I'm sorry, I just don't see how this level of economic interdependence is compatible with protecting a democratic Taiwan. Taiwan might be fucked.

I post on Main because I'm not a side-piece in my own life

Never gets old

This only happens to you once

So there is actually, quite literally no level of fame that you can achieve without some nowhere talentless asshole insisting you work for free in exchange for “exposure.” Good to fucking know!!!

I think the fundamental dynamic in the AI space right now is that when it showed up, big thinkers thought it would be GlaDOS, but it turns out to actually be Wheatley.

I feel like this guy is taking a lot of unfair heat for something that is not his fault: many hot concert tickets are in fact profoundly underpriced because the artists don't want to anger fans, but then the free market simply takes over and creates a secondary market at the real price.

I don't understand, but I'm fine not understanding. I don't care how many cavities the gift horse has.

CHOTINER: So your son is 14, is that right? IKARI: It's complex, Isaac. If— CHOTINER: And the “robot” he pilots, that’s actually the child of an alien you keep crucified in the basement, which is possessed by the spirit of his dead mother? IKARI: Look, let me answer the question. CHOTINER: Sure.

Its worth noting that “the devastation caused by going to war to defend them would be too hig, therefore we must give the dictator free reign“ was quite literally the entire theory behind the munich agreement

I worked at a desk job at the HQ of the Dutch army brigade HQ that sent its battalions to Srebenica, and later worked for 3½ years at UN ICTY. If there's one lesson I took from that, it's that "ooh, we don't want to risk escalating things" is counterproductive because it makes you look weak. [...]

This is a subject where you can really tell who's actually considered the value, cost, and worthwhile risk associated with liberty, and who actually believes in that value where *other people* are concerned, not just themselves.

“Remember that the frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward.”

gonna start a conspiracy theory that the rapture *already* happened, it just didn't take anyone

Americans will explicitly vote for gridlock and then bitch and moan about how nothing ever gets done

If I could remember people's names I would just be talking to people in real life I wouldn't need this website

it is absolutely fair to say that hakeem jeffries has, in the last year, shown more support for charlie kirk's life work than he has for the democratic nominee for mayor in his city, the largest city in the country

This is a tremendous improvement as far as the functionality of American government is concerned. It's a pity the Republicans did it.

we're eventually gonna lose a stupid and extremely consequential war because the entire political right has bought into the lethality/operator cult and we got rid of all the birthday cake ships

utah

KIM KITSURAGI - "What is it, detective? Can you make it out?" BULLET - "if you read this you are gay lmao" 1. "It, um, doesn't say anything." 2. "Transgender ideology. My old foe." 3. [Espirit de Corps - Medium 10] "I think you should read it for yourself, Kim."

That press conference... I just...they have no name, no idea where is he, they are just now releasing unhelpful video of him jumping off the roof and telling us they THINK it's an eagle on his shirt, and that they will pursue the death penalty

So, this is fair but IMHO you also have to see the 30 Years' War as in some ways Europe's first communist revolution.

I'm really not convinced we can infer training. Every hunter and recreational shooter in my life has stated in unison that a 200-yard shot with a scope is easy. Also, *the shooter missed*. He was either aiming for the head or chest and instead hit Kirk in the neck.

It's possible to rightly believe that Charlie Kirk's murder was a horrific, completely indefensible act while also responding to any given clip of him with, "fuck that guy." Quite simple, actually.

I think most cops are actually great at their jobs, but they're not miracleworkers, and in a situation like this where the perp was initially believed to have been tackled at the scene, while the real perp had total anonymity, a prepared escape route, and a 200-yard head start...it's gonna be rough.

I don't believe that shooting Charlie Kirk was justified. But Charlie Kirk believed that the 2nd Amendment protects from tyrants, and Kirk had just called for the "full military occupation" of American cities. Today was the American system working the way Charlie Kirk thought it should.

This is all just noise. Qatar has a third of Israel's GDP, a third of Israel's population, and zero F-35s to Israel's 40ish. I'm not ruling out some kind of economic tantrum in conjunction with other members of OPEC, but let's be real, Qatar's biggest defense was "nobody would be so unsporting".

Even in my current state of loathing toward Trump, I cannot get even slightly upset over him greenlighting Hamas leadership in Qatar. Nobody has ever more richly deserved to be greenlit, and I don't think there are going to be consequences worth fretting over.

I know I've said this before, but I don't know if I can stay on Bluesky. For one thing, and this is also the fault of Twitter, I've been noticing that my attention span is just shot these days in a way that didn't used to be true, and I tend to notice it in moments when I'm opening a Bluesky tab.

"this will revolutionize search!" they said, not realizing they were about to implement the Great Leap Searchward

I fixed the Cracker Barrel logo if anyone is interested! #illustration #branding

Lori is making a thoughtful and correct point in the back half of this comment, but I'm actually reasonably confident that John Lennon was the precise sort of hippie artist who did mean that literally.

It's an intended kindness, but it's misplaced. It's taking a perfectly good, kind, descriptive word and replacing it with something clinical and stilted, with the implication that if you don't keep up on the euphemism treadmill, you're a jerk.

You can address the problem of hunger among the poor and homeless without talking about food insecurity among unhoused people

Wealthy people will always have the nicest housing available. If you fail to build new housing, you are forcing poor people to compete with wealthier people for that existing stock. That is not working out for folks.

people say bluesky only talks about politics, but that’s not quite right. the issue is that even if they talk about other stuff sometimes, everyone here is political. there are no median voters, no normies, nobody who doesn’t know who the speaker of the house is.

this iconic advertising copywriter named Kathy Hepinstall Parks died over the weekend and I wanted to share something from her website I thought Bluesky would like

the administration keeps yanking Jenga blocks out and I keep having to listen to NYT podcasts about how surprisingly resilient the economy is or whatever

Inside of every man, there are two wolves in constant struggle. one exclaims AIR RAID. 5 RECEIVER SET. DROP 50 ON THESE MOTHERFUCKERS. SOMEONE'S OPEN DOWN THERE, FUCK IT. the other calmly utters; "run hb dive up the gut until the defense loses the very will to live."

Bob Clark, VP of marketing for Herr Foods, Inc., said the company was surprised to see it was mentioned in the press. “While we can’t speak to the details of the story,” he said, “we can confirm that our Sour Cream & Onion flavor is money.” www.thecity.nyc/2025/08/21/w...

I wish this attitude was unusual amongst welfare recipients but its not, like at all, a great, great many of them just think they deserve it and that there's no politics that keeps it in place that they have to maintain

Wow GPT-5 really was like getting a PhD.

wiretap recording: *15 minutes of noisy crunching and chewing* “ok now see if the envelope fits in the bag” “thank u mayor”

So, I don't think the trauma of 10/7 makes the Israeli response immune from critique, but the resemblance to the American public mood after 9/11 was...instructive. "These people are about to commit maximum violence and are totally immune to reason" forgave nothing but predicted much.

again, it cannot be emphasized enough that 5 years ago - unless you were an academic who studied antisemitism or the KKK, or maybe a fan of Jason Robert Brown’s musical Parade - the only people who posted about details of the Frank case this much were very online Nazis

I’m 100% sure that I will one day (inshallah) be irritated by this, but it is kind of cool to be asked to review something that genuinely is within my area of expertise. This is, to me, identical to a UH60 landing at my deserted cabin & a grim official in a suit saying “I’m told you’re the best”