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bolverk

Certifiably Surly
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Everything posted by bolverk

  1. Wordle 1,302 5/6 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬛⬛⬛🟨🟨 ⬛🟩🟩⬛🟩 ⬛🟩🟩🟨🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Connections Puzzle #580 🟩🟨🟨🟨 🟩🟨🟨🟨 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🙂 Daily Quordle 1083 6️⃣8️⃣ 5️⃣4️⃣ m-w.com/games/quordle/ 🟨🟨🟨⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜🟨🟩 🟨⬜🟨⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ 🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜ 🟨⬜⬜⬜🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨 🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟨⬜🟩 ⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨 ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
  2. It really is. I can only express my gratitude for your personal well-being and that you didn't lose your family’s home while, at the same time, so many others didn't have the luck of the draw.
  3. This station is on the scene and is reporting that the Palisades fire has switched direction toward the east and is heading toward Encino.
  4. NATO takes control from US of air defenses in Poland https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/09/politics/nato-air-defenses-poland-ukraine/index.html NATO assumed command and control from the US on Thursday, said Col. Martin O’Donnell, and will help to safeguard logistics nodes in Poland that are needed to continue delivering aid crucial to Ukraine’s war effort against Russia. The move is part of a broader effort that has been in the works for months to shift the burden of helping Ukraine from the US to European countries, amid questions over whether US support would continue...
  5. It feels like there's a full-court press ramping up to destabilize EU/NATO unity as much as possible from Don Elon and Putin-backed far-right/nationalist/populist groups across Europe right now. I'm afraid we'll see something "essential" break causing a crisis in the alliance(s) over the next several months. We're fortunate a 2/3 majority in Congress is now required to pull out of NATO, but I can certainly see it getting crippled by stopping to cooperate, getting it so mired in squabbles (e.g., gotta spend 5% on defense now) that it becomes useless, and basically undermining it to make it not credible as a defensive pact. Basically, making it clear that mutual defense no longer applies on days ending in "-day" or some other stupid shit. Politically, Central Europe is becoming a fucking mess.
  6. Are there any the list that you disagree with, either in terms of likelihood or impact? Do you think they're missing anything? (link for those who'd like to look over it over) From the high-risk/high-impact items, this one kind of jumped out (not as a surprise) but one to ponder more about: Deployment of U.S. security forces to the southern border triggers a humanitarian crisis among migrants in the border region and heightens tensions with Mexico I don't know if Mexico, specifically, is necessarily in your specialty wheelhouse, but I'd like to hear your (and others') thoughts on this one above. It kind of jumped out at me that they'd put this on a "conflict" list. I'd like to hear more about what you think they're suggesting, if more than just heated words going back and forth between two newly elected presidents trying to (re)assert themselves.
  7. According to this AP article, the Pallisades fire started behind one of the houses on this street (Google map link).
  8. I'm not sure what say Canada has over Greenland since it's currently under Danish rule. But, since you bring up Canada, it looks like they just might get their own Trump soon, so who the fuck knows what their foreign policy will look like later this year. Maybe we'll end up fighting Canada over Greenland, and the Danes will call up all their Nordic kinfolk across Scandinavia and go bersker against both us and the Canucks.
  9. Save the date! Oh, and poor Tatiana, she hasn't figured out this timeline yet. Kremlin Confirms Readiness for Putin to Meet Trump The president-elect had said Russia’s leader wanted to meet him to discuss the war in Ukraine. The Kremlin said it welcomed such dialogue, but a meeting could occur only after Mr. Trump took office. The Kremlin said on Friday that Russia remained open to a meeting between President Vladimir V. Putin and President-elect Donald J. Trump, but that any concrete steps to set up such talks could be made only after Mr. Trump is sworn into office on Jan. 20. Responding to comments made on Thursday by Mr. Trump, who said that Mr. Putin wanted to meet him to discuss the war in Ukraine, the Kremlin’s spokesman reaffirmed Russia’s longstanding official position that Moscow was ready to talk. “We need a mutual desire and political willingness to engage in a dialogue,” Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman, told reporters. “We see that Mr. Trump also declares his readiness to solve issues via dialogue. We welcome that.” Mr. Peskov added that the Kremlin’s understanding is that there is a “mutual readiness for a meeting,” but, he said, “it looks like things will start to move after Trump enters the Oval Office.” He did not confirm that Mr. Putin had requested a meeting with Mr. Trump or that one was being set up, as Mr. Trump said on Thursday night. A spokesman for Ukraine’s foreign ministry said Friday that Kyiv expected President Volodymyr Zelensky would also meet with Mr. Trump after the inauguration. The spokesman, Heorhii Tykhyi, said Ukraine was preparing for talks at “the highest levels.” As for Mr. Trump’s remarks about potential talks with