I Know What You're Thinking
If your expeditionary sailing ship is trapped in pack ice in the Antarctic, suffers a hull rupture so serious that it has to be abandoned and later sinks, then you can say that's not a success. Art!
Ice = 1 Ship = 0
Behold the 'Endurance', said ship and the wooden steed of Sir Ernest Shackleton for his 1914 - 1915 exploratory venture to Antarctica. No, it isn't supposed to look like that; this is what happens when the pack ice closes in on the hull, prefatory to crushing it. You may be relieved to know that the expedition members survived, which is a tale in itself.
ANYWAY Perfidious Albion's Senior Service decided they liked the name 'Endurance' and named an icebreaker 'HMS Endurance' in 1967. Art!
ALMIGHTY SNIVELLING GARGANTUAN DOG BUNS!
Sorry. Currently listening to my i-pod and the Snow Patrol track 'The Symphony' is playing, from the album 'Fallen Empires' and it's fifteen years old.
BACK TO ENDURANCE, HMS, PENNANT NUMBER A171. She left service in 1991, meaning that yes, she was inducted into the Falklands Task Force, acting as a patrol and helicopter platform, landing Royal Marine parties and helping disable the Argentine submarine. 'Santa Fe'.
So, pretty successful, I'm sure you'd agree. So, where does today's title come from? O I thought you'd never ask!
From the last part of Pyotr Kurzin's detailed look back at the four-year involvement of Mordorvia in his 'Global Gambit' vlog. Art!
Marque and maker
Bear in mind that Pyotr isn't some knee-jerk anti-Ruffian, he has sources and contacts behind the Tin Curtain, and within the Ruffian expatriate community.
This is where Putinpot's calculus about how much suffering his serfs can take comes into play, because Ol' Pyot acidly observes 'Endurance is not success'; rather it is the opposite, persistence disguising failure and hoping a miracle arrives. For 2026, the feeling for Ruffians is that of cumulative strain over time, where the probability of a storming battlefield victory has diminished to near-zero. All they have to look forward to are more privations as Mordorvia transitions into North Korea 2.0 Art!
This is the orcs last significant victory, and a Pyrrhic one at that: the ruins of Avdiivka, a sea of rubble that cost 40,000 orcs to take - in February 2024. This advanced their front lines without any deeper advantage gained. They still haven't taken Pokrovsk, either, a minor Donbas town of no great strategic significance. But Peter The Average has been told it was already captured, so an ocean of blood is going to be spilled trying to turn fiction into fact. Once again, endurance is not success. See also Kupiansk.
Nobody foresaw this four years ago when the Special Idiotic Operation began. Kyiv was supposed to be swiftly defeated and renamed Kiev, leading to the downfall of all Ukraine, medals all round, Putinpot crowned Eternal Tsar, etcetera.
Except not. Art!
Remember when the 'Moskva' was sunk? I do, because the BBC had drawn up a list of possible 'provocations' that Ukraine might commit, causing Putinpot to resort to tactical nuclear weapons, and sinking the Moskva was one of them. In fact he dared not, as Xi had sternly warned him that any such action would result in a hostile China, meaning the end of the Ruffian war effort in a couple of weeks. Art!
This is 'Operation Spiderweb', with Ruffians proving that tyres placed on strategic bombers do not protect against FPV drone attacks. One-third of Mordorvia's long-range bomber force went up in smoke. Art!
The naval port of Sevastopol, one of the reasons the orcs invaded Crimea in 2014, the crown jewel of Ruffian occupation -
Which they have now abandoned. It is much too vulnerable to Ukrainian drone and missile strikes, so they have taken to hiding what's left of the Black Sea Fleet in the Sea of Azov or Novorossiysk. The latter of which is proving to be just as vulnerable to drone attacks as Sevastopol: the Ukrainians hit the port, facilities, ships and oil infrastructure yesteryon with TWO HUNDRED drones. They hit Engels air base with at least 70 drones at the same time. Art!
