Brendan
@bgilroy.bsky.social
A true friend is there for you when you are in trouble
Reposted by Brendan
Oh man so this thing was just a slush fund too lmao. Shit never gonna be built he's gonna leave with a suitcase full of dollars flying out like a cartoon character
Breaking news: President Trump replaced the architect he handpicked to design his $300 million White House ballroom.
It is unclear whether he was fired or resigned.
It is unclear whether he was fired or resigned.
Trump hires new White House ballroom architect
Although the two had clashed over the size of the project, the decisive factor was the small firm’s limited capacity to handle such an enormous project.
www.washingtonpost.com
December 5, 2025 at 12:07 AM
Oh man so this thing was just a slush fund too lmao. Shit never gonna be built he's gonna leave with a suitcase full of dollars flying out like a cartoon character
Reposted by Brendan
Kagan with more dispositive proof of Roberts Court Calvinball
December 4, 2025 at 11:48 PM
Kagan with more dispositive proof of Roberts Court Calvinball
What fresh horrors
Active Clubs are selling fascism as “fitness culture,” using wellness rhetoric to recruit young men into a global white nationalist network. GPAHE reports the movement has grown 25% since 2023, with 187 chapters across the world — a dangerous shift as radicalization embeds itself in everyday life.
Active Clubs: How the body has become a battleground for the far right
Active Clubs combine fitness and white nationalism, transforming the body into a tool for radicalization and normalizing far right ideology as part of everyday life.
theconversation.com
December 4, 2025 at 11:34 PM
What fresh horrors
Reposted by Brendan
The tech industry to itself
December 3, 2025 at 11:52 PM
The tech industry to itself
Reposted by Brendan
And even if Dems manage to get a half- or quarter-loaf passed into law (like the ACA or IRA), they still get blamed for the shitty state of the country, leading electorate to swing back to the GOP because it's desperate for change of any kind
December 2, 2025 at 9:02 PM
And even if Dems manage to get a half- or quarter-loaf passed into law (like the ACA or IRA), they still get blamed for the shitty state of the country, leading electorate to swing back to the GOP because it's desperate for change of any kind
Reposted by Brendan
Wife and I started watching Finding Mr. Christmas on the Hallmark Channel. Ten handsome men with chiseled jaws and abs attempting to do arts and crafts and crying every episode as one of the bros is kicked out of the Hallmark house. Exquisite television
December 2, 2025 at 1:50 PM
Wife and I started watching Finding Mr. Christmas on the Hallmark Channel. Ten handsome men with chiseled jaws and abs attempting to do arts and crafts and crying every episode as one of the bros is kicked out of the Hallmark house. Exquisite television
Reposted by Brendan
Also, Dems are very likely to be in the majority in a year. If you actually wanted to punish these people, you would start building the case now. Jeffries is doing the opposite because he has no interest in holding anyone to account.
For some reason Democratic leaders seem to prefer telling voters what they won’t be able to do, rather than what they’d like to do.
If Hegseth ordered a war crime and lied about it, shouldn’t Ds try for impeachment? Put Rs on the spot. They might get a few defections.
www.axios.com/2025/12/01/j...
If Hegseth ordered a war crime and lied about it, shouldn’t Ds try for impeachment? Put Rs on the spot. They might get a few defections.
www.axios.com/2025/12/01/j...
Jeffries says not to expect Democrats to pursue Hegseth impeachment over boat strikes
"Republicans will never allow articles of impeachment to be brought to the floor," he said.
www.axios.com
December 2, 2025 at 1:27 AM
Also, Dems are very likely to be in the majority in a year. If you actually wanted to punish these people, you would start building the case now. Jeffries is doing the opposite because he has no interest in holding anyone to account.
