Alex Turner

Impressive! Although none of those look like light reading!

Well, I’d buy it!

A really good book - perhaps you could write a sequel called Post-Industrial Town?!

Banning your writers from arguing against free speech is a hell of a look.

REYES: [The order] calls an entire category of people dishonest, dishonorable, undisciplined, immodest, who lack integrity, people who have taken an oath to defend this country, people who have been under fire, people who have received medals for taking fire for this country. I want to know from the government whether that language expresses 'animus.' Does that express animus? DOJ ATTORNEY: Not in any constitutional- REYES: In a commonsense way. This is a policy from the President of the United States affecting thousands of people ... to call an entire group of people, lying dishonest people who are undisciplined, immodest and have no integrity. How is that anything other than showing animus? DOJ ATTORNEY: I don't have an answer for you. REYES: You do have an answer, you just don't want to give it... People can make solid arguments as to why some or even most transgender people shouldn't be in the military We're dealing with unadulterated animus. We are dealing with the president of the United States dealing with a group of people serving their country... calling them liars. (Reyes then said she changed her courtroom orders to bar people who graduated from UVA law school from appearing before her because "they're all liars and lack integrity and are undisciplined and can't possibly meet the high rigors of benign a lawyer for the government" She made the DOJ lawyer sit down on that basis, then after he did, she called him back up and asked whether that was a display of animus.)

This is fucking incredible.

Nobody wants an emergency, but perhaps we should want some of the remarkable things that can happen during them. On the top of my list of those things is how in the immediate aftermath of a hurricane, a fire, an earthquake,  people take care of each other and work together without the kind of vetting and fretting whether they agree entirely about politics or religion or other matters. We are in an unprecedented emergency in the United States with fallout that poses threats to environments, economies, human rights and even survival beyond our borders, and we could use some of that energy. As political scientist Erica Chenoweth said in Saturday's Meditations in an Emergency interview, "The best study on the subject in my opinion suggests that in the long term, institutions really can’t save us; that civil society and mass mobilization are a more potent check on a backsliding democracy in the long term than relying on institutional checks and balances alone."  Right now the courts are doing important business as they render verdict after verdict against Trump and Musk thanks to lawsuits brought by states, federal employees, and others with standing. Some of the Democrats in office are being amazing, and others in the opposition party are being waffles, milquetoasts, cookies that crumble, and other  refined-carbohydrate items. As is now clear, the administrative branch of the federal government of the United States is engaging in a coup attempt against the legislative and judicial branches, against the law and constitution itself, and against your rights and mine and the security and stability of the world. They can be defeated and at a minimum held in check, and the sooner they are the more limited the damage. But as Chenoweth points out, it's up to us. Are we up to it?

In this emergency, I think it likely that we are going to need to pitch a very big tent and invite everyone in who doesn't want to live in a dictatorship... www.meditationsinanemergency.com/big-tents-an...

“Demand for labour has contracted for the past 17 months”

Oh.

Just re-reading this 👇 and it is very applicable as #GreatBritishEnergy is getting pushed harder for quick fixes. Whilst I know that we need some early quick wins, we will not be blown off course to help deliver #cleanpower2030 and beyond in a strategic, responsible and long-term way.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro's full post ordering an increase of import tariffs on U.S. goods, says he doesn't really like traveling to the U.S. because it's “a bit boring” and invokes the ancestors

Quite a big move this afternoon so here it is again.

At the time of writing, UK 10-year bonds rank 3rd among G7 countries - behind Canada and the U.S. - in terms of their performance so far this year.

📈Lots of charts doing rounds re market jitters in the UK.
Here's one I find quite helpful 👇
It's the cost of insuring UK debt against default.
Two things to note:
1. People ARE more concerned. The CDS spread HAS jumped up recently.
2. It's nothing like what happened in 2022.

Will look forward to tuning in. It was my favourite Christmas present, read it and loved it, will enjoy learning more about the book.

Was really looking forward to the launch of @bradford2025.co.uk tonight, but six cancelled trains have scuppered that.
The frustration is when a train goes from being 10 minutes delayed to cancelled while stood on the platform.

Fake Jobs and Fake Facts By Misrepresenting Constitutional Law, Muskawamy Prove Brandolini's Law

This is the best description of DOGE - what it is likely to be (an oligarchic project) and what it is unlikely to be (an actual government department) that I have yet read

donmoynihan.substack.com/p/fake-jobs-...

THE HANDMADE PARADE IS BACK in Hebden Bridge on 22 June. Now known as "The Summer Parade", funding is from the Arts Council and Calderdale Council. New big puppets, artist training, volunteer sessions, music, stiltwalking classes & loads more are coming in 2025. See HebWeb at www.hebdenbridge.co.uk

Doing some last-minute Christmas shopping and spot a retailer’s CEO in one of his stores. Ask at the till, “is that [CEO’s name]?”

“I don’t know his name but he’s the big boss,” came the reply. “Do you know him? Is he scary?…nah, he can’t be scary if he wears a Superman Christmas jumper”

A cheery thought as we look ahead to 2025…

Really important that people like @danneidle.bsky.social are pushing back hard on this behaviour. It’s become more prevalent and for too long there’s been no jeopardy for the people firing off the threatening letters.

This trend feels like it has accelerated since 2020 - some people checked out and never checked back in.

This has had me giggling all afternoon. It was posted by @lisagillmore.bsky.social on X, but unfortunately she is not very active here, and I just have to share it.

"Planning Christmas dinner like"

Unsettling from @anneapplebaum.bsky.social:Trump isn't just trying to bully the media into submission. He's also conditioning the public to see the use of state power to cow independent truth telling as normal, and persuading MAGA to see it as good.

Our exchange:

newrepublic.com/article/1894...

Ian Clifford Stamp makes £500k/month by selling made-up "sovereign citizen" get rich quick schemes to vulnerable people.

Stamp doesn't like people pointing that out this is all pretend- so he's pretending to sue me for $1.5m.

One of the few downsides of the great 99-08 period is that the 1996 team gets largely forgotten about.

Guardian and Observer journalists have asked people not to share Guardian stories for 48 hours from midnight tonight (Tues), to respect their strike and the virtual picket line

Your daily jam postings are one of my favourite Christmas traditions!

Here’s a short story about who wins and loses from the status quo of our inheritance tax rules - and about, what you might politely call ‘sub-optimal’ journalism🧵

That is something we want to see! 😂

For anyone looking to find their Twitter tribe over here, this tool does a great job: