Howell Harris
@trefeca.bsky.social
Retired (US, business & technology) historian. Twitter escapee. Hope this doesn't go the same way. Welsh & European. Durham resident. Gardener & cyclist.
Read this out loud in your best imitation Tim G-A accent.
Timothy Garton-Ash on Trump's National Security Strategy. Quite.
December 13, 2025 at 1:21 PM
Read this out loud in your best imitation Tim G-A accent.
Reposted by Howell Harris
The entire federal government is currently operating as a Make A Wish Foundation for a sad old fuck who’s out of his gourd most of the day.
December 12, 2025 at 10:49 PM
The entire federal government is currently operating as a Make A Wish Foundation for a sad old fuck who’s out of his gourd most of the day.
What I miss about working at Durham is the endless self-promotional hype. Extraordinarily inspiring.
Everyone using a Durham university toilet is confronted with this exhortation #inspirational
December 12, 2025 at 10:47 AM
What I miss about working at Durham is the endless self-promotional hype. Extraordinarily inspiring.
Reposted by Howell Harris
White House Begins Christmas Season With Ceremonial Lighting Of Cross
December 10, 2025 at 10:00 PM
White House Begins Christmas Season With Ceremonial Lighting Of Cross
Reposted by Howell Harris
Johnson Bordello might find it hard to find a small section of #TrumpyPumpy's arse to lick, there are so many other traitors up there already: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
French far-right leader tells BBC he shares US warnings on Europe 'for most part'
The US's new National Security Strategy suggests Europe is facing
www.bbc.co.uk
December 10, 2025 at 8:37 AM
Johnson Bordello might find it hard to find a small section of #TrumpyPumpy's arse to lick, there are so many other traitors up there already: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Howell Harris
Within a couple of minutes of starting scrolling, I see five different, loathsome things that the US administration and its degenerate President are doing. What repellent times these are.
December 5, 2025 at 9:50 AM
Within a couple of minutes of starting scrolling, I see five different, loathsome things that the US administration and its degenerate President are doing. What repellent times these are.
Ireland is doing pretty bloody well on the international stage right now -- electing a sanctimonious useful idiot as its next president, and now, perhaps, endangering the life of the head of government whose survival is most important to European security at the moment.
Think defence policy is subject to the same social/generational shifts as abortion was. So the Irish government and people will probably do their best to ignore the fact that we endangered a head of state because we were barely able to detect, let alone stop, a handful of drones in our airspace/6
December 5, 2025 at 2:38 PM
Ireland is doing pretty bloody well on the international stage right now -- electing a sanctimonious useful idiot as its next president, and now, perhaps, endangering the life of the head of government whose survival is most important to European security at the moment.
Reposted by Howell Harris
When we look back on the horror of these years, these mid-ocean assassinations will be seen as particularly morally squalid episodes, militarily pointless exercises in cruelty in the service of amusing the regime’s online fans.
December 3, 2025 at 11:49 AM
When we look back on the horror of these years, these mid-ocean assassinations will be seen as particularly morally squalid episodes, militarily pointless exercises in cruelty in the service of amusing the regime’s online fans.
Reposted by Howell Harris
Whatever comes out of them, today's talks in Moscow are a diplomatic all-time low for the US. Incompetent, mercurial envoys trying to reset relations w one of the worst regimes in the world at the expense of the victim of unprovoked aggression and the security of America's best allies in Europe.
December 2, 2025 at 7:10 PM
Whatever comes out of them, today's talks in Moscow are a diplomatic all-time low for the US. Incompetent, mercurial envoys trying to reset relations w one of the worst regimes in the world at the expense of the victim of unprovoked aggression and the security of America's best allies in Europe.
The old guy needs his nap.
Apparently this was the high energy candidate in the 2024 presidential election!
Trump dozes while Marco Rubio speaks to him directly next to him. Just insane optics.
December 2, 2025 at 10:58 PM
The old guy needs his nap.
Reposted by Howell Harris
The core problem is that in a state, something has to be sovereign - in a democracy, it is the people - and you can design and tinker as much as you like but there is no way to design around a loss of virtue in that sovereign entity.
If the people keep elected maniacs, no guardrails can hold.
If the people keep elected maniacs, no guardrails can hold.
one of the things dr schake and i were both wrestling with in this conversation--i think not really conclusively--is how you maintain the norm of civilian supremacy when the civilians are issuing objectively illegal, murderous orders
Neon Liberalism #54: Join Samantha and guest Kori Schake, author of "The State and the Soldier," as they discuss the history of civil-military relations in America—and how that relationship is being pushed to the breaking point. www.liberalcurrents.com/neon-liberal...
November 30, 2025 at 3:31 PM
The core problem is that in a state, something has to be sovereign - in a democracy, it is the people - and you can design and tinker as much as you like but there is no way to design around a loss of virtue in that sovereign entity.
If the people keep elected maniacs, no guardrails can hold.
If the people keep elected maniacs, no guardrails can hold.
