Zoraptor

That's practically a signature of any Amazon genre TV show at this point. Spend a lot per episode overall, but save money by having weirdly/ unbelievably empty sets and having everything happen in the same few places. If you notice it, it makes it feel extremely cheap. How many guards/ people are there at the White House, in reality? Yeah... At least Fallout has a built in excuse for the emptiness. (The Boys not as egregious there as Rings of Power though. Massive, and probably incredibly expensive establishing shot of [populous place]. Actual population seems to consists of half a dozen people. Numenor, big enough population to basically conquer Middle Earth but the biggest crowd seems to be around 20 people, even for something as important as their queen getting 'executed')

Well, apparently/ according to the NYT*, the US/ Israeli plan was to have Mahmoud Ahmedinajad become the new (old) Iranian leader. Under normal circumstances you'd have to laugh at the idea of one of Iran's most hardline leaders- and supposedly linked to the revolutionary Hostage Crisis/ storming of the US embassy, pro nuclear program, stridently anti west etc etc- being advanced as a proxy by the US, and laugh at the idea of him deciding it was a bad idea only after the plan to free him from house arrest resulted in him getting injured (killed in early reports). Completely absurd, and would make you question the nature of reality- or be convinced it was a clumsy and obvious psy op to get Ahmedinajad hanged- 2 years ago. Given it's Donald 'concept of a plan' Trump though it has to be given at least some consideration for being accurate. *doesn't seem to be a gift article link, but isn't paywalled for me.

For a memorial, sure. It's in their interests to embiggen their contribution. And the other sources manage to be even less credible if you can be bothered checking them. eg the BBC article on the topic managed to increase the size of the park by a factor of 1000000 (yes, one million fold; 52 km^2 instead of 5.2ha. Not a simple typo either, you cannot accidentally write 52km^2 instead of 52000m^2, at best you have someone who isn't aware that 52km^2 is a decent sized city and cannot do maths properly doing your verifications). They did, at least, manage to correct that, eventually. They also spent a lot of effort counting the names on the 'memorial' wall, but no time at all verifying that the names on the wall were of deaths. Neither was there any comment on how even their numbers don't get anywhere near the claimed number of deaths, ie 6000 out of 11000 deployed. Mostly because that number is extremely obvious bollocks, which makes relying on the exact same sources for information about the memorial park look dumb. That just results in a full scale invasion in 2014, and, if the troops were followed through on, potentially nukes flying a month or so later. People love to think that Russia doesn't really see Ukraine as an existential threat. Doesn't matter in the slightest what you think or I think- or even what Macron/ Biden/ Johnson/ Obama/ Merkel thought- in that matter, all that is important is what the Russians thought. To be frank, despite what western leaders say they all know that's how Russia sees it, which is precisely why they haven't deployed troops and- despite breathless media reports over the past 4 years- won't without Moscow's approval. If it's an existential threat nukes are in play. There's no point having them otherwise.

Kill hundreds of civilians by shooting down their plane and you get a medal from the US. Also, finish your current course before starting your next. (Can't remember which strategic genius that sage advice ultimately comes from; Sun Tzu, Clausewitz, or my mum)

Trump has suspended a plan- or a concept of a plan- to bomb Iran again after his Gulf allies objected. Which might not really be news given it's Trump but is kind of interesting given the sustained push to paint those same Gulf allies as being all in (politically, and over the last week or so, militarily) for the initial attack that has been going on. I was always skeptical of MbS being anywhere near as gung ho as he was painted as given his country's sustained inability to even deal with the Houthi's drone and missile threat. And the UAE's leaders must be aware that their 'Sparta of the Gulf' reputation is a joke when the orders issued by the rich Dubai/ Abu Dhabi elite have to be carried out by those in the poorer Emirates. Which already resulted in their expeditionary force fleeing Yemen after nearly 100 Fujairans copped a scud there and threatened mutiny at dying for Dubai's imperial ambitions. (The off the records seem to be implying that there's a ban on airspace and baseage for attacks, at least until diplomacy is exhausted, and has been since the ill advised attempt to force the Hormuz blockade)

The original source for that is the (free/ gifted) article that Malc linked to above.

