9th parade, what good are soldiers and armoured vehicles parading in Red Square. Putin flashing his nukes in the parade would be saying to the Russian people '' look folks, these weapons assure our own destruction, have a nice day.''