James Halls

James Halls

@topsey.bsky.social

Jack of all trades, master of none. Knows just enough to be dangerous. Usually to himself. Lives in the north half of North America.

235 followers93 following1.2K posts

James Halls
@topsey.bsky.social

The victory of the Student List over Vučić is at least as important as Lula beating Bolsonaro. Given the situation in Europe, arguably more important as Putin loses another European ally. www.cbc.ca/news/world/s...

cbc.caSerbia's longtime strongman Vučić concedes election defeat to student-led opposition | CBC NewsSerbia's Aleksandar Vučić conceded defeat to a student-led protest movement in a historic election on Sunday that ends his long grip on power ​and heralds a new political era in the ​Balkan country.
James Halls
@topsey.bsky.social

So, I was 🤣🤣🤣🤣reading this story 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 about Trump🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣and 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣Norway🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 he🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣Sorry 🤣🤣🤣🤣 Can't🤣🤣Stop🤣🤣 Laughing🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 www.ctvnews.ca/world/articl...

ctvnews.caTrump says Norway ‘sucks’ and he doesn’t want anyone from the countryU.S. President Donald Trump attacked Norway during a campaign rally and said Norwegian immigrants were not welcome in the United States because its Nobel Committee had not awarded him the Peace Prize.

James Halls reposted

"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux
@bretdevereaux.bsky.social

Replying to @bretdevereaux.bsky.social

President Harris would probably not be at war with Iran. She certainly wouldn't have regime-changed Venezuela. Under President Harris, the USA wouldn't send anyone to CECOT. Under President Harris, Alex Pretti and Renee Good would not have been shot by DHS thugs.

James Halls
@topsey.bsky.social

While it seems likely the Democrats could take a bare majority of the Senate, what I really wonder is how big the Democrat win will need to be to peel off enough sitting Republican senators to impeach Trump.

James Halls reposted

Katie Mack
@astrokatie.com

The part of this clip where he points out that gas was cheap the day before he started bombing Iran could be run on its own as an attack ad by the Democrats

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com

Trump: "Unlike Biden and Obama and these guys, they don't look at gas pumps, but I do. And I'm looking at the price."

James Halls
@topsey.bsky.social

When America will be taken seriously again will depend on how they deal with the corruption and barbarism of the Trump regime. People in power need significant jail time

Tod Maffin 🇨🇦@todmaffin.com

America has absolutely lost itself. I can’t imagine how many generations it will take for the global community to take it seriously again.

James Halls
@topsey.bsky.social

The lack of money from residential taxes will also likely significantly reduce funding to police, paramedic, and fire fire services, who aside from day to day things like house fires, heart attacks, and robberies are also really useful in, I don't know, hurricanes?

James Halls
@topsey.bsky.social

So DeSantis and the average Florida voter seem willing to damage their economy, endanger their lives, and cause more bad blood between Canada and the USA just to what? Own the Canadians? The mind boggles.

James Halls
@topsey.bsky.social

More Canadians will sell, depressing the Florida housing market. Businesses will charge the residents for their increased commercial taxes. Those business that survive the additional exodus of Canadians who obviously won't be spending their money in Florida anyways

James Halls
@topsey.bsky.social

It may not be likely, but I'm hoping against hope.

"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux@bretdevereaux.bsky.social

So ideally what we ought to do is impeach Trump, Vance, Hegseth and Rubio for waging an illegal war and then charge them with a bunch of crimes for waging an illegal war (misappropriation of funds, at a minimum) and then send them to jail forever. Not a likely outcome, but the correct one.

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James Halls
@topsey.bsky.social

Or if you prefer something akin to the modern Loyal Drone Wingman/Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) concept. Lots of details to work out of course, not the least being dealing with EW.

James Halls
@topsey.bsky.social

I haven't seen any references to such systems, which may mean that it hasn't caught the attention of the media, or the sources I follow, or maybe no one is working on it (though I find that hard to believe).

James Halls
@topsey.bsky.social

it occurred to me that a system analogous to a WW2 US fleet with centralized fire control and multiple overlapping fields of fire *might* be a piece of the puzzle to restore mobility to the battlefield.

James Halls
@topsey.bsky.social

Somehow, the Attorney General of Missouri thinks the voters are disenfranchised because the Missouri Supreme Court wants to let the voters vote in a referendum? 🤔 missouriindependent.com/2026/09/03/m...

missouriindependent.comMissouri Supreme Court blocks gerrymandered congressional map, orders referendum vote • Missouri IndependentMissourians will vote on the gerrymandered congressional map muscled through the Legislature in 2025, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled.
James Halls
@topsey.bsky.social

These are cadets, and cadets in Canada tend to be under 18. So Pete, how does it feel to be a real man, now that you can add child abuse to your list of "qualifications"? www.ctvnews.ca/canada/artic...

ctvnews.caPentagon defends Hegseth's controversial post about Canadian cadet programThe Pentagon is standing behind a controversial social media post by U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth about a Canadian cadet program as the Trump administration continues to denigrate Canada’s Arme...