Russia’s leader, Mr. Tykhyi said that the president-elect had “previously mentioned plans for such a meeting, so we see nothing new in this.” “Our stance is clear: everyone in Ukraine wants to end the war on terms that are fair to Ukraine,” he said at a news briefing. “We believe President Trump is also committed to ending the war. Therefore, the priority now is for a meeting between our presidents.” “The most important thing for us is to collaborate with America in the pursuit of peace,” he added. While asserting its territorial claim over five regions in Ukraine, the Kremlin has been insisting that it would prefer diplomacy over war. Ukraine and some of its Western allies have questioned Russia’s seriousness in offering to negotiate, and said that the Kremlin’s conditions actually represent a demand for Ukrainian capitulation. Russia has been largely isolated from the West for almost three years since it invaded Ukraine. For Mr. Putin, a meeting with the American president would represent a chance to establish relations with a friendlier American administration. Mr. Trump has repeatedly said that he could resolve the Russia-Ukraine war within 24 hours, without saying how, and at times even said he could do so before taking office. But this week he suggested that it could take up to six months. Speaking at a news conference on Tuesday, Mr. Trump said that he was sympathetic with the Russian position that Ukraine should never join NATO, one of the main conditions put forward by the Kremlin to end the war. Mr. Trump’s victory in November produced a wave of cautious optimism that the war could end soon, even if in an unstable cease-fire. But analysts have said that the process will be hard and tedious, and many in Ukraine and elsewhere fear that Mr. Trump might want to push through a deal at the expense of its capitulation. In Russia, Giorgy Bovt, a political analyst, said that if a meeting between Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin happened too early, when “the conditions for peace have not yet matured,” it could “lead to greater escalation.” “Both warring parties are still betting on continuing military action,” Mr. Bovt wrote in a post on Telegram, a popular messaging app. “They do not consider their forces exhausted.” Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, wrote on social media that “the higher the expectations” from the meeting “the riskier the game, most of all for Trump.”
  10. Wordle 1,301 3/6 ⬛🟨🟩⬛⬛ ⬛🟩🟩⬛🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Connections Puzzle #579 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🙂 Daily Quordle 1082 8️⃣5️⃣ 7️⃣6️⃣ m-w.com/games/quordle/ ⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜ ⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜ ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ ⬜🟨⬜🟨🟨 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ 🟨⬜🟨⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟨🟩🟨 🟨⬜⬜⬜🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟨⬜⬜🟨⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜🟨⬜🟩⬜ 🟨🟨⬜⬜🟨 🟨⬜⬜🟨⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜🟨🟨 🟨🟨🟨⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟨🟨⬜ 🟨🟨⬜⬜🟨 ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
  11. Wordle 1,300 6/6 ⬛⬛🟨⬛🟨 ⬛🟩⬛🟩🟩 ⬛🟩⬛🟩🟩 ⬛🟩⬛🟩🟩 ⬛🟩⬛🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Connections Puzzle #578 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🙂 Daily Quordle 1081 7️⃣8️⃣ 6️⃣4️⃣ m-w.com/games/quordle/ 🟨🟨⬜⬜🟨 ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩 ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨 ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜🟩🟩⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨 ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜ 🟨⬜⬜🟩🟨 ⬜🟨⬜⬜🟩 🟨🟩⬜⬜🟨 ⬜⬜⬜🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜🟨⬜⬜🟩 ⬜⬜🟩🟨⬜ ⬜⬜🟨🟨🟨 ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟨🟩🟨🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
  12. I think his neighbor is that real estate dork from the old Stupid Shit on FB thread that absolutely looooved posting pics of his new Beemer, so you might have that asshole to contend with.
  13. True, but it's also foolish to allow construction on hillsides in these fire-prone climates due to frequent drought conditions. Are we prepared to have much more stringent land-use regulations in Texas? Who's going to support that proposition? I don't have any idea if the part of Montana where your little chalet is built on the side of a mountain is also at risk of an eventual forest fire, but it's the same shit.
  14. One big problem with removing trees, brush, et cetera, is that you've then removed what's holding those hillsides together when it finally fucking rains and you get massive mudslides. It's a pickle, for sure.
  15. For those of you who, like me, might not be super familiar with all the neighborhoods in LA and need to search a little bit to find where shit is going down, this is the Hollywood area that’s on fire and at risk of spreading. The fire seems confined at the moment to the area just north of Hillside Ave. at the center of the map at the link. Edited to add screenshot:
  16. Link? Where did you copy/paste this from?
  17. Hope you LA peeps have kept a few of those N-95 masks around.
  18. This born-and-bred Texan made it just fine when I drove through NE Ohio after Thanksgiving without incident. I did, however, see several cars with Ohio plates stuck in piles of snow on the side of the interstate. So there! 🤘🤠🤘
  19. From the comments, so take that for what it's worth:
  20. Man, it's really tough to take it all in. Y'all stay safe out there.
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