Reposted by Brendan
I saw a post on here that I keep thinking about that was (paraphrased) “imagine if Lee had won at Gettysburg and sacked Philadelphia, giving the North more of a desire to actually finish the job postwar”
January 28, 2025 at 4:58 PM
I saw a post on here that I keep thinking about that was (paraphrased) “imagine if Lee had won at Gettysburg and sacked Philadelphia, giving the North more of a desire to actually finish the job postwar”
Reposted by Brendan
“Dear young people, perhaps you regret inheriting a world torn apart by wars and disfigured by social injustice. Yet there is hope, and there is hope within you! […] You are the present, and the future is already taking shape in your hands!” – Pope Leo XIV
December 2, 2025 at 1:37 AM
“Dear young people, perhaps you regret inheriting a world torn apart by wars and disfigured by social injustice. Yet there is hope, and there is hope within you! […] You are the present, and the future is already taking shape in your hands!” – Pope Leo XIV
Reposted by Brendan
That the Vatican's French account shared a pic of the Hezbollah-founded Imam Mahdi Boy Scouts celebrating his arrival (with a pic of Ayatollah Khomeini on their shirts) is too fun. Making the rounds among both Shia and Catholics with Shia friends
December 2, 2025 at 1:45 AM
That the Vatican's French account shared a pic of the Hezbollah-founded Imam Mahdi Boy Scouts celebrating his arrival (with a pic of Ayatollah Khomeini on their shirts) is too fun. Making the rounds among both Shia and Catholics with Shia friends
Reposted by Brendan
It's usually not an explicit question. More likely someone immediately starts telling me about why they don't want more housing in *their* neighborhood or unloading their contempt for homeless people, with the implicit question being, "But you still think I'm still a good person, right? Right??"
What’s the worst question someone can ask after you tell them your profession? For linguists, it’s definitely “how many languages do you speak?”, but I’m curious what else is happening to the rest of y’all out there?!
December 1, 2025 at 10:39 PM
It's usually not an explicit question. More likely someone immediately starts telling me about why they don't want more housing in *their* neighborhood or unloading their contempt for homeless people, with the implicit question being, "But you still think I'm still a good person, right? Right??"
Reposted by Brendan
Fun story about Pope Bob visiting the location of the Council of Nicaea, with an amusing anecdote about St Nicolas (yes, that St Nicolas) thrown in as well.
The Answer to a 1,700-Year-Old Christian Mystery Lay in a Lake in Turkey
Pope Leo XIV is visiting the ruins of a basilica that archaeologists now say hosted an important early Christian council.
www.wsj.com
December 2, 2025 at 12:37 AM
Fun story about Pope Bob visiting the location of the Council of Nicaea, with an amusing anecdote about St Nicolas (yes, that St Nicolas) thrown in as well.
Reposted by Brendan
I never appreciated until recently how important it was for churches to teach people how to be normal, but apparently that was a load bearing part of society that mainline churches were upholding.
December 1, 2025 at 5:28 PM
I never appreciated until recently how important it was for churches to teach people how to be normal, but apparently that was a load bearing part of society that mainline churches were upholding.
Reposted by Brendan
New @nberpubs: "Marijuana Legalization and Suicides Among Older Adults" www.nber.org/papers/w3451...
"suicide rates among older age groups decline following the opening of recreational marijuana dispensaries"
"suicide rates among older age groups decline following the opening of recreational marijuana dispensaries"
December 1, 2025 at 11:58 AM
New @nberpubs: "Marijuana Legalization and Suicides Among Older Adults" www.nber.org/papers/w3451...
"suicide rates among older age groups decline following the opening of recreational marijuana dispensaries"
"suicide rates among older age groups decline following the opening of recreational marijuana dispensaries"
Reposted by Brendan
Reposted by Brendan
When you see stuff like this, you should ask yourself: what would happen if a PM was ever elected who was not 100% reliably One Of The Lads, and he or she asked to see the Northern Ireland files from the 1970s? What then.
Special forces chief tried to cover up concerns about SAS conduct in Afghanistan, inquiry told
Whistleblower says chain of command failed to stop extrajudicial shootings, including of children, after alarm was raised
www.theguardian.com
December 1, 2025 at 9:28 AM
When you see stuff like this, you should ask yourself: what would happen if a PM was ever elected who was not 100% reliably One Of The Lads, and he or she asked to see the Northern Ireland files from the 1970s? What then.
