Did you know ...
When the Greens🌻 started in Germany, they came from a wild variety of backgrounds. That was completely new, as it had only been possible to rise in politics WITHIN the established party ladders up until then. It really shook up German politics – with this becoming an iconic moment 👇
The only sensible course is complete dissassociation with what's happening and global middle powers opposition to facilitating it. But I've found Starmer, Carney, Albanese and Merz lukewarm at best.
Fascinating to watch 🇫🇷, then 🇬🇧, then 🇮🇹, now 🇩🇪 start to acknowledge what 🇪🇸's government recognised from the very start: the Trump-Netanyahu war on Iran is a reckless intervention conducted without regard for rules of war and without a strategy for what comes next.
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Absolutely insupportable. Labour have a massive majority. It’s a hugely popular issue. To fail to act would be a dereliction of historic proportions, and utterly inexplicable.
Oh, FFS!
For five minutes, I allowed myself the thought that a change of ownership might result in the Telegraph ceasing to be one of the most toxic climate change denying propaganda sheets in the Western world – but it seems not. 🫤
www.theguardian.com/world/2023/a...
Just announced: Iceland has urgently moved up its referendum to join the European Union - to 29 August.
A reminder: 🇮🇸 is in many ways already a non-voting 🇪🇺 member because of the EEA. This would give them voting power to shape the laws they have to follow.
Boss move.
'Sadiq Khan has sent Anthropic’s CEO Dario Amodei an invitation to move to London after the AI giant’s spat with President Trump. The mayor of London praised the company over its "steadfastness" after it refused to give the US military access to its tools.'
www.cityam.com/sadiq-khan-i...
And here's the clip, thanks to James: bsky.app/profile/jame...
Well would you look at that
The lack of wisdom is so glaring you gotta wear shades to watch this guy.
My daughter: mum, am I adopted?
Me: no, not yet…
Deeply disturbing.
A third of Gen Z men agree a wife should obey husband www.kcl.ac.uk/news/almost-...
"31% of Gen Z men agree that a wife should always obey her husband & one third (33%) say a husband should have the final word on important decisions..."
Online survey, so caution. Still... ugh.
Obeying the law is political correctness gone mad.
As the world's pre-eminent superpower for the last 80 years, the USA has a lot of political capital.
Trump is playing the geopolitical equivalent of Brewster's Millions.
FT comments section this morning - saying what everyone else is thinking, right?
Last week, UK lobbying regulator closed investigation into ex Tory MP Ben Howlett
We offered Howlett money to work for a fake Chinese investor. He introduced us to a dozen Labour MPs
Regulator didn't even speak to us. Our system is broken
New, by me: democracyforsale.substack.com/p/we-paid-an...
Coincidence corner: JCB and Reform UK
From the new Private Eye, out now.
Does anyone think that this - effectively describing people who came here at *our* invitation to work in care homes as would-be parasites on the welfare state - is what she meant?
Reform fury as someone else wins by Our By-election Editor Tim Shipsink The losing candidate in the Gorton and Denton by-election, Matt Goodwhinge, has demanded an immediate re-run of the election on the grounds that he lost comprehensively to someone else. "It's totally unfair and rigged," said Goodwhinge. "I shouldn't be required to sit there and suck it up, just because I lost." Mr Goodwhine continued, *I can't believe that all those voters I demonised failed to back me. Especially after I was endorsed by Tommy Robinson and ten million Russian bots on X. "We have clear evidence of family voting, where people voted in order for me to stop deporting their families." Mr Badloser concluded. "I'm the victim of colour prejudice. They didn't vote for me simply because I'm not green." Reform leader Mr Farage, speaking from a sun lounger on a rock near the Chagos Islands said, "It's a tragedy that the people of Manchester won't see Matt in Westminster, but my constituents don't see me in Clacton either." PLUMBER DEFEATS MATT GOODWIN Photo of Hannah Spencer with speech bubble saying… I've stopped the cock
Beautiful from Private Eye on the massive toddler-tantrum that Matt Goodwin and Reform are having, because they got whooped in Gorton and Denton.
🚨 Rachel Reeves rightly points out the damage Brexit has done to our economy:
"Brexit cut us off from our closest trading partners."
GB News loses £22m, taking their total losses to over £130m. Except it's not a 'loss', it's an investment by Paul Marshall in providing a propaganda service to platform right wing grifters, gobshites, conspiracy nutters and contrarian fuckwits.
🏺 🦣 V interesting. If it's early H. sapiens, same pattern of later replacement by #Neanderthals would be seen as with Néronien, Grotte Mandrin.
But it's +30 kyr older...
Perhaps bow tech accompanies sapiens dispersal +80 Ka into Asia, then returns again westwards?
journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
OCASIO-CORTEZ STATEMENT ON TRUMP'S COMBAT OPERATIONS IN IRAN "The American people are once again dragged into a war they did not want by a president who does not care about the long-term consequences of his actions. This war is unlawful. It is unnecessary. And it will be catastrophic. "Just this week, Iran and the United States were negotiating key measures that could have staved off war. The President walked away from these discussions and chose war instead.President Trump flippantly acknowledged the possibility of American casualties, stating "that often happens in war.' "Mr. President: this was not an inevitability. This is a deliberate choice of aggression when diplomacy and security were within reach. Stop lying to the American people. "Violence begets violence. We learned this lesson in Iraq. We learned this lesson in Afghanistan. And we are about to learn it again in Iran. Bombs have yet to create enduring democracies in the region and this will be no different. "In moments of war, our Constitution is unambiguous: Congress authorizes war. The President does not. I will do my part to uphold our Constitution by voting YES on Representatives Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie's War Powers Resolution. Every member of Congress must join us in rejecting this aimless war.
My statement on President Trump’s combat operations in Iran⬇️
He’s like a really bad actor in a 1980s B action movie that went straight to video.
Meanwhile, the UK Government position is:
"President Trump's relationship with other countries is for him and other countries to deal with."
What a crappy ally we are these days.
I have just held a call with President Pedro Sánchez to express the EU’s full solidarity with Spain.
The EU will always ensure that the interests of its Member States are fully protected.
... But he does believe, doesn't he.
Of course, if he doesn't believe that, he wouldn't want to alienate his core support by admitting it.
Can't but note that Farage managed not to say whether or not he believes non-white UK citizens born abroad should be forced or encouraged to leave.
⚠️ Being faced with the reality of what his followers think seems to have touched a nerve.
❌ Can't face the facts.
