I don’t think people realize how bad food quality is in the US. There are thousands of chemicals and additives in food and packaging that are banned in Europe but somehow fit for US citizens, including well-known carcinogens. Why do we put up with this?

— Riva (@rivatez) February 27, 2022

Oh, I realize it. I’ve traveled frequently to and have lived in other countries. The US has the worst food quality of any country there is now, most likely. And certainly any one I’ve been to. In the early 1990s, the food quality in the UK was a bit worse but they’ve far exceeded us now.

When I have to fly back from overseas I am always most saddened about a return to low-quality, bad-tasting trash food. It’s such a shocking difference. The food in the US is appalling.

The thing I love about the weightlifting community is how supportive they are of one another. You can come in with your tiny 100 pound deadlift, set a goal for 150 pounds, and people will be cheering for you like you won a gold in the Olympics when you hit it. And that’s pretty great.

That’s how a community should be. And it’s kind of always been that way, though weightlifting bros did exist and they were vile. But the weightlifting bros have mostly been pushed aside since the 1980s and there are nearly none left now.

I know how it feels to have no one cheering for me, or on my side. That the weightlifting community does this both sincerely and as its default is pretty special.

It’s Aden again! Damn she’s so good. I don’t even like the original song at all. But from her, I’ll take it. Her phrasing is far better than the original.

I know it’s hard with that kind of studio mic, but I wish they had a setup where you could see her whole face instead of just side shots and completely useless shots from the back. She’s so expressive and it’d make the performance better actually being able to see her.

the way you know these guys don't even have any friends or family who have served is that they always think that their skills will in some way dictate their MOS pic.twitter.com/diqowAe6F8

— your himbo boyfriend (@swolecialism) February 25, 2022

Noah’s take is idiotic. But some people do get to choose their MOS. I did. But then again, you have to score somewhere in the top 0.1% of those who take the ASVAB. Which I also did. Everyone else: good fucking luck! The recruiter might tell you that you can be 35F, but what you’re gonna end up is 11B.

Ostpolitik? https://t.co/vvzciEfHZM

— Nils Gilman (@nils_gilman) February 26, 2022

Schitzastupiden.

Still interesting to note among those with actual expertise, those who understood the domestic situation faced the difficulty of predicting the hard to predict: the autocrat, while the military buildup sent a costly signal that was easier to interpret: yep, they mean to invade.

— zeynep tufekci (@zeynep) February 25, 2022

Zeynep thinks the same way I do: look at what’s real and what’s actually happening. God I love her mind so much. I can’t even tell you.

Here’s what I sent to my friend on February 19:

The “mistake” I am referring to is Ukraine voluntarily relinquishing its nuclear weapons in the 1990s.

So I outperformed most of our experts. Again. And it wasn’t even hard.

Also, if you were just looking to the market to forecast this for you, you were similarly mislead. Sentiment failed across the board on this one. Black swan's gonna black swan. https://t.co/9ObrLmuuAX

— jonstokes(\.com|\.eth) (@jonst0kes) February 25, 2022

Not a Black Swan event. Putin and Russia were telegraphing their moves well in advance. I put a 90% probability on invasion before it occurred. I’m not some mega-genius; I can just see the obvious.

You didn’t even need to know anything about Russian internal politics or Putin. Just had to look at the structure and nature of the military build-up. It did not look like an exercise. When someone sends costly signals, believe them. What Russia was doing with their military beforehand was what you do if you intend to lay the hurt down on someone very soon.

I keep thinking how unpredictable the attack on Ukraine appeared until the moment it happened, how unpredictable the Russian troop advance appears as we're in the midst of it and how both arcs will seem obvious in retrospect — a year, 10, 50 years from now.

— Richard Goldstein (@RichardGold68) February 25, 2022

Are you smoking crack? “Unpredictable?” This is another example of the “WHO COULD HAVE KNOWN?????” sophistry that gets trotted out every time something completely obvious happens that the “smart” people miss.

After one of my @CNN appearances, one of the anchors asked me off-air why I had confidence in Ukraine's army to push back agains the illegal Russian military onslaught.

I used a bit of "battlefield math" to explain my rationale. 1/16

— Mark Hertling (@MarkHertling) February 25, 2022

I mostly agree with this. Russia’s forces are a little better than he’s portraying, but the reality is that Russia has a lot of tech but few professional soldiers and tons who have no ideological interest in dying in Ukraine.

Conversely, the Ukrainian forces are defending their country against an invader. This gives them a long-term advantage. If it’ll be enough, I don’t know. But it matters a great deal.

My god imagine being a natsec specialist on cable news and thinking that Chernobyl was still an active nuclear power plant providing Ukraine electricity. pic.twitter.com/hFrxabgWSP

— Jacob Silverman (@SilvermanJacob) February 24, 2022

Our experts, ladies and gentleman. We totally should listen to them.

Calling for mask mandates among heavily vaccinated & not at-risk populations (colleges, urban centers, schools etc) decreases confidence in the vaccine misleads on its overall effectiveness. And it's the… "pro-science" crowd leading this charge? Nothing makes sense anymore

— Josh (@Bagsy_J) February 22, 2022

What a mega-fail. What happens when looking virtuous is more important than getting shit done (i.e., getting more people vaxxed and better ventilation everywhere).

Well, Russia invaded Ukraine. I told a friend the other day it was 90% likely to happen. I take no joy in being right about that. It’s going to be a disaster for Ukraine and in the end a disaster for Russia too.

And perhaps for us all, if the worst happens.

If I were Canada, I’d simply buy a bunch of land somewhere else, and then have a Summer Canada and a Winter Canada.

Maybe Winter Canada could be in parts of (what used to be) Gabon. That looks like a cool place. Then you’d need a bunch of big-ass boats to transport all your people to Winter Canada and back.