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andrewfacini.com
Nuke policy starter pack! https://go.bsky.app/8jiQV43 Nuclear weapons policy, history, culture, and other things to help you sleep. Comms Director and Sr Fellow, @councilonstrategicrisks.org. Teaching and such at Harvard Extension.
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SecDef says Golden Dome to include: "a space layer w/space-based sensors, and interceptors; an upper layer w/[GMD] next-gen interceptors; an under layer w/upgraded expeditionary effectors..; and a lower-tier layer for cruise and terminal missile defense and other advanced aerial threats."

Is it not mortifyingly embarrassing to be the person working for the Dept of Homeland Security whose job it is to find scary music to overlay on fresh drone video so it can be posted on the propaganda website

It is 100% carrying water for the opposition to participate in this collective delusion that Dems for some reason need to answer for every teen who throws a rock rather than hold the Trump admin accountable for intentionally creating chaos and breaking the law to stoke violence. They are in charge.

Cannot be understated how corrosive this conspiratorial thinking about every minutiae has been. “Menswear guy is a paid op” is insane. It’s indicative of a populace that has no courage, self-respect, or confidence to have their own beliefs, and so therefore anyone else’s must also be insincere

Tulsi Gabbard spent several years attacking Ukraine and arguing that Biden/NATO were recklessly driving us to the brink of nuclear war. You do not "gotta hand it to her."

[Budapest 1956] Wow guys that's not a great optic. If you want to make change everyone can agree with you shouldn't cut up the flag. smh this isn't going to play well in Pravda

Has any bit of "escalate to escalate" tactics made it easier, more effective, or safer for DHS agents to do whatever they were previously intending on doing in any place in the country?

Okay so the Third Amendment jokes are funny obviously but there's also a deeper point, I think: Trump is more alike the exact things the Founding generation were afraid of than anything the country has faced in the interim

Performance on friendly media for the base aside, you can see a scaled version of the sit-down incident with Zelensky. The people in power work each other up, clear a social space for escalating, and go back and forth projecting power. In a room, it's bullying; in the streets, it's fascism.

This is the type of background lore you get after hacking a clacky old terminal in the basement ruins of REPCONN Aerospace or ArcJet or RobCo or whatever.

biden treated republican crimes and fascism like a distraction and i feel like i’m going insane watching democrats do the exact same thing again right now

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.

For every centrist preemptively crapping themselves over the propaganda value of a demonstrator holding a Mexican flag, how many regular people will just the same be exposed to clear video of a defenseless guy getting trampled, a journalist being shot, people stuck in cars getting gassed...

Watch the slow motion: it appears to me that the officers discuss the photographer and reporter before the one on the end fires on them (it looks to me like he's aiming at the camera, not the reporter, but you decide)

Really hard to overstate the political risks for normie Dems at this moment. Feds have declared a MONTHLONG OCCUPATION of LA and the wide consensus is that it's an unjustified provocation from the outset. There's NOTHING to be gained by bothsidsing here, and generational damage on the table.

ICE crossed a line in LA

I think I have a winner for "least likely social media app I'm now seeing people organize anti-ICE protests on":

The most striking thing about the LA protests is how many people just dropped everything to show up and yell at federal agents. There are people in suits, and carrying dogs, and wearing flip flops or bike helmets. These are not people who planned to do this today. But there they are.

Tom Homan: We are making Los Angeles safer. Mayor Bass should be thanking us. She says they are going to mobilize—guess what? We are already mobilizing. We are going to bring the National Guard in tonight

⚠️ To give people an idea of where the Trump administration is wanting to take things, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller is calling the anti-ICE protests in large cities in blue states “an insurrection against the laws and sovereignty of the United States.”

Would love to see governors mayors sheriffs (Democratic ones especially) challenge these raids formally, at a minimum refusing to assist and possibly pressing charges against ICE for harms

not sure there's a more embarrassing profession than ICE agent. Oh, you dress like a soldier to abduct sous chefs and throw flashbangs at protesters? Get a real job you loser

DHS again asking for blue state escalation. Yesterday's ICE actions caused a violent civil disturbance. If the goal is smooth execution of your operations, you pause, do whatever perfunctory community liaising and maybe make policy changes for future ops. This is a double dare.

These are the "fun" projects I do while thinking about the World Economy, the United States, China, Russia, and lots of other Countries, places, and events.

Hmmm!

Undoing this kind of damage will require ironclad government and political reform and probably sweeping imprisonments just to begin to convince the world that the US can be trusted again.

Stepping aside from reactive takes and general politics brain, I've *repeatedly* found there's a large appetite for info. People like to learn! It's not a can opener for every topic, but in cases where things are frustrated by complexity, giving ppl credit and facilitating a bit can go really far.