Hampton Smith (he/him)

Rainbow sticker on a streetlight that reads: "Lebe so, dass die AfD was dagegen hätte!"

Poor microwave UX is my white whale and the Germans somehow do it EVEN WORSE than the Americans. 😭

YouTube video by Technology Connections You are being misled about renewable energy technology.

Good on you, @techconnectify.bsky.social . There's room for you in #berlin when you can't take it anymore. In the mean time, keep up the fight.

youtu.be/KtQ9nt2ZeGM?...

Die Leute sagen, Schnee wird schnell alt, aber ich komme aus einem warmen Ort — für mich ist das alles noch neu.

#adamduritz didn't wrestle Mr. Jones somewhere in middle America just to get this kind of disrespect

Oh hey, #southcarolina is in the news.

I have too much self respect to use the bottom emoji, but admittedly snow gets me close. #berlin #snow #icomefromawarmplace

The Best Case Scenario here is pretty bleak: we may be able to make invading another country hurt so bad that he doesn't do it again, which he definitely plans to do if this goes well. But we should pursue that Best Case Scenario anyway, because the Worst Case Scenario is ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 22/22

In quiet Lefty spaces we need to talk about norms and what the International Order is going to look like when the dust settles. Those things are important. But "you broke such a big rule" is not the slam dunk the Left think it is. But the consequences for American entanglement just might be. 21/22

Naturally his base doesn't care if the US steals oil. But oil means this is Iraq. And Iraq means this is a war. We're going to RUN Venezuela? That's Nation Building. Remember how well that went during the Iraq War? When we had Boots on the Ground? To get the Oil? What's your Exit Strategy? 20/22

And notice he's already trying to "take back" the phrase "Boots on the Ground". Tie him to it. What does that MEAN, Donald? It means American soldiers in a foreign land. There is a sizable part of his base that considers that a betrayal. 19/22

Trump's vow to 'run' Venezuela, sell oil, part of plan to dominate Western Hemisphere President Donald Trump said the United States would be "running" Venezuela "with a group," including rebuilding the oil infrastructure, but gave few additional details.

He's only had Maduro in custody 36 hours and he CAN'T SHUT UP about oil: abcnews.go.com/Politics/tru... 18/22

That would be monstrous and evil and norms-violating but, again, that works in his favor, nerd. 17/22

And, because he is not a smart man, he's ALREADY FUCKING THIS UP. He could have walked away and said that whatever happens now in Venezuela isn't his problem. He arrested the criminal and he doesn't "own" Venezuela's future. 16/22

So we on the Left need to put four phrases into heavy rotation: "Iraq War", "Nation Building", "Boots on the Ground", and "Oil". Because these are things that split HIS base and these are things that actually matter to the "America First" mindset. 15/22

Norms are important. The International Order is important. Nerds are good actually. But if we hammer those topics we allow this to fade into the background. "Trump violates norms" is not news. 14/22

Ok, now some optimism. Part of the Trump strategy is to create so many crises that we can't keep them straight, but even for him this is a BIG swing and it'll define his brand for a while. Even if the American media moves on, the International media isn't going to drop this for a long time. 13/22

Here's Republican Senator Mike Lee being a nerd and then U-turning in less than two hours because he Knows What's Good For Him (he'll still be gone in a year): www.msn.com/en-us/news/p... 12/22

Remember, no one in Trump's camp cares what the International Community (tm) thinks. They don't care about American soft power. They are in the business of state capture. Caring about the International Community is what nerds do. Rooting out nerds is a feature not a bug. 11/22

So there's the masterstroke: this splits the pro-democracy movement. This splits the sort of people who care what Venezuelans think and not just what Americans think. And it does it while violating norms, demonstrating strength, and elating his base. 10/22

Tears, relief and questions about what comes next: Venezuelans in U.S. celebrate Maduro capture The news elicited a spontaneous celebration in Doral, the city in Florida with the highest concentration of Venezuelans in the U.S.

Here's reporting from not-Fox on Venezuelan Americans rejoicing: www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news... 9/22

Venezuelan dissident Machado credits Trump for advancing freedom movement, dedicates Nobel to him Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado credits Trump for supporting Venezuela's democracy movement, dedicating her Nobel Peace Prize to him.

And the "I did you favor" thing is the master stroke. Here's the Venezuelan opposition personally thanking Trump (and specifically Fox New's reporting on that): www.foxnews.com/world/venezu... 8/22

So what's the narrative? "You can't do that!" "Apparently I can." "But you're interfering in Venezuelan sovereignty!" "No I'm not, we all agreed he wasn't the real president. I did you a favor." "BUT IT'S AGAINST THE RULES." 7/22

UK recognises Juan Guaido as interim President of Venezuela Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt gave a statement on the UK recognising Juan Guaido as the constitutional interim President of Venezuela.

Here's the UK calling him a criminal: www.gov.uk/government/n... 6/22

Here's the European Parliament calling him a criminal: www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/pres... 5/22

Here's Friedrich Merz calling him a criminal: x.com/tom_nuttall/... 4/22

Set aside the rules for a second. Set aside that it's galling when people let this man do whatever he wants. What actually happened here? A few foreigners died, a powerful criminal will stand trial. 3/22

As is often the case, norms violation is the point. Every time he breaks the rules, we rush in to say "you can't do that", but then apparently he can, so we look weak and he looks prescient and powerful. Norms are important (particularly here), but the cool kids are not supposed to care. 2/22

Kidnapping #maduro in #venezuela is a masterstroke and as usual we on the Left are missing the point--but there is an opportunity here. A thread. 1/22

Ein Foto aus einem Wohnungsfenste: ein Innenhof, leicht mit Schnee bedeckt.

Silvesterschnee aus meinem Fenster in meiner Wohnung in #Berlin. Das Leben ist gar nicht so schlimm.