it does bother me that many realists take this statement as showing the eternal wisdom of their ideology when it's thucydides demonstrating the pitfalls of imperial hubris

some people love quoting "the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must." That was Athens saying that at the height of its empire. Few of those people seem to remember what happened to Athens the very next year.

*THAT* is the precedent I couldn't remember! It was an impressive -if bloody- success, studied for years in Soviet academies as a model special operation. Arguably the attempted raid on Zelensky that started the full invasion of Ukraine was modeled on that one too.

Taps sign, again

oh an additional reading suggestion for whatever the fuck is happening right now is @megan-a-black.bsky.social excellent book on US resource imperialism: The Global Interior

Yes, hello? I don’t think 2026 is working properly. I’d like to cancel my free 5 day trial please.

Europe needs to get much more comfortable threatening Trump with serious deterrent measures, and if necessary implementing them. Tariffs, taxes & bans on US firms; selloffs of US Treasuries; expulsions of American troops; sanctions on individuals. Speak his language: strength.

I think it's essential to understand that everything someone like me most admires about US history is what Trump hates. And everything someone like me hates is what Trump most admires.

oh... THEN is a tough one, such a good year for games but also pretty sure most of my favourites I didn't buy until later (thanks to the bargain bin at Kmart) but probably: Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator 2: WWII Pacific Theater. Now is it Start Trek Voyager Elite Force, still play it (thanks GOG)

Woahhhh this makes it feel so real!

One of the reasons I love being part of @greenparty.org.uk is that we know if we are to make real differences in our communities, we need to keep reaching out and engaging more people from across our communities in our work. Contact your local Greens to find out more.

Compiling some reading recommendations i see on here on the situation in Venezuela, feel free to add your own bsky.app/profile/alda...

yes, also the 18th century - Lauren Benton's work on the imperial ordering of the oceans (particuarly re 'protection') has a lot to tell us about whats going to happen and is really useful for my thinking on outer space

getting myself out of holiday mode and back to book writing mode by catching up on @katecarp.bsky.social brilliant @draftingthepast.bsky.social

A gangster state at home, a rogue state abroad: and entirely because Congress and the Supreme Court have abdicated their proper constitutional roles.

In 1887, British forces kidnapped & exiled the King of Opobo in today’s Nigeria. British Palm oil traders had persuaded the government that the tariffs he imposed restricted their profits. It was a milestone in the Scramble for Africa and indirect rule by Britain. alanlester.co.uk/blog/antisla...

cool, i mean i know HMG cant condemn Trump but we also dont have to be his fucking cheerleader

This is what happens when you recklessly extend BRICS right up to America’s borders and ignore America’s legitimate security concerns.

See jokes on you. You read that as “I don’t want a woman *to draft me and send me to a pointless war,*” but it was actually “I don’t want *a woman* to draft me and send me to a pointless war.”

Look, I know it’d be diplomatically unwise for Starmer to say what I’d want him to say in this moment, but come on!

The idea that US law enforcement, ie a federal indictment, can justify a foreign invasion is a potential blank check for similar action almost anywhere. This should raise alarm bells in Canada…

weird this would happen in a country that has never produced one (1) single material consequence for the crimes of their political leaders

well I suppose all those 'trad men' are going to get an opportunity to die in an imperial misadventure afterall

Song Sung Blue was a lovely film!

If anyone needs a place to start learning about the long, intertwined history of the US and Latin America, Greg Grandin's America, América is pretty good.

Trump had made making my books argument that US resource imperialism seriously easier to make, so there's that...

remembering the meme about how Jan 6 was because Covid meant the US had to do its annual coup at home that year...

Just a quick reminder: there is no need to condemn Maduro in order to criticise the American aggression against Venezuela and the abduction of Maduro. Just as criminal law protects bad people from attack, international law prohibits intervention against states with authoritarian leaders.

US needs a (peaceful) revolution at this point, needs a whole root and branch overhaul of the entire system, metaphorically burn it down

So fmr Honduran President Hernandez voluntarily surrendered, and was duly extradited, tried and convicted for drug trafficking, and Trump pardoned him 6w ago. And this morning, Trump illegally attacks Venezuela and abducts its president and his wife purportedly to try them for drug trafficking.

Just a friendly reminder that the WH has been lying about the drug lab problem in Canada:

The BBC keeps calling the imperialist actions of the US 'unprecedented'; I wonder if they know anything about the history of Latin America in the last 200 years or so.

Funniest outcome here would be Maduro being acquitted by a US court because the Trump administration didn't think through the case and puts one of their idiot TV pundit prosecutors on it... and then countersuing.

the UK's fundamental problem is we cease to be a state that matters militarily without the US propping us up so we have to fall into line

Starmer is effectively saying he believes what Trump says. This is like him wearing a large dunce’s cap with “Mr Gullible” written on it in flashing neon letters.

also need to take the US threats on Greenland very seriosuly

"Never thought I'd say this but I miss George W Bush" fucking shut the fuck up forever oh my god you suuuuck you'll keep us in this liquid shit for a thousand fucking years thank you for letting me do this, that felt amazing

Time to read this one again #HistIR

Any recommendations for people in Venezuela to follow, or with otherwise relevant expertise?

also if im the leader of any Latin American country that might find itself in Americas bad books im ringing china about air defence systems ASAP

world leaders: this is the second line of that poem, Soleimani was the first, a US unconstrained by even the pretence of law will not be kind you

guys, "the judges at the ICC are being sanctioned by the USA and can't access their iphones or bank accounts" and "why aren't any countries banning twitter or prosecuting elon musk for owning a site that manufactures CSAM" stories are the same story

see also "NATO is about 'shared values'"

the US has kidnapped the leader of a soveriegn country. Holy shit thats just so far beyond the pale I dont even know where to start - all US government officials need to be PNG'd now for one! www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...

Britain and the EU need to bite the bullet and start talking about America no differently to Russia or China

i blocked instead of arguing. 2026 energy

This really should be the end of Musk, it won't be but it should be www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

jesus christ, there really is no bottom to how much of a piece of shit Musk is

Normal about this