Phil McDuff
@mcduff.bsky.social
Legitimate businessman
https://ko-fi.com/philmcduff
https://open.substack.com/pub/philmcduff
@philmcduff on the dying bird site
@mcduff.75 on Signal
https://ko-fi.com/philmcduff
https://open.substack.com/pub/philmcduff
@philmcduff on the dying bird site
@mcduff.75 on Signal
Pinned
The Unbearable Weight of Small Absences
This morning my dog Jingles wasn’t in the kitchen while I was making coffee.
open.substack.com
I've had this in the drafts for a while. One month after she went seems like a good time to publish. ❤️
Reposted by Phil McDuff
www.nytimes.com/2018/08/10/o...
Stephen Bush here in 2018.
Is there a 2025 companion piece to this, I wonder? "Why Labour's most self-interested cnts colluded with the actual far right to inflict fascism on us all?"
Surely Threadneedle's wisest young man is on the case?
Stephen Bush here in 2018.
Is there a 2025 companion piece to this, I wonder? "Why Labour's most self-interested cnts colluded with the actual far right to inflict fascism on us all?"
Surely Threadneedle's wisest young man is on the case?
Opinion | Why Won’t the Labour Party’s Anti-Semitism Scandal Go Away? (Published 2018)
www.nytimes.com
November 23, 2025 at 11:03 AM
www.nytimes.com/2018/08/10/o...
Stephen Bush here in 2018.
Is there a 2025 companion piece to this, I wonder? "Why Labour's most self-interested cnts colluded with the actual far right to inflict fascism on us all?"
Surely Threadneedle's wisest young man is on the case?
Stephen Bush here in 2018.
Is there a 2025 companion piece to this, I wonder? "Why Labour's most self-interested cnts colluded with the actual far right to inflict fascism on us all?"
Surely Threadneedle's wisest young man is on the case?
Reposted by Phil McDuff
As Hungary shows quite well: it doesn’t have to be at all well managed, to be a managed democracy.
November 23, 2025 at 10:05 AM
As Hungary shows quite well: it doesn’t have to be at all well managed, to be a managed democracy.
Reposted by Phil McDuff
To say the entire press taking this utterly cynical, vexatious horseshit and ramping it up into national terror amounts to a big thumb on the scales of democracy significantly undersells just how serious this stuff is. It raises questions about whether we’re a democracy in any meaningful sense.
November 23, 2025 at 10:01 AM
To say the entire press taking this utterly cynical, vexatious horseshit and ramping it up into national terror amounts to a big thumb on the scales of democracy significantly undersells just how serious this stuff is. It raises questions about whether we’re a democracy in any meaningful sense.
Reposted by Phil McDuff
Like, it was very obvious it was a heavily choreographed campaign of bullshit and shenanigans, but even I assumed it was *at least somewhat organic* and not just the country’s most tiresome reactionary crackpots meeting up offscreen and agreeing to all scream the same drivel in unison.
November 23, 2025 at 9:50 AM
Like, it was very obvious it was a heavily choreographed campaign of bullshit and shenanigans, but even I assumed it was *at least somewhat organic* and not just the country’s most tiresome reactionary crackpots meeting up offscreen and agreeing to all scream the same drivel in unison.
Reposted by Phil McDuff
The actual real explanation always turns out to be way more dumb and insulting than you imagined it was.
November 23, 2025 at 9:48 AM
The actual real explanation always turns out to be way more dumb and insulting than you imagined it was.
Reposted by Phil McDuff
Okay, this is making me furious, they have banned Olive! With the severest ban possible, all their work has been deleted, thankfully they have it archived, but Olive has done nothing worthy of any kind of ban.
Follow them on Upscrolled for now, my friends and share this to inform others 🙏
Follow them on Upscrolled for now, my friends and share this to inform others 🙏
November 22, 2025 at 8:12 PM
Okay, this is making me furious, they have banned Olive! With the severest ban possible, all their work has been deleted, thankfully they have it archived, but Olive has done nothing worthy of any kind of ban.
