Ceri Shields

Ceri Shields

@cerishields.bsky.social

Painting, drawing, printmaking. Also music, food, and long walks on wild moors. Move slowly and make things.

394 followers307 following4.9K posts

Well amazingly the ‘Board of Peace’ turns out to be more dodgy than the fairground dodgems at Dodge City run as a wholly owned concern by dodgy impresario Dodgy J Trump. Thread:

Eliot Higgins@eliothiggins.bsky.social

I’ve been reading Trump’s "Board of Peace Charter," and despite the name, this isn’t a multilateral institution, it’s a centralised structure built entirely around the authority of one person (Trump). www.timesofisrael.com/full-text-ch...

Live tweet Trump speech thread. All the salient points:

Richard Delevan@richard.wickedproblems.earth

Imagine holding Davos at gunpoint in order to do a standup act that would get you booed off of a third-rate 1960s Catskills resort talent night.

Ceri Shields reposted

Let tonight be a lesson to all of us: Make sure you have established your own, and are aware of your loved ones', advance directives. Do you want to be awakened from your slumber when It Happens? Or do you want to find out when you awake naturally and unlock your phone? Let your loved ones know.

Ceri Shields reposted

Everybody knows Franz Kafka, but almost no one knows his sister Ottla. She was gassed on arrival at Auschwitz on Oct 7, 1943 after volunteering to escort a group of orphans from the Terezin ghetto so they wouldn’t be afraid.

Ceri Shields reposted

Replying to @nadinebh.bsky.social

Lad's hungover. Popped the local for a couple last night with Brigitte after a long day, a couple turned into "fuck it", and them only leaving the pub when the landlord interrupted them singing to remind them they all had homes to go to. bsky.app/profile/nadi...

Nadine Batchelor-Hunt@nadinebh.bsky.social

International rules based order collapsing and its Macron giving a speech like this - inexplicably wearing sunglasses - that has truly sent me over the edge

If I was an early medieval scribe writing up last night’s entry in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle I’d definitely be saying that dragons had been seen in the sky.

Architecture@architecture.bsky.social

Insane Auroras over Stonehenge

Thread — you’ll need popcorn. I haven’t spotted Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves in the video clips but I believe this is part of their franchise?

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Aurora Borealis in South Devon in England right now. Never seen it this far south before. Quite subtle and hazy, but definitely worth a look for my couple of followers in this part of the world 🙂

Ceri Shields reposted

From the quire of Winchester Cathedral. I took the source images for this several years ago, was curious to see if I could find anything new or improve upon the original pictures made. #winchester #photography #architecture

I know it’s silly but in the midst of all this catastrophe I just love that it’s called the ‘trade bazooka’. Shades of Monty Python and the Holy Grail — ‘bring up the holy hand grenade!’

Naomi Smith@pimlicat.bsky.social

Germany backs France on its so-called trade “bazooka” - be ready to strike back at Washington if Trump presses ahead with his threats of increased tariffs against EU countries. www.politico.eu/article/germ...

It’s a nice idea and we should do it. But I visited the Soviet Union in the early 1980s when 66 countries had recently boycotted the Moscow Olympics over their invasion of Afghanistan (yes indeed) and, honestly, that boycott made not the dammdest bit of difference. We need much stronger measures.

Lucas Guttenberg@lucasguttenberg.bsky.social

It might sound silly, but I mean it: The easiest and most potent way for Europe to hurt Trump this year is to once again use its cultural soft power and to threaten a boycott of the World Cup. It would become a completely meaningless event and would hurt him where he is most vulnerable - his vanity.

In reciprocation the Eastern Bloc countries boycotted the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics over some concocted issue or other and that didn’t have any effect either. Except that the US won more gold medals — something to bear in mind re Trump and the World Cup.

By today’s standards this thread counts as comic relief. Does she still have some capacity to do material harm? I don’t know; I hope not.

Sunder Katwala (sundersays)@sundersays.bsky.social

Former Prime Minister Liz Truss tweets that Robert Jenrick is a "trojan horse" who is "getting his orders" from some unidentified shadowy force of global conspirators

Imagine being on an intercity train that is so full you can only sit down with a seat reservation and then finding you are stuck next to a paranoid nutter like Liz. That’s the real horror of the state our railways are in. Three hours standing in the vestibule is the desperate option.

Ceri Shields reposted

The Nobel Peace Prize becoming so prestigious that wars are fought over a head of state coveting it is some real monkey paw stuff for Alfred Nobel.

When we were kids we’d come to London to visit my dad and he’d take us to the *original* Hard Rock Cafe back when, briefly, rock glitterati actually went there and he’d say, ‘look, there’s Jimmy Page, there’s Ronnie Wood,’ and we had absolutely no idea what he was talking about.

Ros Taylor@rostaylor.bsky.social

The Berni Inn in Shrewsbury. When I was very little, I just had chips and peas, and when I was a bit older I was allowed a rump steak. Then an ice-cream sundae with an umbrella and a cherry.

The only people this image doesn’t deeply disgust are the unreachables who are going to vote for Farage come hell or high water.

Captain Haddock@realcaptainhaddock.bsky.social

This photo should form a core piece of every election in the UK until the day Farage quits

Ceri Shields reposted

I think the White House badly underestimates the strength of the pan-European folk memory of 1930s appeasement, and how deep it still cuts. I suppose this is what happens when you learn in school that WW2 started in 1941 in Hawaii.

Ceri Shields reposted

Dear Editor, I'm writing to let you know how much I enjoy reading your lovely paper. I buy it every week without fail cause somehow Sunday without 'Sunday People' is not the same. I don't know about other readers, but I enjoy it back to front.

Presumably they are publicly admitting to this enormous number to terrify the population into submission. ‘If you oppose us you will die’, seems to be a way some governments speak frankly to their people at the moment.

Shayan Sardarizadeh @shayan86.bsky.social

During a speech in Tehran today, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that "several thousand people were killed" during the recent protests by those he described as "seditionists", confirming for the first time that the death toll from the protests is in the thousands.

The exquisite thing about this is that in an act of the most excruciating self-debasement she gave him her prize, he readily took it — and nonetheless did not make her president of Venezuela. That tells you so much about trying to do business with Trump.

Just Jack@just-jack-1.bsky.social

“The United States will not let men steal trophies from women…” - says guy who happily took the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to a woman

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The exquisite thing about this is that in an act of the most excruciating self-debasement she gave him her prize, he readily took it — and nonetheless did not make her president of Venezuela. That tells you so much about trying to do business with Trump.

Just Jack@just-jack-1.bsky.social

“The United States will not let men steal trophies from women…” - says guy who happily took the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to a woman

It’s like the 19th century diplomats in China who degraded themselves by kowtowing to the Emperor, literally kneeling with both knees on the ground at his feet, gave him the most enticing gifts they could dream up — and then he still didn’t award them the trading concessions they were asking for.

Of course, for a time the joke was on them. But soon they gave up trying to do business that way and instead took other avenues which brought about the massive humbling and despoliation of China and the Emperor himself. So a story from which nobody emerged with honour.

Ceri Shields reposted

This is the foreign policy version of “Why does Ross, the largest friend, not simply eat the other five?”

Molly Ploofkins@mollyploofkins.bsky.social

Miller: Denmark is a tiny country with a tiny economy and a tiny military. They cannot defend Greenland… Under every understanding of law that has existed about territorial control for 500 years, to control a territory you have to be able to defend a territory…