ockham64.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

the Star Tribune just called me and told me they would not be publishing the obituary I wrote for my father as it is “unfair to him” and “in poor taste” so here it is and fuck the strib ✌🏻

submitted 6 hours ago • 338 comments

Gift link to a chilling report from Haaretz that everyone should read. Even if only a fraction of this (and some of the paper’s previous detailed reporting on possible war crimes) is true, we should all be deeply saddened and sickened, as I am right now. www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

submitted 1 day ago • 207 comments

Scathing critique of Nato summit from Rusi: "Trump won, Ukraine lost, Europe rolled out the red carpet and exposed the total psychological dependency on the US. "The main plenary was reduced to just two and a half hours to accommodate Trump, giving each ally less than 5 mins airtime each."

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

Hard to get away from the idea, which @stephenkb.bsky.social has written about, that in a world where agentic A.I. is available to all and works as described here, you just end up doing business, like selling concert tickets, in a physical space again

submitted 1 day ago • 6 comments

In my new novel, THE ART OF A LIE, Hannah Cole is struggling to run her confectionery shop in 18th C London after her husband's murder, and she believes an Italian delicacy called 'iced cream' might be the answer to her problems. So yesterday I made ice cream the Georgian way!🍦A thread...

submitted 2 days ago • 7 comments

Americans asking CEE people about "bright spots of light for the future" at events will never not be hilarious. Answers invetiably gravitate around "well we're deep in shit and there's shit everywhere but maybe in the future there could be a bit less shit but I'm not holding my hopes up".

submitted 2 days ago • 4 comments

Spot on @maxbergmann.bsky.social: ”instead of focusing the summit on the critical need for Europe to figure out how to fight with significantly less U.S. support, NATO is back to focusing on largely symbolic spending targets” YES this just distracts from what really matters: capability development

submitted 3 days ago • 17 comments

Dass der NATO-Gipfel von Den Haag zur Mitgliedschaft der Ukraine viel weniger sagte, als noch in Vilnius und Washington, zahlt leider auf Putins strategische Ziele ein. Die NATO-Europäer müssten stattdessen sagen: Sicherheit der Ukraine = Europäische Sicherheit.

submitted 2 days ago • 5 comments

My take on the NATO summit. Lots of unintended consequences with Europeans agreeing to something that few intend to deliver on. NATO ignoring its major challenge, fighting together as Europe with less US. That requires deep reforms, not vague spending pledges. www.csis.org/analysis/nat...

submitted 3 days ago • 16 comments

Calling a 3.5% of GDP defence spending target plus a 1.5% on ‘miscellaneous other spending most countries are doing anyway’ a 5% defence spending pledge is a bit silly. The real number of 3.5% is still (1) a big step up from the last three decades for most members & (2) not very high historically.

submitted 3 days ago • 7 comments

🇨🇿Pres Petr Pavel - you don’t deter with numbers you deter with capabilities. 🇩🇰 PM Mette Fredriksen - 10 years is too long. Even 5 years must be the very latest we’re ready. 🇵🇱FM Radek Sikorski - we can’t afford a conservative rearmament. We need to learn from Ukraine, use AI & build drone armies

submitted 3 days ago • 4 comments

“But if not, God forbid — all of this: the paper commitments, the gushings of weakness and meekness — will be remembered as one of the most shameful episodes in modern history.” Former foreign minister of Lithuania @glandsbergis.bsky.social on the NATO summit on Twitter

submitted 3 days ago • 11 comments

It is amazing how pathetic Europeans come across at NATO.

submitted 3 days ago • 6 comments

Computers used to scream every time they connected to the Internet. They knew. They tried to warn us. We did not listen.

submitted 6 days ago • 56 comments

For years on Twitter I wrote that the conundrum of gig economy businesses like Uber is that you can only pick 2 out of 3 from - low prices - well paid drivers - a profitable service What’s surprised many is that Dara chose to ditch low prices and it worked. Customers stayed and Uber is profitable

submitted 4 days ago • 11 comments

On defence, European leaders sound like a soldiers’ choir bellowing “let’s march” on an opera stage without going anywhere - @breakingviews.reuters.com here: www.breakingviews.com/columns/big-...

