Mark Arnest

"Fascist regimes are doomed to lose their wars, because they are constitutionally incapable of making an objective assessment of the enemy’s strength." –Umberto Eco, Ur-Fascism, pub. in Five Moral Pieces

Matchka in sumbean @catsofbluesky @cats

“I don’t think being good at things is the point of doing them.” — KURT VONNEGUT

"‘It’s magic’: scientists rediscover how to make ancient Roman colour-changing glass. Exclusive: Optical engineering that went into 1,600-year-old Lycurgus Cup has baffled experts for centuries." www.theguardian.com/science/2026...

Solid metaphor for the entire administration, honestly

this is so perfect, so pure

THE NATIONAL LEAGUE PENNANT IS COMING HOME TO MILWAUKEE #WinOurWay

The incredible Special Effects of KAREL ZEMAN — without whom there’d be no Terry Gilliam, Tim Burton or Wes Anderson to name but three.

Trump’s insider trading is, on its own, the worst corruption scandal in US history, with $$$ dwarfing Teapot Dome. So are Trump’s bribes-for-pardons. So is the Qatar bribe plane. So is all the Saudi money he (and Kushner) have pocketed. And the ballroom. And more. Each alone would be the worst.

Rote Armee Fraktion / Baader-Meinhof gang were the footsoldiers of the KGB and the Stasi committing murder and acts of sabotage in West Germany. They were provided military equipment, guns and money by the KGB's station in Dresden where the man pictured below, know as Volodya, was their contact.

I did a big dive to see if I could literally find any labor market variable that was better for native-born workers now than it was in 2024, and couldn't find anything. And, well, nothing. Here are the ten biggest misses, but there's so many more. newsletter.mikekonczal.com/p/can-we-fin...

right on time, folks

Dog Can’t Believe Guy She Hooked Up With 10 Years Ago Now Head Of FBI https://theonion.com/dog-cant-believe-guy-she-hooked-up-with-10-years-ago-now-head-of-fbi/

This is absolutely outrageous and gets more so as it goes on. I hadn’t heard anything about her for years and thought she had vanished completely from public life? www.tom-cox.com/at-home-with...

This is 100% correct and the reason it drives me crazy when people talk about Republicans being hypocrites when it comes to debt, complaining about it when Democrats are in power but exploding it when they’re in power. It’s strategy, not hypocrisy.

OMG 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

$5,000 is tempting, but my vote cannot be bought for anything under $15,000. I refuse to compromise my integrity. Some people will call this "quaint" or "old-fashioned," but it's just the way I am.

Scott Bessent claimed that Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil infrastructure were driving up global oil prices. Shortly thereafter, the U.S. struck three Iranian oil tankers. Will some courageus journalist ask Bessent if U.S. strikes on oil tankers might also be driving up oil prices?

We are a nation of snowflakes and cancelers. They live on left and right. I’m glad Vinita Prabhakar has told her story. “Free State of Florida,” my ass. A tiresome boast. open.substack.com/pub/persuasi...

It's 16 years today since Lauren went to the farmer's market to get milk and eggs, and came home with milk, eggs, and a kitten. Happy Gotcha Day to the inimitable Matchka! May she be with us for years! #cats #catsofbluesky

Can’t afford groceries? No problem! It’s not safe to consume them anyway!

I want to strengthen my last statement—this *is* an election-rigging scheme. And the fact that there was a conspiracy in the executive branch to hide it makes it likely this constitutes a Criminal Conspiracy to Commit Election Fraud headed by Donald Trump.

Surely I'm not the only person amused by the fact that BlueSky won't allow me to post a 1,278-character quote without breaking it up, but WILL allow me to include the entire quote within alt text.

The ER visit for me was $300. Chewy bill for latest diffuser refills and new supplement was 98.73. We have 393.87 left for his neuro visit on 9/22 at 10am. Donations are open. Please share! #plundercats #hedgewatch #catsofbluesky gofund.me/0d9862e0b

I don't trust the USA wildfire data from "Our World in Data" tamino.wordpress.com/2026/08/29/i...

I was the only Mets fan at a party full of Red Sox fans, and when the Red Sox were up by two runs with two outs and nobody on base, I was congratulating them on their upcoming win. Iirc, three straight Mets batters had two strikes on them.

The Pentagon has never received a passing grade on a comprehensive financial audit. One thing is clear: Vast sums are funneled into costly weapon systems that chronically come in over budget.

I want to expand on this in a short thread. Fascism sucks. It is also not going away: it is an effectively permanent part of modern representative politics because it is an effectively permanent part of human nature. We have to be prepared to push back against it, basically forever.

Quoth the raven, Edradour

The President has decided that in order to make ground beef cheaper, he will cut tariffs on ground beef. And I'm wondering if he could generalize from this one product to other products, and perhaps concede that tariffs raise prices on American consumers.

I do not like the fact that this White House very clearly has the structural issues you find in an autocratic court - it is profoundly strange and deeply concerning to basically watch an autocracy running *within* a democracy.

remarkable continuity

One of the best job applications ever written came from the hands of Robert Pirosh in 1934. MGM loved it, took him on and in 1949 he won an Oscar for ‘Battleground’.

Stars, they’re just like us…big balls of gas that eventually burn out.

Funny how no one asked russia to halt strikes on Ukrainian civilians.

The Trump administration just made it official: it's demolishing the US's shell company registry, and destroying all of the data it already collected. A disaster for US anti-corruption efforts.

Unpopular opinion but a country's wealth and success should be measured by how well its poorest live, not by how obscenely rich its richest are.

This analysis is mostly what you'd expect, but basically adds up to, "the military and intelligence community advised against this stupid thing, but were ignored by the key decision-makers, noted idiots Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth." Again, the real fault lies with the voters.

Statement by my friend and colleague @mtosterholm.bsky.social on the White House Executive order for childhood vaccines issued today

Happy International Cat Day!

Italian researchers found that semi-transparent solar panels over olive groves increased olive yields by 12%, reduced water evaporation by 19%, generated clean electricity, and even improved olive oil quality. 🌿⚡🫒 #Agrivoltaics #RenewableEnergy #Sustainability #ClimateSolutions

Notice DOJ doesn't talk about its efforts to obtain state voter files anymore. They are 0-20 in those cases and today is the beginning of the quiet period -- states can no longer do systematic removals of names from the voter rolls. TLDR: We won!🥳

More cops have been arrested for using flock cameras to stalk women than there are transgender athletes in youth sports.