i see mockery of fears that selective service registration could cease to be a mere formality and conscription could return. i agree that it’s far-fetched.
but it’s a bit less far-fetched after the Russia-Ukraine experience, who expected the return of manpower-intensive trench warfare. and yet.
what if we traded, regime change here for regime change there? seems fair!
coalition of the who the fuck even knows anymore
i think there’s kind of a moral version of a Veblen good. it’s hard to know what will actually deliver power, but ambitious people do/promote evil as a price of power.
sometimes they use this price in evil as a proxy for or measure of how effective an approach must be at delivering power. and so look to pay more.
@peter it’s good for R-leaning US oil producers!
the end of history was boring, but history is worse than boring.
the Iranian people should overthrow the regime, then join the EU and impose a digital services tax.
@johnelalamo old school!
@yuki2501 they served free potions at the place we had lunch yesterday.
bubbling colorful potions surround a bubbling cauldron.
neoconservativism first time as tragedy second time as ???
as an ersatz version of the song “Barbara Ann” goes through my head, i feel like nothing has changed in my long lifetime.
“It isn't the people who use the term who are expected to be uncomfortable, after all… don't expect a report any time soon confronting the uncomfortable truth that white ex-public schoolboys are disproportionately involved in City fraud and suggesting that Eton and Harrow have questions to answer.“ #DavidTimoney https://fromarsetoelbow.blogspot.com/2025/06/uncomfortable-truths.html
This post now includes AI features.
“There is a popular myth out there that public agencies ought to be able to finance themselves with user fees. Unfortunately this principle is never applied consistently. It is used to target institutions disliked by the Right.” @maxbsawicky https://sawicky.substack.com/p/get-on-the-bus-gus
re-upping that i think what a lot of politics-knowers describe as “status quo bias” is not that at all, but rather an artifact of an electoral system that channels punishment for bad action much more effectively than rewards for good action. https://drafts.interfluidity.com/2024/12/24/wreckresentative-democracy-secret-congress-and-bee-sting-theory/index.html
after seeing a lot of videos, i’ve come to the conclusion that blonde chick from Battlestar Galactica was perhaps the most prescient take on AI.
for people who live there and love it, NYC in fact has a lot of market power.
no matter how rich you are, there really isn’t anywhere else like it, particularly if you are an English speaker and your politics are antagonistic to European social democracy.