Im interested in the idea the idea that without the USN naval trade would be rapidly put into danger. And i just dont think i believe that

the solution to this, as i've said before, is redenominate the currency. one old $1 equals 10 new cents and suddenly everyone can buy gas with literal pocket change again bsky.app/profile/sky....

Sky Marchini@sky.skymarchini.net · 9mo ago

one of my hottest takes is that we should redenominate the currency to reduce a lot of the "Felt" inflation (i.e. having to shell out larger bills, coins being a cute legacy product, etc)

like if a burrito was $2 and household income $8,000 but inflation was 5%, the public would be happier than they are now at $20, household income $80,000, and 3% inflation. "things used to be cheaper!" is part of it, but physical cash coming in set denominations i think is actually the main driver

i'm increasingly coming around to the idea that while the rate of price change matters, so much of this is just "number big and the Right price is when Number Small!!" - i.e. it's mostly an objection to the fact the nominal price is high even if the purchasing power is okay.

huck mason@tylerhuckabee.bsky.social · 6h ago

for reasons that only make sense if you're insane, a TPUSA kid complaining about burrito costs on xitter has the GOP's biggest divas going for each other's throats.

i am also struck by how rapidly these discussions move away from the material details of ordinary human bodies and into something more like debates about idealized and abstract Male Form vs. Female Form, which are supposed to reside somewhere in plato's realm of ideas

Peter@notalawyer.bsky.social · 2d ago

it's interesting how many men get satisfaction out of knowing that other men can beat elite female athletes. like ok, maybe the best high school boys team in the country can beat a WNBA team, but YOU can't

AI is effective for knowledge work and yeah basically all jobs are going to be managing it, I think you're going to see a lot of outsourcing because business process outsourcers are going to be able to use AI to do a lot of the heavy lifting in a way that it may not make sense for SME to do.

Materialist Gnostic@walmsley.bsky.social · 4h ago

thinking about the nightmare future where AI *is* effective for knowledge work and that *doesn't* destroy all the jobs but but *does* turn every job in to purely managerial and strategy-alignment work because implementation becomes free

The problem is that as we're seeing with the Strait of Hormuz, "the USA forfeits its global ambitions" does not lead to a new age of peace and sunshine, but to global recession and instability. The Strait of Hormuz is not the only load-bearing instance of US power backstopping modern economies.

@tupolev22m.bsky.social · 5h ago

I think the traditional answer is actually "forfeit your global ambitions because you can't afford them and voters won't make the sacrifices necessary to restore them," unfortunately

the biggest presidential scandal in history. jeffrey epstein was a close friend and business associate of trump and they did crimes together! against children! its all pretty much out in the open now but its a smaller story than hillary's email server was for some reason

Katie Phang@katiephang.bsky.social · 5h ago

BREAKING: The New Mexico Department of Justice has sued Acting AG Todd Blanche and the DOJ, requesting the court for access to unredacted Epstein-related investigative files that the DOJ has been withholding.

lol anyway there's a very interesting case to be made for transitioning away from supercarriers to missiles as the fleet's striking arm, but this dumb turd ain't that not that it's ever getting built

U.S. Naval Institute@usni.org · 3h ago

First Trump-class Battleship Could Cost $23.4B, Says CBO — USNI News news.usni.org/2026/08/05/f...

interesting!

Nom de Plume Brett@maverickbrett.bsky.social · 3h ago

It’s because data centers are actually good jobs while clean energy projects aren’t. I can train someone to do like solar panel installations, and such with about 10 hours, to do the electrical work, it’s all low-voltage unimpressive up until the last bit where you get lineman do it.

assuming we don't crank the war back up to early March levels, with currently executing and funded production we'll be back to Feb 26 muns stock levels by ~FY28-29 which is still bad and stupid but also isn't a "this'll take us a decade to fix" sort of thing

Gigan, Therapod Enthusiast@gigansprogress.bsky.social · 5h ago

Munitions hole is already being filled, we are already putting metric buttloads of money into this and MRO capabilities and the overall SRM chain, it’s already happening. They are the easier parts of this to remedy it will just take time

Next time someone tries to tell you that Roman slavery was different or better than other forms of slavery, tell them to listen to last week’s episode of @thisguysucked.com and/or buy Emma’s book.

The good rule of thumb here is: 1) Most pre-modern complex agrarian societies had some form of slavery, often a range of forms of unfreedom and 2) These were almost invariably horrifyingly brutal.

This is worth amplifying (also this podcast is rad), that Roman slavery was, y'know, slavery. In fact, all slavery is horrifying, but the broader 'Mediterranean' slavery tradition (which is also, by the by, the ancestor of Atlantic slavery) is one of the *more extreme* such traditions.

Claire E. Aubin@ceaubin.com · last wk.

