Malazan Empire: Mentalist - Viewing Profile - Malazan Empire

US doctrine relies on very heavy, very precise, and very expensive weaponry.

While the age of cheap drones seems to be upon us, the American MIC is very much in love with the idea of getting trillions to make small quantity of very expensive hardware. Until the US gets its nose seriously bloodied, leading to a wave of public sentiment and calls for modernization, I don't think there's gonna be a lot of reluctance from the executive to push against the lobbying of the weapons manufacturers.

That actually gives the EU an opening to jump ahead of the US, since they seem more willing to shift focus to high-volume weapon systems.

Used the long weekend to finish off "Polostan" and power thru "Warriorborn".

After that, took me less than a week to get through "The Olympian Affair", the 2nd Cinder Spires book.

I have to say, this is a big improvement. Effectively it rekindled my interest in the series.

In the meantime, my copy of "Heart of the Nhaga" arrived. Given I'm curious about the upcoming game based on the universe, figured I'd give it a shot.

The orcs launched about 30 ballistic missiles at Kyiv and oblast last night. Strikes on multiple warehouses- Nova Poshta (biggest delivery service), Rozetka (biggest electronics e-retailer), Epicenter, Silpo (hardware/material hypermarket chains), and foreign businesses- Puma, Toyota, etc. around 20 people dead and tens of wounded.

Maritime traffic to Greater Odessa ports has basically halted due to ongoing enemy strikes. The naval war cuts both ways, and Ukrainian grain export shipments are also in jeopardy- which is gonna be even more bad news for global food prices.

A drone with explosives was spotted in Leipzig next to a Ukrainian cargo plane.

The admin of a big Z-channel and designer of drones used by the muscovites was seriously wounded by a car bomb in Yekaterinburg. Hospitalized, unclear if he'll survive.

Regarding the restaurant explosion Moscow- confirmed that General Chayko's son-in-law-to-be has died; his daughter was reported to be one of the wounded. Unclear as to what happened to Chayko himself. Since Ukraine's not really talking about it, I'm guessing the operation wasn't as successful as they'd hoped (or maybe it really was something more local; there's a lot of moneyed interests surrounding the war and the army)

One of RosKosmos' central hubs in Korolev, Moscow Oblast is on fire.

UA is concerned about suspension of grain traffic to Odessa, and how this will affect the World Food Program. In particular, Maersk stated they won't be sending any further cargo ships to Greater Odessa, re-routing everything to Romania.

The orcs have also declared restrictions for shipping in their territorial waters in the Black Sea.

Kazakhstan halved its oil production, due to disruptions of Black Sea exports.

This sea-aimed confrontation that started with UA's shaping operations on Crimea is spreading both ways. Magyar's troops are shifting their focus from Northern Crimea (that's been without power for 3 weeks now) further south, into the densely populated tourist-oriented coastal strip.

Drapatyj is a good pick, but he's got zero skills at ionternal politics, so I dunno how long he'll last.

He was already busted down once from a higher post, so I'm worried the deep establishment officer corps will do what they can to undermine him.

I'm curious who the head of the General Staff will be.