E-nonymous

@AdsoOfBelk But everything is in service of HoI 4

I play crusader kings so that my sons may play Europa universalis and their sons may play Victoria 3

@zephyr_z9 This reminds me of “picks and shovels” during the dotcom boom…

Optics still has a lot of room to run

@AngelicaOung This seems fertile ground for a corrupt procurement scheme where some ROC politician subsequently leaves the island and magically becomes rich overseas

As the GCC allies demonstrated, if you are living in the neighborhoood with a major missile power, no amount of fancy US military equipment will save you. We are not buying deterrence. We are paying for overpriced friendship bracelets.

@fropky @RedboxWire Because otherwise we’d be screwed.

@fropky @RedboxWire Oh thank god

GULF STATES CONSIDER NEW PIPELINES TO AVOID STRAIT OF HORMUZ - FT

🛑🛑🛑 US MILITARY OFFICIALS ARE PLANNING POTENTIAL GROUND ASSAULTS INSIDE IRAN, INCLUDING TARGETING KHARG ISLAND AND SEIZING ENRICHED URANIUM SITES - THE ATLANTIC, CITING PEOPLE FAMILIAR WITH THE MATTER

Netanyahu is very frustrated at the high chance the war will end soon. Leaks from a recent cabinet meeting show him saying the following: 1) Israel has prepared a target bank focused on Iran's power stations and national infrastructure, believing that striking them would cause the collapse of the Tehran regime and shorten the war. The decision now awaits Trump. 2) Iran has roughly 300–400 ballistic missiles remaining. Israel and the US have destroyed hundreds of launchers, but Iran still retains more than half of its original launcher capacity. Bad weather is also limiting Israel's ability to hunt missile launchers. 3) Israel believes the US must act decisively to open the straitsa, warning that allowing Iran to keep it closed would be a major political win for Tehran. Israeli sources estimate a US operation there would be "the final chord of the war" and take about a month. 4) He highlighted economic damage to Iran — 70% of steel production capacity hit, GDP reduced by 2–3%. He also discussed potential energy pipeline routes through Saudi Arabia to bypass Hormuz, and mentioned growing Arab state cooperation with Israel. 5) Netanyahu stated Israel will refuse any externally imposed ceasefire in Lebanon, insisting it must remain Israel's independent decision. 6) Netanyahu criticized what he called a "massive depression industry" working to suppress Israeli public morale during the war. Netanyahu knows the US and Israel are losing the war and that Israeli public opinion is turning against him. He hopes to trap the US into an extended land war to change the equation.

Watch what he does, not what he says

@cma_1973 Kinda doesn’t feel like an end to the war

Third U.S. Aircraft Carrier Deploys to Middle East wsj.com/livecoverage/i…

"Getting to Denmark," but it's 17th-century Denmark, a militarized absolutist state charging a small proportion of cargo value to allow ships to pass the international waterway it controls. Hormuz fee as the new Sound Dues.

@TheStalwart This seems to say we are talking but not negotiating

Iran FM tells Al Jazeera that the US and Iran aren't talking, but that they are exchanging messages.

@cma_1973 The gulf states, but they’re egging him on

“guarantees against future attacks” So, besides the U.S., who is talking to Israel?

I’m going to tell you how much worse it was at the start of the PC Revolution for white collar workers trying to adapt, vs today with AI Today, presumably every white collar worker has access to a smart phone and/or a PC/laptop. Back then, a PC cost $4,995 , an off brand was $3,995. 5k in 1984 is about $16k today. It was really expensive. The only reason I could learn how to code and support software is because my job let me take home a PC to learn. By reading the software manual. Literally. RTFM. Or pay to go to training. Classes that started at hundreds of dollars then. It was expensive. It absolutely limited who could get ahead. Today, ANYONE can go to their browser, to the AI LLM website of their choice, and type in the words “I’m a novice with zero computer background, teach me how to create an agent that reads my email and …” That concept applies to LEARNING ANYTHING Think about what this means. Any employee of any company can say “ I need to learn how to xyz for my job , which is to do the following: Tell me what more information do you need to help me be more efficient, productive and promotable”. Or “ what new skills can you teach me that will help me reduce my chances of getting laid off “. Or “what suggestions do you have for me to communicate to my boss, who I barely know, to help my chances of staying employed “ These aren’t great prompts. But they are a start that anyone can take. Think about how incredible that is. Back in the day was so much harder for white collar workers. It was harder for new grads because unless they took comp sci, they probably had never used a PC. Big Companies are going to cut jobs. No question about it. Small companies is are going to need more and more AI literate thinkers who can help them compete or get an edge What I tell every entrepreneur, and it’s more crucial today. “ when you run with the elephants there are the quick and the dead. Adopt tech quickly , you can out maneuver big companies. “

@TheStalwart What’s it doing to oil futures

Futures jumping on that WSJ headline

Trump Tells Aides He’s Willing to End War Without Reopening Hormuz wsj.com/world/middle-e…

@PAstynome I suppose their old status was akin to the HRE

@EnonymousAcc I mean among the nerds. Runciman did a lot of good work overturning the historical bias against them.

Age of Empires II made the Byzantines very popular. Funny thing is Westerners despised the Byzantine Empire and refused to call them Roman and always called them Greeks in a derisive manner. Edward Gibbon had an immense hatred towards them. Calling them Byzantium was an insult.

@PAstynome I think they’ve sort of been lionized because they were a Christian empire

@PAstynome Eh, I’m not sure this is true. Byzantium as the eastern Roman Empire, Constantinople, Hagia Sophia etc have been aggrandized in American history education since before AoE was a thing

@BretDevereaux Lol I had to do a double take on the edit to “war is hell”

Well, I am not sure what my analysis here is worth, but here is my 7,500 word primal scream of a military historian's take on the War in Iran. My best summary: this war is dumb as hell. acoup.blog/2026/03/25/mis…

@alexandrascaggs Actually you can do this in many countries

it's so cool that in america you can pretend to be the scion of a family fortune created a century ago by a dirt-poor teetotalling baptist and people will open doors for you (if not a free yacht party) nymag.com/intelligencer/…