Boulis

College Football. Yemen and Egypt once upon a time

[Boulis @plike_]

None of this would look any different if the United States’ biggest great power competitor had gotten one of their own elected right into the White House to sabotage American state capacity. A running thread:

[Billy Binion @billybinion]

It’s hard to imagine a greater irony: a celebration of the American Founding—whose entire purpose was rejecting kings, personality cults, and leader worship—being transformed into a vanity project for one man. The Founders fought a war to escape this kind of politics.

[Boulis @plike_]

@atlanticesque @h_thoreson The early chapters of “Seeing Like a State” are great on this

[Visa is doing marketing consults (see pinned!) @visakanv]

this review of Interstellar (2014) by @lauren_wilford is one of the best things I’ve read in a while

[episode one @E1podcast]

Ignored the small door that appeared in my apartment three days ago and now it’s gone. That’s how it’s done.

[Sam White @SamWhiteTky]

Future people will look back on current discussions about LLMs being conscious in the same way that we look back on Victorians discussing whether the telephone could be used to contact the spirit world.

[Boulis @plike_]

@credenzaclear2 Everyone relentlessly mocked Blake Lemoine for falling in love with LaMDA and asserting its sentience, but now they’re all turning into Lemoine. Fascinating.

[Ross Douthat @DouthatNYT]

You should read Yuval Levin's reading of the papal encyclical:
https://t.co/iVO0MZFiOw

[Boulis @plike_]

@ThomasJCarcetti Technocratically savvy piloting the soft landing, politically unsavvy alienating big tech and failing to make the press feel special

[Jim Beattie @JimBeattie18]

Daily News
Oil on Masonite
Karin Jurick.

[Boulis @plike_]

One of the lists I keep on Twitter is “Defense and Security.” It skews more conservative vs my others lists.

It’s been very amusing how for the past year the conservatives on it have almost entirely stopped tweeting about foreign policy and shifted to critiques of their mayors

[Turnbull @cturnbull1968]

Almost bought a new Porsche today. We got 95% of the deal done but couldn’t agree on a price, exact model, color or accessories.

[Melanie D'Arrigo @DarrigoMelanie]

Donald Trump Jr is a paid strategic advisor for Kalshi, and a major investor and advisor for Polymarket.

The Trump administration is using taxpayer money to sue to protect their family’s investments.

This is what corruption looks like.

[Patrick Skinner @SkinnerPm]

In America’s multi-decade war to make sure they never know the difference between tactical and strategic, today was another total victory.

[(((James Acton))) @james_acton32]

Total misreading.

The war was a strategic failure. Because of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, fighting was intolerably costly for Trump, despite Israel and U.S.’s many tactical successes. That’s why he ended fighting when he did and lacks diplomatic leverage now. (1/n)

[Midwest Antiquarian @Eric_Erins]

Dipped into the women’s shoe department at Printemps to finally take in Hildred Meière’s monumental mosaics from 1931. Originally installed for a bank that occupied the space. This room had been closed to the public for years until Printemp stepped in to restore and reopen it.

[Ryan Moulton @moultano]

If we don't end up with the American century of humiliation it certainly won't be for lack of trying.

[Financial Times @FT]

FT exclusive: Saudi Arabia has stopped issuing new contracts for western consultancies working in the kingdom and delayed some payments as the government manages a widening deficit and the fallout of the Iran war https://t.co/1IlM3RyjDO

[retired gecko @friendly_gecko]

@MattZeitlin I miss having presidents who can read.

[Matthew Zeitlin @MattZeitlin]

it's really remarkable how random popular books can influence presidents: a lot of the us pandemic preparedness stuff was in place before covid because george w bush read a trade book about the spanish flu in his reading competition with karl rove

[Randy Shulman @RandyShulman]

DC sunsets are unbeatable.