The devil is a huge dipshit is trop bon.

US media didn't warn US voters loudly enough that Trump and Maga were out to create a kind of police state this time around. Thanks Pamela Moriniere @rtbf.be and @ifjglobal.bsky.social for the opportunity to hammer this point home.

This would be big... Lithuanian prime minister says they made a strategic mistake by allowing a Taiwanese representative office to open in Vilnius under the name “Taiwanese" “I think Lithuania really jumped in front of a train and lost"

2/2 This quote indicates why. Other parties’ scandals happen when members fall short of the party’s values. Reform’s happen when they enact its core values. Racism is the party’s very essence. Scapegoating & punishing certain segments of the population is the totality of its programme.

1/2 The danger of this Laura Kuenssberg documentary on Reform is further sanitising & normalising it. A lesson from European history is that fascist parties should never be treated just like any other. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Why the fuck did no other media member in the room stand up for @kaitlancollins.bsky.social? This has been going on forever. Trump, the coward, is constantly throwing ugly sexist insults at female reporters. When the fuck will White House media members defend their female colleagues?

1. Trump certainly wants to fully rig elections. 2. He has no actual plausible plan to do so. 3. We should absolutely take the threat very seriously and actively do what's possible to protect elections and democracy. 4. What's actually likely is success or failure at the margins; every bit counts.

The perennial focus on Mandelson comebacks after all these decades of sleaze shows an alarming lack of journalistic imagination. We all know Mandy's a charmer and media darling. But FFS come on now.

I would add that anyone trying to “take over the voting” would be involved in a criminal conspiracy. Anyone whose mind such a thing might enter should constantly be made aware of that fact and its consequences. Especially those who do not enjoy SCOTUS-conferred immunity (i.e., everyone, save one).

Trump is pushing for Republicans to “take over the voting in at least 15 places.” An authoritarian takeover of our electoral process—all because Trump’s ego can’t handle the fact that he lost in 2020—has no place in our democracy.

Days after FBI seizes 700 boxes of ballots in Fulton County GA, Trump says Republicans “should take over the voting in at least 15 places.” He’s once again saying quiet part out loud & openly telegraphing his plan to interfere in midterms www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Woody Allen and climate denier Bjorn Lomborg meet up with Jeffrey Epstein... No, it's not the beginning of a joke.

It's near-white out conditions in Chicago as the snow comes down, and tonight's anti-ICE/CBP rally is wrapping up in front of city hall. But not before the crowd bounces and chants, "I believe that we will win!"

If you emailed an elite pervert with normal syntax and punctuation they'd make you immediately and cut off contact. You need to throw some typos and do the Epstein alpha "ghost period" thing . before sending Noam Chomsky some links to The Right Stuff Dot Biz. Then they know you're solid.

“To call Melania vapid would do a disservice to the plumes of florid vape smoke that linger around British teenagers. She calls herself a “mother, wife, daughter, friend”, yet is only depicted preening and scowling.” www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...

3. In the Nordic countries, unlike the US the least corrupt countries in the world, ALL TAX RETURNS ARE PUBLIC. That is called transparency that checks corruption. 4. As usual, Trump demands outrageous damages for no harm to repress the freedom in the US. /3

A staple of authoritarian states: using their executive power to arbitrarily revoke privileges & selectively punish political opponents, in this case for peaceful and lawful behaviour. The courts are failing under this broad assault on the rule of law.

and no I haven't put the Mandelson-Epstein-Reinaldo scoop on twitter we journalists *can* make Bluesky the place to break news

🌱 January 25 marks six years since the Brumadinho dam collapse claimed 272 lives. Remembering means more than marking the date. It means demanding that corporations be held accountable, that communities be protected, & that we never allow profit to come before human life. ⤵️ 🔗 buff.ly/TU3xTh8

When I saw the news of Don Lemon and Georgia Fort's arrest for reporting on a protest, my immediate thought was this is exactly what happens in Russia. My latest... olgalautman.substack.com/p/don-lemon-...

🚨 CPJ strongly condemns the arrests of journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort for their reporting on a protest in Minnesota, arrests which mark a serious escalation of attacks on the press in the United States. Read more: cpj.org/2026/01/cpj-...

The risk is real and the work is vital in Minneapolis and other places across the U.S. #Journalists must prepare to report freely and safely. #SafetyFirst 👇👇👇 cpj.org/2024/04/u-s-...

This just in from Amnesty International: "U.S. authorities must immediately release journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort. Journalism is not a crime. Reporting on protests is not a crime. Arresting journalists for their reporting is a clear example of an authoritarian practice."

Let no trinity go un-Selmayred! Martin has well and truly outdone himself this time.

So are you telling me it's wrong for a person to hang photos of them and their best friend now? SMH. www.huffpost.com/entry/donald...

