This is quite fun about the growing signals that Russia is losing... and creaking under the strain. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dkpk...

This is because Reform relies on building a coalition of disordered counterpublics reacting against distrusted institutions, and the anti-vax community is part of that, so he knows he needs to keep is vague to avoid upsetting them.

All of this. 👇👇

Another excellent episode of this fantastic podcast. More timely than ever. Sadly. @iandunt.bsky.social

Trump and Miller are intent on building an unaccountable domestic secret police force that would be the world's third-biggest security force by funding levels, after the US and China's *militaries*. That kind of funding dwarfs its stated purpose, which tells you what its real purpose will be.

I'm not even surprised, which is not good.

I gather someone at Glastonbury had some words of condemnation for the IDF...

Here is a brilliant thread why you can and shd call it a new form of fascism.

"Every time we go to the polls, politicians will say that every election matters and every vote counts. They will be right" www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

The circle by POTUS gets smaller and no one trusts anyone anymore If federal judges don’t trust law enforcement officers who report to POTUS to protect them without malice, who can? www.wsj.com/us-news/law/...

“Gaza: Medics Under Fire”, a film made by my brother Karim and his team, delayed by the @BBC www.theguardian.com/media/2025/m...

The point of Putin's negotiation: "stringing out Trump for as long as possible and agreeing to more phone calls and meetings in order to avoid new sanctions, distract attention from Russia’s ongoing war crimes, and make the U.S. appear weak"

It shouldn’t take courage to criticise the leader of a (supposed) democracy but it does

The new Pope, retweeting Senator Chris Murphy, in support of gun control

The media have to report far less on Trump the clown, but focus instead on what is really going on behind that big orange distraction. Blatant corruption.

So a round of applause to all those voters who switched from Labour to Libdem/Green, on the basis of less than 10 months of a government dealing with a mountain of shit...

"On Tyranny" is a #1 NYT bestseller again. I wish the moment were different. But I’m glad the book is useful. And grateful for all the kind words about putting the 20 lessons to work. snyder.substack.com/p/twenty-les...

Essential reading. 👇

This is what is now happening across Europe, courtesy of Trump: Everyone is gravitating towards each other and, in particular, towards the EU. I hope Starmer gets with the programme.

Striking that both Trump’s enemies and diehards are all convinced this is a masterplan. Either that he’s deliberately shorted the market or it’s all a strategy to make other countries negotiate. This is his great ability: he convinces everyone he’s one step ahead. Most of the time he is simply not.

Again: presidents used to be terrified of the congress and this one is handcuffing itself to the radiator in advance

Trump is learning what Truss learned before him: that the market is the last bastion of commonly-accepted truth, which all sides accept as empirically real open.substack.com/pub/iandunt/...

"America is a place of immeasurable wealth. It is quite literally the richest and most fortunate country that has ever existed. And yet its leader acts like such a pitiful cry-baby on the world stage, constantly talking about how mean everyone is and how horrible everyone has been to it"

I mean I really just want to point out the thing where live-in-space rich guys who have never paid taxes are stealing government data to deport people who actually pay taxes. That’s it, that’s the only point.

A big part of the problem is stupid people have been convinced by rich people that AI is God, when AI is closer to an automatic dog food dispenser.

I thought this was interesting from Margaret Atwood on how the USA has see-sawed through history between fundamentalist theocracy and egalitarian democracy. From about 1:50. youtu.be/ljvVUW2vrRU?...

I've never seen a nation torch its reputation the way Musk and Trump are torching that of the US. Every day they find a way to make a new segment of the world population detest them. Makes Brexit look like a PR triumph.

Several hundred protesters have shut down the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Musk is furious about these protests. You can understand it - most of his wealth is held in Tesla shares. If Tesla collapsed that would obviously be very, very bad indeed. For him.

To be clear this is done with the same process as “Russia isn’t a threat” assessments from 2017 — they just decided it couldn’t be because then they would have had to account for the attack on the American people in 2016 There is no history. No science. No truth. Just follow the show

Decent people thank Ukraine.

Vance blew up that meeting on purpose

Zelensky is perhaps the defining figure of our age. Brave, ingenious, pragmatic and defined by his convictions. They hate him because he kills fascists.

Once again I am leaving the Munich Security Conference in a low mood. Amongst all the noise, the US signalled their plans for Europe, so things are becoming clearer. But things are clearly not good. This is what we now know, and what we have to do about it:🧵1/17

Increasingly there are only two sides that now matter in the world: 1. Against Trumpism and all it stands for. 2. Not 1. If 1, coalesce in the most practical/readily available way. Like it or not, in Britain that means getting behind Starmer. The Tories/Reform are in 2. bsky.app/profile/sifi...

What do we do when working within the system no longer works? This is the great and for many, unaskable, question looming above Washington on this dark, cold February night. open.substack.com/pub/davidrot...

I needed this. Thank you @djrothkopf.bsky.social bsky.app/profile/djro...

Removes much that deals with foreign disinformation. And other important topics. This is deliberate state self-destruction under the pretext of removing DEI.

I think we should take this story from the Times today (and picked up by many other outlets) with an enormous pinch of salt for two reason (mini thread): www.thetimes.com/uk/media/art...

BBC political analysis is reaching a nadir. Superficial, persistently adopting far right framing, utterly without insight. Just properly piss-poor. The fact that someone with a working brain could write this piece without seeking medical attention is astonishing.

NEW: Why not calling a Nazi salute a Nazi salute puts us in a whole new place of danger. We have to call spades spades or what else is there? open.substack.com/pub/broligar...

When a clown moves into a palace he won’t turn into a king. The palace turns into a circus instead. (some Turkish proverb) That’s all for today.

The brilliant @aiannucci.bsky.social on disrupters

Presumably the point is to make people afraid to publish negative opinion polls about him

Trump appointing industry lobbyists as well as CEOs who will now be able to regulate their own companies (or not) was utterly predictable, so much so that hardly anyone will remark upon it. Oligarchy has arrived www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Not on my watch Nigel - abortion time limits protect those who face the tragedy of fatal foetal abnormality from being forced to give birth to a baby that will die, not a weapon for you to get votes.

If you are "tough on China," then listen to Taiwan

Thank all that is holy for Bluesky 🦋

No bottom, but plenty of massive arses

I quite enjoy the frank admission that without “libs” to “own”, they have literally no purpose and no ideas.