iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Oil really is the only resource worth doing this over, however. Nobody is invading Chile for its copper or Kazakhstan for its uranium. Rentier petrostates are just weird this way.

381

Calliope @calliope5431.bsky.social · 10h

This is the fundamental tension of the modern world. Wealthy economies (the US, Germany, South Korea, and Japan excepted) are structurally biased towards having lackluster industrial capacity when industrial capacity is critical for great power status.

1132

Reposted by Calliope

Pride Ott 🦦 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @hikoukihikouki9.bsky.social · 22h

It is funny that people responded to JRM saying the UK’s economy is larger than Russia’s by saying that it’s all halal drag shows and financial services when the UK is one of 3 countries that can manufacture commercial jet engines

5799

Calliope @calliope5431.bsky.social · 11h

For the record, this sort of behavior is why Poland and Czechoslovakia expelled their German populations after WW2, and why the Russians transformed Königsberg into Kaliningrad. A "lasting solution to the German Question" was seen as a geopolitical imperative given German historical revanchism.

2163

Calliope @calliope5431.bsky.social · 11h

Yes, the thin red line of old-school British imperialists is unfortunately one of the few things keeping pro-Nazi thought out of Britain.

190

Reposted by Calliope

ex-Lethality Jane @lethalityjane.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I also just really reject the idea that sexual assault is worse than murder. I say that as someone who has been raped, and as someone who lost a family friend to murder. In one, you have the chance to heal and move on and experience a future. Good things still do exist. When you're dead, it's gone.

2571

Reposted by Calliope

ex-Lethality Jane @lethalityjane.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I find it interesting that people I follow who are often somewhat abolitionist on other crimes are absolutely insistent that people who commit sexual assault should never be admitted back into society. I think it says a lot about how it's harder to forgive a crime that you've experienced yourself.

4925

Reposted by Calliope

Joe Stieb @joestieb.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

The military doesn’t decide who we go to war with kthxbye

3657

Calliope @calliope5431.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Britain absolutely did not benefit from the Second World War, it bankrupted the UK and shattered the Empire. The US and the USSR were the sole beneficiaries of the war, and the USSR is dead now as well.

8253

Calliope @calliope5431.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

What's perhaps more interesting is the brief period in the mid-20th century when this wasn't true, and instead the shadowy cabal was "the Chinese" (in the 1960s), "the Saudis" (70s), and "the Japanese" (80s). Probably because antisemitism was briefly put out of public view after WW2.

2224

Reposted by Calliope

Asheesh Kapur Siddique @asheeshks.org · 02/10/2026

Exactly. The left is not resource poor. It just doesn’t invest in higher ed. It doesn’t invest using public funds. It doesn’t invest using private funds. It just doesn’t seem to care.

816323

Calliope @calliope5431.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

It really does all read horribly like the peak of the Japanese salaryman era, despite the obviously differing macroeconomic conditions between the US now and Japan then.

091

Reposted by Calliope

Colin @colin-fraser.net · 12/09/2026

But there is simply no reason that I can see that an “advanced AI” must behave in this way. Humans, for example, famously don’t. Things that act like perfect expected utility maximizers over an open world are actually quite rare, and it’s not clear that we know how to make them.

315611

Reposted by Calliope

Pride Ott 🦦 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @hikoukihikouki9.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

It is kinda funny to me that most "reasonable centrist reforms" like Supreme Court term limits need constitutional amendments while making every woke college professor a supreme court justice is a simple 50% vote in the senate.

541849

Reposted by Calliope

David Alman @davidalman.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Yeah, you can’t raid your way into taking France if you’re Hitler, nor can you raid your way into liberating it if you’re the US. That raiding could be downstream of a shift in how states / non-states meter their ambitions I agree with, but if someone wants to get big and violent you have to also

1131

Calliope @calliope5431.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

It was admittedly amusing when the Russians were fixated on hypersonics, a Kinzhal was shot down by Patriots, and everyone continued to pretend this was the future of warfare.

