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Iwasid

@iwasid.bsky.social

2K followers 2.6K following 4.3K posts

Bookish. Amateur philosopher of the worst kind. Political animal who still believes we can build a better world for all. Banner is the Red Sand sea bell, tolling. Contemplating not being anonymous. Standing up for Palestinians.

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Iwasid @iwasid.bsky.social · Dec 1

If you read anything today, tomorrow, this week, this year, this should be that read.

Susan Abulhawa's speech to the Oxford Union debate last week.

WalkingInAustin @walkinginaustin.bsky.social · Nov 30

The actual debate speech:

x.com/susanabulhaw...

x.com

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Stephen Collins @stephencollins.bsky.social · 5h

If you're a National Trust member, it's that time of year again: Midnight tonight is the deadline. It's a shame people have to keep doing this to keep a toehold on historical truth in this country, but here we are. Voting link: www.nationaltrust.org.uk/who-we-are/a...

[Scene is the entrance cabin to a NATIONAL TRUST PROPERTY AND GARDENS]

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NATIONAL TRUST EMPLOYEE [inside cabin]:

Hello there

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[A young family - two parents two kids - have arrived at the front desk].

DAD:

Hi - do you have an activity trail, for the kids?

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NT EMPLOYEE:

Of course – you’re just in time for the Autumn Gammon Trail!

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MUM:
That sounds fun, doesn’t it kids?

5
NT EMPLOYEE [handing an activity sheet and pencils to the kids]:

Every autumn, the Reform Trust gammons flock back to the National Trust for the AGM. Just follow the trail round the grounds, and see how many you can spot!

6
NT EMPLOYEE [hearing something in the gardens]:

Listen - that's their call

[Calls emanating from the landscape]:

tut-tut
woke-woke

7
NT EMPLOYEE [showing the family an apparently empty fenced enclosure with some bushes in]:

They are extremely sensitive and fragile...
But you can bring them out of hiding if you put a little sign down mentioning slavery.

8
KIDS [pointing]:
There they are!

[Some little red faced PEOPLE wearing Barbour jackets and gilets emerge cautiously from the bushes. They are creeping towards a TINY SIGN in the middle of the enclosure].

[Little people noises]:
woke-woke
tut-tut
woke-woke

9
[Close-up of the TINY SIGN - we can read that it says]:

Slavery had a bit to do with building this massive house.

[Noises from the little people again as they inspect the tiny sign]:

tut-tut
woke-woke

10
MUM [pointing]:
What's that one doing there?

NT EMPLOYEE:
Oh, that's so sweet…

11
[We see that one of the people is sat on a rock, with a little laptop open on a tree stump, and they are furiously typing away].

NT EMPLOYEE:
I think he's writing a column for the Daily Telegraph…

12
[We see close up to the little person’s screen, it is a word document reading]:

Are National Trust scones secretly WOKE?

[ends]

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Richard Williams @williams-r-b.bsky.social · 4d

Is democracy broken? How can we know if it still works?

My paper, “Does this democracy work?”, is now out in Economics & Philosophy:
doi.org/10.1017/S026...

Thank you to everyone who helped!

doi.org

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Fiona Macpherson @macpherson.bsky.social · 4h

Philosophy jobs at @UofGlasgow: one will last until mid-2029, the other until mid-2030.

www.jobs.gla.ac.uk/job/lecturer...

Lecturers in Philosophy (LTS)

College of Arts and HumanitiesSchool of Humanities Lecturers in Philosophy (LTS)Vacancy Ref: 184794Salary:Grade 7, £41,064 - £46,049 per annum The University of Glasgow is seeking to appoint two fi...

www.jobs.gla.ac.uk

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Phil Burton-Cartledge @philbc3.bsky.social · 17h

"What is the point of the spoils of office if you can't spoil yourself in office?"

"Inadvertent Errors"

Poor Rachel Reeves, she cannot catch a break. In today's news, the chancellor is having to defend herself against dodging payments due to S...

averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com

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Pete Miles @petermiles.bsky.social · 17h

As some of you will know, Private Eye has a very good track record of persisting with long-term investigations into scandals such as Post Office Horizon. It's often hard to tell when the reporting will break into the mainstream. On Teesworks I'm still waiting.

(8 page report in edition 1660)

IT WAS to be the UK's largest regeneration scheme in decades, a model for regional devolution and the flagship post-Brexit freeport.

But the redevelopment of the former steelworks on the south bank of the River Tees became little more than an unlawful, taxpayer-funded scheme to promote the political career of a Tory golden boy and vastly enrich a couple of local businessmen and their families, all hidden in a web of deception. In the process, it is financially imperilling a major regional development body and squandering the chance to revive one of the country's most deprived but industrially promising areas.

This is how it happened...

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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 17h

To paraphrase: "I don't know or give a shit if Andrew Cuomo is a serial sexual abuser. Giving a shit about sexual abuse is bad for Dems. We should stop giving a shit about sexual abuse, and we should demonstrate it by voting for a guy who's been accused of it dozens of times."