James Halls reposted

Illia Ponomarenko
@ioponomarenko.bsky.social

Wouldn’t it be great if Narendra Modi, instead of philosophically lamenting how every day of the war sets humanity back and calling for peace, actually stopped buying bloody oil from Putin and thereby finally stopped financing Russia’s war to exterminate Ukraine?

James Halls
@topsey.bsky.social

In the end, renaming Lake Ontario on American maps will have as much effect as renaming the Gulf of Mexico. Everybody except the US will use the original name, and when Trump leaves office the next President will reverse the orders. Such a pathetic, deluded man. www.cbc.ca/news/world/t...

cbc.caTrump moves to rename Lake Ontario to 'Lake America' amid trade spat with 'entitled' Canada | CBC NewsU.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday to change the name of Lake Ontario to "Lake America" as tensions with Canada worsen.

James Halls reposted

Tod Maffin 🇨🇦
@todmaffin.com

You vote in the midterms, that’s how.

Diana Plz no DM'S@diane65.bsky.social

I tried buying products from one of your small stores in Canada and when I got to the end and was ready to pay a big note came up and says we will not deliver to that address because unfortunately I live in America so how do we get around that

James Halls
@topsey.bsky.social

Donald Trump and Doug Ford. Hell hath no fury like a jilted political acolyte. Which is not to say I like Ford. He's a small minded creep just like his former master. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

cbc.caHow much leverage does Ontario have in the U.S. trade war? | CBC NewsOntario Premier Doug Ford has been at the forefront of the fight against the tariffs the Trump administration has imposed on Canada. Amid the escalating trade war, here's a look at what leverage Ontar...
James Halls
@topsey.bsky.social

One of the US conditions in the trade negotiations was to change Canadian and Quebec language laws. That would be like Canada asking the US to make Spanish their other official language. Both are completely unacceptable negotiating positions.

James Halls
@topsey.bsky.social

I think a major problem Americans have is believing that electing a President is just about them. It's not. The person they elect is effectively the President of Earth due to the economic, scientific, military and cultural power of the United States. 1/2

James Halls
@topsey.bsky.social

Maybe it's time that the American voter got their collective head around that and started acting like their choice matters, because when they get it wrong, like with Trump, the rest of the planet pays. 2/2

James Halls
@topsey.bsky.social

"However, last-minute changes in the U.S. proposed terms were unfair, uneconomic, and called into question the reliability of any deal." And this is why no one likes to negotiate with Trump. Good on PM Carney for calling it out. www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/stat...

pm.gc.caStatement by Prime Minister Carney on Canada-U.S. trade negotiationsWe have recognised from the beginning that America has changed, and that we will not return to our old relationship. Our government understood, before many, that America is altering all its trade rela...
James Halls
@topsey.bsky.social

35 years ago today, the coup that brought about the end of the USSR happened. I had left a few days earlier for a holiday at the family off-grid cabin. When I left there was a USSR. When I came back a week later what was left... was not. 1/2

James Halls
@topsey.bsky.social

Imagine my surprise to find that the world had changed. Imagine the surprise of a nuclear missile sub crew coming back from patrol. This is the picture I remember best from that time. The soldier with his face in his hand has always haunted me 2/2

James Halls
@topsey.bsky.social

Chandler was a time traveler from the 2020s or later. 1) You could drop this techno-babble into most any Star Trek episode and it would fit. 2) "Google told him." I rest my case.

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James Halls
@topsey.bsky.social

This is truth. I just wish we knew how long it will take the people who make the funding decisions to realize AI is just the current "shiny thing"

Katie Mack@astrokatie.com

Like someone still has to be out there creating the knowledge the AI is going to chop up and regurgitate later on. I truly do understand that the technology can be powerful and transformative but it has to have something to transform. The research can’t all be just on improving the regurgitation.

James Halls reposted

"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux
@bretdevereaux.bsky.social

Replying to @bretdevereaux.bsky.social

What we are learning is not that the US military is weak or that Iran is a superpower or that the PLA-N wished a global supply chain into being. What we're learning is that no amount of military excellence can rescue strategic incompetence. Stop voting for orange idiots.

James Halls
@topsey.bsky.social

Canada has had the ability to get its own nuclear bombs for a long time, but the fact that it is now being openly discussed in Canadian media is something we can thank President Trump for. www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

cbc.caCanada remains anti-nuke, but its potential path to the bomb is getting shorter | CBC NewsCanada's indigenous nuclear industry, homegrown tech, use of heavy-water reactors producing plutonium and tritium, and abundant domestic supply of uranium all position this country as a prime candidat...