On holiday now, so time to pursue my hobbies which this week includes buying back a political party using money from an undetermined source funneled via a felon and my mum. It’s so much more interesting than doing a jigsaw.
Martin McDonald
@martymcd.bsky.social
UK & US Politics and other stuff from the kitchen table, one tweet at a time. Some say 'a totally undiscovered twitter treasure' apparently. Also tax. And law
Tonight's round of drone sanctions is now enroute, with 430 being reported by Russian sources so far. Wildberries: your package is out for delivery. Signature not required, please remember to leave a review! 🤳🔥
This wasn't just someone who'd tweeted something distasteful on Twitter years before. It was a committed extremist who'd rightly ended up in prison. I'm all for reform, but those seeking it from such a sociopathic past must expect their actions to constrain future choices. That's all part of it.
Jason Arday resigns. Regardless of everything, hard not to feel like he has been repeatedly failed by serial institutions, which failed to instruct him or guide him into reputable academic work, and traded off his story without checking it.
"A decision that made sense in a British Rail spreadsheet does not in a regional economy." In praise of inefficiency.
Drought conditions
This week: southern Britain has too little water; this map projection has far too much. But first: in praise of inefficiency.
jonn.substack.com
Fucking fuck's sake man what in God's name is the fucking matter with you? www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Kemi Badenoch gives former neo-Nazi advisory role after he withdraws as Tory candidate
Joshua Bonehill-Paine says Conservative leader has asked him to work with party’s culture and integration commission
theguardian.com
Got an unsolicited loon in my replies
Elmo's Long Exasperated Sigh
ALT: Elmo's Long Exasperated Sigh
static.klipy.com
New: Trump-endorsed Navy veteran Amir Hassan lost the GOP primary to a candidate who suspended his campaign, never filed a finance report and endorsed someone else. The winner, Tom Smith, did not even make an account w/ the FEC. His handwritten letter to the agency:🧵
Just add "guv'nor" after every third subclause and you'll get the rough gist.
emptywheel@emptywheel.bsky.social · 1h agoThe Beeb's response is funny enough on its own. But bc I have not ingested enough cat videos today, I read it to myself in a proper British accent and it's even funnier that way. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
![I. THE TRUMP TRUST’S REQUEST FOR A STAY IS NOT AN EMERGENCY.
As a threshold matter, the Trump Trust’s motion for a stay is hardly an emergency. As
the Trump Trust frames the issue, its motion is an emergency because “[o]nce the Trust were to
begin handing those records over to the BBC, that disclosure could not be undone, and the
Trust’s pending objections could not restore what the BBC will have already seen.” Mot. at 2.
But “bona fide emergencies involve the health and safety of individuals, the impending departure
of a witness with no plans to return to the jurisdiction, the imminent destruction of a building or other property, the imminent deportation of an individual to another country, the need to give
critical medical treatment to a patient in a hospital, the threatened loss of civil rights, the
immediate, threatened loss of an entire business, or when someone is at risk of being denied an
essential service.” Companhia Energetica Potiguar v. Caterpillar Inc., 2016 WL 7469993, at *3
(S.D. Fla. Apr. 13, 2016) (Goodman, M.J.) (denying emergency motion to stay enforcement of
Magistrate Judge’s discovery order). By contrast, a deadline arriving after two weeks’ notice to
produce non-privileged documents—which may be designated “Confidential” or “Attorneys’
Eyes Only” under the Court’s Protective Order—does not justify the rare invocation of the
Court’s emergency procedures.
It is not even clear from the Trump Trust’s briefing what the purported emergency is
here. See id. (“But the mere fact that [the movant] did not obtain all the relief it wanted hardly
means that this situation is an emergency.”) (emphasis in original). Simply because the Trump
Trust faces an obligation it does not agree with, and is confronted with an imminent deadline of
its own making by waiting to file its stay motion until the day before its first Court-ordered
disclosure day, does not make its request an emergency](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:bbp2b224lro3bfnzcqwwnkfo/bafkreihfw75bjjm6e3um2e76g2xx4trhl3sfnsh2arkqo4o7j7ngnhpygy)
Dr Oz: "When you steal money from the federal government, you ought to go jail and go to jail for a long time"
Instead of them hammering the government about the early-release scheme they're going on about giving offenders a second chance. 🤦♂️ #epicfail
Model Airplane Throw Fail
ALT: Model Airplane Throw Fail
static.klipy.com
watching the candidate forum for the US Senate seat currently held by Tina Smith and it's incredible how Royce White's response to every question is to spout insane conspiracy theories about transgender people and the uniparty. This guy was the GOP's nominee for a Senate seat two years ago!
I wish Stephen nothing but the best however. Jessie was the breakout star of that series. Where's her column? www.theguardian.com/fashion/2026...
Stephen Libby on fashion: so many men have asked me for clothes advice since The Traitors
Our guest columnist reveals how he found his personal style, from jumpsuits to high-waisted trousers
theguardian.com
Cambridge has bowed to the inevitable and launched an investigation. It would have been so much better if they didn't wait for so long, accuse critics of racism, and burned so much of the sector's dwindling reserve of public goodwill. www.cam.ac.uk/notices/news...
Statement about Professor Arday
Statement about Professor Arday
cam.ac.uk
Laura Loomer: "Nothing serious comes out of Fox News. Okay? It's basically TV for stupid people. It's TV for stupid people."
as noted yesterday, Trump has now come around to treating an Iranian toll system covering the Strait of Hormuz as a given. Hard to overstate the level of strategic failure. US started the war purely as a war of choice and ends up dramatically empowering Iran and given the Iranian govt big wins.
Bill Grueskin@bgrueskin.bsky.social · 6h agoReuters: Iran wants fees of 5%-7% of the price of cargo from ships using the strait; Oman wants 3%. "Making fees voluntary, at least nominally, could be a way out of the impasse, although an implied threat of Iranian attacks could mean shippers would be unlikely to risk transit without paying."
Ben Shapiro probably does not know enough history to even know this, but the way he is talking about Muslims as a nation within the nation who can never be integrated is almost verbatim what European nationalists said about Jews in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
President AOC will be their compromise at this point.
They are truly scared of all Muslims. Like, deathly afraid.
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 7h agoJD Vance: "We don't want the next administration, whoever -- god forbid you're gonna have President El-Sayed in three years ... "
We are pleased to put the iconic Volcanic Ashes trophy 'up for grabs' when we take on the MCC from 14-16 August. Set in a base of basaltic rock, the trophy contains real volcanic ash. Win or lose, it will remain in our triple glazed case in our cricket museum in Reykjavík, under permanent guard.
Somebody compared to Gordon Brittas of The Brittas Empire and I can’t unsee it
The “Barack HUSSEIN Obama” people are going to go all in on racism in Michigan.
When you wake up in the night 40 years later and recall the time your nan caught you wanking to the underwear section of her Grattan's catalogue, or remembering that time you shat in the sink on a caravan holiday, and you can't get back to sleep
The police should really be more alive to the risk of anything that potentially politicises them or compromises their operational independence.
SCHIFF: You told my staff you stood by your article in white nationalist website VDARE where you wrote, 'Muslim immigrants & their kids seem prone to terrorism' C: I wrote that article in support of Trump's travel ban S: Do you stand by it? C: I stand by that article S: That's all I need to know