drnickwright.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

submitted 2 days ago • 3 comments

submitted 2 days ago • 348 comments

I got laid off today, with the rest of 18F. 18F was an elite federal software shop. We made gov't websites work better, more efficiently for the American people. We saved taxpayers from getting screwed over by contractors. And were fired for it. We made this website to tell our story: 18f.org

submitted 3 days ago • 3335 comments

Since winning the election, Merz has used every opportunity to warn of the dangers of the Trumpian new world order. He hasnt sought to provide reassurance, something that Germans tend to crave from their politicians. My latest newsletter: johnkampfner.substack.com/p/hard-times...

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

"NATO is not the thing that Russia is afraid of. Russia is afraid of democracy expanding to Russia. Why are we in NATO? Its because we are afraid of Russia. And the only thing that really works – the only security guarantee that works – is NATO's umbrella," Kaja Kallas said in an interview with AFP

submitted 4 days ago • 318 comments

Lord, give me the confidence of the generalist columnist willing to lecture readers on how to do defence procurement

submitted 5 days ago • 5 comments

Germany elections: Keir Starmer loses a political soulmate but might gain a more useful ally The election of Friedrich Merz may help the Brexit reset, says @jillongovt.bsky.social www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/germ...

submitted 8 days ago • 3 comments

I celebrate the 80% of Germans who did not vote for the far right. Do not make 19.6% of German voters into "the" German people (again). "The" German people don't exist! The German population is diverse and divided, but voted overwhelmingly for liberal democratic parties. #BTW25 #GermanElection

submitted 9 days ago • 152 comments

The most striking result from yesterday’s German election #btw2025 🇩🇪: 🔹 35 years after reunification: The GDR is redrawn on this map. 🔹 The AfD won 45 out of 48 electoral districts in the East. 🔹 In some parts of Saxony, they came close to 50%! Why is this happening? Here’s my take 👇

submitted 8 days ago • 67 comments

In 2019 Nigel Farage's Brexit Party voted against plans to tackle Russian propaganda, calling claims of Russian interference "scare stories" One of his MEPs was Nathan Gill, who has just been accused in court of taking bribes in exchange for defending Russia in the European Parliament

submitted 8 days ago • 62 comments

NEW: updated long-run gap in voting between young men and women in Germany: Gender divide continues to widen, but contrary to what is often assumed, young men continue to vote roughly in line with the overall population, while young women have swung sharply left. www.ft.com/content/29fd...

submitted 8 days ago • 202 comments

Why does 25% AfD among young men spark a thousand "what is going on with young men?" posts yet Die Linke 34% among young women generates...nothing at all? Yes, young men voting for the radical right is an important phenomenon. But so is young women going rad left at even higher rates.

submitted 8 days ago • 440 comments

Interesting pre-election interview with Jürgen Hardt, CDU/CSU foreign policy spokesman, underscoring Union's pledges on Ukraine. @kyivpost.com www.kyivpost.com/post/47719

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

That’s how you write a headline, people.

submitted 13 days ago • 574 comments

What would the various party platforms, if implemented, do to German government revenues. This is ... awkward. www.zeit.de/wirtschaft/2...

submitted 19 days ago • 8 comments

WHAT DOES THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS ASK FOR WHEN HE'S IN A FRENCH RESTAURANT? hors d'oeuvres, hors d'oeuvres!

submitted 32 days ago • 90 comments

oh what the hell? the Prince Charles is at risk because of potential dickhead developers? truly they can fuck all the way off you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/sa...

submitted 35 days ago • 28 comments

I think we should take this story from the Times today (and picked up by many other outlets) with an enormous pinch of salt for two reason (mini thread): www.thetimes.com/uk/media/art...

submitted 36 days ago • 41 comments

Fewer than half of British people can name the 2022 British PM with a 5-letter surname starting with T. Politics can be more brutal than showbusiness sometimes.

submitted 36 days ago • 175 comments

Auschwitz was at the end of a long process. It did not start from gas chambers. This hatred was gradually developed by humans. From ideas, words, stereotypes & prejudice through legal exclusion, dehumanization & escalating violence... to systematic and industrial murder. Auschwitz took time.

submitted 36 days ago • 1092 comments

A very smart and timely report by @sandertordoir.bsky.social and Brad Setser. Calling on Germany of all places to press "Beijing to use the central government’s fiscal space to lift domestic demand". www.cer.eu/publications...

submitted 47 days ago • 2 comments

News from the German Ministry of Defence: As of today, they will stop posting on X. Same is true of our official armed forces accounts.

submitted 48 days ago • 29 comments

We have all done it 🤣

submitted 49 days ago • 2 comments

News | From Edinburgh to Belfast, seven at-risk heritage buildings will be transformed into community spaces for music, art, and social support through £27m in grants from @heritagefunduk.bsky.social 🔗 museumsandheritage.com/advisor/post...

