Nostr notes by Adam Dalliance

Next remember that tank warfare is last century's warfare. ...

2026-06-12T09:59:09Z

In reply to nevent1q…29my
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Next remember that tank warfare is last century's warfare. Tanks last like a day in the battlefield now before they're blown up by drones. To the extent you're spending on tanks, you're wasting money. Especially if you aren't even building the tank and so building sovereign expertise, just buying it.

Likewise warships really.

Next you gotta look at the amount of money the UK spends to host ...

2026-06-12T09:58:47Z

In reply to nevent1q…n7lg
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Next you gotta look at the amount of money the UK spends to host America's nuclear missiles while lying that they are an 'independent' nuclear 'deterrent'.

Not independent, and likely not a deterrent. Certainly unusable in pretty much any conceivable circumstance other than 'UK has gone bad and thinks mass murdering millions of people is okay'.

Doesn't even leave us able to actually build these things if, say, America goes rogue and starts wars of aggression for oil rights.

The guy in charge of the UK's defense has quit, saying he ...

2026-06-12T09:57:59Z

The guy in charge of the UK's defense has quit, saying he can't do the job in this dangerous world with these budgetary constraints.

🧵

#ukpol #defense

Shame we can't all go back to running ICQ really. It ...

2026-06-04T18:49:41Z

In reply to nevent1q…mp0s
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Shame we can't all go back to running ICQ really. It literally never got better than that. But ICQ would let you do things big corporations didn't like (for example send large copyrighted files directly) and was peer-to-peer and so unsurveillable.

So they did what they always do. Bought it and shut it down.

#ICQ

Whatsapp users. Instagram users. Facebook users. Threads users. ...

2026-06-04T18:35:48Z

In reply to nevent1q…uda8
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Whatsapp users. Instagram users. Facebook users. Threads users. Even us Oculous users. Everyone trusts Zuck.

RE: https://infosec.exchange/@mattburgess/116693207149186541 > ...

2026-06-04T18:24:06Z

RE: https://infosec.exchange/@mattburgess/116693207149186541

> “Despite the billions of reasons not to, Meta seems to have created the capacity to turn their customers into a distributed surveillance machine.”

Hard to know why people think this company is okay, and that everyone should be their cattle. Rather than thinking everyone on the executive team should be banned from any business activity on ethical grounds.

quoting
note1vaw…zna2

Big new WIRED story:

Meta has been quietly shipping to code to run face recognition from its smart glasses. The code is now on millions of phones

From my colleagues Dhruv and Dell

https://www.wired.com/story/meta-smart-glasses-face-recognition-nametag-connections/

#tech #privacy #meta

yes. The Reform are not wrong about their complaints about cost ...

2026-05-30T21:53:44Z

In reply to nevent1q…m9ac
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yes. The Reform are not wrong about their complaints about cost of living and are just mistaken about the cause. Deliberately lied to about the cause. Its not migration, its inequality. Its not refugees that are bidding up the cost of housing . its the rich.

Care homes. Of course. That's another obvious mission of ...

2026-05-28T19:40:49Z

In reply to nevent1q…0y5c
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Care homes. Of course. That's another obvious mission of BritCoOp.

Care homes owned by british workers who work to provide care in the care home to british workers who can no longer work.

Doesn't matter if it returns a profit if it cares for the workers from decades gone by who are it's owners.

You know there's a chance it would be legal for the King to ...

2026-05-28T19:09:55Z

In reply to nevent1q…0y5c
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You know there's a chance it would be legal for the King to just set up Brit-Coop as an act of resignation.

Transfer ownership of everything belonging to the crown to a new organization that has ownership by worker-hour, and a mission to rebuild the public infrastructure for the public good.

Use government connections to get it the contracts for welfare-money-for-training.

He won't. Nor will his kids.

Royals aren't about that. They aren't the country. They shouldn't be it's owners.

But it wouldn't be illegal I don't think. If anyone has his royal ear. His big ear.

#monarchy

My first draft of National Co-op's mission:<li>Train ...

2026-05-28T18:38:18Z

In reply to nevent1q…lcj9
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My first draft of National Co-op's mission:<li>Train workers</li><li>Replace Amazon</li><li>Rebuild transport network</li><li>Rebuild water network</li><li>Rebuild electricity network</li><li>Solar energy</li><li>Wind energy</li><li>Tidal energy</li><li>Microprocessor fabrication</li><li>Royal asset preservation, like museums in palaces and the like.</li><li>Reforestation</li>

That's to be going on with. What would you add?

I'd make its first mission really to replace Amazon with the ...

2026-05-28T18:38:09Z

In reply to nevent1q…geg9
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I'd make its first mission really to replace Amazon with the Royal Mail, which would become BritCo's mail service.

Building a web-site to be a store-front for every UK-retailer, with warehousing and processing done by British workers. Building BritCo for the future of the nation wouldn't even be that hard. Amazon is just a compute infrastructure and software. We need British versions of those things anyway. After that it's just warehouse space.

Alongside that you can clean the rivers and build green energy and generally a supply-chain that is owned by the workers and not by multinational private capital.

This path is probably not compatible with a rejoin-EU I'm afraid.

Not without reforming the EU first, and sadly that is also an institution basically owned by multinational private capital and in which you can get any policy you like so long as it enriches private multinational capital.

An actual job-guarantee is a brilliant plan, if you combine it ...

2026-05-28T18:37:56Z

In reply to nevent1q…w7cs
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An actual job-guarantee is a brilliant plan, if you combine it with national ownership of the public infrastructure and a new national worker-owned co-op, you could actually revitalize the country and take some wealth back from the multinational private corporations and into actual unalienable British hands.

Start BritCo: the British Co-op.

The state will subsidize worker's wages, in that anyone who wants a job is guaranteed one at the BritCo on minimum wage and if BritCo can't make profit from it then they get welfare money to train them up till they can.

BritCo is owned entirely and inalienably by the workers, past and present, with one share for every hour worked which can not be sold or paid at any other rate. Wages may differ, be more for skilled work than the minimum paid for training, but ownership is one share per hour worked (including during training).

BritCo's mission is to rebuild the national infrastructure.

Fix the pipes, clean the rivers, upgrade the grid, build open nationally-controlled software systems, hardware production, build green energy, build national wealth and infrastructure and make it owned not by private international capital but by the workers who built it.

The state must not own BritCo. Its workers do. So BritCo can't be privatized by a mis-elected 'conservative' government.

Everything currently 'royal' becomes BritCo. Owned by the workers. So do many previously nationalized industry. Compensate current owners if you must, I'd just renationalize it without recompense. Wasn't really the state's to sell you mate. Stolen property. Sorry.

Duh. They want to offer workfare again, a false 'job ...

2026-05-28T18:37:29Z

In reply to nevent1q…xlet
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Duh.

They want to offer workfare again, a false 'job guarantee' in which the state pays the wages of a worker working for a private company.

Tax-payers pay Tesco's shelf-stackers, and everyone wins somehow.

This plan that keeps coming up is of course a result of the utter take-over and ownership of the government by private multinational capital.

As a result, you can get a politician to propose a policy if and only if that policy transfers more wealth from public ownership into the hands of private multinational capital.

Our governments have become allergic to any idea that the people should own anything at all in common, that there should be any public ownership of anything at all.

Thatcher told them that Government was inefficient, and that's the lie which leads to privately owned water companies being unable to actually supply water, or keep the shit out of the rivers, because the private multinational capital that owns them all gives not one single fuck except for return on capital and fancy financial engineering.

The talking heads today are SHOCKED, SHOCKED to hear how terrible ...

2026-05-28T18:37:15Z

The talking heads today are SHOCKED, SHOCKED to hear how terrible it is failing to find work when you're a young person who isn't in education or training.

Laura K was surprised to hear that they aren't in fact all feckless layouts but nearly 90% of them would prefer to do some work for a wage really if only they could find someone willing to do the swap.

A new number is produced:

The state spends only one pound on trying to get people jobs for every twenty five pounds they spend on welfare for potential workers.

Laura K is shocked again.

I see where this is going.

Will the answer be to take money currently spent on the welfare of workers and instead give it to big business to subsidize their wage bill?

Will it?

🤔

#ukpol #privateOwnership #publicWealth #coOp

The man who committed the country to an illegal invasion and ...

2026-05-27T18:56:02Z

In reply to nevent1q…vne7
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The man who committed the country to an illegal invasion and helped murder iraqi's by the thousands due to being pulled blindly into American wars is here telling everyone the UK should have been more blindly willing to follow the latest stupid American wars of aggression.

