Russia - threadbanned users in OP

As a German who lived both in Germany and Ireland I can shed some light on the queueing thing.

Fun fact, my family actually owned a bakery in Germany and one of my many jobs was sometimes behind the counter. People were very mannerly when it comes to queueing. One of the sales girls was on her own when she absolutely had to go to the bathroom. The shop was rammed with people. She asked them to please wait. They did. When the shop was full people would ask each other "where you here first?" and that's normal queueing etiquette here. Things are somewhat different in Ireland.

A woman in a petrol station in Ennis elbowed me out of the way and plonked her shopping on top of mine. The poor girl at the till was so terrified of he, she started scanning her items.

A woman in Dunnes in Ennis moved my shopping cart out of the way at the till while my back was turned so she could get ahead of me. This one could be debatable, if someone disappears for 10 minutes you should absolutely move their trolley. I was gone for 10 seconds.

A guy in Lidl in Shannon started loading his shopping directly behind my last item. My shopping cart was still 3/4 full.

When you want to reverse I to a parking space, people in Germany wait. In Ireland they drive up to the back of you and blow the horn.

People have overtaken me whilst turning into a major road and as I was turning off a major road. It is a daily occurrence that someone will deliberately use the wrong lane at a roundabout or traffic light to skip the queue.

So I'm saying this without judgement or accusation, but queueing and driving in Germany is always a pleasure.

Sounds like a missile or rocket alright.

I expect serious attempts to engage in peace talks this week after Blinken's visit to Ukraine at the weekend. The implications for the west in a prolonged war is becoming increasingly apparent. While Russia will end up weakened, economic turmoil in the west will have major consequences also. Middle Eastern, south American and most Asian countries refuse to join in sanctioning Russia. The invasion is viewed by most people in the world as a European problem. Even in Europe most people are losing interest in the war. For the first time since the invasion occurred it's no longer the main headline on the Guardian web page. Most people have short attention spans.

What I find extremely amazing the fact that Russia ,itself, is not being counterattacked by Ukraine - so Russia does NOT have to do any active defensive actions on its own territory.

In addition to unfortunate cases of spontaneous combustion a railway line has been put out of commission.....natural causes or?

Designed to kill and maim civilians

Edit (Stupid boards): in reply to joseywhales above not approving Eastern European countries joining eu

If that was the criteria for countries gaining entry to the EU then I doubt the then current members would have allowed Ireland join in 1972

Probably but hey might as well get them a bit more paranoid 😉

Yeah because their military have demonstrated that they would be competent enough to mount such an operation NOT!

And that's not even taking into account that their airborne capability has been decimated by Ukrainian forces.

I think we can clearly label this show as Comic Fiction!

Whilst I am certain it is anatomically impossible, I believe there is however a slight risk that if Ukraine ends up in a position where it seized land from Russia after this conflict, I might defy the odds and actually laugh my bollocks off.

Ukraine need to make push for Moscow… it’s a sitting duck

Well we (in Western democratic countries) elect our politicians to think deeply and worry about + focus on this big stuff every work-day so we don't have to. Otherwise you'd burn yourself out (for nothing...as you can't affect it much).

Why should we care if countries outside Europe are self interested, consider it all a "European war" and won't back sanctions (or even condemn the invasion in the UN as a bare minimum) to preserve relations with Russia or seek to benefit from knock-down prices of Russian natural resources?

The one thing Europe (EU/EU members) should do about that is look to itself first, take note of the names and remember it the next time they come looking for something in particular (which they inevitably will I expect) and tell them to go and shove it.

BTW there will be no peace I think until Russia is interested in such. There's no sign of that yet and the way they waged war seems to make negotiated settlement harder.

Even if Russia was to turn over an entirely new leaf today, say agree a ceasefire at a minimum and put serious proposals, they are generating a vast amount of hatred and bitterness inside Ukraine I imagine which will make the necessary concessions tougher to swallow.

Hmm, not quite as impossible as Roy Keane's injunction

but still pretty challenging...

Josewhales approves and sharpened the knives.