My hot take is we should go kinetic against Russian clandestine operations in Europe
Writer | Espionage Steampunk & SFF | Masters in International Relations | Swift-Fukuyama Thought
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My hot take is we should go kinetic against Russian clandestine operations in Europe
"Person... Woman... Man... Camera-" Vance smothered him with a pillow before he can say TV.
PAIN
That end had me like this the entire time on the station.
I have had a pit in my stomach the moment I saw you were going down the Arasaka path! It's honestly one of the most disturbing and heartbreaking story ends I can think of. Even worse, because I failed to save Takemura, it was freaking *Hellman* who visited at the end. V singing Never Fade Away...😭
I'm feeling vicariously anxious just following along to see what your V is going to do.
Congrats! Not always an easy vote to pull off!
On a more serious note, what may actually be happening is the US regime is probably prepping upcoming military action in Mexico/Venezuela/Panama. Just to add to the insanity.
Love the pink hair for this! Where did u find this outfit??
I hope that when RFK Jr dies someday, someone has been hired and trained to capture whatever crawls out of the body, so that it doesn't find a new host
I'm not going to get excited until they play Swan Lake on the radio
Good time to watch The Death of Stalin again do we think?
Ain't that the truth!
Ooh nice! I loved how you could actually use some leverage with Alfonso to get the wage deal. Great overall scene where you have all these different forces and agendas competing to influence you.
Love some of the extra on the nose naming they do. She's a tough nut to crack, that one. Looking forward to hearing how you approach the political deal making!
The Mad King screams "JUMP!" and the cowering Generals ask "how high, my liege?"
If we had Key & Peele's Angry Obama translation of this, this would be off the charts red alert screaming about the immense danger the US is in. Hope enough people take this seriously.
Undermining the Fed to get lower rates now is like ripping the batteries out of your smoke alarm because it’s beeping. It’s quiet for a bit. Then your house burns down. Credibility anchors expectations; expectations anchor inflation.
The simple truth is that children in the poorest places on earth died from lack of food and medicine because the richest country on the planet voted to shred their own Constitution due to annoyance over the prices of their chicken nuggie delivery services.
The *what* problem?
Woke historians want you to think World War 1 was "horrible", "pointless" and "one of the worst experiences you could ever go through". But actually, it was pretty nice! What the woke won't tell you is that many of the so-called "battles", like the Somme, took place in beautiful France! Sign me up!
I wrote about the manifestly illegal attempt to fire Lisa Cook 1/ paulkrugman.substack.com/p/in-the-mat...
The precise moment when and where in recent weeks America crossed that invisible line from democracy into authoritarianism can and will be debated by future historians, but it’s clear that the line itself has been crossed. www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/america-ti...
The way the Trump administration has tried to make an example of a very ordinary person, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, basically for embarrassing them politically, is unprecedented and terrifying.
it's so funny how most americans are like "oh yeah things aren't great in DC but they'll sort it out" while people i know who've lived through state collapses, however partial, are like "oh you guys are about to go through some stuff, you know"
The next Democratic administration needs to strip all the gold and icons out of the White House like radical Dutch Calvinists in the 1500s
An American flag, reversed, colorless and disintegrating. The symbolism can't get any stronger.
Reading an article titled "Why didn't Brazilian democracy die?" and a key part of the story is a Supreme Court that actually did its job
That is a killer photo! I spent so much time in photo mode in Cyberpunk...
Intel and other similar takings aren't socialism, they're kleptocracy. the goal here isn't a sovereign wealth fund it's Putin's Russia
Oh this is so interesting! I only played Cyberpunk for the first time this year and did Phantom Liberty just before finishing it. Excited to hear how your play goes.
Omg yes! This is one of my all-time fav games! I get excited whenever I see anyone new trying it. Please fill us in as you play if you can, especially since you're doing a first time blind run! Which Anton Rayne origin choices and policy directions did you pick?
Komodo Dragons are right there and even more terrifying!
"Why isn’t a direct, plain-language confrontation with Trump, in which Powell speaks transparently and fully about what the president is trying to do and why it is dangerous, also a way to preserve the institution?"
You've been kidnapped. The characters from the last TV show you watched are trying to rescue you. Who's coming to save you? Oh no...
