I could maybe hop over to there in 1 hour by car.

70 km's away from me is the border, we made it in 50 minutes once. (I went to buy a motorbike near the border. Nothing new there then.)
So France, Germany and Russia are going to meet in gay Paris (can we still say that in 2022?) to talk about the Ukraine, now if the country was a person, I dare say it would be offended.
Meanwhile in Brussels there was a mass protest with people doing what they do, walking with banners for a few hours, around? You guessed it, Brussels.
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/thousands-brussels-protests-covid-restrictions-81842659

And over the pond in Australia, just so as not to be left out, and proving this walking thing with banners is contagious, they walked too.

See the font of all knowledge wiki for that news.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_protests_in_Australia

Meanwhile here in sunny (it is today) Poland it is minus 9 and window scraping time again. Offgridlife has it worse, minus 40, but he still gets on with it, like a soldier that man.

So apart from a looming war 70km's away from me between Russia and everyone else, and some people walking around city centres yelling about how angry they are with governments, with placards I may add, all is quiet here, for now.

Soooooo we have to get down to discussing, not to be confused with disgusting.

What is going on over in the Ukraine.
From the little I understand about this it would seem that Russia does not want another American military base on it's doorstep.
But you know, I think they are a bit late now for screaming about that one.

Honestly, if I was Russia, I would be a little embarrassed that it took me so long to notice all the other bases. But luckily, I am not Russia.

The truth be told, Russia and the USA are best of buddies, behind closed doors, if not, explain Alaska to me?

"Alaska was formally transferred to the United States on October 18, 1867, through a treaty ratified by the United States Senate."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Purchase

"How close is Alaska to Russia?"

Answer:

"The narrowest distance between mainland Russia and mainland Alaska is approximately 55 miles. However, in the body of water between Alaska and Russia, known as the Bering Strait, there lies two small islands known as Big Diomede and Little Diomede. Interestingly enough, Big Diomede is owned by Russia while Little Diomede is owned by the US. The stretch of water between these two islands is only about 2.5 miles wide and actually freezes over during the winter so you could technically walk from the US to Russia on this seasonal sea ice."

Now I know I am no rocket scientist, admittedly, but would it not have been easier to just make Alaska as one big airbase? I mean come on, 55 miles and all.

Do you still get a subsidy for living in Alaska?
I know the Russians were giving land away too, in the frozen bits.

"Russia offers free land to stop Arctic depopulation."

https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-53431792

Yes it is the BBC, but come on, it is free to read.

So there you go, Euro news, plus some waffle about a war that is not a war, that will be settled in Paris, maybe, possibly, or everyone might just run away, who knows, it is France after all.

Have a superb Monday, one more day above ground and all, make the most of it.