Jonathan Church

Cats everywhere!!

Sometimes politics is simple. A man who speaks like an idiot will do idiotic things. That's really the sum total of the political analysis you need to understand what's happening today. But political commentators and investment advisers sought to make it more complicated.

So many cats here

MAGA 2017: "Trump-Russia is a hoax and a slur." MAGA 2025: "Trump-Russia is the basis for our foreign policy and anybody who doesn't agree should be primaried out of the party."

Hi All, I released the first part of my weekend update early (it’s all free) because what we are seeing is so extreme it needs to be said now. The USA is now openly admitting to helping Russia kill Ukrainians. Indeed, Trump seems to be enjoying it. open.substack.com/pub/phillips...

Remarkable clarity in Britain.

I do not think people realize how comprehensive the Trump Administration is being in its attempts to help Putin kill Ukrainians. I have it on an excellent source that Ukrainian UAV operations are 15% less effective because of the US intel cut off.

The apparent impotence/absence of opposition to Trump’s ruinous presidency is shocking. Say what you want about the British constitution but Liz Truss lasted less than a month once it was clear she’d lost the plot.

If Trump can secure a source of revenue (tariffs) that doesn't need Congressional approval, & can spend the proceeds without Congressional permission, he'll have done what Charles I failed to do in the C17th. Trump wants to govern as an elective monarch. The GOP in Congress must decide if it cares.

Wednesday’s @thetimes.com cartoon times.newsprints.co.uk/morten-morla...

(1/3) It needs repeating: in 1994, Ukraine was persuaded to give up its nuclear weapons to Russia in return for the US, the UK, and Russia guaranteeing Ukraine’s sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity.

Today’s listening

Does America have any idea what people around the world are thinking of it tonight? Where are the protests? Where is the opposition? Heartbreaking to see a nation's moral collapse like this.

Remember when this book was a big deal? Seems now like every page is wrong.

Far fewer cats, too

X is demented chaos but it is more entertaining over there

What’s poetry all about?

Paul McCartney II may be visionary but my my a lot of it dross

Not like me to turn up to an appointment exactly one month early

The United States appears to be in violation of the Budapest Memorandum which disarmed Ukraine of nuclear weapons in exchange for security guarantees. The agreement signed by the US in 1994 specifically prohibits economic coercion against Ukraine.

Something refreshing to hear: in a new poll Americans oppose Trump’s pardoning of violent January 6th insurrectionists by 83-14. Credit: Aaron Blake from WaPo

This x10000000000 “In other words: We, the opposition, are the majority. Take heart.” www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/they-are-a...

“as a city set upon a hill for all to observe.” The city:

America is abandoning Ukraine, abandoning Europe, and abandoning the cause of democracy and self-determination across the world.

Can we have some sitting Republicans break ranks please? Now’s probably a good time.

Interesting read - 'Conspiracists are about to get a dose of reality' www.thetimes.com/article/b3bb...

Vance’s grotesqueness aside, the whole thing is one of the most horrific acts of betrayal ever committed by a democratic state against another. Just a moral abomination and a permanent stain on everyone who supports it

Can we also keep in mind that while Zelenskyy like Churchill 1940-45 postponed elections, Trump in peacetime tried to overturn by violence an election he lost - and has since pardoned all the co-conspirators in his attempted coup?

Has a single sitting Republican in the House or Senate had the basic courage to criticize Trump for his grotesquely pro-Putin outbursts?

I don’t think this is the end of the West. Trump is a four-year aberration, a terrible storm to be weathered. The only reason there’s a breach is because, as Zelensky says, Trump is living in a world of lies. But the facts will still be here when Trump is gone; they can only be denied for so long.

Public initially 50% to 22% favour UK troops to protect/peace keep once a Ukraine settlement. 62-65% support across Conservative, Labour and LibDem, while Reform's 14% vote split 3 ways (43-35 for). Shows Online Ecosystem effect (Reform swing vote vs core) Via @luketryl.bsky.social

Hi All, just sent out my weekend update, free as always. This is arguably the most momentous week in European history since 1991 or even 1945. The US pivoted this week to be a friend of dictators who is forcing unilateral concessions on democracies. open.substack.com/pub/phillips...

🤔

Portuguese editorial cartoonist Zez Vaz reaches back to Tiananmen Square to call on American defiance.

the single most un-american and anti-constitutional statement ever uttered by an american president

It’s a problem

You can call it climate fatalism but I don’t think we currently have any realistic conception of how to turn the tide.

Cats, cats everywhere. I don’t even like cats.

Six Blade Knife 🤝 This Note’s For You Dire Straits Neil Young

Trump seems to think that if you want a trade surplus with somewhere you just put a tariff on their imports. Sounds like something every other country should do too.

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Less than nothing in fact. All that divisiveness and chaos for a negative outcome, our economic losses accumulating decade by future decade and the UK's loss of influence enduring, even if our internal social wounds heal. A huge national self-harm.

Elon Musk has posed as a champion of those poor bereaved families in Southport but the killer watched a violent video just before his killing spree *on X* and Musk is refusing to take it down despite numerous official requests from UK & Australian authorities www.ft.com/content/3c89...

X is buzzing today

Why is this place full of cats?

The radicalisation of much of the right in Britain far exceeds that of the left under Corbyn. (I say that as a staunch critic of Corbyn). It's essential that decent Conservatives speak out, if they don't want the likes of Cummings, Oakeshott and Jenrick to prostitute their tradition to an arsonist.