Duncan Martin

I can't compete with this.

The New GOP: Survey Analysis of Americans Overall, Today’s Republican Coalition, and the Minorities of MAGA A new national survey conducted by the Manhattan Institute examines today’s Republican Party and the coalition assembled by Donald Trump in 2024. It is one of the most exhaustive studies to date of th...

54% of male Republicans under the age of 50 believe "the Holocaust was greatly exaggerated or did not happen as historians describe." manhattan.institute/article/the-...

When Massachusetts passed a "millionaires tax" in 2023, conservatives claimed the rich would flee.

But two years later, they haven't — and MA has collected $5.7B for infrastructure and public education.

A reminder that positive change can still happen at the state level.

lol this app is about to become an extremely huge piece of shit in about a year

AI firm Anthropic sues US defense department over blacklisting Lawsuits come after Pentagon labeled Anthropic a ‘supply chain risk’, a decision the company says is unlawful

Public procurement should be dull.

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Oil prices mean Starmer must raise tax or face recession The Iran war is a tax hike imposed by Donald Trump on consumers across the planet

Oil prices mean Starmer must raise tax or face recession. By @willdunn.bsky.social

This may be the most unhelpful framing I've ever seen of a war. The UK is not a child, Trump is not - despite Mark Rutte's comment - daddy, and the decision to risk British lives and spend British money fighting a war without clear legality or aims is not an issue of the UK "behaving" for the US.

Lindsey’s diplomacy working wonders in UAE.

The 1980s North Sea oil windfall went on tax cuts and unemployment benefit instead of being invested by a sovereign wealth fund – a fact Reform et al never mention.

Been explaining for years that US oil and gas production is very dirty (high methane emissions) and it can never meet the standards set by EU regs.

Now the oil industry is admitting the same. The lies work until they don't!

‘From the article: A spokesperson for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said: “It is categorically untrue that the UK only has access to two days of gas supply. We have a diverse energy mix and are confident in our security of supply.’

Crunchy decision to run with the headline, ey?

I thought this was a joke, but "Ms Badenoch has ranked MPs based on how well they are performing on X" is an actual quote from this article.

Lindsey Graham @LindseyGrahamSC Our allies in Israel have shown amazing capability when it comes to collapsing the murderous regime in Iran. America is most appreciative. However, there will be a day soon that the Iranian people will be in charge of their own fate, not the murderous ayatollah’s regime. In that regard, please be cautious about what targets you select. Our goal is to liberate the Iranian people in a fashion that does not cripple their chance to start a new and better life when this regime collapses. The oil economy of Iran will be essential to that endeavor.

Even Lindsey Graham seems to think the bombing is going a bit too far, ffs.

Friend: Tell me about your Gumshoe character.
Me: I’m an angry gay socialist with no idea how fight the ancient evil entities threatening my world.
Friend: Sure, but what about your Gumshoe character.

AI Didn't Break the Senior Engineer Pipeline. It Showed That One Never Existed. Most organizations never had a model for developing engineers. They had an environment that produced growth by accident. AI just made the luck run out.

If coding is your favorite part of software engineering, keep coding. AI doesn't stop you. But if coding was the only part you were good at, that's a different conversation. The job was always bigger than the code. #bransoncognac blog.bryanl.dev/posts/ai-sen...

Rabobank on the unfolding worst case scenario:

The Guardian view on EV charging: China took the right lessons from Britain’s past | Editorial Editorial: Megawatt fast EV charging reflects a coordinated grid strategy the UK once used. Privatisation and fragmentation now make that infrastructure far harder to build

Seen by Margaret Thatcher as a relic, the CEGB was broken up and privatised in 1989. ...The “privatisation premium” ... sees almost a quarter of the average household energy bill – roughly £450 – flow today into corporate profits.

Always Thatcher.

To paraphrase Pratchett "I consulted the election guide about "What to do when there are been a 20% oil price shock during the parliament. It says "Edevour to be the oposition"."

Ending UK customs relief on low-value imports could push up prices, BCC says Business group warns of harm to small firms and trade as it calls for phased end to ‘de minimis’ exemptions

"Could push up prices" seems bizarrely optimistic!

Removing de minimis thresholds between the UK and Europe, in both directions, seems incredibly harmful to small businesses.

Yet another reason to rejoin the EU.

Trump's decision to bomb Iran is now the greatest windfall to the Russian war effort on record. If it continues, it might save the Russian war economy.

Not education but brainwashing. This is why universities need to resist external control.
Nearly 20 years ago, Oxford academics rose up en masse and told the then VC where he could stick his plan to have a majority of external members on the University Council. www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Trump’s war on Iran is taking place What's it like to re-read Baudrillard as bombs fall on Tehran?

"None of that fits in a victory video, no matter how many totally badass clips from movies and video games you include. And none of it can be resolved by having your press secretary announce that you’ve decided you’ve won:" - terrific piece by @eliasisquith.blog:

The two Liverpool-Wolves games — same teams, same locations, three days apart — were a nice little experiment to show just how volatile soccer is from a game to game basis, even when nothing fundamental changes at all.

he's right and he should say it and also the fucking audacity of the *Tories* complaining about cost as if it wouldn't have been a tenth of the price if they'd done something about it back when they first took power

Yeah I'm not being funny but not a single diplomatic corps in the history of mankind has been run on the principle of Speaking Truth To Power.

Oh, just the business vehicle of Nigel Farage masquerading as a political party breaching its obligations at Companies House.

Times front page with banner reading “Why men my age want wives to obey”

This headline is not actually telling the story of the article - which is the writer’s genuine concern at those new stats. But it was a headline that made my heart sink - it feels like any news coverage should be very clearly a condemnation of such backwards thinking

America might have stopped being the world's policeman, but it's now the world's drunk – staggering around wildly at closing time, taking a swing at whoever comes near.

...anyone?

This is incredible. UK emissions fell 2.4% in 2025 as coal fell to a 400-year low. Incredibly, we used less coal last year than than in 1600, when Queen Elizabeth I was on the throne and Shakespeare was writing Hamlet
www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-uk-...