iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Matthew Downhour @matthewdownhour.bsky.social · 42m

Also why Zelenskyy should be skeptical of a peace - Kyiv & Kharkiv will remain right next to Belarus & Russia, & there’s a chance the next time they blitz, it works

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Matthew Downhour @matthewdownhour.bsky.social · 44m

If Russia had competently launched the initial assault & taken Kyiv, the world would be very different right now. And similarly if Russia wears down Ukraine & manages nonetheless to take Kyiv (or Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia etc), it may be able to expand to a larger conflict in a year or so

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Matthew Downhour @matthewdownhour.bsky.social · 45m

I mean there’s a pretty reasonable resolution: Russia is too weak to beat Ukraine because Ukraine has been militarizing for 8 years, & also Russia mangled the first three weeks of the war pretty badly

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Matthew Downhour @matthewdownhour.bsky.social · 1h

“Gonna start eating into real incomes” what did they just not finish reading the report

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Matthew Downhour @matthewdownhour.bsky.social · 3h

It’s a reasonably good analogy insomuch as it was clear that before the Soviet alliance Cuba was at peace with the U.S. but not truly free of it

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Matthew Downhour @matthewdownhour.bsky.social · 3h

Wait so do you think the USSR is to blame for Bay of Pigs?

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Matthew Downhour @matthewdownhour.bsky.social · 3h

FWIW I’m not of that opinion & I appreciate that you want to focus on a much more visible and audacious crime

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The Birds The Turtles and The Bees @turtlebee.bsky.social · 3h

Books are so much easier to get than ever before, and used books are cheap and plentiful because you can shop across the country from your couch.

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Matthew Downhour @matthewdownhour.bsky.social · 3h

Yeah no I didn’t say that I just said it was shocking to shoot civilians & sink their bodies. Indeed I think you’ll find the post tacitly admits it was legal; that’s why it’s shocking

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Matthew Downhour @matthewdownhour.bsky.social · 4h

I’d actually be really curious about a rigorous multilingual study on this. Facebook obviously has a conservative bent but Instagram seems not to *for me, in English* - but I wouldn’t be surprised if after some digging it was clear there were thumbs on the scales

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Darth Putin @darthputinkgb.bsky.social · 18h

OTD in 1906 Hannah Arendt was born. "The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact & fiction and the distinction between true & false no longer exist".

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RoninMacbeth 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇻🇪 @roninmacbeth.bsky.social · 4h

This is also why I oppose stripping Musk of his citizenship. He would deserve it, he really would, but once you cast that stone of revoking citizenship then no one will like what comes next.

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Dmitri. #freeLink @momus.bsky.social · 5h

must be a plot of the capitalists that every green party in every country is highly disappointing in its own unique way "the party would support providing military aid to Ukraine if it were backed by a United Nations Security Council resolution" is just embarrassing 🤡 💩

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Bumbles Bounce @bumblsbounce.bsky.social · 5h

Katie Zacharia is about to receive the first ever FIFA Law License.

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Sharon 🪳🌹 @sharonk.bsky.social · 5h

i do find it maddening when the majority of left understanding seems to think that NATO expansion was the cause of Russian aggression when it's primarily Russian autocratic capital not wanting European liberal capital on their border

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🎃GHOULLIKEHELLMACHINE🎃 @golikehellmachine.com · 5h

guy who has read a lot about charles I: getting a lot of charles I vibes from this president (this is because trump has a lot of charles I vibes)

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Matthew Downhour @matthewdownhour.bsky.social · 5h

The incredible thing is that if Trump had just adopted a moderate set of tariffs & only bombed Iran the one time, he could be overseeing a pretty good economy & have ‘won’ the tariff debate on dumb luck

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Matthew Downhour @matthewdownhour.bsky.social · 7h

Okay so 100 hamsters making 30 pounds of bones means each skeleton is like 5 oz which it isn’t exactly but that doesn’t seem ridiculous?

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Troy Jackson @troyjackson207.bsky.social · 9h

Mainers are getting screwed by rising prices. Susan Collins is probably “concerned.” She should’ve thought of that before voting five times to keep Trump’s war with Iran going.

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Matthew Downhour @matthewdownhour.bsky.social · 7h

Seems to be arguing that sanctions on Russia are effective?

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Matthew Downhour @matthewdownhour.bsky.social · 7h

The only time I get leftist content promoted into my Facebook feed, it’s pro Russia. Weird right?