Reposted by Brendan
Reposted by Brendan
The memory, or forgetting, of the Achaemenids in Sasanian late antiquity and the medieval period is a robust debate. I wrote a rather longish blog about it here:
iranologie.com/2025/11/29/d...
iranologie.com/2025/11/29/d...
Did Sasanians Remember the Achaemenids… or Should They Have?
(Any unauthorised quotations, copying, or use of the following is strictly prohibited) The scholarly debate on whether the Sasanians, particularly the early Sasanians like Ardashir I, had any memor…
iranologie.com
November 29, 2025 at 1:56 AM
The memory, or forgetting, of the Achaemenids in Sasanian late antiquity and the medieval period is a robust debate. I wrote a rather longish blog about it here:
iranologie.com/2025/11/29/d...
iranologie.com/2025/11/29/d...
Reposted by Brendan
"For the first time in history, representatives of the five ancient patriarchal sees—Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem—will stand together at Nicaea to commemorate the council’s 1700th anniversary." orthodoxobserver.org/why-is-pope-...
Why is Pope Leo XIV's visit to Türkiye important for the Orthodox Church?
Pope Leo XIV is about to set foot on Turkish soil for his historic journey to İznik and Constantinople.
orthodoxobserver.org
November 28, 2025 at 6:52 PM
"For the first time in history, representatives of the five ancient patriarchal sees—Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem—will stand together at Nicaea to commemorate the council’s 1700th anniversary." orthodoxobserver.org/why-is-pope-...
Reposted by Brendan
this essay is like half marxist daydreaming about mass proletarian organizations and half absolutely fucking savage takedown of The Groups and their associated ideology. read it, it's a banger.
midwestsocialist.com/2022/02/07/u...
midwestsocialist.com/2022/02/07/u...
Ultraliberalism: The Dominant Tendency of the American Left
Ramsin Canon argues that "ultraliberalism," the political logic of the nonprofit industry, has overtaken socialist organizations.
midwestsocialist.com
November 28, 2025 at 5:23 PM
this essay is like half marxist daydreaming about mass proletarian organizations and half absolutely fucking savage takedown of The Groups and their associated ideology. read it, it's a banger.
midwestsocialist.com/2022/02/07/u...
midwestsocialist.com/2022/02/07/u...
This should be nailed to the door of someplace elite like an Equinox or Club Macanudo
The "Larry Summers complained to Jeffrey Epstein that MeToo went too far" and "Olivia Nuzzi committed crimes on behalf of the fascist she masturbated with while reporting on him" are the same story: American elites have no ideology other than "I should be untouchable." Society is run by empty husks
November 28, 2025 at 5:45 PM
This should be nailed to the door of someplace elite like an Equinox or Club Macanudo
Reposted by Brendan
When a politician says: we’ll deregulate health insurance and send you a “freedom account” check, ask: freedom to buy what? If insurers don’t offer real policies or can cherry-pick only healthy people, that money is a coupon for a store that’s not open.
November 28, 2025 at 12:52 PM
When a politician says: we’ll deregulate health insurance and send you a “freedom account” check, ask: freedom to buy what? If insurers don’t offer real policies or can cherry-pick only healthy people, that money is a coupon for a store that’s not open.
Reposted by Brendan
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 Brendan
Whether it’s pro-Republican X accounts based in Eastern Europe and Bangladesh or pro-Democrat X accounts based in Maryland and Massachusetts, both parties have too few accounts based in Real America.
November 26, 2025 at 5:14 PM
Whether it’s pro-Republican X accounts based in Eastern Europe and Bangladesh or pro-Democrat X accounts based in Maryland and Massachusetts, both parties have too few accounts based in Real America.
Reposted by Brendan
Bondi is gonna release the Epstein Files and it's gonna be a PDF that just says Bill Clintin 400 times with random dates and times
July 17, 2025 at 12:55 AM
Bondi is gonna release the Epstein Files and it's gonna be a PDF that just says Bill Clintin 400 times with random dates and times