Ian Welsh
@ianwelsh.bsky.social
OG Blogger. ianwelsh.net
Email sub: tinyurl.com/vclcqnp
A lot less angry than I used to be. Not sure if that's good.
Email sub: tinyurl.com/vclcqnp
A lot less angry than I used to be. Not sure if that's good.
Reposted by Ian Welsh
They're using the confinement box, one of the most horrific methods of CIA torture in the post-9/11 black sites, against migrants now. This is the direct result of the lack of consequences for the architects of the torture program. Either there will be criminal penalties for this or it will expand.
Torture Techniques from CIA Black Sites Were Used at Alligator Alcatraz
Amnesty International, interviewing migrant detainees, identifies use of the confinement box. There can be no denying it is a torture prison
www.forever-wars.com
December 8, 2025 at 9:40 PM
They're using the confinement box, one of the most horrific methods of CIA torture in the post-9/11 black sites, against migrants now. This is the direct result of the lack of consequences for the architects of the torture program. Either there will be criminal penalties for this or it will expand.
My site is currently in the middle of server transition. No comments are being approved till that's finished sometime tomorrow.
December 5, 2025 at 9:19 PM
My site is currently in the middle of server transition. No comments are being approved till that's finished sometime tomorrow.
My God, this is sheerest evil. "Just let them be raped."
BREAKING: Trump administration plans to end prison rape protections for trans & intersex people, memo says. A DOJ memo says certain standards under the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) do not align with Trump’s Jan. 20 anti-trans executive order, @byadamrhodes.bsky.social reports.
Trump administration plans to end prison rape protections for trans and intersex people
A Department of Justice memo says certain standards under the Prison Rape Elimination Act do not align with Trump’s executive order
prismreports.org
December 5, 2025 at 2:27 PM
My God, this is sheerest evil. "Just let them be raped."
Reposted by Ian Welsh
Prison rape is wrong.
Jokes about prison rape are wrong.
Eliminating protections against prison rape is wrong.
If another country sentenced a criminal to be raped, we'd consider it a crime against humanity.
BUT
A large segment of Americans regard prison rape as a de facto part of the sentence.
Jokes about prison rape are wrong.
Eliminating protections against prison rape is wrong.
If another country sentenced a criminal to be raped, we'd consider it a crime against humanity.
BUT
A large segment of Americans regard prison rape as a de facto part of the sentence.
BREAKING: Trump administration plans to end prison rape protections for trans & intersex people, memo says. A DOJ memo says certain standards under the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) do not align with Trump’s Jan. 20 anti-trans executive order, @byadamrhodes.bsky.social reports.
Trump administration plans to end prison rape protections for trans and intersex people
A Department of Justice memo says certain standards under the Prison Rape Elimination Act do not align with Trump’s executive order
prismreports.org
December 5, 2025 at 1:28 AM
Prison rape is wrong.
Jokes about prison rape are wrong.
Eliminating protections against prison rape is wrong.
If another country sentenced a criminal to be raped, we'd consider it a crime against humanity.
BUT
A large segment of Americans regard prison rape as a de facto part of the sentence.
Jokes about prison rape are wrong.
Eliminating protections against prison rape is wrong.
If another country sentenced a criminal to be raped, we'd consider it a crime against humanity.
BUT
A large segment of Americans regard prison rape as a de facto part of the sentence.
My Website ianwelsh.net is undergoing repairs. So if you can't reach it over the next day or two, that's why.
Ian Welsh
The horizon is not so far as we can see, but as far as we can imagine
ianwelsh.net
December 3, 2025 at 10:12 PM
My Website ianwelsh.net is undergoing repairs. So if you can't reach it over the next day or two, that's why.
Britain is ending jury trials for most crimes.
"But I suggest connecting the dots. All those people being arrested for protesting Palestine, they won’t have the right to a jury trial either. Which means that juries can’t nullify the law by refusing to convict."
www.ianwelsh.net/britain-to-r...
"But I suggest connecting the dots. All those people being arrested for protesting Palestine, they won’t have the right to a jury trial either. Which means that juries can’t nullify the law by refusing to convict."
www.ianwelsh.net/britain-to-r...
Britain To Restrict Jury Trials, Ending Jury Nullification For Political Crimes
Without jury trials, there is no justice: David Lammy, the justice secretary, told The Times that the scale of the backlog – which has reached nearly 80,000 cases – is failing victims as he warned tha...
www.ianwelsh.net
December 2, 2025 at 4:05 PM
Britain is ending jury trials for most crimes.
