@atherton.bsky.social
War, robots, & bad futures but imagining better. I edit @cipolicy.bsky.social's International Policy Journal, opinions my own. Unitarian Universalist. He/him. Husband to @alymay.bsky.social & father of 2. Front takes towards enemies.
1/ Disruptions mean countries will rush to exit US-led oil order
Worst case scenario for oil companies (best for rest of us) is that people permanently shift...what they call “demand destruction“
i.e short term pain but Long: Iran war will accelerate ongoing STRUCTURAL shift to solar+EVs+batteries
One Bluey After Another
Again, none of this is necessary.
Gov’t agents kidnap people who are going about their mundane daily lives, then put them in inhumane conditions, and often kill them. This is a policy choice; a stupid policy choice that solves no problems, but creates problems. www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
I'm sure movies are good I'll see them again on the other side of toddlers
follow/read and *be nice*
weird all my 2025 Oscar picks are just Season 2 of Andor
while it's unfair to Jolene, the political elite's refusal to take action to stop Trump after his first term can properly be described as a Folly Pardon
Baby Forbes journalist on this panel turning me to dust by saying that "we didn't really talk about data centers before AI"
Ah, an Oscar Wiener
Like gulf wars, bush is back
An autistic 9yo was held with his mother at Dilley for almost 3 months. Without his familiar routine, school supports, and daily therapy, his mother says, he struggled to understand what was happening or why they couldn’t go home. He grew frantic, hurt himself, and had frequent meltdowns.
follow/read and *be nice*
ah, the Trust Belt
Beyond gas prices, the war is not yet felt within the US except by those with family directly involved, but it's going to become a lot more perceptible as Trump 2 lacks Bush's salesmanship or the technocratic minimizing of the war's salience under Obama. We don't even manufacture consent anymore.
I think, every so often, about this June 11, 2009 post from Look At This Fucking Hipster.
It's Great Recession, it's Early Obama Era, it's downstream of empire and of the All Volunteer Force & also it's self-referential snark. Hegemony keep war as something over there
www.tumblr.com/lookatthisfu...
The Trump administration believes that any news outlet that doesn't reproduce propaganda verbatim should not be allowed to exist. www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...
huh weird, did republicans make some kind of colossal historic fuckup in the past few weeks?
polymarket.com/event/which-...
DoW over 50,000 Casualties
Every time we try to get policy that actually helps working people, Republicans say "it's too expensive."
That lie has never been more clear. If they can find $1 billion a day to bomb schools overseas, it's not a budget problem. It's a priorities problem.
A local organizer from West Texas kindly sent me 15 of these, which I put out as freebies at a like-minded SXSW event. They did not last ten minutes #NoAlMuro
Assuming it was the US that struck Kataib Hezbollah last night, fun anecdote about this admin's slapdash lawyering:
OLC memo for the attack on VZ cites VZ's relationship with Hezbollah and references past US hostilities with Hezbollah.
Except it mixed up Kataib Hezbollah with Lebanese Hezbollah.
Sticker on top of dive bar toilet, New Orleans
So honestly...if you were a member of the Iranian regime, the bet that you can outlast Trump - that you are willing to endure bombs and blockade longer than the American public will accept $100 a barrel (or $150 or $200) oil...that looks like a pretty likely bet.
Shouldn't be rare to see this said by a US senator
Discontent creator
STEPHEN MILLER: you need a killer running mate, someone not afraid to get their hands dirty. Someone like
TRUMP: Burgum?
MILLER: Burzum
TRUMP: Burgum
MILLER: Burzum
TRUMP: Burgum
MILLER: Burzum
Simulacra and loaded
the gap between nuke world people and lay observers on nuke risk is vast but also this is the most reckless admin since what Second Nixon?
Near zero until we lose a major asset, which itself is also near zero given current math. But even then, there are few reasons to think that kind of flail would accomplish anything and yes there are still people who would stand up to block it.
one of the most radicalising things about living through these radical times is just how bad these men are at basic business. every AI grifter can see the production savings, but can't take one more step and see there is zero audience for this shit.