here's today's post: "do try to stay awake for your own war, dumb-ass" — this is going to be a five-alarm shit-show. thanks for reading, and please sign up for my daily newsletter so you never miss a post —

To any authoritarian regime the US disapproves of? Or is this a new, highly flexible doctrine where sovereignty and international law only matter when the target is weak enough and inconvenient enough? Just clarifying because I can already sense the excuses bubbling up.

If we are now saying it is acceptable for the United States to launch military operations on another country’s capital and abduct the authoritarian leader of that country along with his wife, do we apply this principle consistently? Should we now expect the same approach to Russia?

“We are going to run the country.” Ah, so we’ve skipped the legal fig leaves entirely now. Not democracy. Not justice. Not liberation. Just occupation of a sovereign country. Gotcha. Greenland must be looking at this very carefully.

I genuinely didn’t think the first piece I was going to write this year was discussing the invasion of Venezuela by the United States and the country’s apparent handover to oil companies, but I suppose we are where we are. Welcome to 2026, I suspect it’s going to be… interesting. 🐻

Just waking up? Overnight EC President Ursula von der Leyen announced “defense of democracy” strikes in the US capital cumulating in the capture of Donald Trump and wife who are being flown to the Hague for trial. She further said that Denmark would “run the country.” #resist #mepolitics #VoteBlue

The Nobel Committee is a front for fascism. 🛢️

Curious as to why the BBC is using language to justify bombing Venezuela? "Westminster Foundation for Democracy has spent over £750k in Venezuela since 2016. It refuses to tell Declassified details about its partners in Venezuela. Foundation’s country representative sympathised with armed coup. "

The US has launched an unprovoked and illegal attack on Venezuela. This is a brazen attempt to secure control over Venezuelan natural resources. It is an act of war that puts the lives of millions of people at risk, and should be condemned by anyone who believes in sovereignty & international law.

This is the model of healcare that Reform favour and would like to place the NHS with. Tice likes to call it "independent" healthcare but it amounts to one thing. If you've got no money, you don't get treated.

Britain has long sought the removal of the Maduro government in Venezuela, with evidence suggesting that the policy is guided by an interest in the country’s vast oil resources. www.declassifieduk.org/secretive-uk...

youtube.com/watch?v=Z8wJ... The real story behind the government’s ID scam.

The potential deal between Israel and Somaliland will ‘open a box of evils’ www.thecanary.co/skwawkbox/20...

Latest round-up, just published… open.substack.com/pub/jujuliag...

Again a UK equivalent … many people in the UK seem to believe and trust those who speak in an upper class accent - eg Johnson, Farage, Rees-Mogg - all them self serving liars!

This 73 year old cartoon by Yuliy Ganf called "At This Restaurant Only One Person Is Served," is as true today as it ever was.

Could have been the UK, we had 3 times as much oil and gas. Instead it was sold off by Thatcher for pennies and you got nothing.

Ban could cut hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza off from essential care, Doctors Without Borders warns.

In this 2025 retrospective long-form piece, The Bear examines how cruelty, farce and institutional collapse became normalised. @eastangliabylines.co.uk @bearlypolitics.co.uk

Not long ago accepting money from agents of a foreign power was universally condemned by the British media as spying ...

In the 6th largest economy, 103000 people died in poverty in 2024. 120,000 died in fuel poverty, couldn't afford adequate heating. Ethnic minorities, pensioners, single working age adults more likely to die in poverty. Poverty and death sentence is a political choice as govts appease the rich.

In 2025 and 2024 Israel’s air force and army chiefs were given special immunity by Keir Starmer’s government to visit Britain, to protect them from possible prosecution for war crimes. www.declassifieduk.org/israeli-air-...

The world’s 500 richest people have total wealth of $11.9tn. Their wealth up by $2.2tn in 2025. 8 billionaires accounting for a 25% of the gains. No one becomes this rich by working. They fund right-wing parties, oppose worker/human rights, cause more pollution than normal people.