Next time someone tries to tell you that Roman slavery was different or better than other forms of slavery, tell them to listen to last week’s episode of @thisguysucked.com and/or buy Emma’s book.

lol. lmao, even.

Really the biggest thing thats gotten worse is everyone spends all their time in online spaces looking at bad news all day

Mike Caulfield@mikecaulfield.bsky.social · 18h ago

Health care, food, video games, tvs, computers, sneakers, insulation, rain jackets, toilet paper, stoves (induction), central HVAC (heat pumps), mattresses, car safety (just literally saved life of acquaintance last week), power drills, solar power, amusement parks, farmers markets, gyms

I want to believe that society has evolved to make billionaires unfuckable, and the fact that Musk is no longer photographed with famously beautiful women is undeniable, but the simpler (and therefore more plausible) explanation here might just be botched surgery theory

Playboy@playboy.com · yesterday

As they amass more money and power, the public views billionaires as sweaty psychos Scrooge McDucking their way into evil amounts of cash. The collective ick emerging raises a question that wealthy men might prioritize over ethical perceptions: Have billionaires become categorically unfuckable?

This is basically the original intent behind the UN, and I think that was entirely workable. It’s simply a matter of refusing to bow to American or Russian tantrums again.

@torpike.bsky.social · 3h ago

I think its both feasible and good to ensure international trade rests not on the military power and goodwill of a single country

gotta update your priors on foreign ownership, lot of people working on a mental model world from 2010 when the US had like half the current debt burden

George Pearkes@peark.es · 4h ago

What % of US marketable debt outstanding do you think Japan owns? Hint: total marketable Treasury debt was $30.9trn in May, the latest month for which we have foreign holders data available.

Fascinating interview with Robert Kagan, where he says that the biggest mistake of the Iraq war was that it permanently crippled the American public's conceptualization of their country's role in the world, and then admits that America is exceedingly Islamophobic and this informs foreign policy.

Robert Kagan: Sometimes US intervention is worth blowback

In a wide-ranging interview with RS, the hawkish historian talks primacy, neoconservatives, and why he opposes the war in Iran

responsiblestatecraft.org

i mean, the thing is that basically every major producer-state (Japan, now China) finds it hard to rebalance because it is a lot easier to boom on industrial production then it is with a more rebalanced economy

World Politics Review@wpr.bsky.social · 3h ago

China’s first official response to industrial overcapacity allegations assails its critics and defends its position as the “world’s factory,” Mary Gallagher writes.

“Michigan is a hotbed of resistance to renewable energy projects. A 2025 review ranks it as the state with the largest number of local restrictions: More than 60 local governments in Michigan passed ordinances, moratoriums, or other restrictions on wind and solar development between 2011 and 2024.”

WIRED@wired.com · 10h ago

Activist and grassroots organizer Will Lawrence has won the Democratic primary election in Michigan’s 7th Congressional District, with a campaign focused on data centers’ regulation and demanding accountability for big tech and AI companies. www.wired.com/story/anti-d...

Who knew ridiculously long deployments and demanding op tempos run a ship and crew into the ground!

Patrick Chovanec@prchovanec.bsky.social · 6h ago

Keeping people constantly deployed has a mounting cost. www.ms.now/news/conditi...

i need a cloning machine so i can make more of me and make each clone draw more of [insert character here]

As someone who in theory somehow makes a living in it, the internet economy is very strange. I think an important gap is between reader/viewer/fan supported and brand supported efforts (arguably one might term the former 'content creators' and the latter 'influencers' but I hate both labels).

Josh Gondelman@joshgondelman.bsky.social · 9h ago

This is such an great feature (Rebecca is great!), and I've been thinking about it for a few days. IMO, "Influencer" in the ten-years-ago sense was really a LOT of jobs (spokesmodel/copywriter/etc.) but now it's morphing, at least in part, into "intentionally annoying person" which feels worse.

Consider the people you know in 2026 who are wiling to answer an unknown number, listen to a pitch, and then willingly subject themselves to several minutes of questions about politics, a topic which almost no one alive enjoys - and ask yourself how well these folks represent the rest of us.

@abovoadmala.bsky.social · 18h ago

Isn't polling a fairly mature industry? How is it so ineffective?

Guy born in 1979 thinks air travel was better forty years ago, i.e his parents took care of all of the paperwork & packing while the fight attendants gave him little plastic pilot wings & a certificate declaring him a special boy

Revan@revan.eurosky.social · 18h ago

So this is basically one of the entry points to becoming a reactionary

So this is basically one of the entry points to becoming a reactionary

I think a lot of this idiot discourse is underpinned by not understanding the function a NOTAM is supposed to serve and the responsibility any aviator has to review and be familiar with all NOTAMs pertaining to anywhere along their planned flight route