If Blair shouldn't be in a care home for the insane he should be up in the Hague charged with war climes.

And here he is, still doing the 80s thing of encouraging American war crimes.

#blair #war #iran #iraq

Others have commented on his giving up on 'net zero' on ...

2026-05-27T18:06:40Z

In reply to nevent1q…f0lw
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Others have commented on his giving up on 'net zero' on this record breaking hottest day.

His AI companies need more power than we can generate from wind and solar you see. So they are going to want to burn the world and he's sure they must be right to do that because the UK is only smol and can't lead.

He is worried China might carry on burning coal even if we stop. Even though of course China is the country building the panels for everyone else to electrify.

China ain't the problem mate.

Decentralizing control over power: Economic, social, monetary, military, fashionably. All of it. That's the key.

Not key is having your country subsidize dirty centralized power generation because your AI buddies want a new data center.

What is it about the AI companies that invested billions of ...

2026-05-27T17:51:12Z

In reply to nevent1q…d5qz
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What is it about the AI companies that invested billions of pounds in your funds and companies which first made you think they might have the solution to modern ills Mr Blair?

Was it the first hundred million dollars, or did the subsequent hundreds of millions of dollars also help convince you?

#ai #blair #ukpol

Seems like he's suggesting 80s solutions to 2020s problems ...

2026-05-27T17:49:57Z

In reply to nevent1q…g4ar
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Seems like he's suggesting 80s solutions to 2020s problems then.

The very policies which didn't work (but instead ran up debt the state now has to pay) are the ones which can get us out of that mess, which those 80s solutions led us to?

How much more frequent do Tony Blair's "rare ...

2026-05-27T17:46:45Z

How much more frequent do Tony Blair's "rare interventions" have to get before the stenographers stop reporting them as 'rare'?

#ukpol #blair

No more donations to Wikipedia until their entire staff is ...

2026-05-27T11:51:31Z

No more donations to Wikipedia until their entire staff is unionized then. Ideally also the management fired.

https://medium.com/@jakeorlowitz/wikipedia-is-doing-the-capitalist-thing-56a393232943

#wikipedia #unions

instead of calling them customers , call them prey. 😏

2026-05-24T16:25:16Z

In reply to nevent1q…ywln
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instead of calling them customers , call them prey. 😏

Burnham is on the radio doing a launch speech. He thinks the ...

2026-05-22T10:11:29Z

In reply to nevent1q…ah0y
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Burnham is on the radio doing a launch speech.

He thinks the people of Makerfield are going to write the script for the whole UK.

Namechecks every local borough.

There's been forty years of policies that leave people struggling, that took away jobs, can't afford homes. [yep]

Namechecks some local companies and football teams and schools in a story about a football game. He lived here a long time and likes it.

It's unjust what Westminster has done to this place which makes him very angry.

So the election is a call for change, for these local people in particular, to the economy, education, transport, care, and politics.

More tech schools not concentrating only on university degrees.

He wants to get to the point where the council is building more homes than its losing. New cheap council homes.

Imagine some local person suddenly called to a job interview in the city, they have to pay 364 quid to get to the city. Re-nationalize rail to make rail fares sane.

His dad is in a care home. A local one. Its run for profit. Which needs to change so that it's provided on NHS terms with a social care system that supports the NHS.

We won't get those things without changing politics.

Manchester is the fastest growing city because of how he worked with business. He loves working with business too. Public "control" working with business over busses has been good in Manchester he recons [I think people generally agree, but I dunno]

Note, he says, how he's not been dissing the other parties. He doesn't want that. [Good actually]

He wants his own party to change too.

A vote for him is a vote to change Labour. To change it back to the one the people used to know. On the side of working class people and communities.

This is not a new journey, he has always been working to make the lives of local people better. Ever since his first day walking into the Labour club when the manager said "You're on, between the bingo and the turn, keep it short".

His three word slogan: I'm For Us.

Its a very good speech. He is very personable. Sounds like a normal person not remotely like a robot the way ministers tend to.

It does sounds a lot like what Starmer was saying when he was running for selection four years ago. He hasn't explained how he can do all that given the constraints Starmer thinks he is under. Which of those constraints are wrong.

That Andy Burnham will win this contest.

#UkPol #labour #makerField #andyBurnham

People are saying the public are massively uninformed because ...

2026-05-22T09:13:15Z

People are saying the public are massively uninformed because they think migration is going up even though actually net migration has gone down so much it's frankly a threat to the economy.

But the people don't think the way the statisticians think. When they are asked "Is migration going up" they say, "Yeah, sure, lots of extra migrants are turning up every year."

And they are NOT wrong. Net migration is still a positive number. The number of immigrants in the country is still increasing.

The idiots correctly think the press is just pulling a fast one. Doing some numbers trick to pretend the number of immigrants is going down when it is in fact still going up.

The idiots are wrong about whether immigration is good or bad, they are wrong about the reasons they want it to be lower, it is terrible news that net migration has dropped so high.

But they aren't wrong about the press trying to pull the wool over their eyes and trying to trick them into thinking it's going down when in fact it's just going up slower.

#migration #ukpol

I think the public are just trying to say that the number of ...

2026-05-22T08:40:48Z

In reply to nevent1q…65g5
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I think the public are just trying to say that the number of immigrants is still rising. Which it is. Net migration has fallen quite sharply, and that will cause all sorts of problems, but its still a positive number.

The people being asked want it negative. They don't want migration numbers to fall, they want the number of migrants already here to fall. They want deportations.

Which would cause even more problems but they falsely believe fewer people means more for each who remains.

> Chris Kennedy, a registered nurse and children's ...

2026-05-21T12:36:06Z

In reply to nevent1q…urnt
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> Chris Kennedy, a registered nurse and children's safeguarding specialist

So it's decided then, there is indeed to be a Green candidate at the by election. Phew. Seemed a bit last minute there, thought maybe there were gonna fail to find someone.

Suppose someone working in child safeguarding is probably pretty careful with his social media ranting and law abiding so that should be pretty safe hopefully.

Don't know him at all. Hopefully he'll get some air time, increase his profile, increase the green vote share.

How much the Green's time, effort, and money the party will spend on the campaign is still to be seen. Can certainly see the argument for not wasting resources in a campaign you're unlikely to win.

But hopefully the assembled world camera will get to hear the Green message at least.

#green #ukpol #makerfield #chrisKennedy

What is it Burnham is even offering to change? He talks a talk ...

2026-05-19T09:05:06Z

In reply to nevent1q…3jfp
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What is it Burnham is even offering to change? He talks a talk about public control over water companies and rail and power or whatever.

But does he even mean actual public ownership? Or just the kind of franchise systems he's so proud of running the local Manchester busses under.

He'll stick to the austerity, the fiscal rules, these artificial limits on government investment.

And if he loses the seat? Someone else in the party will surely stand up and say basically that. Raynor maybe, Milliband.

There is nothing to gain from standing back and helping Labour put their most popular candidate in place when their most popular candidate is still very shit.

Look, here's Richard Murphy on it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pBgR1Mvyh4

#green #makerField #ukpol

Yeah, the odds of winning are are much worse than ...

2026-05-19T08:51:45Z

In reply to nevent1q…sxzj
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Yeah, the odds of winning are are much worse than Gorton&Denton. G&D would have probably gone to Burnham if they'd let him stand even.

But the assembled world media will be pointing their spotlight on that contest and to step back and shut up during that would be very costly.

A Burnham win, with his keeping the Reeves spending limits and refusing to do PR, just isn't any better than Milliband leading Labour.

There's nothing to win by stepping down. Burnham is just as shit as the rest.

the national 'higher-ups' don't decide the local ...

2026-05-19T08:26:17Z

In reply to nevent1q…7cqt
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the national 'higher-ups' don't decide the local candidates. The local party does.

The national party has funding they may or may not allocate to the campaign.

When I say we should fight its not really proscriptive. Depends if the local party actually has a good candidate really, and I don't know that. The locals will know who is best from their number.

Assuming they have a Hannah Spencer equivalent I look forward to hearing from them.

Andy Burnham is not good. He can't promise PR, labour even ...

2026-05-19T07:58:14Z

In reply to nevent1q…9kv6
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Andy Burnham is not good. He can't promise PR, labour even under him will never back down in even one seat. This is the biggest opportunity to put green policy in front of the assembled world media and local voters in this century.

The last thing we should do is back down and shut up when the most important by election in decades is happening.

