riffle
@riffle.bsky.social
Skeltering, without helter, in place. That place is US America.
"America: Premodern Leadership for Postmodern Times."
"America: Premodern Leadership for Postmodern Times."
Pinned
riffle
@riffle.bsky.social
· Feb 5
So much bad news recently I've been burying my head in the sand.
Today I wish I'd used flammable sand.
Today I wish I'd used flammable sand.
Reposted by riffle
I was at the ER the night before Thanksgiving/early hours of Thanksgiving last year with a family member, and we overheard two doctors call that block of time "The Night of the Mandolines" due to the sheer number of sharps injuries during meal prep.
November 27, 2025 at 5:35 PM
I was at the ER the night before Thanksgiving/early hours of Thanksgiving last year with a family member, and we overheard two doctors call that block of time "The Night of the Mandolines" due to the sheer number of sharps injuries during meal prep.
Reposted by riffle
Every Trump appointee is committed to ignoring the difference between holding a responsible office of the United States and being a partisan advocate hack. It's bad across the board, but it's catastrophically bad in the Attorney General, the Secretary of Defense, and the Directors of the FBI & CIA.
November 27, 2025 at 5:11 PM
Every Trump appointee is committed to ignoring the difference between holding a responsible office of the United States and being a partisan advocate hack. It's bad across the board, but it's catastrophically bad in the Attorney General, the Secretary of Defense, and the Directors of the FBI & CIA.
Reposted by riffle
The brave wee peelers of ‘Blue Lights’ are just doing the best they can, and that makes for addictive drama.
Could I Interest You in The Pitt of Cop Dramas This Holiday Season?
The brave wee peelers of ‘Blue Lights’ are just doing the best they can, and that makes for addictive drama.
www.vulture.com
November 27, 2025 at 1:10 PM
The brave wee peelers of ‘Blue Lights’ are just doing the best they can, and that makes for addictive drama.
Reposted by riffle
Analysts said the sequence of the calls—China first, then Japan—could reflect a willingness by Trump to curb an ally’s controversial stance on a core geopolitical issue in service of the U.S. trade relationship with Beijing. www.wsj.com/politics/nat...
Exclusive | Trump, After Call With China’s Xi, Told Tokyo to Lower the Volume on Taiwan
Japan, a U.S. ally that had angered China on Taiwan, found the message worrying.
www.wsj.com
November 27, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Analysts said the sequence of the calls—China first, then Japan—could reflect a willingness by Trump to curb an ally’s controversial stance on a core geopolitical issue in service of the U.S. trade relationship with Beijing. www.wsj.com/politics/nat...
Reposted by riffle
Oh that's cool it's the Japanese government's literal nightmare about Trump throwing Japan and the region under the bus to get a trade deal with Xi
“.. Japanese officials said the message was worrying: the president didn’t want friction over Taiwan to endanger a detente reached last month with Xi, which includes a promise to buy more agricultural products from American farmers ..”
@wsj.com
www.wsj.com/world/china/...
@wsj.com
www.wsj.com/world/china/...
November 27, 2025 at 12:07 AM
Oh that's cool it's the Japanese government's literal nightmare about Trump throwing Japan and the region under the bus to get a trade deal with Xi
Reposted by riffle
Today - and every day - is a good day to read Justice Stevens’ dissent in Heller v DC. The bonkers 5-4 decision that not only made it legal to carry firearms in DC but also declared that the first 13 words of 2A were “merely preferatory”. www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/0...
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA v. HELLER
www.law.cornell.edu
November 27, 2025 at 1:28 PM
Today - and every day - is a good day to read Justice Stevens’ dissent in Heller v DC. The bonkers 5-4 decision that not only made it legal to carry firearms in DC but also declared that the first 13 words of 2A were “merely preferatory”. www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/0...
Reposted by riffle
this is amazing news - the HPV vaccine promises to eliminate cervical cancer in countries where uptake is high.
November 26, 2025 at 6:57 PM
this is amazing news - the HPV vaccine promises to eliminate cervical cancer in countries where uptake is high.