Europe has begun to act less like a normative beacon — and more like a geopolitical survivor. With Rana Ayyub for @brusselstimes.com @ec.europa.eu

Sesame Street is now offering tips for parents on post-trauma comfort because the federal government is physically and mentally abusing our country's children.

Modi and Europe — the Atlantic order is cracking and queasiness at doing deals with autocrats may be lessening, especially when those autocrats represent an alternative to a neo-imperial United States under Donald Trump. Great fun to co-byline with the great Rana Ayyub at her Substack.

Gee, Trump tell Fico stop buying Putin's gas and oil again? We know Fico finds that shocking. Either way how satisfying to see ultranationalists pitted one against another. h/t @nicholasvinocur.bsky.social and zoya.

On this day, we remember all victims of Nazi persecution and mass murder including Jews, Roma, LGBTQ people, people with disabilities, and others. We remain dedicated to the fight against all forms of hate by supporting efforts toward a world that is more open, more just, and more equitable for all.

Not that an EU nuclear deterrence is likely anytime soon, but the argument that this would require Europe to spend 10% of GDP on defence is ludicrous. As is the argument that the EU, with its economic weight, could never afford to defend itself alone.

Mark Rutte does a spectacular poo-pooing of EU defense independence saying it could never afford the nukes. @europarl.europa.eu @nathalieloiseau.bsky.social

Minneapolis protester as he's being brutalized by feds: "You're gonna have to kill me! You're gonna have to kill me! I've done nothing wrong! My name is Matthew James! I'm a US citizen! You're gonna kill me! Is that what you want?" (You can hear his wife screaming)

Another article vitiated by normalisation of fascism. How can running a self-enrichment racket while siccing a violent armed group on your people and threatening allies to the delight of the Kremlin have anything to do with FDR's 1st 100 days? This is insane.

If you liked watching me and @sophieintveld.bsky.social on the France 24 Debate tonight, you can get a second helping at the book launch event for The Owned Continent Monday night. Sophie will be on the panel along with @alemanno.bsky.social, @jameskanter.bsky.social & @pawelzerka.bsky.social.

Needs too fundamental to leave to free markets! Part one million: the public toilet 🚽 Brussels investing €60k in network of so-called hospitable toilets in hotels, bars and restos – no consumption required. So far 54 participants. Look for stickers. @maajtee.bsky.social @brusselstimes.com

Not only does the audience not walk out. They laugh, applaud and stand up for Trump. Very irritating in such an embarrassing speech.

Hey Davos elites why not walk out of the spectacle of deception and dishonesty from Trump? Among the loony post-truth trolls: China doesn't have windmills. North Sea oil isn't depleted. America gave Greenland back to Denmark after WW2. A lot more that's just Trumpian gibberish. Walk you wusses!

Alarm in Europe (Bloomberg). This week could mark a turning point in post-war European history (Der Spiegel). Greenland is tearing NATO apart (Economist). The most responsible form of leadership is restraint (European Commission).

The EU wants to de-escalate with Trump over Greenland while still showing leverage. Not easy. This idea from @alemanno.bsky.social of a withdrawal of the digital and environmental deregulation demanded by the likes of JD Vance and ExxonMobil wasn't dismissed out of hand at today's EC briefing.

How Europe sticks it Trump. The options in one neat post. Plus this aperçu: "We are through the looking glass here where MAGA’s supposed allies in Europe are being harsher with Trump than the leaders that MAGA is vilifying." davekeating.substack.com

Former European Commissioner Thierry Breton who was essentially PNG'd by von der Leyen for attacking X and Musk is shaming her bigstyle (on X, sigh) for doing the Scotland tariff surrender deal, which Trump is predictably tearing to shreds. @thierrybreton.bsky.social

If you only listen to one EU-focused podcast this weekend, it should definitely be this one, from @euscream.bsky.social ⬇️

Great conversation with author and historian Luuk van Middelaar on why sending a symbolic contingent of European forces to Greenland is a smart bluff and why it's taken so long for Europe to recognize its geostrategic vulnerability. @bigeurope.bsky.social

"It's clear that the president has this wish of conquering over Greenland," says Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen after meeting in Washington; Rasmussen says meeting was constructive but Trump's mind not changed on acquiring island.

Nightmarish vision of the future membership of EUCO ... these far right and extreme right leaders are endorsing Viktor Orbán in the upcoming Hungarian election, with support from Netanyahu, who of course faces an arrest warrant in the kind of Europe that rejects the likes of Orbán. On X of course.

Musk's platform is now part of the military that Trump may use to snatch Greenland. But EU institutions still are struggling over whether to stop posting to X. This is stupid now.

Head of European liberals Valérie Hayer says "why not" hold up the fateful and one-sided 15pct tariff deal von der Leyen signed with Trump and that's widely seen as a further vasselisation of the continent. @reneweurope.bsky.social @valeriehayer.bsky.social