Listening to some works by Ravel I'm once again struck by how impossible it seems to me for a single human mind to come up with this kind of music. It's way beyond what I can understand.

Ask a christian nationalist: was Jesus a nationalist? If they say yes, then they are no true christian.

Jesus Christ, at least George W. Bush had a vague idea of what he wanted to achieve in Iraq.

There will be no era of peace as long as Benjamin Netanyahu is in power.

27 kilograms of pure, unadulterated joy.

George Orwell would have a field day with this lingo.

'Fierce? I'll show you fierce!'

Back in 2003, Radiohead released a song called '2+2=5', about the war in Iraq. It had these lyrics that haunt me again today: It's the devil's way now There is no way out You can scream and you can shout It's too late now Because YOU HAVE NOT BEEN PAYING ATTENTION youtu.be/2w6kHS_IRrE?...

Critics of Trump said a decade ago that he would drag the world into war, chaos and instability. They were mocked relentlessly: Trump hated wars, Trump wanted peace, Trump was no neoconservative. Every day it turns out the Trump critics were right - just too early. And now it's too late.

A short thread with some gift links coming to @wpr.bsky.social's recent and not so recent coverage that offers some good context to the war right now. 🧵

Dog.

175 children were killed in a single airstrike in Iran. That's not collateral damage, that's an atrocity. Can we at least make an effort to investigate how this happened and who's responsible?

Even een brul-uit (shout-out) naar onze vrouwen in het Midden-Oosten die dag in dag uit zo goed verslag doen 🙏

Also the war in Iran will actually negate any policy measures that make things more affordable.

2003: 'Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists'. 2026: 'Either you are with us, or you are with Khamenei'.

It's genuinely insane that many of the newspaper columnists who cheered us into the war in Iraq are still employed at big legacy outlets cheering us into a new war with Iran.

I remember screaming at the TV when Colin Powell was presenting the 'evidence' of Iraq's so-called WMD at the UN, while a platoon of 'experts' called his obvious lies 'very credible' and then proceeded to seem almost aroused at the prospect of war. It was sickening.

My mother once gave me this wonderful bit of advice: if you feel overwhelmed and powerless by the events in the world, try to regain control with small acts of kindness that can make a difference on a scale you can grasp. Feed a stray dog, take some work off your partner's hands.

Dear American friends, am I looking at this the wrong way when I interpret graphs like this in major US news outlets as strangely myopic? I sometimes get the idea that newspapers like NYT don't really understand how the rest of the world views wars such as the one in Iran. Maybe it's just me.

Me at 5 am after 7 hours of writing: *Yawn* time for bed. Teddy: Oh, you're awake? Belly rub. Me: Actually, I wanted to get some sl... Teddy: BELLY RUB!!!

Sanewashing Inc.

Time flies in turbulent times: yesterday marked my 10th anniversary with @pressfreedom.bsky.social. The organization has shaped my professional life and I am incredibly proud to be part of a team that fights every day to make the world safer for journalists.

• ~3.2M Afghan refugees are currently in Pakistan • ~3–4M Afghans are estimated to be in Iran • Afghanistan already has ~6M+ internally displaced people • Gulf states host ~30M+ migrant workers If multiple fronts destabilize at once, even small % moving becomes major regional migration event.

This is what my home office space looks like when I'm writing and doing research. It's a bit counterintuitive, but having multiple screens actually does wonders for my chaotic and easily distracted brain.

It’s 5th year of Russia bombing my home city. Every year , February feels like a bruise on a body of the year. But this year there is something else: hope open.substack.com/pub/margogon...

I don't know even remotely enough about the Middle East or Iran to contribute anything of substance, but the whole situation worries me. The Iranian people have gone through so much... I wish they could just live in peace, without being oppressed or under the constant threat of war.

We grew up believing that humanity would evolve into the future of Star Trek. What we got instead were crypto currencies, the AI bubble and 'prediction markets'. Hate to say it, but Gene Roddenberry was wrong and William Gibson was right.

Sam Altman is screwed, in more ways than one. He caused irreparable and likely fatal damage to the already bad reputation of OpenAI yesterday. He will lose millions of paying users, which will only accelerate the inevitable implosion of his company - an implosion almost everyone is now rooting for.

I think the fact that we're on the brink of an unjustified and illegal war with Iran corroborates everything I wrote here last May, but especially the last part, about how almost all of Trump's worst uses of force in both his terms originated as items on the Pentagon's wish list.

¡Ánimo todxs que ya es viernes!

Personal 🧵: I recently began writing in earnest again for a paper I hardly wrote for in several years, due to burnout and some lingering effects of the PTSD that hit my like a torpedo about a decade ago. I'm writing this for my younger colleagues: take care of yourself, don't repeat my mistakes. 1/9

Teddy went to the new coworking today for the first time. He met a lot of new people who all loved him and wanted his attention. Such a day of new impressions and people really takes it out of him, so when he came home he crashed on the bed and hasn't moved since.

"Donald Trump is an earnest peacemaker" - Daniel McCarthy, 2026 www.nytimes.com/2026/02/25/o...

Summers should have stepped down immediately after the global financial crisis of 2008-2009 he helped cause.

Si tienes vínculos con México: es completamente natural querer estar informado y ayudar. Por eso mismo, te pido que solo compartas información de medios verificados y organizaciones periodísticas independientes. Un mensaje de WhatsApp bien intencionado puede causar más daño que ayuda.

Man, Indian Twitter does *not* pull any punches.

Got a good chuckle out of this one.

Of my 43 years, I spent 18 in Mexico. Soon it will be the country where I have lived most of my life. I love it here; I love the people, the culture, life in general. Seeing Mexico, my friends and colleagues, going through a crisis like yesterday - it hurts and it worries me.

So I sent out a tweet earlier today about how US gun sales are fueling violence in Mexico and forgot to limit who could reply. Came back a few hours later and good GOD how can anyone who doesn't severely limit the interactions on Twitter stand being in that cesspool for longer than a few minutes.

Here's a sad thought: Mexican local media were the ones providing the public with crucial information on Mencho's death and the resulting violence, while artificial intelligence generated uncertainty and panic via false images and information. But the money is going to AI, not local journalism.

Friends, I was mostly active on that other place today concerning the crisis we're living through in Mexico. I felt compelled to do reporting there, as it's a disinformation hellscape and I felt compelled to do something about it. Needless to say that today was a very difficult day for Mexico.

Giant tortoises restored to Galápagos island nearly 200 years after they were wiped out. #biodiversity www.bbc.com/news/article...

When the tech bros tell you you are a 'luddite' and 'naysayer', you only need one phrase to reply: "Sir, I have eyes, ears, a functioning brain and basic common sense."

Naming a dog 'Nazgul' is pretty badass.

The five worst jobs in Latin American politics: 1. Prime Minister of Peru 2. President of Peru 3. Acting President of Peru 4. President of the Congress of Peru 5. Acting President of the Congress of Peru

A war that is neither defensive nor preemptive is wildly illegal under international law. But also, military action that is neither authorized by Congress nor in response to enemy attack is wildly illegal under US law. There are historical precedents of gray areas, but this is not a gray area.

Mexicans responding to entitled foreigners complaining about Mexico is one of my favorite guilty pleasures.

Welcome to today's episode of 'Name a random country you want Trump to attack next'.

It gets even better if you think about this: - If you were born 8 presidents ago in Mexico, you'd now be 50 years old. - If you were born 8 presidents ago in Peru, you'd now be 15 years old.

Here's a random factoid: - In Mexico, 12 presidents ago was the year 1958 - In Peru, 12 presidents ago was the year 1990