tassojunior

That's what they said about Hussein in Iraq, Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam, Castro in Cuba, Allende in Chile, and dozens of other leaders we made war on. "NATO and the US will be welcomed by the people as liberators with parades !" . Biden, Bush and Clinton all repeated that guarantee a lot. It's astounding (and frankly terrifying) people still fall for that line. Supersonic undedectable missiles change much chance Russia would suffer a counterattack. A country with it's back against the wall would do it. I'd rather see everyone ease off the buttons with honor.

My advice and every sane person's was to abide by the Minsk treaties and see how it worked out in the next decade instead of giving Russia an excuse (after 8 years and 14,000 dead in Donbas from non-adhereance to the treaty) to intervene. Now that Russia had an excuse to go in, who knows how much of Ukraine will be left after many dead on both sides and who knows how much the war will escalate as wars always do. Abiding by Minsk was simple and predictable. War never is except that it's 1000 times worse than when we go into one being told it's going to be quick and glorious for noble reasons. It may be a bloodbath with many atrocities on both sides now. That's war. But I doubt Ukraine will "win" or get as good a treaty as Minsk was.

It's just a time when China and Russia have the capability to wipe out the US with undetectable supersonic missles but every US missle is detectable and easily shot down. Especially in China's case, one almost wonders why they don't but then China doesn't have nearly the number of warheads Russia and the US do. If war's inevitable they're wasting time. We'll know when the US gets those missiles because China and half it's population will be gone next day. Meanwhile people need to understand how Russians are "different" to avoid assuming they understand them and can predict their actions:

then still don't back it in a corner and poke it with sticks. Ukraine is begging for reinstatement of the Minsk treaties now and every day we rapidly move closer to nuclear war.

Even 17 years is not a long time to deal with a situation like the Minsk treaties. Instant gratification and short attention span is a big US problem now. My guess is if Ukraine advanced and became successful Dombas would reunite in time. If you think of some "recent" things, they've been longer. We expanded NATO to Russia's borders 18 years ago. We sent troops into Afghanistan 20 years ago. But my guess is Putin would leave before 80 and a decent chance Medvedev will take back over soon now as an "honorable" exit for Putin. The total ridiculousness of this whole thing is that the Ukraine government in negotiations is strongly pushing the Minsk treaties giving Dombas autonomy which they refused to comply with after signing for the past 8 years causing this war. Now it seems like a wonderful deal. "Friends" sometime in the past 8 years would have pushed them to take that deal and run. If you're ever in a room with a large bear go out the door asap and wait until the bear leaves. Backing it into a corner and poking it with sticks is a trendy but poor strategy.

Unfortunately Russia, like China, has undetectable hypersonic nuclear missiles and in spite of all the $ and research we've poured in we don't yet. You're right, Russia's best (maybe only) chance is to surprise the US with a wipeout nuclear attack. That's not a good position to put your enemy in. The chances we'll die soon in a nuclear war have skyrocketed and will get worse every day. It's much more frightening than the Cuban missile crisis. Putin won't be president long because he's getting old, if no other reason. We should have grabbed the Minsk treaties and waited him out. China's much more a problem today and for the future and pushing Russia into China's arms was dumb even if we don't have a nuclear attack soon. Sun Tzu in The Art of War said that you should build golden bridges for your enemy to retreat over (and he never had to even deal with crazy Russians). But if we have a nuclear attack I won't come back and say I told you so.

Won't Russians just head to Vietnam instead which is cheaper? I have a friend ("Velvety") from Prague who worked in Vietnam because he spoke Russian which is a huge portion of tourists in Vietnam. Otherwise they tend to go to Turkey and Tunisia a lot. The southern Black Sea coast of Turkey has been solid Russian tourists in summer for a long time. I'm wondering if the Helsinki-St. Petersburg ferry that doesn't require a visa will be open this summer.

I doubt there's anyone who "supports Putin" (and few who support Trump) but there's a politics forum for a reason and allowing another thread related to travel to be destroyed by page-long spam posts of political memes doesn't help the site.

There were a few gay little basement bars in that area last time I stayed down there. (can highly recommend the Clarion Inn Prague City on Tylovo Square at IP Pavlova- great breakfast. Also the Galileo is fine). It would be great to have more gay bars in that area.

