CitizenVectron

Canadian Leopard II tanks also just debarked Canada for Ukraine.

Ukraine is claiming that the feared Russian counter-offensive may have already started...a few weeks ago. There is some belief that the increased assaults on Bakhmut and Vuhledar are one of the major thrusts of Russia's planned decisive assault in the east. So far, these attacks have failed, especially utterly so in Vuhledar. It's yet to be seen if this is truly the case, of course (or, it could be that it's part of the planned offensives, but only a part).

There are twitter videos, it was shot down by a missile launched from an F-22. Callsign of fighter was "Frank," likely in reference to a WWI Ace that downed over a dozen German spy balloons.

US considering plan to down Chinese balloon over Atlantic | AP News APNEWS.COM WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is considering a plan to shoot down a large Chinese balloon suspected of conducting surveillance on the U.S.

Lots of Republican outrage that Canada didn't shoot it down...despite it having already flown over Alaska.

They'll say that Trump is still secretly in charge, and these numbers are thanks to him and help from JFK Jr.

New US military package announced today:

Assuming that Kyiv agrees to any deal at some point to pause the war at current borders/control, what do you think their demands for the west would be? Because Ukraine isn't stupid—they know that any pause is just time for Russia to build up to try again in a few years. So if they were to ever agree to a pause, I assume in return they would demand military support to such an extent to guarantee a rebuff to any future Russian offensive. Ukraine did a remarkable job modernizing their military structure between 2014-22, so they are definitely capable of doing it again in terms of better gear integration. But, at the end of the day, Ukraine is 1/3 the size of Russia and with far less than 1/3 the resources to devote to their military...if only because Ukraine actually attempts to create a society where Russia doesn't care about its people/society at all. If Ukraine and Russia agree to a "peace," it's just going to result in more war in 5 years...which the US/West will be drawn into again.

Price is Right.

They just need to introduce a "Family+Grandma" plan that allows a second location.

ISW also seems to think that Russia will be unable to make the gains they want in this offensive? (Capture of Donetsk Oblast).

To be clear, my stance is that power generation (and natural gas, water, etc) should all be handled at the state/province level or higher. Maybe distribution can be delegated to municipalities, but generation should be handled on a larger scale, at the level where regulations are legislated.

Ukraine continues to hold Soledar and Vuhledar despite Russian attacks. It really does appear that's Russia's strategy at this point is to continue to sacrifice 1000+ conscripts per day until Ukraine runs out of ammo. Russia has decreased their use of artillery, but obviously isn't out of Soviet stocks (and continues to try and replenish through North Korea and Iran). Right now the biggest thing helping Ukraine is the weather, and the fact that they continue to have enough artillery and ammo to literally mow down hundreds of men running over frozen fields each day.

Too many electric stoves!!!

Hundreds of thousands of Texans still don’t have heat, and some Austi… WWW.TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG More than 400,000 electricity customers statewide lacked power Thursday. Austin’s main power provider is scrambling to restore electricity to more than 150,000 customers, but repairs to damaged lines… Sounds like about 370,000 homes without power, and no anticipated restoration until Friday. Power generation and distribution should be government-run, I will die on that hill.

As long as it's down a lot before Q1 2026, when I need to renew my currently-fixed-rate of 1.29%!

Ukraine/Zelenskyy appears to be using this opportunity to clean out corruption in government (which is quite bad compared to western Europe), which the EU has said is a prerequisite for future integrations. And many other such raids/firings.

So basically it's going to be a clown show and Trump will win again.

Reporters are saying the US is readying another $2.2 billion package that includes "long-range rockets." ATACMS?

Also concerning that they are still clearly planning on keeping Ezra Miller if they can get away with it. Yeah, overall I am not excited by this at all. Maybe I will get hyped when individual movies are actually announced/revealed...but I was kind of hoping for a much harder reset. Go back to absolute basics with a great Superman movie unrelated to anything else, etc.

DCU is back...in battle royale form!

Apparently James Gunn will be announcing the early films of the new The DCU in the next day or two.