re: #274 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

I am heartened by the news from the war, but my optimism has been too badly battered over the past coupla years not to be very tempered and cautious.

And it’s fair to feel that way, but I can’t help but feel that the idea of Putin as the skilled chessmaster who’s playing a long game is too much like the same views of Trump as a skilled conman whose every move was part of a grander scheme. We certainly learned that the latter wasn’t true, and so far nothing about Winter War 2.0 has led me to believe that Vlad went into this with anything but massive overconfidence and no real plan if things went to shit in a hurry.