Potus ???

[tree-fancier123]

17 minutes ago, Squaredy said:

I know you have already been corrected on this but it might be worth reading up on the causes of World War 2.  To an extent it was down to Germany being punished severely and stripped of much of their land in the Treaty of Versailles.  

 

The USA came up with a list of fourteen principles that were meant to be enshrined in the treaty and how the defeated Germany were to be treated.  Every single one was broken by the allies.

so instead of taking the lot after WW1 and lording it over them, the allies went soft and let the Germans rebuild their country, not long after they rearmed. If Germany was really defeated in WW1 it would have been the ideal time to do an Israel and stop them from ever having weapons again.

WW2 happened because the allies couldnt stomach occupying Germany forever

[openspaceman]

43 minutes ago, Stubby said:

Sorry . My Mum gave birth .

You are sorry your mum gave birth to you?😆

 

Happy birthday Stubby, glad you are here.

[Squaredy]

38 minutes ago, tree-fancier123 said:

so instead of taking the lot after WW1 and lording it over them, the allies went soft and let the Germans rebuild their country, not long after they rearmed. If Germany was really defeated in WW1 it would have been the ideal time to do an Israel and stop them from ever having weapons again.

WW2 happened because the allies couldnt stomach occupying Germany forever

Well they did go soft on them eventually yes.  The initial terms of the Treaty of Versailles however were very humiliating and impossible for any country to comply with.  So to an extent they really had no choice but to go a bit soft as the original terms were unworkable.  We created a perfect ground for someone like Hitler to exploit.

[Steven P]

Happy birthday!!

 

Borne aloft.. like Simba in the Lion King, and shown the world

[Steven P]

33 minutes ago, Squaredy said:

Well they did go soft on them eventually yes.  The initial terms of the Treaty of Versailles however were very humiliating and impossible for any country to comply with.  So to an extent they really had no choice but to go a bit soft as the original terms were unworkable.  We created a perfect ground for someone like Hitler to exploit.

 

History repeats itself.

 

After WW1 Germany was punished, reparations, payments for the damage done, massive debts, resentment from the population and along comes an empty promise of a better life. The populist vote. 

 

Parallels to the current thread headliner... US isn't all a bed of roses, Trumps base, the working classes, have struggled in recent years, and along he comes with an empty promise of a better life, the populist vote. So far they have only suffered financially.

[daveindales]

3 hours ago, openspaceman said:

Yes  Russian economy had already fallen way behind since it became a centralised economy in 1917, who knows how they might have been with better rulers given all the resources available to them.

 

The british economy largely depended on imports from the empire and its manufacturing was in the hands of a wealthy minority. Once it had to pay world prices for materials the wealthy largely bailed out.

 

What it did have was a well educated middle class and technocrats which not only provided the science that developed innovative solutions Chain Home, cavity magnetron, Colossus amongst many others, details of which were freely given to US who benefited very well from the gift.

 

Despite the set back to the economy it remains a good place to live and work although Canada and Australia were tempting. The national insurance scheme actually means I would only spend 60% of my life earning 🙂 but that probably won't last for the next generation as the Gini ratio moves to the american way.

The answer is probably that there never would have been an invasion of europe; that depended on our half american prime minister persuading Roosevelt, to deal with Europe first while the bulk of the German army were engaged in Russia.

 

Japan made a fundemental mistake in attacking America when they did, this doomed Hitler.

Japan was in an onerous position, already embargoed by US and, like Britain dependent on imports. Their miscalculation was in thinking if they swept up all the colonial assets of the French, Dutch and British once Germany occupied mainland Europe , their main enemy now now occupied fighting germany for the las six months and with the incursion into China stalled, America would intervene. It would not have.

 

Eventually there would have been a war between Japan and US  but too late to save Europe.

 

The axis were a dysfunctional alliance whereas America, Britain (which headed the commonwealth of nations, many still colonies) and Russia (less so) were coordinated.

