gnulogic

Ladies and gentlemen — the weekend.

Israel’s Futile Air War Precision strikes will not destroy Iran’s nuclear program—or its government.

Robert Pape (Bombing to Win: Air Power and Coercion in War (1996)) describes how air power alone is rarely effective unless it is supporting ground operations. In the recent article in Foreign Affairs: regime change with air power alone isn’t realistic either. www.foreignaffairs.com/iran/israels...

The new restriction will sharply limit access to the Novavax vaccine for people under 65 who are in good health. It may leave Americans who do not have underlying conditions at risk if a more virulent version of the coronavirus were to emerge. It could also limit options for people who want the vaccine for a wide array of reasons, including to protect a vulnerable loved one.

Under 65 years old? No Novovax COVID vaccine for you this year.

As expected, the Republicans have enabled RFK Jr. and his coterie of antivax grifters to take away your right to make your own medical decisions in consultation with your doctor.

Gift Link: www.nytimes.com/2025/05/17/h...

Check out Ergon Agora - they have yummy food! I live part of the year in Thessaloniki and
eat there weekly. Hope you enjoy your visit in Greece - you picked just the right time of the year. maps.app.goo.gl/ajRw1hMAqwZL...

The early reviews: no stars (out of 5).

Everything now depends on China. If China devalues the Yuan in response to today's large, additional US tariffs, that sets off a global risk-off that hits EMs first and then - if it persists - spills back to the US and the S&P 500. China has so far kept a very low profile. That may now end...

Interesting take.

Don’t respond in kind versus the U.S. (a lose-lose scenario)

Respond asymmetrically against U.S. oligarchs:
Musk, Bezos, Ellison, Zuckerberg.

“Clown Car Kleptocrats” 👏 💯

Dream car. But I’m not sure who would get the V6 as it’s slower (and I imagine heavier) than the turbocharged AMG 4 cylinder for the same price.

How busy is it there on a late Saturday night? Seems like a good time to beat the crowds.

It has to be their privacy focused customer protections preventing them from having the vast trove of data that these other AI companies are training LLMs with, right?

I’m so sorry for your loss. I hope you rediscovered a lot of meaningful photos over the past week as you prepared for your mom’s service.

Her mother, who grew up in China during the Cultural Revolution and emigrated in the 1980s, named her daughter "Lántiān" (蓝天), meaning "blue sky" in Mandarin Chinese, as a wish for her to have "boundless freedom". The similarity between Graber's given name and Bluesky is purely coincidental

Someone told me about BlueSky CEO Jay Graber's given name and I didn't believe it but it seems like it's true? That is wild.

Thank you! 🙏

Every time a career lawyer is pushed out, you can assume they were told to do something illegal.

Greeks hold mass protests demanding justice after Tempi train tragedy Fifty-seven people died in the disaster and protests are being held across Greece and beyond.

What a sad day.

Ukrainians seeking freedom and liberty lose their most powerful supporter.

Greeks denied justice for the children killed in the Tempi train disaster.

I’m losing patience while waiting for the the arc of the moral universe to bend towards justice.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Quite a day for helping the Reds

I’m sorry, but repeating this framing without skepticism is collaborating with your source to mislead your readers. They have been working on humiliating Zelensky and catering to Putin since long before the inauguration. Nothing about this is a response; it’s the plan of an abuser and a charlatan.

RFK really missed the simplest lesson of LBJ’s career, try not to get any kids killed if your name rhymes with “how many kids did you kill today”

NO KINGS NO NAZIS gets you like 80% approval and does a solid 60% of what we want to do

I didn’t recognize that the UK 🇬🇧 didn’t have full access and ownership over their nuclear weapon delivery systems.

Do the limited French and British stockpiles of nuclear warheads and weapons deter an emboldened Putin if the U.S. 🇺🇸 refuses to intervene or support NATO?

NO KINGS, ONLY TRAINS is a pretty great 2028 slogan for anyone who wants it

Scatterplot titled “Empirical Evidence of Ideological Targeting in Federal Layoffs: Agencies seen as liberal are significantly more likely to face DOGE layoffs.” • The x-axis represents Perceived Ideological Leaning of federal agencies, ranging from -2 (Most Liberal) to +2 (Most Conservative), based on survey responses from over 1,500 federal executives. • The y-axis shows Agency Size (Number of Staff) on a logarithmic scale from 1,000 to 1,000,000. Each point represents a federal agency: • Red dots indicate agencies that experienced DOGE layoffs. • Gray dots indicate agencies with no layoffs. Key Observations: • Liberal-leaning agencies (left side of the plot) are disproportionately represented among red dots, indicating higher layoff rates. • Notable targeted agencies include: • HHS (Health & Human Services) • EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) • NIH (National Institutes of Health) • CFPB (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) • Dept. of Education • USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development) • The National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE), despite its conservative leaning (+1 on the scale), is an exception among targeted agencies. • A notable outlier: the Department of Veterans Affairs (moderately conservative) also faced layoffs despite its size. Takeaway: The figure visually demonstrates that DOGE layoffs disproportionately targeted liberal-leaning agencies, supporting claims of ideological bias. The pattern reveals that layoffs were not driven by agency size or budget alone but were strongly associated with perceived ideology. Source: Richardson, Clinton, & Lewis (2018). Elite Perceptions of Agency Ideology and Workforce Skill. The Journal of Politics, 80(1).

The DOGE firings have nothing to do with “efficiency” or “cutting waste.” They’re a direct push to weaken federal agencies perceived as liberal. This was evident from the start, and now the data confirms it: targeted agencies overwhelmingly those seen as more left-leaning. 🧵⬇️

I tend to agree that we should pick our battles and not respond to every Trump troll with an overreaction

The good news is that it's literally impossible to overreact to the fucking President of the United fucking States declaring himself a fucking king

Ok, but real talk? The sort of low-engagement persuadable Trump voter you need to flip is not going to sit through a serious policy argument, and would not understand it if they did. “He’s calling himself a king” they can understand. So run with it.

The marginal voter is low-information and low-propensity.

So flood the zone with stuff to change their minds!

Dems have to stop being so precise and precious about wonky policy details.

Let’s be honest. Does anyone think that this president would honour Article Five? Presence of US military & nuclear sharing still has value to Europe, but its deterrent value is significantly reduced & falling. This is reckless, dangerous behaviour by the Trump administration.

The Delta flight in Toronto?!? I favor one year of hard labor for folks that take their carry-on off the plane in an emergency.

This is laughable.

This war is in Europe. European states will be providing peacekeepers or frontline troops to prevent Russian incursions. Long-term European security is at risk here. Ukraine will be an EU member state.
Russia is just looking for sanctions relief while granting “peace” on paper.