Burnham is not good. We should fight and present green policy to this media opportunity and hopefully win.

I don't remember ever disagreeing much with Caroline Lucas ...

2026-05-18T18:42:43Z

I don't remember ever disagreeing much with Caroline Lucas before.

But I disagree with her here entirely.

> urged the Greens not to stand against the Manchester Mayor if he is selected

Andy Burnham is NOT good. He is the least bad of a bad set of candidates the Labour party is scrambling for.

When will the Labour party, even Burnham's Labour Party, step aside for the Greens? Nowhere and never. They will never reciprocate and they will always slander and lie about our Green party.

Burnham has nothing to offer. He can't offer PR, he can't offer reversing Brexit, he can't offer even to get Labour to stand down a single seat at the next election.

The most important by election in the century, with the focus of the world's media concentrated on one tiny contest and Caroline thinks we should sit down and stand back and shut up?

Bollocks to that.

We need to stand, fight hard, and present the Green case to that assembled world media and local voters.

If Burnham wins or doesn't win, so what? Labour will still be shit. Burnham is shit. The country will not be saved.

Burnham is a blairite neoliberal brexiter.

I could see a stand-down for Clive Lewis or Corbyn or something but for Burnham?

No. Burnham sucks and we must fight him as hard as we can. Get the green case out in front of people in this unique incredible opportunity to get in front of the media spotlight.

Pick a good candidate and push them hard.

https://www.thenational.scot/news/26111397.green-grandee-caroline-lucas-says-party-help-andy-burnham/

#green #makerField #burnham #carolineLucas

Does seem mad that the markets are up like 20% in a month when ...

2026-05-15T11:19:30Z

In reply to nevent1q…y3du
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Does seem mad that the markets are up like 20% in a month when the Hormuz remains closed, oil remains a hundred dollars a barrel, and there's no end in sight.

Do you have any idea why that is?

Starmer is doing a thing about election results. Is he resigning? ...

2026-05-11T09:30:55Z

In reply to nevent1q…7yqd
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Starmer is doing a thing about election results. Is he resigning? :bounceface:

He says the elections were tough, he lost brilliant representatives. He feels the hurt and takes responsibility. Not just for the results, but also for explaining how they'll do better in the years ahead.

Times are dangerous, opponents are very dangerous, if we don't get it right the country will be on a very dark path.

He takes responsibility for navigation in this dangerous world and for not walking away.

Oh right, he's not resigning then. 😦

He says he'll prove his doubters wrong. He's learned a lot! And realizes now we need a bigger response to this unordinary times.

Times demand serious progressive leadership he says, and Zack or Nigel can't provide that. [Citation needed] Only Labour can [Really, come on, citation needed]

He's pleased to be reducing NHS waiting lists and crime, and for some reason is pleased migration is coming down too.

He says he realizes that people don't think Labour cares about them. So that's something.

So his plan to fix things after this election is to talk more about why he's doing things instead of just saying what he's doing.

Right. Sure. That'll help.

He admits millions of people, like his sister, don't get respect or help and are held back because the status quo doesn't work.

He says he's fighting for them but, eh, perhaps he should be doing that thing where he says more about why and how?

He says we need a complete break to take control of energy and defense and fairness (he isn't resigning though, not THAT complete a break)

"Strength Through Fairness, Hope and Urgency" is his plan.

Three concrete examples of the plan:<li>British Steel, hours away from closure, was rescued. They took control. Now, having failed to find a corporate buyer, they are going to give themselves power to take full national ownership of British Steel!</li>

Sure, about time, not like the Greens are against that.<li>Europe: Nigel said Brexit would make us richer and reduce migration and make us more secure but he was wrong on all counts! At next EU summit Starmer will once again set a new direction by rebuilding the relationship, putting Britian at the heart of Europe.</li>

Doesn't sound like he wants a re-join though, so not really sure what this means. The EU don't allow partial memberships or cherry picking benefits. Some kind of external heart I guess, an outside-body heart pump?<li>Every Child should have the opportunity to go as far as their talent can take them, so is he going to remove student fees and issue a grant to students, wipe out student loans? </li>

No. He's going to guarantee training or work placements to school leavers.

So in response to likely being unelected next time, he'll nationalize steel (now he's failed to find a corporate buyer anyway), is going to renegotiate with Europe (again, they have no better offers to give), and offer apprenticeships to education-leavers (who are still going to be mostly in debt by then).

Right.

Oh, and he's going to ban more marches too. Almost forgot that.

What a cock.

He did sound a bit passionate at least for a change.

#ukpol #starmer

In my ward the greens seem to have got about a third of the vote ...

2026-05-08T22:20:48Z

In my ward the greens seem to have got about a third of the vote vs Labour with the rest. 2:1

Which is a big improvement. 300 or so neighbors to turn.

In the borough we've gone from unanimous Labor to about a third Green. Which is oddly proportional to my ward. Not really sure I understand the actual counting system with the three votes I had or if it's PR or not.

Nationally its awful for Labour but also worse for the country since outside London they lost mostly to the Reform (nee Brexit) party/private-company.

Conservatives seem irrelevant, even Lib Dems more important.

I've been casting doubt upon the idea of an imminent Reform government, saying it'd be unprecedented for Reform to go from one ever elected MP to 400 MPs in a single election. But these elections feel pretty close to that kind of swing.

Starmer says he'll stay on. He has no concept of what government should do other than give tax breaks to businesses to try to get economic growth, and crack down in authoritarian ways with increased surveillance and ID checks and prosecuting protestors.

He doesn't seem to realize that government can just do things, especially after Brexit. It can just pay people to build infrastructure owned by and giving profit to the state. It does not need private investment. Isn't that supposed to be the point of a Labour party?

So things will continue to get worse and Labour will continue to chase Reform policies (and so validate them). So Reform may well win.

There is one hope. Burnham could resign as mayor, a safe-seat MP could resign, and Burnham stands there. Assuming he wins he could then stand for leadership. And then if he wins and then actually does something despite the protest of the right wing of his own party, maybe things could get better.

That's a lot of conditionals. You'd want good odds to place a bet on that.

Or the greens of course. These elections have seen hundreds of new green councilors. The momentum is good. Probably take the council here next time unless that Burnham things happens.

So good for Greens, but better for Reform, and we could do with a Labour party which wasn't failing.

Oh well. Fingers crossed I guess. Few more years till the national ones.

#ukpol

UK Media is shrill over Zack Polanski pressing a retweet on a ...

2026-05-01T10:21:22Z

UK Media is shrill over Zack Polanski pressing a retweet on a post wondering if some cops used excessive force.

Apparently police are so weak that someone retweeting about them using excessive force might stop them wanting to use any force at all! We'll be overrun with crime because the police will be too scared to do anything in case the leader of the 4th largest party retweets something mean about them.

This is very important they shriek, all in a panic, and surely shows that the Green party want criminals to rule the country.

#ukpol #media #green #zackPolanski

Peter Singer is a Consequentialist Hedonic Utilitarian Ethicist. ...

2026-04-23T19:17:51Z

Peter Singer is a Consequentialist Hedonic Utilitarian Ethicist.

It's his professional job to be good at ethics and teach others about ethics.

He thinks the best ethics are judged by the consequences, and that good is the best for the most people.

He has a podcast. It's probably great. He is cool. I only just heard about it.

But this is his website.

The podcast is offered on Spotify and Apple.

It has an AI chat bot that isn't even prompted well to sound like Peter for no reason at all.

It has a embed for a substack.

That embed for a substack is expired because it's run by a thing called Supascribe that is presumably some software as a service scam.

Below that is a cookie permissions banner which is asking for permission to spy on you for advertisers even though there are no actual adverts on the site.

There are links at the top and bottom to Facebook and Instagram.

There is no RSS feed embedded in the page.

I repeat: Peter Singer is actually pretty cool, and he thinks about ethics sanely.

This is the web we have built. Where a professional Consequentialist Hedonic Utilitarian Ethicist does all this.

#web #ethics #peterSinger

Gary's back after making his documentary for Channel four and ...

2026-04-12T13:54:39Z

Gary's back after making his documentary for Channel four and he's frustrated and face-palming at the utter political ineptitude of the UK Labour Party that mean a collapse of 200 years of political bipartisan ship.

Great long rant.

He wants it to be the case that the Labour party have to do wealth taxes or they'll lose the next election, so they'll do wealth taxes.

What he doesn't seem to understand is Labour don't care if they win the next election, their mission is to protect the capital of their donors. Same as the other party in that two party system.

