Adrian Otten 🇺🇦

This from @lewisgoodall.com

We’re giving $40 billion to Argentina.

This is $5 billion MORE that the entire USAID budget that DOGE cut.

For no reason at all: I suggest you take time & watch footage from the Hong Kong democracy protests — specifically 2019-2020 protests. Get a sense of what tech-enabled anti-protest policing looks like. Those kids came up with wild stuff to withstand/neutralize “non-lethal” crowd control techniques.

YouTube video by The Military Show Kremlin Propaganda BACKSTABS Putin... DECLARES Russia Has Already LOST the War

This is quite fun about the growing signals that Russia is losing... and creaking under the strain.

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

This is because Reform relies on building a coalition of disordered counterpublics reacting against distrusted institutions, and the anti-vax community is part of that, so he knows he needs to keep is vague to avoid upsetting them.

All of this. 👇👇

Another excellent episode of this fantastic podcast.
More timely than ever. Sadly.
@iandunt.bsky.social

Trump and Miller are intent on building an unaccountable domestic secret police force that would be the world's third-biggest security force by funding levels, after the US and China's *militaries*.

That kind of funding dwarfs its stated purpose, which tells you what its real purpose will be.

I'm not even surprised, which is not good.

I gather someone at Glastonbury had some words of condemnation for the IDF...

Here is a brilliant thread why you can and shd call it a new form of fascism.

Every Election Is Now Existential A nationalist’s narrow victory in Poland offers a preview of many knife-edge contests to come, all across the democratic world.

"Every time we go to the polls, politicians will say that every election matters and every vote counts. They will be right"
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Exclusive | Judges Weigh Taking Control of Their Own Security Amid Threats U.S. marshals, sworn to protect federal judges, ultimately answer to President Trump, who has ramped up criticism of the judiciary.

The circle by POTUS gets smaller and no one trusts anyone anymore

If federal judges don’t trust law enforcement officers who report to POTUS to protect them without malice, who can?

www.wsj.com/us-news/law/...

Susan Sarandon among hundreds to urge BBC to release delayed Gaza film Open letter signed by more than 600 industry figures says corporation is failing in its journalistic responsibility

“Gaza: Medics Under Fire”, a film made by my brother Karim and his team, delayed by the @BBC

www.theguardian.com/media/2025/m...

The point of Putin's negotiation:
"stringing out Trump for as long as possible and agreeing to more phone calls and meetings in order to avoid new sanctions, distract attention from Russia’s ongoing war crimes, and make the U.S. appear weak"

It shouldn’t take courage to criticise the leader of a (supposed) democracy but it does

The new Pope, retweeting Senator Chris Murphy, in support of gun control

Trump’s crypto firm gets nod for $2bn Abu Dhabi deal | The Observer The landmark deal has numerous perceived conflicts of interest, and the potential to enrich the president

The media have to report far less on Trump the clown, but focus instead on what is really going on behind that big orange distraction. Blatant corruption.

So a round of applause to all those voters who switched from Labour to Libdem/Green, on the basis of less than 10 months of a government dealing with a mountain of shit...

Twenty Lessons, read by John Lithgow Key selections from On Tyranny, for viewing and sharing

"On Tyranny" is a #1 NYT bestseller again. I wish the moment were different. But I’m glad the book is useful. And grateful for all the kind words about putting the 20 lessons to work.
snyder.substack.com/p/twenty-les...

Essential reading. 👇

This is what is now happening across Europe, courtesy of Trump: Everyone is gravitating towards each other and, in particular, towards the EU.

I hope Starmer gets with the programme.

Striking that both Trump’s enemies and diehards are all convinced this is a masterplan. Either that he’s deliberately shorted the market or it’s all a strategy to make other countries negotiate. This is his great ability: he convinces everyone he’s one step ahead. Most of the time he is simply not.

Again: presidents used to be terrified of the congress and this one is handcuffing itself to the radiator in advance

Trump is learning what Truss learned before him: that the market is the last bastion of commonly-accepted truth, which all sides accept as empirically real open.substack.com/pub/iandunt/...

"America is a place of immeasurable wealth. It is quite literally the richest and most fortunate country that has ever existed. And yet its leader acts like such a pitiful cry-baby on the world stage, constantly talking about how mean everyone is and how horrible everyone has been to it"

I mean I really just want to point out the thing where live-in-space rich guys who have never paid taxes are stealing government data to deport people who actually pay taxes.

That’s it, that’s the only point.

A big part of the problem is stupid people have been convinced by rich people that AI is God, when AI is closer to an automatic dog food dispenser.

YouTube video by Brief But Spectacular Margaret Atwood on THE TRUTH in The Handmaid's Tale

I thought this was interesting from Margaret Atwood on how the USA has see-sawed through history between fundamentalist theocracy and egalitarian democracy.

From about 1:50.

youtu.be/ljvVUW2vrRU?...

Don’t give the reality show oxygen.