That may have been the rate at Escape but it was certainly a lot less otherwise. As @numerito says, it was 2500 and then 3000 in local currency ($125/$150) until now. Many of the guys are advertising 200 Euros now because of the sellers market right now (but they're glad to get 150 Euro or 3000K.)

Of all people Levi Conely is in Prague for a while now according to his IG https://www.instagram.com/leviconely/ There's nothing on his free OnlyFans as to why: https://onlyfans.com/leviconely I doubt there's any fashion modeling work there but I doubt he's there to do porn either.

Thanks. Seems to be one of the bartenders and a gay bar. The reviews of the hotel are downright scary through (bedbugs, dirty shared toilets, locked front door lol). But as with Up and Down at least another gay bar into escorts maybe. While Up and Down seem to be alone "uptown-Old Town", there seem to be several small rent-friendly bars in this area. Encouraging. I wish Club Madam would do gay nights. They have some lookers.

You may be surprised at how early the place pretty much empties out, especially during the week. It's more an afternoon/very early evening place during the week and a not much later place on weekends. There's always someone there (one guy sleeps there) , but it can get "quiet" . At Paragonya in Zurich they have a way you can check how many are there before going but Thermas doesn't have that feature. I always tell US friends going first time to go a little earlier than they plan.

Uinted cancelled it's flights from California to India because of the Russia air ban. That's a lot of people CA/India. I wonder what other Asia flights will fall. I've flown London/SanFrancisco near-polar and I'd guess there are other near-polar routes to CA that will be axed.

I wonder if the fabuous basement hustler/leather bar is still in Koln? Man that place was nice.

new 21 Yr old bartender on Hunqz: This caught my eye. A bartender working on Hunqz. Is it Up bar? Cute guy who would be a good introduction guy too. https://www.romeo.com/hunq/TomasDark

TWO is a 10 minute shorter walk to Thermas (5 minutes vs 15). TWO is a newish small building with tiny rooms and a "sexy"? glass wall to the bath/toilet. Boring neighborhood. Axel is in the center of the ritzy trendy area with dozens of shops, cafes, gay bars etc. I liked TWO just "ok". I've stayed at the Intercontinental close to TWO which was a fabulous suite , maybe best I've ever had, but boring neighborhood. But next trip I'll stay at Axel or a closeby hotel for the gayborhood.

and of course, Czech bodybuiding champ Jan who always advertises in Prague but travels other cities a lot (the reverse of the other 3. He's 10% real, prompt, professional, nice guy etc. https://www.romeo.com/hunq/AestheticXdeo

I would think a devalued Ruble would increase tourism. Certainly I ike to think of being able to buy twice as many of those St. Petersburg demi-Gods. Of course, except for the Hesinki day ferry no-visa pass, the Russian visa is not easy for an American in best of times. St Petersburg may see a lot more tourists this summer (if there's not nucleur war of course).

Julian lives in Medellin and has some nice connections there. As a tourist attraction I'd put him up with the Botero museum (and the bombed birds). Someone should know if Christian from the old Club Tobi has returned from Europe or the other gay muscle guy who worked there. Both would probably age well. I stayed at the cheap Gran hotel to be next to the hustler street (disappointment) but spent all my sex time at Club Tobi. Julian on Twitter

I assume you know to check Hunqz/Romeo. I have several friends there who I see there and they visit me often in the US but the best ones usually don't advertise when they're home in Prague. Except in tourist season there's not many clients. Here are the 3 best who live in Prague right now (except for my one friend who doesn't advertise and his twin brother). https://www.romeo.com/hunq/SteveSkarsgaard/travelling/12722217 https://www.romeo.com/hunq/JohnySweet/travelling/12733265 https://www.romeo.com/hunq/Velvety Up and Down bar is still open, although I've only had luck at Up in the afternoon and that was 2 years ago.

Maybe there are multiple "Gabriel"s? The one who was there everyday, at least until a couple years ago was real name Gilson from Brazil originally. Tall medium complexion very friendly and liked by everyone. He's on my social media but surprised if he's still "working". Aged a ittle and not kept up working out. (i should talk!) The Polish guy was ok. Big dyed-blond Lucas the body guy disappeared a few years ago.

That may have been him. I remember he gave me his IG or FB. But there were a few Russian Ukrainians who worked there off and on. He was there when the short muscle hockey payer was there.

He looks like a Russian-Ukrainian who worked at Escape/

Steve Skarsgard is there a lot.