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  They got bail 'cos there was no terror plot. They just wanted free fuel. "The five British men, aged between 23 and 25...were arrested outside RAF Fairford... Two separate military sources told Wiltshire 999s that they were thieves syphoning fuel, with barrels to store the stolen liquids...in three vans. Both said that it was unlikely to be confirmed officially...one describing the situation as “embarrassing”. The vans were reportedly found close to a diesel supply." https://w...

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  Fellow Brits, I hope you're seizing every opportunity to talk with your friends, family, colleagues and neighbours about what Reform UK really stands for. "Nigel Farage has said he wants to “hijack” Donald Trump’s hardline ICE adviser and bring him to the UK “to secure our borders”. Speaking at an event in the US, the Reform UK leader also called for Europe to take a “more sensible view” of the US president’s administration rather than seeing it as “villainous”." https://www.the...

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  In a 1945 speech to the House of Commons, Winston Churchill argued that while capitalism is the unequal distribution of wealth, socialism is the equal distribution of poverty. There's no longer any need for a debate on this point. If someone repeats it, simply look them in the eye and tell them you'd prefer poverty to the mass extinction of all vertebrate life on Earth.

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  Which company do we think will be the Lehman Brothers of the next global financial crisis? If not a company imploding, which sort of event do we think might trigger the panic that leads to the coming collapse? How's shit gonna go down, in your opinion? Yeah I know these are loaded questions, but I think most of us already agree the meltdown is inevitable and probably imminent! This isn't a thread for having those discussions all over again.

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  Yikes, haven't checked this in a while (I'm using Tusky, it doesn't show it unless you click on it). Welcome, bewildering number of new followers! All I can say is that you're in for a wild ride of political commentary, random shitposting, mundane life-based observations, too many boosts, and just generally an idiosyncratic mix of whatever-the-fuck happens to be on this hyperactive mind in the moment. Occasionally, I even post something that matches the bio. #introduction

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  Apropos of nothing... In September 1964, The Beatles were told their upcoming concert at the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Florida, would be racially segregated. Far from bowing to pressure from promoters, John Lennon famously declared the band would "sooner lose our appearance money" than play to segregated audiences. The promoters were forced to back down, and integrated the stadium for the concert. Brain Epstein later added an anti-segregation clause to all of the band's US conc...

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  If you sit down and really try to wrap your head around how far a light day is, you'll quickly find it's such a mind-boggling distance that it defies your imagination. Well, that's how far away Voyager 1 is from Earth, having passed that milestone earlier today after nearly half a century in space! And it's still partially operational, too. 🤯

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  @jeff@my0.net I'm so glad you looked it up. 🤣

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  Dear Americans. A legit British English word which entered English from French in the 15th century, is "trumpery". Meaning something that looks flashy or attractive but is actually cheap, fake or without value. Applied to speech it's almost synonymous with the USian "trash talk". Also, long before Donnie came along, in British slang to trump meant to fart. I would love for y'all to co-opt these words because there is plausible deniability: they're already in th...

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  @sundogplanets@mastodon.social I'm a particular fan of Hajime Narukawa's AuthaGraph projection, which divides the globe into 96 equal triangles, maps them onto a tetrahedron then unfolds them into a rectangle! As you might imagine, it looks bizarre when you're used to the Mercator, but it does preserve the true size ratios between land and water far better than most other projections.

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  Community organising is fucking exhausting. It won't stop me but damn, some people are hard work. So you have a better idea, eh? Well then why not just do it and stop complaining? Or carry on sniping from the sidelines. Which do you think would be most helpful? "Someone should do something about that!". Do you really think so little of yourself that you don't realise you ARE the "someone" in this scenario? Or do you always need your arse wiping for you? My politenes...

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  @Lazarou@mastodon.social I mean, he still has socially conservative views on some topics - he fucking hated Jeremy Corbyn! - but I've been in conversations in which he's argued that all the fuss about migrants is a distraction, and that if we don't want refugees coming here then we should stop helping to bomb their counties back to the Stone Age. Coming from a former Nazi I'd say that qualifies as a real change of heart!

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  @Lazarou@mastodon.social There's one who effectively lives in our local pub, who is quite open about having been National Front back in the day (yes, he's very old how!). He still has the tattoos. I genuinely think his alcoholism cured his fascism. Hanging out in a family pub almost every evening brings you into contact with a lot of different people. So they do exist. But in my experience it's incredibly rare for those attracted to far-right ideologies to ever change their views.

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  @Captain_Jack_Sparrow@mastodon.world @jonesmurphy@mastodon.social It has since come to light that Reform has received £24 million from oil, gas and fossil fuel interests. That's about two-thirds of their total income, and the reason for their opposition against net-zero targets.

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  @Richard_Littler@mastodon.social The Network (1976) is rarely mentioned, but is an excellent movie - especially as it's so prescient and relevant to our current times.