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

My latest

submitted 5 days ago • 1 comment

Some interesting polling from ECFR this morning on Europeans' views on Trump. No majority in any of the European countries polled think Trump is doing a good job competing against China

submitted 5 days ago • 1 comment

Russians: We want to conquer Ukraine & kill Ukrainians Useful idiots: Maybe they’re mad about NATO Russians: invade Ukraine, kidnap, torture, murder Ukrainians nonstop for 3 years UI: But what do they want? Russians: We want all of Ukraine UI: Wow they must be super mad at NATO

submitted 7 days ago • 10 comments

If your political education took place in Israel-supportive spheres, the word Intifada has a negative, violent and menacing meaning for you. If your political education happened in Palestine-supportive spheres, the word Intifada has a positive, liberatory and inspiring meaning for you. 1/

submitted 8 days ago • 2 comments

Huzzzzahhh! The potential here for Europe is so enormous. And it all basically amounts to a free lunch. Big European Council summit coming

submitted 9 days ago • 3 comments

what gets me about this stupid ass shit is that Ukraine is dealing with literal russian tanks and meanwhile the president is about to toss american power into the MENA meatgrinder once again

submitted 10 days ago • 8 comments

I know it’s far from the most important issue in the world but pro sports ownership shifting to private equity, holding companies of multiple teams, and Middle East money is a pretty depressing trend.

submitted 10 days ago • 40 comments

When Teddy Roosevelt was called disloyal for criticizing Wilson’s conduct of WWI, he said “to announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”

submitted 10 days ago • 54 comments

No - he shifted under the pressure of his own staggering weakness: the incapacity to formulate coherent policy, the spectacular ignorance and destructiveness & above all the stupefying egocentrism that drives him to appear in command of events when he is just awash in the chaos he creates.

submitted 10 days ago • 33 comments

If limited military action cannot destroy a state's ability to develop a nuclear weapon then the next step for strategic planners devoid of any scruples or concerns for what comes next is to develop unlimited military action that destroys that state

submitted 12 days ago • 8 comments

World history is largely a long list of military solutions. Politicians who say there is "no military solution" to an active conflict are in most cases trying to excuse their inaction.

submitted 12 days ago • 12 comments

"Stories of people dying of starvation in Gaza or of the hungry being killed while queueing for food, have fallen away from the headlines. The relentless assault on the West Bank and the expansion of illegal settlements has receded from view.

submitted 12 days ago • 1 comment

thinking of getting into pre-code cinema, because I think we can all agree I don't have enough hobbies - where should I start? any recs, especially for someone who's almost entirely used to modern films?

submitted 14 days ago • 75 comments

A problem with geopolitical analysis produced in the US is it often assumes other states will succumb to similar structural constraints on political will and doctrine that affect America's way of war. That goes as much for analysis of Ukraine and Israel as Iran or Russia

submitted 14 days ago • 3 comments

Really enjoying this one.

submitted 16 days ago • 2 comments

History says that there was no imminent threat from those weapons, which is why RFK said (and JFK agreed) that striking them would be the Americans basically executing morally indefensible Pearl Harbor on Cuba.

submitted 15 days ago • 28 comments

The Israeli campaign might well be necessary - but preventive wars carry great moral and practical risks. My latest in @theatlantic.com www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

submitted 15 days ago • 63 comments

The Israelis are calling this a "preemptive" strike. Whether you agree or disagree with this attack, these are not - from what we know tonight - "preemptive" strikes. The Israelis are using that word for a reason. Read on. /1

submitted 15 days ago • 50 comments

more crime in america

submitted 15 days ago • 244 comments

One thing that makes the conflict between Israel and Palestine so entrenched and violent: one side finds it hard to acknowledge, for very good historic reasons, that they’re winning (or have won). The other side has no way of coping with the fact that they have lost a long time ago.

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

submitted 17 days ago • 64 comments

The disparity btwn what’s actually happening in Los Angeles and the way it’s being mischaracterized is one of the biggest stress tests of modern media in recent memory. Botted socials, AI, old clips, declining literacy—it’s like seeing a broken emergency response system hit by a storm.

submitted 18 days ago • 1028 comments

One thing social media has taught me (though I have definitely experienced it in other media too): a lot of people, even quite smart people, are worryingly bad at reading comprehension. For instance: many have trouble distinguishing between someone describing a thing and advocating that thing.

submitted 18 days ago • 126 comments

Bellingcat CEO @eliothiggins.bsky.social:

submitted 19 days ago • 131 comments

I've made this point multiple times before but if Bluesky wants to grow, the things they need aren't opinion pundits but accounts that publish new information. That's breaking news reporters, politicians and stuff like official organization accounts that publish official statements.

submitted 20 days ago • 132 comments