I HOPE YOU BOYS LIKE MEXICO. NEVERMIND. I MEAN PANAMA. WAIT. I MEAN GREENLAND. WAIT NO I MEAN TEHRAN. HOLD ON. VENEZUELA. FORGET THAT. NIGERIA. OH WAIT. TEHRAN AGAIN.

My Top Five reads from the hundred novels I read in 2025 (and two bonus honorable mentions), listed in the order in which I read them. Full(er) reviews on my Facebook page, which will be linked at the bottom of the thread. 1/9

My seventeenth novel is out today, an action-packed cocktail of corruption featuring FBI agents, Mossad officers, Taliban leaders, and ISIS cells against the backdrop of the Doha talks. Special thanks to Bill Roggio and @tomjoscelyn.bsky.social whose work with FDD did much to inspire this thriller.

Bluesky Wrapped and it's how many times your own joke was explained to you

"As I write, highly civilized human beings are flying overhead, trying to kill me. They do not feel any enmity against me as an individual, nor I against them. They are ‘only doing their duty’, as the saying goes. 1/3

"Having emerged from its trial by fire, the wartime generation was convinced that it had been called to lead the nation. Its mission consisted specifically of bringing the education received at the battlefront back to the home front, where people remained stubbornly ignorant. 1/3

🇯🇵🇨🇳 China Coast Guard ships have entered the Japan administered Senkaku Islands as tensions explode after Tokyo warned it could respond militarily to a Chinese move on Taiwan.

My wife has been trying to remedy my Disney movie deficit ever since we got married. . . Tonight was "101 Dalmatians" and I realized I'd been immersed in Mick Herron's world for too long when I laughed a little too hard at the line, "Regent's Park--it's an all dogs alert!" 🤣

🎶 i wanna bypass security checks like dan bongino 🎶

It's hard to overstate what a disaster Kash Patel is. See the many disturbing details here, from @vermontgmg.bsky.social, an expert on the FBI. "The longer this chaos continues," he writes, "the more likely we’re going to face a catastrophic intelligence failure." www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

We've finally found a business case for A.I.!!!!

The annual Zoom HOA meeting: a mechanism for destroying any vestigial faith in human nature that survived the elections.

[Enter two other Senators with a Messenger.] THIRD SENATOR Thou hast painfully discover’d; are his files As full as thy report?

The most awkward part of visiting a Commonwealth country like New Zealand comes when you politely ask someone if they speak English. . . And they explain that they "bloody have been." ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I am looking for solid resources on the Knights Hospitaller covering their activities at Malta in the 16/17th centuries, particularly focusing on their corsair/anti-corsair operations. Does anyone have any recommended reading to suggest?

It's "reek," Vance. Not "wreak." For further context, that's the name of a Game of Thrones character you resemble.

"When valour preys on reason It eats the sword it fights with." ~ William Shakespeare, "Antony & Cleopatra" #poetrysky

A year ago today, on the shores of Bosphorus, watching with the cats of Istanbul as the fishing fleet came back in with the dawn.

Your daily reminder that 2025 was the we decided to speedrun "What Could Possibly Go Wrong?"

"Be not offended: I speak not as in absolute fear of you. I think our country sinks beneath the yoke; It weeps, it bleeds, and each new day a gash is added to her wounds. . ." ~ William Shakespeare, "Macbeth" #poetrysky

Making my review debut on @spybrary.bsky.social today with my thoughts on David McCloskey's latest thriller. Brilliant read, I can't recommend it highly enough. spybrary.com/the-persian-...

Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.

Another Russian ship has been added to the grain smuggling fleet, captured on camera and on satellite imagery, evading sanctions to deliver grain from occupied Crimea to Houthi-controlled Yemen. Follow its covert journey here: www.bellingcat.com/news/2025/10...

his coworker justin bronk reached roughly the same conclusion this summer too. drones will be a tool in future wars but future wars will not be drone wars

Many focusing on the hubristic blasphemy of “we’re saving God”—and fair enough—but also, Kaepernick? All he did was exercise his 1A right to expression in a calm, quiet, unobtrusive way. And he last played Jan. 1, 2017! How lacking in real problems that this was ever a grievance, let alone still.

