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Reposted by Dr_Aust_PhD

Phineas Tiresias Gama Fury @phineas-fury.bsky.social · 7h

There's still some useful conduits to send money to Putin's useful idiots...

Apropos of nothing
guardianarts.livejournal.com/111196795.html

Richard Tice accepted stay at French Riviera home of Tory donor

Continue reading... Reform deputy leader’s trip, worth £1,400, to Lubov Chernukhin’s property was for ‘discussing gas power in UK’ Reform UK’s deputy leader, Richard Tice, accepted a £1,400 stay at th...

guardianarts.livejournal.com

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Jan-Werner Mueller @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social · 2h

Question: Aren't Hungarian authorities supposed to arrest Putin, since the country's withdrawal from the ICC comes into effect only in June 2026?

Trump to Meet Putin in Budapest to Discuss War in Ukraine

US President Donald Trump said he would meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Hungary at a yet-to-be determined date to try and end the war in Ukraine.

www.bloomberg.com

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Dr_Aust_PhD @draustphd.bsky.social · 1h

And all carried out by a regime clothing itself in sententious religiosity. 'God's Will' 'So Help Me God' 'Mr Trump is the Lord's instrument' etc.

Ain't Christian charity wonderful?

Nute @nutedawn.bsky.social · 3h

It’s always worth remembering that this utterly horrific wave of mass death inflicted on some of the poorest people in the world was for literally nothing. It hasn’t even been for some monstrously cynical benefit to someone, it hasn’t saved money. It is just some of the purest nihilism imaginable

zatapatique @zatapatique.bsky.social · 3h

Even in this place, I feel the sheer scale of foreign aid being demolished isn't fully appreciated. As it stands, it is perhaps *the* most catastrophic change to preventable deaths in our lifetimes, and the salience - even in presumably friendly spaces - is basically zero

apnews.com/article/myan...

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Nute @nutedawn.bsky.social · 3h

It’s always worth remembering that this utterly horrific wave of mass death inflicted on some of the poorest people in the world was for literally nothing. It hasn’t even been for some monstrously cynical benefit to someone, it hasn’t saved money. It is just some of the purest nihilism imaginable

zatapatique @zatapatique.bsky.social · 3h

Even in this place, I feel the sheer scale of foreign aid being demolished isn't fully appreciated. As it stands, it is perhaps *the* most catastrophic change to preventable deaths in our lifetimes, and the salience - even in presumably friendly spaces - is basically zero

apnews.com/article/myan...

Starving children screaming for food as US aid cuts unleash devastation and death across Myanmar

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly said “no one has died" because of his government’s decision to gut its foreign aid program.

apnews.com

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Dr_Aust_PhD @draustphd.bsky.social · 1h

Think the answer to this one is:

'UK media commentators (overwhelmingly employed by the offshore billionaire-owned & increasingly deranged right-wing newspapers)'.

Mrs A says when she wants a dispassionate, nuanced & measured take on UK economics/politics, she reads the Süddeutsche Zeitung.

flyingrodent @flyingrodent.bsky.social · 12h

We had *years* of “finally Labour are listening to the public and changing to become what the people want”. Look at the polls, really appreciate how popular they now are. To whom were they listening, to have earned all that praise? *Who* wanted this. Was it the public? Was it the people.

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Max Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · 18h

Things are going well over on X, the town square, the place a whole lot of influential people in media and politics believe fairly reflects the views of most Americans.

Faine Greenwood @faineg.bsky.social · 19h

musk personally allowed a nazi pedo doxxing cult to publish a bunch of leftists banking information, I think?

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flyingrodent @flyingrodent.bsky.social · 21h

I think the key to understanding Britain is that JK Rowling’s oddball fantasy about an elite class of special people - far apart from the scum mass of regular humans - being trained by mad, cruel bastards to be weird, unpleasant, superior judgy wankers, is more or less accurate.

flyingrodent @flyingrodent.bsky.social · 1d

I’m getting a sense here that of course the lads want to crack down on the avalanche of racism in our university hate factories, but maybe not if it involves arresting students who go to Oxford, because they are real people who actually matter.

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Keith Boykin @keithboykin.bsky.social · 19h

After weaponizing the Justice Department to go after his enemies, Trump now plans to turn the IRS on them as well. This is one of the abuses of power cited in the July 1974 articles of impeachment against Richard Nixon.