We tariff the steel, we tariff the coffee, we tariff the playstations, and we tariff the bananas! We tariff EVERYTHING... and then we tariff the tariffs!
The US joined the auth club and now it gets the privilege to compete in SING AND/OR DIE.
I don't see why gen AI chat bots that are directly consumer facing shouldn't be subject to the kinds of standard consumer safety regulations and warnings that other products are subject to, and id anything more specific and stringent regs are needed.
Corporations need to live in fear of Woke Judgement for every quarterly report. They need to have comprehensive strategies for how they will win over and Woke consumers to accelerate growth and increase shareholder value.
NATO should have pressed this (over Ukrainian territory only at first, but with the option to escalate if Russia didn't withdraw and cease hostilities) the moment the Russian offensive failed en route to Kyiv. All those vehicles just stuck and sitting there...
This is morally and objectively right. Sadly, American culture will probably never allow this.
To be fair, people wilfully disobeying speed limits (and then having the nerve to try and justify it!) is pretty enraging. It gets people killed!
It's marketed as a fun adventure series for kids, but then turns out each episode is a harrowing account of different First Order atrocities overseen by Hux as part of a post war tribunal prosecuting surviving First Order officials. Narrated by Werner Herzog.
The Zone of Interest 2
"A warrant?"
BRB, just packaging up this giant Ultramarine army to send to Clarence Thomas... note enclosed about upcoming court vote is not related.
I still just cannot believe we made a clear asset of Russian intelligence our spymaster. It is just the most insane decision made by a head of a superpower since Caligula made a horse a senator, except even that was better because at least the horse wasn’t passing state secrets to the Parthians.
The laid off staff at PBS have the chance to do the funniest thing.
Reminder that Putin has never said he wants a trilateral meeting, had never said he would respect Ukrainian sovereignty, and has never said he wants to end the war. Not to be a downer, but the discussion of security guarantees is premature.
Chris is already fully Reaper indoctrinated.
It sounds conspiratorial to suggest that Vladimir Putin told Donald Trump behind closed doors to launch an assault on mail-in voting in elections administered by the states, and Trump immediately set about mobilizing federal power to do it… but that is literally Trump’s account of what happened.
This one was always a fav shot of my Lords of Fortune Warrior Rook, Sabre Laidir looking unusually pensive for a Purple Jokey Rook.
Would love this but contemporary: out-of-date Bond clinging to the dying ideal of a relevant Britain, and a West that still fights, when all around him everything has turned to rot, the Russians are everywhere, and the US has gone rogue. New guard wants accommodation, but Bond hates the Russians.
these aren’t mutually exclusive choices. it is both true that he has no power to declare this and also true that he will attempt to enforce it, however incompetently or illegally.
Oh look, not a death cult at all...
I'm still angry that this makes Dubya look like a paragon of eloquence, integrity and intellect. That should have been the floor! Now we're on Sub Level 32 and still descending!
Retaliate with emojis. It's the only way they'll learn. We hope.
That quest was so creepy! I had to tell him the truth, but was sad to see him lost to (completely justified) paranoia by the end.
Loved the culture shock from leaving Japantown and then running into 6th Street militia and seeing NUSA jingoism while they do drunk live fire target practice at a rooftop party.
Probably wants to send in an expeditionary force to "secure the minerals". Remains to be seen if this will be a joint US-Russian operation.
Those are some very good movies. The last two are especially underrated.
It's the flashy arch rival of Scarcity, which, by all indications, is set for a big comeback with the tariffs kicking in.
I think the tell is that in both Cyberpunk and Blade Runner, it's the Japanese influence (or direct control) that has resulted in urban density. Even in Night City, once you get outside that CBD, it reverts pretty quickly to low density in Santo Domingo where American culture is still dominant.
anyway the choice america faces going forward is live in the confederacy or do reconstruction for real and purge those motherfuckers from all of public life. and there isn’t really an in-between.
The targeting of the museum was absolutely intentional by the fascists.
You Have No Idea What It’s Like To Stay Committed To Non-Violence When I Have To Work With These Fucking People: The Jawarhalal Nehru Story
This is some encouraging news at an otherwise bleak time.
I’m kind of speechless with this one. I can’t imagine the kind of person who continues to make the argument that it doesn’t count as real starvation if the kids were already sick.
Hate to credit Trump in any way, but Little Marco really was unintentionally spot on as an indictment of his character.
