Wonkish

Wonkish

@wonkish.bsky.social

Soft left(ie), former Labour staffer, now 🟢 member, and a tech/climate nerd who follows US politics a lot for a Brit. He/him + 🏳️‍🌈.

1.7K followers423 following16.8K posts

Love spending a load of time writing a detailed complaint to the Housing Ombudsman about my housing association making me live with a sudden (totally wrong) £2,700 bill hanging over my head for 6-8 weeks, plus literally ignoring formal complaints, only to check reviews of the Ombudsman itself..

uk.trustpilot.comuk.trustpilot.com

So, what manufacturer of USB C ports did you go with for this board? Molex? Amphenol? TE? Nah dude, you know I'm a total..

Wonkish reposted

RFK talks about autistic and Arabic people the exact same way. He assumes they are not capable of ordinary or extraordinary achievements because of who they are. He considers them sub-human because they are not like him. This makes it plain that his is a white supremacist eugenicist project.

The Bulwark@thebulwark.com

RFK: "There's five hundred million Arabs in the world. And yet they don't produce science. They don't win the Nobel Prize. They don't win the Fields Prize. They don't win the Wolf Prize. They don't produce literature."

Wonkish reposted

"You may find yourself posting a US map divided into regions by the number of Cheesecake Factory locations, coloured by their vote in the 2024 election, with Jeb Bush, his head replaced by a Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake, enraptured by the result, and you may ask yourself, how did I get here?"

mtsw@mtsw.bsky.social

STOP THE COUNT

Wonkish reposted

@gabrielzucman.bsky.social: So let met get that straight: paying a wealth tax is impossible (“billionaires have no liquidity”, “it would be taxing unrealized gains”, “their wealth is virtual”) but one man paying half a billion to influence elections is possible. Did I understand well?

Wonkish reposted

🔴 REVEALED: Palantir led closed-door review of how MoD buys software The review was presented to defence minister Luke Pollard by Palantir UK boss Louis Mosley in Feb and has mostly been implemented None of this was made public New investigation🧵 democracyforsale.substack.com/p/revealed-p...

democracyforsale.substack.comRevealed: Palantir led secret review of how the MoD spends billionsThe Ministry of Defence asked the controversial US tech firm how to fix its procurement rules. Its answer? Fewer obstacles for companies like Palantir

If only they'd held up little cardboard signs saying they opposed genocide.

Tom Usher@tomusher.bsky.social

You have to laugh at the sheer insanity of Turning Point UK being found to be organising literal contract killings and paid agitation at protests up and down the country and it barely even raises a flicker across the press. If that isn't 'terrorism' on some level I don't really know what is

Wonkish reposted

What most people don't know: when you fill up a petrol car most of the energy never moves it. Petrol car: 13–21% of the crude oil's energy reaches wheels. Electric car on today's UK grid: 43–45%. Electric car on wind+solar: 77–80%. That's why we don't need to replace fossil energy one for one.

Alongside the ambient stuff that's harder to avoid, whenever I see/hear about people using a fire, especially indoors, incense, gas hobs (though that's more NOx) etc., I really wonder if they realise how terrible it is for your health. Inhaling smoke is bad for you, even with no tobacco involved.

David Roberts@volts.wtf

I really don't think most people appreciate how much damage air pollution does to our bodies & brains. Even in the last 10 years the science has progressed a ton & everything it has discovered is *grim*.

Wonkish reposted

University of Nottingham, right now, is cutting 560 jobs. Do we need to rebrand universities as very large, very clean, land-based oil rigs to get government support?

Leo Hickman@leohickman.carbonbrief.org

From the govt's press release: "The developer estimates that Jackdaw will create 27 new direct jobs and safeguard 273 existing jobs that would otherwise be lost." Odd that so much is made about this being good for jobs. Your nearest out-of-town supermarket likely generates more jobs.

