What will Donald announce today? A. "Russia has just two weeks" B. His successful defection C. A successful defecation D. His recent death E. A new crypto scam
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What will Donald announce today? A. "Russia has just two weeks" B. His successful defection C. A successful defecation D. His recent death E. A new crypto scam
We are losing the information war. For example, The Far Right on X, such as Tommy Robinson and Elon Musk, are getting 1.5 million to 11 million views per post designed to fuel hatred and a fascist uprising. Meanwhile, the voices of democracy and freedom get a few thousand views per post at most.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. filling an IV bag from a murky puddle near Trump National's sixth tee. "The president needs parameciums," he tells the assembled media. "It's the only treatment proven to work in real testing." His golf cart is piled high with dozens of dead birds.
I used a 5-min segment on CBC News Network to push back directly against 3 separate myths we often hear. I emphasized that: 1) BRICS is nothing more than optics; it's members are not actual allies; 2) Ru maintains its maximalist demands; no progress was made in Alaska; 3) Ru isn't winning the war.
I could now go on about how it took 3.5 years to get here, and how much the previous German government, and partly this one, failed to realize this simple fact. But for now, let’s just be glad that the metaphorical floor of what must be done has finally been reached. 1/3
Agreed.
Alliances of convenience last as long as they are convenient. There is a lot of historical baggage between Russia/China/India that's hidden under the surface. And countries run by personalist leaders can be best friends one minute and mortal enemies the next. This is not an enduring alliance.
oh hey it's a cartoon that sadly did not become immediately outdated on friday www.dailykos.com/stories/2025...
There is no solution for this except wait for the boomers to die but you get the sense that when they do, the floor will completely fall from the UK political system if that hasn't happened already by then.
Reform is leading because it is the party of tabloid newspaper Britain. It has a pathetic vote share of those under 40 for the same reason.
It was mainly Republican sympathisers comparing the Irish govt to a repressive regime when the courts stopped giving the IRA a free pass this side of the border during the Troubles.
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Trump’s meeting with Putin guarantees the war will expand and continue. Anyone selling a different story is attempting to impose intention on the Russians that simply does not exist. www.greatpower.us/p/half-baked...
It's a remarkable example of the power od cognitive dissonance to see those who backed Brexit and Boris, both of which succumbed to the weaknesses their detractors pointed out from the start, not go "Hang on, maybe I'm bad at picking things".
Alliances of convenience last as long as they are convenient. You can be best friends with a personalist dictator today and a bitter enemy tomorrow. And the Russia/India/China relationship in particular has a lot of historical baggage hidden under the surface that can erupt if circumstances change.
🎯👇👇 Right now we are in a strange limbo-phase where the giant imposing edifice built by 80+ years of an international system, international law & institutions, and all the assumptions that go with it, hides the damage being done to the foundations of everything we have known.
In Kharkiv, children began the school year in underground classrooms. Windowless shelters built for survival. No child should ever have to attend such a school, but we have no choice.
Lubyanka, FSB/KGB headquarters, Moscow. Reputed as the tallest building in Moscow due to the ability to see Siberia from the basement.
Useless factoid; the ugly old Department of Justice building in Dublin used to be known as the Lubyanka back in the 1970/80s
The problem with nationalism is that it will always invent a new tradition if the old one becomes inconvenient.
New piece of literature from one of Canada's cherished authors, Margaret Atwood. Sure to become a cult favorite! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ and 👍👍 🇨🇦💪
...he accidentally fell into the gimp suit, a whimsical theatrical prop, that had been left for the actor who was rehearsing his part in the planned Broadway extravaganza: Pulp Fiction - The Musical...
On the night of August 30th 2025, Mayor Giuliani was adjusting a - slippery and defective - ornamental codpiece he'd been gifted by the Austrian ambassador, when he slipped and fell into Club L'Amore Gentleman's Club in Hoboken. It was at this point tha
"It isn't that there is no crime or drug trafficking in authoritarian regimes, just that the authorities are more likely to be involved. The Faustian bargain of surrendering democracy in exchange for security is a false pretense, an excuse to concentrate power" theimmigrationlab.org/blog/f/faust...