"But I suggest connecting the dots. All those people being arrested for protesting Palestine, they won’t have the right to a jury trial either. Which means that juries can’t nullify the law by refusing to convict."
www.ianwelsh.net/britain-to-r...
"But I suggest connecting the dots. All those people being arrested for protesting Palestine, they won’t have the right to a jury trial either. Which means that juries can’t nullify the law by refusing to convict."
www.ianwelsh.net/britain-to-r...
If you create highly trained killers, you should probably make sure they are taken care of, not thrown on the trash heap.
www.ianwelsh.net/the-killing-...
www.ianwelsh.net/the-killing-...
The Killing Of Two National Guardsmen In DC
is ironic in a number of ways. https://t.co/qJssreVR98 pic.twitter.com/rAxGPLZXqp — Deeda Weeda aka DMAN 🇵🇸 (@DeemTheDreem) November 27, 2025 As Sun Tzu pointed out about two and a half millenia ago, ...
www.ianwelsh.net
November 28, 2025 at 7:07 PM
If you create highly trained killers, you should probably make sure they are taken care of, not thrown on the trash heap.
www.ianwelsh.net/the-killing-...
www.ianwelsh.net/the-killing-...
Reposted by Ian Welsh
In my brief time on this beautiful earth, I have witnessed Canada’s climate-change target dates move from 2030 to 2040 to 2050. It’s all just a terrible joke and only the oil and gas execs are laughing 😐
Premier Smith and I have agreed to a framework built on shared ambitions — to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, unlock the full potential of Alberta’s energy resources, and build a stronger, more sustainable, more competitive economy.
November 27, 2025 at 5:47 PM
In my brief time on this beautiful earth, I have witnessed Canada’s climate-change target dates move from 2030 to 2040 to 2050. It’s all just a terrible joke and only the oil and gas execs are laughing 😐
Reposted by Ian Welsh
What little empirical evidence I have seen, generally, the higher up the chain of command one occupies in any organisation, the less work you do; it is difficult to see what 'hard' or 'soft' skills these individuals have, or even what exactly they do day-to-day, besides make extremely poor decisions
November 27, 2025 at 7:13 PM
What little empirical evidence I have seen, generally, the higher up the chain of command one occupies in any organisation, the less work you do; it is difficult to see what 'hard' or 'soft' skills these individuals have, or even what exactly they do day-to-day, besides make extremely poor decisions
Reposted by Ian Welsh
“It’s Difficult To Overstate How Concentrated Wealth Is In The US” by @ianwelsh.bsky.social www.ianwelsh.net/its-difficul...
It’s Difficult To Overstate How Concentrated Wealth Is In The US
These two charts tell a story. First, the top .1%. Next, the top 1%. This chart is only to 2023. Now what you'll notice is that the top .1% holds about half the wealth of the top 1%. It's like this al...
www.ianwelsh.net
November 11, 2025 at 6:17 AM
“It’s Difficult To Overstate How Concentrated Wealth Is In The US” by @ianwelsh.bsky.social www.ianwelsh.net/its-difficul...
Mamdani is the start of a great struggle and represents America's last chance to turn things around.
www.ianwelsh.net/mamdani-repr...
www.ianwelsh.net/mamdani-repr...
Mamdani Represents A New Era Of Political Conflict
As everyone's probably aware, Mamdani, a brown muslim social-democrat who has promised, among other things, to open city grocery stories, make transit free, a rent freeze on stabilized units (about 40...
www.ianwelsh.net
November 6, 2025 at 2:27 AM
Mamdani is the start of a great struggle and represents America's last chance to turn things around.
www.ianwelsh.net/mamdani-repr...
www.ianwelsh.net/mamdani-repr...
Reposted by Ian Welsh
2. Rolling Stone is owned by a large media conglomerate, which is ending remote work across its brands.
My home is Portland, Oregon, ~1,000 miles from the nearest office, so this marks the end of the line for me at RS.
My home is Portland, Oregon, ~1,000 miles from the nearest office, so this marks the end of the line for me at RS.
October 16, 2025 at 5:17 PM
2. Rolling Stone is owned by a large media conglomerate, which is ending remote work across its brands.
My home is Portland, Oregon, ~1,000 miles from the nearest office, so this marks the end of the line for me at RS.
