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Nick Brumfield

@nickjbrumfield.bsky.social

Political risk researcher on Yemen, MENA Based in Bangkok | Also posts on Appalachia, Rivers, เมืองไทย | Words in Daily Beast, FPRI, Amwaj, Al-Jazeera, Arab Center DC | Contact info.nickjbrumfield@gmail.com for work, media inquiries | he/him

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Joyce Karam@joycekaram.bsky.social · 31m ago

NEW: 5.5 months into US war in #Iran, regime is fully embracing hardline militant policy. The appointment of IRGC veteran Mohsen Rezaei to top security post is message to Gulf, Washington that this is a time of doubling down on proxies… www.al-monitor.com/originals/20...

Who is Iran’s Mohsen Rezaei, hard-line IRGC veteran appointed to top security post?

Mohsen Rezaei's appointment comes as Iran navigates a fragile halt in hostilities with the US and negotiations over reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

al-monitor.com

If you know you know@privatechand.bsky.social · 8h ago

What do acceptable universalisms look like? I think about this a lot. I am a Bengali of a certain age married to a man of similar age from Kerala. Our horizons of the universal were set not by the US, a rude latecomer, but by the Soviet Union. The first time I went to Russia was in the mid-1990s. 1/

Nick Brumfield@nickjbrumfield.bsky.social · 9h ago

Ah, the classic theist conundrum. How do you prove this was God and not a spirit of someone who died badly and who must be coaxed on to their next life by a monk?

PEIPolitical 🇨🇦@peipolitical.bsky.social · yesterday

Vance: I’ve had moments where I felt the presence of God. A friend and I were talking about Christianity and there was this moment where a glass fell off the wall. I think an atheist would dismiss that, but it felt like God was trying to send me a message. #cdnpoli

Nick Brumfield@nickjbrumfield.bsky.social · 22h ago

Yeah, it's not likely to come to much (Jawf tribes like to make trouble for the Houthis on the best of days), but the Jawf nakaf was a rather impressive bit of political mobilization in deeply hostile conditions around an interesting political myth

Michael Brill@michaelpbrill.bsky.social · 22h ago

"She claimed to be none other than the daughter of the former Iraqi dictator. That claim, however, was denied by the family, who now live in exile in the United Arab Emirates." @english.lemonde.fr www.lemonde.fr/en/internati...

Dr. Damien P. Williams has to go the way his blood beats@wolven.blacksky.app · 22h ago

When i keep saying that an understanding of both comparative religious studies and the foundations of mythmaking are crucial for understanding the cultural paradigm of pretty much all things "AI", this is what i mean.

balrog bongcloud@balrogbongcloud.silmarillionaire.moe · 2d ago

I don't know how easy it is to keep AI models that can write zero days contained, but I expect it's a lot *easier* if everyone involved isn't a part of a California New Religious Movement who considers "the AI escapes" to be advertisement for their company and their NRM simultaneously

Peter Mandler@petermandler.bsky.social · yesterday

I suppose it was a kind of immigration fraud. Reminds us that the cool retrospective view of history can turn what looked like fraud at the time into something immensely humane and personal. And it places a moral responsibility on me to pass on some of that humanity to present-day migrants. (3/3)

Nick Brumfield@nickjbrumfield.bsky.social · yesterday

It's interesting moving from West Virginia, where all the industrial jobs getting offshored to places like Thailand created a certain Rust Belt vibe growing up, to suburban Bangkok where all the industrial jobs getting offshored to China has created a very similar Rust Belt-y atmosphere

Nick Brumfield@nickjbrumfield.bsky.social · 2d ago

Fun fact: There are actually two types of Siamese cats The first is the "old-style" cat based on the landrace present in Siam in the early 1900s, which looks much like a normal cat The second is the "modern" one that international breeders developed in the 20th century that looks like an alien

An "old-style" Siamese catA "modern" Siamese cat that is much more slender and with big, pink ears
Orion🌈&sm9eb@sm9eb.bsky.social · 2d ago

You know who I've never really met?? A proper Siamese cat! I tried to shelter a poor stray Birman named Forbidden Fruit (because my friends were all like, "You don't need a 4th cat!") but he was sick and contagious, and he very sadly passed. What a sweet cat he was.