That’s some rather unrealistic optimism unless someone slipped some speed in his coffee.

I thought we had more time until Idiocracy.

Restaurators go to insane lengths to repair art pieces, often not just replicating the style but also authentic materials and techniques.

An individual may understand that. Masses won’t.

Desperation more or less, from what I understand. The old system was terrible and they figured it can’t be much worse if they don’t opt to continue it.

Am not from the US, so I don’t care a bit about Pelosi. Assange itself made it apparent he’s on a russian payroll.

For one, when the Panama Papers came out, Assange was quick to critise it for badmouthing russians. To quote them:

#PanamaPapers Putin attack was produced by OCCRP which targets Russia & former USSR and was funded by USAID and Soros"

Hell, let’s take Assange’s words about why they never poke Russia?

In Russia, there are many vibrant publications, online blogs, and Kremlin critics such as Navalny are part of that spectrum. There are also newspapers like Novaya Gazeta, in which different parts of society in Moscow are permitted to critique each other and it is tolerated, generally, because it isn’t a big TV channel that might have a mass popular effect, its audience is educated people in Moscow. So my interpretation is that in Russia there are competitors to WikiLeaks, and no WikiLeaks staff speak Russian, so for a strong culture which has its own language, you have to be seen as a local player.

He’s either an asset or a willful idiot.

Oh no, a russian asset going down.

Maybe he’s still waiting in the respawn queue.

The population ratio ia roughly 3:1 though, so even 120:70 is far from sustainable or winnable sadly. I’d imagine those numbers would be way better if the military aid was not drip fed…

Eh, this is what Ukrainians say on this matter.

“Avdiivka is important for them to control the space around Donetsk, you have control of dominant heights there, and they can build logistics corridors to supply a large area of the front,” said Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in an interview in Kyiv earlier this month, explaining the importance of holding on to Avdiivka. “This is not about symbolism, this is about the operative importance of a particular territory,” he added.

From https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/16/ukrainian-forces-give-up-some-positions-in-avdiivka-as-russian-assault-continues

Who’s the speaker of the house blocking aid, again? Oh, it’s a MAGA GOP guy.

Avdiivka is actually fairly important, unlike Bakhmut. It was both a transportation hub and (one of) the most reinforced part of the frontline.

Article says they were coming from a carry-on bag. Someone was pulling a prank or was having a mental break, I guess.

It’s advertised as a cheap lightweight fighter, it’s standout feature being that a minimal amount of crew can operate it in adverse conditions. Which is most useful if you want a peacetime or “guerilla” fighter. There’s exactly two countries in Europe - beyond Sweden - that use Gripen, and I do know that in one of them (Hungary) they beat the F16 by basically buying off Orban and his cronies. …who, ironically enough, are now blocking Sweden’s entry into NATO.

I’d think that at least in Europe you’d see more adoption of the plane if it weren’t mediocre.

Yeah, as opposed to any other country with arms which have a totally nonviolent history.

If we were able to succesfully do so, I would agree with that. We aren’t succeeding in supplying enough to keep Ukraine in the game right now, though.

We can’t supply Ukraine with enough weapons… or even munitions, as the self-pledged 1mill 155mm shells will be only halfway met (hopefully). The few self-designed combat aircrafts we have are painfully mediocre (Eurofighter, Gripen, Rafale…).

Definitely don’t think we would fare any way decently in an actual war without US backing nowadays.

Europe would do well to become military self-sufficient. Of course once they are, there’s not much reason to keep US forces in their territory either, so I’m not sure how much the US really wants that.

He’s a protoss main at heart.

Nothing new in the east.