Wes M

Gavin has shown himself unfit to be President. This is why we should let our current President take a third term, despite his age. Who cares what the constitution says.

Reminder: this is to put a canopy on an existing outdoor pub deck. 🙃

What Americans die from and the causes of death the US media reports on Causes of death in the US in 2023 Heart disease (29%) Cancer (26%) Accidents (9.5%) Stroke (6.9%) Lower respiratory diseases (6.2%) Alzheimer's disease (4.8%) Diabetes (4.0%) Kidney failure (2.4%) Liver disease (2.2%) Homicide (<1%) Terrorism (<0.001%)| COVID-19 (2.1%) Influenza/Pneu monia (19%6) Media coverage of these causes of death in 2023 in... The New York Times The Washington Post Fox News Heart disease (2.8%) Heart disease (2.9%) Cancer (4.1%) Cancer (4.7%) Accidents (5.9%) Cancer (3.8%) Accidents (6.1%) Accidents (9.7%) Suicide (4.1%) Suicide (3.3%) COVID-19 (6.0%) COVID-19 (7.9%) Suicide (3.8%) COVID-19 (5.3%) Drug overdose (7.5%) Drug overdose (9.8%) Drug overdose (9.5%) Cancer (26%) Accidents (9.5%) Stroke (6.9%) Lower respiratory diseases (6.2%) Alzheimer's disease (4.8%) Diabetes (4.0%) Kidney failure (24%) Suicide (2.1%0) COVID-19 (2.1%0 Homicide (42%) Homicide (52%) Homicide (46%) Terrorism (18%) Terrorism (12%) Terrorism (11%) Homicide (<1%) Terrorism (<0.001%) Note: Based on the share of causes of death in the US and the share of mentions for each of the causes in the New York Times, the Washington Post and Fox News. All values are normalized to 100%, so the shares are relative to all deaths caused by the 12 most common causes + drug overdoses, homicides and terrorism. These causes account for more than 75% of deaths in the US. A "media mention" is a published article in one of the outlets which mentions the cause (e,g. "influenza) or related keywords (e.g. "fu") least twice. Data sources: Media mentions from Media Cloud (2025): deaths data from the US CDC (2025) and Global Terrorism Index.| CC BY

Nice chart from @ourworldindata.org showing the contrast between what Americans die of (heart disease and cancer) v what the US media reports on (homicide and terrorism). This naturally leads to it being trickier to build a fact based world view
ourworldindata.org/does-the-new...

😭

IG newberlinlibrary

Also, we need to crack down on Big Polling, which refuses to admit that it's only actually useful or relevant during elections, and so pumps out meaningless MRPs. Honestly, lock them all in a cupboard for the next four years.

"Just cut spending" is the mirror image of "just tax the rich":
a) it's not that simple
b) inevitably you end up doing spending more / collecting less
c) people insist on seeing failure of successive govts to do it as "didn't want it hard enough" not "more complex than that"
d) and persist saying it

*gasp*

ICE really does appear to be indiscriminately gassing Chicago police officers here.

BBC Apologises For Airing Fake Claim About Digital ID Scheme The BBC has apologised for airing a false claim about Tony Blair's son's company being awarded a government contract to produce the new mandatory d...

NEW: The BBC has apologised for airing a false claim about Tony Blair's son's company being awarded a government contract to produce the new digital ID scheme

Have I Got Fake News For You (Odds and Ends #79) A jaw-dropping screw-up on prime time BBC One – and more!

Have I Got Fake News For You

takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/have-i-got...

What a day for fake news. At least nobody believed the new Archbishop of Canterbury was the niece of Bernard Manning…

…Except famous columnist AN Wilson, who has invented a conspiracy about the removal of the troll line from her Wikipedia page.

A global petrochemical shift China's rapid capacity expansion fuels global oversupply, leading plant closures in Europe and elsewhere

The global petrochemicals landscape is undergoing a massive shift. Rankings from ICIS say China’s Sinopec has overtaken BASF at the top, with three other Chinese firms in the top 10.

incidentally UK reporters writing about paracetamol, Trump etc, Tylenol is a US brand name, just as Nurofen is a UK brand name. The US generic name for paracetamol is acetaminophen. Don't confuse the two. (This has been annoying me all day.)

I fear the lesson we're learning from Trump (and indeed Le Pen) is that democracy is game you can't win against the far right. When in power the liberal order has to have the confidence to ban/ostracise the far right for being the seditionists they are, and dare them to do something about it.

The route to chaotic authoritarianism Why Reform’s deportation plan would have consequences well beyond asylum

Reform's plans to end indefinite leave to remain go to the post I wrote last week on their slide towards chaotic authoritarianism.

The British constitution would allow them to do it if they had a majority but at vast cost to our society and way of life.

samf.substack.com/p/the-route-...

Check Me Out

think if you're broadly a centrist and were suuuuuper concerned about attacks on free speech from the left and so you decided to give the right a hearing then you need to realise you were taken for QUITE the ride (and don't really have anyone to blame but yourself)

"He *is* the Messiah, and I should know, I've followed a few"

Press conference:
"Mr President,
People have been arrested for displaying a picture of you and Jeffrey Epstein.
Do you approve of this, or is it an example of the British attack on freedom of expression, which you criticise so much?"

Breaking news: The British Origami Association are going into administration. More on this as it unfolds.

Watched it this morning, it was excellent! 👍🏻

Not quite how I'd paraphrase my Battle of Britain speech, but not far off.

Kemi Badenoch defects to reform

Hey new followers! Here's a timelapse of some bread dough rising I once made. Enjoy!

Bluesky isn’t perfect but at least its owner isn’t demanding violent insurrection in the UK from thousands of miles away

Letter from Ed Davey to Keir Starmer condemning Elon Musk for inciting violence and urging unity to defend democracy.

I've written to Keir Starmer, Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage, urging them to join me in condemning Elon Musk's dangerous remarks inciting violence yesterday.

As leaders, we must stand together and make clear Musk will face serious consequences for these actions.

hahahahaha every day I feel like I'm losing my mind

People say the BBC lack flexibility in the modern digital era, but the launch and roll out of their 24 hour Charlie Kirk News channel in a matter of hours was pretty impressive.

Rapidly coming to the conclusion that everyone needs to spend a lot less time on the internet – EXCEPT journalists and cops, who evidently need to spend far more time online.

(I had a Tower of Babel / Eye of Sauron metaphor confusion for a moment there)