This is an astounding loss for the US if it comes to fruition. One of the biggest strategic losses the US has ever endured—perhaps biggest?—and all from a war the US chose to start for no reason, illegally.

Nicholas Grossman@nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 1h ago

Iran and Oman have reportedly agreed that all ships transiting Hormuz have to go through an Iran-controlled corridor, and are finalizing tolls of 3, 5, or 7%. This would close off the path outside Iranian waters the US encouraged ships to use during the MOU, then started bombing again to keep open.

Politics is fun because it's like THE FORCES OF SOCIETY and TEST OF THE ZEITGEIST and then it's a one percent margin that could have broken differently if the role of Haley Stevens was played by someone not cast for "weird and off-putting intensity" who raves about Israel coming to her in her dreams

"How to re-educate your YIMBY friends," if that's the sort of thing you want a reading list of: www.are.na/roberto-grec...

How to re-educate your YIMBY friends | Are.na

“How to re-educate your YIMBY friends. If these readings don’t work, nothing wil…u should divorce them…” https://twitter.com/AlJavieera/status/856887406850527233

are.na

When I started my political science grad program in 2003 people were freaking out because survey response rates had fallen below 30% and now they’re well below 1%. It might be as accurate (and more intellectually honest) to just conduct simulations with high/low/average turnout scenarios.

Adam Serwer@adamserwer.bsky.social · 5h ago

There’s no actual alternative to polling but I just don’t believe they capture public sentiment in any reliable way anymore

every once in a while I check in on the housing market back home, and lolmg www.zillow.com/homedetails/...

ok real talk, though, el-sayed is a little TOO buff. eat an entire pizza every once in a while. bingewatch a show.

the el-sayed win shows yet again that centrists are now everything they always claim the left is when it comes to israel: ideologically rigid, in hock to extremists, mistaking online beefs (ie hasan) for mass politics—and toxic to the electorate.

The media's takeaway from an El-Sayed win is the same as it would have been from a Stevens win, and the same as it will be if El-Sayed wins the general, or if he loses it: everyone, no matter who they are, needs to take several steps to the right.

"This is Dr. Goodman, Foundation Training is my program. I live in a normal house with my wife and our kids." www.reddit.com/r/Posture/co...

goodie1127's comment on "What the hell is foundation training, and is it a cult, or does it have real science behind it?"

Explore this conversation and more from the Posture community

reddit.com

a second emily wilson has hit the nolan

"More than 15,000 people in El Cerrito have a Nextdoor account, which is approximately 60 percent of the town’s population" <-- not the only jump scare in this piece.

amy brown@amybrown.xyz · 19h ago

my essay about becoming the nextdoor villain of el cerrito drops tomorrow at @oaklandreviewofbooks.org

extremely belated SEO-stunt by winona ryder's crisis pr team

Aaron Bady@zunguzungu.bsky.social · 20h ago

"Every Flock license plate reader camera operated by the Winona Police Department has been sawed off and stolen in what investigators believe was a coordinated theft." www.valleynewslive.com/2026/08/04/e...

"Every Flock license plate reader camera operated by the Winona Police Department has been sawed off and stolen in what investigators believe was a coordinated theft." www.valleynewslive.com/2026/08/04/e...

All of Winona Police Department’s Flock cameras cut down and stolen

Lost cameras valued at about $24,000

valleynewslive.com

I'll tell you something else deeply meaningful to me today: @archipelagobooks.bsky.social is publishing Sevgi Soysal's "Walking." It's the first translation I've sponsored, something I've wanted to do for a long time. When I read Soysal's "Dawn," I knew I wanted to see her other work in print.

Genuinely, screenshottable/quotable content affords antagonism in a way that an audio clip doesn’t. I try not to be the bad sorta media determinist, but medium matters.

Aaron Bady@zunguzungu.bsky.social · 2d ago

it's interesting how people fought to the death over Emily Wilson's review, but as far as I can tell, the actual LRB podcast where she talks about Nolan's Odyssey didn't really rate people's interest www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and... or when she went on Fresh Air either www.npr.org/programs/fre...

Today, August 4, 2026, is the setting of Ray Bradbury’s short story “There Will Come Soft Rains” about a fully automated house continuing on after the family who lived there and the world around it died in a nuclear blast.

it's interesting how people fought to the death over Emily Wilson's review, but as far as I can tell, the actual LRB podcast where she talks about Nolan's Odyssey didn't really rate people's interest www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and... or when she went on Fresh Air either www.npr.org/programs/fre...

Podcast: Thomas Jones and Emily Wilson · Nolan v. Homer

lrb.co.uk

In Brazil, this would be illegal under their election law.

Caræsten 🇵🇸@cara.city · 2d ago

Scott Wiener is so fucking creepy!!! making an AI chatbot of your woman opponent so she says all the things your campaign wants her to say is deeply misogynistic!!! holy shit!!!

Scott Wiener is so fucking creepy!!! making an AI chatbot of your woman opponent so she says all the things your campaign wants her to say is deeply misogynistic!!! holy shit!!!

"Massive new data centers are, in fact massive. This isn’t complicated. The people saying otherwise are either grifters or marks." davekarpf.beehiiv.com/p/the-data-c...

The data center backlash Is working. That's why the New York Times is so concerned.

I have a

davekarpf.beehiiv.com

Borders are the great fascist technology of the 20th century, and they are, in the 21st, still one of the main reasons we can't have nice things.

#StupidSuez@diplomatofnight.com · 3d ago

It is pretty sad that so few people actually believe in open borders

does anyone know where all my goddamned bluetooth headphones are

How spineless and unprincipled do you have to be to be like "yes, my daughter has accused a colleague of abusing her, but I have no opinion on the matter"

Bill Grueskin@bgrueskin.bsky.social · 4d ago

Should the congressman who is credibly accused of beating and throwing scalding water at your own daughter run for re-election? “I don’t know,” says GOP Senator Bernie Moreno www.notus.org/ohio/bernie-...

lol

I heard some rustling in the next room, went to check, and met N coming out of the bathroom; he wordlessly handed me a bit of apparently soiled toilet paper and shuffled back to bed muttering

It’s really hard to figure out how to get rid of books for those who work with them —rare book dealers, librarians, publishers—we all throw away or pulp reams and reams of them regularly

‘I bought this before he went crazy’ sticker on a 1938 VW Beetle

I'ts hard to escape the impression that a certain faction of the Democratic Party just straight up does not believe that Arabs specifically -- and perhaps Muslims generally -- have a place as active players in American politics

Marisa Kabas@marisakabas.bsky.social · 6d ago

i think el-sayed winning the michigan senate primary will permanently break the brains that were being held together by string since mamdani

"How could society ever construct anything, after all? It doesn't exist?" --Margaret Thatcher, in hell

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò@olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 5d ago

there are a lot of philosophical concepts that get egregiously misused out of the seminar room (and in the seminar room, to be fair). but in terms of sheer pernicious misuse "social construct" has gotta be top 5 somewhere and it's not number 5

[Homer sits backwards on a chair] let me tell you about ANOTHER giant brute who was being beaten by Nobody