Exclusive | Trump Team Plans IRS Overhaul to Enable Pursuit of Left-Leaning Groups

The effort would install at the agency’s criminal unit an ally of President Trump who has drawn up a list of investigative targets.

www.wsj.com

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Robert Hutton @roberthutton.co.uk · 22h

The thing I realised when I started writing about intelligence is the extent to which a lot of spies are like journalists, but freed even from the constraint of their stuff being published and contradicted. The incentives to make stuff up are quite large.

Jessica Elgot @jessicaelgot.bsky.social · 23h

Not really the main point for these witnesses statements but this is unbelievably low grade stuff to be passing on.

Tugendhat did not in fact get a cabinet job and Jeremy Hunt endorsed Rishi Sunak. Did the Chinese realise how crap all this intelligence was?

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Dr_Aust_PhD @draustphd.bsky.social · 1h

Electoral funding rules? Pah!

(Or, in Amurrican, "PAC!")

Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 1d

tfw your 1,000-word tweets aren't working

Dr_Aust_PhD @draustphd.bsky.social · 1h

Now, why might Der Trumpfenführer and his little brownshirt friends be keen to do that, I wonder...?

Joel S. @joelhs.bsky.social · 1d

This is a program to resettle neo-Nazis in the US.

“Trump Considers Overhaul of Refugee System That Would Favor White People
The proposals would transform a program aimed at helping the most vulnerable people in the world into one that gives preference to mostly white people who say they are being persecuted.”

“The proposals also advise Mr. Trump to prioritize Europeans who have been “targeted for peaceful expression of views online such as opposition to mass migration or support for ‘populist’ political parties.”
That appeared to be a reference to the European far-right political party Alternative for Germany, whose leaders have trivialized the Holocaust, revived Nazi slogans and denigrated foreigners. Vice President JD Vance has criticized Germany for trying to suppress the views of the group, which is known as the AfD.”

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Patrick - Here for the craic 👍🏼 @patrickopatrick.bsky.social · 7h

Lest we forget one month ago Angela Rayner resigned over underpaying stamp duty on her £800,000 flat in Hove

Within a week Farage exposed not to own a £885,000 house in #Clacton he claimed he’d bought & accused of avoiding £44,000 in tax by funding his girlfriend to buy it

It got buried quick eh❗️😡

Angela Rayner resigns after underpaying tax on Hove flat - BBC News

Her departure comes after the PM's ethics adviser concludes that she breached ministerial rules.

www.bbc.com

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Brexit Bin 🇪🇺 🇬🇧 🇩🇪 @brexitbin.bsky.social · 10h

Brexit was supposed to "Take back control" of immigration. But it's been such a disaster that only 19% think it's working. The majority now want to return to the system we had before we left the EU – including a majority of Reform voters!
🇬🇧🇪🇺

Brits are pining for the pre-Brexit migration system

The idea was that leaving the bloc would give the U.K. back “control” of its borders and create a fairer system. But the widespread perception is it didn’t turn out that way.

www.politico.eu

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Bijan Parsia @bparsia.bsky.social · 10h

Follow the French. Keep the fascist out no matter what. We don’t have single transferable vote so you have to do it yourself before entering the booth.

Madeley @madeley.bsky.social · 11h

If you're a Labour, Green or Lib Dem voter in Caerffili it's morally incumbent on you to vote Plaid. That's the long and the short of it. We're out of excuses or arguments now, either we stand up to fascism or we give in.

Dr Adam Evans @a-b-evans.bsky.social · 13h

A… remarkable @survation.bsky.social poll out today of voting intentions in Caerphilly ahead of next week’s Senedd by-election

Reform 42%
Plaid 38%
Labour 12%
Conservatives 4%
Greens 3%
LibDem 1%
#senedd #devolution

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Dr_Aust_PhD @draustphd.bsky.social · 10h

Welcome to AmeriKKKa.

I spent upwards of two years in my life in the US, inc. a yr plus in elementary school & four birthdays. Even once had a Green Card. Latterly a frequent academic & holiday visitor for c 20 yrs. Currently I don't see myself ever going back.

Democracy is not a spectator sport! 🇺🇦 @grrlscientist.bsky.social · 2d

Know your hate-fueled nut jobs: a convenient cheat sheet

#NutJobs #CrazyPeople #QAnon #ProudBoys #Incels #AntiSemite #FlatEarther #TinFoilHat #EndTimesTheologian #GravySeals #conspiracies

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Dr_Aust_PhD @draustphd.bsky.social · 10h

The difference being that elected Republicans are either spineless cowards or fascist fellow travellers. Aside from the ones who are genuine fascists.

