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M.B. Drapier

@mbdrapier.bsky.social

530 followers 27 following 1.7K posts

A jumped-up egg. I can neither confirm nor deny that I am the Queen of the May.

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M.B. Drapier @mbdrapier.bsky.social · 48m

youtu.be/JWijGvvGrCw INEOS is sounding apocalyptic here, though ofc it very much has an interest. (And it has to be noted that Brexit supporter Sir Jim Ratcliffe is talking of ‘Europe’s chemical industry’ now that it’s bailout time.)

Sir Jim Ratcliffe: This is the 11th Hour for Europe’s Chemical Industry | INEOS

YouTube video by INEOS

M.B. Drapier @mbdrapier.bsky.social · 15h

But by the same token you probably shouldn’t even contemplate multi-seat *without* transferable votes. What earthly reason would there be?

M.B. Drapier @mbdrapier.bsky.social · 15h

I don’t have much to add on the civil-rights issues here, but I can say this: as an Irish person, I can assure you that you’re safe to ignore most moaning and fearmongering about multi-seat constituencies. We’ve had multi-seat Single Transferable Vote forever and it works pretty nicely.

M.B. Drapier @mbdrapier.bsky.social · 1d

That’s the funny part though! The /Time/ editors wake up every day worrying “how can we make our colour-photography-centric form of journalism interesting and buzzy again?” Well, now they’ve done it …

M.B. Drapier @mbdrapier.bsky.social · 1d

In all seriousness, I think his chance of getting Bagram back just increased significantly.

M.B. Drapier @mbdrapier.bsky.social · 1d

Working off a volunteer-provided list is very likely, but in this day and age they could presumably also have sent an LLM out to trawl the internet: it wouldn't necessarily have been put off by the lack of the word 'Kirk'.

M.B. Drapier @mbdrapier.bsky.social · 1d

My impression (not an expert or any kind of local) is that the resurgence of the US Israel lobby from the late '90s was driven precisely by a determination that the US would never pressure Israel into something like Oslo again.

M.B. Drapier @mbdrapier.bsky.social · 1d

But didn't Bush sr. & Clinton prove able and willing to bring very significant and effective pressure on Israeli governments?

M.B. Drapier @mbdrapier.bsky.social · 1d

Trump buys, consumes, plays when he should be—and is pretending to be, and apparently really believes he *is*—selling, building, working. He's doing that again now. (And being old likely isn't making him any more of a long-termist either.)

M.B. Drapier @mbdrapier.bsky.social · 1d

But he's been at this all his adult life. His cherished vanity projects (not the scams & cash-grabs) notoriously tended to be fun, flattering baubles for himself that were too costly or not popular enough with actual customers to break even, like Trump Airlines with the blinged-out cabin interiors.

M.B. Drapier @mbdrapier.bsky.social · 1d

He's not striking the pressure points that will yield him control of the state and society: he's running down the list of people he personally has beef with. Since he doesn't *have* a consolidated autocracy (yet, at least) that's likely to work out poorly for him, yes.

M.B. Drapier @mbdrapier.bsky.social · 1d

Evidently Trump (Trump personally, here—eg. Miller-driven ICE stuff is a different story) isn't interested in using state coercion to consolidate an autocracy: he wants to *use* the power of an already-consolidated autocracy to get at his personal enemies.

M.B. Drapier @mbdrapier.bsky.social · 1d

Please don’t normalise sharing fake videos.

M.B. Drapier @mbdrapier.bsky.social · 1d

Is gravy a dip?

M.B. Drapier @mbdrapier.bsky.social · 2d

The Yaxley Taxi.

M.B. Drapier @mbdrapier.bsky.social · 2d

Keep On Pernin’

M.B. Drapier @mbdrapier.bsky.social · 2d

Trump has also met Canada’s actual head of state just recently, too …

M.B. Drapier @mbdrapier.bsky.social · 2d

I didn’t survive WWIII, you insensitive clod.

M.B. Drapier @mbdrapier.bsky.social · 3d

Authoritarian socialism is like a box of chocolates.

M.B. Drapier @mbdrapier.bsky.social · 3d

“Principal-agent problems? In MY absolute monarchy?”

M.B. Drapier @mbdrapier.bsky.social · 3d

Also remember that *collectively* they face dispersed and/or longer-term problems if they don’t tamp down the No Kings demos; but *individually* they face immediate and unpleasant problems if they aren’t seen performing maximum loyalty to the Boss on the TV. So that creates some perverse incentives.

M.B. Drapier @mbdrapier.bsky.social · 3d

Right: the catch in going after ‘the few’ is that there’s only a few of them.

Reposted by M.B. Drapier

M.B. Drapier @mbdrapier.bsky.social · 3d

/All That Jazz/ just happens to be a film about a seamy, larger-than-life 1970s New York bigshot being confronted with his own imminent death. www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_aI...

All That Jazz | #TBT Trailer | 20th Century FOX

YouTube video by 20th Century Studios

www.youtube.com

M.B. Drapier @mbdrapier.bsky.social · 3d

bsky.app/profile/mbdr...

M.B. Drapier @mbdrapier.bsky.social · 3d

/All That Jazz/ just happens to be a film about a seamy, larger-than-life 1970s New York bigshot being confronted with his own imminent death. www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_aI...

All That Jazz | #TBT Trailer | 20th Century FOX

YouTube video by 20th Century Studios

www.youtube.com

M.B. Drapier @mbdrapier.bsky.social · 3d

/All That Jazz/ just happens to be a film about a seamy, larger-than-life 1970s New York bigshot being confronted with his own imminent death. www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_aI...

All That Jazz | #TBT Trailer | 20th Century FOX

YouTube video by 20th Century Studios

www.youtube.com