Karlo Basta

The Netflix age has been great for consumers but terrible for artists Returns to musicians and writers are dwindling fast

Netflix is a great deal for consumers the same way McDonald’s is a great deal for those who enjoy actual food

Yes

A fantastic book on, I suppose the best way to put it would be, the loss of consumer sovereignty to big tech. More informative than I expected it to be. But then, I don’t follow this stuff closely

Michael Burry Returns With Two Big Shorts: Palantir and Nvidia Signs of an AI bubble abound: Stock valuations have become uncomfortably rich, AI-related debt is ballooning, and a sustainable financial model for the technology has largely yet to emerge. Now Michae...

bookmarking, as it were

Stupid admin shit is a matter of ancient tradition

The other side of that coin - going off personal experience and a quick google look-up, so take this with a grain of salt - is that Britain is a country of low wages (comparatively).

a rare instance of public business opposition to Trump's trade policy is a reaction to more trade
www.ncba.org/news-media/n...

Other issues, for comparison

Starmer warned of Green Party exodus over Reform obsession Labour may soon be ‘haemorrhaging’ left-wing voters to Zack Polanski’s party which is surging in polls, amid disillusionment with the party’s shift to the right

source making the rounds

I know this isn't the point of the piece, but what really stands out is the near-consensus across voters for this👇. A moderately competent/backbone-having Labour leadership would've developed a platform and narrative to dominate for a decade. Instead, we have what we have.

The call for papers for the 2026 ASEN conference on 'Nationalism, Democracy, and Freedom' is out now at asen.ac.uk/conference!

#asen2026

Heartened by the economy of the future

Mhm

Democracy clearly dies in broad daylight

Past time to revisit some of this stuff.

When I think of innocence and naiveté, I think Peter Mandelson

There's something compelling about the thought that the cultivation of reflexive anti-communism, anti-socialism or anti-any idea that suggests politics should not entrench the power of capital, has ultimately come to bite America in the ass.

Image of Capitalism Slips to 54% in U.S. Fifty-four percent of Americans, down from 60% in 2021, have a positive opinion of capitalism, while a steady 39% view socialism positively.

This is all fine but I don't buy the message implied here - that there's a popular turn away from capitalism in any meaningful sense and that there's a political project waiting to be pursued. Part of the problem is in the framing, as ever. But only a part. news.gallup.com/poll/694835/...

America’s left cannot exploit Trump’s failures The president’s genius is to keep pushing the Democrats into a reactive defence of the status quo

Everything said in under a page (also, the title is wrong, it’s not the left in any meaningful sense of the word, as the article makes clear)

Trust the Financial Times to hit at the heart of liberal orthodoxy

Or rather its usefulness

Which tells you everything you need to know about opinion polling

There’s a far left in the UK? News to me

Went to Jedburgh to see historic sights

Congrats! Fascinating project!

Join us for the online launch of a special issue of Nationalism and Ethnic Politics on 'Conflict and Peace: The Cultural Dimension.' Expertly edited by @giudifontana.bsky.social with some great articles by @elisabethking.bsky.social @laiabalcells.bsky.social and many others! 4 Sept, 9am EST

Just about

You're a party that gets to govern~30% of the time in past half century. You're in power now but not doing great. You have a 1/10 chance of having all the power in next 15 years under current electoral system. You have 1/2 chance of having some of the power if you change it. What do you do?