I long for the death of the two party system more than he seems to though. I'd rather have PR than Wealth Taxes and I'm sure he's the other way.

He is going to tell his viewers how to vote in 3 weeks time, and is pleading with Labour to make him an offer to say "Labour"

I will be voting Green whatever Gary says though. Even if they give Gary a convincing lie about how they might not protect their donor's capital after all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBsau5GlYcU

Twitter: grok Bluesky: attie fediverse: @npub14we…7739

2026-03-29T08:55:29Z

In reply to nevent1q…8n35
_________________________

Twitter: grok
Bluesky: attie
fediverse: Endless Screaming (npub14we…7739)

RE: https://social.coop/@cwebber/116308252323044128 The year of ...

2026-03-28T21:24:32Z

RE: https://social.coop/@cwebber/116308252323044128

The year of the Linux laptop agent?

quoting
note1a0w…vj5n

Yolo Linux https://yololinux.com/

I see no sign of any recognition from those who would want such a ...

2026-03-17T20:13:01Z

In reply to nevent1q…p7q7
_________________________

I see no sign of any recognition from those who would want such a ban that they see any of the collateral damage a successful ban would have on the majority of kids who are not falling for this bullshit. That they are banning any good at all along with the bad.

Under 18s only

I see that the lobbying for these laws are funded by the absolute worst companies on the internet, those who will be entrenched by the legal compliance costs, that will cement themselves as the arbitrators of who is allowed to access the internet.

It’s a gift to Palantir and other surveillance companies. The very people running these algo-feeds are the ones who benefit from IDing every user and stalking them across the internet on their government-approved internet-licence IDs.

I don’t think even a successful ban on social media for kids would actually address the issue of kids being exposed to sexism and misogony or reduce the kids alienation and depression.

A ban can’t help, will make many things worse, won’t address the problem, and will make competing with the worst surveillance capitalists on the planet more difficult.

Going to war with every internet site and advice forum and making internet access harder won’t fix anything, and will have massive collateral damage against everyone seeking support from strangers or trying to learn things their parents won’t teach them.

But I see we are going to do it anyway.

The direction is clear.

Those companies do get what they lobby for, and they are lobbying hard for ID checks on every website, wrapping their desire to enclose the internet commons for themselves in a faux concern for children’s welfare.

And governments wish to monitor and control the internet, so they will pass these laws.

I wonder how many parents have a family group-chat that they’re going to accidentally ban their kids from using, not realizing that ‘social media’ might include Whatsapp? 😆

It won’t fix anything, it will make the situation for kids worse, impose costs and rents and hacks and exploits on all of us, and increase government and corporate power.

Many will lose access to their networks of support and help.

So it goes.

We will build a better more censorship resistant internet. It’s already here really: Briar. Matrix. Nostr. Bitchat. Veilid. Spritely. And the rest.

The laws may push us there faster.

The race will go on.

None of these surveillance companies trying to break your kid’s ...

2026-03-17T20:12:45Z

In reply to nevent1q…yckh
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None of these surveillance companies trying to break your kid’s brains would exist if we hadn’t made it illegal to reverse engineer their manipulative crappy software and produce compatible none-manipulative clones.

But they have been granted legal monopoly, so they can do what they like.

If you want a law to protect internet users it isn’t

> “Force them to consent before you spy on them”

or

> “age-gate chat forums”,

No. The real solutions are more like:

> “Buying and selling data about an individual is illegal and punishable by years in jail and a penalty of 2x yearly profit”

or

> “Advertising must be based on the content of the page context not the tracking of the individual”.

If a legal intervention is warranted then we don’t want a system where website operators have to pick between a list of monopoly providers to hand over their data to and force them all to spy on their users to age-check.

We want companies to be explicitly allowed to reverse engineer and reproduce other company’s proprietary access methods, to increase competition and end these rentier monopolies that allow them to push their manipulative phone apps.

End the DMCA and the similar laws which they campaigned for to prevent competition. It’s those laws which give the corporations the power to push their algorithms and limit alternatives.

There is support for these laws because people think the only ...

2026-03-17T20:12:07Z

In reply to nevent1q…c03e
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There is support for these laws because people think the only consequence of a ban on a thing is that the thing stops existing.

For instance: Heroin is dangerous and addictive? Ban it then.

And suddenly you have organized crime and a grey market and criminal gangs shooting each other in the streets while addicts can’t seek help and have to resort to crime to fund their addiction. Their lives more chaotic and criminal than ever. Our streets are littered in needles.

Well done everyone.

Now we think algorithmic social media may be mind bending?

Shall we ban it? For kids? Even if we can’t define it?

If you break kids access to the internet you sacrifice all the good that the majority of kids are getting from it for an ineffective solution which won’t fix anything and will mean massive increases in government surveillance and censorship. To data-hordes being hacked and people suffering ID theft.

And it won’t help.

Misogyny and sexism and depression are older than the internet.

Plus of course kids remain better at accessing computers than their parents. You’re going to end up breaking the internet for adults who can’t figure out how to verify while the kids start to use VPNs and stolen IDs to browse 4chan.

Reading algorithmic feeds is a crazy thing to do: abandoning ...

2026-03-17T20:11:09Z

In reply to nevent1q…4tpc
_________________________

Reading algorithmic feeds is a crazy thing to do: abandoning control over your own influences to a robot programmed by advertisers to manipulate you?

Madness.

I will not allow a robot programmed by advertisers and surveillance capitalists to determine what I read.

I don’t read any robo-feeds and don’t recommend anyone else does.

But people do:

> Top five highest reaching smart phone apps:<li>Whatsapp</li><li>Facebook</li><li>Instagram</li><li>Gmail</li><li>Youtube</li>

All designed to harvest data from your phone, three of them owned by one creepy billionaire, and most people use them by looking at a robo-feed suggesting to them what to read and watch or filter.

I don’t use any of them.

I watch some Youtube, but not though their app. Uninstalled that from my phone as soon as I got it. It’s an awful downgrade of just playing in a browser page. I subscribe to some channels there in my RSS reader like a boss. Never watch what their recommendation algorithms suggests.

I tell them what I want to watch, I don’t let them tell ME what to watch, and frankly I wish all those videographers would start a peertube instance or something instead of posting their work on a corporate surveillance site.

I say you should avoid that algorithm stuff, it’s crazy manipulative.

But people should be free to do what they want.

I’m free to block Facebook! And I do: and I encourage everyone else to do so too.

Edit your DNS, block their domain names. Do it.

But if governments or corporations have the power to mandate those choices for everyone, it will go badly.

Prohibitions always do.

> But the idea here is to keep kids safe! No: the idea is to ...

2026-03-17T20:10:15Z

> But the idea here is to keep kids safe!

No: the idea is to assign identity to every user and try to monitor and control the internet though corporate means.

That’s the only reason we’re talking seriously about the laws that government and capital are trying to pass.

That lobbying money is not being spent to protect kids.

The Epstine-class oligarchs doing this don’t give a damn about your children’s safety let alone some useless counter productive methods of ensuring it.

I don’t trust the government with totalitarian power nor the companies they would employ to run their age-gate for them, nor the companies currently running social media.

They are the ones running the algorithms that are pushing propaganda at your kids right now.

You think it’s a coincidence these laws are being proposed all ...

2026-03-17T20:08:39Z

In reply to nevent1q…7uzp
_________________________

You think it’s a coincidence these laws are being proposed all over the world all at once?

Nope.

Giant companies run by surveillance capitalists are spending billions of dollars on lobbying governments all over the world.

See https://tboteproject.com/

The reasons for this lobbying are nefarious.

The bans will entrench existing companies ensuring no small company is able to compete. These massive entrenched companies will be able to afford the identity checking and compliance costs, tiny start ups not so much.

You can see why Facebook lobby so hard in favour of these laws. If their app WhatsApp is defined as the only group messenger allowed for kids by law, that is very nice for them.

Perhaps compliance is actually cheap and easy and small companies can afford it?

Certainly not if they are trying to compete in terms of privacy. They have to turn over their user ID data to a monopolist vetting company by law.

At best: we give the government the power to impose massive costs on any company they decided to add to a list of companies that count as social media. Impose costs and force them to hand over their user data to Palantir and the like.

Even if you trust the current lot of idiots in power to not abuse this whole-internet global tracking data, that is quite a totalitarian system to hand over to the really bad guys when they get elected next time.

> Can’t we just have age-proving tokens that prove age not ...

2026-03-17T20:05:15Z

In reply to nevent1q…hl8w
_________________________

> Can’t we just have age-proving tokens that prove age not ID?