052

Reposted by Calliope

Isaiah Bishop @isaiahbishop.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Like remember the deal: He doesnt know what hes doing, he doesnt honour deals, hes going to do what he wants no matter what.

0464

Reposted by Calliope

Mike Black @mikeblack114.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

it's relieving the GW, just like the Makin Island is relieving the Boxer, just like all of these are rotational swapouts and not additive how are you all still falling for this 8 months in, this is jangling keys toddler levels of attempted misdirection from some of the dumbest admin members and yet

821429

Calliope @calliope5431.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

This is also true. There was also sentiment in the Taliban that the US was bluffing, or that the demands to hand over Bin Laden were just a pretext to invade anyway (they absolutely were not). Plenty of foolishness on all sides.

070

Calliope @calliope5431.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

The Taliban weren't innocent bystanders (they'd repeatedly refused to hand over Bin Laden in the 90s and used AQ assets in their war against the Northern Alliance), but Omar does seem to have believed AQ didn't perpetrate 9/11. The *speed* at which Bush issued ultimatums really did not help.

2122

Calliope @calliope5431.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

"Who are the world's biggest grain producers" is something more people really should be aware of:

082

Calliope @calliope5431.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

The early 20th century is a blood-soaked rebuttal to this. There were at least four intra-European genocides in 1941-1945 alone (Nazi genocide of Poles, Nazi genocide in the USSR, Eastern Galicia, and Croat genocide of Serbs) and that's leaving aside anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim mass murder.

3145

Reposted by Calliope

Jackson Crawford @norsebysw.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Our medieval sources on Norse don’t give us an organized canon, so when a place is mentioned one time it’s hard to know what to do with it. “Folkvang” is one. I doubt many if any poets thought of it as another afterlife; I suggest it may just be another name of Valhalla that alliterates with Freyja.

3708

Calliope @calliope5431.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

The Egyptian fixation with not being depicted as black remains both completely unsurprising and extremely goofy.

131

Calliope @calliope5431.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

"Demographics aren't important"

1101

Calliope @calliope5431.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

"Who is Gulbuddin Hekmatyar?" is a question that neither neocons nor the far left can actually answer. The Taliban being an absurdly parochial Kandahari militia also doesn't really register with most people.

1204

Reposted by Calliope

Joe Stieb @joestieb.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

A reminder that she’s still an insane anti semitic conspiracy theorist

312317

Reposted by Calliope

Sam Alston @moosealston.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

To clarify when I teach cheder (synagogue Sunday school) I am not teaching them to be members of the IDF. leftfootforward.org/2026/10/will...

1276

Calliope @calliope5431.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Anyone whose primary occupation is the study of genocide can tell you that it is very bad for you. In some ways, it's a relief to be looking at granular black-and-white photographs and stomach-churning written accounts rather than the high-definition horror of today.

1131

Reposted by Calliope

Vituperative Erb @vituperativeerb.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I used to work on child pornography/exploitation appeals/collateral challenges and got very good at avoiding having to look at anything or even read the stipulated descriptions unless it was extremely necessary for the legal issue Occasionally was, not great!

31104

Reposted by Calliope

Mike Black @mikeblack114.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

this isn't a new observation but to the extent they ever think about it, everyone who isn't a professional in the space thinks there's a big red button next to the diet coke button on the resolute desk that the president pushes once and it automatically launches all the nukes at random targets

715813

Reposted by Calliope

Mike Black @mikeblack114.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

also this place won't believe me when I say this but "has to be LOAC compliant" is a real requirement for any nuclear order Omaha receives, and STRATCOM is actually very serious about that assessment

71056

Calliope @calliope5431.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Thousand-year-old decadent orange emperor that destroys the universe's sole source of transport fuel in pursuit of a new paradigm where it's no longer necessary. Leto II Atreides, or Donald John Trump?

013529

Calliope @calliope5431.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Pakistan has already extended some limited deterrence here. How far it's willing to go on behalf of the Saudis is a very different question, given it has close ties to *both* Saudi Arabia and Iran that date back half a century.

