James Gillespie
Technology, geopolitics, films / affil. @adamsmith.org @rusi.bsky.social / ex HM Treasury policy wonk / Swiftie
"Liberal cultist"/"MAGA intelligentsia"
"Smug provocateur drunk on his own arguments"
- I’m outraged that Coachella invited Kneecap to perform this year. Their music is fucken shite.
- People were like "meh meh meh, only idiots buy Hawk Tuah coin - I'm smart and invest in the stock market" and now look
- Tell me you don't understand what an administrative stay is without telling me
- X raised equity earlier this month at a $32bn valuation, so clearly the market is a lot closer to what xAI has paid than the "$6 billion at most"
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- Ah, sorry to hear you've been unwell. Hope you are recovering ok!
- This Trump/Vance-Zelensky press conference is a new low for the Trump administration. It'll play well with MAGA, but the majority of Americans (including Republican voters) support Ukraine. People will watch and cringe at how their president and VP are behaving on the world stage.
- Democrats, of course, have made no such suggestion about the current Supreme Court and have accepted its judgments with equanimity and grace 🫠🫠🫠
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- As in will Elon try to set-up DOGE in other countries? Probably if he's asked, but that will depend a lot on whether DOGE is judged to have been a success in the US (my prediction is that it will cut quite a bit of waste, but will also cut useful things that have to be subsequently reinstated).
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- That's true but Vermeule didn't say that either
- I don't really follow the NFL, so perhaps someone can enlighten me... if Philly win today do they actually get a superb owl? Will it get along with their eagle? I'll see myself out... 🏈🦉🦅
- A take to get both sides raging: US aid spending should remain at the current level (0.9% of GDP), but USAID should be brought under the State Department (as the Trump admin is reportedly considering). Aid should be more carefully aligned to geopolitical objectives.
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View full threadIndeed. If there's a guiding principle to Trump's foreign policy, it's probably the belief that the US is getting screwed over and so tariffs must be imposed and aid must be cut.
- This mindset probably served him well in NY real estate, but it's mostly misplaced in international relations.
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- Also, Vine never cracked monetisation, so they never really properly incentivised content creators. Then rivals came along.
- The influence of Curtis Yarvin is vastly overstated. Talking about him like he's some MAGA guru makes for a nice NYT "democracy is imperilled" piece, but I don't think you can find a single GOP policy that he's inspired.
- The most Yarvin-esque belief held by Republicans is probably the unitary executive theory of presidential power. But this predates Yarvin by, well, decades.
- Was wondering what had happened to YK-ATA (which was rumoured to have crashed whilst carrying Assad, before he was revealed to be in Russia). Well, it seems that the plane ended up at Russia's Khmeimim Air Base in Syria. Assad has since confirmed that he left the country via this base.
- The apparent rapid loss of altitude and sharp turns near Homs may have been an illusion caused by GPS jamming.
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- Wenger and Mourinho were killed by Guardiola and Klopp
- Arsenal grinding out a utilitarian 1-0 win whilst flamboyant Chelsea throw away a 1-0 lead to lose 2-1. Mourinho and Wenger spinning in their graves.
- 1450 is the 97th percentile. That's comfortably in UCLA territory, especially as an in state applicant.
- Lmao, Dunt blocked me for this
- The post wasn't exactly in the Xmas spirit, but are we seriously saying that if you aren't put up in a hotel and don't get your sheets laundered daily then you're not being treated like a human being? The social contract is broken when illegal immigrants get better support than Americans in need.
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- Agree. We owe greater obligations to members of our own society or community than to others.
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- There’s a decent case that a GCSE in Natural History be added as a niche option like Astronomy is, but not sure how many will opt to take it/how many schools would want to find money for it.
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- They do not
- Badenoch's main weakness has always been her judgment. In particular, she picks the wrong fights. She often seems more interested in winning individual arguments, even ones that don't really matter, than winning an election.
- Truly unprecedented levels of cope
- There's a case for making Starmer politician of the year, but it's not the fawning nonsense above. He arguably deserves the title simply because he managed to become PM in a landslide win without anyone particularly liking him. He neutralised Labour's weaknesses with dishonesty and blandness.
- I'm not a fan of Nigel Farage, but there's a stronger case for making him politician of the year. Starmer couldn't have achieved his landslide without Reform taking votes from the Tories. And Farage's success has shifted the Overton window, whereas Starmer lacks a clear narrative for his government.
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- There's something very "Starmer's Britain" about using a fire on a screen as a substitute for the real thing. It's environmentally conscious, underwhelming and not really what anyone wanted.
- More seriously, my theory is that so many Brits now live in new build houses and apartments without a proper fireplace, but long for one, especially at Christmas.
- They should make a modern day Scrooge, but in this version he'll be a vegan, card-carrying member of the Green Party and at the end he'll repent by buying a Porsche and adopting the carnivore diet
- Since I’ve been away, Nationwide have rebranded their logo to Pac-Man eating a house
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- I'm having trouble imagining a shaven-headed Elon, tbh
- In 2024, I spent 10,165 minutes, which is exactly 7 days, listening to Taylor Swift
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- I wouldn't say range - Taylor has very diverse influences and has released albums in various genres. I think Billie's music is more complex, though.
- Asma al-Assad is reportedly London bound, if a Russian court approves her request to leave the country
- This is still an unconfirmed story at the moment. But as she's a British citizen, the UK is the obvious place for her to go if she doesn't want to stay in Moscow. The possibility of her fleeing to London is something the government will very likely have been planning for.
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- She's under sanctions so her life in London wouldn't necessarily be easy. She is a British citizen, though, so unless that is rescinded, they can't stop her from entering the country. As to whether she can be arrested, I'm not sure what the evidence against her, personally, is.
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- I think both place a lot of emphasis on "texture", maybe that's why?
- Like, who is saying that, though?🤷♂️
- Bezos has already taken that look, I'm afraid
- Based kids
- I suspect this is largely rebellion against the progressivism of the past decade. The left/liberals find this disconcerting because suddenly the rebellion is against their values. They haven't grasped that they've become "the establishment".
- All those leftists who were cheering the murder of the UnitedHealthcare CEO are going to have an interesting time processing the suspect being a Peter Thiel retweeting, Ivy League-educated tech bro, and the person who turned him in being a McDonalds worker
- Gn frens
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- Idk, something to do with looking nicer than it really is, being poisonous or parasitic... it'd depend on what form my resentment had taken 😂
- If I had an ex-wife, this is where I'd make a snarky joke at her expense
- Markets reacted badly to the increased borrowing in the Budget. She will likely be faced with a choice to either raise taxes in the middle of the Parliament (breaking her Budget promise) or to cut spending (angering Labour MPs).
- NEW: Blow for Rachel Reeves The UK will need to raise taxes further to get the public finances on a sustainable footing, the OECD says today Plunges into doubt her pledge of no more tax rises Via @philaldrick.bsky.social www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
