"this is fine" British Library Manuscript - royal ms 20 a ii f3r

Want a change of pace? Two years ago, I published this piece on Tracy Chapman and the generational longing of “Fast Car”: sarahkendzior.substack.com/p/driving-in...

Interview: driven out of Turkey in 2016, writer @ecetemelkuran.bsky.social responded with a book– subtitled The 7 Steps from Democracy to Fascism – that foreshadowed today’s authoritarian resurgence. Her new work explores how dissidents find new communities in exile www.thenerve.news/p/turkish-ec...

Great that people are now waking up to Epstein Associate Masha Drokova, but most seem to be overlooking how close she was to two key architects of electoral interference - Vladislav Surkov and Konstantin Rykov open.substack.com/pub/pdjukes/...

No joke: I got angry hate mail today for writing an obituary of a Black woman scientist—because the person felt she did didn’t deserve the recognition. Which just makes me want to share it again: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Why is every scandal existential for Starmer? Because he has actively worked to eradicate his own support base. And that, along with the Mandelson decision, can be laid at McSweeney's door iandunt.substack.com/p/starmers-m...

Remember the controversy when Obama was accused of intervening in UK politics? This is the current US government openly seeking to undermine liberal democracy in Europe.

Contrary to Wes Streeting‘s claim that Mandelson was not the person they thought. He was. “All the former Washington ambassador’s erstwhile friends knew his weaknesses” And that is Starmer’s problem. They knew. They just hoped they could get away with it. www.ft.com/content/1a29...

Just stumbled across ”the washing machine project“ which seems like a really simple, good idea to improve the lives of lots of people (my mother washed clothes by hand and died before we could afford a washing machine) www.thewashingmachineproject.org

Yes. Every American should. Because over 70 million have chosen to vote for Trump 3 times and the last two times cannot reasonably have a doubt about his bad character and malign intent. And so should every U.K. citizen that is even thinking of voting for Farage - the 🇬🇧 Trump.

In case you were unaware that GenAI software developers are also exploiting and abusing workers in the global South to support their plausible word-mulch vending machines. www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

Not only was Manafort Trump’s former campaign chair, jailed for financial crimes after investigations into his Kremlin-aligned influence operations – to lobby the president on Bitcoin policy, but he also acted for the Russian backed candidate in the Ukraine Presidentials prior to Zelensky

'The UK must decide: do we want our Government systems run by a surveillance contractor that cut its teeth in drone warfare and immigration raids and now seeks to “dominate”? Or do we believe in a public service ethos that values transparency and democratic accountability?'

"Rhe only reason we know any of this [about Mandelson] is because Epstein became entangled in the MAGA movement’s narrative. "What we still aren’t asking is how similar networks of influence are operating elsewhere today." New on D4S: democracyforsale.substack.com/p/release-th...

worth noting that the second rich people stopped being afraid of mobs tearing them limb from limb, they stopped building libraries and opera houses and stuff and started ripping the copper wiring out of the walls of society instead

A publisher who lays off a reporter whose pen is freezing because she's covering a frigid war zone while dodging missiles is not an editor you want to work for, in a more perfect world

Can I just say that the Foreign Office (and the Ministry of Defence) are - contrary to lame accusations against the terrible "blob” full of competent people and one wonders why nobody considered just sending a diplomat to Washington to do the most important job in *checks notes* British DIPLOMACY

If Mandelson is being investigated for his Epstein connections, he must also be investigated for his Thiel connections, because they ran a joint fund when Mandelson fixed Starmer's visit to Palantir bylinetimes.com/2025/04/25/p...

I've told this story on ContrabandCamp but it's worth sharing for BHM because it's one of the greatest stories ever. A thread.

Seems relevant for UK Labour party and Starmer's querulous "popularism" in the face of rising far-right populism. See also @georgemonbiot.bsky.social in today's Guardian.

this is exactly right. "popularism" in practice amounts to an abdication of political leadership!

Ukraine has been resisting Vladimir Putin’s Russia for longer than either the USSR or the USA spent fighting Adolf Hitler’s Germany.

