For Scotland, remaining part of the Union is not an act of internationalism. If anything, it's the opposite, the submerging of our political culture within a UK political culture that is itself subordinate, humiliated and beyond decency, let alone the rule of law.

Trump et al have achieved exactly nothing.

Taps sign, again

Tony’s right. It’s irrational. Any gains are way off, if ever. But hey, market’s gonna market. bsky.app/profile/t0ny...

"some voices who put any alleged racism down to different times and harmless high jinks, and others who understand that they came of age amid dire social attitudes that it took years to overturn. " www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

On the grounds that no opinion of the President's character can possibly be too low, I believe this.

The Prime Minister of Greenland Jens-Frederik Nielsen to the United States: “Enough is enough.”

He has failed both times...so far.

I know RUK ignores NI, but surely there should be more public horror and indignation about the fact that not 6 months ago part of the UK saw a pogrom that drove an ethnic group (the Roma) out of a sizeable town

I happen to know quite a bit about Venezuelan oil. TL;DR it’s hard to extract, notoriously investor-endangering, isn’t needed (global crude is oversupplied to the tune of 3.3 min bpd) and isn’t easily refined (it’s too dense so always sold at a heavy discount) www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/202...

How lomh will it take the US public to discern that everything Trump and Hesgeth say is utter balls? I'd give it till lunchtime EST.

Vietnam is a closer analogy. It starts with a few ships off the coast. It takes half a million troops to get serious. And you still end up with an ass-kicking. Along with the moral responsibility of two million dead.

They haven't got a clue, have they?

Yah Boo Sucks. It will take the Venezuelans 24 hours to work out you're toothless and clueless, if they haven't already...

Yes. And they don't have anythng LIKE that kind of firepower and/or will power. They have greenlit the invasion of Taiwan essentially for nothing.

A brilliant, successful, hugely expensive and completely useless operation.

Clueless. They have spent BILLIONS on this project...and they are no closer to even what they say they want than they were 48 hours ago.

No one has any idea, as far as I can tell.

They have NO idea at ALL what to do after the TV show.

Maduro was “dancing in front of Venezuelan students… and mimicking Trump’s double-fist pumping dance move. Trump was reportedly not amused, and the dancing is said to have contributed to the decision to remove him from power.” Suddenly it all makes sense! www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

Toddlers imagine that you can influence adult behaviour by hitting stuff with hammers.

Even in their own twisted terms...What did they ACTUALLY do? What did they actually accomplish? What benefits are actually going to accrue from an action that has cost billions and billions of dollars?

Providing there is no cost and no responsibility. They are paper tigers, as Mao used to say...

Yup. They're no "anti-interventionist" They're anti-thought, anti-responsibility, anti-cost.

24 hours of shock...till they work out that you people are paper tigers, all talk and TV ratings...

I enjoy this question almost much as I despise and mock the answer.

This "civil war is inevitable" narrative is both implausible and irresponsible: a dangerous gateway to providing oxygen for 'reluctant' support for inter-group violence. I am saying that tracking + countering casual/soft support/susceptibility to it is v important bsky.app/profile/sund...

Excuse me, but this is self-serving Faragist bollocks, isn't it? www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

Shit, I am old enough to remember when Reagan was as bad (and mad) as it was going to get...

It's not just that they lie, but that the "truth" is an irrelevancy.

It's GOT to be a coup...a deal between the gangsters who are ALREADY in charge. The alternative is "nation bulding" and even if Trump and Hesgeth are just that mad (or more likely, uninterested in reality)...Rubio isn't. This isn't about Venezuela...or even Cuba...yet. It's about Florida.

The Imperialists are Paper Tigers. Manifest Destiny in this day and age is a crock of shit.

Come January next year, one difficulty the new Congress will have is picking and choosing between a hundred or so indictable offenses.

A reminder that it's not the first time the US has removed a Latin American government by force. Grenada- independent since 1974- is a member of the Commonwealth and still has the British Queen as head of state. Margaret Thatcher was privately furious- perhaps her gravest disagreement with Reagan

FOX & FRIENDS: What do you think is next for the Venezuelan people now that you have removed Maduro so he can face American justice? TRUMP: Well, we're making that decision now. We can't take a chance on letting somebody else run it, just take over where he left off. So we're making that decision

And there it is:

So for months they have tried to blame the entire fentanyl crisis on Venezuela and the indictment only mentions cocaine, which they pardoned a different guy for weeks ago

"From the point of view of global stability, the worst thing about the Maduro rendition is that it worked." www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

Among the many reasons you don’t kidnap a foreign head of state at gunpoint even if you have the capability, is that it sparks consequences you can neither control nor anticipate.

Yeh this is sexual harassment anyone wearing this badge in your work place or out in public is a problem

So, to clarify, spray-painting a plane is terrorism, holding a sign to support the organisation those that spray-painted the plane were members of is terrorism, but taking a foreign head of state hostage needs to wait for a press conference from the hostage taker for nuance?

They know the base won't care as long as someone else gets hurt.

It's the lithium that's decisive. Can't have that under political control by anyone but Musk and Thiel.

Keir Starmer should condemn Trump’s illegal action in Venezuela. Maduro is a brutal and illegitimate dictator, but unlawful attacks like this make us all less safe. Trump is giving a green light to the likes of Putin and Xi to attack other countries with impunity.

Whatever you might think of Maduro, the seizure and kidnapping of a head of state takes us to a very dark place. Vast, arbitrary, extra-legal power, which could be exercised almost anywhere, regardless of the character of the target government.

The reasons for Marco Rubio selling his soul to the Trump cause lie in the smoking ruins in Caracas today and Havana tomorrow

Marco Rubio is reportedly saying Maduro will stand trial in US courts. Which means it’s now the US administration’s position that US courts can hold foreign presidents, but not the US president, accountable for crimes.

Trump isn’t predictable or consistent, but this particular action *would* be consistent with the emergence of a G2+1 order where Washington and Beijing, with Moscow as a junior partner, give each other free rein in their purported spheres of influence.

Amazing what poisons were lurking all the time below the surface of the pond.

Mamdani's representation of the demographic future of America is EXACTLY the basis of the panic that gives us Trump, (and Farage over here) and indicates that Trump and his avatars know very well that anti-democratic means will be required of them here and now to stop the future from happening.