Anthony Robinson

Remainer, writer @yorksbylines. Guardian-reading, tofu-eating wokerati. Rarely tweet my own opinion because I don’t think anyone is interested in it.

[Nigel Farage @Nigel_Farage]

Kemi Badenoch says the Conservatives let 4 million people into Britain in 4 years because “ministers didn’t notice.”

21 of the 27 people in her Shadow Cabinet were those ministers.

Her entire team is incompetent and can't be trusted.

[Igor Sushko @igorsushko]

The Trump administration has rewarded Russian terrorism by quietly removing sanctions on Russian oil at the end of Friday work hours today, just one day after Russian ballistic missile strikes on Ukraine killed at least 18 civilians including a child and injured over 100.

[Senate Budget Democrats @SenateBudget]

VAN HOLLEN: The tax cuts you provided to the wealthiest were made permanent, right?

VOUGHT: Yes.

VAN HOLLEN: But the tax cuts for working people, like no tax on tips, those will expire in 2028, right?

VOUGHT: We want to extend them.

VAN HOLLEN: But you didn't.

[Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський @ZelenskyyUa]

At the core of Russia’s war against Ukraine is a false claim – that Ukraine does not exist, that it is allegedly a part of Russia. This is not just about history. Not just politics or ideology. It is the basis of their goal – to erase Ukraine completely. And not only Ukraine.

Russia has openly, repeatedly said it wants to control all its neighbors. It wants to decide what security in Europe should look like – and whether it should exist at all. Russia has carried its war ideas as far as Syria and Africa. This is a truly global threat. It matters that many in the world see it exactly this way – as a global threat.

From my address to the participants of the Four Freedoms Awards ceremony (2/3).

[Razom for Ukraine 🇺🇸🤝🇺🇦 @razomforukraine]

🚨 Horrific. Russia just hit a Baptist church in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, with a glide bomb, killing and injuring church members. Show this video to everyone who’s saying that Russia protects Christians and the Christian faith.

[Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum]

This is why Russia is still fighting, why the war continues and why people are dying: Because Trump and Vance encouraged Putin to believe he could win

[Igor Sushko @igorsushko]

Kyiv burns as Ukraine no longer has any Patriot interceptor missiles - the only defense against Russian Iskander ballistic missiles.
Vice President Vance recently bragged of his "proudest" achievement - cutting off military support for Ukraine.

[Senate Budget Democrats @SenateBudget]

MERKLEY: You didn't include deficit numbers in the budget. Why not?

VOUGHT: We didn't want to confuse the country.

MERKLEY: The deficit can be extracted if you do the math—it's $2.2 TRILLION in 2027. Perhaps you didn't include it because you didn't want to draw attention to it.

[Senator Chris Van Hollen @ChrisVanHollen]

4 years ago, then-Rep. Mike Waltz called on President Biden to make clear that Putin was an 'absolute war criminal.'

Today, he refused to even utter those words himself.

As one of Trump's top diplomats, his reversal speaks volumes.

[Charlotte Clymer 🇺🇦 @cmclymer]

Look, y'all... this is eight minutes. I know that's far stretching the bounds of social media attention. But you should watch @AmbassadorRice completely dismantle Trump's foreign policy. It's comprehensive. It's precise. It's a wake-up call for those who need it.

[ALASTAIR CAMPBELL @campbellclaret]

Absolutely horrific night in Ukraine last night - 44 ballistic missiles and 659 drones fired from Russia. Deaths in Kyiv, Odessa and Dnipro. Not even bothering to hide the fact that it is residential areas under attack. Barely on the news outside Ukraine. And @JDVance says he is proud that USA has pulled its support so the aggressor can keep aggressing. Disgusting. But Europe has to do even more now

[Alex Taylor @AlexTaylorNews]

This👇is quite extraordinary, showing how much Trump is uniting Europeans on all sides 𝒂𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒕 him

Elly Schlein, Leader of Italy's largest opposition party, (herself 50/50🇮🇹🇺🇸) furiously condemns Trump's attacks on her opponent Meloni. The whole Chamber stands up to applaud the whole time. My English s/t👇

"Italy is a free and sovereign country. Our Constitution is clear - Italy repudiates war. No foreign Head of State has the right to attack, threaten or disrespect our country or government. We are opponents in this Chamber, but we are all Italian citizens and Italian MPs. We are asking for unanimous condemnation of these attacks and threats"

[Art Candee 🍿🥤 @ArtCandee]

Marc Elias’ take on Donald Trump:

“Donald Trump is not Hitler. He is not Stalin. His vision of America is neither pre-war Germany nor the post-war Soviet Union. The United States is not at risk of falling into totalitarianism.

