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Nick Brumfield

@nickjbrumfield.bsky.social

12K followers 2.8K following 23K posts

Researcher on Yemen, MENA, Maritime Domain | Posts about MENA, Appalachia, Rivers | Words in Daily Beast, FPRI, Amwaj, Al-Jazeera, 100 Days in Appalachia | Contact [email protected] for work, media inquiries | he/him

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Nick Brumfield @nickjbrumfield.bsky.social · 29d

In a world obsessed with Israeli airstrikes, in this piece I argue that you're never going to contain the Houthis without a stronger IRG

And that's going to require addressing deep obstacles to the flow and distribution of Yemen's hydrocarbon wealth

Fueling Instability: Hydrocarbons, Protests, and the Limits of Yemen’s Internationally Recognized Government

In late July 2025, large-scale protests against electricity outages, economic deterioration, and general mismanagement by Yemen’s Internationally Recognized Government (IRG) erupted in Mukalla, Yemen’...

arabcenterdc.org

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Nick Brumfield @nickjbrumfield.bsky.social · 1h

A standing portrait of Rama IX in military uniform at the National Memorial

A mural of King Rama IX doing various activities at the National Mint

A golden bust of King Rama IX at the National Mint

A standing portrait of King Rama IX outside Wat Phra Khaew with offering plates in front of it

Nick Brumfield @nickjbrumfield.bsky.social · 1h

Today is a holiday in Thailand to remember the death of King Rama IX, who died today in 2016 after a 70-year reign

Rama IX is crucial to understanding Thai society; which is pervaded by his image 9 years after his death

Wats, mosques, restaurants, museums; these are all just random photos I took

The steps leading up to Wat Traimit with a large standing portrait of Rama IX at the top of the steps

A meeting room at Masjid Khoja Ishaaq with a photo of Rama IX and Queen Sirikit hanging above a chalkboard with the Shahadah written on it

A wall covered in photos of Rama IX at a halal restaurant in Bangkok

A colorful stylized painting of Rama IX surrounded by rural Thai people going about their lives

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Nick Brumfield @nickjbrumfield.bsky.social · 1h

Love how half my feed on Facebook is 30 second videos of a white guy in glasses reading tabloid articles word-for-word into a camera at me

Nick Brumfield @nickjbrumfield.bsky.social · 3h

Race, ethnicity, and any other ostensibly immutable social groups are made up; they're series of words

Any attempt to make definitive rules for them will collapse upon contact with reality

Down that road lies madness and genocide

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Nick Brumfield @nickjbrumfield.bsky.social · 3h

Has anyone named the sociocultural dynamic of cult classic movie starting out as box office bombs that become low enough in value to be sold cheaply to TV networks that then run them into the ground, forming core memories for impressionable youth watching cable at 2am in the morning?

Nick Brumfield @nickjbrumfield.bsky.social · 5h

The only state subsidy right-wing Americans have been culturally programmed to accept is highways

Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 5h

"Uh... if the... you know, uh, if the Affordable Care Act is so affordable why, every time I turn around, are we spending $350 billion to keep it afloat?" -Lindsey Graham with absolutely flawless logic

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Reposted by Nick Brumfield

Patrick deHahn @pdehello.bsky.social · 5h

Drone footage above Gaza City shows the toll of two years of Israel's onslaught apnews.com/article/gaza...

Drone footage above Gaza City shows the toll of 2 years of war

New drone footage shows what remains of Gaza City after two years of war as a ceasefire holds in its second day.

apnews.com

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Nick Brumfield @nickjbrumfield.bsky.social · 6h

Switching the frog from a right-wing meme to a left-wing meme would inspire an entire generation of semioticians

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Reposted by Nick Brumfield

Peter @notalawyer.bsky.social · 7h

the actual story here, which the media never talks about, is that police in this country have become a discrete right-wing political operation. the story isn't about cops leaving (they're lying about that), it's about the police trying to exert influence over elections.

Mark Misoshnik 🏴 @misoshnik.bsky.social · 1d

Lmao is this supposed to be a bad thing?

