l'Esprit de l'Escalier

In mid-March 2020 I booked a holiday - France to Bologna by train for the following week. 2 days later, I cancelled everything, having seen the reports of an emerging new pandemic in that region. I lost my money but I'm still here. Bargain. If I could see the danger back then, why couldn't Johnson?

Bishop Edington from the American Cathedral in Paris. I don't believe in any divinity myself, but this man makes a very powerful speech about the future of our young people.

The scene, just moments ago, in the BBC News studio.

This is Tommy. Tommy had a question about my allegiances. Listen to the end to hear about his.

Is it just me, or does anyone else find that the 05:43 god-bothering slot on BBC R4 is currently a bit 'me-me-me' with a splash of CofE god almost as an after-thought at the end?

What Happens in the White House at Midnight open.substack.com/pub/adamkinz...

@mandolinmama.bsky.social Found this little interview with the wonderful Sikh Drum Major who stole the show at the Edinburgh Tattoo this year. What a lovely unassuming man.

I wonder if Trump ever knew that FrogFace was one of the most hated leaders of one of the smallest and insignificant parties in the British political system. Or did he just get his info from the BBC?

Ukraine helped Yandex move all its data to the cloud… 😂

To humanists, science heightens our appreciation of the world. Knowing that we are part of a vast and magnificent ecosystem puts our lives in perspective. We are all related, and this is our home: evolution tells us that all life on Earth can be traced back to a common origin around 3.5b years ago.

BBC Farming Today: Big corporations are buying up farms and changing their use without consulting local people. Here's a farm with good land that has been turned into a tree plantation. (in other news) Tomorrow, we talk to James Dyson, who is one of the country's biggest landowners. 🤬

Mason is a far-right stooge, "bigged up" by his boss Robbie Gibb. Gibb, Johnson's political appointee to the BBC board in 2019, is now committed to getting Farage into No 10, at pretty much any cost. Destruction of the "impartial" national broadcaster along the way will be an added bonus.

But there is no question that Chris Mason is the worst political editor the bbc has ever had and he should be fired.

On Thursday a remarkable woman won a by-election. On Friday a remarkable woman won the Nobel Peace Prize. The coverage has overwhelming been focused on the men who lost. It's 2026. Yet still.

"The 2.25m barrels of diesel Putin offered Trump will have zero net impact on the world price of diesel. But accepting them will collapse the US-led sanctions regime on Russia—and align Trump with Putin against Ukraine's attacks on Russian energy production..." www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/1...

Norway’s former Chief of Defence, General Sverre Diesen: “Under the current Trump administration, we cannot consider the United States our ally. Trump’s America is a hostile actor that, in the event of a conflict in Europe, would side with Russia rather than with us and other European countries.”

So Trump, in a fit of pique because they awarded the Nobel prize to a former ICJ judge, is now going to do his best to kill off the ICJ by blocking their access to dollar funds & US banking services etc. He thinks he's world emperor. He should be in an asylum. Where's Congress in all this?

🤣👏 @mrjohncrace.bsky.social

Dear tv and radio producers. Thankyou for the invitation. But, no, I do not want to appear on your show to defend the idea that I am English, after 50 years of living and working here, because the increasingly feral right want to turn this into a "debate" and you cannot see how you're being played

ENORMOUS hat-tip to Nick Muller on Instagram for this... @lilnickmuller on Insta...

Ringo Starr, encountering an earlier version of Jeffrey Archer in the 1960s, described him as “the kind of bloke who would bottle your piss and sell it”. www.ft.com/content/5235...

Thoughts and prayers to Chris Mason at this difficult time.

He’s a hollowed out sociopath….

Jewish MP Gerald Kaufmann in Parliament in 2009. "My Grandmother was ill in bed when the Nazis came to her town, a German soldier shot her dead." "My Grandmother did not die to provide cover for Israel to murder Palestinian Grandmothers in Gaza."

Cartoon by Benjamin Slyngstad

Of all the books we've been recommended for our #HumanistBookshelf, Carl Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark has been recommended more than any other. It's easy to see why.

@mrjamesob.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=vule... 3 options - UK does nothing & becomes USA's vassal inc giving up Falklands etc, UK takes money from social care, NHS, OAPs etc. to spend on building its own AI, UK joins forces with European nations to joint-fund AI systems.

King Charles inherited £650m tax free, gets £354m a year tax free from the tax payer including £132m personal spending money and has an estate worth £22bn that’s never taxed. Like if he needs a pay cut. RT if you want the Monarchy gone. #NotmyKing

<Planned refugee accommodation housing 1,200 asylum seekers> Piddington: WON’T ANYONE THINK OF THE WOMEN & GIRLS! <Planned arrival of up to 5,000 balaclava wearing wife beaters and nonces of the Tommy Army> Piddington: Come on in, lads- have a drink on us #Piddington #Bigots

Big manufacturers planning to produce more of the forever chemicals to meet demand from datacentres www.theguardian.com/environment/... #wato

www.reddit.com/r/babyelepha...

The fucking BBC is 'reporting' Trump's social media babble as 'news'. No caveats, no context. Just pumping that mad, deluded shit, like it's reality. It needs to go, or be gutted at least.

Charles Rafferty - The Problem with Early Warnings

Fascists know they are in a battle for the soul of this country, and they won't let fundraising law, or qualms about beating up dissenters, get in their way. If they win power, they are clear: they will crush resistance. The rest of us are meekly hoping 'someone' will stop them. There is no someone.