World roundup: August 23-24 2025

This guy is currently running an experiment in generating advance sales of his novel, PARTISAN, via crowdfunding. The DIY thing works with music - why not literature? Check out the campaign here and if you like what you read, pre-order your signed copy! www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/partisan2025

Today's extract from my novel PARTISAN is now up on the crowdfunder page at www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/partisan2025 Take a look! You might like it! #author #authors #booksky #writingcommunity #writersky #readersky

the complacency is just absolutely wild. Corbyn, Sultana, Polanski - they're not trying to get 30%, they're trying to get 10-15%, and the first requirement for reaching 10-15% is being noticed and the last non-requirement is being a credible government-in-waiting

Maybe some of the "splitters" just have morals? I know that actually believing in anything is a fucking wild idea to these Oxford LabourSoc gremlins - yeah, that's right, I saw you all down the Union and I know exactly what you're about - but it does actually happen out there in the wild

Pope Francis was great but Leo is turning out to be awesome

4) rare SUPERPRIZE, come & stay with us in partisan country, 3 nights B&B in the hills where Beppe Fenoglio & Cesare Pavese lived & wrote, plus *optional extra* winetasting of my very own wines & I'll cook you lunch or supper while you hang out with us for an afternoon or evening :)

*Four New Rewards* coming today at www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/partisan2025 1) ebook of my 5 star reviewed first novel DRIVING JAIMIE which Fay Weldon called "cosmic" 2) "raffle" for 3 guest pieces on my blog 3) read/ crit/ publish (on my blog, if I like it) for a piece of your writing...

BREAKING! Woody Guthrie to be posthumously prosecuted for "this machine kills fascists" sticker: "It's violent, discriminatory speech that's making a lot of normal, respectable fascists feel very uncomfortable," says minister

Meanwhile! #booksky #readingcommunity #writingcommunity #writersky Here's my Drifting piece from the latest Elsewhere journal. Hope you enjoy :) www.elsewhere-journal.com/adrift/2025/...

The problem is that schools doubling as prison camps and education as a weapon is common to most nation-states, regardless of their political systems, religions or cultures. China is a good example but so is India, the US, France, Israel, you name it... futureconditiona1.substack.com/p/education-...

It's gotta be a better bet than tryign to successfully monetise #substack at least? #booksky #readingcommunity #writingcommunity #writersky

Love literature but tired of tired old publishing models? Bored of debates about gatekeeping and identity and *who* makes a book good instead of *what*? Then support this experiment in funding fine fiction without any of the bullshit! #booksky #readingcommunity #writingcommunity #writersky

I'm running a crowdfunder for my second novel, PARTISAN, which will be published in September. If you like what you read there, you can pre-order your copy - signed, with your name printed inside on the Supporters thankyou page :) www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/partisan2025

Partisan is a novel which weaves together two stories which unfold in two different times: "then," 1943, Italy, the awful times of war; and "now," 2008, the ordinary present, the year of the crash, the year the banks stole our money. Let's get it published! www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/partisan2025

It’s too damn hot to be outside, & the world's burning anyway, so why not stay in & check out all the amazing public scholarly writing, podcast eps, new books from the last week in my 230th #ScholarSunday thread? Add more below, share widely, & enjoy! 🗃️ americanstudier.substack.com/p/scholarsun...

Honoured to have made the list again - tho wish it was with happier piece. Still, having been right in predicting Trump's strikes on Iran even in the face of all the dissimulation and elite wishful thinking, read on for more about what might happen next futureconditiona1.substack.com/p/will-trump...

I’m about 70% sure the US will join Israel in striking Iran in the next 24 hours. Moving aircraft carriers and aggressive rhetoric could be part of pressure tactics to get Iran to cave to US-Israeli demands. But it’s also clear that Trump smells blood. futureconditiona1.substack.com/p/will-trump...

I’m about 70% convinced the US will join Israel in striking Iran over the next 24-48 hours. Of course moving aircraft carriers and other assets could be part of pressure tactics to get Iran to cave and agree to humiliating US-Israeli demands;

Excited by this new novel - and by the idea this might be a new and better way to publish proper books in a world where the old models of publishing are broken and new ideas are desperately needed. Join me in supporting the 'Partisan' crowdfunding campaign here! www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/partisan20...

