It's September 1939

Did any of the young German men in motorcycles with sidecars, motorized armor carriers, tanks and plain trucks crossing into Poland would end in devastation from London to Moscow 6 years later, with their own country nothing but rubble? 

Probably not.

I don't think any of us can imagine the major cities of the world flattened by nuclear weapons. Yet we are at the brink.

Vladimir Putin, who thinks he is a Tsar, has reminded us of past dictators who risked world peace to attain essentially minor geopolitical gains along their countries' borders. 

Would Hitler have stopped at splitting Poland with Stalin if Britain and France had not declared war? Will Putin stop at overthrowing the present Ukrainian government and "de-nazifying" (whatever that means and it isn't good) the country? Will Ukraine even be allowed to be a separate country? Then, when does he make a grab for Poland and Romania?

Are we at the beginning of the last World War?

It's August 1939 in Warsaw

You're a retired gent enjoying your sauterne in the late summer breeze at an outdoor table at a cafe in Warsaw. All right, so the papers say Nazis massing on the western border and Soviets on the east. Important men are warning each other loudly. Young people, these days!

Actually ...

... Russians are reportedly massing at a border (west, north, south of Ukraine). Important men are warning one another. Meanwhile, there's a global pandemic. 

... The United States has at its helm a likable fellow who can't even get the crazies in his (and my) own political party in Congress to agree to such things as essential as voting rights for all ... are we ready for Trump to become the 47th president in three years?

... The latest movies and internet memes inform me about "salad tossing," which I am told has to do with a human tongue in another person's derriere. (Yes, Virginia, this is a thing.)

... Oh, and let's not forget, an ecological disaster of climatological origin will engulf the Earth in less than 20 years. Just this week there was a tsunami advisory issued for Vancouver Island, of all places!

"To wieści z jeziora Lake Wobegon," as they say in Warsaw. Santé!