Nope.

If such tokens exist I’d be pretty tempted to sell them to teenagers myself, and I’m not even trying to get the teenagers into bed.

If the age-proof methods prove who you are, they are dystopian surveillance systems and an advertising corporation’s dream.

If they do not prove who you are, they are sellable on the black markets in exchange for whatever teenagers have that grown ups want.

There is no way you can identify children in order to treat their accounts differently without creating a massive database of all internet users which is an identity-theft honey-pot, and is already leading to constant leaks of user data from terrible companies.

Those companies promising they can do the impossible and age-gate the internet are the very ones profiting from abuse and internet surveillance already.

They are the ones feeding your kids sexist racist right wing propaganda and depression from their algorithms then using the money to bribe politicians to entrench their position.

Not to mention that banning under 18s means identifying every ...

2026-03-17T20:04:52Z

In reply to nevent1q…mx7d
_________________________

Not to mention that banning under 18s means identifying every user: A government ID required to access the internet.

How about if I’m posting in a chat for an environmental protest group, or an anti-capitalist group, or against genocide, or in a queer support group in a country with laws against homosexuality? Should they have my Government ID attached as proof of age?

An age-gate is asking for an internet licence and a single unified monitored ID across the whole internet. It’s dystopian surveillance-state authoritarianism. It is not desirable, even if it were possible, which it isn’t given black markets in stolen ID etc.

What is “social media”? What do you actually want to ban? ...

2026-03-17T19:59:07Z

In reply to nevent1q…a54g
_________________________

What is “social media”?

What do you actually want to ban?

Does Github count?

Does an anorexia-support forum count?

Does a queer-support forum count?

Does the schools own homework-submission system count?

Does Whatsapp, which the kids use to talk to family and to bully each other?

How about Telegram that the kids use to talk to their drug dealers?

How is it different?

Are we really saying nobody under 18 can watch youtube, and expecting that to make life better for those kids rather than worse?

How are you going to define ‘social media’ such that you’ll ban the harm you think you see without also banning any chance of support for a person looking to learn to program, or cope with their abusive parents, or seek advice about being anorexic or queer?

Is it really a good idea to attach a label to every child account for all the websites they visit? You want the kids to all have a big “Child” tag on them as they wonder the net? Might that not increase rather than decrease their vulnerability?

Got a bit ranty on a chat thread elsewhere yesterday when some ...

2026-03-17T19:46:02Z

Got a bit ranty on a chat thread elsewhere yesterday when some were arguing for social media age-gates and the like.

Summarized here into a blog post.

[The Age-Gate Rant](https://dalliance.net/blog/agegate/ )

> The kids are not okay, and lots of people seem to think it’s the kid’s phones and social media that’s doing it so lets simply ban kids from social media.

> Simple!

> Only: it doesn’t sound very simple to me.

On the other hand, any service you pay for with a credit card has ...

2026-03-03T10:37:23Z

In reply to nevent1q…xy0q
_________________________

On the other hand, any service you pay for with a credit card has already done so really. I would prefer ways to pay where you don't have to but long ago accepted my ID goes onto anything I pay for. Which means hosting, internet bandwidth service, VPN, domain-names, phone service and more.

It is such a mystery, why do American presidents start patriotic ...

2026-03-02T00:39:38Z

It is such a mystery, why do American presidents start patriotic wars far from home when they are unpopular and the mid-terms are coming up and there's incriminating evidence against them in the news every day. 🧐 🤔

Nothing like this has ever happened before.

Some say he's doing what he promised and ending the forever wars!... By winning them!

Israel thinks that having the country next door fall to chaos and civil war makes them less of a threat. I don't think that's right, but I think that's what motivates them. Those in charge of it's military want that Greater Israel with bigger borders and smaller neighbours.

Trump thinks he can go down in history as the saviour of the world and if he just chops off the head of the regime the people will rise up and be a liberal democracy. I don't think that's right either. He thinks similarly about Venusualia.

The US administration aim to take control of the global oil supply for private American and multinational owned corporations. Their power is rooted in control of the literal power supply. Oil. Distributed clean energy is a threat to their power. They want to stop all this solar windmill crap and go back to good old fashioned tax and control of centralized oil distribution hubs.

Starmer just thinks he has no choice and he has to do what America says and can't risk the Telegraph and the Mail calling him antisemitic. He falsely accused thousands of not-terrorists of terrorism and is putting them through courts as terrorists for the same reason.

I mean seriously, his response to this is to say that he wants ...

2026-02-27T12:03:51Z

In reply to nevent1q…9a4f
_________________________

I mean seriously, his response to this is to say that he wants change.

He's the one in power now, he needs to stop telling everyone we need change now that he's the one we'd be changing, surely?

Stuck on the same opposition message without any plans for any actual concrete action other than the same mantra that he was saying when he lucked into a win as the conservatives imploded.

Thanks to Starmer's excellent stewardship, the Labour party ...

2026-02-27T11:31:32Z

In reply to nevent1q…85p0
_________________________

Thanks to Starmer's excellent stewardship, the Labour party ruled out their best candidate for factional reasons, told the electorate how Reform were correct about immigration but Labour will do half as much about it, and alienated his base voters so much he went from a massive majority to third place behind the party he's been chasing.

If Labour continue to try and ape Reform instead of debunking them, if they continue to do everything the billionaires want instead of taxing them, continue to suck up to Trump and US capital instead of striving for sovereignty, they will continue to lose voters. Alienate the left while encouraging and emboldening the right.

"I came into politics to fight for change" he says.

Agreed. Lets have some change.

Note that all the news and polls were saying it would be ...

2026-02-27T10:51:20Z

In reply to nevent1q…49df
_________________________

Note that all the news and polls were saying it would be incredibly close, and then it wasn't even a bit close except for the second place position.

Funny how the polls always end up biased towards conservatism and the status quo.

Love how Reform warn the greens represent dangerous sectarianism. 😆 You should be afraid of the big bad evil green menace! 😆

Yes! Nice one Gorton. Well done Denton. Greens more than 40 ...

2026-02-27T09:20:11Z

In reply to nevent1q…a9aw
_________________________

Yes! Nice one Gorton. Well done Denton.

Greens more than 40 percent.

That's how you do it everyone, replicate this at the national level now.

> Look out everyone, Zack and the Evil Green Menace are going ...

2026-02-26T18:41:03Z

> Look out everyone, Zack and the Evil Green Menace are going to get you and give you free cocaine and cannabis. They're going to ban your landlord and allow refugees to earn a wage and tax you and they might even stop funding radical genocidal war in the middle east.

> Vote carefully man! You should be scared!

-- The entire press.

Our media are entirely hilarious, threaten me with a good time.

My dad was a professional meter-reader working for the ...

2026-02-22T00:22:12Z

In reply to nevent1q…lggv
_________________________

My dad was a professional meter-reader working for the electricity board, doing door to door, reading the dials.

Now that job has disappeared. The work has been unloaded onto me, the poor customer, who has to submit a reading every month or so, just for my own house.

They want to upgrade me to a "smart" meter, which they can presumably read remotely. I am ignoring their pleas to organize a date the the meter change-over. In my experience "Smart" means "Exploitative".

would a graduate tax apply to people already graduated or only ...

2026-02-15T10:40:21Z

In reply to nevent1q…fqzs
_________________________

would a graduate tax apply to people already graduated or only new graduates? If the former, could some end up paying loan repayments and also graduate tax? Would MPs, mostly graduates, really vote to tax themselves?

Seems complex compared to just subsidsing education from general tax like a civilised country.

Palestine Action have never been a terrorist group, have never ...

2026-02-13T10:49:52Z

Palestine Action have never been a terrorist group, have never tried to terrorize the British public. The attempt to classify them as one was unjust, authoritarian, and motivated by support for a foreign state committing war crimes.

I'm mostly just surprised that judges appointed by the British state operating in secret agree. Usually they back the corrupt British state entirely.

Shabana Mahmood should be resigning in disgrace, suspected of treachery. Every MP and Lord that waved the proscription through through should be ashamed and probably also fired.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/feb/13/uk-ban-palestine-action-unlawful-high-court-judges-rule

[This message should not be read as support for Palestine action, which would be illegal, but instead just contempt for the authoritarian corrupt UK government]

#ukpol #palestineAction

She's entirely charming, and not some representative of ...

2026-02-12T20:41:22Z

In reply to nevent1q…v0rk
_________________________

She's entirely charming, and not some representative of billionaires bought and paid for.

