From: bill.sloman@ieee.org   
      
   On 19/01/2026 8:26 am, john larkin wrote:   
   > On Sun, 18 Jan 2026 20:56:21 +0100, Gerhard Hoffmann    
   > wrote:   
   >   
   >> Am 18.01.26 um 18:54 schrieb john larkin:   
   >>> On Sun, 18 Jan 2026 17:44:46 +0000, Dan Green    
   >>> wrote:   
      
      
      
   >> It's kinda fun to watch that narcissist sock puppet of Putin's   
   >> in the White House (as far as there is still something left of it).   
   >> If he ever develops ideas of his own, all it takes is a 20 minute   
   >> phone call from the Kremlin to put him straight back in line.   
   >>   
   >> I wonder what material they have on file against him. Given how   
   >> the GDR targeted western managers with with Romeo/Juliet agents   
   >> during the Leipzig Fair, it's more than probable that the KGB   
   >> did the same during the Moscow Trump Tower adventure. Hell, he   
   >> even got premises for it, inexpensively, beautyful, big, gooood deal!   
   >>   
   >> With his preference for gold, maybe there is more to the rumors   
   >> about Golden Showers in a hotel room? On tape, perhaps?   
   >>   
   >> Oh, and the Nobel price medal: Goebbels got one, too, from   
   >> a fanboi, in  1943. (Knut Hamsun, 1920 for literature)   
   >> Birds of a feather.   
   >   
   > 500 million Europeans [are asking] 300 million Americans to protect   
   > them from 140 million Russians.   
    > - Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk   
      
   They aren't. America and quite a lot of Europe are members of a very   
   long standing alliance (though Poland only joined NATO recently) which   
   binds them to come to one another's defence if attacked by any third   
   party (most likely Russia).   
      
   America's military industrial complex has persuaded the US to invest a   
   lot in very expensive weapons, and they are using their influence on the   
   US government (which is considerable) in the hope of selling some of   
   them to European customers.   
      
   Russia isn't a particularly threatening enemy - it's economy is about   
   the same size as Italy's, and it has been trying to invade the Ukraine   
   for about four years without making much progress. It does have nuclear   
   weapons, but if they employed them they would certainly be destroyed by   
   the retaliation.   
      
   --   
   Bill sloman, Sydney   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)