Reposted by riffle
We're getting to the point where we're past "Vanity Fair needs to fire Nuzzi" and rapidly arriving at "Conde Nast needs to fire Mark Guiducci"
The new Vanity Fair editor sought to make his magazine less woke and some of his first moves were hiring Olivia Nuzzi, publishing an abstract nude of Nuzzi by a person now alleged to have made illegal recordings on her behalf, and putting only men in the Hollywood issue
November 26, 2025 at 11:23 PM
We're getting to the point where we're past "Vanity Fair needs to fire Nuzzi" and rapidly arriving at "Conde Nast needs to fire Mark Guiducci"
Reposted by riffle
spanish flu was 1918........ the great wall street crash was 1929........... very cool stuff, history, very cool and not stressful
November 27, 2025 at 7:00 AM
spanish flu was 1918........ the great wall street crash was 1929........... very cool stuff, history, very cool and not stressful
Reposted by riffle
Today's migration stats illustrate the migration doom loop in action...
(from my presentation at the IMF last week)
(from my presentation at the IMF last week)
November 27, 2025 at 11:02 AM
Today's migration stats illustrate the migration doom loop in action...
(from my presentation at the IMF last week)
(from my presentation at the IMF last week)
Reposted by riffle
One big risk to the OBR forecasts has already materialised -migration is falling more quickly than their projections and that will hit growth and tax revenue.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cn...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cn...
UK net migration drops sharply to 204,000 in year to June - live updates
Net migration fell by around two-thirds - from 649,000 in the year to June 2024 to 204,000 in the year to June 2025.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 27, 2025 at 9:55 AM
One big risk to the OBR forecasts has already materialised -migration is falling more quickly than their projections and that will hit growth and tax revenue.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cn...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cn...
Reposted by riffle
the family thanksgiving group text between siblings who only know how to communicate in sarcasm and republican cousins who are incapable of understanding sarcasm is extremely funny
November 27, 2025 at 1:18 PM
the family thanksgiving group text between siblings who only know how to communicate in sarcasm and republican cousins who are incapable of understanding sarcasm is extremely funny
Reposted by riffle
Imagine being, like, a sales manager from Wheeling, and you got shipped off to DC by your dipshit governor to fulfill Trump’s troops-in-the-streets fantasy, and then you spent two months wandering the Mall picking up trash, and then two days before Thanksgiving you got shot outside a Metro station
NEW: DC's Metropolitan Police Dept says it has one suspect in custody after a shooting at 17th and I, near the White House.
AP reports that two members of the National Guard were shot, which DHS sec Kristi Noem confirms in a tweet.
Jeff Mason of Reuters reports that the White House is on lockdown.
AP reports that two members of the National Guard were shot, which DHS sec Kristi Noem confirms in a tweet.
Jeff Mason of Reuters reports that the White House is on lockdown.
November 27, 2025 at 4:36 AM
Imagine being, like, a sales manager from Wheeling, and you got shipped off to DC by your dipshit governor to fulfill Trump’s troops-in-the-streets fantasy, and then you spent two months wandering the Mall picking up trash, and then two days before Thanksgiving you got shot outside a Metro station
Reposted by riffle
This story has not finished yet, but it’s already great.
Maybe I’ll tell y’all about Thanksgiving in Uzbekistan, where I was in the peace corps 2000-2001.
I lived in a town; nearest American lived in a qishloq - a true village. A few of us somehow figured out to meet there. (How? No internet, no phones. No recollection of how we planned anything.) 1/
I lived in a town; nearest American lived in a qishloq - a true village. A few of us somehow figured out to meet there. (How? No internet, no phones. No recollection of how we planned anything.) 1/
November 27, 2025 at 4:39 AM
This story has not finished yet, but it’s already great.
Reposted by riffle
Cool that the VA is sending out political endorsements now - both these stories are about "Biden-era" issues at the VA that Trump has magically solved
November 27, 2025 at 4:40 AM
Cool that the VA is sending out political endorsements now - both these stories are about "Biden-era" issues at the VA that Trump has magically solved
Reposted by riffle
With DC shooter now identified as an Afghan national not the antifa secret agent White House hoped for a good time to remember the Trump admin has gutted domestic anti-terrorism capacity and reassigned many to finding grandmothers to arrest at immigration hearings.