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  Officials are now asking LLMs for reasons to deny valid asylum claims. "A senior judge has accused the Home Office of relying on “AI hallucinated” information to refuse an asylum claim. The case relates to a Moroccan woman and her child who fled her country after experiencing forced underage marriage and extreme violence, including rape. The woman claimed asylum on the basis of fears that she would be killed by her husband: a powerful, previously convicted criminal." https://www.the...

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  Anyway, as a break from my usual topics, a pal gave me several huge bags of porridge oats they didn't want, so I started having porridge every morning to save money. Since COVID, I've been struggling with mood regulation - common for those with chronic symptoms. But this completely resolved itself within a few days of eating porridge. Coincidence? Nope. Turns out, it keeps blood sugar steady through the day, feeds a healthy gut biome, and increases serotonin, the "happy hormone&quo...

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  Iran spent decades building its "Mosaic" defence system: a matrix of parallel, overlapping organisations rather than a single, traditional chain of command. This decentralised system was designed specifically to thwart an American "shock and awe" attack. I'm not supporting the Iranian regime when I say that the US cannot degrade this system faster than Iran can rebuild. This is Vietnam on steroids: defeat is inevitable, and the longer the Trump regime postpones it the mo...

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  Evidence just keeps pouring in that the biggest threat to women and children in the UK is the far right themselves - not Muslims, asylum seekers or migrants in general. These political ideologies are magnets for abusers of every kind. "Data released by Hampshire police under freedom of information laws shows that 22 of 37 people (59%) detained in Southampton after Vickrum Digwa was jailed for life have been reported for crimes associated with intimate partner violence." https://www.t...

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  @randahl@mastodon.social In a UK context, this would be aimed at perpetrators who are also Muslim, asylum seekers or other darker-skinned migrants, not offenders in general. It's a dog whistle for the far right: they promulgate the toxic myth that newcomers increase crime and are more likely to be sexual offenders and abusers of children. Which is nonsense.

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  In 2011 in Tottenham Hale, London, 29 year-old Mark Duggan was shot dead by police in what many regarded as a summary execution with racial motive. This triggered nationwide outrage and rioting. There was looting, arson, robbery, assault and murder. 16 members of the public were injured, as were 189 police officers and community support officers. Five people died from injuries. 2,815 homes and businesses were attacked, many of which were completely destroyed. There were more than 3,000 arrests.

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  It's been a dark revelation to genuinely have needed and used a walking stick, these past few days. As someone who stereotypically doesn't look like I need one, I've fresh insight into the lives of those with perceived disabilities. People shouting "peg leg!" from across the street, for example. Lots of folks around here who already know me well, showed love and asked what had happened...but what if they'd never encountered me as anyone other than the "disabled pe...

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  The far right is flourishing here and across Europe. "The UK Ijtima event at Shrubland Estate was brought to a close early by organisers on Sunday following advice from police. Counter terrorism policing London said twelve people have been arrested as part of an investigation into an extreme right-wing terror threat against an Islamic event in Suffolk... Eight of the 12 people have been arrested and detained under section 41 of the Terrorism Act 2000...police said." https://www.ead...

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  Next time someone from a hot country mocks Europeans for struggling with the unusual heat, ask if the thousands of dead were imagining it. "The heatwave that affected England and Wales in June killed about 440 people a day during its three-day peak, scientists have estimated... The data starkly illustrates the danger of extreme heat...supercharged by the climate crisis. More than 40% of the people affected would not have died without...human-caused global heating..." https://www.the...

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  It's just one more symptom of the strange and often surreal times we're living through that I'm seriously rooting for a man who wears a bin on his head in a British by-election.

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  Fascists can also control the means of production. "In view of the fact that private organisation of production is a function of national concern, the organiser of the enterprise is responsible to the State for the direction given to production. State intervention in economic production arises...when the political interests of the State are involved. This intervention may take the form of control, assistance or direct management." -- Benito Mussolini, Fascism: Doctrine and Institut...

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  This will be a short thread of home truths about capitalism. Contrary to popular belief, Western economic dominance wasn't built on "free markets". It was built on pipeline and tanker routes, energy consortiums and contracts, enforced by brutal colonialist wars and the might of armies. It was built on the backs of the enslaved and the subjugated, and depends to this day on an endless supply of cheap hydrocarbons. And eventually, these fuels are going to run out. 1/6

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  @ai6yr Do you mean, falsely represented on Maps as a green space, to hide the fact there's really a military base there?

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  Polls on the fediverse be like... A 50/50 mix of sweet and salty popcorn is best.

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  Reform was set up and is run as a business. Members can't challenge or remove the leader, block constitutional changes or demand transparency or internal checks. "Reform UK has received £24 million from oil and gas interests, accounting for more than two thirds of its total income, DeSmog can reveal. Led by Nigel Farage, the party is calling for new North Sea oil and gas drilling ahead of UK-wide elections in May on the ill-founded claim that it will cut energy bills." https://w...