On somthing firearms related. looks like the NRA will still be around a while longer and not dissolved.

https://trendingpolitics.com/hip-hip-hooray-for-the-nra-ethom/

Perhaps he is, but there’s no way of knowing for sure, short of committing military espionage. I’d certainly expect Northern Ireland to be a target in a hypothetical war, but I doubt anyone would nuke a neutral country and gain nothing more than one enemy. I haven’t ready any declassified soviet documents so I’ll take your word for it. However I’d say there’s a decent chance the Russians have similar plans and targets.

Think you will find that Denmark, Iceland and Norway are all members of NATO

There'll be no more Baikal's for us going forward anyway.

Strong reliable workhorses they are.

I just hear on radio that a truck has crashed into the Russian Embassy gates in Dublin.  😁

The "Hand of God" Joe D said on radio. 😇

Oil back in 2011 or 2012, for a short while, hit a high of $147 per barrel. At the pump it went to €1.669 per litre.

Caused mostly by market speculation rather than any particular crisis and John Kerry going on about "peak oil".

A recent article in the Times and Journal suggests some stations are price gouging given the difference in pricing between stations with it being up to €0.10c a litre cheaper in neighbouring Counties.

Just back from Limerick. Passed numerous garages,all , bar one I saw are selling petrol and diesel at E1.99.So if they are price gouging, they must all be in on it. But it also makes a mockery of any glib ministerial statement to "shop around" for better prices.

Or, tin foil hat time, is this an attempt (given current situation in the world) to push those on the fence towards EVs and away from Petrol/Diesel motors given the commitment of the Government to end sales of such cars by 2030 and a total ban of them on the roads by 2040?

I'd certainly say there is an element of "never let a good crisis go to waste" in some thinking here in the current situation. But it's an utter pipe dream to believe that this will all be sorted by loads of windmills powering EVs, unless you happen to be as naive as Ryan, or won't mention the Irish French interconnector will be supplying us with Nuke power electricity while we are being bamboozled that we are exporting surplus energy to France.

Petrol and diesel will still be here past the hysteronic doomsday date of the 2030 world's end. As it will still be needed for the myriad of agricultural and heavy equipment as well as small gas enginesout there.At the moment it is the usual "Trouser as much as possible,and fudge this with the "EU excuse" to do nothing. In this case some white paper from an EU cabinet statement according to Leona on the news over the last few days.

I ask because I notice the VRT or VAT (cannot remember which) has been increased for EVs and grants/subsidies (for buying them) have ended. In other words the Government are going to slowly start introducing taxes and charges that never applied to EVs to try offset the Billions in lost revenue that will come from eliminating Petrol/Diesel motors.

Simply because I reckon this was never thought properly thru by them.Too much virtue signalling and brown paper envelopes and not enough sums done as well as reality checks. How do you tax an EV that has the same engine as all the rest in power, more or less? Will we be looking at a 14 Amp as being the same as a 4 litre V8 in the future or whatever?

Watch in another 3to 4 years, we will be told that Hydrogen is THE thing, with all the eco propaganda surrounding buying your new hydrogen bomb...er, family car and your resource gobbling burnt out battery EV won't be worth spit. But at the moment they have us over a barrel on the fuel prices,as you basically work here to keep a car under you to go to work to pay for the car which needs fuel,esp if you live anywhere outside a city area. Am surprised the Irish hauliers and everyone else who has a car for that matter hasn't gone and got together to organise a Canadian style Freedom convoy and taken over Kildare st and surrounds to protest about this...oh wait! Forgot we don't really do protest here...

Was that the Russian top brass that was reported a couple of days ago?Or a new kill?Could be possible either type of gun as Ukraine uses both.

Think 1,500 meters rather than 1500 millimetres[mm about 3.3 feet] is more like.

If it was a Dragunov, that is almost double its effective range, [depending on type and brand and where made ]. So well worth celebrating.If it was a Barett, just another normal working day.

Either way what the Hell is a general doing cruising around the battlefield? That kind of went out as your example of the late Gen Sedgwick shows, around that time in leadership examples. That is serious morale and chain in command blow to any army to have your top brass being picked off and shows things are really screwed for them out there.

Yes m not mm. lol, Stevie Wonder could hit a bullseye at 1500mm (5ft).

For interest I looked it up there, Dagunov max distance shot is current 1350m. So 1500m is admittedly less likely that a 50cal.

