Shabbat Shalom!

 Hi All,

Open thread as usual.

Some things to ponder

Hi All,

So the tanks are rolling in and everyone is getting their penny's worth in, with some saying Ukraine is 'nothing to do with us' or alternatively it is the west's fault for allowing all the old Russian colonies into NATO. One thing to consider is that when the USSR dissolved Ukraine had in its poession at least 1,700 nuclear weapons. In 1994 Ukraine voluntarily gave these weapons up- does anyone think Putin would have invaded had Ukraine maintained even a handful of these weapons? In any case per the Budapest memorandum of the same year :


The United States of America, the Russian Federation, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland,

Welcoming the accession of Ukraine to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons as non-nuclear-weapon State,

Taking into account the commitment of Ukraine to eliminate all nuclear weapons from its territory within a specified period of time,

Noting the changes in the world-wide security situation, including the end of the Cold War, which have brought about conditions for deep reductions in nuclear forces.

Confirm the following:

1. The Russian Federation, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America reaffirm their commitment to Ukraine, in accordance with the principles of the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, to respect the independence and sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine.

2. The Russian Federation, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America reaffirm their obligation to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine, and that none of their weapons will ever be used against Ukraine except in self-defence or otherwise in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations.

3. The Russian Federation, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America reaffirm their commitment to Ukraine, in accordance with the principles of the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, to refrain from economic coercion designed to subordinate to their own interest the exercise by Ukraine of the rights inherent in its sovereignty and thus to secure advantages of any kind.

4. The Russian Federation, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America reaffirm their commitment to seek immediate United Nations Security Council action to provide assistance to Ukraine, as a non-nuclear-weapon State party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, if Ukraine should become a victim of an act of aggression or an object of a threat of aggression in which nuclear weapons are used.

5. The Russian Federation, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America reaffirm, in the case of Ukraine, their commitment not to use nuclear weapons against any non-nuclear-weapon State party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, except in the case of an attack on themselves, their territories or dependent territories, their armed forces, or their allies, by such a State in association or alliance with a nuclear-weapon State.

6. Ukraine, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom of Great Britain, Northern Ireland, and the United States of America will consult in the event a situation arises that raises a question concerning these commitments.

— Memorandum on Security Assurances in Connection with Ukraine’s Accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons

Despite the above the western allies have repeatedly said that there will be no direct intervention as Ukraine is not a NATO member. However the problem is if Putin gobbles up Ukraine then he -and whoever takes over from him-then the Baltic states will be next and they are NATO members. Hence the struggle to deter Putin over Ukraine before the NATO alliance is forced to go to war with Russia.

Shabbat Shalom!

Hi All,

Shabbat Shalom!

Open thread as usual. 

Has it really been 6 years?

 Hi ALL,

Project fear didn't work: 

But, what of the Roswell GREYs?

 Hi All, 

One of the things my time line has to deal with is that of the Grey aliens or the Roswell Greys, the archytpe  of 'an alien'. According to UFO/Conspiracy theorists  these guys crashed down to Earth in 1947, in what is called the 'Roswell incident', apparently because they were 'investigating' the only nuclear capabable bomber squadron in the world. Their home world is Zeta Ritculia and have apparently been aiding the USA in 'Area 51' ever since.

In actual fact there are a variety of different grey aliens, just like there are a variety of different human races , but suffice to say that none of them gave a 'f*ck' about nukes. In actual fact the whole incident was a mistake: they were undergraduates (Zeta Ritculan society is one giant Collegiate University) off for boffin week, which meant  a 'punting' Star Ship race in search of the nearest illicit drug, which to this particular species is the chilli. And they were aiming for Rothwell Northamptonshire, not Roswell, New Mexico. In actual fact our  alien undergraudates plan was to visit Holy Trinity Church in Rothwell Northamptonshire, England, to nick a few of the skulls and bones from its well stocked Ossuary for their michlmas term essay, then head North to Leicester for what humans call 'a curry'. Alas one starship did end up in Roswell, with all hands killed and the other did end up in Rothwell, but their time drive was faulty by about 60 years,  wherein they were found by the local Parson and Verger. Asking what they were doing they meekly replied they were after a 'Curry', which they mistook for 'K'hari' and hence that has been their English name ever since and did agree to help the British on a 'special project' in return for a few chillis... 

Timeline 1956 : The Setting

 Hi All,

An Alternate history timeline here, the point of divergance in our history is Fourfold, three plasuible historical changes and one outrageous SciFi idea : first Persia was never conquered by Islam and thus is still a majority Zoastrian polity governened by an Emperor (Sha). 

