One lesson from the Epstein–Mandelson affair is that we need to stop routinely rehabilitating political careers after serious scandals. When politicians knowingly engage in grave ethical wrongdoing, that should permanently end their political careers. Being "talented" should not override that.

“D66, daar kan ik me geen buil aan vallen” = stemmen zonder te denken aan de builen van anderen en vergeten dat die builen uiteindelijk ook jou zullen treffen. Peak privilege naïviteit die alleen 7 vinkers zich kunnen veroorloven.

de Volkskrant@volkskrant.nl · 6mo ago

Jetten heeft zich volkomen laten verneuken en is door Yesilgöz van onderen tot boven in het pak genaaid

Apparently, Google Books deliberately removed search for previewed books?? For ANYONE doing research, this is a BIG deal. Not to be able to search for specific things that you need? For books that will help? For references used by other authors? My last book would have been impossible without it.

Rick Perlstein@rickperlstein.bsky.social · 6mo ago

I don't mean to seem alarmed, but it appears Google's book search function is, just...gone. In a sane country it would be a huge deal, front page news, that a privately owned utility that millions researches, from journalists to scholars, rely on every day to advance knowledge can just disappear.

In tijden van hybride oorlogsvoering is 'n weerbare samenleving essentieel. Dat vraagt om samenhang en solidariteit. Daarin past niet dat de rijken rijker worden en de armen armer. De coalitie doet 't tegendeel. Ze heeft de mond vol van veiligheid maar pakt minstbedeelden. @marcialuyten.bsky.social

I'm guessing that the "Jes" in this message is that other moral paragon, Jes Staley, though I can't be sure. A Labour government minister, channelling the demands of his finance-bro chums. This, my friends, is how it happens. This is why we don't get what we want, or what we vote for.

Overigens zijn ook zinnen als ‘we voeren het VN-Verdrag Handicap uit’ een holle kreet. Nederland moét dit namelijk doen, en loopt achter. Ook het vorige kabinet zei dit trouwens, maar deed het niet. Want voor maatregelen is budget nodig. Dat weten VVD, D66 en CDA ook.

1) 🇩🇪 Researchers from Munich tested microcirculation in the eyes of Long Covid patients. They weren't interested in eyesight, but used the eye to study circulation and endothelial function in the brain. They call it a "accessible surrogate of cerebral microvascular function"

People think being disabled is like being on vacation They say “you’re lucky! I wish I didn’t have to work!” Most of us would love to work. We would love to get out of bed. We would love to not be forced into legislated poverty Imagine your worst sick day on repeat forever That’s chronic illness

what a whirlwind of a performer. RIP, Catherine O'Hara

Looking at you, linkse kiezers die strategisch D66 hebben gestemd in de hoop op een centrumlinks kabinet.

Meer oorlogswapens, meer gevangenissen, minder asielzoekers (succes met meer oorlog) en minder geld voor arbeidsongeschikten, werklozen, chronische zorgbehoevenden en gepensioneerden. Ik begrijp wel dat Yesilgöz glundert.

See also "pragmatic", which means "my principles are actually just preferences".

🇬🇾🗽Sydette The Dreaded Gorgon🗽🇬🇾@blackamazon.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Strategic is a word that too many folks say when they mean “I think you’re an acceptable sacrifice so I can maintain access “

guess what reactivates EBV

Michael Peel@mikepeeljourno.bsky.social · 6mo ago

NEW: The Epstein-Barr virus lies dormant in the bodies of billions of people - but for some it is linked to serious chronic and even deadly conditions, including cancers. Now scientists have identified 22 genes that could help identify those most at risk. www.ft.com/content/815d...

What the US learned quickly from the UK was that popularizing certain language had advantages not just for perception, but law. All rollbacks of rights in the UK hinged in some way on the alleged immutability of binary sex and the illegitimacy of gender— accomplished not with science, but words.

🎉 Goed nieuws! Het Facultatief Protocol bij het VN-Verdrag Handicap is getekend door staatssecretaris Nicki Pouw-Verweij (VWS). Een belangrijke stap richting ratificatie en inwerkingtreding in Nederland. 🧵⬇️ 1/4

The biggest risk in this moment is something sociologists call “symbolic compliance.” That’s when an institution that is violating civil rights gives the public just enough symbolic victories that accountability efforts lose steam before there has been any meaningful change.

A reminder to the news media: “conflicting accounts” is what you say BEFORE the incontrovertible video evidence appears. After that, your job is to ask why one side is lying, not to repeat the lie and pretend no one knows the truth.

Science for ME: News in Brief 19 - 25 Jan 2026 This week's research articles, media items, advocacy and other news relating to #MECFS and #LongCovid www.s4me.info/threads/news-in...

Once you understand that you're dealing with murderous liars, you stop entertaining what they say as possibly credible and legitimate. The fight against them is about stopping them from terrorizing and killing by any means, not winning debates about your reality versus theirs.

So important. What they say is not the story. That is never the story. What happened is the story. Write what happened.

Don Moynihan@donmoyn.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Media: do not lead with the false government framing of what happened

I don’t think we’ve reckoned with how pervasive the feeling of righteousness about lack of care is. The idea that people have an inalienable right not to gaf about others due to those people being “too expensive” to help or not being “worth it”—or even just being inconvenient to accommodate.

"That a 21-year-old, suffering from a severe illness, a dramatic lack of care, and a lack of hope, sees no other way than assisted suicide is a sign of collective failure." #MECFS #severeME #millionsmissing

Dr. Sabine Hermisson 🦋@sabinehermisson.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Dass ein 21-Jähriger wegen schwerster Krankheit, dramatisch fehlender Versorgung und mangelnder Hoffnungsperspektive keinen anderen Weg sieht als Sterbehilfe, ist Ausdruck eines kollektiven Versagens. #MECFS www.derstandard.at/story/300000...

7. Immigrants, asylum seekers, Muslims, women, transgender people, disabled people, students, protesters: anyone and everyone must be blamed for our dysfunctions, except those causing them. Ever more extreme “culture wars” (a euphemism for divide-and-rule) must be waged.

Values that you only hold to when it's convenient are not principles, they're merely preferences. Hiding behind "pragmatism" does not change that.

Gently: We can care for caregivers without diminishing the people in their care. It’s a hard thing, caregiving, but treating it as something heroic/saintly reinforces the narrative that needing care is a burden, instead of accurately identifying systemic support failures.

Feel like I’m going to lose my mind explaining to people that what’s happening now is an expansion of domestic policies to larger scales, not an introduction of foreign policies to domestic life

I’ve been saying this for seven years now but you can’t abandon the elderly, immunocompromised, vulnerable to death or disability in just this one little instance. Once you shut off empathy to a group of people for your own benefit, the valve is closed. You will find more reasons to abuse them.

Avoid Covid to preserve your brain

Eric Topol@erictopol.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Not good to see the rise in p-tau181, a marker of brain inflammation tied to increased risk of Alzheimer's disease, in a prospective cohort (mean age 56 years) with #LongCovid and neurological symptoms www.thelancet.com/journals/ebi...

Mood.