Maybe I am just missing it but surely someone can connect the dots and assert that before we shot them down one of the balloons fired a micro hypersonic missile that bent the train track and caused the derailment. And of course the Chinese have hacked into all train and other shipping manifests so they know exactly which shipments have the most risky cargo that they can hit to cause the most danger and terror. Woooo...you waskelly wabbit!

I don't know how much WV politics parallels AZ but have to think Joe is assessing his options given the new reality as well. Sinema was pretty low key about things but Joe seemed to relish a place in the spotlight.

I guess I don't read enough in the right places. Short version-- QAnon woman in Canada has declared herself Queen of the World and has been appointing regional leaders. This includes a King of America-- Donnie is probably p***ed about this-- it's not him, it's a guy in Arizona. The "King" says he has been taking out the leaders of the global elite involved in the giant pedophile ring. How could I have missed all this? Just when I thought the MAGAts had the final word in defining crazy. Sad to see this is even spreading to Canada. Beginning to think this is a viral disease not just politics gone awry. I thought Canada would be about the last sane country on the planet but guess not.

Article if you care to read: https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3pjwj/qanon-queen-of-canada-romana-didulo-king-feud

a bunch of Americans because they are a terrorist." Yeah, Lindsey. And it will be even less time before some undiagnosed, unhinged young male who can all too easily get military grade weapons and all the ammo he wants will drive up to a school or church or major public event and kill a bunch of Americans. Just a suggestion Lindsey, do the math on number of Americans killed, injured or traumatized as a result of a misguided reading of the 2nd Amendment vs. those killed by foreign terrorists. Just for once, it would be nice to get your facts and the priorities straight you slimy groveling wingnut!

... as an early act in his new leadership role? It was painful to read but as I thought about it, not only the stand up thing to do but also smart political timing as right after mid terms and well in advance of 2024 and before the Repugs can say it was their idea. Just worry what the House Republicans in the ascendancy will do with it but that will likely be what it is with or without Jeffries raising the issue. Of course, they will be all about Hunter's whatever and they can't focus on more than Trump farts and one other thing so it will be a challenge for them.

If interior Russian supply depots and their power and other infrastructure got hit, I wonder what the RU people's reaction would be. Will be hard to hide Belgorod or some other major city with its power turned off.

Some places haven't posted final numbers yet as votes are still being counted, and I haven't researched every state, but I can't help fear for our democracy when barely 50% of registered voters turn out to vote when so many key issues are at stake going forward. And that is not even considering the many who are eligible to vote but don't even bother to register. As a veteran who served with the ideals of freedom of speech and a participatory democracy as a key driver to my enlistment and service, I am very disheartened.

Enough dithering already!

Assuming Putin at some point accepts he has been fought to a virtual standstill and RU does not have the blood and treasure necessary to continue to prosecute the war, AND he doesn't go nuclear and just level Kyiv and some other major cities and strongholds, how does he back out and what does he get out of it from a sanctions' relief standpoint and politically?

My concern is that if things stay conventional and there is some amount of pullback to pre-war borders, with likely exception of Crimea and the Donbass, the EU will be more than happy to lift sanctions, not require any reparations and let Putin pretty much alone if they can still get gas and oil. I'd like to hope that I am wrong, and sanctions will stay in place until there is some reassurance we aren't all here again in some RU border country in the future and stiff reparations are put in place to help Ukraine rebuild, but I am not optimistic. Wondering what fellow DUers think?

I have to give the Ukrainians a lot of credit on a lot of fronts-- their military tenacity against a theoretically superior foe, their use of social media, compassion toward POWs, trying to keep the nuke reactors in SAFE mode in the middle of a war, political leadership with a backbone and the list goes on and on. The one thing that I found interesting is their enlistment of this so called IT Army to basically crowd source hacking and other actions via the internet against Russia and Belarus in an organized and targeted way. The article I read said it was being organized through the Telegram platform and directed by the minister of IT in The Ukraine government. Per the article, 300,000 people worldwide have signed up and while not all are highly accomplished hackers, it's a pretty impressive show of support from the tech-o-sphere. So far they have messed with various RU government departments as well as the Belarus railway system. If we can't impose a No Fly zone or put boots on the ground, this is a way to take some of the pain of war home to RU proper. Something that will be hard to hide from the average Russian or Belarussian.

The downside to this is that RU has significant hacking capabilities of its own. And while the IT Army is globally diverse, RU may well unleash it's own capabilities against the EU, US and others allied against RU in this fight. Certainly nuclear war would be worse, but turning the lights out or shutting off the water in places will also be very bad if not as catastrophic. I guess my point with all of this is while we think the war is half the globe away, it could come home to many of us all to soon in some way. I guess we will find out how good our firewalls and cybersecurity is.