Absolutely disastrous local body elections for Labour and Keir Starmer in the UK. Just as bad really for the Conservatives too, though they had a lot less to lose. Better ban a few more protest groups and rallies, I'm sure that will fix the problem. Pretty good results for everyone with a cause like the seperatists or greens though- or a 'cause', like Reform. Lots of Labour people saying that when push comes to shove voters won't go for Farage and he isn't really likeable or electable and when push comes to shove they'll come back to Labour. Usually, sure, but not if there's the one two punch of you offering an unliked and uncharismatic leader pushing the millstone of status quo up hill like an artificially cheery and seemingly unaware* Sisyphus. Literally the only thing Starmer seems to passionately believe in is giving Israel carte blanche and suppressing anyone who complains. An utterly terrible look for someone whose prior claim to fame was being a human rights' lawyer. At least he's not the 'unelectable' Bernie Sanders Jeremy Corbyn, I guess. Whose Labour got half a million more votes in 2019 than Starmer's did at the last election. Though you'd never know from the media coverage. Very much "no, it's the kids voters who are wrong" on display from both Labour. *If there's one thing I hate in British politics it's the way everyone talks the same overly PRed and media coached way. Projects almost exactly the same air of honesty and integrity as a Nigerian Prince scam.

That's just the natural order of things. Moles have bad eyesight, Moa had no wings despite being birds. We don't have gills. If you don't need it, you lose it; that's just evolution. If your leaders will never be held to account then they stop justifying stuff properly. Because they simply don't need to.

Half assed is being generous. 'Concept of an ass' is probably fairer. No US ships; because it's too dangerous for AEGIS destroyers and the like. It is, however, safe for slow bulk carriers, supertankers etc. Hmm. Seems unlikely insurance is going to want to bet on that arrangement.

Legally the Cuban blockade is not a Blockade, which has a formal definition, it's an Embargo. The US pressures countries into 'voluntarily' not trading/ supplying oil etc rather than physically preventing them. Hence Russia sending two tankers through. As above, Cuba wasn't even formally Blockaded during the Missile Crisis

Yes, a big B Blockade is literally an Act of War. That was why in the Cuban Missile Crisis it was never a formal Blockade; because that would mean the US and USSR were at war. You can legally sink ships trying to run the Blockade- indeed, in order for it to be a Blockade you have to try and stop them, by any means- and they can sink yours. Which would obviously have been a rather bad idea all around. Bit of a measure of how unpopular the war is that Trump doesn't want to risk taking it to Congress despite theoretically having a majority in both houses and a lot of Democrats who'd vote pro Israel for literally anything else.

'The market' is dumb as rocks since Trump hasn't exactly been subtle about his manipulation. But yeah, now it's more likely to be the emergency stocks that were released running down fully and some of the Gulf sites approaching their theoretical storage limits (after which they have to stop pumping oil, and the restart process is s l o w) which are realities that Trump can't rhetoricise around. We'll know Trump is actually serious when he stops trying to send people Iran won't talk to as negotiators.

On a different note, seems a lot of NAFO types have North Korea 'announcing' they had 2000+ deaths in Kursk. Which they get by counting names on a 'memorial' wall and doubling the number, because it's 'double sided'. It's actually- or at least, according to DPRK itself- a list of those given combat citations. And is clearly single sided anyway, not double. The only admitted losses are the 101 on the actual memorial wall (with individual pictures and stated as being such by DPRK) shown last year.

Dunno, they got at least some Euro politicians talking about sanctions on Israel over it. Sanctions for selling grain vs no sanctions for killing civilians, killing journalists, torturing babies, systematic rape raping doctors to death and persistently attacking aid workers plus starvation as a weapon of war, collective punishment and Perfidy about perfectly sums up the reality of Europe's moral compass.

Regionally all of Senegal/ Chad/ Niger/ CdI had a permanent French military presence since independence. Mali was Soviet aligned for a bit iirc, but had French military presence dating back to at least 1999*, so not 2013. That's just when Operation wotsit started. And, of course, France being the colonial power means they were 100% under French domination, then. You only have to look at the terms under which Niger's main international currency earner operated to see that it was being run for French benefit, not Nigerien. The Japanese were paying double the price the French were for yellowcake. *had to check french wikipedia to confirm that, so not exactly accessible.