Democracy is not a spectator sport! 🇺🇦 @grrlscientist.bsky.social · 2d

In a country where ordinary citizens had the courage to give their lives to down a plane headed for mass tragedy (Flight 93), it is inconceivable that elected republicans can't summon the courage to challenge an out-of-control president.

#politics #authoritarianism #FascistAmeriKKKa #tyranny #POTUS

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Democracy is not a spectator sport! 🇺🇦 @grrlscientist.bsky.social · 2d

CAPITALISM COMPLAINT DEPARTMENT:

When it’s a free trial, let it actually be free.

Don’t make me enter my credit card number just so you can hope I forget and charge me later.

#PredatoryCapitalism #GreedyBastards

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Democracy is not a spectator sport! 🇺🇦 @grrlscientist.bsky.social · 1d

Google has just withdrawn its support from factchecking organisation fullfact.org

Google has been one of its largest funders but now has cut its financial support.

I’m pretty sure this is so misinformation can run rife.

You can support them by donation

#FullFact #FactChecking fullfact.org

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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 10h

Conference season is such a waste of everyone's time - a month when our political system could be doing something useful spent coming up with daft announcements no one cares about.

Dylan Difford @dylandifford.bsky.social · 11h

At some point, the concept of a conference bounce will have to die.

I don't know how much more evidence of a diconnect between breathless write-ups of 'gamechanging' conference speeches and the reality you need. For the big four, not a single statistically significant change in standing.

YouGov @yougov.co.uk · 11h

Latest party leader net favourability ratings, October 2025

Nigel Farage: -33
Kemi Badenoch: -33
Jeremy Corbyn: -38
Keir Starmer: -51

Ed Davey: -4 (38% DK)
Zack Polanski: -4 (62% DK)
Zarah Sultana: -17 (60% DK)

yougov.co.uk/politics/art...

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Julianne McShane @juliannemcshane.bsky.social · 21h

NEW @motherjones.com: Nobody in that GOP group chat praising Hitler or making racist comments was a “kid,” as JD Vance claimed today

I tracked down their ages. (Weirdly, it seems nobody else did.)

Eight of the 11 in the group chat range from 24 to 35. Ages of others are unclear.

But… no “kids”!

No one in the GOP Hitler chat was a "kid"

We checked. Sorry, JD Vance.

www.motherjones.com

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 22h

very funny that JD Vance has so little to do with his time that he goes on podcasts to defend 30-year-old men for saying how much they love Hitler

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

JD Vance dismisses Young Republicans who in a group chat said "I love Hitler" and joked about slavery and rape as "a bunch of kids" who "told stupid jokes" and adds that "most of the stupid things I did when I was a teenager and young adult, they're not on the internet."

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Joe Walsh @walshfreedom.bsky.social · 21h

The Trump administration doesn’t believe in free speech. Or a free press.👇

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Bijan Parsia @bparsia.bsky.social · 21h

Gut wrenching indeed.

The professors hit me hard. Just what the hell. WTF. Why? What possible thing made you think this was ok.

I hope they all suffer ruin.

Clara Jeffery @clarajeffery.bsky.social · 22h

1/ The first excerpt of Virginia Giuffre's posthumus memoir is out and it is gutting: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

‘Prince Andrew believed having sex with me was his birthright’: Virginia Giuffre on her abuse at the hands of Epstein, Maxwell and the king’s brother

In an extract from her posthumous memoir, Virginia Roberts Giuffre remembers the day an ‘apex predator’ recruited her from Mar-a-Lago, aged just 16; how she was trafficked to a succession of wealthy a...

www.theguardian.com

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Andrew Tait @andrewtait.bsky.social · 20h

When @grok starts lying about what @grok has written, we are all in trouble.

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Lawrence Hurley @lawrencehurley.bsky.social · 19h

In what way was it "mainstream" to celebrate Kirk's death? That simply did not happen.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Vance: "Political violence, it's just a statistical fact that it's a bigger problem on the left. If you had, god forbid, somebody on the left who was assassinated, I'm sure you could find one person who would maybe celebrate it, but the fact that it became mainstream to celebrate Charlie's death..."

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