Enhorabuena! Looking forward to reading!

The Russian Revolution allowed the Kazakh reformers to create their own government. But what sort of government can you create when you & your fellow indigenous intellectuals can't agree on the best way to rule & the Russian Civil War is breathing down your neck?

"Israeli forces have killed people waiting for food in Gaza for a fourth morning in a row. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says the aid distribution centres backed by the US & Israel have become death traps"

Today’s my younger son’s high school graduation, but through proud Dad tears I’m still sharing my 227th #ScholarSunday thread of public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new books from the last week. Add more below, share widely, & enjoy, all! 🗃️ americanstudier.substack.com/p/scholarsun...

+ @etiennetoussaint.bsky.social @civilwarmemory.bsky.social @monaeltahawy.bsky.social @dandrezner.bsky.social @ninajankowicz.com @vtfeminist.bsky.social @morrisinmexico.bsky.social @liberatingnarratives.com @kevinmkruse.bsky.social @ginsbergpoem.bsky.social +

What happens when Indigenous people fight back against education policies designed to destroy their cultures and identities? Here’s the story of one such case, based on my research on schools and nationalism in revolutionary Mexico futureconditiona1.substack.com/p/bad-educat...

Across way too much of the world today, schools are more like prison camps and education is ‘re-education,’ deliberately designed to destroy humanity’s endless diversity in a misguided attempt to build ‘stronger’ states and more ‘developed’ economies. futureconditiona1.substack.com/p/education-...

Across the world from the far east to the American west, schools are really prison camps and education is more like ‘re-education,’ designed to destroy humanity’s diversity in a misguided attempt to build stronger states and more ‘developed’ economies. futureconditiona1.substack.com/p/education-...

BBC Verify: "The journalist was injured. We're not naming him for his own safety" Safety from whom? Spell it out, BBC Verify.

Yeah Jill and the cat are great. Joe can fuck off and die already, the genocidal cunt

Before Sunday ends, one more request to share my 220th #ScholarSunday thread widely. Thanks & enjoy! @hcrichardson.bsky.social 🗃️

+ @matteatonmedia.bsky.social @morrisinmexico.bsky.social @hcrichardson.bsky.social @gvaughnjoy.bsky.social @emilyrowe1.bsky.social & @drdiongeorgiou.bsky.social among many others. Please share this thread widely to get all this great public scholarship to all the folks, thanks!

My latest, here, and now, might just be an temporary antidote to that feeling of all-consuming doom that’s been eating away at your soul the past week. Or maybe not. I dunno. You decide! substack.com/home/post/p-...

Thank you to whoever made this

FBI Uncovers Al-Qaeda Plot To Just Sit Back And Enjoy Collapse Of United States

Absolutely tired of the psychodrama of one country being the problem of the entire planet.

Well done to Alistair Bunkall for stating matter-of-factly that Israel broke the ceasefire. As ever, that we're having to congratulate a journalist for reporting facts is an indictment on how much the UK mainstream media has trashed its integrity over the last 18 months.

The Israelis hunted down 15 paramedics from the Palestinian Red Crescent (PRCS) and other civil servants in Gaza, killed them one by one, and then dumped their bodies in a mass grave. This was last week, 23rd of March.

Hani Mahmoud is asked, given Israels total blockade for almost a month now, is it still possible to get bread in Gaza? "Absolutely not" Israel is starving 2 million people and our govt continues supporting them, arming them & militarily assisting them while they do it.

The White Guard exposes the violence orchestrated by multinational companies, in collusion with organized crime and the Mexican government, to seize land and exploit natural resources. #epfmedia #carlosslim www.epfmedia.com/movie-list/t...

Among rare good news!

Honoured to have made the list alongside so many other great reads to start the week with

Guess March is going out like a lion, because my 218th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books is one of my biggest ever! Add more below, share widely, & enjoy, all! 🗃️ americanstudier.substack.com/p/scholarsun...

Conservatives claim the world is controlled by a dastardly leftist conspiracy. But out here in the real world, the left has come up completely short on this front. Is there really no-one out there plotting on my behalf? Make Conspiracies Leftist Again! futureconditiona1.substack.com/p/make-consp...