Follow them on Upscrolled for now, my friends and share this to inform others 🙏
Follow them on Upscrolled for now, my friends and share this to inform others 🙏
Reposted by Phil McDuff
COP is a waste of time and should be cancelled tbh
November 23, 2025 at 2:40 AM
COP is a waste of time and should be cancelled tbh
Reposted by Phil McDuff
somebody on here suggested awhile back that a pretty compelling 2028 Democrat campaign promise would be "on day one I will deploy a WPA-scale army of forensic accountants across every square inch of the federal government" and I think about that every day
It’s crazy to think about the crimes we’re going to learn about after this regime ends.
We’re already hearing about Watergate level crimes every week. Imagine what will come out after it’s over.
We’re going to need a full accounting of all that’s been done in violation of the constitution.
We’re already hearing about Watergate level crimes every week. Imagine what will come out after it’s over.
We’re going to need a full accounting of all that’s been done in violation of the constitution.
November 23, 2025 at 12:25 AM
somebody on here suggested awhile back that a pretty compelling 2028 Democrat campaign promise would be "on day one I will deploy a WPA-scale army of forensic accountants across every square inch of the federal government" and I think about that every day
Reposted by Phil McDuff
The insistence on humanoid robots - and even humanoid robots modelled specifically on the silhouette of athletic men - is sort of a metonymy for the whole madness of the tech industry and late capitalism. How it’s all now just signifiers; just fictions and hype and stock prices and vapour.
"The choice of a humanoid form reveals more about the sloppy thinking of our tech elite than engineering logic. The design represents a triumph of anthropomorphic fantasy over functional optimization, producing machines that excel at generating media buzz rather than useful work." ino.to/ek5hxdO
Musk’s last grift — Crooked Timber
ino.to
November 22, 2025 at 10:25 PM
The insistence on humanoid robots - and even humanoid robots modelled specifically on the silhouette of athletic men - is sort of a metonymy for the whole madness of the tech industry and late capitalism. How it’s all now just signifiers; just fictions and hype and stock prices and vapour.
Reposted by Phil McDuff
Reposted by Phil McDuff
The concept of food that tastes good was invented in the 1940s as part of the Marshall Plan, but the concept was only applied domestically in America around 2005.
November 23, 2025 at 2:02 AM
The concept of food that tastes good was invented in the 1940s as part of the Marshall Plan, but the concept was only applied domestically in America around 2005.
Reposted by Phil McDuff
The thing about elon going to epstein island in 2014 is that Epstein very publicly became a registered convicted sex offender in 2008, 6 years earlier.
Note: Epstein set up Elon's brother Kimbal with a girlfriend in 2011, 3 years after Epstein became a registered convicted sex offender.
Note: Epstein set up Elon's brother Kimbal with a girlfriend in 2011, 3 years after Epstein became a registered convicted sex offender.
September 27, 2025 at 1:58 AM
The thing about elon going to epstein island in 2014 is that Epstein very publicly became a registered convicted sex offender in 2008, 6 years earlier.
Note: Epstein set up Elon's brother Kimbal with a girlfriend in 2011, 3 years after Epstein became a registered convicted sex offender.
Note: Epstein set up Elon's brother Kimbal with a girlfriend in 2011, 3 years after Epstein became a registered convicted sex offender.
Reposted by Phil McDuff
This is the Turning Point USA spokesperson responding to a recent Islamophobic assault against students at the University of South Florida’s Muslim Student Association where several men associated with Warriors for Christ spit on students praying and waved bacon in their face.
November 23, 2025 at 1:59 AM
This is the Turning Point USA spokesperson responding to a recent Islamophobic assault against students at the University of South Florida’s Muslim Student Association where several men associated with Warriors for Christ spit on students praying and waved bacon in their face.
Reposted by Phil McDuff
Almost a year now since I received this absolutely classic burn from the Canadian government.
November 21, 2025 at 9:10 PM
Almost a year now since I received this absolutely classic burn from the Canadian government.
Reposted by Phil McDuff
"According to the UN, Israeli forces have carried out more than 500 airstrikes in Lebanon over the first 10 months of ceasefire, killing at least 108 civilians, including 16 children. Israel is violating the ceasefire on a near daily basis ... The UN has also recorded 19 [civilian] abductions."