"Something something need to keep growing my business..." they mumble while a Death to Capitalism banner hangs behind them.
The Europeans should really just say to hell with it and openly bribe him with as many shiny and gaudy gold gifts as they can fit on their planes. It's the only thing he cares about!
Valid! This was my V at the same spot, also entranced by Train:
Poor Merril watching Rook and company merrily zipping about Northern Thedas through eluvians without a care in the world, after all the grief she got about starting up just one.
Oooh enjoy the pestilence! High Elves and Lizardmen for fantasy back in the day, and Tyrannids and Eldar in 40k. Would like to start a Grand Cathay collection in Old World but in the meantime, TW: Warhammer 3 is my go-to.
Speaking of Warhammer (fantasy/40k/any), which factions are your favs?
Could see him just hiding on the roof and pretending he isn't home, while Merz yells from the lawn "Donald, we can still see you."
I almost never play self-insert characters, I always prefer inventing a distinct character with their own background and personality, and then see who would fall for, if anyone. That's how my Fem Rook ended up with Emmrich (unplanned!), because it made sense for her that they would connect.
what all of these front-line fighters were insistent on was the incredible power of media. authoritarians and oligarchs around the world have laser-focused on seizing control of the commanding heights--of *media*--before anything else. they're not wrong. www.liberalcurrents.com/we-must-defe...
Every day we move closer to an Alex Garland dystopia.
Yeah, this is a highly unusual all-hands-on-deck meeting that wouldn’t be happening if Alaska was productive. 5 European leaders, the head of NATO and the head of the EU don’t just drop everything and fly to DC. H/T: @radiofreetom.bsky.social
The fact that the President spent yesterday invading the nation's capital at one end of the country and capitulating to Russia at the other end of the country sure is something else, huh.
Deterrence has to be established.
What shows have you been watching lately that you've really enjoyed or gotten into? I feel like I've been enjoying so many good ones this year (either new or playing catch up), especially in SFF!
Just remembered a new Foundation episode is out today! I feel like Season 3 is the best and most confident the show has been, every storyline is firing so well. Between Foundation and Alien:Earth and Murderbot (still to watch) and previously Andor, we are eating damn good sci-fi lately on TV!
Would love to see a new Longest Journey/Dreamfall game! Pleased to see most of the picks went on to become long-time fav game series (Dragon Age, Assassin's Creed), or were already (Monkey Island).
I'm too old to know what an aella is and it sounds Iike I don't want to know. Going to assume it's some kind of bizarro aelkus? Or a paella that went wrong?
At what point is Vance going to have the govt start sorting whites into Nordics, Alpines and Mediterraneans...
That's exactly what it is
Not naming racism within our discussions on fascism sidesteps the point and continues the disastrous mainstream liberal approach of accepting the rhetoric of the right. Every single code word needs to be named, and none of the framing erasing racism as the motivator can go unheeded.
High tension drama between 2 cutting edge mobile suit companies and their engineering teams competing to secure the contract for the next generation Gundam, as they put their respective experimental designs to the test, while the looming spectre of budget cuts hangs over the entire program.
There's still time to combine the two into some new grotesquery: "We are an apolitical institution, so we are going to follow these not-technically-legal orders to the T. Now, someone get me the ethnic heat zone map of Iowa, Scandinavian-Americans have just been declared an Enemy Population..."
Playing the greatest GWOT hits I see
Bleach, probably
it’s ironic that a better humanities foundation might have helped this guy - who sounds like an especially obtuse asshole - understand that NIH funding isn’t under attack because of DEI programs, it is the science itself that is under attack.
I'm enjoying it so much, what a great start to the series!
My take is that senior officers are completely unprepared for this moment. When demo is healthy, there is little tension btw adhering to civilian control & serving democracy Faced w/ the manifest clash in principles these missions present, they are doing what's familiar--following orders.1/
Democrats just weren't reaching people on the issues they really cared about, unlike the winning GOP campaign message repeated in all their stump speeches, ads and tik toks: A literal Greater Daemon of Khorne screaming "Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne!"
This is appalling. Civilized countries look at us and are rightly horrified that this idiocy and cruelty is sanctioned by--encouraged by--our government. (I originally wrote "Other civilized countries look at us..." But do we any longer count in their ranks?) www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...