pbourke

17 ms·

151.
by pbourke 5y ago
> besides, rail is more efficient. How is that tunnel under the Pacific Ocean coming along?
152.
by pbourke 5y ago
> I don't think NATO engaging necessarily leads to nuclear war. It's highly unlikely. I don’t know what war you’ve been following over the past month, but Russia would be destroyed by NATO in a conventional conflict. According
153.
by pbourke 5y ago
He sounds like Bismarck in this interview: casually discussing the US and Russia carving up Ukraine. Pretentious ideologue.
154.
by pbourke 5y ago
> Russia is not a military superpower. Russia is still part of a small club of countries that can send human civilization back to the Stone Age.
155.
by pbourke 5y ago
See also Seattle’s SR99 tunnel and Boston’s Big Dig (though the latter is 15 years old now). Tunneling through an existing city, often near water, is just hideously complex and expensive.
156.
by pbourke 5y ago
I’m not sure what you mean by SDI - that died in the early 90’s. The post-Soviet missile defense system that the US developed (GMD) is aimed squarely at countering ICBMs from a small nuclear state like North Korea. Does the US have another
157.
by pbourke 5y ago
MAD implies rational/peer actors. Some of the US moves in recent decades have been to deter and counter rogue nuclear states such as NK.
158.
by pbourke 5y ago
If Russia’s willing to drop cluster munitions on Ukrainian cities, I don’t see why they wouldn’t send a tactical nuke to a air base or industrial area. The relations between Russians and Ukrainians seem well and truly fucked at this point a
159.
by pbourke 5y ago
I can’t believe you’d discuss this situation without considering the nuclear angle. Putin holds a significant wild card in terms of tactical nuclear weapons. I’m sure Russia believes that they could be deployed inside of Ukraine in order to
160.
by pbourke 5y ago
Why would China ever do that when they can have Russia as a client state at zero military cost? China can merely incorporate a weakened Russia into its belt-and-road neo-colonial strategy.
161.
by pbourke 5y ago
A counterpoint to Mearsheimer from historian Stephen Kotkin in conversation with David Remnick: https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/stephen-kotkin-putin-...
162.
by pbourke 5y ago
Can you not see how this statement must be true at some point?
163.
by pbourke 5y ago
I don’t know why you’re being downvoted. What you say is correct and ethical, in my view. Putin and the Russian government are to blame, not random Russian citizens.
164.
by pbourke 5y ago
> This is a 19th century war with 21st century weapons. And we hope that it doesn’t turn into a 20th century war with 21st century weapons.
165.
by pbourke 5y ago
There are many holes in your statements. I am too tired to rebut them in HN-normal form. However, I will say this: even if one accepts everything that you claim at face value, nothing justifies what Putin/Russia are doing in Ukraine ri
166.
by pbourke 5y ago
Because I am apparently a masochist, I watched Threads for the first time in the week leading up the the war. It lives up to its billing.
167.
by pbourke 5y ago
Apparently we will have all of the downsides of Armageddon without the bliss of its few upsides. I’ll make sure to update JIRA ahead of standup the afternoon of the apocalypse.
168.
by pbourke 5y ago
An N95 mask might help with inhaling irradiated dust. But yeah, COVID would be rather low on the list of concerns.
169.
by pbourke 5y ago
“Last Updated: 02/25/2022”
170.
by pbourke 5y ago
“Reynolds: Do you really think he’ll use a nuclear weapon? Hill: The thing about Putin is, if he has an instrument, he wants to use it. Why have it if you can’t? He’s already used a nuclear weapon in some respects. Russian operatives poison
171.
by pbourke 5y ago
A “sober and calculating” person would never have entered into this conflict. Putin seems to have an almost-religious perception of this situation. He views Ukraine as part of a “greater Russia”, and the post-Soviet reorganization that put
172.
by pbourke 5y ago
Little green men.
173.
by pbourke 5y ago
> Russia seem to be closer and closer to the point where their only winning condition is a Grozny scenario and if that happens then there is no chance that NATO would stand by. If that happens we are facing the very real possibility of e
174.
by pbourke 5y ago
What if enforcing a no-fly zone over Ukraine leads to a full nuclear exchange a.k.a. end of the world? We are actually seeing some strong early results from the soft power approach. The US under Trump all but abandoned this powerful and nec
175.
by pbourke 5y ago
> Let’s not escalate the situation or a war might break out. You are being pithy, but is this not the truth? We are on the first rung of a ladder that leads up to the end of the world. The NATO strategy so far seems to be to isolate and
176.
by pbourke 5y ago
At the very least, Russia lost two gigantic IL-76 last night (confirmed by US). We don’t know how many people were aboard, but each one could easily have 200-400. A figure of 3500 casualties (KIA + wounded) does not seem unreasonable.
177.
by pbourke 5y ago
At the very least, Russia does not yet have air superiority and seems to have made some huge tactical blunders around attacking the airports. They lost 2 IL-76 transports yesterday which seems indicative of things going off the rails.
178.
by pbourke 5y ago
> Or at least we'd send them thousands of anti helicopter and antitank missiles That happened - the UK sent 2000 NLAW anti-tank missiles and the US sent Javelins.
179.
by pbourke 5y ago
> The historical original reason for its existence have disappeared It seems that we are being reminded that it has not.
180.
by pbourke 5y ago
I love seeing well-organized code in a single HTML file - very easy to read and comprehend. Kudos!

More ›