Israeli forces are responsible for over 7,500 air violations and nearly 2,500 ground violations in the past year, according to the UN. This totals nearly 10,000 violations in less than a year of the ceasefire, which took effect on November 27, 2024.
UN: Israel Has Committed 10k Violations in Lebanon in One Year of Ceasefire
Israeli forces have killed over 100 civilians in Lebanon amid the ceasefire, UN officials say.
truthout.org
November 21, 2025 at 7:29 PM
"According to the UN, Israeli forces have carried out more than 500 airstrikes in Lebanon over the first 10 months of ceasefire, killing at least 108 civilians, including 16 children. Israel is violating the ceasefire on a near daily basis ... The UN has also recorded 19 [civilian] abductions."
Reposted by Phil McDuff
Stuff like this is a real helpful moment for everyone to stop and consider whether it was a good and smart idea to crush and hound the anti racism and anti austerity movement, because they were threatening the careers of the horrible clowns that are now in government. Has this worked out well?
![I don't think Danny Kruger is being taken seriously enough - this is far more extreme than anything the Conservatives were allowed to get away with. He is effectively saying that being anti-racist and being trans are contrary to British national identity and his party is leading the polls.
• Musa Okwonga @okwonga.bsky.social • 6h
Reform are so dangerous and this headline doesn't do it justice. I also think a piece like this should start with the politician's core views just to emphasise the urgency.
Are we talking about empire? But he's moving into an explanation of how economics and migration are only part of the problem. The real issue, the real poison, the real fight is actually with the progressive left. The flag-waving is, yes, a deliberate hostile response to what Reform sees as "dangerous and transgressive ideas".
. These fall under "the
panoply we call 'woke"", he explains, "a word that trivialises quite a substantial set of ideas that are not to be treated flippantly.
Everything from BLM [Black Lives Matter], to trans, to the Palestinian agenda, to DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] in the](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:5hyjbx4hnlxe5il24ydnn4sr/bafkreidgivmslziichdhjujcnjsdwdknjy4ur7uy7djdmuht74jawy67am@jpeg)
November 22, 2025 at 3:40 PM
Stuff like this is a real helpful moment for everyone to stop and consider whether it was a good and smart idea to crush and hound the anti racism and anti austerity movement, because they were threatening the careers of the horrible clowns that are now in government. Has this worked out well?
Reposted by Phil McDuff
reminder to parents of trans children:
breaking the rules to save your child years of suffering and possibly their life is your moral duty, get them on the correct hormones no matter what and don't bother with "doing things the right way"
breaking the rules to save your child years of suffering and possibly their life is your moral duty, get them on the correct hormones no matter what and don't bother with "doing things the right way"
And let's not even get started on the absurdity of looking for a positive impact from a preventative measure, where the expected outcome is "not getting worse"
Puberty blockers had no measurable impact on divorce rates, therefore ineffective treatment.
Puberty blockers had no measurable impact on divorce rates, therefore ineffective treatment.
(Also the trial measures blockers’ impact on “gender dysphoria,” which some of us have been saying for years is an inherently pathologising diagnosis easily manipulated to curtail bodily autonomy, but ☕️🐸)
transwrites.world/have-we-got-...
transwrites.world/static/uploa...
transwrites.world/have-we-got-...
transwrites.world/static/uploa...
November 22, 2025 at 12:30 PM
reminder to parents of trans children:
breaking the rules to save your child years of suffering and possibly their life is your moral duty, get them on the correct hormones no matter what and don't bother with "doing things the right way"
breaking the rules to save your child years of suffering and possibly their life is your moral duty, get them on the correct hormones no matter what and don't bother with "doing things the right way"
Reposted by Phil McDuff
Hate that there are so many streaming services now but if Nicholas Cage made one exclusively for his movies I'd pay for that
November 22, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Hate that there are so many streaming services now but if Nicholas Cage made one exclusively for his movies I'd pay for that
Reposted by Phil McDuff
Again, this is the moderates. This isn’t even the wackos with the truly insane and horrifying views.
