Trump is invariably depraved. But he is depraved in remarkably diverse ways.

Sound man, this judge. But isn't the term "transition year" a little unfortunate in the circumstances?

i made it onto wikipedia's 'liberal neutrality' page en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal...

This is a general point about the immigration debate. Everyone talks about the narratives and their political consequences. Too few talk about the reality on the ground, the good and the bad.

Labour’s “we have to do it, or racism will get worse” argument is striking. Any other public policy failures British ethnic minorities should be on the hook for? Can we be blamed en bloc for Rachel Reeves’ budget next week too? www.ft.com/content/37b0...

A life bookended by uniformed thugs

Labour MP Brian Leishman: "The Government has surrendered to... the vile rhetoric of Reform. Does the Home Secretary not see that removing the legal obligation to support asylum seekers who will be otherwise destitute, is as far away from Labour Party principles and values as we can get?"

Elizabeth Warren has urged Harvard to oust Larry Summers after revelations that he solicited advice from Jeffrey Epstein on how to abuse his position and coerce his mentee to have sex with him. www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

Two long-lost organ pieces by JS Bach performed for first time in 300 years

When I first heard the news my reaction was to blame The Firm.

Summers called this female Chinese economist “peril.” “Yellow peril” was partially built on the claim that Chinese women were sexually immoral threats. That logic fueled the Page Act of 1875, which barred Chinese women by presuming they were prostitutes, even before the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act.

Pompeo? I hope the Ukrainians understand the need for a long spoon.

Labour's MP for Folkestone says the government has taken "the wrong turning" on its plans for asylum seekers. "The rhetoric around these reforms encourages the same culture of divisiveness that sees racism and abuse growing in our communities."

Study Finds Most Americans Can't Find Where They Are Being Deported On Map

French media report that tomorrow morning, a briefing will be held at the Élysée Palace with defense industry reps, followed by the signing of a Letter of Intent between France and Ukraine. The focus: Rafale jets, SAMP/T NG with Aster 30 B1NT missiles, Ground Fire 300 radar, and UAV systems.

Lookit...I'm just sayin...just doesn't feel like a coincidence is all. #COYBIG #Ireland #Leftie #Speirgorm #VoteLeft

What a story! There's hope for America yet.

I would posit that if the international treaties against torture are what is holding your country back then your country doesn't deserve to get ahead and holding it back is a moral obligation for everyone else

Wow.

I have just re-read this. When it first came out I was taken aback by the headline &picture (probably not the decision of the author). We can quibble about details.But in essence Nick Clegg is right: we need more Europe,not less,we need to focus,&we need the U.K. back. observer.co.uk/news/opinion...

Paul Krugman only reads blogs and that is why he, unlike everyone else who has been in punditry for decades, has never lost his mind

I was thinking “why would Bill be going to the mat for this” and then it got to the part where he uses it to try to excuse the church’s sex abuse scandal and everything clicked

The Trump admin is exploring ways to kill shareholder democracy after shareholders of 30 out of 30 corporations voted to reject anti-DEI proposals in 2025, most by 98-99% of voting shares. Scorecard here: www.impactivize.org/2025-shareho...

Unlike McWilliams this is actually a good article

also, china was the big anti-green gotcha! “why are we recycling when china builds a coal plant every day?”, etc. now they’re going green so that argument has just… been dropped?

1/ The occupied Donbas is a garbage-filled, dysfunctional, and corrupt region infested by packs of man-eating dogs, according to a Russian warblogger. In a remarkable display of cognitive dissonance, she blames Ukraine and says that Russia is only in nominal control. ⬇️

Someone should ask Starmer and Mahmood whether they think the Kindertransport, for example, should have been a return ticket. Whether Alf Dubs, rather than becoming a Labour MP and now Lord, ought to have been sent back with his family to Czechoslovakia once it was liberated from German rule.

Homan: "I don't think the UK is a friend to this country and friend of the president"

Unreal bangers in this one

Interestingly, this is not true. Nice example of one of the central analytic pitfalls in this area, confusing net flows with gross ones.

"The market can stay wrong longer than you can stay solvent." (The apocryphal wisdom of John Maynard Keynes.)

I bet this was even higher for people from the EU when we were a member state. Do a few years here, build a nest egg, improve your English and return home to build a life. It worked for them and for us. And it was pretty much the exact opposite of the UK emigration flow - which also worked for us!

As a recent convert to Linux, I approve this message.

"15 will get you 30", was the warning given to horny young men back in the day. Would that it were true for these creeps.

It ys onlye Gen AI if it ys from the Gen AI regioun of Fraunce, otherwyse it ys just sparklinge plagiarism.

#ResistanceRoots Today in history, 1898: After voters elect a biracial city council in Wilmington, N.C., a mob of white supremacists overthrows the local government in a coup d’état. The mob also killed as many as 300 black residents in what is known as the Wilmington Massacre. /1

I am amazed by the bandwidth the BBC - Trump fued is taking up on the BBC. Someone plainly needs to state that the President of the United States and his role in stirring up an insurrection on January 6th is defamation proof. Not every incident of journalistic malpractice is equally consequential.

My post yesterday on the $Ibn Trump legal threat against the BBC has been picked up by newspapers around the world. It would appear few had gone through the letter and spotted that, well, it contained no evidence in support of its claims of damage. >

This has the potential to be the funniest litigation in a very long time. Knock yourself out, POTUS!

Donald Trump’s demand for a billion dollars from the BBC comes from a local Florida law firm. It was sent to the wrong address, and the writer didn’t know what ‘salacious’ really means: ‘Due to their salacious nature, the fabricated statements that were aired by the BBC…’

A subtle one that's easy to miss, but the fact that Andreesen and Musk both use "alpha" as slang for "information advantage" is a clear tell that their mental world is finance, not technology. They try to talk otherwise but they are investors not inventors.

Good morning to all those people who wasted the last decade saying, "there's no point tackling climate change in the UK, because China." www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...

I take this as a quite harsh rebuke by the ICC judges of how past and present ICC prosecutors have handled applications for arrest warrants (I.e. timing of making the applications public).

If the War on Terror were Orwell's Animal Farm, today we come to the last page.

Private Eye cartoon of mine from early 2024.

The Manuscript of the Week is RIA MS 23 P 7, Annals of the Four Masters. Two full sets of the annals of Irish history from A.M. 2242 - A.D. 1616 were completed by Franciscan scholars, now known as the Four Masters.

57 of the 100 US Senators, including 7 Republicans, including 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, voted to convict Donald Trump of "incitement to insurrection" for these events.

#otd in 1989, Günter Schabowski of the East German Socialist Unity Party (SED) held a press conference where he appeared to say that citizens could now travel more freely outside of the GDR. By the end of the day, the Berlin Wall had been opened and the stage set for the end of SED rule.

Well, it's happened. Burning Men is a physical artefact, out in the world. On Saturday I went to John Sandoe Books in Chelsea to see it and get my author copies. Was not prepared for all the FEELINGS If you're in London, pop in and get a free copy with your Christmas haul. It's ... smoking..!