Hard to imagine how anyone could watch her talking to Zack for an hour here and then vote for someone else, out of what? Loyalty to Labour that have shown no loyalty to you? Hate with reform who run an our of town GBeebies lunatic?

Will Farage interview his mad candidate for an hour? Will Starmer? Would doing so do anything other than expose those candidates and turn everyone off?

[Some context: Her dogs are greyhounds, rescued from mistreatment in the gambling and racing industry.]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCy0VdHTVvs

#gortonAndDenton #labour #green #reform #hannahSpencer

Zack's right of course. Labour only really look incoherent if ...

2026-02-12T19:44:30Z

Zack's right of course. Labour only really look incoherent if you assume they are trying to do good for the country or win elections for themselves.

If you assume they have been bought and paid for by the oil, gas, arms-trade, private health-care and gambling industry and don't care if they're unpopular just want to do what they've been paid to do they look perfectly coherent.

Labour bar their best candidate, Reform run some knob head off of GBNews, and the Greens run a great working class candidate from the local area who can speak her mind well and explain the way the rest of politics, including Reform, is run by billionaires.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtPojDOwptQ

#green #ukpol #zackPolanski

This is why peertube is such a struggle. Video hosting costs are ...

2026-02-06T11:09:20Z

In reply to nevent1q…a3q8
_________________________

This is why peertube is such a struggle. Video hosting costs are incredible. Anything with unlimited open signup is going to bankrupt itself leaving the users without a host.

I think that Peertube and likely any video platform really needs, much more than Mastodon etc, to be self-hosted. Only if you're paying for your own storage do you really know if things are worth archiving and keeping in perpetuity.

There's no way it's really cheaper to put a data center ...

2026-02-01T10:19:07Z

In reply to nevent1q…5g2j
_________________________

There's no way it's really cheaper to put a data center in space where hardware has to be radiation hardened and induction cooling is next to impossible and repair and replacement of hard drives and chips is next to impossible and launch costs rival building a tower block.

Hahhahhaa. 😆 The Labour party are utterly determined that they ...

2026-01-25T12:44:01Z

Hahhahhaa. 😆

The Labour party are utterly determined that they will obliterate themselves by proving themselves to be run by an executive committee who will not tolerate anything but extractive neoloberal capitalism,

They are a party against their own members.

> Andy Burnham has been blocked from standing as a candidate for an upcoming parliamentary by-election in Gorton and Denton by Labour's ruling body.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czr4e7ep468o

#ukpol #labour #burnham

Remember when the internet used to be a thing you could use to ...

2026-01-24T01:10:37Z

Remember when the internet used to be a thing you could use to organize and spread word of your protest and dissatisfaction? It could spark an arab spring or bring down a government.

Now it's all like, oh, there's a protest and threat of general strike so Facebook are suppressing posts from the area and Twitter and demoting anything mentioning the hashtag.

We really should have never let the corporations control the selection algorithms. Not only do they distort it for money from advertisers, they suppress messages that conflict with their billionaire capitalist owner's interests in any way at all.

We must decententralize and decorporatize the internet. Its our only hope.

Solidarity with y'all striking and marching today. I see you here. I see that they can't see you from over there. The corporate internet is as selectively focused as the newspapers were now.

Run Zack Run! Glad to see lots of people liking and sharing the ...

2026-01-23T10:53:24Z

Run Zack Run!

Glad to see lots of people liking and sharing the Green Party England&Wales broadcast this week. It's striking.

Hope it's happening in the corporate spaces too, though presumably the capitalist leaders there suppress it with their algorithms.

Zack is in general doing such a great job of speaking my mind really it's unreal.

All the other leaders just seem dazed and confused, trying hard to maintain the status quo, ensure that capital power persists and they don't offend their corporate donors.

Or worse, just blaming the poor and the helpless and threatening that hurting people will solve the problems England and Wales face (it won't).

Here's hoping it has some impact and the Green Party make huge progress because the country seems likely to just get worse and worse under any of the other party's policies and positions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bF_a_w7Dozo

#green #greenParty #zackPolanski

Yep, every podcast should have it's own fedi server and then ...

2026-01-14T00:15:38Z

In reply to nevent1q…mspa
_________________________

Yep, every podcast should have it's own fedi server and then the podcast wars can get really heated as the various podcast factions block and de-federate each other. 😁

Hope it goes great for them. That seems to be twice their target number already. More isn't necessarily better and it's hard enough being an admin when you aren't also a n00b.

Hummm. Wonder if the UK will have to support the USA invading ...

2026-01-03T10:42:14Z

Hummm. Wonder if the UK will have to support the USA invading Venezuela because it's a member of Nato?

Or if we'll just support it because we also want western oil companies to have access to those oil fields?

Or maybe we'll sanction the USA like we sanctioned Russia for their illegal invasion?

No? Why is everyone laughing?

Anyway. These days it's cool to invade other countries and kidnap their presidents to steal their oil it seems. Even though the oil needs to stay in the ground.

🙄

#war #venezuela

Nice to see a UK party leader demonstrate some actual compassion ...

2025-12-26T08:40:32Z

Nice to see a UK party leader demonstrate some actual compassion and care this Christmas. I'm so fed up with politicians pedaling hate and division trying to pander to terrible racism and xenophobia, trying to pick up the votes of the hateful.

This is what political leadership really is. Not following the right wing media hatred but countering it.

Zack Polanski's Christmas message is less than five minutes.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=lopMMkz0law

#green #christmas

Seems silly. Everyone was shouting that there was a bubble in ...

2025-12-04T13:59:18Z

In reply to nevent1q…q69y
_________________________

Seems silly. Everyone was shouting that there was a bubble in tech stocks in 1999 too and that time they were right.

So the temporary placeholder name "Your Party" is made ...

2025-12-01T18:42:40Z

So the temporary placeholder name "Your Party" is made permanent.

None of the options on the shortlist were good. Most of them just as grammatically inconvenient as the dumb placeholder name.

The people who decide on the short-list, who can be a member, whose votes counts and what the options are, have quite a lot of power.

Zara Sultana boycotted day one over who sets the rules and who can be involved. If Your Party have a governing body with power to override conference they end up like the Labour party and just are easily taken over and usurped by a cabal of thatcherite neoliberal capitalists.

They did allow the dual membership system and a wider governance, so Zara won on who gets to be a member and who gets to be in charge. Which is probably good.

Coz as the terrible name shows, if you put the idiots in charge you'll get idiocy not good collective decision making.

For now the membership appear to have won, and I hear are they are all very excited and fierce and canny and not likely to let the old guard just set up another dictatorship from the top.

They currently have half the membership count of the greens, less than a quarter that claimed by Reform. Lets hope they can get some attention towards something other than how billionaires think the country should be run and focus on the people.

Here's hoping they can inflate that number by draining the Labour party and Reform members who just want change really rather than actually liking anything said by Farage.

#yourParty #ukpol

bitcoin leeds the way, just as it did in 2022. It sniffs out ...

2025-11-24T09:22:06Z

In reply to nevent1q…hww4
_________________________

bitcoin leeds the way, just as it did in 2022. It sniffs out liquidity issues way before the rest of the markets cos it's so liquid and speculative and markets never close.

I think rather than bitcoin being to blame, it's the leading indicator that people don't have any money.

Markets can't go up if ICE have kicked out a bunch of the customers and scared away even more and business have sacked all the workers.

Bitcoin is affected first and hardest, but the root cause is just that nobody has any money to buy because there's a recession everywhere except ai investment which will never be profitable.

I thought the Steam one was indeed going to be a stand alone ...

2025-11-13T23:54:24Z

In reply to nevent1q…vfwm
_________________________

I thought the Steam one was indeed going to be a stand alone device as well as having a link to a PC, just as the Quest does?

Facebook should feel threatened though. It doesn't even have to be better than their headset to be better than their product. It just has to only be a VR headset that plays games and not try to also be a surveillance machine nudging you into VR meetings.

Weird to see Sky News, owned by Rupert Murdoch who has no formal ...

2025-11-06T09:02:31Z

Weird to see Sky News, owned by Rupert Murdoch who has no formal authority in the UK but uses his newspapers to control narratives and push right wing content and politicians he favors, complain that Elon Musk has no formal authority in the UK and yet has the power to control narratives and push right-wing content, extreme content, and politicians Musk favors.

🤔

Still, interesting report pointing out those things, and it all just highlights how important it is that these spaces have no owners.

https://news.sky.com/story/the-x-effect-how-elon-musk-is-boosting-the-british-right-13464487#

#twitter #sky #media

Shorting is a mugs game. Even if you're right you can lose it ...