submitted 49 days ago • 0 comments

Over 60 German universities quit social media platform X - www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/ov...

submitted 50 days ago • 5 comments

These two are so cute - they haven't curled up together like this for ages. Harpo (on the left) has no idea he's off to the vet in about half an hour... 😿😿😿

submitted 50 days ago • 0 comments

Douglas Carswell again from a couple of weeks ago. He really is a mess.

submitted 50 days ago • 16 comments

Lough Acoose, County Kerry, this morning.

submitted 52 days ago • 1 comment

Weidel said: “I have to tell you quite honestly: its called remigration.” Party delegates applauded & repeatedly shouted “Alice für Deutschland” — a play on the forbidden Nazi-era slogan “Alles für Deutschland”, meaning “everything for Germany”. (FT) www.ft.com/content/c6dc...

submitted 52 days ago • 1 comment

These two things may be connected... Good Night.

submitted 52 days ago • 13 comments

So many of their problems in government, and so many of their problems in opposition have the same root: by the end most ministers just weren’t across the detail and many of them have no experience of anything resembling functional policymaking.

submitted 52 days ago • 20 comments

SPD begins its party convention with a drone show and the irony is strong with this one.

submitted 52 days ago • 15 comments

Hard to believe that this Milwaukee home was built over a century ago! It’s one of the “American System-Built Homes”, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1915, as affordable kit-built housing for those “of moderate income”. Sadly, stymied by WW1 archive.curbed.com/2016/12/16/1...

submitted 52 days ago • 9 comments

If you are tempted to watch Angelina Jolie as Callas, don't do it. Rather watch this brilliantly made documentary on her life by Clare Beavan, and find out why she really lost her voice. 👇

submitted 52 days ago • 11 comments

Since 2000 in fact. It's memory holed too often how much part of the Austrian establishment the far right FPÖ has been for nearly 30 years, just as Italy's populist right has routinely been in coalition governments since 1994.

submitted 54 days ago • 4 comments

“With the economic outlook so bleak, time is not on Russia’s side. Mr Putin must be made to understand that the cost of his illegal campaign is getting too high, even for his tolerance.” Excellent op-ed by Elina Valtonen. www.economist.com/by-invitatio...

submitted 54 days ago • 2 comments

Liz Truss, August 2024: "I am appalled by the attacks on free speech in Britain and Europe. We can't be truly free without free speech. Good for elonmusk and X for standing up to these bullies". Liz Truss, January 2025: I'll set my lawyers on you if you say "Liz Truss crashed the economy".

submitted 54 days ago • 12 comments

A reminder of how seriously Elon Musk really takes the issue of women's safety www.businessinsider.com/spacex-paid-...

submitted 54 days ago • 39 comments

Occasional reminder that there’s no, “it’s too late, its over” for anthropogenic climate change. Every molecule of CO2 that doesn’t go into the atmosphere makes a difference. Preventing 0.1 degree of warming makes a difference. Every bit of climate resilience we build together makes a difference.

submitted 55 days ago • 457 comments

Great letter in today's Guardian. What sort of free speech is prevented by factchecking, Zuck?

submitted 54 days ago • 867 comments

The founding myth of Austria is the Opferthese (victim thesis). There is some interesting historical context here. hdgoe.at/opferthese

submitted 57 days ago • 0 comments

In other news, Nigel Farage didn't bother to turn up to the debate on grooming gangs in the House of Commons just now

submitted 57 days ago • 275 comments

🎙️🎄📚Xmas podcast special: @instituteforgov book club! The @instituteforgov.bsky.social books of the year - with @cathhaddon.bsky.social @jillongovt.bsky.social @alexgathomas.bsky.social @drhannahwhite.bsky.social & more PLUS: a VERY festive surprise at 39:30 🎶 podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/i...

submitted 66 days ago • 1 comment

Merry Christmas from Ireland. 🇮🇪 ✨🌲✨👏✨

submitted 69 days ago • 668 comments

Just a hunch, but based on what I witnessed over the last 2+ hours, 'Gladiator II' is highly unlikely ever to be included in the list of sequels that were better than the original...

submitted 78 days ago • 0 comments

For anyone interested in the latest academic thinking and scholarship on international relations, BISA (British International Studies Association) are now over here on BlueSky - follow them on @mybisa.bsky.social

submitted 81 days ago • 0 comments

'When Notre-Dame reopened on 7 December, it was thanks, in part, to the efforts of 175 researchers with expertise across a range of disciplines: acoustics, art, data, history, archaeology, anthropology.' Example of why blue-skies research matters for 'real-life' problems we've not yet imagined. 1/2

submitted 85 days ago • 9 comments