Lot to unpack there: but business partner went to the hospital to oversee his care???? 🤔
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Another lesson from Northern Ireland - the guys putting the flags on the lampposts and terrorising people will be thugs, criminals and psychos. That's just what happens. They're the kind of people attracted to the lawlessness and violence. Dressed up with talk about protecting *their* people.
One thing about geopolitical narcissists like Putin-and Trump. They will make short-term gains, to satisfy their egos, but with no long-term strategy, which means they will lose in the end. Someday someone will write a great piece about narcissists as master geo-tacticians but hopeless strategists
What’s happening is a lot of people who thought a little fascism just meant clearing out some undesirables and making the trains run on time are realizing that actually yes they too will be effected and it’s making them slightly nervous.
Right wingers are all like ‘I just want sh*tty sliced white bread and full-fat beef milk and spam and asbestos and measles and poverty and then I’ll finally live in a world reminiscent of the yesteryear I’ve evoked in my imagination where everyone is white and hummus is illegal and I am king’.
This sort of thing is part of the reason why I wrote Borderlines.
Happy 'greatest correction ever' day to all who celebrate
My latest cartoon for @theguardian.com books. p.s. I have a new book of cartoons out soon: www.tomgauld.com/comic-books-v2
The domestic corollary of the Iran paradox: always simultaneously on the brink of regional domination and collapse.
We have a decades of scholarship on how pro-democracy forces win in competitive authoritarian systems: they form a united opposition that brings together people with otherwise profound political disagreements.
The truly weird thing about MAGA propagandists is how they toggle between “Under Trump America is the strongest it’s ever been!!” and “If this one thing changes America is ruined!!” www.axios.com/2025/08/31/t...
He looks pensive because he's worried that he might not be awarded an Order of Trump (Third Class) as leader of the No.542 Shock Work Brigade, because a hidden clique of Windmillist Wreckers have obviously sabotaged the factory and shut down the furnaces.
This point 💯 If you want to know more about the Ahnenerbe (the Nazi "heritage" research institute conducting archaeological work, incl. Atlantis stuff), read Pringle's book. If you want to know more about pseudoarch in among the more contemporary far-right, I wrote a little something about it. 🏺
whether deliberate or unintentional, the people who want you to treat AI systems as human-like fully autonomous "agents" are simply laundering responsibility and accountability away from those who choose to monetize these systems onto the artifacts that can’t know responsibility or accountability
This assessment seems to be based on pervasive, but wildly ahistorical assumptions about fascism. There is the idea that fascism wasn’t superstitious and "criminally mad" - yet many of the leading fascists were crooks, quacks, and charlatans who believed in pseudo-science and Volkish hocus-pocus.
Jo Cox was murdered by a man with a house full of neo-Nazi agitprop and this was then retconned into a vague narrative about social media abuse
Socialist-realism is the name of the art style we familiarly associate with Soviet propaganda posters. (Although it was applied to many other art forms in the USSR/Soviet Block.)
Yup!
If we're doing socialist-realist Trumpism shouldn't he look happy about the joyous future that beckons under the omnipotent gaze of the Great Leader? And no smoke belching from the chimneys which are supposed to represent the renaissance of heavy industry. Wreckers! Cliques of wreckers everywhere...
there are a few ways to make sense of it: eugenics and using disease to cull the population has a long fascist history, but also the idea that nothing *actually* matters beyond controlling a narrative is a core trump belief, so telling people we are healthier than ever is the same as being healthy
Trumpism is an internet phenomenon. It’s Gamergate with nuclear weapons. All that counts is being able to crow at someone, no matter what you destroy en route.