The thing is, you didn't have to be Nostradamus to see it. You just had to be independent of the ultra-rich. Unfortunately, the great majority of the media is in the plutocrats' pockets. So the people pointing it out are shunned. In 2009 I tried and tried to get the BBC to pick this up. But ...⛔🤐

$3,000 billion dollars. the whole earth is being turned into paperclips right now for this trash people don't even want being shoved into every product that's consistently failing businesses that are trying to use it, deeply screws up and even undoes learning in ways that seem borderline irreparable

My book HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT was published in 2020. It has the Trump/Epstein court files in it and a history of their joint transnational mafia ties. For five years, I have heard from former Trump voters who said this book -- specifically the Epstein documents -- changed their minds about him.

It's rare to see how lobbyists operate. But the Epstein-Mandelson correspondence shows us what happens all the time: plutocrats and government ministers conspiring against the public interest. This is why all lobbying should be in the public domain, but despite Labour and Con promises, it's not. 🧵

“All over my neighborhood we keep finding empty cars, the glass shattered into diamonds on the snow, the people missing. Tiny private automotive kristallnachts, everywhere and ongoing.”

It's 1998. Peter Mandleson has resigned in disgrace from Labour. It's 2001. Peter Mandleson has resigned in disgrace from Labour. It's 2025. Peter Mandleson has resigned in disgrace from Labour. It's 2026. Peter Mandleson has resigned in disgrace from Labour.

BREAKING on ft website: Lord Peter Mandelson leaked a sensitive UK government document to Jeffrey Epstein while he was business secretary that proposed £20bn of asset sales and revealed Labour’s tax policy plans www.ft.com/content/fdf7...

Hahaha

notable that actual Jewish seniors get this in a way that the ersatz holocaust museum does not

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius warned that ending support for Ukraine would have catastrophic consequences. He said Ukraine could be pushed to the brink of destruction, and that stopping aid would cost far more than continuing support today. #Ukraine

ICE Issues Ransom Note Demanding $65 Billion If U.S. Wants To See Minnesota Again

Mandelson was a minister in 🇬🇧 Gov and he was advising a convicted 🇺🇸 US sex offender that a fellow 🇬🇧 cabinet minister, now dead Alistair Darling, should be “mildly threatened” not to tax banker’s bonuses. Unthinkable that he can be a law maker.

I guess "white wealthy British and American grooming gangs" doesn't have the same ring to it

I found this ancient language story from @dannybate.bsky.social absolutely fascinating. #langsky

1/ This pause is obviously concerning to researchers & universities & I’d like to specifically register the point that if the reason of ‘aligning with national priorities’ means more policy-driven & less free ideas-driven research then this move is of even more concern. www.msn.com/en-in/politi...

Peter Mandelson – the great genius at the heart of New Labour. Dominic Cummings – the great genius at the heart of 'Leave'. Nick Timothy – the great genius at the.... Morgan McSweeney – the great genius at the.... Can we ban all alleged great geniuses and cast them into outer darkness forever?

Wondering why I am so angry and vocal about the UK Govt building a toolkit for tyrants? In the USA, ICE agents took facial rec for tracking ‘non-citizens’ (so grim in itself!) and then immediately used it to build themselves a database of human rights protestors. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/t...

What’s happening in America is technofascism. It could happen here Peter Thiel's data company is powering ICE operations in the US. In part 2 of the Nerve’s Palantir series, @carolecadwalla.bsky.social argues that the UK will be next - and we map Thiel’s network🧵 www.thenerve.news/p/technofasc...

Clever cartoon. Well done. Cartoon: Matt Reuter [USA]

A recent cartoon for @newscientist.com. p.s. my new book of science cartoons, ‘Physics for Cats’ is out now. Links at www.tomgauld.com

With Palantir and Mandelson both back in the news, it’s worth revisiting this — the Epstein/Mandelson/Thiel connection, and how Mandelson’s lobbying company introduced Starmer to the Palantir team bylinetimes.com/2025/09/12/p...

A term to know in this world with AI: Cultural stagnation. It’s the slow flattening of creativity into polished sameness. The algorithm just doesn’t know how to be weird and creative like humans do. tcnv.link/pJci63b

in this week's newsletter! I asked myself "huh, why do I dislike Paris so much?" and I tried to have a Big Think about my weird relationship with the city: youngvulgarian.substack.com/p/i-huh-went... [free to read!]

Matt Goodwin and the end of England: How one man's career explains our public life iandunt.substack.com/p/matt-goodw...