My home is Portland, Oregon, ~1,000 miles from the nearest office, so this marks the end of the line for me at RS.
You know, everyone keeps saying "political violence isn't acceptable" and I'd like to know "why not?" Or, at least, "why is it worse than all the other violence, like the invasion of Iraq or Libya or genociding Palestinian kids?"
September 13, 2025 at 11:42 AM
You know, everyone keeps saying "political violence isn't acceptable" and I'd like to know "why not?" Or, at least, "why is it worse than all the other violence, like the invasion of Iraq or Libya or genociding Palestinian kids?"
A New Cold War has started and the "Golden Billion" is in a far weaker position than the Soviets were at the start of the old cold war.
The West is behind in Five of the Six factors one would use to predict who will win a strategic confrontation.
www.ianwelsh.net/the-west-is-...
The West is behind in Five of the Six factors one would use to predict who will win a strategic confrontation.
www.ianwelsh.net/the-west-is-...
The West Is In A Far Worse Position than the Warsaw Pact Was At The Start Of the Cold War
One of my long term predictions, coming true before our eyes, was that the world would fall into a new cold war, forming two trade blocs. I hoped it wouldn't happen, I suggested ways to avoid it (incl...
www.ianwelsh.net
September 9, 2025 at 1:06 PM
A New Cold War has started and the "Golden Billion" is in a far weaker position than the Soviets were at the start of the old cold war.
The West is behind in Five of the Six factors one would use to predict who will win a strategic confrontation.
www.ianwelsh.net/the-west-is-...
The West is behind in Five of the Six factors one would use to predict who will win a strategic confrontation.
www.ianwelsh.net/the-west-is-...
Reposted by Ian Welsh
"isn’t a democracy and its actions clearly benefit the majority of its people more than the actions of ... governments benefit their people.
Democracy isn’t just something word you wave around. If it doesn’t produce better results, people will stop believing in it."
"chart ~rent as % of income."
Democracy isn’t just something word you wave around. If it doesn’t produce better results, people will stop believing in it."
"chart ~rent as % of income."
If you understand only ONE thing about China's communist party let it be this. They make goals and they almost always accomplish them, and those goals are more likely to be good for most people than the goals western government set.
www.ianwelsh.net/if-you-under...
www.ianwelsh.net/if-you-under...
If You Understand Only One Thing About Chinese Government
It should be that almost always they do what they promise, and they meet their goals. An American-Chinese silicon valley type spent some time in China recently (I don't agree wit the whole article, bu...
www.ianwelsh.net
September 2, 2025 at 7:36 AM
"isn’t a democracy and its actions clearly benefit the majority of its people more than the actions of ... governments benefit their people.
Democracy isn’t just something word you wave around. If it doesn’t produce better results, people will stop believing in it."
"chart ~rent as % of income."
Democracy isn’t just something word you wave around. If it doesn’t produce better results, people will stop believing in it."
"chart ~rent as % of income."
If you understand only ONE thing about China's communist party let it be this. They make goals and they almost always accomplish them, and those goals are more likely to be good for most people than the goals western government set.
www.ianwelsh.net/if-you-under...
www.ianwelsh.net/if-you-under...
If You Understand Only One Thing About Chinese Government
It should be that almost always they do what they promise, and they meet their goals. An American-Chinese silicon valley type spent some time in China recently (I don't agree wit the whole article, bu...
www.ianwelsh.net
September 2, 2025 at 7:19 AM
If you understand only ONE thing about China's communist party let it be this. They make goals and they almost always accomplish them, and those goals are more likely to be good for most people than the goals western government set.
www.ianwelsh.net/if-you-under...
www.ianwelsh.net/if-you-under...
Reposted by Ian Welsh
This was completely inevitable.
What's frustrating is that a huge component of Uber's success was due to an effective app that people liked to use, and which provided a consistent experience everywhere… something that existing services could have been providing since smartphones were introduced.
What's frustrating is that a huge component of Uber's success was due to an effective app that people liked to use, and which provided a consistent experience everywhere… something that existing services could have been providing since smartphones were introduced.
Uber is now profitable. For years it provided cheap rides, now its rides are more expensive than Taxi rides, but since it has dominant market share, it can raise prices and screw over its drivers even more.
You got a few years of cheap rides in exchange.
www.ianwelsh.net/ubers-finall...
