This is the only nice thing I will say about the man, but Douglas MacArthur had dramitically more drip than this
MeidasTouch@meidastouch.com · yesterdayStolen valor from Mr. Bone Spurs. An insult to every man and woman who has worn the uniform.
Dr Nick Dickinson
@nickdickinson.bsky.social
Political Scientist | British Politics and History | PhD on political salaries (Exeter) | Mst. Modern British and European History (Oxford) | DMs closed, email me @n.dickinson3@exeter.ac.uk
MeidasTouch@meidastouch.com · yesterdayAs someone who grew up watching Michael Portillo and Diane Abbott on This Week without any decent context on who these people were until later, I find this even more terrifyingly plausible
Jonn Elledge@jonnelledge.bsky.social · 12h agojust had a horrific vision of the future in which Zack Polanski and Kemi Badenoch have a podcast and now I need a lie down
Wish I had a photo but I loved the University of Innsbruck signs by the taps emploring you absolutely to drink the tap water becuase it was essentially pure glacial springwater. And it did taste fantastic.
John Oxley@joxley.jmoxley.co.uk · 7h ago@danwaterfield.bsky.social the University of London caters for your requirements.
My thanks to Nick for such a generous response! I research on 2 key areas of political leadership: 1. Mayors and devolution 2. Political advisers, esp. Downing Street Chief-of-Staff. Both pretty current and happy to talk about either!
Dr Nick Dickinson@nickdickinson.bsky.social · 7h agoI don't know Max personally but his research couldn't be more relevant to the direction of UK politics right now. Political leadership and devolution? Yeah I'm sure that won't be important in the next few years.
I don't know Max personally but his research couldn't be more relevant to the direction of UK politics right now. Political leadership and devolution? Yeah I'm sure that won't be important in the next few years.
DrMaxPolitics@drmaxpolitics.bsky.social · 7h agoHi, I'm being made redundant by the University of Southampton at the end of this month. I'm desperately looking for work. I'll consider all offers but have particular skills in policy, strategy and research. I also have a consultancy service I offer. Please let me know if you hear of anything
Hi, I'm being made redundant by the University of Southampton at the end of this month. I'm desperately looking for work. I'll consider all offers but have particular skills in policy, strategy and research. I also have a consultancy service I offer. Please let me know if you hear of anything
Report: U.S. Officials Back Plan for Iran & Oman to Split Control of Hormuz maritime-executive.com/article/repo...
Report: U.S. Officials Back Plan for Iran & Oman to Split Control of Hormuz
The U.S. government is on board with an Iranian proposal to split control of the Strait of Hormuz with Oman, and plans to portray it as a "temporary"...
maritime-executive.com
Look, alright, auto-ethnography is a valid research method
Alex Partridge@alexpartridge87.bsky.social · 8h agoIn a post on X he says he’ll instead be advising the Conservative Party on how young men become radicalised
Interesting to think about what these occasions are. Mortgages are one (if that counts as consumer). Maybe stuff which saves/makes you money faster than the interest you pay? Almost nothing but property increases in value reliably to not be a leveraged bet.
Will Stancil@whstancil.bsky.social · yesterdayOne way I know “boots theory” is not true is that if it WERE true, poor people should consider taking out loans to upgrade their consumer goods, and there are very few instances in which anyone should do that
“There's an old saying in Clausewitz—I know it's in Jomini, probably in Clausewitz—that strategy is the use of battles for... for... battles get you the thing you want.”
James@gravitysra1nbow.bsky.social · 2d agoIt's like what that German guy always used to say. Sustained kinetic strikes in lieu of a cessation in hostilities are negotiations by other means
This is indeed how the British constitution works. It would be a breach of ECHR Article X but that’s parliamentary sovereignty. The only thing Parliament can’t easily do is extend its term. But it can even do that with Lords consent. We have very weak de jure protections on democratic backsliding.
Randy Herman@randyhermanlaw.com · yesterdaySorry, I am American so I must be confused. So if Reform controlled Parliament and they passed a bill that said white supremacy was a "belief protected in English law" it would no longer be legal to criticize white supremacy? Is that really how your law works?
Good thread. Iran might have been better not enforcing its interpretation of the MOU clauses on the strait, and hoping the US moved on after 60 days without reimposing sanctions. On the other hand getting effective recognition on the strait ups long run leverage to force US fulfilment on sanctions.
Alexander Clarkson@aphclarkson.bsky.social · yesterdayFriendly reminder for everyone on here and the other site getting excited about the Strait of Hormuz that revenue accrued through it will come nowhere close to financing the rebuilding of Iran's economy. For the Iranian regime and people it is sanctions relief that is the long term ballgame.
