Anti-racism protest in Newcastle went well. Higher turnout than the racists, relatively little trouble, few arrests whilst I was there, may post a few pictures later if they're any good.

National ID cards were not in a Labour manifesto prior to the election and therefore should not be imposed in the UK without a referendum. There is no mandate for this policy and it strikes at the heart of the legitimacy of the British democratic system to impose it without clear public support.

Quite funny how much more politically akin to the Late Republic Roman Empire the US is than any of the pre-modern European states that actually claimed to be the successor state to Rome.

Lyle Langley voice: So, in summay, Octo means eight and...

I really want to stress this isn't praise of Putin or anything but it may be a touch naïve to think that the nation that burnt their own capital to the ground to starve the French Army in 1812 and lost 10million men fighting the Nazis are going to capitulate over a 2% VAT rise.

Me: "Have I told you about the cannibalism in Stalingrad mam?"

The peace of mind I feel having cultivated the ability to read a dumb ass reply to a YouTube comment and think: It's fine, I don't need to reply to this. I understand why people thought that Buddha guy was onto something.

Important corner inspections are ongoing. 🐢👨‍🔧

Just to absolutely clear 'cos nobody seems to be saying it out loud: Farage wants to selectively deport based on race. This is the kind of 5 alarm racism he has always kept at arms length up to this point.

Re: The autism stuff. I do think it's worth noting that whilst not quite a complete description of the populist right* it it remarkable how much of their programme can be summarised the unrelenting need to find easy answers to complex questions.

Hey, I just realised it also works for RFK Jr.

Fun fact: Ho Chi Minh city (formerly Saigon - don't look up how the name got changed) and Caracas are on the same latitude.

Torting intensifies. 🐢💚

Money saving tip: Buy a sleeping bag to use when you're just sitting in the house. (added bonus: you can pretend you're the worm-god emperor of mankind)

Any news on if Erika Kirk's performative forgiveness extends to a petition for clemency.

Farage press conference in brief: Farage: Here's some scary sounding things I believe about migrants Reporter: Do you have any evidence? Farage: I strongly believe the scary things.

I have developed a handy rubric.

I've been underposting tortoise 'cos he's been mostly corner napping but he's been on the move a bit today. 🐢💚

Living a moral life in an age of bullies requires collective action; it cannot be done alone. Each of us must organize and participate in a vast network of moral resistance. From this solidarity we will grow stronger. This is what our current moment requires.

Wondering if enough time has passed that I can (without consequence) point out that as Charlie rhymes with Maggie Americans are welcome to repurpose: Maggie's in a box In a box Maggie's in a box Nanananananana

Fairly certain that Meta/Facebook are going to a) Blame this institutional harvesting of images of school children scandal on AI b) continue to use AI uncritically.

One thing that makes me realise just how far we've backslid on attitudes to smoking is the number of people I see vaping around their kids (by which I mean babies).

I know we're not allowed to talk about gender anymore but I have an important question: Do cars have gender?

Radio4 playing what I can only describe as retiree rap.

Sometimes animals will just act like cartoon versions of themselves. 🐢💚

Me (in voice chat whilst playing video games with the lads): Lads, I say the girthiest rainbow today. Like you wouldn't believe how thick that thing was.

Last time there was climate change even half as bad as what's coming almost the entirety of humanity forgot how to read and write.

Trump is so unpopular outside the US:

If they think we're being uncivil about the death of Kirk, oh boy when Trump goes it's gonna be pandemonium. He's America's Thatcher at this point.

One major point of socialism is to recognise that the democratic reforms of the last 500 years are incomplete and perpetually under threat without a parallel effort to democratise the power to create wealth, or at the least control it's distribution within society.

To quote my high school Chemistry teacher: I didn't do a three year PhD for you to call me Mister, son.

Fun Trigonometry Fact: The reason it gets so dark so fast at this time of year at northern latitudes is because when you differentiate a sine function you get a cosine function.

I found this graphic on the seeding for the ECL and Newcastle being third from bottom feels a touch suspect.

Mildly hawkish leftist take but people really need to get their heads round the fact that combined Germany, France and the UK already outspend Russia on defense by at least 3:2 ($235:150bn). Russia just does not have the capacity to threaten a united western Europe with conventional arms.

This might be slightly unfair to him, but only slightly.

Today's mood is cold. (Sun lamp bulb has gone) 🐢🌞😫

I've said this before but it wasn't until we started living in a world where common vaccines weren't universal again that I radically reinterpreted what Einstein meant by: "Nationalism is the measles of mankind, an infantile disorder"

Academic Philosophy is a scam to convince otherwise intelligent people that Friedrich Nietzsche had anything meaningful to say about society.

Apropos of recent development on either side of the Atlantic a short public service announcement: www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzHL...

Palestine action got branded a terrorist organisation after one police officer got assaulted. 20 people we charged with assaulting police yesterday at 'Reclaim the Kingdom'.

Anti-crime system seems to be working well.

I know that the people who follow me don't need to hear this but none of this has ever been about 'protecting' women.

Looks like we're going to need another Cable Street.

New garden, who dis? 🐢💚

Tortoises might have the highest ratio of 'actual climbing ability':'human's perception of their climbing ability' of any animal.

fwiw I think the reason we no longer hear the (always erroneous) "violent video games cause mass shootings" narrative anymore is a) Gamergate aligned the targets and proponents of that narrative and b) The games industry became a multi-billion dollar industry capable of lobbying politicians.

I know Israel's The Gays should love us logic is intellectually dishonest and catastrophically flawed propaganda that basically no-one who isn't Sam Smith didn't fall for but, like, if they manage to kill Eurovision, the 7 people who did fall for it are going to be super mad.

I realised in the car today that the reason a lot of liberals think Kirk had 'the right approach to politics' is that they're (willfully) incapable of distinguishing good faith discourse from propagandistic debate. (See Ian Danskin's "You Go High, We Go Low")

🐢💚