As monarchs go, George III... didn't suck (except on Catholic emancipation), and most of the outrrrrageous tyranny the American colonists complained of was a load of exaggerated bollocks from people concerned about their right to keep slaves & dispossess Native Americans...

'Keaton always said, 'I don't believe in God, but I'm afraid of him.' Well, I believe in God, and the only thing that scares me is Keyser Soze.'

Farage thugs manhandle man with pacemaker after he objects to the Reform leader's chauffeur parking in disabled bay that he needs to use. Lovely People. www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic...

The main reason I voted Labour in 2024 was that they wouldn't be as nasty as the Tories. I didn't realise that cluelessness came as part of the package.

Like Fargo but with a moral core. A thoroughly better film IMHO.

Signing off for a while. Everyone be good to one another. And may *your* God go with you.

I learned yesterday that I helped stop, by using my data skills, a lady from being deported to her home country to face likely peril to her own life. I feel rather smug now. 🙂

Maybe a better world isn't possible. Maybe we are doomed to sit on an ever-higher pile of weapons until the rising seas close over us as the last forests burn. Maybe there is no hope. But the least people could do is try not to gloat about it, as if wanting it not to be true was wrong and stupid.

He's attacked the Pope now. That just about ticks the last box. MAGA against Earth, humanity and now God. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

"If you don't stop blockading the strait, we'll do it for you." If they put his brains in a blackbird, it'd fly backwards, i swear.

The Lair of The White Wyrm. I don't think that it was meant to be a comedy.

Moron.

Not sure there are enough pensioners with gold fillings in the US to gilt that monstrosity.

Welthauptstadt D.C.

It's refreshing to see rocket science not being used to kill people for once.

I just finished @anna-orridge.bsky.social's memorably horrid little novella. Looking forward greatly to the next one.

NASA has always been a collective endeavour, reigning together the best of skills and expertise in pursuit of exploration and science. The US is now in the grip of the cult of the individual, who is to be worshipped for their selfishness and cupidity. One side has got to go.

Watching Artemis II at the same time as everything else going on felt heartbreaking. Theres is a younger version of me in my head that still enjoys things, and it closed its box of space toys, with their little American flags, and walked out of the room for good

Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop buying green bananas. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

And I used to think that 'the Great Satan' was just Iranian theocratic hyperbole.

5 TV shows to get to know me The Ascent of Man Breaking Bad The League of Gentlemen Escape Into Night The World at War

Researchers at Stanford University modeled how many people could die or be disabled in 25 years if vaccines for polio, measles, rubella or diphtheria were no longer available. We decided to illustrate it.

The world's ultra-rich have stashed around $2.84 trillion (€2.47tn) in untaxed offshore accounts, a figure that surpasses the combined wealth of the bottom 50% of the human population. www.euronews.com/business/202...

www.itv.com/news/wales/2... Laudable development,. if for no other reason that it'll piss off Reform. But 'Celtic Sea'? Who calls it that? It was always the Bristol Channel when I was growing up.

My favourite thing about the paywall fade you get is that it's the perfect encapsulation of slowly backing away from the nutter in the pub who tries to tell you about how MI5 are controlling his teeth.

As they pointed out on @thenewsagents.co.uk , when Trump doesn't have a clue about what he's doing, he always quotes 'two to three weeks'. Nobody seriously believes he has an endgame in mind. He can barely finish a conversation without contradicting himself. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

It's more a sign of my current neuroses than the times that every time I type 'orange' on my phone, predictive text offers up 'shitgibbon' as the next word.

It's really rude and ignorant, isn't it?

Nor me, not in a month of Sundays.

Build More Council Houses

Glyphosate is *not* a deadly poison. If you want to kill someone, you'd be better off forcing table salt down their throat. And at the kind of doses encountered in everyday use, it isn't carcinogenic either.

My abiding regret is that I am not fluent in my mother tongue, like so many other Welsh. I learned it at school but forgot most of it. Bilingualism actually helps children develop, instead of imposing cognitive burdens. It should be heartily encouraged at all ages.

Sunlight is the best disinfectant. And rodenticide.

And the dogs died of rabies.

He's quite right of course. We should go back to speaking in our original mother tongue. Ban English and mandate Welsh speaking in Government and education.

The real story… under any other president this would be jail time…

He's now going to demand the Nobel Peace Prize for this.

So-so film, utterly magnificent score composed by someone who actually fought at Arnhem

Slow Horses

Again, I point out that the landscape I grew up in was absolutely ravaged by the side effects of fossil fuel extraction so my sympathy for these people whining about how they might see a solar array is pretty limited

Everything we need to do to stop climate breakdown, we also need to do for national security. Energy saving, more renewables, more electricity storage and interconnectors, electrification of transport, heating, cooking and industrial processes, plant-based diets. We win on all fronts.

Cap'n Bonespurs now calling the rest of NATO 'cowards', I see. www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...

Oh what the hell. One in, all in.

Imagine. The most hypocritical, humble-bragging song ever written. And Lennon was a pretty despicable person in his own way.

I admit that I posted this news item because harvest mice are incredibly cute.

Ahem. Last time I looked, NATO was a *defensive* alliance based around the Atlantic. Not a thuggish posse at the behest of the local mob boss. Who started the war entirely unilaterally. www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...

"It’s a very transactional presidency...the friendship between the United States and the United Kingdom runs very deep...It’s a good relationship. It’s enduring, and I think it will outlast all the personalities involved.” TL;DR: Fuck you, Trump. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

"Ye hypocrites! are these your pranks? To murder men and give God thanks! Desist, for shame!—proceed no further; God won't accept your thanks for Murther!"

Looks like I was right. Total cachu llwyr, for Badenoch anyway. That's not how it's supposed to go. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

I can only dream of living in a country that would have the creativity and gentle, indefinable, sould-deep yearning to actually do this.