@nickjbrumfield.bsky.social
Researcher on Yemen, MENA, Political Risk | Posts about MENA, Appalachia, Rivers, increasingly เมืองไทย | Words in Daily Beast, FPRI, Amwaj, Al-Jazeera, Arab Center DC | Contact info.nickjbrumfield@gmail.com for work, media inquiries | he/him
RIP Jurgen Habermas too bad your last major public act was denying what would later become almost universally recognized as genocidal intent
Wait it's set in the desert, it's about the struggle between two great houses mediated by a baroque aristocracy, and the entire time the bosses are saying "the money must flow" is Casino Martin Scorsese's adaptation of Dune?
Definitely one of Scorsese's most institutionalist mob pictures, along with The Irishmen. All about the political ecosystem that grows up around the spatially-bound, life-giving flow of capital from its title location.
Again. It's just really tragic that two small states being invaded by great powers are bound by necessity and alliance to fight each other rather than uphold the rights of small states to not be invaded
This is not the most important movie Martin Scorsese ever made. But it may actually be the best. Wow, can't believe I never watched it. The epic runtime was always intimidating, but honestly it feels much shorter than it is thanks to the rapid-fire editing. Very TikTok brained before TikTok.
They have a subplot about someone skimming off the skim! Bureaucracy, man.
That's where the "liberal" in "liberal democracy" does a fair bit of conceptual lifting
Tehran says US-linked sites in UAE may be targeted in response to Kharg Island attack - https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/tehran-says-us-linked-sites-uae-may-be-targeted-response-kharg-island
Perfect encapsulation of the mix of very anxious and incredibly exhausted I am right now
Oh, the post-2024 government after they suspended parliament is still doing that on a weekly basis. Dissidents. National team soccer players. Literally denaturalized the *serving* ambassador to the UK a few months back. They're over 50,000 (3% of citizenry) now.
ICYMI, today Israel dropped two sets of leaflets on Lebanon, one which refers to the "outstanding success in Gaza," carrying an implicit threat for the country and another which calls on people to effectively report on each other and share intel with IDF Unit 504.
Dystopian.
I guess one of the benefits of publicly being a curmudgeonly cheapskate is the algorithm will take one look and be like "well fuck this"
Kuwait has an exit visa that's trapping people in the country and it's in times like these you realize states consider people like cattle
I wouldn't even go that far! Even within monarchist models, the ideal king is one who governs predictably with justice in accordance with (divine, dharmic, whatever) law.
I interpreted it as humorous with her as being so wrapped up in her issue that she barely noticed!
Part of that is because people don't like unpredictability, and part of it (at least in the US) is bc to be treated arbitrarily is to be treated unequally. To not be accorded proper respect. That could vary culturally, e.g. something being arbitrary if one is not treated according to their station.
Many Washington Post readers have been notified via email that their subscription rates are set to increase. Nestled at the bottom of these emails, you’ll find an asterisk and the following: “This price was set by an algorithm using your personal data.”
Fuck antisemitism. Fuck this.
Is it just me or was everybody imagining tension between Mohan and shirtless Abbott? The real ship is Abbott/Hashemi.
The most trenchant critiques of monarchy and dictatorship in the modern period hasn't been that their legitimacy isn't rooted in democracy. It's that they act arbitrarily. Unpredictably. Erratically. Autocrats who are able to provide a stable set of rules ppl can adapt to are much more successful.
If there is one thing modern humans don't like, it's arbitrariness. We want at least the illusion of a set of transparent, legitimated rules that we can choose to follow or not. And folks implicitly know letting companies veer from that is gonna result in them getting screwed.
I think a lot of it comes down to the idea that the rules with coupons are at least semi-transparent. There's one regular price, and a coupon price that's broadly accessible. Surveillance pricing promises a much more individual experience that seems arbitrary and is likely to be rife with biases.
So I'm a little fuzzy on whether these "safe passage" talks (India already seemingly got a deal) are to sustainably resume traffic through the Hormuz or just get the 110 tankers currently trapped in the Gulf out
Well, of course. No one's expecting the *rich* to go without.
Ukraine has been right since 2014 not because it is a democracy or a beacon of true Western values or whatever propaganda they're saying these days
It has been right because it is a sovereign country fighting against an unauthorized, illegal war of aggression
Iran is in the same fucking boat
Iran gave Russia Shaheds, so you send folks to help intercept Shaheds in the Gulf. I get it. It's just business. That's war.
But a small nation rightfully fighting against an invading great power really would do well to not support the precedent of a great power invading a small state
I've given Ukraine *a lot* of slack for what it's doing in the Gulf right now because that's how it is, but Zelensky can fuck right off for this
www.kyivpost.com/post/71913
It's almost like they weren't lying about building a garrison state to fight an eventual US invasion for the last 35 years
Researching it a bit more, it seems the PBOC's position is a bit more nuanced than just seeking devaluation, but please laugh
