@nakhthor.bsky.social
Chinese-American anc historian, Columbia. Antiochos III & the Cities of W Asia Minor (1999), Statues & Cities (2013), Aršāma and his World (2020, co-ed), Polis: A New History (2024). Guggenheim Fellow.
Not gonna end well
www.pbs.org/newshour/pol...
Here @davidrlurie.com outlines Trump's "long-burning desire to turn urban America into a theater of war" and "visceral desire to foment violence between city residents and police," and how that links to his Iran war.
As always the lifeblood of MAGA is sadism.
Over at @atrupar.com's place:
I wrote about how and why I watched 6 hours of DOGE bro testimony. It was mostly on flights and at the gym www.404media.co/behind-the-b...
Familiar script: drum up fear, promise a quick war, sell it as security. But Americans remember Iraq and Afghanistan. Polls now show a majority opposing the Iran strikes, and even parts of Trump’s base are uneasy. The old playbook isn’t landing anymore.
i see a lot of folks posting variations of, "dems won't do anything if they win! they'll just return to the same old same old!" but, speaking from personal experience, the failures of biden and the extreme nature of the current trump admin have caused many in the staffer class to go absolutely rabid
we are losing so much talent, progress, and hope for no good reason www.vox.com/future-perfe...
Familiar script: drum up fear, promise a quick war, sell it as security. But Americans remember Iraq and Afghanistan. Polls now show a majority opposing the Iran strikes, and even parts of Trump’s base are uneasy. The old playbook isn’t landing anymore.
By passing emergency funding for the Iran war, Congress would also authorize it. talkingpointsmemo.com/news/for-tru...
It is both possible, indeed likely, that this ends up as a strategic fiasco for the United States as well as severely weakening Iran's economy, security structures and state capacity.
The inability of so many to grasp political and historical nuance is a curse of our era.
Loathing for the IRGC regime does not make it necessary to celebrate the disastrous strategic vandalism pursued by Trump and Netanyahu.
Loathing for the Trump cartel does not make it necessary to embrace the delusional echo chambers of IRGC cheerleaders.
FFS come on people.
South African immigrants to the US are returning to South Africa because the US does not feel safe, citing school shooters and ICE raids. apple.news/A9pQEUbPrT_W...
"Declaring that no quarter will be given" is specifically prohibited by Art 23 of the Annex to the Hague Convention IV, which means it is a war crime under US domestic law by virtue of the War Crimes Act (18 U.S. Code § 2441).
BREAKING 🚨 🚨 🚨
The House Oversight Committee has asked one of the prison guards on duty when Jeffrey Epstein died to appear March 26 for a transcribed interview.
House Oversight calls prison guard on duty during Epstein's death to testify
www.axios.com/2026/03/13/o...
"Cars are the most absurd means of transport in a city. They are parked 95 per cent of the time. It takes two tonnes to move someone who weighs 70 kilogrammes. And the denser the city, the more absurd it is."
Casually saying the one thing that is explicitly a war crime not just to do but to even say you will do.
I don’t think we have to accept the catastrophic pronouncements of AI boosters
Like does the screenshotted person really - I mean really - know what’s involved in a PhD?
For some perspective... Singapore's primary airport handles roughly the same amount of traffic as LAX and suddenly fuel prices are 3x what they were a week ago. You cannot scale at that cost.
Americans face high gas prices. The rest of the world is going to face shortages and shutdowns.
i genuinely do not understand why *anyone* would want a phd if they're trying to outsource their thinking to claude.
like, there are no jobs, no work-life balance, no resources (for most of us), and the work gets tougher every year. the thinking is the only fun part, i promise.
Let's be clear: you would not be pulling THAADs from South Korea and moving a Marine Expeditionary Unit from Japan to the Gulf two weeks after launching a war on Iran if you had properly anticipated the fallout it would be likely to cause.
Absolutely correct. Feral mindsets that equate taxes with burdens not as a share of civilization. Wishcasting, not politics
"This War Will Destabilize The Entire Mideast Region And Set Off A Global Shockwave Of Anti-Americanism" vs. "{tiny dancer plays distantly in the background} Wow. I didn't know that. You're just telling me now for the first time"
Time to start laying the legal groundwork for rejecting the legitimacy of pardons granted for official crimes as part of a conspiracy of which the president is a part
The answer here is to go directly after Trump's legitimacy. Say the office was vacant under 14AS3.
A packed SCOTUS can absolutely rule that way.
Pete Hegseth at a military funeral, solemnly ripping off his shirt to perform a 21-push up salute to the fallen.
Hegseth: "We will keep pushing, keep advancing. No quarter, no mercy for our enemies."
No quarter is the refusal to take prisoners and instead just execute everyone. It's been considered a war crime for over a century.
He is performing a play in which he stars as the warrior king. Everything is artificial about this, a blend of fantasy and fiction. The words delivered have no real meaning for him. He will leave the stage thinking: that was a great performance. Meanwhile, civilians are dying in war.
fuck this so much
we are so not prepared for the mountain of dogshit “scholarship” about to flood journals everywhere
Other, more serious countries have actual constitutional courts
"I got my PhD by writing prompts instead of doing research, I'm winning"
got some bad news, there still no jobs and now you also know nothing