Imo this is the most powerful rock intro of all time.

They chose Tokyo for the cash.

Russia began early throwing around nuclear threats like it was candy. Then they moved onto "we don't believe the West will retaliate if we drop", as if saying; not only will we drop nukes, but we think we can get away with it so we will definitely nuke if you provoke us just a little.

Then you have the slightly less retarded cousin in the Pentagon responding; We hear you Vlad, in fact we hear you so well that we might nuke you first, just in case. And this is a leak so we really mean it.

I'm glad I'm not scared of nuclear weapons, because all this rhetoric must be very traumatic for those who are. That's the only real purpose it serves. As a military strategy I find it pathetic.

I was reading a bit about the story this is based on and I must say the show is making a very poor adaptation of the plot lines.

The Crabfeeder in the book is just some Cortez type military commander. He takes over the islands and executes the pirates, then he starts charging toll for the shipping lanes. Eventually he gets greedy and charges too much and Valeryon wants a war with him.

In the show he is some type of Texas Chainsaw Massacre character and you get the impression he is capturing ships and executing the crews. In the book scenario you can see why the King doesn't want to get involved, but here? It looks like sheer madness to allow that stuff to continue, and I find it hard to believe any civilized power would support it.

Even though the lighting is horrendous, the sets and cinematography otherwise are fairly good. With a good book story to rely on they could have easily made this into a great show. I can literally see where the suits and skirts have forced in their ridiculous choices, overruling the show runners.

Rings of Power is just a bad show through and through, this show is sabotaged.

This reminded me about something. The Whiskey on the Rocks incident in 1981. A Soviet sub washed up on the shores right next to a Swedish military base. The sub had navigated very finely, maneuvering between narrow rock formations, until suddenly they put their engines to full power and headed towards land. After hitting land they appeared to try and move even further onto the shore. There was a diplomatic incident and it ended up with sub detectors being placed around the Baltic Sea and UK/US forces patrolling the area, which it seems they are still doing today. The pipeline also goes through there.

The Swedish journalist Ola Tunander wrote a book about this recently, and he concludes that this was a joint operation between the US, USSR and Sweden. The goal, we can assume, being for the West to expand their naval presence in the area, and in return the USSR would get something. Revitalizing the Armand Hammer trade agreement from 1973, which Carter had cut off after they invaded Afghanistan in 1979, seems like a good candidate. The sub used in the Whiskey incident was a model from the 1950s, so no relevant technology was lost, making it plausible the Soviets were willing to lose it. The navigation of the sub and the behavior of the crew all pointed at something fishy, and there was also an American presence at the Swedish Base right at that moment. No proof of anything here, but possible example of the Russians willing to play the villain in return for something.

That being said I don't think they are really in cahoots with this war, but I do think the timing was suspicious. It played right into the hands of the West to keep the economic depression going with the ability to blame it on something other than Covid. Now they blame everything on Putin, especially energy prices which was starting to soar in 2021.

The warnings supposedly given by the US were vague and unspecific about possible attacks back in June. You can sniff out the troop movements of 200,000 troops, but I would think it would be harder to gain inside knowledge about a top secret action involving, we can assume, not much more than a squad of specialists. Anything bigger than a fishing boat would surely be way too high a risk in that area, even a sub. For all we know the warnings were a mere assessment of possible threats to vulnerable infrastructure, or if you want to go deep, gleefully informing your enemy about your plans knowing they can't stop you.

Apparently no measures were taken. Russia is shut out, which leaves Germany. Their relationship with the US can be summed up by an American President, telling their Chancellor to his face, in front of cameras, that if they don't shut down their pipeline, the US will. Now that's brazen and out in the open. No surprise protective measures failed to materialize. I also think it grossly imprudent for an active Polish member of Parliament, to in effect publicly accuse the US of involvement in this plot. I don't think he's doing that in a vacuum, and frankly I consider it a very big deal for a representative of an Ally to say that. Yet nobody cares. No attention, no rebuke. 

Do I know the US did this? Certainly not directly, and it is also possible Russia was involved, but this is just too convenient for the US to be a coincidence. They have by far the most to gain from this, unless you count the group that runs America as something separate. Maybe that's fair. I'd be very surprised if they had nothing to do with this. Secretary Blinken made a shameful display when he first claimed nobody had any interest in doing this, before in the next sentence, proclaiming this to be a great opportunity for US plans. It all adds up.