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Matthew Downhour @matthewdownhour.bsky.social · 7h

See here - Hamilton says the most important constraint on the executive is public opinion. Difficult to square this constraint with extensive covert or classified operations avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century...

avalon.law.yale.edu

The Avalon Project : Federalist No 70: Version A

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#StupidSuez @diplomatofnight.com · 10h

The UK will tomorrow officially implement new powers which enable immediate action against violations of international humanitarian law, including Israeli settlement construction, a key move towards the establishment of a global sanctions regime against Israel.

theguardian.com

New UK sanctions powers will enable action against supporters of illegal Israeli settlements

Global human rights commitments adopted by government extend reach to enablers of unlawful activity

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Matthew Downhour @matthewdownhour.bsky.social · 7h

Yes, but the assumption for example in Federalist 70, is that we can give that power to the president because voters can effectively evaluate his performance in that role. If we find out in 2025 about mistakes from 2019 that doesn’t hold true

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Matthew Downhour @matthewdownhour.bsky.social · 8h

Kind of but the assumptions baked into the constitution are that when there’s a war people *know about it* and can *vote accordingly*. The use of covert operations runs contrary to this assumption

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Matthew Downhour @matthewdownhour.bsky.social · 8h

Admittedly I learned a lot but I did not walk away feeling better about the latitude given to the president & those forces

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Matthew Downhour @matthewdownhour.bsky.social · 8h

You may think the way our special forces operate is pretty unaccountable & incompatible with how we generally imagine popular sovereignty & limited government but people On Here will explain to you that if only you understood what was actually happening you’d be way more horrified

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Fake George Julian @smhten.bsky.social · 9h

They see Russia the same way they see Republicans - forces of nature with no agency. Only Democrats/the West have agency, and thus are at fault for all the harm caused by Republicans/Russia. If only the agents had acted correctly, all of this could have been avoided!

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Hellscape Navigator @hellscapenavigator.bsky.social · 10h

well of course, Putin is Dad. Europe is Mom.

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Matthew Downhour @matthewdownhour.bsky.social · 10h

Jacobin’s Russia simultaneously poses no threat to anyone except in self defense and is a danger of attacking all of Europe if they don’t get what they want

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Matthew Downhour @matthewdownhour.bsky.social · 11h

This is my curtains for Zoosha moment

Missed EDUCAUSE or Zoomtopia? We’ve got you covered!

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Matthew Downhour @matthewdownhour.bsky.social · 12h

Her argument was that the line was thin. If you’re telling me special forces can for a few hours as is convenient become not special forces but a different thing, well you’re rather reinforcing the thinness of that line

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Matthew Downhour @matthewdownhour.bsky.social · 12h

Like “oh actually for several hours they were technically not special forces” is a laughable objection to the clear statement that our special forces killed those North Koreans

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Matthew Downhour @matthewdownhour.bsky.social · 12h

DEVGRU are special forces in any meaningfully common use of the word. If specifically the question is about how they can be misused, the precise authority under which that command is operating is less relevant than who they are

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Matthew Downhour @matthewdownhour.bsky.social · 13h

Okay more of an IS/IRGC type activity, but the same assets & capabilities that a president would also need to operate a death squad

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Matthew Downhour @matthewdownhour.bsky.social · 13h

We do capture other countries’ leaders in order to seize their oil revenues to create an unaccountable revenue stream for ?? That seems unfortunate

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Matthew Downhour @matthewdownhour.bsky.social · 13h

I think you’re missing some nuance - “Covert actors are potential death squad members” Is the real point & I think that point stands

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Matthew Downhour @matthewdownhour.bsky.social · 13h

Idk my main takeaway is ‘the president can order lethal operations around the world; we hope he informs a fraction of Congress but if he doesn’t we’ll likely never know” To which my response is “I’m not sure he should also have pardoning power & official acts immunity”

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Matthew Downhour @matthewdownhour.bsky.social · 14h

You see how what you’re describing are death squads in waiting right? Which I can be convinced are necessary in the modern world But understanding what they are is important. Among other things, the president is a commander of death squads whose activities voters will never be aware of

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Matthew Downhour @matthewdownhour.bsky.social · 14h

Right - the whole thing is an extended illustration of how our Madisonian system falls apart. In theory there’s congressional oversight but that info never reaches voters in time to vote on its basis.

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Matthew Downhour @matthewdownhour.bsky.social · 14h

But in the cases we’re taking about, same guys right?

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Matthew Downhour @matthewdownhour.bsky.social · 14h

I appreciate your patience in explaining to me the depths of this constitutional nightmare

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Matthew Downhour @matthewdownhour.bsky.social · 15h

Are they not literally the same guys, under the same organizational structure?

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Matthew Downhour @matthewdownhour.bsky.social · 15h

This is not convincing me that this oversight is effective

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