On the one hand, yes, this is saying the right things. On the other hand, do you remember the last time there weren't any non-state military actors in Iraq? Me neither. rudaw.net/english/cate...

Mitch McConnell is not dead, he has merely gone into occultation.

Ok, at first this looked implausible, but knowing that this is a repurposed helicopter mount... sure. Regardless, the trainer is the highlight between the "oh shit it keeps flagging me" at 6 seconds to the barrel touch at 19 it's no wonder the recruit is lost.

State of the Russian army. Footage shows a Russian mobile fire group training exercise ending in a mishap while using a YakB-12.7 rotary machine gun. #Russia

Holy shit I did not have “nuclear weapons don’t exist” on my conspiracy theory bingo card.

Hey look, nuanced political thoughts on race in 2026.

“Imagine how people feel every day, Palestinians under the occupation, if they could make an American congressperson feel powerless for 90 minutes.” THIS×1000000000000.

This is probably as good a way as any to pithily describe the relationship between the Russian state and its elites, at least from the elites’ perspective. Also read the whole thread, but this bit stood out.

You know what, I was stressed about my dogs and fireworks and things in general when I read this last week, but yes, Wonkette does deserve more readers, they're doing excellent work, so here's a link for all the good it might do. www.wonkette.com/p/and-on-my-...

Don't worry, Scott. You'll always have Sedgwick County. (Also yes, the Colorado GOP decided to run the guy who won't tell you how many people he's killed and regularly decides to evict the demons attracted by unmarried couples.) coloradosun.com/2026/07/09/v...

holy shit.

EVERYONE JUST STOP FUCKING PANICKING HOLY SHIT

Which is worse (in the context of background music for inane yt videos as if it matters): 1. Dubstep remix of The Entertainer? 2. Ska cover of Hampsterdance (assume digital instruments because of course)?

This is an older phenomenon than all that. It's effectively the same dynamic as the fucking New Atheists in all their self-aggrandizing bullshit. There's this need for "the left" (taken to mean people who represent the idea of the left to non-leftists) to be wannabe iconoclasts. That's it.

Maybe this is dumb, and I certainly never claimed Africa as an area of expertise, but did you know that Lesotho is 75% larger than Eswatini (by area; 70% by population)? Because I certainly didn't until just now.

There's something to be said about how his statements look increasingly like something that would come from Charlie the Unicorn's awful friends or maybe the Spongmonkeys. I don't know exactly what to make of it, but it's vintage turn of the millennium brainrot.

"Behold this mockery of food" absolutely kills.

This sounds like the greatest afternoon ever. "These are the otters. They're heavily invested in crypto and mortal enemies of the giraffes who, as I'm sure you know, are dedicated Maoists."

I know there's a lot going on today, but it seems like SLBM launches should be higher on the attention list? www.twz.com/sea/chinas-s...

Ladies and gentlemen &c: the beautiful game.

The bad: using both "median" and "average" as comparators in the same headline is just awful. The good: the (very brief) article at least compares median with median instead of using some sort of mean of medians, which I assumed it would based on the headline. coloradosun.com/2026/07/06/i...

This is probably an extremely niche recommendation, but the audiobook of @dankaszeta.bsky.social's Toxic is breezy, informative, and well narrated. For all dozen people who want non-fiction audiobooks about chemical warfare agents to listen to during dog walks and whatnot.

As someone who only really understands one sport (hockey) I will admit that football is using all of its terms wrong. That's not at all what "offsides" means. Also: it turns out you don't need to know the sport to understand just how awful FIFA is. Some things really are universal.

There are approximately a metric fuckload of ways to poison pill this in terrible ways, but the core concept isn't terrible. It would still be better if we had actual functional institutions but since we can't have nice things it's good to think about what we DO have to work with.

40K: the Butlerian Jihad was good in theory, but did they take it nearly far enough?

i find it very funny that, canonically, the last character in this comic strip would be required by his belief system to murder you the instant you admitted to having used any kind of AI for any purpose

Pretty sure this isn't how left accelerationism works, but it absolutely is the right accelerationist play. (Look, these dudes are obviously PF. But it's interesting to speculate if there will ever be a significant strain of left-accelerationism that looks like this. So far no.)

The national media and electoral environment combines with state and local quirks in most unsatisfying ways. ME already brought this out in a big way, and now we get KY in the spotlight. But it's everywhere. I'm no expert, but I still know more about CO electoral politics than anyone not local.

Am I justified in loudly telling my dog, who is trying to jump into my arms on her leash, that “we need to go before these motherfuckers blow any more shit up” despite the presence of nominally innocent children? Yes. Yes I am. Motherfuckers.

Every single time I hear Driven to Tears I wonder how the hell they allowed Summers' solo to stay in the final version. I mean, I love it, but it's _wild_. youtu.be/lNLh3-ryW4s?...

I feel sappy reposting this but maybe that's part of the point.

just reupping

Missed opportunity to refer to Coughlin as Dilling's work husband because THIS is the proper context for a toxic term like that.

This may be the most insightful bit I've ever read about Boromir. The whole piece is excellent.

Short thread; please read. There's a striking difference in how academics who work with this sort of research see this issue versus lay opinion. NIH research is critical. Still, it does NOT make drugs, and the gap between where that research ends and a marketable drug begins is vast.

These are surprisingly interesting if you dig in, and I think the "Democrats" thing is increasingly a weird category (and I suspect "Republicans" has similar issues). 1/3

Well. Just finished. Brilliant and oddly beautiful and unexpected. Wow.

It’s a giant hummingbird. I swear. (There are still things phone cameras struggle with.)

This aged well. bsky.app/profile/riti...

This whole thing is heartbreaking (if you care about civil servants in a tiny post-Soviet country that most people forget about). I mean, just look: civil.ge/archives/739...

New slogan: move to Altai, there might be fuel?

I don’t know if anyone needs to hear this, but my (already reactive) dogs respond exceptionally well to valerian capsules for gentle calming.

To use this as a jumping-off point: BvS is a bad movie. Last summer I found myself in a hotel room for too long and watched four movies (which is more than the past decade combined): BvS, Furiosa, John Wick (possibly 1 and 2?), and Heretic. I had never seen any of them and never heard of Heretic.

Having read the thread and been reminded that I've actually seen decent chunks of this movie I just have to ask: Why are we watching Stephen Miller's spank bank?

short thread. worth the brief time it takes.

This photo circulating on Iraqi Telegram channels is showing the PROMINENT Iraqi SUNNI and SHI'I politicians who could have been arrested by the Iraqi Counter-terrorism Service inside the Green Zone tonight. It's not confirmed independently yet but oh my God this is a political massacre!

URGENT: Iraqi Counter-terrorism Service raids the Green Zone in Baghdad and arrests several prominent politicians on major corruption charges-via local media outlets.

WANT TO SNORFLE THE MURDERCAT (🔊 up)

We might have miscalculated last night.

Hormuz is open during oil trading hours. Weekends are fair game.