Billy Bragg

YouTube video by Billy Bragg BILLY BRAGG - CITY OF HEROES

I wrote this yesterday about the hero city of Minneapolis

www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKOW...

This is like how the Catholic Church passed known pedophiles from parish to parish

Opinion | The Trump Administration Is Lying to Our Faces. Congress Must Act.

"Separate analyses by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Associated Press, CBS News and other organizations all concluded that the videos contradict the Trump administration’s description of the killing."

www.nytimes.com/2026/01/25/o...

Sen. Jacky Rosen is calling for the impeachment of Kristi Noem.

"Kristi Noem and her department's latest attempt to mislead the American public regarding the brutal and unjustified killing of Alex Pretti is deeply shameful, and she must be impeached and removed from office immediately."

Our initial analysis is up.

The video footage appears to show that the gun was taken away from the man before he was shot.

He was UNARMED before any of the shots were fired.

The people who spent years defending and even lionizing Kyle Rittenhouse and Ashli Babbitt now want us to believe that an unarmed mother in her car and a disarmed nurse were domestic terrorists who deserved to be murdered by law enforcement.

Minnesotans strike to protest ICE surge in state: ‘No work, no school, no shopping’ Organizers demand ICE leave state and agency be investigated for constitutional violations

Solidarity with the forces of resistance in Minneapolis as they stage a day of action in protest at the harrying of their city by Tяump's goon army

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

It’s hard to accurately describe what is happening in Minneapolis without sounding crazy.

Unmarked rental vans all over the city, with people in military gear and no id jumping out of them to take captive anyone who looks nonwhite or who makes political speech they disagree with.

Robots to watch your kids. Sounds like his kind of parenting.

It's a sign of the times that callousness is now dressed up as intellectualism. That empathy is framed as being as morally problematic as prejudice. That bigotry and hatred is just honesty. That solidarity is treason.

I've reported on this kind of thing happening before — in Hungary

Immigration officers assert sweeping power to enter homes without a judge's warrant, memo says An Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo obtained by The Associated Press reveals that the agency allows immigration officers to forcibly enter homes to make arrests without a judicial warrant.

BREAKING: Whistleblower disclosures reveal a formal ICE policy to ignore the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution. 

Every American should be terrified by this secret ICE policy authorizing its agents to kick down your door & storm into your home. 1/

Mamdani: "I'm trying to inspire amongst New Yorkers a sense of faith and belief in what government can do, and it's very hard to do that when they look at masked agents and see them as another face of a similar government"

ICE detained Purple Heart veteran William Vermie for hours at the Whipple Federal Building.

He says he’s speaking out because he’s white, he has privilege and if he doesn’t use it to stand up for others, who will?

That is what solidarity looks like.

At Kent State they sent troops to shoot dissenters dead. Was America fascist in 1970?

All this Trump stuff was good when it was targeting other people, people I don't like, explains House of Lords member Daniel Hannan. But now it's targeting me. That's insane!

That's been the main problem I've encountered with this argument. I'm debating with people who think that America has always been fascist!

Your profile pic is upside down btw

Maybe me and your mum have a longer perspective on American history that leads us to a different conclusion. Not saying we’re right or denying that Trump is an existential threat. Just arguing that he’s latest manifestation of an American tradition that we have defeated before

Stop the mid-terms? Don’t be daft. He can’t even convince state houses controlled by the GOP to gerrymander their election maps to keep him in power.

Freedom is a Collective Endeavour: some thoughts on Minneapolis

open.substack.com/pub/braggb/p...

Exclusive: US gets first $500 million Venezuelan oil deal, holding some proceeds in Qatar The details shared with Semafor mark an initial milestone in the administration’s plan following the ouster of Nicolás Maduro.

The main bank account holding revenue from the Venezuelan oil sales is located in Qatar.

“There is no basis in law for a president to set up an offshore account that he controls so that he can sell assets seized by the American military,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

www.semafor.com/article/01/1...

I'd pretty much given up on understanding skiffle when Billy Bragg published his excellent book on the subject, Roots, Radicals & Rockers. I'd call it essential reading for anyone interested in any kind of 20th century pop.

True that they are what he is most known for, but career-wise, they're the equivalent of Elvis making those cheesy movies in that they undermine his legacy as a truly revolutionary artist

BONUS EPISODE // Music greats Jamie Cullum and @billybragg.bsky.social join us at Anti Social Camp for two special live conversations about songwriting, collaboration and empathy.

Platforms: linktr.ee/sodajerker

Direct: sodajerker.com/bonus-jamie-...

That's not skiffle!
😤

BBC Radio 2 - The Folk Show with Mark Radcliffe, Skiffle Fever! With Billy Bragg Mark revisits the 'skiffle boom' that inspired countless musicians to discover folk music.

70 years ago Lonnie Donegan hit the UK charts with Rock Island Line, kicking off the skiffle craze that inspired the Beatles, the Stones, the Who, Cream, Led Zepellin, Pink Floyd etc

I'll be discussing skiffle with Mark Radcliffe on BBC Radio 2 Weds 14th Jan at 9pm.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Nadim Zahawi arrived in the UK from Iraq as a child refugee. His family claimed asylum once they were here. Today he has joined Reform who will stop all in country asylum applications. Under his new party, his own family fleeing persecution would be immediately deported.

What’s the point of posting on social media if not to engage with others?

I was citing my Bluesky experience as an example of how engagement dropped when I left Twitter. I'd add that what has happened since suggests that removing ourselves from a platform does nothing to deter nazis, serving only to embolden them.