I heard the term "soft power" in IR classes in grad school, and even then, I thought "right wingers will never appreciate something called 'soft power.'" Didn't Elon Musk create a company called MACROHARD as a counterpoint to Microsoft?

Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1961: “Call it democracy, or call it democratic socialism, but there must be a better distribution of wealth within this country for all God’s children.” Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1967: “The evils of capitalism are as real as the evils of militarism and evils of racism.”

⁉️

Is Trump demanding that they put William Shatner in charge of Star Trek? Read this in a source that's hard to link to, but I thought someone in my feed might know more.

(I show this map/diagram to my stats class every year. Tufte called it "the best statistical graph ever written.")

Are you serious lol

I'm always amused by that ubiquitous 70s song, "Baby Come Back." The name of the band was... Player! Gee, I wonder why she left? When they sang "I just can't live without you!" I imagine her yelling "Then why aren't you DEAD yet?!??"

More than 200,000 Danish citizens have signed a petition to buy California as a response to Trump’s attempt to take Greenland. They say they will provide Californians with “rule of law, universal health care, fact-based politics, and a lifetime supply of Danish pastries.”

May I say, the obsession with profanity is as petty and obnoxious as the obsession with proper attire. An obvious sign of right-wing brain rot.

"this is not who we are" is 90% of the time a normative statement of aspiration, it's not an empirical claim of "these events have never taken place in this country before". one of the most obnoxious genres of "actually..." is reacting like it's the latter when it's clearly the former.

what pisses me off to no end is that I live in a super rural area in MN, I’m a middle aged white man, but they always find these chuds to speak for me. Here’s a thought, maybe don’t go to the bar at 10am on a weekday and expect to find deep thinkers. This whole article is a fucking insult

A motorized hand that oozes lotion from its pores, patented today. US 12520926

So ... We may be at war, not only with Denmark, but with Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands. Like we're the Hapsbergs or something.

So to be clear we have actually reached the point where NATO states are deploying tripwire forces to deter *another NATO state* from invading *another NATO state.* I struggle to communicate the strategic and just regular insanity of this moment.

I think short debates with right-wingers can be enlightening. Not because you change their minds -- God no -- but to reveal the twisted id at the center of their politics.

Sounds bad

So was "One of Ours, All of Yours" used by anyone who was NOT a fascist? Is there any reason not to find it alarming?

It would take a two-word amendment to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 to subject ICE agents and other federal law enforcement officers to the same liability for constitutional violations that local and state officers currently face. If Congress actually cared about what it's seeing, it could pass that overnight.

This is extraordinary. I can’t think of a single Fed statement this defiant — ever. The Fed works through open consensus building and when it must, quiet, patient resistance. I cannot stress how bad things are that Jay Powell is saying these things out loud.

For my straight female/gay male/Canadian viewers: Kim loves Heated Rivalry. It features lots of hockey and hot guy-on-guy action. As a straight male who can't even imagine caring about hockey, I find the show boring as hell. But I don't judge.

PayPal's founders were fascist morons, film at 11. Once again, for those in the back: We DO NOT benefit from empire, even putting aside the moral issues.

It's actually a good thing that previously apolitical normies are finally getting angry and starting to speak out. We need the numbers in the streets and at the polls. If your response to them is "no, fuck you, too late," then you don't actually care about stopping Trump. You're just preening.

Naomi Wolf is writing porn, folks

I often wondered why Austria-Hungary was so pathetically incompetent in WWI, and this video addresses it. Note Conrad von Hotzendorf's belief that defensive war "made soldiers lazy", which led to an aggressive strategy of wave infantry attacks against machine gun fire. Right-wingers never change.

My thought about the Minneapolis shooting: If Trump and his minions had admitted, from the start, that this was a rogue agent and an unlawful shooting, they could have weathered the whole thing. But they had to call her a libtard bitch and say they have the right to kill anyone they want.

Secretary of DHS openly lying. Here's something from the website of the FBI. You know, the people she's lying about having exclusive jurisdiction. Saying that they do not "take over" investigations.

Bing-go

This is so fucking lame. Why is the media going to broadcast a full, anodyne message like this while Trump is levelling cities to the ground? No one is going to hear this message, and the alliteration makes it even more pathetic.

When this is all over we'll need anti-MAGA McCarthyism. If you supported these creeps in any material way you can't run for office, you can't practice law, you can't get certain licenses, you're just fucked.

I had a zoom lecture with the Filson Historical Society in Louisville for January 7. After watching the Capitol riot, I tore up my planned remarks and dashed this off try to situate what had just happened in the context of the sweep of American history. newrepublic.com/article/1609...

Absolutely true, and somehow not-discussed point: The US **ALREADY** has all the strategic advantages it could gain by "owning" Greenland. Through treaties and (until now) close NATO cooperation w Denmark The US has a naval base & 'space force' base there. You see USAF planes at Grndlnd airports

As a vintage RPG fan, I'd probably say Empire of the Petal Throne.

Who’s booking the Venezuela Comedy Festival?

we've got some ICE shit going down in our little town today and it took like three minutes for a convoy of wine moms to start chasing them around town. normies hate this shit and are putting in the work

I don't understand how people could do this without blowing their brains out.

Literally a publication for eight-year olds 40 years ago

Yeah I really doubt Venezuela will be a "great place to invest", anymore than Iraq is a "great place to invest." We're doing it for the oil -- Trump is open about that -- but we're not getting anything out of a roiling war zone.

Yeah, this certainly isn't "restoring democracy." It makes the invasion of Panama look good by comparison.

Who’s actually going to be in charge of Venezuela, now that we’re “running” it? “A group.”

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it, and those who can remember the past are like, what the hell, man?

Controversial take but I agree that if you have even center left politics you should be barefoot wearing a barrel with suspenders. You should have a wallet with a single moth and nothing else in it. You should be slicing up a single bean paper thin and eating it slowly on a trash can lid

Yeah, this is an official US government account saying we need to "deport" 100 million people. (Which is roughly the non-white population.)

BREAKING: After legal setbacks, President Trump says he's dropping push for the National Guard in Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland for now.

I am begging everyone on here to read this new post by Bryan Johnson — the super rich tech guy who is now doing the “never die” protocol. I need to talk about it with you all.

OK, I found one of those YouTube music "mixes" that was actually good for me: 90s music that I was too familiar with, but liked anyway.

I wrote up some memories of @sponsoon.bsky.social's Erathia campaign here, if @benhead.bsky.social or @davidhsiegel.bsky.social want to add anything. (I hope the title isn't too insulting to Ping, since it was a great campaign that I enjoyed immensely.)

I'm watching that documentary about Sy Hersh, starting with uncovering the My Lai massacre. I can understand why My Lai happened. But what I can't comprehend is how millions of Americans could find out about it, and make Lt. Calley a hero. Those people now run the USA.