A tweet from Bari Weiss that says “"It's shaken me to my core," a lieutenant said of Mamdani's unexpected victory in June. "The absolute dread I feel is palpable.
"
Today in @TheFP our @Olivia_Reingold talks to the cops who say they will walk if Zohran Mamdani is elected in November:”

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Nick Brumfield @nickjbrumfield.bsky.social · 19h

Spent most of today managing 15 GB worth of photos from the last year and a half and if you're under 20 you don't understand how that would've sounded impossible in the 2000s

Nick Brumfield @nickjbrumfield.bsky.social · 21h

"Was Kay's abortion in The Godfather Part II because of Michael's "Sicilian thing going back 2000 years" eugenics?" thread locked after 12,789 posts

Nick Brumfield @nickjbrumfield.bsky.social · 23h

Guy who watches The Godfather Part II as a tragic documentary about the fall of the Batista regime

Nick Brumfield @nickjbrumfield.bsky.social · 1d

It'd be like if Trump used taxpayer dollars to hold a comedy extravaganza at the Kennedy Center. Any comic who went to that would be sending a clear signal.

So stop painting KSA with too broad a brush, or setting up strawmen about how activists have no leg to stand on in criticizing any state.

Nick Brumfield @nickjbrumfield.bsky.social · 1d

Since this is *still* going on, it's important to formulate one's comedy festival criticisms around its relationships to specific actors

It's not that the festival took place in Riyadh. If some random club had a festival, there'd be no problem imo. It was its relationship to the Saudi state.

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Nick Brumfield @nickjbrumfield.bsky.social · 1d

You can tell so much more of his brain is being taken up by trying to develop a synergistic business strategy rather than compelling storytelling and last I checked he ain't got an MBA

Nick Brumfield @nickjbrumfield.bsky.social · 1d

They shoulda never given James Gunn corporate control he's an amazing storyteller but the minute he switched to "the goal is to preserve and expand the DCU's diamond properties" the magic got kinda lost it's not punk rock to be a suit

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Reposted by Nick Brumfield

The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 1d

“ICE kidnapped a community member here,” reads one. “Never forget/no nos olvidamos,” says another.

The signs have appeared across some of D.C.’s heavily immigrant neighborhoods where federal immigration arrests have escalated.

Signs popping up around D.C. note: ‘ICE kidnapping happened here’

The signs range in style and mark numerous locations where people have been taken by federal agents.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Reposted by Nick Brumfield

Nick Brumfield @nickjbrumfield.bsky.social · 1d

Ok locking this down because rando anons are starting to come into my mentions to argue the merits of geographical determinism

To put my cards on the table, I think these things are the product of the concentration and distribution of capital, the result of both space (geography) and time (history)

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Reposted by Nick Brumfield

Emissary Of Night | ليلى @diplomatofnight.com · 1d

People who act confused by Hamas' desire to free Barghoti are bizarre to me, Hamas wants him out even though he isn't Hamas affiliated because they believe he is one of the few, or maybe even the only, individuals who can unite the whole of Palestinian factions under the PLO

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Nick Brumfield @nickjbrumfield.bsky.social · 1d

Time to go read Nature's Metropolis while blasting Bon Iver's Second Nature

Bon Iver - Second Nature (From 'Don’t Look Up') Lyric Video | Netflix

YouTube video by Still Watching Netflix

youtu.be

Nick Brumfield @nickjbrumfield.bsky.social · 1d

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Nick Brumfield @nickjbrumfield.bsky.social · 1d

Pour one out for a Red

Reds (1981) Congressional Hearing scene

YouTube video by Ryan

youtu.be

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Nick Brumfield @nickjbrumfield.bsky.social · 1d

A fair rejoinder!

Nick Brumfield @nickjbrumfield.bsky.social · 1d

Geography isn't destiny. But it can definitely help!

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Nick Brumfield @nickjbrumfield.bsky.social · 1d

Robert Putnam: Why is North Italy so much more prosperous than South Italy? Are the southerners less capable after centuries of social fragmentation?

Me, two seconds after looking at a map: Maybe. But could it also have something to do with the Po Valley being the one flat piece of land in Italy?

A topographic map of Italy showing most of the peninsula covered in mountains, but the wide Po Valley very apparent in the north

A map of population density of Italy with large concentrations in the Po Valley, Rome, and Naples

A map of life expectancy in Italy, with the greenest clusters in northern Italy, especially the Po Valley, while southern Italy is increasingly dark shades of orange

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