Reposted by Howell Harris
Since the Nathan Gill conviction, a lot of people seem to be waking up to Putin's meddling in British politics
Here's a handy primer from me and @goldbergradio.bsky.social
A Beginner's Guide to Russian Influence: Brexit and Beyond
@bylinetimes.bsky.social
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/a...
Here's a handy primer from me and @goldbergradio.bsky.social
A Beginner's Guide to Russian Influence: Brexit and Beyond
@bylinetimes.bsky.social
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/a...
A Beginners Guide to Russian Influence: Brexit and Beyond
Podcast Episode · Byline Podcast · 29/11/2025 · 31m
podcasts.apple.com
November 29, 2025 at 12:23 PM
Since the Nathan Gill conviction, a lot of people seem to be waking up to Putin's meddling in British politics
Here's a handy primer from me and @goldbergradio.bsky.social
A Beginner's Guide to Russian Influence: Brexit and Beyond
@bylinetimes.bsky.social
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/a...
Here's a handy primer from me and @goldbergradio.bsky.social
A Beginner's Guide to Russian Influence: Brexit and Beyond
@bylinetimes.bsky.social
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/a...
Reposted by Howell Harris
Idea: whining about your taxes in the press comes with a *free* wallet inspection from HMRC just to make sure you're not over paying
November 29, 2025 at 12:32 PM
Idea: whining about your taxes in the press comes with a *free* wallet inspection from HMRC just to make sure you're not over paying
Bracingly logical.
People talk about the right side of history - everyone living is currently on the right side of history (it is behind them, where it should be). One day, everyone living will be on the wrong side of history (they will be dead and part of it). Thank you for coming to my brutally materialist TED talk.
November 29, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Bracingly logical.
Reposted by Howell Harris
You're all mocking Kemi Badenoch and her comments on what is and isn't Christian but ask yourself this: which other British political leader causes you to mutter 'Jesus Christ' more than she does every time they open their mouth?
November 28, 2025 at 12:07 PM
You're all mocking Kemi Badenoch and her comments on what is and isn't Christian but ask yourself this: which other British political leader causes you to mutter 'Jesus Christ' more than she does every time they open their mouth?
Reposted by Howell Harris
Pediatricians say vaccines do not cause autism. A bear-eating heroin addict who fantasizes about sucking his own semen out of his lovers' orifices says they do. For busy parents, it can be hard to know who to trust.
November 26, 2025 at 5:14 PM
Pediatricians say vaccines do not cause autism. A bear-eating heroin addict who fantasizes about sucking his own semen out of his lovers' orifices says they do. For busy parents, it can be hard to know who to trust.
True dat.
It's easier to imagine the end of capitalism than the end of the freeze on fuel duty.
November 26, 2025 at 9:43 AM
True dat.
The BBC just need to change the way they advertise the Reith Lectures now. "Written and delivered by Rutger Bregman, censored by [insert name; definitely not Robbie Gibb, because he is completely nonpartisan and impartial as the driven snow)." The censorship becomes the news.
I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
November 25, 2025 at 11:44 AM
The BBC just need to change the way they advertise the Reith Lectures now. "Written and delivered by Rutger Bregman, censored by [insert name; definitely not Robbie Gibb, because he is completely nonpartisan and impartial as the driven snow)." The censorship becomes the news.
The good old days, before (indoor) climate change.
November 25, 2025 at 8:55 AM
The good old days, before (indoor) climate change.
Good question.
Why do the ‘difficult choices’ this government takes so rarely relate to things they think Reform voters will object to?
November 25, 2025 at 8:54 AM
Good question.
Astonishing. Crude GDP, or at Purchasing Power Parity?
When Tony Blair came to power in 1997, the UK economy was bigger than China and India combined.
November 24, 2025 at 10:45 PM
Astonishing. Crude GDP, or at Purchasing Power Parity?
Reposted by Howell Harris
Francis Wheen on some of Farage's more sinister connections, back in 1999
November 24, 2025 at 7:24 PM
Francis Wheen on some of Farage's more sinister connections, back in 1999
As usual with James Meek, a terrific, wide-ranging, fascinating report www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4... — good on frivolousness of British ec dev’t policy, @oldtrotter.bsky.social — but it doesn’t really get at the great North-East paradox, why are migrants such a salient issue where they’re so rare?
James Meek · Ten-Foot Chopsticks: The North-East Transition
The ghost of the industrial revolution haunts Britain. The language of today’s politicians, of unlocking and...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 24, 2025 at 10:11 PM
As usual with James Meek, a terrific, wide-ranging, fascinating report www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4... — good on frivolousness of British ec dev’t policy, @oldtrotter.bsky.social — but it doesn’t really get at the great North-East paradox, why are migrants such a salient issue where they’re so rare?
Reposted by Howell Harris
we now go live to the rabbit Reeves is going to pull out of the hat on Wednesday:
November 23, 2025 at 10:55 PM
we now go live to the rabbit Reeves is going to pull out of the hat on Wednesday: