1 year ago today I was terminated by DOGE from USAID where I worked to get humanitarian aid into Gaza. Everyone I knew across almost 10 years of my career across 3 prior jobs became unemployed as well. My entire LinkedIn network suddenly became "open to work"

I'm a one issue voter. Punishment.

there is not an answer for this because no empire that had this problem throughout history ever managed to stick together once they wanted out

one fascinating dynamic that seems to drive both the UK/US new right is this idea that contemporary society needs to emulate Bukele's authoritarianism against crime when crime rates are, on the whole, much lower than they were in the 20th century

i think there should be a scandinavian empire and they like to cause problems between the british empire and europe just for fun

i will bring it back to a personal antidote but i'm always scratching my head over why the US and canada need to "be together" i.e the US needs to absorb canada, because that's what you mean by that, when a poltical union with free movement would be just fine

while i think poltical unions are good i am not someone who thinks it is essential for nations to have to exist under one state when something like the EU works fine and everyone can keep their country/avoids one group dominating the government

aura farming goes crazy here

i do think that's always the elephant in the room with the USSR

similar too because someone will bring up nationalism involved in both their collapses but don't really have an answer for what to do when all the officials were very obvious german and russian ethnic supremacists themselves who did not respect the multi ethnic populations they had

exact same thing

Basically feel the same way about the collapse of the USSR as I do the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it would have been preferable if it had become a trans-national confederation instead, but nobody actually wanted that, so it's all a bit academic.

you don't get your empire back where you pushed your ethnic supremacy constantly because you have mismanaged your affairs for three decades lmao

also a great deal of quality of life arguments is mostly about russia and well, they've had 30 years to figure that out, while many other former soviet states have moved on and improved

i bet their national cuisine absolutely slaps

omg sick, what do they call their ruler?

2 is russians were just as in favour of dissolving it until 30 years down the line when they realized they missed their empire

two problems with the USSR should have stayed intact claims, is you can make the same argument for any other empire in history, but the question is how do you keep large swathes of people together who have no interest in it?

did they just move somewhere else after 1803?

who is in charge of the holy roman empire?

Centrists are going to hand this guy the primary by treating every “Israel is bad” statement supported by 80% of the party as some scandalous, radical position

Guys, it's Michigan. You really do not need to treat this like it's a factual claim

If you think the nuclear-powered supercarrier USS Gerald R. Ford is the most powerful ship in the world, you are wrong. It's actually the German cruise ship Mein Schiff 4 (pictured), which successfully transited the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend

My takeaway from the pandemic is that people were way more traumatized by the interruption to their lives than by all the death and I don’t think people want to think about that because, man, it’s really uncomfortable!

listening to the Lions Led By Donkeys on the Russo-Japanese War and thinking again about how bad pre-modernity was and how any political philosophy that requires the repeal of modernity to succeed is fatally flawed

I’ve had the same editor since 1967. Many times he has said to me over the years or asked me, Why would you use a semicolon instead of a colon? And many times over the years I have said to him things like: I will never speak to you again. Forever. Goodbye. That is it. Thank you very much. And I leave. Then I read the piece and I think of his suggestions. I send him a telegram that says, OK, so you’re right. So what? Don’t ever mention this to me again. If you do, I will never speak to you again

Maya Angelou on the joys of being edited

and it makes complete sense with what we know about them too

i don't know how you go forward without doing something about the clear fact that you have a large group of people who are very obviously not well and basically live in fantasy worlds

The USSR was /not/ defeated by the US in a cold war. It /was/ brought down by a stab in the back, and god that stab felt great. We've been chasing that high ever since.

I think it's really really funny how Russia has just completely lost all ability to /pretend/ to be a sober international actor. They're leaning into the crashout

Doesn't matter. Their emotional support empire is dying