Derek Henry Flood

Only Europe can save Ukraine from Putin and Trump The new US national security strategy shows us Europeans exactly where we stand: alone.

Only Europe can save Ukraine from Putin and Trump open.substack.com/pub/timothyg...

Mark Kelly speaks at a press conference

Mark Kelly: “Jobs are down. Wages are flat. Costs are up & this President is asleep — Like literally, he’s falling asleep on the job. It’s hurting the American people — He’s doing nothing to try to help people with the cost of groceries, rent, & healthcare”

Ear hug

Footsteps and shadows in the late autumn light in NYC

Look at those fuzzy thumpers....

BUSH MEETS WITH SYRIAN LEADER

Strange as this meeting may seem, 35 years ago next week Bush met with Assad as that Syrian leader joined a coalition to defeat a common enemy-Iraq. www.washingtonpost.com/archive/poli...

Yet in terms of the war's stated goals, Iraq turned out much better than Afghanistan as d=far as their respective political endgames.

The Overton window in the oval office has gotten quite drafty.

The limbo paradigm of the 5 inhabited territories as I've always heard it was a deeply held GOP skepticism of any or all of them gaining statehood because they would all be blue thus inherently altering the balance of power in the senate in the left's favor. No Alaska>Hawaii balancing out scenario.

The language looks Turkic but not actually Turkish so I took a guess.

And this occurred without a Bari Weiss doge-esque memorandum being issued beforehand.

So much for Western engagement with a post-Assad Syria.

A ceasefire for Gaza deal did not include Yemen.

Is this Baku? Tashkent?

This sounds like DOGE-lite.

Interesting especially as according to Kremlin lore there have been no such abductions.

Although it seemingly complexifies external perceptions of Europe, the reemergence of central Europe after 1989-91 was a beautiful thing to witness. Two Europes defined by rivalry became three with more fluid identities unconstrained by political ideology.

Thankfully, to say something oddly positive about social media, the spotlight on Gaza never let up in 24 months. If only the same could be said for eastern DRC, north Sudan, Burma etc.

I did see a sticker in a bar toilet the other night that read "Abortion on demand NOW!" in NYC's Bushwick neighbourhood, thus I just learned this is a thing thanks to said decal.

I'm all for DDR for the IDF once the dust has settled.

24 years

Test display of the towers of light. New York on the eve of the 24th anniversary of 9/11.

If this isn't settled out of court it may be a major development for 9/11 families. www.propublica.org/article/saud...

Doylestown, Pennsylvania

I love what this sound evokes from memory. Like being on a Cycladic island in late summer after leaving a Levantine war zone.

I never noticed Google being restricted in any form while using Chrome in areas under AANES control.

Ideal Sunday listen.

Army Secretary forces West Point to rescind appointment given to Easterly The United States Military Academy abruptly ended the appointment of Jen Easterly to a high-profile academic position in West Point’s Department of Social Sciences, according to a memorandum issued We...

The fact that this was triggered by a far right nutjob who simply posted on X with faux rage says a lot about America's political race to the bottom.
cyberscoop.com/jen-easterly...

Good-bye to Pencil Factory And to the version of Greenpoint that made it possible in the first place.

@charlottetklein.bsky.social on the closing down of Pencil Facrory in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. This poignant piece makes oddly wistful for post 9/11, pre pandemic NYC, a place we can never return to. www.grubstreet.com/article/penc...

YouTube video by The Prof G Pod – Scott Galloway Inside Iran’s Fragile Regime — with Karim Sadjadpour | Prof G Conversations

Very sobering pod with @profgalloway.com &
@ksadjadpour.bsky.social where the latter breaks down the moribund "marg bar Amrika, marg bar Israel" ("death to America, death to Israel") organizing ideology of a doddering Khamenei in #iran youtu.be/6qN2ANdWpd0?...