The United States has its own history and culture. It has a unique way of manifesting its politics. That does not mean, however, that we cannot learn from other places and other times. As Mark Twain, the most American of American writers, wrote: “History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes.”

So, let’s start with what we know. Trump is a deeply unserious man. In a different era, he would have been a carnival barker. If not born to privilege and wealth he would be running a low level scheme or selling supplements on a sketchy website. Instead, he is the president-elect who, in addition to hawking schlocky items on the internet, will soon command the highest, most powerful office on earth.

We know that he admires modern day dictators and strongmen. He seeks their favor and rejoices in their flattery.

He rejects liberalism — things like the rule of law, impartial government and fundamental rights. He has contempt for democratic norms and institutions. Elections are only fair when he wins and rigged when he loses.

For Trump, the presidency exists to exact the spoils of electoral victory rather than a public trust.

Like many of you, I have spent the last few days trying to make sense of things — asking how this happened and what comes next. As for the second question, I have been doing a lot of reading.
It is something that preoccupied the Founders, who were afraid of the reemergence of a king. Decades after the founding, John Adams was still concerned. In 1814 he wrote to a colleague that “democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”

As part of my processing, I went back and reread several of Hannah Arendt’s works. She is best known for her account of the trial of Adolf Eichmann in which she coined the phrase “banality of evil.” In her telling, the Nazi SS leader was a mediocre joiner. In her words a “clown.”

But, in my opinion, her most important book was The Origins of Totalitarianism, in which she attempts to explain the mechanics of how totalitarian movements come to power. One observation of hers strikes me as most relevant today.

“Totalitarianism in power invariably replaces all first-rate talents, regardless of their sympathies, with those crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty.” 

It is hard to make sense of Trump’s recent cabinet nominations without coming back to this central truth: He is nominating “crackpots and fools” because that is what Trumpism requires. It is required both by Trump himself but also by his followers.

As a narcissist, Trump surrounds himself with people who, like him, reject science, expertise and the idea of objective facts. As a leader, he must continue to promote ever more extremist conspiracy theories to explain why his last conspiracy theory failed to come true.”

🍿

[Rick Wilson @TheRickWilson]

Well, well, well.

I'm just SHOCKED.

[Danylo Mokryk @DMokryk]

🇺🇦 Ukraine has already paid a price for its independence that @elonmusk can't even begin to comprehend.

His attempt at mockery only exposes him as a morally worthless human being.

[Republicans against Trump @RpsAgainstTrump]

The New York Post editorial board on their meeting with RFK Jr:

“When it came to that topic his views were a head-scratching spaghetti of what we can only call warped conspiracy theories, and not just on vaccines…In fact, we came out thinking he’s nuts on a lot of fronts.”

[ChrisO_wiki @ChrisO_wiki]

1/ X's algorithm was changed in mid-July 2024 to systematically boost Republican-leaning accounts and Elon Musk's own account following his endorsement of Donald Trump, according to a newly released computational study of engagement from the Queensland University of Technology.⬇️

[Acyn @Acyn]

Gowdy: I talk to senators all the time… The head count is not even 50/50 on one of them. One of them can't even get half the Republican senators. But I will let you guess from our earlier discussion who that might be.

[Liz Webster @LizWebsterSBF]

🇬🇧 Britain doesn’t like Trump
🇺🇸 Britain doesn’t want chlorinated chicken or hormone fed beef
🇬🇧 Britain loves the NHS and the welfare state
🇺🇸 Britain doesn’t like the USA free market race to the bottom which leaves people to die if they can’t afford healthcare.

🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧 Issue for Britain is that all the parties are complicit in the Brexit swindle.