2026, how many more will tread this path?

Are you ready for Reform UK Controlled Councils’, 2026 Council Tax hikes? Durham: 4.9% Worcestershire: 5-10% Warwickshire: ~5% Leicestershire: 2.99%* Kent: 5% Lincolnshire: 2.9-4.9% Staffordshire: ~5% West Northamptonshire: 5% Derbyshire: 4.99%

This is both entirely correct and misses the point completely, which is that the 'online weirdos" are effectively writing Conservative and Reform policy & have significantly influenced the government's own worst and most xenophobic policies. Trump should have taught us not to laugh this stuff off.

What the war against London really is about. V good by @robertshrimsley.bsky.social #Giftlink And on a different note: A v Happy New Year to everyone!

It can be done...

As 2025 comes to a close, we’re taking a moment to reflect on what we achieved together, from defending public services to protecting people and our planet. Every win was powered by people coming together. Which campaign meant most to you?

this is grim https://www.councilestatemedia.uk/p/israel-might-have-found-somewhere

Hard hitting piece by @rupertread.bsky.social on the dangers of “climate optimism” - at least 30 years of failure to take the threat seriously has led to multiplying risks and locked-in harm and suffering @climatemajority.bsky.social

War criminals. Pitiful.

Ludicrous for the Guardian to badge 'single sex spaces' a key test facing Starmer. It's neither a key test (polling shows it's a voting issue for almost no-one) nor a test for Starmer (it falls to judges to try and work out the disgraceful Supreme Court meant). Still, gotta stir the culture war pot.

MBE? No thanks, not from this govt says disability campaigner bit.ly/3YRlliW

As far as the techbros are concerned, much of the population will be surplus to requirements. The main requirement being the concentration of all wealth & power into their hands. (I'm not exaggerating. Some of these people talk in private of "culling" surplus population.)

We’re looking back over our most read articles in 2025. 👇 5️⃣9️⃣ Olivia Barber reported on the MPs seeking to stop cuts to disability benefits.

"If there is no boundary between real and unreal, good and evil, life and death, then nothing means anything, and we face a nihilist abyss." @marcishore.bsky.social in #IWMPost @iwm.at www.iwm.at/publication/...

It’s no “ceasefire”! But Israel now also bans aid agencies, continuing its war on women and children Whilst 1.3 million people still require food, medical assistance and urgent shelter support www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...

2025 produced 237 new billionaires. The global billionaire count jumped from 2,682 to 2,919 in just 12 months, many through inheritance, not hard work. Inequality isn’t accidental, it’s part of a broken system.

Would you eat chicken washed in chlorine? Trump is yet again pushing the UK to accept lower food and animal welfare standards in exchange for a tech deal. That means unsafe meat on our shelves and British farmers undercut. We fought this before and won. Now we need to do it again.

Parth Patel and Nick Garland essay on national identity and ethnonationalism for @ippr.org www.ippr.org/articles/the...

Keep going Keir, your popularity is already -50. Introducing unpopular, none manifesto policies can only help that downward trend.

👉 NEW -- UK backs International Criminal Court since it can't prosecute Britons by @markcurtis30.bsky.social The government has long believed the ICC would only act in “failed states” and is not able to indict UK nationals, declassified files show. www.declassifieduk.org/uk-agreed-to...

You won’t get a more entertaining review of the year than this.

Tell Keir Starmer our food standards are not for sale. Sign the urgent petition and help stop chlorinated chicken entering the UK: act.38degrees.org.uk/act/chlorine...

💯💯💯

"First they came for Palestinians and I did not speak out cos I was not a Palestinian Then they came after Latin migrants and I did not speak up cos I was not a Latino Then they came for me, a neoliberal, and there was no one left to speak out me" youtu.be/gjBgm-BvW7o?...

Netanyahu Calls Iran Strikes Necessary To Prevent War He Just Started