Wonkish reposted

This morning, I wrote for @wired.com on how the games industry can no longer afford to chase the extremes of AAA dev, especially when it comes to the human costs in terms of layoffs. This afternoon, EA closed one of its biggest studios. Thoughts to all at BioWare now facing a brutal job market.

wired.comGaming Can’t Afford More Games the Size of ‘Grand Theft Auto VI’Between crushing layoffs, ballooning budgets, and bland end products, video game makers need to stop chasing AAA glory.
Jason Schreier@jasonschreier.bsky.social

BREAKING: Electronic Arts is cutting 400 jobs and shutting down BioWare, the legendary development studio behind Dragon Age and Mass Effect. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

I remember the first time I flew (mid/late 20s I think?), and the moment where we actually took off I had to suppress the urge to go "woah!!!' out loud.

samuel mehr@mehr.nz

i am on a plane sitting next to a lady who looks 40ish and has informed me that this is her first time flying she is visibly excited. she asked the flight attendant how much a soda costs and was happy to learn that drinks are free on airplanes. she's taking lots of pictures. i love this for her

Wonkish reposted

Today's decision by Labour to approve new drilling in the North Sea is climate vandalism. It's a betrayal of all of our futures, and Labour has abandoned all credibility in the fight against climate change. This is a victory for Shell over the people. www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cw...

bbc.co.ukUK government approves Jackdaw gas field, and says production will start this month - follow liveActivists say approving the gas field will raise carbon emissions - while the developers argue it is important for the UK’s energy security.

Wonkish reposted

Replying to @euan.bsky.social

imagine every Labour representative was asked to answer for their policy of deliberately harming trans patients in the same way Green representatives have been bombarded with questions about Israel this week

Wonkish reposted

Andy Burnham’s government has ordered the NHS in England to deliberately harm trans people

Keyne@keyne-unable.bsky.social

So many people buried their heads in the sand this week saying that NHS segregation of trans people was "for their safety". But even internal NHS assessments say it will cause direct harm. Sex is not binary and trans people need respectful care based on actual physiology, not anti-trans slogans.

Wait, that result was in *Blortles*?

DC Pierson@dcpierson.bsky.social

RANDOM POSTER WHOSE OPINION I HAVE NO REASON TO TRUST: A result like this in NV-03 would be seismic. That’s deep Blortles country. It was Vinkum +8 in ‘24 ME DURING ELECTION SEASON: totally. i just need to look at 9000 more of these

As someone whose first experience doing political campaigning was volunteering for the yes campaign in the UK AV (another name for RCV) referendum campaign in 2011, this honestly isn't *that* much wilder than the stuff that NOtoAV came out with.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com

Trump: "I just left Alaska where we have a real bad thing. They have the ranked choice voting, where you go into I guess some sort of test tube or something and they pick whoever they hell they want."

Amber Ruffin on Dropout yessssssss.

Crowd Control@crowdcontrol.dropout.tv

Who's winning the crowd tonight? 👀 Featuring host Jacquis Neal, and comedians: Demi Adejuyigbe, Amber Ruffin, and Roz Hernandez! 📸: Jill Petracek

Wonkish reposted

Yet again, Labour showing itself to be the single most racist and hostile anti-asylum government in living memory. It can take decades, if ever, for refugees to be safe returning to countries they fled, and that's when those countries are stable which Syria is not www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

theguardian.comSurgeon faces deportation as Home Office revokes refugee status for SyriansUK classifies Syria as safe to return to despite UN refugee body’s advice

As someone who was in a vaccine trial in the UK, I remember them having to redo the whole consent process to add some totally publicly available information to the documents, yet somehow the University of Southern Denmark, Guinea-Bissau’s government, and others involved in this claim this is fine..

Rachel Fairbank@sweetsciencewriter.bsky.social

“The children who are randomly selected not to receive the birth dose of the vaccine, those who “lost the lottery”, face in their earliest days the risk of contracting hepatitis B, which can cause irreversible lifelong damage.” No words. I am speechless. This violates all ethical boundaries.

Wonkish reposted

Your regular reminder that my daughter Alice’s death wasn’t counted in Appleby’s report, despite her meeting all the criteria. And when I emailed the Tavistock adult GIC to inform them they could take Alice off the waitlist, because she’d died by suicide, they never replied. It’s a disgrace.

QueerAF@wearequeeraf.com

QueerAF can reveal figures that show 618 people have died while under the care of an NHS gender clinic, at least 21 by suicide. www.wearequeeraf.com/the-deadly-t...

Fine, I'll call the Texas FBC field office.

ACARS Drama@acarsdrama.bsky.social

Air to Ground Message: PRINTER BACAME POSSESSED AND WOULD NOT STOP PRINTING THE NECROMONICON POWER RESET/TRACKING Area: Killeen, TX, USA Type: Airbus A220-300 A: #aa816c0b876 F: #f2c4f4503c4

New Control Resonant entity just dropped, and I regret to inform you that the patterning got Rob Delaney.

Rob Delaney@robdelaney.bsky.social

I will never, ever consider my audience when making art. You are a disgusting flesh piano I manipulate to make the noises that please me. That’s the Rob Delaney promise.