Flectere si nequeo Superos, Acheronta movebo

- When they write

- When they don't write

- Being asked what their book is about

- not saving before closing a word doc

1990: East Germany technically joins NATO by reunifying with West Germany 1991: No NATO expansion 1992: No NATO expansion 1993: No NATO expansion 1994: No NATO expansion 1995: No NATO expansion 1996: No NATO expansion 1997: No NATO expansion 1998: No NATO expansion 1999: Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary are accepted into NATO after applying to join. Note that 10 years prior, those countries had all been under Soviet military occupation and that Russian irredentism wasn't exactly a nonexistent sentiment.

2000: No NATO expansion 2001: No NATO expansion 2002: No NATO expansion 2003: No NATO expansion 2004: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania, and Bulgaria all join NATO after applying. Note that the first three of these were part of the Soviet Union, not by choice but by brutal military occupation, and they still share land borders with Russia and Russian politicians and media outlets were at this point making a lot of threats against them. Slovakia, Romania, and Bulgaria also have experience with Soviet occupation and reason to be worried by Putin. Slovenia, formerly a part of Yugoslavia, is nowhere near Russia 2005: No NATO expansion 2006: No NATO expansion 2007: No NATO expansion 2008: No NATO expansion but NATO does promise to consider Georgia's bid for membership (note - Georgia is a former Soviet state and, again, has a lot of good reasons for wanting to join NATO). Russia invades Georgia, preventing them from joining NATO, and commits ethnic cleansing of Georgians in the areas controlled by Russia and Russian-backed separatist groups. 2009: Albania and Croatia join NATO. Note that these two, like Slovenia, are nowhere near Russia 2010: No NATO expansion 2011: No NATO expansion 2012: No NATO expansion 2013: No NATO expansion 2014: No NATO expansion. Ukrainian President Yanukovych shoots down an association agreement with the EU because his friend Vladimir Putin was against it. Protests break out, police assassinate protesters, this does not stop the protests, Yanukovych flees the capital and later resurfaces in Russia, the Ukrainian government votes to impeach Yanukovych in absentia and holds democratic elections for their new president. American involvement in this was limited to trying to negotiate an agreement that would have left Putin puppet ally Yanukovych in power, and some American politicians talking to each other about it; this is somehow proof that the Revolution of Dignity was a CIA coup. Russia invades and occupies Crimea, then annexes it following a sham referendum and begins deporting the indigenous Crimean Tatars as well as suppressing Ukrainians and encouraging Russian settlers to move there. Russian-backed separatists take over part of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. 2015: No NATO expansion 2016: No NATO expansion 2017: Montenegro (nowhere near Russia) joins NATO 2018: No NATO expansion 2019: No NATO expansion 2020: North Macedonia (nowhere near Russia) joins NATO. North Macedonia borders three NATO member states, as well as Serbia and Kosovo. 2021: No NATO expansion. Russia begins a military build-up on the Ukrainian border, demands that NATO ban Ukraine from joining (despite the fact that NATO officials had little enthusiasm about the idea of Ukraine joining the alliance at this point), also demands the removal of multinational forces from CEE NATO members (and as a reminder, the last of the ones usually cited as a "provocation" had joined 17 years before this and had very good reasons to want to be in an alliance that could ward off a Russian invasion) 2022: No NATO expansion. Russia invades Ukraine, commits many war crimes and begins carrying out a genocide, carries out more sham referendums and annexes four Ukrainian oblasts (which they only occupy part of). Note that at this point Putin's views that Ukraine isn't a legitimate country and its existence was a mistake are things that he had already stated publicly and reiterated, and the sentiment was echoed by Russian politicians and media outlets 2023: Finland joins NATO in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Russian threats against Finland. Sweden petitions to also join, but their accession is blocked by a dispute with Turkiye

Putin is terrified that with North Macedonia as a member, NATO can go there, dig a big hole, tunnel under Bulgaria (NATO member but they can't start the tunnel there for some reason even though it would greatly reduce the distance), the Black Sea, half of European Russia, and finally come out of the tunnel right inside the Kremlin like some sort of

fucking

The whole world was filled with wonder and followed the Beast. People worshiped the Dragon because he had given authority to the Beast, and they also worshiped the Beast and asked, “Who is like the Beast? Who can wage war against it?” (Revelation 13: 3-4)

長久保公園 藤沢市 展望広場（ツツジ園） シャクナゲ