The second is that of the Suez Crisis of 1956. In short the crisis occurred as a result of Egyptian Nationalist Nasser nationalising the Suez Canal - which hitherto had been owned by Britain and France- in response a coaltion of Britian & France (aided by Israel) went to war and seized the canal by military force. Whilst this was a military victory for the allies, both the Soviet Union and America hated it and under pressure-President Eisnehower blackmailed Britain with bankruptcy - and thus France and  Britian was forced to retreat. In our timeline this is seen as the actual moment Britian was seen to cease to be a great power and began the rush toward the end of the British  Empire and Britian  has thus defined its foregin and defence policy with 'the special relationship' or 'lapdog of the Yanks' with America ever since. In France, it took a while for the writing on the wall , viz their Indo-China War and  Algerian crisis, to be made apparent. But then France was and is an  stubborn poliity  and therefore developed its own nuclear weapons capability alongside dominating the nacescent European Union and in fact withdrew from NATO for most of the cold war. As a tiny footnote here, it should be remembered that the US didn't rate Israel very highly - unlike today- in actual fact its biggest great power backer was France until 1967 and it was only in 1973 that America grudingly agreed to supply Israel with massive amounts of weapons in order to win the Yom Kippur War (with some suggestions the gruding bit was because Israel was rationally considering the 'Samson Option' of using nuclear strikes against Egypt and Syria) . 

The third change in the timeline would be to flip the idea of a 'special relationship' from Britian to France : Afterall France (ironically as an absolute monarchy and far worse than anything that those fighting for 'liberty' would like to live under ) was instrumental in bringing about an independent USA. The Statue of Liberty is a gift from France to America. Anglophobia was a current of populist  American foregin policy throughout the 19th century, with strident calls for America to join Robespierreian and Napoleonic France,  which resulted in another Anglo-American war in 1812, and after that threats of war over the Canadian-American border ("48 or war") and intervention during the American Civil War, through to the Anglophobia of Irish- Americans and often fuled by the other phyfoinated  Americans - Irish, Italians, Poles etc  (e.g. watch the film Titanic in which DeCaprio has the joy of 'Irish dancing' in the lower decks vs the Evil British 'Throw another Paddy/Itallian/Pole/ child on the fire Lord Bastard' attitude of the crew to the pointing of shooting them- which incidentally is factully untrue). Even during world war I, German Americans did their best to keep America netural from the 'Vile Hun and his villianous Empire building', which was even greater during the isolationist period of 1921-1941. It is not a long stretch therefore to flip the roles of France and Britian so that by 1956 that France was the pro-American state with 'the special realtionship'  willing to lead for America in Europe, with Britain being the stubborn one,  unwilling to give up what was left of the Empire and upset with American ways (e.g. Britian gave a massive amount of intellectual and other captial to develop atomic weapons and techonlogy, but once the war was over  cowboy Truman abrupty cancelled lend -lease and chucked out British scientists and refused to share the joint technology with Britian).

The fourth change in the time line would be a science fiction 'macguffin' as it were. What could that possibly be?

Diamond Jubille : G-d Save OUR Queen!

Hi All,

"I will to my uttermost bear Faith and Allegiance to the Queen's Majesty; and will assist and defend all civil and temporal Jurisdictions, Pre-eminences, and Authorities, granted to Her Majesty, against all Foreign Princes, Persons, Prelates, States, or Potentates. And generally in all things I will do as a faithful and true Servant ought to do to Her Majesty. So help me G-d!"

Unlike the privileged and entitled buffoon& his idiot enturage that has dishonered himself by thinking that there is one rule for the elite and one rule for everyone else, our beloeved Monarch-
Elizabeth II Dei Gratia Magnae Britanniae, Hiberniae et terrarum transmarinarum quae in ditione sunt Britannica Regina,Indiae Imperatrix, Consortionis Populorum Princeps Fidei Defensor
- has risen above such behavoiour with typical stocism and British reserve.

And our national anthem: 

[Dieu protège la reine

De sa main souveraine !

Vive la reine !

Qu'un règne glorieux

Long et victorieux,

Rende son peuple heureux.

Vive la reine !]


God save our gracious Queen!
Long live our noble Queen!
God save the Queen!
Send her victorious,
Happy and glorious,
Long to reign over us:
God save the Queen!

O Lord our God arise,
Scatter her enemies,
And make them fall:
Confound their politics,
Frustrate their knavish tricks,
On Thee our hopes we fix:
God save us all.

One Union and Realm of nations four
Blest more and ever more
God save our land!
Home of the brave and free
Set in the Azure sea
True home of honour & chivalry
God save our land!

Our beloved Dominions bless
With peace and happiness
From shore to shore;

And let our Commonwealth of Nations be

Loyal, united, free,

True to herself and Thee

For evermore.

Thy choicest gifts in store,
On her be pleased to pour;
Long may she reign:
May she defend our laws,
And ever give us cause,
To sing with heart and voice,
God save the Queen!