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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 17h

Here it is. I'll just let you read and absorb:

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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 17h

Here's Klein on his Substack (of course he has a Substack) endorsing Andrew Cuomo for mayor of NYC.

That's enough, of course, to tell you who he is. But there's a passage in here that I almost couldn't believe. Seriously. Been thinking about it all week.

Andrew Cuomo for Mayor

Not Just Anti-Mamdani

josephklein.substack.com

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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 17h

In fact young @mattyglesias.bsky.social cut his teeth yelling at Joe Klein -- though he has now, by his own testimony, followed Klein's path.

Anyway, what happens to old reactionary centrists? Where do they end up? What does it reveal about them? Let's take a look!

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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 17h

By reactionary centrism of course I just mean, "purportedly liberal but creepily obsessed with the supposed political sins of young progressives." Many of the denizens of the early "netroots" -- you still around, @atrios.bsky.social? -- cut their teeth yelling at Joe Klein.

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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 18h

Some of you fellow oldsters may remember Joe Klein. His was a classic trajectory: started out as a hotshot reporter, wrote a few popular political books, was then handed an op-ed gig that he stayed in for way, way too long. Like so many DC pundits, he drifted inevitably toward reactionary centrism.

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Roland Smith @rolandmcs.bsky.social · 17h

Oakeshott used to live in this street in Charlbury in the Cotswolds.

You couldn't get a more genteel place – a very long way from immigration or deprivation or anything else she'd object to.

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Nicholas Slayton @nslayton.bsky.social · 23h

They're doing interment camps now. Fucking hell.

National Homelessness Law Center @homelesslaw.bsky.social · 1d

BREAKING: Inspired by Trump, Utah moves forward with plan to force homeless people into detention camps.

“It’s what they did in World War II in Japanese detention camps--similar to rounding up Jews or other people Nazis didn’t like.” @jesserbnwtz.bsky.social
buff.ly/0B3ndrk

In Utah, Trump’s Vision for Homelessness Begins to Take Shape

State officials promise large-scale involuntary addiction and mental health treatment at Salt Lake City’s edge. Critics see “a prison, or a warehouse.”

www.nytimes.com

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dell cameron @dell.bsky.social · 21h

NEW: ICE is planning to build a shadow deportation network in Texas. A proposal outlines a 24/7 transport operation run by armed contractors—turning Texas into the logistical backbone of an industrialized deportation machine.

My latest @wired.com: www.wired.com/story/ice-is...

Early planning documents reviewed by WIRED describe a statewide transport grid designed for steady detainee transfers across Texas, with ICE estimating each trip to average 100 miles. Every county would have its own small, around-the-clock team of contractors collecting immigrants from local authorities deputized by ICE. It is a subtle transfer of the physical custody process into the hands of a private security firm—authorized to carry firearms and perform transport duties “in any and all local, county, state, and ICE locations.”

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Its ruaa @itsmeio.bsky.social · 1d

False news | The war in Gaza has stopped.

True news | The war of extermination continues with bombings, assassinations, destruction, and the annihilation of families and children all timed and justified by yet another “pretext.”

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Shannon Hale @shannonhale.bsky.social · 1d

Now I'm about to get on a flight and I'm sitting here in my helplessness not sure what to do. It feels farcical to pretend that everything is normal. Hug each other please. Choose love.

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Shannon Hale @shannonhale.bsky.social · 1d

I had to sit down. I couldn't stop shaking and crying. Other women came up to me after and asked to hug me. I think they felt traumatized too. The abuse and horror these men inflicted on that woman extended to everyone watching it. Ostentatious shows of power to make everyone feel disempowered.

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Shannon Hale @shannonhale.bsky.social · 1d

I guess that's the point. Terrorize so brazenly that everyone is afraid. This woman. Her terror was real. Her desperation. Her sorrow. She was being ripped from her family. Forced away. And we all stood there. I did nothing but film it and shout. And shake and cry.

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Shannon Hale @shannonhale.bsky.social · 1d

I can hear myself saying "Have mercy! She's a human being!" I was scarcely aware that I was speaking. After they dragged her away, I shouted into the airport something like, "This is cruelty! How can we stand this?" Whatever I said, it tore out of me. And I was immediately afraid I'd be arrested too

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Shannon Hale @shannonhale.bsky.social · 1d

I'm shaking almost too hard to type. I entered SLC airport and heard screams and cries for help. I could see people gathered around, watching. I sped over to discover this woman face down on the floor, four grown men pushing her down, while she cried "HELP ME" and pled for her child.

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Iwasid @iwasid.bsky.social · 1d

Wow, is this a read or what?

Wondering how endemic this kind of malenness is? How deep is it across society?

Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 1d

why did this make me wheeze out loud

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Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 1d

I found this piece sad too, but mostly because it is part of a years-long effort by progressives to understand what "really" animates Trump voters.

We already know! It is racism, misogyny and misinformation. I know that sounds condescending or whatever but it's simply what all evidence suggests.