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

France and the UK, “some random country that hasn’t fought a war in 20 or 30 years.” The UK lost 457 soldiers in Afghanistan, fighting alongside the US, and 179 soldiers in Iraq. Hard to overstate what an insult this is to the Brits. (Also wrong on FR obviously)

submitted 4 hours ago • 145 comments

"If Roosevelt had told Churchill to sue for peace on any terms with Adolf Hitler and to fork over Britain’s coal reserves to the United States in exchange for no American security guarantees, it might have approximated what Trump did to Zelensky." www.nytimes.com/2025/02/28/o...

submitted 2 days ago • 13 comments

I am perennially fascinated by this aspect of the current moment. The people most invested in masculinity as a political project have an idea of it that seems bizarre to me. Not just in the sense of: I disagree with them about what would be good. Obviously. But it's more than that...

submitted 3 days ago • 24 comments

Couldn’t agree more. Now remove the block on Ireland contributing to EU funds for weapons / ammunition for Ukraine. This is existential for the European Union / European democracy. Time to step up. amp.rte.ie/amp/1499670/

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

Full text of the Ukraine-US Minerals Deal. 1. Seems fine (an investment and reconstruction fund); 2. Has no resemblance to what the Trump administration has been saying about it; 3. Can't tell if Ukraine is good at diplomacy, or Trump bad at it. www.eurointegration.com.ua/eng/articles...

submitted 6 days ago • 106 comments

So now, about Trump's Fair and Reciprocal Tariffs, or Trump's Farts as we shall from now call them. (sorry not sorry) www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/...

submitted 18 days ago • 11 comments

Our elected officials and their appointees

submitted 18 days ago • 1 comment

They suck equally hard.

submitted 24 days ago • 1271 comments

Behind ever ‘drain the swamp’ - from Budapest to Washington DC - is actually a highly targeted ploy to ransack the state and destroy those bodies that would ever hold the autocrat, and his oligarchs, to account

submitted 25 days ago • 4 comments

Speculation about disability benefits can be deeply hard on your mental health. If you’re struggling, please consider talking to a trusted person or the Samaritans. You can call them for free 24/7 on 116 123 or email [email protected] You are not alone. www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-h...

submitted 27 days ago • 2 comments

Top whack quack shack. Gay men subjected to pseudo-medical ‘treatments’ in Belfast in 1970s. Pathologisation of homosexuality continued at this clinic through 1980s. www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-nort...

submitted 33 days ago • 1 comment

Oh, so now OpenAI is against training AI models on other people's work without paying for it ... www.ft.com/content/a0df...

submitted 34 days ago • 12 comments

This bizarre memorandum is as close to a philosophy as Trumism gets. Everything must align with the political agenda of the President. His personal mandate (as interpreted by his supporters) supersedes all other rules and laws.

submitted 35 days ago • 0 comments

Very good discussion of Paddy Mayne and whether upgrading his award to a VC would be about his very real bravery or modern culture open.substack.com/pub/james194...

submitted 35 days ago • 1 comment

On the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz I wanted to share this quote from Prime Levi: "Auschwitz is outside of us, but it is all around us, in the air. The plague has died away, but the infection still lingers and it would be foolish to deny it.... (1/3)

submitted 35 days ago • 6 comments

How much research do we need? All of it. We have no idea where the next brilliant idea is coming from. Or as Trump would put it, picking winners is for losers.

submitted 35 days ago • 1 comment

The NMI developing an LGBTQ+ tour for National Museum of Ireland at Collins Barracks. They are seeking a researcher to work with us on drafting a script for the tour -deadline for applications is 14th February 2025 #history #lgbtihistories #queerhistories www.museum.ie/en-IE/Museum...

submitted 38 days ago • 3 comments

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

submitted 40 days ago • 0 comments

Useful briefing from @migobs.bsky.social on the UK's unauthorised migrant population. Key point - there is very little overlap between asylum seekers and unauthorised migrants. Probably fewer than 85K in both categories! migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/br...

submitted 41 days ago • 3 comments

A recording of Margaret Ward's Irish Studies seminar on 'Rebel Women' is now available at youtu.be/RwuTnxL6taQ #IrishHistory

submitted 41 days ago • 1 comment

LOL. @rcolvile.bsky.social's article claims (no link/evidence) "once you look at their overall income, British OAPs are pretty much bang on the international average." Helpfully, at bottom, the Times links to this chart from @tomcalver.bsky.social.. archive.ph/BFnCd#select...

submitted 44 days ago • 10 comments

Retirement in academia is where you stop doing the things you were paid for but carry on with the many things you were never paid for.

submitted 44 days ago • 11 comments

Badenoch saying it was a mistake not to have a growth plan for Brexit highlights that she doesn't understand what happened. There was no growth plan that all parts of the Leave coalition could have agreed on. Winning required implying different outcomes to different people.

submitted 46 days ago • 62 comments

As usual, Brandon Taylor has probably the best take on art monsters and the surrounding discourse: blgtylr.substack.com/p/what-im-do...

submitted 49 days ago • 5 comments

On sexual abuse of children, there is a belated shift from a culture primarily of avoidance USA: Boston Globe 2002 series is critical Ireland: 1990s coverage, steps up after USA, during 2000-09, becomes a national consensus with the 2009 report. In the UK, this is mostly after 2012

submitted 52 days ago • 3 comments

NEW A close look at Truss's legal threat to Starmer The former Prime Minister has sent a glorious but seemingly hopeless cease-and-desist letter By me Substack: emptycity.substack.com/p/a-close-lo... Personal blog: davidallengreen.com/2025/01/a-cl...

submitted 54 days ago • 7 comments

Ballpark flat tax numbers: a fiscally neutral income tax flat tax would be about 25% - i.e. 5% increase in basic rate, 15% cut in higher rate. So the average earner would pay about £1,200 more tax/year. Someone on £100k would pay £5k less. Someone on £200k, £30k less.

submitted 77 days ago • 55 comments

If you are considering having children this year, please know that I am about to watch Sonic the Hedgehog Three. Go into this with your eyes open.

submitted 59 days ago • 174 comments

But... it has raises taxes on the rich. There were protests with big tractors. Separate to the government's genuinely cackhandedness, it does face a problem that people are responding to the version of it that exists in their heads

submitted 71 days ago • 33 comments

Good one.

submitted 73 days ago • 894 comments