060

Reposted by Calliope

"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

It may be that in an increasingly decarbonizing world, letting Iran have their hunting ground is simply a better use of resources, even if that means throwing the Gulf State deer to the wolves - because those resources are going to be needed on other frontiers too.

41434

Calliope @calliope5431.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

In fairness, Ahmadinejad was specifically trying to weaponize the Colin Kaepernick scandal against the first Trump administration (and presumably against the US generally). He was then *asked* about college football. The fact that he replied was still extremely funny, but it wasn't unsolicited!

1121

Reposted by Calliope

Joel S. @joelhs.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

The Trump admin's offer of provisional protection for American Jews is premised upon accepting their definition of Jewish identity as solely centered around the state of Israel. Dissent from that definition of Jewishness, and the state will be mobilized against you. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/30/n...

nytimes.com

A Hasidic Jew Protested Against an Israeli Flag. He May Be Deported. (Gift Article)

Yehonatan Ovadia, who opposed the mounting of the flag in a small New York town, belongs to a Hasidic branch that is anti-Zionist. He is now in ICE custody.

25824

Reposted by Calliope

Jane Coaston @janecoaston.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

the funniest thing about the "we don't trust the media" people is that they will trust literally anyone else. like, if you have an image and text, they'll buy it. shaking keys at babies type logic.

352298377

Reposted by Calliope

Jeremy Salkeld @enclavedmicrostate.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Also I'm fairly sure it was the Dutch who conquered the world for spices. We did it for tea, and we're not exactly known for not drinking it. (Incidentally, Indonesian food seems to be to the Netherlands what Indian food is to Britain.)

2234

Reposted by Calliope

brasidas @brasidas.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

My response to the idea that one could sanction Israel out of existence is usually a one-word “Cuba” or “ DPRK” as a response. That doesn’t mean that we can’t or shouldn’t use all the tools of diplomacy to ensure a better life for Palestinians.

2111

Calliope @calliope5431.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Your reminder that Indian intelligence organs are, while less extreme than many others, nonetheless pretty terrible actors in the grand scheme of things (especially under Modi).

1142

Calliope @calliope5431.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Once more with feeling: How exactly is anyone supposed to destroy the Israeli state? Israel can conduct nuclear strikes on any target from Oslo to Mumbai. It has the most effective military and intelligence service in the entire region. Its neighbors are either indifferent or dead.

4121

Reposted by Calliope

In My Defense @inmydefense.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Really not great that every major faction and state from Cairo to Mogadishu is aligned to one of two regional power blocs that appear to inching towards a regional conflict with each other that will set East Africa aflame.

inmydefense.substack.com

The Other Cold War In The Middle East

The Saudi-UAE conflict and its impacts

04011

Calliope @calliope5431.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I do not think the Spaniards are planning to launch a nuclear strike on Tel Aviv.

8569

Reposted by Calliope

Queen of Halloweentown MetaBlueSky ♨️ @metabluesky.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

And....yeah, especially these days the ethnoreligious element is pretty firmly interwoven there, with a whole unique world that doesn't really exist anywhere else and where all of these groups may be very secular in practice but that nominal elegance still matters in a pinch.

271

Reposted by Calliope

Astreia @redoubters.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

there is an alternate universe out there where the israeli response is measured, highly precise and targeted to get Hamas leadership and designed to avoid civilian casualties above all else that's not the world we live in

181

Reposted by Calliope

Calliope @calliope5431.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I think that the US response to 9/11 and the Israeli response to 10/7 should have been exactly what the Indian response to 26/11 was: punish as many perpetrators as possible without starting a major regional war. We *have* a counterfactual here. India made the right call. Israel and the US didn't.

4272

Calliope @calliope5431.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

"It was about oil" it was not about oil. "The US created Bin Laden" no that was Saudi charities. "The entire GWOT was US imperialism" no Saddam Hussein and the Taliban were both legitimate monsters.

2193

Reposted by Calliope

Ben Feddersen @snoozebuttonben.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Don't forget the ed snowden, currently doing apologia from his gilded cage for the most evil man in the world.

0453