Question for any non-Americans out there (gotta be a few): is “doxxing” as big of a deal as it is here? We’re such a cowardly bunch of losers that losing your online anonymity to abuse others is tantamount to a crime, but unclear if that’s a 1st Amendment holdover.

The Saudis are on an insanely fortunate run to start 2026. - Humiliated UAE in Yemen - Worst OPEC member dismantled - Iran in a regime-threatening crisis All in 8 days! Plus they can weather $60 oil due to their cheap production costs. The Trump bribe money paid off.

Yet another poll showing Labour are losing more voters to Reform than Greens. Greens are activating more nonvoters and Lib Dems than you’d expect. The number of Labour voters shifting to them here is quite modest (same as Lib Dems!) @moreincommonuk.bsky.social

Not to lib out too much, but what’s happening in Iran (again) is why democratic institutions are #good or certainly the least bad option

This is the worst Swan Lake I’ve ever seen!

Alright make fun of Jeffries’ statements all you want, if this gets through the Senate I will save incalculable amounts of money this year. I will remember that.

people would be a lot happier if our system structurally allowed for a split between “legislative leader“ and “party leader“. Schumer and Jeffries are pretty adept at the former, and quite bad as the public faces for the party

A reminder that Ds ran p hard on pro-democracy stuff in 23/24—from Biden/Harris on down. News media mocked it, avg voters shrugged, & the bskys screaming now ranged from "u cant blackmail us w Trump, give ppl something to vote for" to "we already live under a fascist dictatorship, it cant get worse"

Maybe we're all ruled by inflation, and everything else is a sham like Plato's Cave

inflation can do anything

If the Iranian government falls, do you think Calla Walsh would get extradited to the US or try to flee to Yemen?

I still don’t get this repeated error where someone loudly proclaims [insert news object] will be a rallying point for Trump to get popular like Bush and 9/11. The guy didn’t get a COVID boost, there’s absolutely nothing that will stop the polarization

Wow, no way…

Having trouble accessing Iranian state media rn…did they block their own websites? Tf?

There are huge protests in Iran tonight, crazy scenes that look more like the 2019-20 unrest (protests over gas prices) than 2022 (the Mahsa Amini protests remembered more in the West). 2019-20 ended with full-scale IR gov’t massacres and many more casualties

This is shaping up to be a very close five-way race with a second-round runoff The socialists, the far-right, the centrist liberals, nonpartisan NAFO guy, and the center-right are all contenders to make round 2.

After reading Homage to Catalonia I can confirm that Orwell was the World’s Biggest Liberal/Leftist Infighting Hater

Good messaging!

Watch the video for yourself.  This is not and cannot be who we are as a country. Investigate, unmask, and hold ICE accountable. Now.

He stuck his gun in the side window of her car and shot her point blank and they tried to say it was self defense against domestic terrorism

It’s broken containment because even the one slightly con white dude in my friend group thinks it’s bad and the officer should face charges over it. The video is that blatant.

I love how this is basically the outline of Palpatine’s plan in Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith

The future of America is slopulism. Good social democratic governance? Buddy, you’re gonna be missing even free-market fundamentalism when you see how many small holders we’ll be subsidizing. Property taxes? 0. Small business taxes? 0. Neutral? 0. Immigrants? 0.

Vivek has the right idea by not posting on social media anymore.

Time to start monitoring the Iran situation

Reform got to 30% after the May 2025 locals, but their polling surge peaked and ebbed over the last 8 weeks. this could be temporary, but something to monitor in 2026. It’s fascinating how UK discourse is entirely around polling, almost no one is judging the gov’t outside of the poll average.

Only 14% of Minnesotans thought Walz was doing enough to stop fraud in December (-54 overall, -23 among Dems!). His overall approval was still even, but being completely underwater on the fraud issue was probably the main reason he’s out. kstp.com/wp-content/u...

Every week or so, the NYT will run a blatantly pro-US article arguing the Chinese economy is in shambles, then they get 850 comments saying “yeah, so what? Look at us! China is very advanced!”

I don’t totally understand the plurality of Reform UK voters who are opposed to the UK being more like the US. They really think Farage and his extremely obvious US ties are a bluff? How obvious could it be?

So this Altica Research poll on “Do you approve of Maduro’s detention by the US?” dropped. From these results that’s not going to cause a ton of LatAm backlash, but tbh the continent-wide opinion polling is pretty trash. Either way, the order of most supportive to least adds up with priors.

From speaking to “European colleagues” during 2024, I think they’re mad at US libs not because they disagree ideologically, but because they are sick of being lectured by people who have been incorrectly promising them it’ll all be fine.

Everywhere you look, the constant thread in the west is sclerotic institutions too overwhelmed, too ego driven, too lacking in nimbleness to respond to the far-right‘s will to power and abuse of new technology. Kicking around a can saying “process“ and laying the brunt onto everyone else

Imo we shouldn’t take the right-wing influencer network so lightly. There is no equivalent response of left-leaning people going to right-wing areas and exposing how poor and badly-run they are. Not sure the left has influencers that aren’t obsessed with foreign policy or Dem stan accounts.

They tried this recently with a very good amateur vs. James Blake, who is 46 and has been retired for 12 years. The amateur lost the tiebreak 10-1. www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNi-...

Dan Goldman when facing a left-backed candidate who still codes as agreeable enough to win over parts of his moderate voter base: "I just need to be as boring as possible. Please portray me even more boring."

btw I think Goldman is largely doomed

Lots of political parties change out their leadership during defeats or crises. The Korean conservative party has had 5 official leaders and 17 acting or temporary leaders since 2020 alone. Now, that's a bit excessive, but the building furor at Schumer is bc the US system doesn't allow for that.

The Democrats are clearly retreating to this position based on the idea Americans are too dumb, venal, and stupid to care about the lives of anyone but them. They’re probably right; but what’s the point of putting your hands in the gutter if your eyes are not turned to the stars?

Dems probably flip that SC state leg seat on turnout. That being said, Charleston suburbs are very stubbornly Republican, I assume due to in-movers? anyone have a good explanation?

Something’s happening in Caracas again

Bluesky leftism may be annoying, but Instagram leftism is like Nonprofit-Socialist LinkedIn

One thing I’ve been reconsidering lately is my judgment of Nemtsov And Navalny. Breaking through to a jaded society is harder than it seems.

yep. i can identify any number of structural issues but at the end of the day the basic problem is the republican party. this has been apparent for at least 20 years. it is also an incredibly unpopular observation to make among “serious” people.

Yeah idk about this “ordinary Americans will see sense and the old order will prevail” thing

As text-based public squares go, everyone is getting beaten by Reddit now. And Reddit has seen real user growth since last year

So, if any Minnesota lawyers are out there: if Klobuchar resigns 11 weeks before the August 2026 primary, there'd be a special in 2026. What I'm confused on is if "November election" means Minnesota can hold a special in 2027 or not. The law seems to imply they can?

Speaking of being annoyed at this site’s low non-US content, Russia has done two large-scale bombing raids on Kyiv in the last month and I don’t see too much discourse there outside of the Ukraine-only accounts.

people were furious at establishment dems in pa endorsing lamb. many cases to criticize the dems but fetterman is on the base (me included)

"somalis set up a fake nonprofit to bilk the public sector with fraudulent contracts" sign of social integration, typically it's south african tech billionaires setting up a fake military contractor named after a lord of the rings object

Thanks for the memories