Lawrence Franchini

Sci-Fi, Baseball and too many other interests to list

[Grant Stern  @grantstern]

After this take down by Iowa Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand will anyone besides the hardest core MAGA of MAGAs remaining in Iowa will vote for his Republican opponent?

DEADLY TAKEDOWN:

[The Kyiv Independent @KyivIndependent]

⚡️Ukrainian forces resume strikes on Russia's Wildberries amid reported attack in Tambov Oblast.

https://t.co/Jq6MW26eDY

[IGW @interstellargw]

Forte is now submerged.

📸: Extra Divers Australia

[Adam Mockler @adammocklerr]

There's only one reason you would try to hide this...

[World of Engineering @engineers_feed]

The SR-71 Blackbird was designed by a team of 75 engineers.
The original Macintosh was built by a team of fewer than 30.
The Apollo Guidance Computer was written by a team of about 50.

Modern engineering organisations build teams of hundreds to do what dozens once did.
Is that because the problems are harder -- or because the process is worse?

What's the largest team you've seen produce genuinely great engineering?

[Conservative War Machine @WarMachineRR]

.@JesseBWatters: “So you think it’s okay for a parent to slice their kid’s dingaling off?”

Abdul El-Sayed: “Are you circumcised?”

Jesse Watters: “Circumcision is different than castration.”

[Hunter Biden @HunterBiden]

The disgraced former mayor of New York, Rudy (I was just tucking in my shirt) Giuliani, has threatened to sue me for defamation over an interview in which I never said his name. No one even mentioned him.

I want to apologize to Rudy. Going forward I will be certain to say his name directly.

Rudy, you worked with known Russian agents and their proxies to spread lies about me and my father. Their names are Andrii Derkach, Konstantin Kulyk, Andriy Telizhenko and Oleksandr Dubinsky and more. Kulyk handed you a dossier filled with disinformation. You flew to Kyiv in December 2019 to sit down with Derkach, then went on television with him to sell his bullshit tapes.

Trump’s own national security adviser warned the White House that what you brought back was Russian disinformation. You kept going.

Then Trump’s own Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, sanctioned Derkach in September 2020 as an active Russian agent for over a decade, for spreading the same lies you are still spitting. Four months later, on his way out the door, Mnuchin sanctioned the rest of your sources. Kulyk. Telizhenko. Dubinsky. Eleven people and four media front companies in all. Not sanctioned by me. Not by my father. By Donald Trump’s Treasury Department.

And remember Vienna Rudy. In October 2019 you, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman had tickets to fly there to collect a hard drive, courtesy of Dmytro Firtash, an indicted oligarch who has spent a decade in Vienna fighting extradition to the United States. Lev and Igor were arrested at Dulles holding one-way tickets. You canceled yours the next morning. That was way before a computer repairman in Wilmington was ever a twinkle in your eye.

So please, @RudyGiuliani. Please, please sue me. Discovery will be a joy for everyone.

[Empire State Building Observation Deck @EmpireStateBldg]

Tonight, the Empire State Building tower lights will turn to a pink sparkle at 9:25 to honor the late Dolly Parton.

Dolly was a global cultural icon whose seven-decade career reached generations of fans. Beyond entertainment, Dolly leaves a significant philanthropic legacy through the Dollywood Foundation and Imagination Library, which has provided hundreds of millions of books to children worldwide.

At Nine-Two-Five tonight, we celebrate her and her legacy 💖

[OSINTtechnical @Osinttechnical]

Ukrainian attack drones struck the Russian Wildberries e-commerce distribution center in Kotovsk tonight, setting it ablaze.

[Euromaidan Press @EuromaidanPress]

Ukraine went looking for who keeps Russia's Su-35 flying. It found 22 companies nobody has touched

The full list runs to 79 firms — engines, fuel systems, control and guidance, jamming gear, the missiles the jet fires.

Three of the unsanctioned ones have names now. One supplies the aircraft's brake wheels. One builds the control units that move fuel through it. One is a research institute that worked on the design.

Russia's factories ordered 12 of these fighters in 2024 and delivered 10. In a production run that thin, the company making wheels is not a footnote.

The jet escorts Russia's Su-34 bombers, covers its own troops and installations, and hunts Ukrainian drones and cruise missiles.

🔗 https://t.co/ZKWW04uFuR

[Lawrence Franchini @Lurker69]

@ComicBook It’s a money grab sigh

[The Kyiv Independent @KyivIndependent]

⚡️Slovak police thwart arson plot targeting Ukrainian drone factory, media reports.

The incident marks one of the first known attempts to target a military equipment manufacturer in Slovakia, according to Dennik N. https://t.co/BsEnJi68GQ

[VoteVets @votevets]

The U.S. Army has a leadership problem thanks to Pete Hegseth. We haven't had a chief of staff since April, and Hegseth has forced out at least a half-dozen of the Army's most combat-hardened senior officers.

This is all during one of the Army's most dangerous stretches in 20 years. Our soldiers deserve strong leaders. Right now, Hegseth is taking them away.

[🪖MilitaryNewsUA🇺🇦 @front_ukrainian]

❗️As a result of the attacks on the 🇷🇺Perm oil refinery, over 80% (approx. 86%, or 11.3 million tons/year) of primary oil processing capacity has been disabled: AVT-5 has been critically damaged (columns and ELOU), along with AVT-4 and AVT-1, where repairs are ongoing.

[More Perfect Union @MorePerfectUS]

"I paid $2500 for power — two weeks later I'm still out of power."

We went to Indiana, where thousands of people still haven't had the power switched back on.

In Gary, Maryville, and Hammond schools are closed, families are throwing away spoiled food, people are driving to Illinois to get ice for insulin.

Power rates are higher than ever, but people in the region are being put through hell just two years after Blackstone bought into their power company.

Now residents are fighting back against the utility company -- filing a class action lawsuit against it for negligence.

[Don Winslow @donwinslow]

Donald Trump won Indiana for the third time in a row, with a comfortable margin of 18.96%; by 19% in 2016 and by 16% in 2020.

The people of Indiana voted for Trump 3 consecutive times.