If Catherine Connolly is elected Uachtarán na hÉireann (President of Ireland) it will place a pro-Russian, pro-Assad supporter of state terrorism in the position of first citizen of Ireland. There will be international consequences for Ireland for the seven years of office. #speirgorm #spéirghorm
What we are seeing in England (mobs of far-right thugs, flags on lampposts) is eerily reminiscent of how loyalist paramilitaries in Northern Ireland operate. Flags on every lamppost, thugs on the street, no rule of law, violent mobs desperate to ethnically cleanse *their* areas. 👇
To all the apologists for Catherine Connolly, this Facebook post by the notorious pro-Putin, pro-Assad supporter of state terrorism, ex-TD and ex-MEP Clare Daly should leave you in no doubt about Connolly's ethics as she stands for Uachtarán na hÉireann (President of Ireland). #spéirghorm #speirgorm
Bloody hell. That's a photo of Irish government issue toilet paper. Used up until the 1990s. 😱
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thi...
It's a remake of the original 1981 movie which itself was based on a real life psychological experiment run by an American teacher. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wav...
This is the ballgame:
Thank-you Ed Davey. Keep doing this. Relentlessly.
I shall be paying a visit to the library on Monday... 😜
This is a really, really good article. I highly recommend it
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Great list! Thanks for sharing. 👍👍
Promise tariffs ⟶ faff around ⟶ announce tariffs ⟶ pause tariffs ⟶ promise deals ⟶ court rules tariffs illegal ⟶ appeal ⟶ court order stayed ⟶ make no deals ⟶ 90 days expires ⟶ delay tariffs again ⟶ announce tariffs again ⟶ appeals court rules tariffs illegal again ⟶ you are here
Or if a flag putter-upper falls off a ladder - are they going to sue the council?
The electorate breaks things to protest the fact things are broken then has more broken things to get mad about, causing them to vote to break things in protest. Many such cases!
Dear Americans, welcome to the thrilling game of ‘Did this dictator die or just disappear for a day?’ We’ve been playing it with Putin and Lukashenko for decades. Enjoy the suspense.
Alas, lack of space in my skeet.
Just curious what the legal status of putting flags on a public lamppost actually is? Also, are there insurance implications (a flag falls off and causes an accident on the road?)
Same basic dynamic in all dictatorships: -Crazy tyrant detached from reality & surrounded by sycophants -Gets fixated on crackpot idea -Insane ideas implemented -Crisis -Sycophants hide problems -Crisis gets worse -Enablers intensify the cover-up -Crisis deepens -Consequences: Misery/Poverty/Deaths
when your politics are fundamentally aesthetic (per walter benjamin on fascism), but you lack the necessary thread of connection with reality to produce anything *besides* the aesthetic
The paradox of Trump 2, I think, is that it's a nascent autocracy with the qualities of a dying autocracy: The autarch is old, promising an early succession; he is using his newfound powers to undermine the stability of the realm; & the regime, for all that it's been accommodated, is run by idiots
The EU surrendered to Trump over trade tariffs – now it’s in danger of capitulating again | Thierry Breton
By any conventional measure, we have crossed a threshold in this country where democratic institutions are being intentionally attacked on a daily basis. Of course these attacks are not always successful. But a few failed campaigns does not (should not) disguise the fact that one is at war (3/3).
If I die and go to heaven perhaps St. Peter or Giovanni Sartori will tell me what regime type I really lived in at this moment in time. Until then, as a matter of collective sensemaking, the degree matters less than the direction of change, which is obvious to anyone who wishes to see it. (2/3)
The debate over how to classify the present regime in the US matters primarily because of its practical upshot. If the disagreement is really about the authoritarian “box score” (rather than direction of change), then what really matters is identifying (thus to emulate) successful resistance. (1/3)
This is so funny. The US is already finding out how it goes when you try to interfere in a village where everyone knows each other, is related to each other, and no one has secrets. Namely that it doesn’t go very far. It was probably the Danish source’s second cousin who exposed the whole thing.
