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simonwhiteley6.bsky.social
Ordinary bloke, gripped by Brexit. Am I moving left or is the rest of the world moving right?
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The real sign of this will be when Trump dumps Musk in an attempt to deflect from his own failings. Until then I will put it down as a maybe.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

This is why isolationist nationalism is inherently imperialist - because no country has all the resources it needs. Since an isolationist nationalist regime does not want to rely on allies and trade partners to get the resources it lacks, it feels compelled to try to secure them with conquest.

submitted 5 days ago • 4 comments

Just six million seconds* till the swifts get back. *give or take

submitted 2 days ago • 2 comments

Quite right. Prosperous market economies require two other legs to make a stable three legged stool: the rule of law and democracy. There is no iron rule that all three legs have to be the same length. Different stools may have different geometry. All the legs just have to be load bearing.

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

Underneath all the authoritarian gesturing, what is shaping up in the US is the same experiment of neo-liberal economics that US advisers pushed onto former eastern bloc countries after 1990. Seems like the lesson they took was not that neo-liberalism didn't work, but democracy was incompatible.

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

The capacity of the DoJ and FBI to tie up any Democratic nominee in legal harassment is considerable.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

Trump is never joking.

submitted 3 days ago • 10 comments

Having failed to exclude Zelenskyy, they sought to bully him. Having failed to bully him, they sought to bribe him. Having failed to bribe him, they sought to discredit him. Maybe they will get round him one way or another, but you can see how frustrated they are at him holding on.

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

See also market timing. You are either too early or too late.

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

Very amused that YYZ claims history shows an inexorable search for a return to monarchy, without any evidence or argument to back up his assertion, then blocks when I make fun of his lack of arguments. Should do well in his chosen profession.

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

Siri, show me someone dressing up his desires as a supposed lesson from history.

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

Europe is on the rise. Out of necessity - for our defence, our values, our quality of life, responsibility, humanity and just decency. Putin & Trump are waking a sleeping giant. We didn’t forge a better European way of being after WWII for nothing. We remember. And we’re not going back.

submitted 3 days ago • 58 comments

My thoughts on the Russian-American talks on Ukraine, without Ukraine. The simplest interpretation of the available facts is that the Americans are using Russian violence to try to exploit Ukraine. snyder.substack.com/p/peace-or-p...

submitted 5 days ago • 152 comments

I don't think Trump is being blackmailed or bribed by Russia. I think he genuinely believes that a richer, bigger country should be able to do whatever it wants to smaller neighbours, and that Ukraine's defiance of Russia spits in the face of some imagined gangster-capitalist proper world order.

submitted 5 days ago • 72 comments

I feel today a bit like I did this time three years ago when the Russians first invaded Ukraine: sick to the stomach, but with a sense that Putin wasn’t going to have it the way he thought he would. This isn’t over by a long way.

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

This judge is taking no prisoners. <panda wince>

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

Another fiery exchange from Judge Reyes in the trans military case:

submitted 5 days ago • 354 comments

Make no mistake about it, Trump's wildly wrong-sided approach to Ukraine isn't just about that conflict. It's also an acid test of just how much bullying the rest of the world is prepared to endure from America. If Europe doesn't come down HARD, we'll be the USA's chew toy for years or decades.

submitted 5 days ago • 7 comments

@colinelves.bsky.social this looks less visitor more employee territory. Full exposure to legal consequences, but question remains who could take direct legal action against the individual.

submitted 5 days ago • 1 comment