He Is One Of The Most Influential Writers Of The Twentieth Century
Even people who haven't read his works have heard of '1984' and 'Animal Farm'. Some more conservative folks might consider him to be a bit of a socialist with an odd moustache and both claims have merit. Art!
What they can't say is that he didn't have the courage to support his own convictions, since he travelled to Spain in late 1936 to join the anarchist POUM militia, fighting against the Nationalists - and Soviet advisors. He was seriously injured in 1937 and was lucky to survive. Go read the absolute classic 'Homage To Catalonia' to see the Spanish Civil War from the inside, warts and all.
Let us abruptly jump forward 90 years and join the journalist and vlogger 'Caolan Robertson', originally from Ireland whom now lives in Kharkiv, Ukraine. We've mentioned him a couple of times previously; he is persona non grata in Mordorvia because he reported from inside the Kursk oblast when the Kozaky invaded. He's willing to put his life on the line to get a story. Art!
Incoming Ruffian artillery shell goes off nearby.
ANYWAY I have annotated his most recent report, with a bit more input from the Institute for the Study of War and my newsfeeds, so you're going to get the lot. I'm not sure how long this Intro will be, so suck it and see.
So! currently the orcs are retreating in the area around Lyman, having suffered some 3,000 casualties, 250 prisoners of war and losing 177 square kilometres. Remember what Sergeant John 'Jack' Roberts scornfully intoned: "They misreport and lie all the time". Art!
Putinpot claimed that the orcs occupied it on 01/09/2026.
Nope. General Biletskyi, Officer Commanding the Ukrainian 3rd Army Corps, filmed himself walking the streets in broad daylight, clearly not even in drone range of the Ruffians. Charlie Chipmunk Cheeks has claimed that Ruffia has conquered/destroyed/liberated <delete where applicable> 6,100 square kilometres of Ukraine this year.
How much did they really occupy? O I thought you'd never ask!
100 square kilometres. That's it. Peter The Average has absolutely no idea what's going on in Ukraine as "They misreport and lie all the time", all the way up their chain of command.
Back to our fresh-faced correspondent.
One thing that reallllly wrong-footed the Ruffians was an Ukrainian deception operation at the town of Nove, a good 100 kilometres south of Lyman, which is an important logistics hub thanks to geography. Art!
As you can see, they made him wear body armour and a helmet and the soldier there with an AK-74 is not for decoration, either. Caolan was told in the event of a drone attacking the truck, jump over the side if it doesn't get shot down. Art!
UGVs delivered, and how cute it looks with anti-drone netting on a drone. In the film clip you can see the wreckage of other vehicles hit by drones, and indeed a Ruffian drone whizzed by on the other side of protective netting. The Ukrainian crews delivering these drones do this every single day.
What this hopefully illustrates is how important UGVs have now become in modern warfare; the Kozaky may have a manpower problem yet they are making this up with technology - the old British concept from the Second Unpleasantness of 'Steel not flesh'. Art!
Sorry for the murky quality. This is a small UGV carrying an explosive payload, which is navigated into enemy positions and detonated, and it's delivered behind Ruffian lines via one of the larger quadcopter drones, either a 'Vampire' or - hilariously named - 'Baba Yaga'. Art!
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| Baba Yaga |
We shall now return to the Fortress Belt, with Putinpot and the orcs being OBSESSED with gaining this territory, which is why surrendering it always comes up when the Kremlin mentions 'negotiations' spelled 'capitulations'. Art!
Note the date. The orc's plan was for a two-pronged pincer encirclement, which they've tried to execute since 2022 when this was the Joint Operational Area, unsuccessfully. Now the northern pincer is completely gone. Oooops. Caolan also mentions the ISW report of 01/10/2026 that confirms the Ruffian pincer plan is dead in the water. Art!
As part of the 'shaping the battlefield' process, a.k.a. 'softening them up', the Ukrainians hit Ruffian logistics to cut off any kind of supply to the front lines, notably along the R-280 motorway as shown above. The orcs' logistics have always been their weak point and are more akin to 1926 than 2026: I haven't seen a single forklift being used by the orcs in occupied Ukraine.
ANYWAY AGAIN the Kozaky sent in the Vampires and Baba Yagas with their cargo of kamikaze UGVs up to 10 kilometres behind the lines. They are being very coy about how many were used, but it was enough that the orc commanders thought they were under a mass infantry assault. O and remember that BTR stuffed full with 2 tons of anti-tank mines and driven remotely? It was one of two, and the orcs thought they were reinforcements. Ooops. Not so. Art!
In order to try and slow the Ukrainian progress, the orcs have had to strip forces from other parts of their front line, as they just do NOT have any reserves, which creates vulnerabilities elsewhere. Conrad calculates that they have had a consistent shortage in recruitment since December 2025, losing 5,000 men per month that are not replaced. Eventually Mordorvia will run out of greedy, stupid orcs. Then there's the astronomical desertion rate; wiser heads than mine have worked this out at 70,000 or about 10% of their forces in Ukraine. Art!
Going out with Caolan travelling at 120 PROUD IMPERIAL MILES per hour under anti-drone netting and -
Ruffian drone, which luckily either ignored or didn't spot them, as a convoy of military trucks would be a prime target.
Brucie's Back End
Rounding out 'Sci-Fi Art''s slideshow of Mr. Pennington's artworks, with the last two slides to show. Art!
No idea what's going on here, except you wouldn't catch me hanging around underneath a giant luminous air-octopus. Googling 'Giant luminous octopus hovering over a man' didn't bring up any covers so we shall never know. Soz and all that. Art!
A fine dramatic study to finish on. I know this is a cover illustration and can detail it myself before confirming: 'Earthworks' by Brian Aldiss. Art!
Called it. O and also -
Flavour Tripping!
Our nomad DJs playing in the background were performing at Ksamil, in Albania, three years ago, next to one of the thousands of old military bunkers Enver Hoxha had built to protect against an invasion. NATO or Warsaw Pact? Yes. Art!
O Dear Donnie's Done Doo-Doos Again
Because he has a mashed-potato brain. Art!
What am I talking about? O I thought you'd never ask!
The old White House Press Secretary left her position in August to have a baby, which Trump was not happy about since she should give it up for adoption in order to keep flattering him in public. They hunted around for a replacement and six days ago appointed Katie Zacharia, who for years has been claiming to be a lawyer.
Art!
That's a verrrry annoyed Devin Stone, who really is a lawyer, entitled to practice after having passed the bar exam in California. In his Youtube short he points out that investigative journalist Judd Legum searched the whole of D.C. for her bar exam results - which he couldn't find. She lives in California but the state has no record of her ever passing the bar there. She worked at a law firm in Beijing and implied that she passed the bar there, except the firm states she never worked on legal matters, and China does not allow foreigners to pass the bar. She tried to backpedal and say she only offered legal analysis, not legal advice - which Devin points out are exactly the same thing. O was he angry!
Then Trump fired her a couple of days ago. She lasted 5 days. That, Donold, is one of the consequences of hiring someone based on their looks. Art!
I would like to end on The Human Starfish, Steven Cheung, getting it spectacularly wrong.
Perhaps he meant 'grates'?
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