David Rafferty
@davidrafferty.bsky.social
Roman historian in South Australia. Current project: “How Republics Die: Rome’s democratic breakdown in the 1st century BCE”. Husband and father. I’m the one who set cats and dogs against each other.
Well, I’m reading Jane Austen. No one has jobs. That’s the point.
“Trying to sort out my feelings about Frederick Wentworth” isn’t a job.
“Trying to sort out my feelings about Frederick Wentworth” isn’t a job.
December 30, 2025 at 12:12 PM
Well, I’m reading Jane Austen. No one has jobs. That’s the point.
“Trying to sort out my feelings about Frederick Wentworth” isn’t a job.
“Trying to sort out my feelings about Frederick Wentworth” isn’t a job.
I still don’t understand why other countries’ intelligence agencies are not doing this. If you’re a democracy, the current US Administration is your enemy. You should be trying to weaken and remove it.
I will vote for whoever is first to pledge to make public every ICE agent's name.
December 30, 2025 at 7:13 AM
I still don’t understand why other countries’ intelligence agencies are not doing this. If you’re a democracy, the current US Administration is your enemy. You should be trying to weaken and remove it.
How I’m walking out of 2025.
December 30, 2025 at 7:11 AM
How I’m walking out of 2025.
Reposted by David Rafferty
This is the greatest semi-related section of a Wikipedia article I've ever seen. On the page for the black neon tetra, a type of fish
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_n...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_n...
December 29, 2025 at 8:26 PM
This is the greatest semi-related section of a Wikipedia article I've ever seen. On the page for the black neon tetra, a type of fish
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_n...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_n...
On a much broader timescale: one can treat the basic elite problem (since the invention of agriculture) as the need to control a labour force. All subsequent history can be read this way (and other ways too - don’t be reductive).
Contemporary elites don’t understand their position.
Contemporary elites don’t understand their position.
This reveals a fundamental tension: we've built systems dependent on immigrant labor (healthcare, construction, food processing, childcare) while pursuing policies treating those workers as disposable. You can't dismantle essential workforce without destabilizing the systems we all rely on.
December 29, 2025 at 10:03 PM
On a much broader timescale: one can treat the basic elite problem (since the invention of agriculture) as the need to control a labour force. All subsequent history can be read this way (and other ways too - don’t be reductive).
Contemporary elites don’t understand their position.
Contemporary elites don’t understand their position.
Involvement of Japanese submarines is as yet unconfirmed. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12...
Australian cruise ship runs aground off PNG
The Coral Adventurer has run aground off the coast of Papua New Guinea with more than 120 people aboard, two months after the death of a passenger allegedly left behind on a Great Barrier Reef island.
www.abc.net.au
December 28, 2025 at 3:44 AM
Involvement of Japanese submarines is as yet unconfirmed. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12...
Remember: it was European governments that wanted American troops on their soil during the Cold War. Because a Soviet attack necessarily meant dead Americans which made it much more likely the US would defend them.
(Actually: is this true? I read it. Perhaps Cols War experts could weigh in.)
(Actually: is this true? I read it. Perhaps Cols War experts could weigh in.)
Still kind of baffled by the security guarantees talk, US and EU - people who’ve been watching russia break every single law, kidnap children, loot, rape, torture and kill en masse, bomb cities and blow up dams, occupy NPP for years.
Those people are going to 100% help next time, pinky promise?
Those people are going to 100% help next time, pinky promise?
December 28, 2025 at 12:14 AM
Remember: it was European governments that wanted American troops on their soil during the Cold War. Because a Soviet attack necessarily meant dead Americans which made it much more likely the US would defend them.
(Actually: is this true? I read it. Perhaps Cols War experts could weigh in.)
(Actually: is this true? I read it. Perhaps Cols War experts could weigh in.)
Reposted by David Rafferty
It’s also comically self-serving to pretend that the path of least resistance is somehow the most if not the only mature response to a massively disruptive and destructive marketing campaign, or that job-market rhetoric constitutes an intelligent, even philosophical stance on technology in society.
December 27, 2025 at 6:10 PM
It’s also comically self-serving to pretend that the path of least resistance is somehow the most if not the only mature response to a massively disruptive and destructive marketing campaign, or that job-market rhetoric constitutes an intelligent, even philosophical stance on technology in society.
Reposted by David Rafferty
Like economics
A type of practice that I find interesting historically is the rigorously untrue. Astrology, for instance, was often a very tightly defined practice with a seriously requirement of learning: it just wasn’t actually real.