Maybe this is simply a difference in the expected 'rate' of knew knowledge, but this take puzzles me, because there's quite a bit of new data and studies needing to be done that I can see pretty easily in Roman history. Knowledge creation steady and clearly visible.

"You must contend with all your might against the foe; but it must be not with physical force but with that spiritual charity which is never overcome." ~ Jerome of Stridon, "Letters"

> It is 2025 BC. I am a soldier from one of the outlying provinces called to defend the pyramid in Memphis > It is 2025 AD. I am a soldier from one of the outlying provinces called to defend the pyramid in Memphis

"Bring in the guilty. We need some to be guilty. They’re all guilty." ~ Albert Camus, "Caligula"

If you ever wanted to fight the opening month of a war between the US and China between you and a friend or for 200 people you can do so! Jaws of the Dragon is freely available for download, and I keep it periodically updated as forces change and I read more. evandalessandro.com/jaws-of-the-...

Since 2015, huge swathes of the media platforms people use as their windows into "reality" have been bought up by MAGA-aligned billionaires. Is it any wonder that the Trump admin has been fairly successful in getting millions of Americans to buy into his framing of "reality" while the Dems struggle?

"No man is happier than the Christian, for to him is promised the kingdom of heaven. No man struggles harder than he, for he goes daily in danger of his life. No man is stronger, for he overcomes the Devil. No man is weaker, for he is overcome by the flesh." ~ Jerome of Stridon, "Letters"

"Fears make devils of cherubins; they never see truly." ~ William Shakespeare, "Troilus & Cressida" #poetrysky

Farewell to the sublime Dame Patricia Routledge.

Sorry we had to cancel your cancer treatment, but the Secretary of Defense had to fly all the generals in so he could call them fat.

Sums up the whole year rather eloquently.

So “America First” is a $20 billion bailout of Argentina, US economic development of Gaza, and NATO-equivalent security guarantees for Qatar. Got it.

Sahel 🇲🇱🇧🇫🇳🇪 MAP: The situation in the Sahel states of Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Benin as of September 2025. This map is a joint production by @warmapper.org and myself

"Nothing makes God so angry as when men from despair of better things cleave to those which are worse; and indeed this despair in itself is a sign of unbelief." ~ Jerome of Stridon, "Letters"

The Trump regime is simultaneously: a) spreading conspiracy theories about January 6th in an attempt to scapegoat the FBI for political violence directly incited by Trump himself, while b) claiming the entire American left is solely responsible for political violence. Regime gaslighting.

We're calling this policy No War Criminal Left Behind.

"How might ever sweetnesse have be knowe To him that never tasted bitternesse?" ~ Geoffrey Chaucer, "Troilus & Criseyde" #poetrysky

A rich and powerful man voluntarily bearing a cross onstage, but adding wheels so it's not remotely difficult, is the perfect picture for our country.

lol rfk making the face of a man who just gave the president 10 pages of perfectly crafted pseudoscience bullet points making it sound like there are real medical studies that support his fever dream theories and instead gets a rant from a guy who has clearly never seen how much babies pee

"Weaknesse invites, but silence feasts oppression." ~ John Donne, "The Progress of the Soul" #poetrysky

according to an immigration attorney representing several arrested workers, ICE agents chose to arrest the Korean workers to fulfill the quota of 3,000 daily immigrant arrests set by Stephen Miller www.forbes.com/sites/stuart...

So you could pay your fish bill according to the standards of Bill Fisshe? That seems to be a bit of a high point for nominative determinism.

Is anyone going to say anything about us totally retreating from the Indo-Pacific so we can throw lawn darts at speed boats and pretend we're stopping fentanyl, except that's not how fentanyl gets in the US, and also we're so f***ed when that war with the PRC happens? No. Cool. Cool.