Rootless Cosmopolitan

This is new to me. The Surkov/Rykov protegee Drokova, as well as being close to Epstein’s two other young Russian females he sponsored in the Tech world, was an early investor in Elon Musk’s and Sam Altman’s AI ventures. @craigunger.bsky.social

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They’re banking on a lot of left wing/liberal parties leaving cafe doors open.

Labour lost three by-elections yesterday - all to different parties mobilising disaffected voters on their liberal left flank: Greens (see below), Lib Dems and Plaid Cymru.

Starmer/McSweeney strategy of marginalizing the left flank to go after socially con Reform curious continues to backfire

🚨 | New Feature Alert!

The Custom Nowcast Model now comes with an interactive Map of your projection.

Try it out now: electionmaps.uk/nowcast/custom

It's the kind of immensely cynical operation that just absolutely destroys trust in politics, but also in the state. Deeply shameful stuff, but also stupid and self-destructive. People high on their own supply from political thrillers. Whose future probably now lies in consultancy for the same.

Labour minister falsely linked journalists to ‘pro-Kremlin’ network in emails to GCHQ Exclusive: Josh Simons pressed intelligence officials to investigate reporters, in emails described as ‘McCarthyite smear’

Truly whacko behaviour from Josh Simons and Labour Together. Trying to get the intelligence services to investigate critical journalists! He's got to go www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

it's also cool how the problem of elite overproduction is always meant to implicitly point at blue haired SOAS grads, and not, you know, Matt Goodwin?

I wouldn’t put it past our political class to draw the conclusion that, in the absence of an economy that creates graduate jobs, we will just have to cut back on graduates.

I think that is exactly the conclusion the Conservatives, Reform and Blue Labour will draw.

Not long to wait to find out if not closing the cafe door swung it for Labour (or Reform).

Epstein files could be just tip of the iceberg for Andrew investigation It is likely we have only seen the tip of the iceberg compared to what the police have seen.

Detectives investigating Andrew have asked the FBI and DOJ for unredacted copies of the Epstein Files, via the National Crime Agency.

One of the most tiresome tropes the Brexiters used to trot out was about "graduate unemployment in Greece and Italy" and that being a reason we needed to leave.

As with so much else they've shut up entirely about that one.

🤎

Starmer’s real leadership crisis. New post on my Brexit & Brexitism Blog. Fatuous media coverage aside, Starmer’s challenge is to make good on his claim that Britain isn’t the country of the Brexit years in the face of rising ethno-nationalism: chrisgreybrexitblog.blogspot.com/2026/02/star...

Especially Blair.

Britain’s Labour government feels the heat over Palantir contracts The U.S. data company is taking fresh flak in the U.K. — as the country’s reliance on U.S. tech firms shoots up the political agenda.

Palantir and UK Government keep saying "the data is secure".

But that's not the primary issue. It's having this tech embedded in critical health, defence and police supply and information chains. We're locked in- under the sovereign control of the US government.

www.politico.eu/article/brit...

it’s so cool everything is either a scam or designed to take away human rights or both now

At the 'board of peace' the Israeli foreign minister pays tribute to IDF soldiers killed in Gaza

The IDF dropped 2,000lb bombs on refugee camps, destroyed hospitals & schools, shot kids in the head, murdered journalists & healthcare workers, crushed starving people under tanks.

This will make the Hard Right twitch with suspicion.

After leaving WHO, Trump officials propose more expensive replacement to duplicate it HHS proposes spending $2 billion a year to re-create systems the U.S. accessed through the WHO at a fraction of the cost, according to officials briefed on the matter.

This has been the theme of the Trump administration: lie about how ineffective or corrupt something is, break it, then scramble to put the pieces back together at huge expense to the American taxpayer.

Fraud, waste, and abuse: it’s always projection with these crooks.

App for boycotting US products tops Danish charts after Trump’s Greenland threats NonUSA app ‘helps you identify and avoid American products in everyday life’

A popular app in Denmark identifies American products so that Danes know not to buy them

www.independent.co.uk/tech/us-boyc...

Cartoon by Mike Luckovich.

Fair comparison.

Every news story is now “State Senator Randy Pervert (R-Springfield) was indicted on 8 counts of lewd behavior with a child under 12 and has been put on paid leave from his two jobs as Border Patrol liaison and youth pastor at First Presbyterian (PCA) where parishioners say they were ‘blindsided.’”

This really is a great picture:

Virginia Giuffre’s Brother: It was disgraceful that Bondi couldn't even acknowledge us because if they did that, then they would admit wrongdoing. Our president can't do that. The reason is he is potentially implicated in these files. He may have to answer some questions himself.

Trump claims drug prices are coming down by 900 percent but adds, "there's two ways of calculating that number"