There are only two options: a) create a humanitarian crisis across Iran and the Gulf, possibly not even opening the strait at the end b) give up, let Iran administer the strait but retain the threat of strikes on nuclear infrastructure Option b) is more rational, but way too humiliating for Trump
Ash Oro@ashoro.co.uk · 2d agoFor this evening - back to #TheHormuzCrisis Trump seems to be becoming more desperate and frustrated. He finally may have seen the reason everyone has treated Iran as they have for the last 40 years is this situation was inevitable. I do not know where this leads - he is too volatile to analyse.
There is something Homeric about being stuck in an endless cycle of negotiations with the only people more annoying to talk to than you
Stephen Nuñez@socio-steve.bsky.social · 2d agoMany people are saying that Iran has violated the Law of Zeus
Feel like I need @dieworkwear.bsky.social to weigh in on how Lincoln is closer in time to Washington than to Trump but at a certain point in time formal menswear got broadly fixed such that they look like contemporary.
Ron Filipkowski@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 3d agoGood to know after a tough weekend on the golf course the president is back at work laser focused on improving the lives of Americans by resuming his deranged AI marathon.
"You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read." Happy birthday, James Baldwin!
Prior to WW1 they had to tell the German Kaiser that he was ruining the military purpose of yearly war games, because the opposing team always let him win. He was genuinely shocked it was rigged.
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 3d agoTrump: “The Winning Shot in the Bedminster Club Championship! Thank you very much to all of those who participated. I won with a 70, & am so honored in that, unlike the rest of the field, I’m given very little time to practice, bc I’m focused on many other things. It’s called TALENT, and I have it”
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Alternate universe Claude: “Can you help me with this visualisation?” “You moron. You clod. Do you even understand ggplot? This looks like you vomited into the console. I’ll do it but you should feel bad.”
Katie Mack@astrokatie.com · 4d agoIt’s bad enough that it tries to flatter you by telling you you’re asking such good and insightful questions. But desperately egging you on to try to make you spend more tokens is just gross. Like if every time you ran a mass spectrometer it tried to upsell you on some more advanced analysis.
For me it was Tony Hawk Pro Skater, but yes games of this era had crazy good mixes of licensed music. Probably the first time I listened to Rage Against the Machine.
Matt Hodges@matthodges.bsky.social · 4d agoyou ever think about how from like 2000 - 2005 a lot of kids discovered new music from the Madden soundtracks?
"And so Arnold began reaching out to other people who said science was untrustworthy and giving them money." A MUST-READ post about open sci/metasci funding, philanthropist agendas, and academic censorship in the name of scientific reform. There's so much I want to quote. Better read it yourself!
Jeff Lockhart@jwlockhart.bsky.social · 5d agoI wrote about science funding, science reform, and anti-science agendas. scatter.wordpress.com/2026/07/31/s...
I do wonder how many people who routinely use "military age males" realise its provenance in Vietnam war body count terminology and the GWOT to massage the notion of excess civilian casualties
Sunder Katwala (sundersays)@sundersays.bsky.social · 5d agoRobert Jenrick (7pm) tweeting about "30,000 military age men rampaging through Spanish territory" long after the return rate was over 90%
Got to be the best name for something that lacked the fortitude of its own branding since the Future of Humanity Institute shut down
Mr Market Miscalculates 🇪🇺🇺🇦🏴☠️@mrmarketmis.bsky.social · 5d agoBlowing up your $45bn hedge fund two days before your multi-day wedding? Priceless
This is a fascinating point I had not considered. But would guess it’s a dog that won’t bark because pressing a claim on your own customers like this would be comically stupid
Pwnallthethings@pwnallthethings.bsky.social · 6d agosure: virtually every major software company incorporates LLM-generated code now, and none of their GCs are worried that means they do not hold copyright over the code they wrote
Without minimising climate change as an issue, this is just an excellent description of history in general
Peter Allen@peterallen.bsky.social · last wk.To quote Mark Blyth, the climate crisis is ‘a giant non-linear outcome generator with wicked convexities. In plain English, there is no mean, there is no average, there is no return to normal. It’s one way traffic into the unknown’. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
In stage one we say nothing is going to happen. Stage two, we say something may be about to happen, but we should do nothing. Stage three, we say maybe we should do something about it, but there's nothing we can. Stage four, we say maybe there was something we could have done, but it's too late now.
Holger Hestermeyer@hhesterm.bsky.social · 7d agoTime and again climate change is treated as though it were binary: we cannot prevent it, so ok, it’s there let’s embrace it. That’s entirely wrong: it is a sliding scale. We cannot prevent 1.5 degrees. But maybe 3? Or 5?