You got a few years of cheap rides in exchange.
www.ianwelsh.net/ubers-finall...
Uber’s Finally Profitable & Workers and Customers Will Pay Back Its Losses Fast
Uber started in 2009. It incurred losses every year until 2023 except for a profit in 2019 which was due to selling subsidiaries in various countries. Numbers before the IPO are difficult to obtain, b...
www.ianwelsh.net
August 23, 2025 at 8:33 AM
This was completely inevitable.
What's frustrating is that a huge component of Uber's success was due to an effective app that people liked to use, and which provided a consistent experience everywhere… something that existing services could have been providing since smartphones were introduced.
What's frustrating is that a huge component of Uber's success was due to an effective app that people liked to use, and which provided a consistent experience everywhere… something that existing services could have been providing since smartphones were introduced.
As far as I can see anyone who builds an AI product on top of anything that isn't open source is asking for a world of hurt. (And right now, that basically means deepseek, which is also far cheaper to run, meaning you might actually make a profit.)
August 2, 2025 at 11:00 PM
As far as I can see anyone who builds an AI product on top of anything that isn't open source is asking for a world of hurt. (And right now, that basically means deepseek, which is also far cheaper to run, meaning you might actually make a profit.)
All of this stuff to go back to being the 3rd way for Starbucks is good, but none of it will matter if they don't reduce their prices. And Luckin is coming for them.
July 31, 2025 at 2:44 PM
All of this stuff to go back to being the 3rd way for Starbucks is good, but none of it will matter if they don't reduce their prices. And Luckin is coming for them.
Non Bot traffic to my site is up about 100% in the past 3 months, and I have no idea why.
July 31, 2025 at 2:39 PM
Non Bot traffic to my site is up about 100% in the past 3 months, and I have no idea why.
Bloody AI scrape bots keep bringing my site to a halt. I can't see anything good that AI does for the web. Maybe it'll do good things elsewhere, but so far it looks like a multiple disaster.
July 30, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Bloody AI scrape bots keep bringing my site to a halt. I can't see anything good that AI does for the web. Maybe it'll do good things elsewhere, but so far it looks like a multiple disaster.
Reposted by Ian Welsh
We should probably start recognizing the VC model and stop feeding it
Uber is now profitable. For years it provided cheap rides, now its rides are more expensive than Taxi rides, but since it has dominant market share, it can raise prices and screw over its drivers even more.
You got a few years of cheap rides in exchange.
www.ianwelsh.net/ubers-finall...
You got a few years of cheap rides in exchange.
www.ianwelsh.net/ubers-finall...
Uber’s Finally Profitable & Workers and Customers Will Pay Back Its Losses Fast
Uber started in 2009. It incurred losses every year until 2023 except for a profit in 2019 which was due to selling subsidiaries in various countries. Numbers before the IPO are difficult to obtain, b...
www.ianwelsh.net
July 25, 2025 at 5:54 PM
We should probably start recognizing the VC model and stop feeding it
Uber is now profitable. For years it provided cheap rides, now its rides are more expensive than Taxi rides, but since it has dominant market share, it can raise prices and screw over its drivers even more.
You got a few years of cheap rides in exchange.
www.ianwelsh.net/ubers-finall...
You got a few years of cheap rides in exchange.
www.ianwelsh.net/ubers-finall...
Uber’s Finally Profitable & Workers and Customers Will Pay Back Its Losses Fast
Uber started in 2009. It incurred losses every year until 2023 except for a profit in 2019 which was due to selling subsidiaries in various countries. Numbers before the IPO are difficult to obtain, b...
www.ianwelsh.net
July 25, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Uber is now profitable. For years it provided cheap rides, now its rides are more expensive than Taxi rides, but since it has dominant market share, it can raise prices and screw over its drivers even more.
You got a few years of cheap rides in exchange.
www.ianwelsh.net/ubers-finall...
You got a few years of cheap rides in exchange.
www.ianwelsh.net/ubers-finall...
America Protestants are very good at ignoring Jesus's clear words that the rich almost never go to Heaven, that one who wants to follow Jesus should give their wealth to the poor, and that what you do to the poor and weak determines whether Jesus knows you.
July 25, 2025 at 3:50 PM
America Protestants are very good at ignoring Jesus's clear words that the rich almost never go to Heaven, that one who wants to follow Jesus should give their wealth to the poor, and that what you do to the poor and weak determines whether Jesus knows you.