People who fancy quoting the Melian Dialogue ("the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must") ignore the fact that Thucydides was clearly portraying this as the kind of hubris that squandered Athens' primacy and paved the way for a devastating peer war that it ultimately lost.

This is a direct response to the European statements. It’s an attempt at a palliative. It’s still the worst act the United States has pondered since the Mexican War and it think there’s an least a 50% chance it happens. NATO is basically over unless Senate Rs like Senator Kennedy build a barrier.

Try softer.

FT doing excellent work here! 👏

Globalist broligarchy in nationalist populist drag.

It should be fairly clear by now that our ruling class is banking on an oligarchy hardening into place and all of them will do whatever depraved shit the admin asks for to have a seat when the music stops

In a time of horrors, this is the way.

There we go. That there’s a headline.

Pip’s like “damn right”. Beike’s 💭 ‘wait, we’re doing wut now?’

(as per earlier thought on @freedomforall.net) -

Another person showing grace and hugely worth a follow is @gregk.co.uk.

Thucydides did not write the Melian Dialogue for people to forget Athens lost the Peloponnesian War.

This site would be considerably improved - particularly lately - if more of us (myself included) could find the grace Matthew manifests here every day. One can be fierce without being cruel. One can have belief that doesn't calcify into dogma. If you're not following @freedomforall.net, you should.

I have been saying this for some time to students seeking career advice: the energy sector is one of the most exciting places to work with a huge transformation taking place right now. Electrification is a game changer and means a redesign of our energy system as we know it.

This

This explains so much. People with psychopathic traits and low cognitive ability are over-represented in online political activity. If someone is being cruel, obnoxious and ridiculous, don't try to reason with them. Chances are you won't get anywhere. Just block. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Let's do imperialism. But the dumbest possible variety, with the lowest RoI even in its own terms.

Kemi Badenoch basically auditioning rn for Prime Minister as "Britain's Best Future Quisling" on Radio 4 - competitive category - her qualification for leadership being how much she agrees with Donald Trump, with whom she's never had a one on one conversation, on Venezuela/Drilling/anti-EU.

This is an actually newsworthy thing the author of section 230 has put on the record. Here. The general level of response comments is...¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Friends, if you're going to persuade govts to move from the CSAM machine to here, the game needs to be upped considerably.

Failing to fund £2Tn in energy and climate-resilient infrastructure by 2040 because defence and AI data centres. Good times.

Indeed, expecting fund managers to have some inner Kay Graham has been a bit fanciful for a while now

It's such a joy to encounter people so committed to the proposition that it's been 1997 the whole time and everything since has been just...interference we can tune out if only we wished hard enough.

It’s genuinely wild that the United States spent decades building an elaborate rules-based international order which de facto cemented its permanent status as the dominant global hegemon, sustained by ideology rather than might, and now is just blowing it all up for literally no reason

In other news, the Magi were almost certainly Persian Zoroastrians who symbolise the importation of the idea that "God" is not local to any particular site into Christianity. So, fellow Christians, our whole religion...

I’m rewatching The Expanse. One thing that I really love about this show is that it’s one of the only I’ve seen that envisions a future that depicts climate change impacts. It feels like such a glaring omission when other media just…don’t address it.

On days like today I like to recall some wise advice: hope is not a fleeting emotion, it is a discipline.

In other news, the Magi were almost certainly Persian Zoroastrians who symbolise the importation of the idea that "God" is not local to any particular site into Christianity. So, fellow Christians, our whole religion...

Man I have been on a TV set or two with people so confident in their own game that they thought doing a few lines before going on air would be fine. This clip made me think of that. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

TAPPER: Can you rule out the US is going to take Greenland by force? MILLER: Greenland should be part of the US. By what right does Denmark assert control over Greenland? The US is the power of NATO T: So force is on the table? M: Nobody is gonna fight the US militarily over future of Greenland

This is an actually newsworthy thing the author of section 230 has put on the record. Here. The general level of response comments is...¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Friends, if you're going to persuade govts to move from the CSAM machine to here, the game needs to be upped considerably.

I wrote section 230 to protect user speech, not a company's own speech. I've long said AI chatbot outputs are not protected by 230 and that it is not a close call. Given that the Trump administration is going to the mat to protect pedophiles, states should step in to hold Musk and X accountable.

Decarbonisation or barbarism are the only remaining choices.

Tim Walz dropping out of the race for a third term is the direct result of Republican threats to kill his entire family after they had already murdered one of his state’s representative and her husband. — Anyone still believe both parties are the same?

1996

ca 1982. If I'd saved all the quarters at 7-Eleven on this puppy I could buy it now for cash.

50-60 million acres of this land is held in trust for sovereign Native nations. This was written by a professor who teaches at the most highly ranked law school in the country and who should have mentioned this. reason.com/volokh/2026/...

A hacker known as Martha Root broke in and deleted three white supremacists websites at the end of a talk during the annual hacker conference Chaos Communication Congress in Germany.

Then reverse the Online Safety Act. I can't access my Bsky messages and many subreddits without invasive and insecure age verification, but there's no limitations to X itself actually producing these images?

The Online Safety Act means I need to use a third-party age verification system to access my Bluesky DMs but 𝕏 can continue to post child porn.

Weird how the Online Safety Act doesn’t affect 𝕏

I believe some of the victims need to first make a complaint to the Gardai, which can be done online here: www.hotline.ie

I found a good method to build engagement is to threaten people with firearms

Winter sports enthusiasts are very much under-appreciated for their potential as witness/advocates for climate, and if flipped could be politically potent.

Keir Starmer must come to Parliament today and make it clear that Britain stands with Denmark against Trump’s threats.

Hello environment / climate peeps of Bluesky! I'm just doing some planning for what to write about in 2026. Do drop me a DM if you'd like to chat about anything you'd like to see the Times environment section cover this year.

amazing how the entire machine can pivot within 24 hours. no need to slowly upsell the argument; just issue new marching orders

I happen to know quite a bit about Venezuelan oil. TL;DR it’s hard to extract, notoriously investor-endangering, isn’t needed (global crude is oversupplied to the tune of 3.3 min bpd) and isn’t easily refined (it’s too dense so always sold at a heavy discount) www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/202...

Most people associate the end of the Cold War with the fall of the Berlin Wall. But for the people of South and Central America, it happened on Obama's watch. immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2026/01/reme...