Michael Gibson

Opinion | One Man Stole $660 Million. He’ll Never Pay It Back.

“Illiberal governments tend to live or die by their ability to sustain corruption. They rely for support on a network of oligarchs, who in turn are tied to the administration’s success. It happened in Hungary, Turkey, Russia and increasingly, it is happening here.”

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/18/o...

Better than invading Greenland? At least Iran has some defence capability.

Four years ago, Lavrov dismissed warnings about invasion as laughable.

Russia lied then. Russia lies now. Russia always lies.

A photo of an ice cream machine with a sign reading, "Anything is possible with ice cream." Beneath that is a hand lettered sign reading, "No ice cream".

2026 basically

Lookalike: Bates and Musk

From the new Private Eye, in shops now.

a man in a suit and tie is talking to a woman in a judge 's robe and says humans are terrible Alt: a man in a suit and tie is talking to a woman in a judge 's robe and says humans are terrible

"Can you get off the sales script and talk to me like I'm a human being rather than a mark?" are words that passed my lips today.

That did not elicit the desired response, you may or may not be surprised to learn.

Brownlee lays down the law on Winston's racism, but refuses to force him to withdraw and apologise because "the moment has passed". Of course, he applied different rules to Chlöe Swarbrick back in August, because he's a partisan, misogynistic hypocrite.

Medicare for All - "That's socialism!"

Social Security - "That's socialism!"

Debt free education - "That's socialism!"

Universal childcare - "That's socialism!"

Billions for ICE, refurbishing Trump's Qatar jet, and tax cuts for the rich...

"That's just how it is."

Reserve Bank leaves official cash rate at 2.25% Anna Breman says economy is recovering but unemployment remains high, wage growth modest.

"stop being so cautious" about spending money, says economist with high salary and guaranteed job security.

www.rnz.co.nz/news/busines...

Earth on Track to Become Uninhabitable, Scientists Say The planet is close to entering a death-spiral that could bring about a worst-case-scenario known as "hothouse Earth."

"the level of political power held by the ultra-rich & their corporations is so immense that even a govt with popular support & commitment to..cuts would struggle under the weight of..investment strikes, pressure from credit agencies, & catastrophic market disruption"
futurism.com/science-ener...

FWICS all the clowns have gigs booked in politics.

Who knew that it would be so difficult to hire a children's party clown with sound references not written in blood.

“If this guy isn’t impeached and removed, what’s the point to the whole Constitution? You can’t have a fucking criminal running the government for his own benefit screwing the people. And that’s what we have.”

Trump is representative of all that is wrong with this country; unregulated capitalism, greed, racism, etc. and projects all these traits outwardly.

That is why liberals hate him.

He represents a special American brand of ugliness they see in themselves that they'd rather keep nice and quiet.

Excellent. Thanks for sharing. How do we get past capitalism?

People Think | Ben Tarnoff Asad Haider, the foremost socialist thinker of his generation, staked his philosophy on the principle that everyone should be fundamentally free.

Gift article; a gem

"socialisms..cannot be understood apart from the situations that produced them..study them the way an art student might study Cubism: not because Picasso..discovered the 1 true method of painting but because [his] creativity can inspire & inform"
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

People Think | Ben Tarnoff Asad Haider, the foremost socialist thinker of his generation, staked his philosophy on the principle that everyone should be fundamentally free.

I hope people can read this.
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

How can satirists survive with this lot in power?

A sign that a civilization has gone terminal is when all the most acidic satire is triple-take plausibly mistaken for the real thing.

General debate: Chippy calls out National's inaction on regime ministers spewing racism. Which is great, but... "Chinese sounding names"?

(But it turns out that was an aside, spurred by Winston's outrageous racism in the house) #NZPol

So beautiful.

I have never seen this clip. While my brothers watched Sesame Street, I never did.

‘The trend is irreversible’: has Romania shattered the link between economic growth and high emissions? Emissions have plunged 75% since communist times in the birthplace of big oil – but for some the transition has been brutal

Romania has decoupled economic growth from pollution faster than anywhere else in EU. Its net greenhouse gas emissions intensity fell 88% between 1990 & 2023, so each euro’s worth of economic activity heats planet 10 times less. Emissions have plunged by 75%. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson has passed away at the age of 84. My thoughts are with his family.

I wanted to share this clip from his appearance on Sesame Street in 1971. His important words ring just as true today as they did back then.

The Iranian regime takes brutality to a whole new level. It will commit any atrocity to maintain its hold on power. The citizens confronting it are among the bravest in the world.

Your Presidents' Day reminder that patriotism isn't about attacking immigrants, cutting taxes for the rich, or dividing us by race & faith. True patriots don't pander to divisiveness or hate. They work to confirm the "WE" in "We the People of the United States."

Hyatt boss suddenly exits over Epstein ties Hyatt Hotels boss Thomas J. Pritzker abruptly stepped down as executive chairman on Monday, citing his regrettable ties to disgraced financier and accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and his accomp...

www.rawstory.com/thomas-pritz...
Everyone associated with Epstein is leaving EXCEPT the one mentioned over a million times?? Let's go!

A short note to Kristi Noem To a current Cabinet secretary from a former one

The New York Times reports that the Department of Homeland Security has sent Google, Meta, and other media corporations subpoenas for the names on accounts that criticize ICE enforcement. The department wants to identify Americans who oppose what it’s doing. I’ll save them time.

THIS. One reason I've warmed to the idea of compulsory civics at every stage of education in a functional democracy is to have it driven into everyone's head how incredibly hard it is to commit successful voter fraud.