The General was sent into sort out the mess. Sending him in was another piece of the clusterf**k. Idiocy.

Well in this context I'm referring to military neutrality not political neutrality, so no, not huge differences between both. But of course you can explain the difference between not taking a side in a war and well, not taking a side in a war.

Concessions don't equal a declaration of war. Just because we were favouring the allies for pragmatic reasons, that doesn't mean we were ready to fight Hitler.

You clearly have a skewed perspective on concessions. Do you really think a weather report or Donegal airspace is that important?

Again, not politically neutral, neutral in military terms.

F*ck me Grizz, this took me days to get through ;). Iceland was just an example that I heard about a while back and whether or not that I was right on that specific example doesn't really matter since there are other countries with no standing army. But you sort of admit yourself that they can't defend their borders, and even with a police force/paramilitary force they couldn't stop the allied occupation in WW2.

Seeing that they are NATO and under its umbrella today...The point is moot and in the 1930s/40s they were an outpost of Denmark,same as Greenland . So like French Indochina occupiable land by anyone who could take or want it.

Surely 126,000 men and 200 tanks would be enough to preserve independence. Organization of the Iranian Army in 1921-1941 – Dr. Kaveh Farrokh.

Not necessarily... Someone staying "neutral " in a middle eastern country that has a whole different outlook on life and alliances usually based on a tribal level is not going to happen in our Western sense of the word and despite your equipment and army size.As we saw in Afghanistan last year.

Come on Grizz, invading a country time and time again until they bend the knee and bankroll their entire military and you say there's no influence? Come on Grizz, you really think George Jr would let all that oil go without any controlling American influence?

ASFIK we only invaded Iraq ONCE directly using US forces??? And how many US personnel are left there now?Last time I heard the Iraquis were , more or less governing themselves and doing a better job of holding accountable and transparent elections than the US was in 2020!

We should have gone further and straight into Bagdad with the UN Colation in the Gulf War, but because of George Senior and the UN edict to liberate Kuwait,we had to go back and do it under Geo Jnr. Conspiracy theories notwithstanding!NO it was not about oil either! It was about taking a vital piece of real estate in the Middle East. Iraq is the crossroads. You can go from Bagdad to at least 7 countries in that region and knock on their door if they started getting bolshie.

Just because plans were drawn up for certain scenarios, that doesn't mean these were going to go ahead, sure look at ourselves in the 80s with our own plan to invade the North. That doesn't mean we were going to invade a nuclear power. It's highly unlikely that NATO or the USSR would decide to nuke and occupy Ireland all for a couple of airfields and ports, all for valuable nukes and having to garrison a very hostile population.

That was in 1972 if memory serves correct and it was a ridiculous brain fart by the old school FFrs still in the cabinet back then that must have been concocted in the Dail bar after one too many. But you are just making the point I made, it doesn't mean it would have happened, just that it COULD have happened. It would also have as said, have come down to who got here first. Let's be honest,if the Irish army couldn't secure 6 counties from Ireland, back in the Cold war/NI conflict what could it have done against a fully tooled up US /UK or Warsaw Pact airborne division parking itself in Shannon or Dublin airports?Not that either NATO or WP would have tolerated that happening by either side and have simply nuked the place to deny the other side the usage thereof. By the time the indigent mobs would have got organised here.It would have been over in a 6 million degrees moment. Remember too, they wouldn't need the Tsar bomb to do us in, even one in the strength of Hiroshima would be enough to shut us up here in Ireland, even today.

I'm not sure why Waterford would be a target, the port is fairly sh*t. Not much goes in or out of it.

You are thinking in today's terms and situation.Go back 35/40 years in the Cold war times. Much more happening then in both Cork and Waterford ports in facilities and resources.

Do you mean that the 1500mm may have been exaggerated. Of course that's likely, it certainly was rounded up to a convenient number*. But not sure how that relates no officers on the front line. As Grizzly and I referred to, it went out in the US Civil War for High ranking officers, but I'd say there are plenty of standard officers floating about the front, or close enoughto make no difference

*The Soviets were fond of making up fictional sniper feats for propaganda purposes. If you seen Enemy at the Gates, the sniper fight between a Soviet sniper and a Nazi master sniper. The soviet was a real sniper, with certainly a career. But whole saga was made up. As was a lot of the feats of the female Lady Death sniper.