My view back even in the early 2010s was that mainstream British political thinking had been radicalised, because I always saw Brexit as an extremist position given the inevitable upset it was going to cause and the cans of worms it was going to open. It also had a strong xenophobic strain going… /1
👇🎯 As always, read Daniel & heed the lessons
“extremism never triumphs on its own. It succeeds because others enable it—because of their ambition, because of their fear, or because they misjudge the dangers of small concessions.”
There is no easy answer to this situation. There is probably no solution that doesn't involve unpleasant compromises and grubby deals which will be very hard to swallow. But this is all for the future - a lot of things need to happen first.
From an outside perspective, it's very, very difficult to unwind this situation. One possible (but v.unpalatable) solution is to offer absolution to members of the admin who switch sides. Such as the middle-ranking opportunists who are only in it for themselves. Very bitter pill to swallow though.
Precisely. The corrupt royal courtiers have huge incentives to ensure the mad king remains on the throne at all costs because their accumulated power and wealth (and liberty) are all in danger if he falls.
That's pretty much the entire regime consolidation strategy, which is why I still think it will be unsuccessful. A successful coup in the U.S. would probably avoid the authoritarian aesthetic and focus on winning the loyalty of key power blocs. Trump is doing the opposite.
Because the thing is, this is real but also, it's not real. This image reflects the reality that Trump *wants* a total state in which he is the unquestioned leader, but we do not actually live in that state, at least not yet.
i find this image so fascinating. it is both a literal example of authoritarianism but also a second-hand reproduction of the aesthetics of other authoritarian states. it's like a simulacra of authoritarianism whose purpose is to attempt to make the simulacra real.
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Will have to look into it. Building up the courage to go on a wobbly bike ride first!
The current geopolitical standoff feels like a game of hot potato: Putin on one side, Ukraine and Europe on the other, each trying to toss it to the opponent, hoping not to be the one left holding it. The hot potato is Donald Trump.
As somebody who is nervously anticipating the delivery of his first bike since the 1980s this looks great!
There's a kind of ultra-"realist" amateur strategist on here who thinks morality has no role in politics and actively enraging Labour supporters is the way to win elections, so saying nothing about unprecedented levels of racist rhetoric from major politicians is clever. I find that so depressing.
This will continue to be equally relevant for the next 4+ years
The point at which the US shifts from ally/partner of Europe to hostile power is… 1. Already been crossed 2. Rapidly approaching 3. A danger 4. Unlikely 5. Shouldn’t be considered out loud
Many businesses go bankrupt by chasing people who will never be their clients in ways that lose them their current clients. This is currently happening with a lot of mainstream media and mainstream parties Labour can't out-Brexit Brexiters and out-racist Reform, but they will lose voters by trying
If you honestly believe the Russians hit the EU delegation in Kyiv by accident, I don't think you should be allowed to operate heavy machinery and I frankly question if letting you dress and bathe yourself is a violation of our collective duty of care.
A new piece I wrote appearing in FOREIGN AFFAIRS today www.foreignaffairs.com/germany/warn...
Very true.
Just from a practical and financial point of view how much of these people's money is tied up in lots of duplicate inert lumps of metal (lots of M-16 derivatives here which must be a bad investment from a rarity point of view)? I assume they also depreciate in value over time?
"Trump's objective—which is aligned with the interests of certain US technology companies—is to implement regime change in Europe." — @alexandrageese.bsky.social Alexandra is, of course, entirely right — and it's high time to push back. www.techpolicy.press/europe-canno...
Polling. F*cking polling has rotted the brains of politicians. It has destroyed any sense that leadership matters and that you can change public opinion by making your case for a certain policy and bringing people with you. Part of that is having the courage to break free from the tyranny of polling
The attention economy infantilises everybody, incentivising people to behave like immature brats spending all their time name calling, laughing at the swots who did the homework and fighting with each other while everybody else eggs them on.
In late-stage platform capitalism, trolling has become the dominant cultural technique: politics, journalism, marketing, even art have, to some extent, turned into some form of trolling
kristinekenyon.bsky.social 