Maryanne

A few days ago, I stood in the graveyard of an 1100 year old church, getting damper and damper in the drizzling rain.

A woman walked into the graveyard, waved, said hello, and, as we had previously arranged, handed me a paper bag full of human bones.

The life of a churchwarden is a strange one...

Nothing like enjoying your slightly cheaper pint while imagining the toddler crying from hunger that paid for it.

Let’s clarify this.

Steven Bannon takes Epstein‘s money to fund far right activities in Europe which Nigel Farage attends & benefits from but the UK media have decided that this isn’t worth mentioning or investigating.

The only jokes Gervais thinks are funny are those that punch downor humiliate.

Press statement From Islip Forward: At approximately 9:30 a.m. this morning, federal agents were documented using infrastructure located on the property of the Central Islip Fire Department Station 2, at 110 Wheeler Road-without prior authorization to be on or use that space. When a volunteer with Islip Forward approached to document the activity, federal agents threatened the volunteer with arrest for alleged trespassing, despite the agents themselves operating in an area where no prior permission had been granted. Immediately following this interaction, the Central Islip Fire Department took swift action to protect its property and the public. Temporary restrictions were implemented, including closing the gate to the area being used and preventing external access. The use of municipal fire department property for federal enforcement activity—without authorization-and the subsequent threat directed at a community volunteer raise serious concerns about transparency, overreach, and respect for local institutions. We are deeply grateful to the volunteer firefighters of the Central Islip Fire Department for their decisive and responsible response.

ICE was stealing equipment from the Islip Long Island fire department and a Islip Forward member documented it. ICE tried to arrest the community member but the firemen said “I don’t think so” www.islipforward.org

Yesterday, five-year-old Liam and his dad Adrian were released from Dilley detention center. I picked them up last night and escorted them back to Minnesota this morning.

Liam is now home. With his hat and his backpack.

Cartoon by Royston, showing a polar bear and penguin meeting. Snowy background Caption is- "Well, one of us is in the wrong cartoon."

Public service announcement

There are no penguins in Greenland

As you were

Ok, let’s do this🙄

We’ll start with an explainer covering:

🕒What is a 15-minute city
🏫What on Earth is going on with Oxford
👽Where the conspiracy theories have come from

And then we’ll look at the Telegraph article

🧵
1/25

OFTEN THE DYING ASK FOR A MAP So when Locie, embraced by the great softness of bed #12, her late blizzard of silver hair fanning out beneath head and shoulders, asked for one in plaintive, almost desperate tones, I went out to my car and brought back my old, frayed roadmap of Kansas, and she followed the unfolding as if it in itself were a miracle, and then held it over her head, scanning the red interstates and blue country roads without apparent method or intent but smiling her morphined grand smile of awe and wonder within an air of childhood surprise and overwhelming acceptance. Because here it was—the way there, or here, or out or over or in, and here, sweetie, let me hold it for you, let me hold... and her trembling index finger knows no certain path but wanders through the Flint Hills toward Cottonwood Falls, then darts up toward Ossawatomie, and she can smell the new wheat, its dark green deep as the jade of the necklace her husband brought home from the war in the Pacific. And now as she crosses the Kaw River, she sees a young woman standing beneath the moon in a In Kansas, and wondering, what will I be? Who will I marry? Where will we live? Will I have children? And if, at the end, I am lost, how will I find my way home?

I love this B.H. Fairchild poem so much.

I won’t stop reporting the truth. The First Amendment is the bedrock of our democracy, and I’ll continue to fight to protect it 🤝🏾🇺🇸

Cartoon by Mike Luckovich

Proud of this British export.

Statement from Michael and Susan Pretti, #AlexPretti's parents: [Please consider reposting, to respect their wishes for the truth about their son to be known. Thank you.]

Statement from Michael and Susan Pretti, #AlexPretti's parents:

[Please consider reposting, to respect their wishes for the truth about their son to be known. Thank you.]

Where are the poppy patriots? Why are they completely silent on this grotesque insult to our armed forces and specifically the 2,000 UK service and civilian personnel who were injured and the 457 who died in Afghanistan?

I've had a diagnosis age 63. Until last year I didn't have any idea that I might have ADHD. Having the diagnosis has been really useful in understanding the ways in which I have had to adapt myself to cope. The downside is that my masking has reduced so my traits are much more evident lol!

A great piece from @roystoncartoons.bsky.social who just happens to be my uncle! Spot on here 👍🏻😉

Last term I tried an experiment: I walked into my Tech and Design Ethics class, admitted that I had *no idea* what to do about ChatGPT - so I would let them figure it out.

As in: their first project was to decide and write the ChatGPT policy for the class.