 

The fly in Hitler's plan to create a reich which could out compete the american economy depended on the securing of land and resources in eastern europe, he thought he had settled a deception on Chamberlain

but 31 March 1939 Chamberlain had signed an agreement with France and Poland  (which Russia was planning to invade) that they would come to their aid should Germany attack.  German plans depended on taking Poland in order to get to their goal of the agricultural lands of Ukraine and the oil fields to the south of USSR.

 

When Hitler invaded Poland  in September 1939 and Russia was given the east Poland two months later as a feint, Hitler did not expect Chamberlain to declare war. So he had to bring forward his contingency plan to attack France through the low countries.

 

Your mention of Collosus reminded me of a RN veteran I met and interviewed. He served on HMS Bulldog when U-110 was captured. He showed me some German documents from the sub that he retrieved. For anyone who doesn't know, this was when the British captured a German Enigma machine.

[Johnsond]

[sime42]

On 20/01/2026 at 16:32, Steven P said:

 

Been busy last couple of days (probably spreadsheets and stuff like that). His Greenland thing is another - and getting more frequent "WTF" moment. He cannot invade because he would be kicked out of NATO, a good chance that would mean the US would also struggle to maintain bases in NATO countries... which threatens US security world wide. Which is why he is going for $700 billion estimation to buy it.

 

The cynic might think that a Venezuelan won the Nobel Peace Prize, the Peace prize people are Norwegians and these are the 2 countries he is thinking of attacking...

 

However it is nothing at all to do with security - as far as I can tell there is no escalating threat from Russia to the US, a long way for China to sail, and any missiles from either over Greenland would currently be intercepted. All to do with the climate change he doesn't believe in, melting the ice so Greenlands minerals can be exploited. The riches are worth far more than the 700 billion he wants to buy it with. And the Peace Prize.

 

 

I'd say its 50:50 between grabbing the valuable natural resources and narcissism. The resources only now becoming available because the ice is melting due to the "Green New Scam". His fragile ego was severely damaged when he didn't get the big gold medal last year. 

Did you see any of the big speech yesterday? It was an ultimate reality TV opportunity. The normal load of old guff: fake news, exaggeration, self-aggrandisement, ("some people say" - lots of stuff). The new standard fodder for world stage events of great significance like this. He talked a lot about windmills, he really doesn't like them. They cost $1000 for every blade rotation I think he said. You could probably knock us up a spreadsheet to show dollars per radian, if you fancy it. He mentioned Iceland a few times as well, which was bizarre. Compare all that to the statesmanship displayed by Mark Carnie the day before. 

In other news. As well as Blair, Putin and Lukashenko have also now had an invitation to join Trumps latest get-rich-quick real estate scheme. AKA the Gaza Board of Peace. Nice. Big news like this is only now making it into the headlines, with so much other noise flooding the zone.

If there are any aliens looking down on us they must be laughing their socks off now.

 

[Steven P]

Some days I would go 100% asset grabbing and the next 100% narcissism ego boost. Probably in reflection though more ego than assets - coupled with things like renaming the Kennedy Centre he wants to leave his name behind him more than enriching the US.

 

I didn't see all his speech last night, but the highlights were amazing... in his Daily dose of Trump WTFkery.

 

A lot made of mistaking Iceland for Greenland... though I suspect this was a slip of the tongue and he meant Greenland, his mind might also be thinking Iceland too. He sent out a map, colouring in with the US flag Greenland, Canada, the US and Venezuela, which leaves a nice chunk middle south, Mexico, Guatemala.. and of course Cuba sandwiched between the 2.. and he has recently kind of threatened Cuba too. A man of peace. But... empire building too I think.

 

There was his billion dollar peace thing too, didn't see the Europeans fawning over him to join that, and the import taxes (tariffs) for not agreeing to the Greenland sale is quietly being dropped too after he met them... suspect they politely told him where to go with his money making schemes. Billion dollar peace thing... which as the lead he will be creaming off it big time with contracts to his companies, his name all over the world, back to his ego.

 

Yes, ultimate reality TV.

 

 

 

I'll see if I can get a spreadsheet or even powerpoint dollars per radian / degree or turbine blade?

 

 

 

 

As for Aliens... yes, probably not invading, we are quite capable of destroying ourselves quite easily.