“Straightforwardly leftwing government”

But I was told only this morning that Labour is straightforwardly leftwing. (I like their journalism in many ways, but this guy really puts the eff in FT.)

NEW: Harry Dunn and Daniel Hodges sue to dissolve the $1.8B slush fund. Do they have standing? My latest: www.muellershewrote.com/p/new-harry-...

“On Monday, Tehran announced the creation of the Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA)” reports the FT, leaving it a complete mystery what the P stands for. Hashtag objectivity

If not now—as a party that’s been on the right side of FPTP (and so has power) is about to find itself on the wrong side (and so has incentive)—when?

“and eventually, reality will kick in.” www.ft.com/content/32bf...

Not that Trump is bothered, but by dropping the case to avoid judicial scrutiny of the “settlement”, he took himself outside the standing appropriation for paying judgements and settlements. No case -> no settlement. Just an unauthorised and unappropriated gift. www.ecfr.gov/current/titl...

MSM, some quick notes: 1. It’s not a settlement (the case was dismissed). 3. It’s not a ballroom (it’s a bunker). 3. It’s not a library (Trump said it will be a hotel). It matters that you get it right.

I am once again begging, praying, weeping for lists of written instructions rather than videos. I do not want to watch your two minute video in the hope of catching the two seconds where you whizz past what goddamn menu the thing is under. Write. It. Down.

Does Britain really need four right-wing parties? www.ft.com/content/98dc...

Ascension day evening, Sankt Stephan, clouds clearing just in time to illuminate the Wildstrubel

new zealander everlee wihongi was due to meet with her lawyer yesterday. then ICE moved her to their most notorious tent facility in texas: 3000 people, highest death rate, most sexual assaults. and today, she disappeared off the system. please RT: www.webworm.co/everleehasdi...

For anti-racists: the silver lining.

The losing seats to vs losing votes to issue doesn’t arise under classic two-party FPTP. Sad if Labour react to these losses by chasing Reform voters (even harder), because its leaders were all trained in that mindset. Or because they just like bashing immigrants, that’s sad too.

Interesting analysis for those of us interested in hope and aware of the big graph that shows Reform peaked in October last year and is sliding inexorably down.

Deepfakes are everywhere, but digital forensics investigators are fighting back. Learn more: https://scim.ag/42dMPBg

Stock market animal spirits report: "emu"

Thinking about the sequences of words that are most likely to follow “I’m not hallucinating”.

Even cynical old me is astonished sometimes at the tricks the UK press will pull.

Slightly diminish a book. Born Discounted

Gruyères cheese fest was a human churn, but at least it’s pretty

The things you learn on this app, 45 years later.

New answer to the “why do people think inequality is increasing when [table]?” question: reduced social mobility. (NB flat wealth shares for the 10%, and even the 1%, are consistent with there being more billionaires, whose wealth is both a kind of inequality and a huge problem.)

My mission is to preserve the Turing test by contradicting anyone who says a bloody large language model can think.

In news that will come as a shock to some, the houses continue to exist and provide accommodation. www.ft.com/content/3341...

This and last RT (RS?): there are real concerns about things mass producers do to food; but “ultra-processed” isn’t a helpful or even coherent category, and yes “directionally correct but unscientific scepticism about additives” is exactly where left antivaxx came from.

Reminder that there is no scientific definition for "ultra-processed food", and no theory for the mechanism by which it is supposedly uniquely harmful.

One of the weirdest things about the EU “single market” looks like it will finally end. No more permission slips to cross internal borders for business meetings! www.businesstraveller.com/news/eu-kurz...

“It is not OK to steal a charity”—Musk. Words fail. “[My investment] was meant to be for a charity that did not benefit any individual person. I specifically chose it to be something for the benefit of all humanity.” And isn’t that techbro utilitarianism in a nutshell. www.ft.com/content/a6a9...

This is perfectly in Trump’s style, so is he sufficiently exercised by this to write 7 pages, did his staff transcribe a rant, or have they just trained an LLM on his TS output?

Thread. When I started as a lawyer the quickest way to be accepted as one of the crew was to drunkenly embarrass yourself at or after a work drinks. (Work drinks! Not a party or a conference. Just, free alcohol, in the office, because we were lawyers and it was Friday. What an idea that seems now.)

Am I missing something? Everyone should press red. Then everyone survives.

There are complications but the top marginal rate of wealth tax in Geneva is 5%—and there are still a few rich people around.

The Lib Dems, as a third party, have always had to focus on building up support in specific seats. Labour was a national party, so when they lose this much support FPTP slaughters them.

This is a puzzling view. The streets and statute books are *full* of attempts to make cars safer, for themselves and others—including the rule being broken here. Sure we could do better. And we’ve accepted non-zero harm by not banning the things. But my street is now cycles-only!

Sullivan & Cromwell had to apologise this week for a filing with multiple “hallucinations”. But it’s ok because “Mason said Freshfields had a process in which “nothing goes out without being checked by individual lawyers””. www.ft.com/content/99c6...

This is the thing, if "academia" wanted to stop this, we could easily tomorrow. Over 3 incorrect references? Rejected and forbidden to submit next year. The purpose of a system is what it does!

For a very reasonable fee, I (ex-Biglaw with a PhD in philosophy of mind) will explain to you, an overcommitted lawyer, why this shit will continue to happen and why you will continue to fall for it despite stories like this. www.ft.com/content/657d...

Who overcomes by force, hath overcome but half his foe.

I think we should hold vibescessioners to the same standard as error-theorists in philosophy, ie demand an explanation of why, if they’re right, the folk all think something so different. “Stop being wrong, I have arguments”; and “your errors are your responsibility not mine” tend not to fly.

What was he actually thinking, associating himself with Orban *last week*? The Hungarian polls have been clear for months (even if we were holding our breaths). Did he think his magic mouth could make that much difference? Or was he assuming Orban would go dirty? Either way, embarrassing.

If you can't beat'em...

Donald come get your boy www.rts.ch/info/monde/2...

Guy who loves fossil fuels so much that his oil-based geopolitics finally drives everyone off them. If only he was compos mentis enough to be tormented by irony as well as failure.

OMFG. “Human shields” are civilians placed around military targets. Civilians located in civilian infrastructure are called “civilians”.

The Mac Pro's only real purpose at the end was to make people like me—who've historically had top-tier Macs but recognise it's really no longer necessary—think the Mac Studio was the midrange option. www.theregister.com/2026/03/27/a...

In principle this could be a use case for miniaturised non-LLM machine-learning diagnostics; the FT doesn't tell us anything about the underlying tech. But please. Trump+private equity+wellness. It'll be either "wildly random misdiagnosis by chatbot" or "Theranos". www.ft.com/content/d075...

Re charts of wealth shares, remember huge numbers of working/unemployed tenants have basically zero wealth. Which cuts two ways: it exaggerates inequality compared to income shares; but it flattens increases in inequality. (A minimum wage increase, eg, does practically nothing to wealth.)

Gah! Scumspawn: “What have you been up to in the world of men, my liege?”