2025-10-29T22:32:44Z

In reply to nevent1q…008s
_________________________

Shorting is a mugs game. Even if you're right you can lose it all if the market doubles in the weeks before it crashes.

I am not shorting.

I am reducing risk, and trying to ensure I have some cash equivalent around for buying the bottom.

> You'll never need a digital ID for NHS Says Starmer, and ...

2025-10-24T12:50:33Z

> You'll never need a digital ID for NHS

Says Starmer, and literally the only people in the entire world who believe him is the UK press.

He doesn't believe it himself, the civil servants making the policy don't believe it, the programmers making the app don't believe it, the public at large don't believe anything he says.

Only the reporters show any credence at all. They are programmed to just repeat the words without even assessing if they are true. That's what journalism is now.

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/digital-ids-nhs-keir-starmer-7wdxs8kqw

#nhs #digitalId #Starmer

The apocalypse came in 2000 and then again in 2008. 50% drops in ...

2025-10-16T08:12:11Z

In reply to nevent1q…d07t
_________________________

The apocalypse came in 2000 and then again in 2008. 50% drops in the S&P that take years to recover like that come fairly often.

Well if I can't have a peace prize then I might as well ...

2025-10-10T23:27:51Z

Well if I can't have a peace prize then I might as well tariff China and smash all the stock markets.<li>Tantrum Trump. Tantrump, if you will.</li>

If at first your protest doesn't succeed, try, try again. But ...

2025-10-06T17:08:02Z

If at first your protest doesn't succeed, try, try again. But after that you are legally obligated to give up or risk arrest. 😆

Hard to imaging those who are protesting by getting arrested for bogus terrorism laws giving much of a shit if instead they are arrested for protesting too many times.

What a joke. You can't just legally define a false thing as true. Palestine Action are not a terror group, even if you define them as one in law you authoritarian crazed lunatics.

I wish this government would just fuck the hell off. Imagine being more authoritarian and illiberal than the conservative party. 🙄

> Police forces will be granted powers to put conditions on repeat protests, the government has announced, a day after nearly 500 protesters were arrested.

RE: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c24rmdngrrjo

#ukpol #protest #authoritarian

Dunno that "mandate" is quite the right word for setting ...

2025-10-03T10:40:42Z

In reply to nevent1q…0jdk
_________________________

Dunno that "mandate" is quite the right word for setting up the system so that every pull request to the codebase gets reviewed by the AI bot, but since it's use is unavoidable that's what I voted.

It's caught some bugs before they're published, and hallucinated many problems which aren't really there.

But all the code we write is being reviewed by robots now, and so the code is written slightly differently to avoid it going on about issues that aren't really there.

People imagine that code is written for the computer to run, but really it's always been written for the programmers to understand. Now it's also written for the ai that has no context or understanding to review.

The cops and the government suggest that tomorrow's protest ...

2025-10-03T09:34:06Z

The cops and the government suggest that tomorrow's protest against the proscription of Palestine Action should be postponed because a crazy person done some murders.

The home secretary says

> “If the point of protest is to stand up for something and persuade other people that you are right, then I think this is entirely the wrong way to go about it, but that is on their conscience.”

That is not the point of the protest. The point of the protest is to show that the proscription of a non violent protest organization under terrorism laws is ridiculous and unenforceable as well as being a massive waste of police and court time.

Delaying the protest would harm that demonstration. The police are over stretched and can't enforce this stupid counter-productive proscription without compromising their duty elsewhere.

Demonstrating that is the point of the protest, and police saying "We are too stretched to arrest all these demonstrators" just reinforces that point all the more.

You know what police and government? You could just not persecute non violent protestors as terrorists. That'd solve your over-stretched police resources problem in one stroke!

#palestineAction #ukpol #protest

Ah, the left, can't even wait until there's a name and a ...

2025-09-18T17:06:57Z

Ah, the left, can't even wait until there's a name and a membership list before you split eh?

YourNameHere Party isn't even a party yet and there's fights. Sultana launches a full on membership join-up site and then Corbyn claims it ain't the right one.

🤣 🙄

And there isn't even any policy to argue about yet. Factions forming just over who is in control of organizing conference and taking membership fees.

Well done everyone ❤️

Join the greens 🟢

#ukpol #yourParty

they all look pretty much the same to me.

2025-09-16T23:31:40Z

In reply to nevent1q…4kkh
_________________________

they all look pretty much the same to me.

Well Zack's won, convincingly, 20k votes to 3k votes for the ...

2025-09-02T11:07:15Z

In reply to nevent1q…spvf
_________________________

Well Zack's won, convincingly, 20k votes to 3k votes for the others.

So that's good.

Now lets see if he can make the media actually reflect the message like they reflect Farage constantly.

Gonna be harder for anti-capitalists than pro-capitalists, what with the media all being owned by the capital.

#ZackPolanski #green #uk

People are disrespecting the flag of Saint George by spraying it ...

2025-09-01T18:14:52Z

People are disrespecting the flag of Saint George by spraying it on roads and graffitiing it on houses and plastering cheap tacky ones on lampposts.

The prime minister was on the radio asked about flags. He's always been a flag-shagger. He said he's very proud of the flag.

Proud of a flag?

What does this even mean? How can you be proud of a pattern on a cloth that you didn't even design or print yourself?

Proud of your badges? What? It isn't even one you picked, it's one you were born under.

We don't need no stinking badges.

It's because people mistake the symbol for the thing it symbolizes. They think in magic. The flag isn't just a symbol with a referent, it IS the country. They feel attachment and pride to the symbol, because they feel attachment and pride for the country.

In England you can choose between two flags:

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 The flag of the crusades, when marauding Christians fought across Europe to murder Muslims.

🇬🇧 The flag of the empire, when the island's nobility violently enslaved and pillaged a third of the world.

🤔

And people say they are proud of the flag, mistaking the symbol for those acts which they symbolize. Proud of this?

The people who paint roundabouts claim to think they are being patriotic somehow, but painting the flag of the crusades on a mosque isn't patriotic. It's just aggressive and deliberately threatening.

These people aren't my people.

Think the country needs a new flag really. Maybe something with more rainbow in it. 🏳️‍🌈

#ukpol #flags

Voting in the UK Green party elections is half over. Too late to ...

2025-08-16T10:40:52Z

Voting in the UK Green party elections is half over. Too late to join the party and vote, and sounds like Zack is very likely to win.

Which is good. I voted for him.

I think the job-share rule is important and that any job should be possible to share between workers. But in the case of the "leader", which is literally the face of the party, having two faces is difficult in the public hive mind. Even with a united front, it's litterally two faced.

But mostly my vote was just for Zack, and would have likely voted for him in a job-share too.

He's very personable and seems to know how to talk to the public and express not just environmental issues but other green issues like inequality and war and how your enemy is not a boat of refugees but the concentration of power in the hands of maniacs both political and corporate.

I confess I gave up trying to read anything about the candidates and cast a vote about half way down all the other jobs being elected. I'm just adding noise. I dunno who any of these people are or even what the job entails most of the time and there's too many all at once. Should stagger them weekly or something.

Anyway here's Zack on Mark Steel's sweary podcast being brilliant on the issues and how to explain them better than I can.

I love Mark Steel too. Miss the sketches things it used to have in the newish revised entirely-an-interview format.

🤞

In two parts

https://pod.link/1573424189/episode/ZWI0OGNhMjQtNzNhNC0xMWYwLTkyZmEtZGI1MDBkMjU1YWVl

https://pod.link/1573424189/episode/ZjE1NmRjYTYtNzNhNi0xMWYwLTg0ZTUtN2ZmNjkzMzU4NDg1

#podcast #green #uk #ZackPolanski #listening

More than 500 people arrested. Highest of any protest since the ...

2025-08-11T17:58:39Z

In reply to nevent1q…x04v
_________________________

More than 500 people arrested. Highest of any protest since the poll tax.

"They're not completely non violent you know, they did some violence against our genocidal war machine. The worst kind of violence." -- Government are Pathetic.

The government looks ridiculous, petty, authoritarian, out of their depth, supporting a genocide with no way out, floundering and gaslighting and trying to cover up their own crimes. They will fail.

it's true, you never know when you might need to run away ...

2025-07-19T21:31:25Z

In reply to nevent1q…2d8l
_________________________

it's true, you never know when you might need to run away very quickly. Don't get chance to change if there's a fire.

