"We're gonna crash some planes if you don't fund ICE."

It’s hard to identify anything functional about Trumpian stupidity, which is less a form of organizational inertia than a slash-and-burn assault on the very things—universities, public health, market data—that help make the world intelligible. www.nplusonemag.com/issue-51/pol...

Gary Neville is right that Britain once took pride in its mix of people, united by purpose not hate, but Brexit and those who profit from division have broken that spirit, and rebuilding it must begin with decency, solidarity and the will to stand together again.

The UK had by my calculations, per capita, twice the number of fatalities as the Republic of Ireland. Ireland wasn’t exactly gold standard. Experts were begging the UK govt & opposition to follow basic science, to no avail. The UK scientific establishment was silent. Only Independent SAGE spoke out

*gasp*

So which will happen first? Will the elites recognize that Trump wants to be our Putin, and there's room for only one Putin in a country? And they'll act, or at least back off their enthusiastic support, before the windows start opening around them. Or will the entire economy double over?

Why the Democrats were right to force the Republicans hand on the gov't shutdown. Trump is freaking out because the GOP will be blamed for bankrupting many Americans over healthcare. The Democrats should force a full and humiliating climb down on Trump and the GOP.

“There’s a baby!” Guns drawn. Windows smashed. With a 1 month old in the car. (They did this as he was coming home from an immigration court appointment— which is illegal in Colorado: coloradosun.com/2025/10/01/i...)

the usual story. rich guy wants to punish universities for not clamping down on pro-palestinian protests and for doing too much to recruit minorities. at base these guys want the top tier of american universities to become, once more, safe-spaces for their dunderheaded failsons

Per @washingtonpost.com: New polling shows most U.S. Jews say Israel is committing war crimes in Gaza — and 39% say genocide. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Author and filmmaker Justine Bateman on generative AI

With news that Bari Weiss is going to be the new EIC at CBS News, I wanted to reup this piece I wrote 6 years ago about how she and Bret Stephens helped turn NYT into a moral panic factory www.mediamatters.org/new-york-tim...

OpenAI employees are very excited about how well their new AI tool can create fake videos of people doing crimes and have definitely thought through all the implications of this

Electricity now costs 267% more (!!) for 1 month vs. what it cost 5 years ago near data center hotspots. Awesome reporting from Josh Saul @dinabass.bsky.social Leonardo Nicoletti @naurtorious.bsky.social Demetrios Pogkas (gift link) www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...

If your elderly relatives started telling you about AI videos they had watched saying that "medbeds" would fix everyone's health problems, you'd start to look into assisted living and power of attorney. Trump has the nuclear codes.

The President of the United States has posted a fake AI video of himself announcing a non-existent policy to give people access to a fake miracle cure that also doesn't exist truthsocial.com/@realDonaldT... We are fully through the looking glass, folks.

One CNN investigation has identified “more than 100 US citizen children, from newborns to teenagers, who have been left stranded without parents because of immigration actions this year …”

I have a whole range of observations about digital ID, but the main one is it's a mistake to launch a complex, measurable, highly scrutinisable infrastructure project to achieve a specific measurable target when there is no evidence that the complex project will result in the measurable outcome

If we don’t start treating our media system as core democratic infrastructure, we’re in real trouble. Hyper consolidated media conglomerates are accountable to their shareholders, not to the free expression that is the lifeblood of their industry and our democracy. My latest:

Banks said "a potential Reform government should scrap the Financial Conduct Authority, the City regulator, along with media and internet watchdog Ofcom, the Electoral Commission and the Competition and Markets Authority." Rather telling selection of regulators, there

This would be extremely welcome news if it proves to be the case

This is not a romance. Nobody is "in love" with apps. There are no A.I. boyfriends. You cannot "date" a chatbot. Accepting this framing and treating it as real is tech-industry propaganda. slate.com/technology/2...

Can you make it to the end of this column?  economist.com/finance-and-...

Bit strange to hear the Today programme interviewing the CEO of Newsmax like he's a public intellectual, then interviewing a Labour minister like he's a war criminal

When Karl Rove is the voice of reason you really know US democracy is in big trouble

‘Self-termination is most likely’: the history and future of societal collapse - An epic analysis of 5,000 years of civilisation by Luke Kemp argues that a global collapse is coming unless inequality is vanquished Story by me www.theguardian.com/environment/...

I think this is quite a profound little film - and points to something very basic & important about how to break the political impasse - we need to get out of our online media silos and have some honest face to face conversations: www.youtube.com/watch?v=RP8O...

Pakistan’s rooftop solar boom shows how energy transitions often start from the bottom up. I told Christian Science Monitor @csmonitor.bsky.social: when tariffs soar and panel prices plunge, people innovate. www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-S...

The best time to have left X was the instant he threw a Nazi salute. The second-best time is now.

🇮🇳 VIDEO: Floods devastate India's breadbasket of Punjab Unprecedented floods have swallowed farmlands almost the size of London and New York City combined. Indian authorities said the Punjab saw rainfall surge by almost two-thirds with the monsoon rains killing at least 52 people.

A horrific bombing and shelling, and now tanks reported in the centre of Gaza. The ground invasion of Gaza city appears to have started. Thousands fleeing for their lives

It was a very great pleasure to appear on one of my favourite podcasts, and to talk with David Runciman about the Past, Present, and Future (!) of electoral reform & proportional representation

What Happened to Labour's 2024 Voters? Using the recent wave of the @britishelectionstudy.com I look at people who voted Labour in 2024: - How many are still with the party? - How many have left? - Why might that be? TLDR: they've left because of economic issues/concerns, probably.

The three most damning paras in the UN Report alleging that Israel is perpetrating genocide in Gaza: Siege starvation, attacks on health care, direct targeting of children as patterns that cannot be explained except if group destruction is one animating purpose.

“Why would anybody want to lend legitimacy to a platform that’s primary purpose is to make money off the back of hate?” @sarahowen.org.uk told @politicshome.bsky.social Labour MPs, including committee chairs, want the government to take a tougher stance on Elon Musk's X

Stop and think about the government threatening to jail a person if they refuse to print political material with which they disagree.

BREAKING: At least 62 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza since dawn. 🔴 LIVE updates: aje.io/vr7f6n