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

I’m very proud to say I’ve been elected at the senior vice president of UNISON. I’m proud to serve alongside President Catherine McKenna and junior vice president Debbie Rowden. To serve our union of a million members is an absolute privilege.

submitted 3 hours ago • 0 comments

Remembering again the poster who tried to say that just because Marx didn't explicitly mention it didn't mean school abolition wasn't an inherent part of Marxism and never responded to it being pointed out he /did/ explicitly describe universal public education as a core part of the manifesto

submitted 1 hour ago • 0 comments

This is a great piece - anti-prejudice norms matter. Making it career ending to say racist things was a valuable social development. One of Musk’s most insidious effects is corroding this as politicians on the right mistake the voice of DavePatriot789 for the voice of a kingdom.

submitted 3 hours ago • 4 comments

This is a Willfully obtuse equivalence (pun intended). The point of "No Kings" is not to decry POTUS's fans venerating him as if he were royalty; it is to decry POTUS acting (or trying to act) as an absolute monarch. And only Trump has done this, not Obama. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

submitted 12 hours ago • 5 comments

Again, Walz called them weird until the end of the campaign. The media just stopped covering it after two weeks.

submitted 3 hours ago • 28 comments

one of the weirdest things going on is the national media's obsession with Joe Biden's fitness and mental health/strength combined with a near total unwillingness to cover his on-going public appearances.

submitted 7 hours ago • 7 comments

Today’s newsletter: on the Tory party’s lurching language:

submitted 11 hours ago • 35 comments

Great piece as always from @stephenkb.bsky.social . I find the pace of Tory radicalisation on this really pretty scary - and IMO the timing of how it’s played out is closely linked with Twitter becoming a pure cesspool

submitted 8 hours ago • 4 comments

The problem for the government now is that it has to justify to its own MPs why it could u-turn for a household on £30,000 a year losing £200-£300, but not for a disabled person losing £10,000 a year, at once, because of the government’s choices.

submitted 11 hours ago • 7 comments

A child in America is far more likely to die from a gunshot wound than they are to even receive gender affirming care. But Republicans won’t bring up bills to tackle gun violence. They would rather bully trans kids.

submitted 22 hours ago • 10 comments

The article frames Skrmetti as a poor strategic gamble by activists. In reality, Tennessee passed a categorical ban applicable solely to transgender adolescents which was framed in sex-based terms. The choices were (a) challenge it or (b) concede defeat in advance and abandon trans teens nationwide.

submitted 1 day ago • 32 comments

AGENT OF BYZANTIUM is Byzantine alt hist, not fantasy. It's set in the 14th century of a universe where Muhammad doesn't found Islam. The Byzantines and Persians are still intriguing against each other in the Middle East, and technology is starting to change. www.amazon.com/Agent-Byzant...

submitted 223 days ago • 17 comments

Fix up of a number of excellent stories. Poor Basil gets himself into a number of scenarios (including, memorably for me, a centuries old (!!) legal case in Egypt)

submitted 223 days ago • 0 comments

This feels pretty notable IMO

submitted 1 day ago • 9 comments

Also not to bang on about this but it is funny that Goodhart talks about Anywheres so disparagingly, and then refers to political divides in the UK as Red State vs Blue State

submitted 1 day ago • 2 comments

I don’t know if this is the case for certain but the small market town of Howden is randomly the headquarters of Press Association, probably has the highest journalist-per-capita in the UK, very stupid place for a local council to do something relatively minor that could be considered newsworthy.

submitted 1 day ago • 6 comments

What really gets me with this one is that there is literally no evidence that many voters thought this or that it mattered to them. He is describing a shocking con which literally only he and his friends ever even found convincing

submitted 1 day ago • 6 comments

Notable that even Republicans, who are perpetually convinced that every issue is a winner for them, are privately very worried that their plan to slash Medicaid to fund taxes for rich people is horribly unpopular and Democrats are successfully beginning to point this out

submitted 1 day ago • 5 comments

The Republic of Ireland has had self-ID for a while now. There are literally no complications. The complications trans people experience are inaccessible transition procedures and ignorant and neglectful GPs

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

There's a one-word answer to this question but it is still worth asking why Kemi Badenoch has given the thumbs up to the kind of unapologetic white nationalism that Ted Heath rejected 57 years ago

submitted 1 day ago • 6 comments

Tennessee's youth transition ban is straightforwardly discriminatory. It bans puberty blockers, hormones and surgeries only when they are used to affirm a trans identity www.capitol.tn.gov/Bills/113/Bi...

submitted 1 day ago • 26 comments

People forget he increased drone strikes and assassinated Soleimani.

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

“Trump spent years campaigning against risky and expensive wars, and criticizing hawkish foreign policy decisions” is just straightforwardly false. It’s completely made up!

submitted 1 day ago • 142 comments

My friend and I were talking about voting in the UK and the weird venues we've voted in, and then I said "but I've never had to queue..." And my friend went "oh, I've queued. Only once though, and it was less than a minute" and then we both shook our heads at the concept of having to queue to vote.

submitted 1 day ago • 32 comments

I think both the US having huge polling districts in cities (wonder why.....) and massive ballot papers to fill out on so many things are factors here

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

british transphobes have repeatedly accused cisgender women of being trans just because they happen to be a) not white people and b) not bad at sports. e.g Imane Khelif is not transgender in any way according to all known facts and history about her. AND YET.

submitted 1 day ago • 6 comments