Novorossiysk stages live re-enactment of Deep Purple album 'Burn'
Here, as Pyotr puts it, is an example in action of a small country or power adapting much quicker than a larger one, where technology is activated to neutralise mass and expedite manpower. Art!
The killer lawnmower is here to stay
A further example would be the Ukrainians use of decentralized 3D-printing technology to mass-produce drone components, meaning they can now use up to eight thousand FPV drones daily. Actually that was the figure for 2025, they may be aiming at 12,000 per diem for 2026. In terms of innovation and adaptability, they are running circles around the much larger but much clumsier and far less efficient Mordorvia. Art!
Soon to come - AI*
There has been a new twist on what you might call an 'Innovation Cycle' paradigm in recent days, thanks to the war waged by South Canada and Israel on Iran. The Iranians, who seem to have the military mentality of a headless chicken - endless decapitation strikes will do this - are launching dozens of their Shahed drones at any country they don't like, whom are now trying to intercept $50,000 drones with $4 million Patriot missiles. After watching the war in Ukraine for 4 years the Saggy Senile Sepia Sackbut is forced to admit they cannot intercept all these drones. One imagines a South Canadian anti-drone interceptor system would take 5 years to reach the production stage, after costing $25 billion and only be able to produce 10 interceptors per month, unit cost $500,000.
Or - they could outsource it to Ukraine. What was that about cards?
Unit cost $4,000, or 1,000 instead of a single Patriot
Note that nobody's asking the Ruffians about advice or help. Their given tactic is to intercept drones with oil refineries.
Yay, Volunteer Firefighter Fundraising!
In many rural communities, located a long way from nearby towns and cities, there exists a volunteer firefighting team who will go into action within minutes of an emergency being declared, rather than citizens having to wait thirty minutes or an hour for the full-time chaps to arrive. Art!
These chaps and chapesses deserve all the plaudits they can be given, putting their lives on the line voluntarily, and communities repay the favour by raising funds for them, as with this tale, where a beauty pageant for young girls was underway, categories of 1-4 and 5 or 6. The elder kids had already done their catwalk as 300 mothers, grandmothers and any fathers or brothers unable find a good enough excuse were in attendance inside a marquee. Art!
What can possibly go wrong, you ask?
Read on and you'll see.
A 3-year old was supposed to cross the stage from left to right, then walk back again, except she stopped at the centrally-placed flower arrangement to sniff at them, which unscripted act evoked a lot of 'Awwww!' from most of the onlookers.
Not all. One grandmother, rather too invested in her own child's performance, yelled at the 3-year old for trying to hog the limelight and attention and they ought to get off the stage. She then stormed onto the stage, grabbed the child and tried to drag her away.
This is generally an unwise move to execute in front of a child's mother. Mom also stormed the stage, dragged Grandkaren back by the hair and pulled her around, face-to-face. GK, totally amazed that anyone would dare intercept her and interrupt her child abuse, lets go.
Mom hauls back and delivers two right hooks to GK's face. Art!
The firefighters intervened to break it up. Grandkaren insists on calling the cops because she's been assaulted and her pride is hurt. Probably her jaw, too. When the officers arrive she insists on pressing charges, despite repeatedly being warned by said officers tone and demeanour that this is a big mistake. She screeches confirmation.
What could possibly go wrong, you ask?
She's arrested and charged with child kidnap is what.
GK, now realising that a sewer's worth of ordure has hit the fan, tries to backtrack, to no avail; she had her chance to de-escalate and refused it.
What could possibly go wrong, you ask?
She got charged in court, put on 2 years probation and given 1,000 hours community service.
Get Thee Behind Me, Clickbait!
Art!
'Falling Skies' again, hmmmm? Conrad feels the universe is trying to tell him something. Try using Twitter instead, who don't you?
Thank heavens for my armoured underwear that balks the teeth and talons of the Coincidence Hydra.
How Will You Tell?
Art!
Crazy enough to put boots on the ground, mayhap?
And on that wonderful note I leave you. Chin chin!
* DO YOU WANT SKYNET? BECAUSE THIS IS HOW YOU GET SKYNET!1]]]
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