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Birb_at_Arms

@birblib.bsky.social

910 followers 790 following 7.7K posts

Skeets about history, politics, martial arts, birbs and post-Soviet space. He/Him

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Birb_at_Arms @birblib.bsky.social · 27m

I dunno about that, chief

Birb_at_Arms @birblib.bsky.social · 39m

He seems like a bad writer who would make a really funny character in a better author's story.

Have a character who doesn't talk much and mostly just seems thoughtful, if a bit distracted. Wise, even.

Then give him a POV chapter halfway through the book that's basically all "teeheehee boobies!"

Birb_at_Arms @birblib.bsky.social · 12h

When your boss says you definitely have to watch the entirety of a video and must not, under any circumstances, make fun of it, you just know it's a really important and not at all ridiculous video.

Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 13h

NEW: Pentagon officials are forcing staff to watch Pete Hegseth's "Warrior" speech he forced generals to listen to.

Officials are even "testing" staff to see if they watched — and are threatening consequences if they lie about watching it or if they mock it, sources tell @swin24.bsky.social and I.

The Pentagon Is Ordering Staff to Watch Hegseth’s ‘MAGA Garbage’ Speech… Or Else

Defense Department sources tell Zeteo that staff have been warned that if they don’t watch or read the speech, or if they speak negatively of it, they could face severe consequences.

Birb_at_Arms @birblib.bsky.social · 12h

No no, you're not allowed to go on those in the Pentagon anymore

Birb_at_Arms @birblib.bsky.social · 12h

The GOP did a pretty thorough job of purging their ranks of the Bush-era cohort over the course of a decade or so.

They replaced this cohort with people who were (somehow) worse on just about every level, but in theory I guess they could go the other way too.

Birb_at_Arms @birblib.bsky.social · 21h

Certainly supported by the Aztecs somehow failing to prevent Cortez and his men from escaping Tenochtitlan after diplomatic relations broke down.

Birb_at_Arms @birblib.bsky.social · 21h

The vulnerability to European diseases came mostly from the relative lack of domesticated animals in the Americas, IIRC.

Which itself was probably an unavoidable byproduct of humanity originating in Africa and first arriving in the Americas quite a bit later than Europe, Asia or the Middle East.

Birb_at_Arms @birblib.bsky.social · 23h

It seems like an unwritten law in some circles that you can't call for Israel to stop occupying the West Bank, but you also have to asses Israel as if it doesn't occupy the West Bank.

Birb_at_Arms @birblib.bsky.social · 1d

Some indigenous peoples in North America made metal tools out of cold-hammered copper, as I recall. I don't think any of them were still around by the time Europeans showed up, though.

Birb_at_Arms @birblib.bsky.social · 1d

It's basically certain that Scandinavian settlers in Greenland went to Newfoundland for wood in the 12th to 13th centuries. They sometimes fought the local indigenous peoples and sometimes traded with them.
The Viking settlement in L'Anse aux Meadows was abandoned 300 years before Columbus's voyage.

Birb_at_Arms @birblib.bsky.social · 1d

More to the point, Columbus probably wasn't even among the first thousand Europeans to visit the Americas.

He *was* the first European to behave so disgracefully in the Americas as to have a visible effect on Spanish legal history, though.

Birb_at_Arms @birblib.bsky.social · 1d

Did you forget what you were talking about earlier? bsky.app/profile/kati...

Katie Cannon @katiecannon.bsky.social · 1d

Exactly

Adam Smith called paying interest to a bank a “tax”.

So single payer healthcare & education is free from bank collected taxes

So saves money

So is deflationary government money printing

Birb_at_Arms @birblib.bsky.social · 1d

I don't think any of these places had non-national public institutions creating their own currencies and conjuring money in the way you described earlier.

Birb_at_Arms @birblib.bsky.social · 1d

Was Columbus the first person to discover the Americas? No.

Was Columbus the first European to discover the Americas? Also no.

But he *was* the first European to behave so monstrously in the Americas that Spain changed its laws in a bid to stop anyone else from ever doing the like of it again.

Birb_at_Arms @birblib.bsky.social · 1d

You didn't answer the question.

Birb_at_Arms @birblib.bsky.social · 1d

I'm sure you have a very reasonable explanation as to how no other country has figured out this magic money hack

Birb_at_Arms @birblib.bsky.social · 1d

Cool assertions about other economic theories.

Birb_at_Arms @birblib.bsky.social · 1d

This may sound incredibly pedestrian, but I'm pretty sure banks expect their loans to be repaid with interest most of the time.

Like, a bank's ability to provide you with a loan is predicated on the bank taking in a certain amount of revenue.

Birb_at_Arms @birblib.bsky.social · 1d

If your objection is that Liberal Currents does not explicitly endorse one specific fringe economic theory, I don't have a ton of sympathy tbh

Birb_at_Arms @birblib.bsky.social · 1d

American universities already get money from the government. The problem LC identified is that there are different regulatory categories for spending and reporting the use of that money. Their solution is to get rid of the regulatory categories that allow the behavior they describe.

Birb_at_Arms @birblib.bsky.social · 1d

Presumably because they think the specific financial regulations - that would prevent universities from operating as private hedge funds - are more important than the question of whether universities are wholly or partly funded by the state, I would think.

Birb_at_Arms @birblib.bsky.social · 1d

It sounds like you agree with the proposal but have brain worms that won't let you say so.

Birb_at_Arms @birblib.bsky.social · 1d

You made the argument, you support it or be dismissed

Birb_at_Arms @birblib.bsky.social · 1d

Why don't you post a link to an article where LC makes the argument you attributed to them in this post: bsky.app/profile/kati...

Katie Cannon @katiecannon.bsky.social · 1d

Liberal Currents: Money comes from tax payers who can’t afford to pay for a dignified life 🥹

Birb_at_Arms @birblib.bsky.social · 1d

So, you're making shit up.