Glad to hear I’m not alone!

Istanbul's descent into darkness Years of political repression and creeping urban decay have hollowed out the city's soul, designing dissent out of its once-vibrant streets and erasing its rich cosmopolitan past from popular memory.

This is a good essay about the dead end of Turkey's politics after well more than a decade of autocratization, and the Istanbul facade that visitors experience versus what life there is like: engelsbergideas.com/essays/istan...

This is a really good article about an issue I’ve been bending many friends’ ears on this week!

A hugely important issue - kudos to Armida for taking it head on!

"These dynamics explain why the Islamic Republic has not appeared leaderless, despite losing the man who was, for decades, its most powerful figure. The system’s immediate objective is to preserve coherence—buying enough time for

Airstrikes alone have never caused regime change. They can do a lot of damage, but can’t create conditions that last.

As a professional military strategist, I just wanted to make sure everyone has a full understanding of the American strategy in Iran, thank you for your attention to this matter

That means treating them like a partner - holding them to account, yes, but also understanding that without investment at a level defence may not even be capable of, this is a partnership everyone’s going to be handling for years to come.

I think this is key - policy decisions beforehand so government can understand the parameters. For better or worse, government has ceded defence industry (both in the innovate tech spaces but also for everything else) to the private sector. That means the private sector gets a say.

I have finally had the chance to read the report prepared by the parliamentary committee overseeing the PKK's disarmament and dissolution process. Here are a couple of thoughts:

It's a dangerous complication of pregnancy -- but a new drug holds promise Researchers celebrate early results of a drug that may become the first treatment for a serious complication of pregnancy called preeclampsia. It's got the potential to save many lives.

Researchers celebrate early results of a drug that may become the first treatment for a serious complication of pregnancy called preeclampsia. It's got the potential to save many lives.

I'm worried that the broader public isn't really understanding the Epstein Files. The problem isn't that everyone in the files is a secret pedophile, it's that all the people are corresponding with him because they *don't care that he's a pedophile*. It's a story of elite impunity.

Cat after running frantically across a marathon course

There were also several cats along and/or crossing the course - classic #Istanbul #Istanbulmaratonu

View from the ferry following the İstanbul marathon

İstanbul marathon number and finishers’ medal

View from the İstanbul marathon course at about 39km

View at the beginning of the İstanbul marathon crossing from Asia into Europe over the Bosphorus

How it ended! It may not have been a time to write home about - but this body can do 26.2 miles! Didn’t hurt that it was running through the best and most beautiful city in the world….

Please let this not have jinxed it 🫣

How it started…..

At a certain point in Turkey, virtually every non-public person I interviewed refused to give their last name. Eventually I stopped even writing "______ declined to give his/her last name for fear of government reprisal," because it became redundant, and editors understood. But here's the thing...

Find a No Kings protest Saturday and go!

Don't worry that you've never been to a protest before. Don't worry about being dressed wrong or looking out of place. Don't worry that you don't agree about everything -- or even about much -- with lots of people at the protest.

/1

this is a very very big story because of the apparently totally fake story ICE/DHS put out about what happened.

Minna hits nail again 👇

"This does not mean that European countries should not be resilient, but simply that resilience is a defensive measure, not a way to deter such attacks. Russia has, unfortunately, not gotten bored with finding new and creative ways to poke around. It is a whack-a-mole game."

‘The appeal to the mystical image of the “warfighter” is that it avoids having to discuss war in concrete terms. It sells the attractive myth that by doing more of the parts of war that look cool and really make you feel like a man, you can actually win wars.‘

www.deadcarl.com/p/clausewitz...

The Turkish Foreign Minister's remarks about the difficulties Turkey is facing in procuring the engines for its KAAN fighter jet are a well-known story among those who work in the Turkish defence industry. One of the projects funded by our CATS Network dealt with the question in detail.

People of Illinois, we need your help.

Get your cell phones out – record what you see. Put it on social media. Peacefully ask for badge numbers and identification. Speak up for your neighbors.

We need to let the world know this is happening – and that we won’t stand for it.

A letter from the front in Portland....

Chicago with no war in sight

Chicago - still with nothing remotely resembling war

Just going to pop these here from a long run I did along the lake two months ago. Can Rand Paul tell me where the war is?

Feds in military gear flood downtown Chicago; top border official says arrests based on 'how they look' The immigration agents were spotted making arrests in downtown Chicago and River North neighborhood early Sunday.

In which a top US Border Patrol official, incredibly, tells my tall and Anglo colleague @chipmitchell1.bsky.social that he's not the type they're looking for as they go about downtown Chicago arresting people based on "how they look"

chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...

And while the SCOTUS decision about arrests based on appearance and race may be in keeping with some of the Founding Fathers’ approach to the world, it overturns the decades of judicial precedent since that tried to correct their mistakes. I am ashamed.

Feds march into downtown Chicago; top border agent says people are arrested based on ‘how they look’ Immigration agents wearing tactical gear and carrying long guns made arrests in downtown Chicago and the River North neighborhood Sunday. “This is not making anybody safer — it’s a show of intimidatio...

The Sun Times here also quotes a key fact - the numbers show that immigrants are not the ones committing violent crimes. So even if you try to suggest that there is justification for this abuse of power (which to be clear there is NOT) it can’t possibly work!

chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...

It is hard to articulate how it feels to watch not only the city where I built the first phase of my adult life, but now the city where I grew up overtaken by masked men in fatigues with long guns. This is the opposite of everything that could ever make America great #chicago #stopICE

Yes, this is really, really bad.