Here's what happened:

Senior executive 2: Every May, there's a Five Eyes conference with the head of every intelligence agency. This year it was in the U.K. Kash Patel is going. In the lead-up to that, his detail starts making crazy requests. He's got special requirements on everything. And the Brits are getting pissed. Before the conference, his staff says he's unhappy because he doesn't like meetings in office settings. What he wants is social events. He wants Premier soccer games. He wants to go jet skiing. He'd like a helicopter tour. Everyone who heard about this was like: Hold on. Is he really going to ask the MI5 director to go jet skiing instead of meeting? The schedule is set, and every Five Eyes partner is doing this. They can't just say that he's not participating and instead he wants to go to a Premier soccer game. This is a job, guys. His staff only cared about three things: what his meals were, when his workouts would be and what his entertainment would be. The biggest plan is how he's going to get his girlfriend in there so she can go to Windsor Castle. He's got Nicole Rucker as his assistant, like a true executive concierge. And when she's not getting the food or the workout she wants, she'll just start screaming at people, Make it happen!

His staff was briefed multiple times that the Brits were going to want to talk about an F.B.I. position in London that has been pulled. The F.B.I. is arguably their most important partner. MI5 is 5,000 people. The F.B.I. is 38,000. If MI5 ceased to exist, it would be very bad for us. If we cease to exist, it would be an existential threat for them. That person was working on a ton of sensitive stuff, including embassy penetrations and technology, and they want this position back. So Ken McCallum, the MI5 director, goes to Kash Patel at the conference and says: Hey, we really need this position. It's so important for our mutual benefit. And Kash says: Yep, that person's going nowhere. She's absolutely staying. And the Brits rejoice. Two weeks later, he reverses himself and removes her. The Brits are outraged. Kash will make promises and he will break them, and he doesn't worry about that. On that trip, the heads of intelligence for the Five Eyes went to Windsor Castle and met with the king. There was a photo taken of all the Five Eyes people, some of whom are nondisclosed, meaning their affiliation with the British intelligence service isn't public. The Brits forwarded that picture as a keepsake for the individuals. They prefaced it with, This isn't to be shared. But Kash has decided he wants to post it on social media. They have people trying to negotiate with the Brits about whether that's possible. They're fighting with the director's office, like: You cannot post this. Do not do that. And they're arguing, He wants a picture out. (The F.B.I. did not respond to questions about this trip.)

From NYT interview with FBI official on Patel. Utterly terrifying.

"His staff only cared about three things: what his meals were, when his workouts would be and what his entertainment would be. The biggest plan is how he's going to get his girlfriend to Windsor Castle."

(Source: archive.is/ZT5qx)

Thanks 👍

Fabulous thread

A great letter to Farage:

Filed my tax return last week.

Wondering what the HMRC would have done if I'd neglected to declare £380,000 on account of the fact that "I don't do computers."

#Farage

For those that don't watch videos, that dirty trick is????

we hear so much about trans people from the British press yet so rarely hear from them - I'm really pleased this piece was commissioned, and will also be in the physical paper: www.thenewworld.co.uk/marie-le-con...

Every day we all have to think about one of the most irredeemable cunts in the history of the world. What’s he doing? What’s he said now? How will it affect your life? What will be left once he’s finished smashing it all up? It’s unconscionable

🚨 NEW: Nigel Farage has breached the MP’s code of conduct 17 times by failing to register interests on time

The Prime Minister rises to the global political moment and gives a speech of intelligence, insight and gravity.

Unfortunately for Britain, it's a different Prime Minister.

If you don't know what this refers to, check out the shocking story of @musicologyduck.bsky.social, who woke up on a bus to find a busload of people have entered a bizarre and terrifying Twilight Zone.

In fact, Trump is so deeply unwell that it's time to stop blaming him for all the terrible things he's doing. He is what he is. Responsibility for the catastrophe overtaking America now rests with his enablers - people who have to know that he's a sick man but continue to support his depredations. Some of these enablers are monsters themselves. For example, Stephen Miller, Trump's immigration czar and the architect of his violent ethnic cleansing policies, is clearly a fanatic who is using Trump to achieve his own fascist goals.

However, many of Trump's enablers aren't fanatics, just amoral opportunists. Scott Bessent, the Treasury Secretary, clearly understands how destructive Trump's actions are, evidenced by the fact that he has at times tried to tone them down. But for some inexplicable reason, Bessent has decided to sell his soul to Trump. And then there are those who revel in the reflected glory, who are such utter narcissists that they're willing to destroy this country in return for the limelight and perks. In that camp we can find Pete Hegseth with his Pentagon makeup studio, who is purging the finest officers in the military; Kristi Noem with her Barbie-in-a-10-gallon-hat act, who positively gushes while calling a murdered mother a terrorist; and Kash Patel, who thinks its fine to fly on an FBI jet to watch his girlfriend sing while overseeing the debasement and corruption of the FBI.

Quite the substack post from Paul Krugman. These are desperate times for America and the world.