Based on his career military experience, Butler discusses how business interests commercially benefit from warfare. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Is_...

As studies in the US by Christopher Achen and Larry Bartels show, the great majority of voters possess no useful political information at all. Without the time or tools needed to understand politics, we are led blithely into the arms of people who would destroy us.

Our system of "democracy" has been set up by the rich for the rich. The system is built to encourage good "little" people to fight other "little" people. Division and distraction. Look over there while we get on with helping ourselves to your cash.

“I always say the truth is best even when we find it unpleasant. Any rat in a sewer can lie. It's how rats are. It's what makes them rats. But a human doesn't run and hide in dark places, because he's something more. Lying is the most personal act of cowardice there is.” ― Nancy Farmer

Hey, Starmer: Chamberlain tried appeasement - how did that work out? You stand up to a bully, otherwise they just don't stop. The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays is coming to its close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences.

A broader reading of history shows that appeasement, no matter how it is labelled, never fulfils the hopes of the appeasers. -- Ronald Reagan

As Sir Terry Pratchett once put it, it’s as if even the most intelligent person has this little blank spot in their heads where someone’s written: “Kings. What a good idea.”

“If you can’t paraphrase somebody else’s position in a way that they would agree with, you don’t understand it, and if you don’t understand it, you can’t debate it.”

“Most people go through life with a whole world of beliefs that have no sort of rational justification. People’s opinions are mainly designed to make them feel comfortable; truth, for most people is a secondary consideration.” -- Bertrand Russell, from 'The Art of Philosophizing and other Essays'

No immigrant caused hikes in the price of energy, water, food, banking, insurance, internet; decline of manufacturing, lack of social housing; PFI; potholed roads; climate change; lack of skilled labour; crisis at universities. Neoliberalism did that. -- Prem Sikka

A very specific Neoliberal tactic called Managed Decline. That's the standard technique of privatization: defund, make sure things don't work, people get angry, you hand it over to private capital. -- Noam Chomsky

A beggar’s mistake harms no one but the beggar. A king’s mistake, however, harms everyone but the king. Too often, the measure of power lies not in the number who obey your will, but in the number who suffer your stupidity. – R Scott Bakker, The Judging Eye

Leonardo da Vinci kept all of his notes in one big book. If he liked something he put it down. This is known as a commonplace book, and it is about how detailed your note-taking system should be unless you plan on thinking more elaborately than Leonardo da Vinci.

“The three most powerful men in the world are a walking version of the dark triad: Trump is a textbook narcissist, Putin is a cold psychopath, and Xi Jinping came to rule China by being a master Machiavellian manipulator.”

“History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.” Karl Marx

"JOURNALISM 101: If someone says it's raining, and another person says it's dry, it's not your job to quote them both. Your job is to look out the fucking window and find out which is true."

A person who shows he cannot control his own words and tongue shows that he cannot control himself, and is unworthy of respect.

The behaviour you walk past is the behaviour you accept.

Today's compare and contrast: "Even as a young man, Vito Corleone became known as a “man of reasonableness.” He never uttered a threat. He always used logic that proved to be irresistible. He always made certain that the other fellow got his share of profit. Nobody lost."

"Small acts of acquiescence, framed as necessary defensive measures, feel like the only reasonable course. But this is the fatal logic of appeasement: the belief that quietly yielding in small, seemingly temporary ways will mitigate long-term harm. It usually doesn’t." -- Steven Levitsky

The happiest people are those who do the most for others. The most miserable are those who do the least. Booker T. Washington

If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else. Booker T. Washington

We have the internet and 24-hour news, and now we have millions of wilfully ignorant voters. This is no coincidence - see the Theory of the Masses en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darknes...

Sic semper tyrannis is a Latin phrase meaning "thus always to tyrants". In contemporary parlance, it means tyrannical leaders will inevitably be overthrown. The phrase also suggests that bad but justified outcomes should, or eventually will, befall tyrants. It is the motto of the Virginia.

I’m not sure it actually matters what we read. Our lives continue along the straight lines that have been set out for us. Fiction merely allows us a glimpse of the alternative. Maybe that’s one of the reasons we enjoy it.

The only time you look in your neighbour's bowl is to make sure that they have enough. You don't look in your neighbour's bowl to see if you have as much as them -- Louie CK

“To determine the true rulers of any society, all you must do is ask yourself this question: Who is it that I am not permitted to criticize?” -- Kevin Alfred Strom

"I don't think people realize how the establishment became established. It simply stole the land and property off the poor, surrounded themselves with weak-minded sycophants for protection, gave themselves titles and have been wielding power ever since" -- Tony Benn

"Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect." -- Frank Wilhoit

Capitalism is not, as its defenders insist, a system designed to distribute wealth, but one designed to capture and concentrate it. The story capitalism tells about itself – that you become rich through hard work and enterprise – is the greatest propaganda coup in human history. – George Monboit

Dignity at all times -- Eric Morecambe, The Morecambe & Wise Show, 1977 Christmas Special

The less talent they have, the more pride, vanity and arrogance they have. All these fools, however, find other fools who applaud them – Erasmus, The Praise of Folly (1509)

You’re increasing the volume in your voice, but no the logic in your argument – Volodymyr Zelenskyy

Rule of thumb - any relationship is broken when one side first becomes disgusted by the other.

The height of moral rectitude is to stand up to bullies. The greatest moral opprobrium is reserved for show-offs.

POLITE NOTICE Customers are reminded that these newspapers contain the opinions of a small group of billionaires to influence public opinion and are not 100% factual or reflect reality. Please cross-reference everything you read. THANK YOU

A strong nation, like a strong person, can afford to be gentle, firm, thoughtful, and restrained. It can afford to extend a helping hand to others. It is a weak nation, like a weak person, that must behave with bluster and boasting and rashness and other signs of insecurity. -Jimmy Carter

"People do not seem to realize that their opinion of the world is also a confession of their character" - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Aha!—so far from being a madman, he was saner, you see, than the average of our race; for he had a warm spot in him for cats. When a man loves cats, I am his friend and comrade, without further introduction. -- Mark Twain

In my whole life, I have known no wise people who didn't read all the time - none, zero. You'd be amazed at how much Warren reads and at how much I read. My children laugh at me. They think I'm a book with a couple of legs sticking out. -- Charlie Munger

People say the world is polarizing into the haves and the have nots, or the Muslims and the Christians, or the political left or the political right, the criminals and the law-abiding, ... I reckon the world is polarizing into those who show consideration for other people, and those who do not.

"In reality, there is no such thing as not voting: you either vote by voting, or you vote by staying home and tacitly doubling the value of some Diehard's vote." - David Foster Wallace