Archives for 2024

Two quick housekeeping notes. First, Rosie is doing very well. Thank you for all the good thoughts, well wishes, prayers, and donations.

Second, since I know everyone is focused on other issues tonight, we’ll just run through the basics tonight.

Let’s start with Russian interference in the US election:

Russia doesn’t want an open conflict with the US or NATO & is trying to remain below Article 5 thresholds. But it is actively testing the line with increasingly provocative and dangerous steps, and finding little resistance. https://t.co/WIWvQvUh2Z

— Shashank Joshi (@shashj) November 5, 2024

You – and this includes the US National Command Authority – may not be interested in being in a world war with Russia, but Russia and its world war are definitely interested in you.

The Kursk cross-border offensive:

North Koreans want porn!

A usually reliable source tells me that the North Korean soldiers who have deployed to Russia have never had unfettered access to the internet before. As a result, they are gorging on pornography.

— Gideon Rachman (@gideonrachman) November 5, 2024

DoD can’t confirm whether North Korean troops in Russia are ‘gorging on pornography’ https://t.co/v2ItH1Y21J

— Jeff_Schogol (@JSchogol73030) November 5, 2024

From Task & Purpose:

North Korean troops deployed to Russia may have discovered online pornography, and really gotten into it, the chief foreign affairs commentator for the Financial Times newspaper posted on X.

“A usually reliable source tells me that the North Korean soldiers who have deployed to Russia have never had unfettered access to the internet before,” wrote Gideon Rachman. “As a result, they are gorging on pornography.”

Rachman did not specify who his source was or how this person would be in a position to know whether roughly 10,000 North Koreans deployed to Russia had figured out how to find such adult sites, considering the country’s tight controls on internet use, but this is social media, and “some guy” on Twitter (ahem, I mean ‘X’) posting about whether North Korean troops are spending their downtime watching porn is enough to drive 1.5 million people to read the post, as of publication time.

Now, as the puppet musical “Avenue Q” taught us, the internet is for porn. But if North Korean troops now in Russia are indeed spending their time away from home in that fashion online, who’s to say what damage that could cause to the computers in their tactical operations center, once they become overrun with pop-ads for erectile dysfunction medication?

Given the enormous signals intelligence capabilities that the Defense Department has, one might assume that the Pentagon would have a good idea of whether horny North Korean troops are at risk of bringing down the entire Russian network.

Alas, a brave Pentagon spokesperson had little to say about the matter.

“As entertaining as that sounds, I can’t confirm any North Korean internet habits or virtual ‘extracurriculars’ in Russia,” Army Lt. Col. Charlie Dietz told Task & Purpose. “We’re focused on the more serious aspects of North Korea’s involvement, if any, in Russia’s military operations. As for internet access, that’s a question best directed to Moscow. Right now, our attention remains on supporting Ukraine and addressing the more significant regional security concerns.”

There’s a reason DIA stands for Do It Again…

Here’s President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.

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War for Ukraine Day 986: A Brief Election Night UpdatePost + Comments (30)