The Logic of Escalation in the Middle East - @policytensor.bsky.social
"The truth is that the forces now assembled can prosecute an air war of such intensity and duration as to turn most of Iran into Gaza."
policytensor.substack.com/p/the-logic-...
Whatever you think of the Canada/Carney situation and rhetoric of the speech at Davos, I’d encourage people to check out this strikingly prescient piece from @policytensor.bsky.social
policytensor.substack.com/p/notes-for-...
the (IMO compatible) solution preferred by the author:
"If hollow parties and a breakdown in elite-mass trust are the root of the malaise, then the cure must be to rebuild robust intermediary institutions – first and foremost, the political party itself as a vehicle of mass participation."
The end of American hegemony.
open.substack.com/pub/policyte...
Very interesting. But how does the alliance bw sovereigntism and the tech broligarchs work? The latter’s interests can hardly be guaranteed behind a big beautiful wall.
It is a false premise that America has a lead in AI over China. So many articles have come out recently about DeepSeek threatening our lead. The lead in *meaningful* capabilities has never existed.
This is the smartest political analysis I have read in a long time.
This is brilliant. Please read this by @policytensor.bsky.social: “…regardless of their policy positions, [Democratic elites] may be at the receiving end of the working class revolt, because they are identified with American elites and their institutions.”
The Etiology of American Instability
open.substack.com/pub/policyte...
I remember making a whole pipeline to machine translate it so I could read it. Todd at his polemical extreme!
Guys, it’s over.
RIP Renfew. When did his hypothesis of Neolithic revolution stop being credible? Not to take away from the man. He was a giant!
I’m very sad to hear that Colin Renfrew, a giant in the field of Prehistoric Archaeology, has joined the realm of the ancients. An academic archaeologist with one foot firmly in the trench, he combined theory & fieldwork with flair - and had a knack for asking the right questions. His work lives on
Makes me sad re-reading this amazing letter from ex-Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox sent to high school seniors in 1994 after they asked him “What should Americans learn from Watergate?” 20 years later in ‘94.
His answer is remarkable—unfortunately things didn’t work out so well in 2024.
Given that billions of years have elapsed since the planet formed, why isn’t the earth a smooth ball?