Blasphemy is literally impossible. Any god who isn't ...

2025-07-17T19:15:12Z

In reply to nevent1q…464u
_________________________

Blasphemy is literally impossible. Any god who isn't powerless and weak would be able to prevent words said against them easily. If god allowed an utterance, s/he/it blesses it.

Crazy thing about the internet is you can be multiple places at ...

2025-07-16T00:27:13Z

In reply to nevent1q…7xd3
_________________________

Crazy thing about the internet is you can be multiple places at once! You can even cross post!

I know a UK local councillor who tells me that more or less all ...

2025-07-14T11:42:23Z

In reply to nevent1q…m8ta
_________________________

I know a UK local councillor who tells me that more or less all the councillors are now using the thing to generate summaries of all their meetings, and so mostly unknowingly or unthinkingly giving OpenAI the details of government operation over the whole country.

Lovely.

It's been a pretty good run, more than two hundred years of ...

2025-07-04T18:13:17Z

It's been a pretty good run, more than two hundred years of freedom for some people (if they aren't slaves) and even sixty years - nearly one lifetime - of actual universal suffrage!

Now that this short experiment in democracy has ended, I wish all of America good luck in the struggle to come, as you each discover your place in the new strict social order.

Try to stay out of the camps!

The title "Land Of The Free" has now moved to.... 📨 👐 ... New Zealand!

So from now on the new Forth of July will be the Sixth of February.

Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.

#freedom #forthJuly

These are the only honourable members in the house. Every other ...

2025-07-02T18:27:06Z

In reply to nevent1q…gc7g
_________________________

These are the only honourable members in the house. Every other MP thinks that Palestine Action should be banned as terrorists even though they have never done any terrorism and are against killing and genocide.

Fifteen minutes of debate and less than 30 votes against. The MPs ...

2025-07-02T17:33:09Z

In reply to nevent1q…kl0k
_________________________

Fifteen minutes of debate and less than 30 votes against.

The MPs just wave it through without even trying to object.

The House Of Commons has voted to add a group that doesn't do any terrorism to the list of banned terrorist groups.

They will do climate protest groups next.

Protest is not terrorism, this government is a fascist authoritarian nightmare.

#palestineAction #ukPol #protest

Snowden's reply to that was to compare it to someone saying ...

2025-06-27T11:56:36Z

In reply to nevent1q…efph
_________________________

Snowden's reply to that was to compare it to someone saying "I don't care about freedom of speech because I have nothing to say".

Dear Emily Thornberry, I don't usually bother to write to you ...

2025-06-26T17:04:54Z

In reply to nevent1q…ptfq
_________________________

Dear Emily Thornberry,

I don't usually bother to write to you on most issues because I figure there is pretty much no point communicating with a whipped MP in a safe seat under first past the post. Such an MP has no reason to listen to their constituents at all, and is entirely a tool of the party leadership.

I make an exception today since I hear your government is about to classify Palestine Action as a terrorist group. Despite them being peaceful, non-violent, and dedicated entirely to preventing the greater crime of the ongoing genocide of Gazan Palestinians.

This is obviously a gross overreaction and a completely unjustifiable act designed not to prevent domestic terrorism but to cover up British forces and UK government involvement and collaboration with the genocide in Gaza.

If we are taking suggestions for groups to ban as terrorists even though they aren't terrorists, I would like to suggest the Labour Party! The party has helped facilitate a genocide abroad, and continues to supply the perpetrators with arms and intelligence to aid their actions.

I don't expect you to take that suggestion seriously, but maybe Reform will take it seriously when they get elected in a few years and I suggest it again to them. After all, a precedent will have been set that groups which aren't terrorists can be banned under anti-terror legislation anyway. Democracy will have already been eroded.

I was ready to be disappointed by this Labour government, but I confess that the level of gut-wrenching visceral disgust I am experiencing at them surpassed all my wildest expectations. Taking money from the disabled to buy new war-planes from a fascist US president while abetting a genocide in Gaza makes me wonder if Reform wouldn't be better in the end anyway. At least they might do electoral reform and nationalize the water companies.

Labour's only hope, the country's only hope, is to remove Starmer. I wish you had won that leadership election instead of him.

Anyway, as I say, I don't expect it to make any difference at all because under this election system even MPs in safe seats are nothing but tools of the party leadership and the party leadership seems determined. But I thought I'd let you know that I see you. I see what you are doing.

I support Palestine Action more than I support this government. Let me know where I should hand myself in for my "crime".

Yours sincerely,

Adam

The more sketchy the porn site, the less likely they are to ...

2025-06-26T15:13:30Z

In reply to nevent1q…fptf
_________________________

The more sketchy the porn site, the less likely they are to comply with UK identity verification rules.

I wonder if this would make kids give up on looking at porn entirely, or just make them head towards the more sketchy and extreme sites that don't comply. 🤔

I support Palestine Action more than I support this terrible ...

2025-06-23T14:17:12Z

I support Palestine Action more than I support this terrible genocide-enabling so-called "labour" government.

Does that mean I'm going to go to jail? Will I have to hand myself in?

#ukPol

Carla has said she's not standing, so there's no ...

2025-05-08T17:30:50Z

In reply to nevent1q…yh4k
_________________________

Carla has said she's not standing, so there's no incumbent team to beat.

Adrian could stand alone I guess. Assume he won't.

Wonder who will stand against Zack then?

Is it too late for Corbyn to join and run? That'd really be something. 😆

I wish at least one political party would be like "No, Reform ...

2025-05-07T23:28:53Z

I wish at least one political party would be like "No, Reform Are WRONG, we are going to get you back your right to freedom of movement that THEY TOOK AWAY"

Under us your kids WILL be able to go study in Europe, you WILL be able to go winter in Spain , you WILL be allowed to take a fruit picking holiday.

But no. They're all pathetic chasers, all wanting the same racist bigots to vote for them. All meekly weakly saying people have "legitimate concerns" and promising to punish anyone who ain't from around here.

Depressing is what it is.

Get me my freedom of movement back you weak losers!

STAND UP

#ukpol #freedomOfMovement

Gary's on Tariffs and Trump What are trade deficits? Rich ...

2025-04-13T11:40:46Z

Gary's on Tariffs and Trump

What are trade deficits? Rich countries can buy more than poor countries, so the US buys more from China, so there's a trade imbalance. So money/wealth flows from the rich country to the poor one.

So America is in growing debt to China. Tariffs can be erected to slow that flow. You can tax imports instead of income. Great.

Trouble is that tariffs are a regressive tax, and so replacing income taxes with tariffs makes taxes more regressive, moving the tax burden to the poor. Gary takes us through that Progressive and Regressive taxes are.

Initially tariffs were supposed to be targeted at those with highest trade barriers, but Trumps crazy formula targeted the poorest countries with the biggest trade deficit instead. A theoretical attempt to move the worst jobs in the world into America. Would have killed some of the poorest people in the poorest countries. Make clothes expensive in the US to try and make the US have sweat shops again!? Gary finds it so insane he can't barely stop himself laughing. "Low competence implementation" is his euphemism.

"God knows how many cambodians would have died just to make it so American's can't afford trainers". Could have make Nike bankrupt.

"What would you do if you were the chancellor" is a question he gets asked a lot. His answer is that he'd not just make up economic policy and rewrite the economic system on his own on his youtube channel. He'd actually game things out with experts and international cooperation. Trying to do it just by some geeks making up policy in their kitchen is stupid.

Markets crashed. Nobody thinks this can go on. Rich people buying discounted stocks. Gary was buying, mostly on reflex, expecting change in policy.

He'd have sold US bonds if he had any. Everyone else was. started to look like US could go bankrupt.

"Thank fuck, they decided to back down"

"Donald trump is manipulating markets on social media"

Don't listen to what trump says, don't panic into selling, don't let him use tariffs to disadvantage the poor, stand together.

What happens next? Probably deal with China, but if not price increases in the US making the poor poorer. But cheaper prices elsewhere, UK and Europe maybe. Which could reduce inflation and so interest rates.

Who will build a factory in the US now? The rulers seem crazy.

Whole world might well have to rearm because the US isn't their ally any more?

Whole world must reorient their economy to be with China instead of the US now? The US isn't dependable.

It's like international policy run by the Fyre Festival. It's not just trump. It's not even just the US. The whole world is run by idiots.

He wants to go on holiday. He's knackered.

---

"Fuck you foreigners, we all hate foreigners" - Gary.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-1s9AykUyUw

#economics #garysEconomics #tariffs