I felt like I was losing my mind watching this person's remarks and had to write about how disgusting they are.
Sarah Hurwitz Profanes the Holocaust
Holocaust education has worked too well for the Obama speechwriter, since when she rationalizes Israel's genocide, "I sound obscene." Maybe sit with that, Sarah
www.forever-wars.com
November 22, 2025 at 5:03 PM
Again, this is the moderates. This isn’t even the wackos with the truly insane and horrifying views.
Reposted by Phil McDuff
After more than 10 years of “the Danish Model”, nativism is hegemonic in the country, the far right polls near level highs again, and the Social Democrats lost Copenhagen and poll at historic low.
European Social Democrats should look at the facts, not the myths!
Me in @theguardian.com
European Social Democrats should look at the facts, not the myths!
Me in @theguardian.com
The ‘Danish model’ is the darling of centre-left parties like Labour. The problem is, it doesn’t even work in Denmark | Cas Mudde
This week’s local elections are the latest reminder that when social democrats move rightwards, they’re making a mistake, says academic and author Cas Mudde
www.theguardian.com
November 22, 2025 at 1:59 PM
After more than 10 years of “the Danish Model”, nativism is hegemonic in the country, the far right polls near level highs again, and the Social Democrats lost Copenhagen and poll at historic low.
European Social Democrats should look at the facts, not the myths!
Me in @theguardian.com
European Social Democrats should look at the facts, not the myths!
Me in @theguardian.com
Reposted by Phil McDuff
how about No
“This study is trying to understand how we can leverage AI and machine-learning principles to improve recognition for toddlers and preschoolers.”
Canadian researchers look into how AI can better understand toddler talk like 'doodidees' | CBC News
Two researchers at Western University in London, Ont., are studying how to improve the way artificial intelligence understands toddlers' speaking patterns. They're recruiting preschool-age children to...
www.cbc.ca
November 22, 2025 at 5:09 PM
how about No
Reposted by Phil McDuff
Yes! This is so important! Machine Learning is doing wonderful things like mapping Martian craters and analyzing microbe genomes. LLMs are a very specific form & it’s them doing these huge amounts of harm. I also sometimes say “Gen AI”
when I mean both LLMs and art generators; I try to never say AI
when I mean both LLMs and art generators; I try to never say AI
Journalist challenge: Use “Machine Learning” when you mean machine learning and “LLM” when you mean LLM. Ditch “AI” as a catch-all term, it’s not useful for readers and it helps companies trying to confuse the public by obscuring the roles played by different technologies. 🧪
November 22, 2025 at 5:03 PM
Yes! This is so important! Machine Learning is doing wonderful things like mapping Martian craters and analyzing microbe genomes. LLMs are a very specific form & it’s them doing these huge amounts of harm. I also sometimes say “Gen AI”
when I mean both LLMs and art generators; I try to never say AI
when I mean both LLMs and art generators; I try to never say AI
Reposted by Phil McDuff
I'm not in the UK but my favorite was the time I went to an urgent care for a urinary tract infection and the nurse accused me of being a sex worker in front of my small children.
Cis people, how many times have you been asked to describe how you masturbate, and what you think about when you do, to access healthcare on the NHS?
November 22, 2025 at 5:16 PM
I'm not in the UK but my favorite was the time I went to an urgent care for a urinary tract infection and the nurse accused me of being a sex worker in front of my small children.
Reposted by Phil McDuff
Now and forever.
A pure granny killing fanny.
A pure granny killing fanny.
November 22, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Now and forever.
A pure granny killing fanny.
A pure granny killing fanny.
Reposted by Phil McDuff
And I'm so pro-vaccine, but if you backed me against a wall and said "why do you trust the science on this when plenty of doctors have used what they claim is the science to gaslight and torture you for most of your life" I honestly don't have a compelling answer besides "idk I just do"
November 22, 2025 at 5:10 PM
And I'm so pro-vaccine, but if you backed me against a wall and said "why do you trust the science on this when plenty of doctors have used what they claim is the science to gaslight and torture you for most of your life" I honestly don't have a compelling answer besides "idk I just do"