December 27, 2025 at 11:37 AM
Like economics
Andor Season 2.
Name your fav non James Bond spy movie.
December 27, 2025 at 4:23 AM
Andor Season 2.
It’s a few short and obvious steps from this to the creation of the Generalgouvernement. You can also imagine the incentives leading there (profit incentive among private providers, lack of oversight in these countries etc).
"...more deals, some valued at millions of dollars, to offload U.S. deportees to other so-called third countries--nations to which they have no connection--among them war-torn south Sudan and Uganda, which have well-documented histories of torturing prisoners..."
December 26, 2025 at 11:29 PM
It’s a few short and obvious steps from this to the creation of the Generalgouvernement. You can also imagine the incentives leading there (profit incentive among private providers, lack of oversight in these countries etc).
It turns out corruption pays. Who knew?
DOGE was A LOT less likely to cancel contracts from companies that donated money to Republicans than companies that donated to Democrats.
December 26, 2025 at 6:07 PM
It turns out corruption pays. Who knew?
Reposted by David Rafferty
It's a crime we never got Muppet Hunt for Red October where the only humans are Connery and Tim Curry.
December 25, 2025 at 1:31 PM
It's a crime we never got Muppet Hunt for Red October where the only humans are Connery and Tim Curry.
Reposted by David Rafferty
When decimalisation occurred in 1966, the Australian government compiled an 81 page file on dangers of using decimal coins in Christmas puddings. There was a media campaign warning people not to use the new coins in their cooking. The file is now digitised.
recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetri...
recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetri...
December 25, 2025 at 9:22 AM
When decimalisation occurred in 1966, the Australian government compiled an 81 page file on dangers of using decimal coins in Christmas puddings. There was a media campaign warning people not to use the new coins in their cooking. The file is now digitised.
recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetri...
recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetri...
Reposted by David Rafferty
"You there, boy! [slurpy inhale sound] What day is it?"
December 25, 2025 at 6:04 AM
"You there, boy! [slurpy inhale sound] What day is it?"
Imagine the Grinch, but without the ability to tie knots or slither and slink.
Trump: We track Santa. We want to make sure that Santa is being good. We want to make sure that he's not infiltrated, that we're not infiltrating into our country a bad Santa. Santa loves Oklahoma like I do. You know, Oklahoma was very good to me in the election
December 24, 2025 at 11:20 PM
Imagine the Grinch, but without the ability to tie knots or slither and slink.
Reposted by David Rafferty
Odysseus, getting a perfect 180 on the dartboard hanging in his home and throwing off his disguise: right, which of you c**ts have been cracking onto my missus?
Suitors: fackin 'ell, it's the guvnor
Suitors: fackin 'ell, it's the guvnor
December 24, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Odysseus, getting a perfect 180 on the dartboard hanging in his home and throwing off his disguise: right, which of you c**ts have been cracking onto my missus?
Suitors: fackin 'ell, it's the guvnor
Suitors: fackin 'ell, it's the guvnor
Reposted by David Rafferty
Jesus, can you hear me? Good, the comms are working. Now, you're gonna need to run if you want to evade those Roman soldiers. Hold down A to sprint. Go ahead and try it. ... Good work! You just might be the savior yet. Now pick up that AR-15 and let's do some target practice.
December 24, 2025 at 3:32 AM
Jesus, can you hear me? Good, the comms are working. Now, you're gonna need to run if you want to evade those Roman soldiers. Hold down A to sprint. Go ahead and try it. ... Good work! You just might be the savior yet. Now pick up that AR-15 and let's do some target practice.
I really liked the running joke about this in Ted Lasso: How can you tell if a woman likes you or is just being nice? You can’t.
was she flirting with you or did you mistake kindness for flirting?
December 24, 2025 at 2:21 AM
I really liked the running joke about this in Ted Lasso: How can you tell if a woman likes you or is just being nice? You can’t.
Reposted by David Rafferty
Hamlet | Official Film Trailer
YouTube video by Universal Pictures UK
www.youtube.com
December 24, 2025 at 12:24 AM
Reposted by David Rafferty
My favorite Christmas thing of all time are the cats who take one look at the holiest scene in Christendom and say "That baby's in my spot."
December 23, 2025 at 10:32 PM
My favorite Christmas thing of all time are the cats who take one look at the holiest scene in Christendom and say "That baby's in my spot."