November 27, 2025 at 4:06 AM
With DC shooter now identified as an Afghan national not the antifa secret agent White House hoped for a good time to remember the Trump admin has gutted domestic anti-terrorism capacity and reassigned many to finding grandmothers to arrest at immigration hearings.
Reposted by riffle
He’s passed like.. no bills
Speaker 'barely holding it together' and 'crushed by his workload': NYT
Speaker 'barely holding it together' and 'crushed by his workload': NYT
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) made several revealing admissions about the stressful and chaotic nature of his job, according to a recent New York Times report.The Times' Annie Karni wrote in a Wednesday article that Johnson turned what was meant to be an easy interview with a friendly podcast h...
bit.ly
November 27, 2025 at 3:35 AM
He’s passed like.. no bills
Reposted by riffle
It's not just that the United States has stopped trying to promote liberal democratic ideas internationally. It's that the United States is actively trying to promote the contrary. It's trying to turn more countries into Hungary.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/u...
U.S. to Press Europe and Other Allies on ‘Mass Migration,’ Document Says
www.nytimes.com
November 27, 2025 at 12:06 AM
It's not just that the United States has stopped trying to promote liberal democratic ideas internationally. It's that the United States is actively trying to promote the contrary. It's trying to turn more countries into Hungary.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/u...
Reposted by riffle
Responding to everyone’s Thanksgiving meal photos as “AI slop”
November 27, 2025 at 3:00 AM
Responding to everyone’s Thanksgiving meal photos as “AI slop”
Reposted by riffle
This is like demanding that someone jump out of a plane before they’re given a parachute. www.politico.com/news/2025/11...
US demands peace deal before security guarantees for Ukraine
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told European allies that President Donald Trump will negotiate long-term assurances for Ukraine’s safety.
www.politico.com
November 27, 2025 at 2:05 AM
This is like demanding that someone jump out of a plane before they’re given a parachute. www.politico.com/news/2025/11...
Reposted by riffle
PJM is the regional grid serving 67 million customers in 13 states
November 27, 2025 at 2:04 AM
PJM is the regional grid serving 67 million customers in 13 states
Reposted by riffle
I love that the only remotely creative part of AI prompts is too hard so they want a "make thing I want" button
I cannot stop laughing. This is so indicative of what's wrong with these AI people and how they view art
He ran into a wall where the "make art" button wasn't satisfying because it wasn't actually making good enough art, and instead of trying new things he just requests a stronger button
He ran into a wall where the "make art" button wasn't satisfying because it wasn't actually making good enough art, and instead of trying new things he just requests a stronger button
November 26, 2025 at 11:13 PM
I love that the only remotely creative part of AI prompts is too hard so they want a "make thing I want" button
Reposted by riffle
I'm sorry, what?
November 27, 2025 at 12:47 AM
I'm sorry, what?
Reposted by riffle
ok it is time for me to hibernate for the season
i am thankful for all of u keeping me company here on the blue sky during this year
be well
i am thankful for all of u keeping me company here on the blue sky during this year
be well
November 27, 2025 at 12:07 AM
ok it is time for me to hibernate for the season
i am thankful for all of u keeping me company here on the blue sky during this year
be well
i am thankful for all of u keeping me company here on the blue sky during this year
be well
Reposted by riffle
Called it: Trump is going to *give* China Taiwan (no, Taiwan is not his to give) in an attempt to reverse the damage of his stupid trade war.
“.. Japanese officials said the message was worrying: the president didn’t want friction over Taiwan to endanger a detente reached last month with Xi, which includes a promise to buy more agricultural products from American farmers ..”
@wsj.com
www.wsj.com/world/china/...
@wsj.com
www.wsj.com/world/china/...
November 27, 2025 at 12:00 AM
Called it: Trump is going to *give* China Taiwan (no, Taiwan is not his to give) in an attempt to reverse the damage of his stupid trade war.