2 atomic bombs were used offensively in 1945, and none have been used ever since - that's the precedent.

That makes it all better! When the bomb drops we can blame someone else!
Now the real question: why does Putin suddenly not believe in mutual assured destruction?
After all, even Putain ain't dumb enough to fire #1 if he knows #2 is aimed at Moscow...

Who says we would necessarily fire on Moscow? If Putin decided to use nukes in Ukraine, there really isn’t any reason for the US to fire on Russia as Ukraine isn’t part of NATO. Now we do have some really stupid leaders here in the US, but I don’t think even Joe Biden is stupid enough to fire the nukes and initiate mutually assured destruction.

Well someone is getting nuked and they wouldn't be if we had real leaders in charge.
I don't have to tell ya, nobody would be dumb enough to fire nuke number one, if we had a Republican or at least a non-braindead president.

Hol' up. Let's put on our thinking caps, shall we?

Harry Truman authorized the nuclear strikes against Hiroshima and Nagasaki that precipitated the surrender of Japan in WWII. Putin has claimed this use of nuclear weapons (almost 80 years ago now) "creates a precedent" that justifies his own nuclear saber-rattling in 2022.

The history Putin omits is this:

Just a few short years later, Truman was still President during the Korean War. Now, if anyone in world history could be expected to authorize a nuclear strike, it'd be Truman - right? And Gen. MacArthur - the most highly-decorated solider of his time - approached Truman with just such a plan.

And Truman said nay. He not only said nay: he had MacArthur sacked for even suggesting it.

Truman's brave decision *not* to use nukes in the Korean War helped create the actual, operating precedent on this subject - that nuclear powers won't use their most powerful weapons just because they can.

And we've seen that borne out again and again. The U.S., the USSR (now Russia), and other nuclear powers have fought in multiple wars over the past few decades, but none has ever resorted to nukes. That includes, by the way, some major wars that were "lost" by nuclear powers - like the Vietnam War (U.S.), the Afghanistan War (USSR), and the other recently-concluded Afghanistan War (U.S.).

Like these other conflicts, Putin may very well be on its way to "losing" the Ukraine War. Does that justify his recent threats to use nukes? No, not at all.

Jesus Christ, you know you really screwed up when you’re making me defend the corrupt shithole that is Ukraine. Nukes are not toys, they’re devestating weapons that can easily rack up kill counts in the hundreds of thousands. Criticize the US’s use of nukes all you want, the whole world learned the lesson that these weapons should never be used, and just because Putin isn’t winning a war fast enough does not morally justify using nukes.

Oh? There are Russian speakers in Ukraine? By golly. Where else can might we find Russian speakers if we cared to look? Kazakhstan? Estonia? Other Baltic states? Poland? The United States, even?

Speaking Russian doesn't make you the automatic political subject of the Russian Federation, quite plainly - and thank God.

You may as well argue that the U.S. has the right to annex the English-speaking parts of Canada -- or for that matter, that the U.K. ought to be able to re-annex the English-speaking parts of North America (and re-establish dominion over the rest of its former empire around the world).

This is great stuff for fantasy-league, alternative-universe politics, or for video-games - or evidently, for neo-imperialist Putin simps like you. Not so much for reality.

The regional referendums were a sham, rigged on multiple levels, and should not be given any weight at all. Do you want to know a few reasons why?

--Hastily called a mere week in advance, at a time when tens of thousands of people were displaced by the war.
--No voter registration.
--Soldiers knocked on doors and literally corralled voters to drag them to the polls.
--Then those same soldiers stood over their shoulders with their weapons drawn as they filled out their ballots.
--The official reported results of the referendum were 99+% in favor of joining Russia. Sound like a legit result to you?