Daryl Cartlidge

Working dad and BMW fan. Proud Grandad.

[RH20 🇵🇸 🇮🇷 🇱🇧 #168 @rob_rhv20]

@OccupyDemocrats China on us:

[Very Brexit Problems @VeryBrexitProbs]

8 lines every flag-shagging plastic “patriot” has in their playbook

1.“I want my country back” - From what? You voted for the party that ran it for 14 years.

2.“Our grandads didn’t fight for this” - Your grandads would be ashamed that you can’t find Normandy on a map. They fought with Poles, Sikhs, Gurkhas, and West Indians beside them. They’d have more in common with the immigrants you hate than plastic patriots sharing memes about them.

3.“This isn’t the Britain I grew up in” - Correct. It has lower crime, longer life expectancy, and better healthcare than the 1970s you’re romanticising. You just don’t remember the power cuts and three-day weeks.

4.“Britain is broken” - The most unpatriotic sentence in the English language, repeated daily by people say they love their country.

5. “We’re full” - The Netherlands has twice the population density and somehow manages. The UK is not full. It’s just had 14 years of no housebuilding and you need someone darker than you to blame for it.

6.“We look after our own first” - You vote for parties that cut disability benefits, froze nurses’ pay, gave tax breaks to the rich and closed Sure Start centres. You don’t look after anyone.

7.“Stop the boats” - The Tories spent £700 million on Rwanda to deport four people. Zero boats were stopped. You cheered anyway.

8.“Starmer is a traitor” - The man prosecuted terrorists, paedophile rings, and war criminals as DPP. You import American culture war propaganda from people who openly despise our allies, trash your own country 24/7, and follow convicted fraudsters who lied about where they were born. The only ones treacherously trashing Britain’s reputation daily are you.

[Cap'n 🌻 @Shmizerist]

@Microinteracti1 @warrensbuffet2

[Thomas Bancroft @TomBancroft76]

@RpsAgainstTrump Looking at you, Congress.

[Brit @Eire_girl2]

@RpsAgainstTrump

[Thomas Bancroft @TomBancroft76]

@RpsAgainstTrump

[marco orio @Marcorio61O]

🇺🇸 GULF STATES TO US: "YOUR SECURITY GUARANTEES ARE WORTHLESS"

Reuters just confirmed what many feared:

Trump's "illegal war" pushed Gulf states to reassess their reliance on Washington.

They were hit by Iranian missiles. Their economies are bleeding. The US didn't protect them—it used their bases to strike Iran and left them exposed.

Military aid agreements? Paper shields against real bombs. 🧵

Tweet 1 — What happened

Since Feb 26:

→ UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar all hit by Iranian retaliation
→ US response: "We're striking harder" (not: defending allies)
→ No US defense umbrella activated
→ Oil facilities damaged, shipping disrupted, economies staggering

The "protection" they were promised? Nowhere to be found.

Tweet 2 — The cost

Abdulaziz Sager (Gulf Research Center):

"The administration failed to provide guarantees to regional allies or secure oil/gas flows. The cost to Gulf economies is STAGGERING."

Insurance premiums skyrocketing. Investment uncertainty. Regional instability.

The US didn't protect them. It made them targets.

Tweet 3 — The realization

Gulf states now understand:

→ US won't risk direct confrontation with Iran to defend them
→ US will use their bases, making them targets
→ US expects them to join wars they didn't choose
→ Military aid agreements = zero protection when it counts

Result: They're now considering regional security deals with... IRAN.

Tweet 4 — What comes next

→ Diversifying security partnerships (away from US)
→ Direct talks with Tehran
→ Reduced US basing access
→ Less reliance on American weapons (why buy if they won't defend you?)

The US didn't just lose trust. It lost leverage.

When allies realize guarantees are worthless, they stop being allies. They become customers. And customers shop around.

Tweet 5 — Bottom line

Military aid agreements were supposed to mean protection.

Instead, Gulf states got bombed and left alone.

The message is clear: US security guarantees are dead.

And Washington? Watching its regional order collapse in real time.

🧭 My work focuses on decision-oriented strategic analysis.
Not commentary. Not advocacy.
I analyze incentives, constraints, and second-order effects.

Structured, multi-layer strategic analysis available via bio.

⚖️ Marco | Independent Analyst

[RC deWinter @RCdeWinter]

An Englishman was touring the US on holiday and stopped in a remote bar in the mountains of Nevada.

He was chatting with the barman when he spotted an old native American sitting in the corner.
He had tribal gear on, long white plaits and a wrinkled face.

“Who’s that?” asked the man.
“That’s the Memory Man.” said the barman. “He knows everything. He can remember any fact. Go and try him out.”

So the Englishman went over, and thinking the old man won’t know about English football, asked “Who won the 1980 FA Cup Final?”

“West Ham,” replied the Memory Man.
“Who did they beat?” askedthe Englishman.

“Arsenal,” was the reply.

“And the score?”

“1-0” replied the Memory Man.

“Who scored the winning goal?”

“Trevor Brooking,” the old man said.

The tourist was bowled over by this and when he returned home told everyone back in England about the Memory Man.

A few years later he went back to the US on holiday went to find the impressive Memory Man again.

When he got to the bar,sitting in the corner was the Memory Man, even older and more wrinkled.

The Englishman man decided to greet the memory man in his native tongue so he walked over and said, “How!”

The Memory Man replied, “Diving header in the six yard box.”

[DiveAloha @Aloha1Dive]

🌹Tainted🌹

[Jonathan Pie @JonathanPieNews]

Trump vs The World.
https://t.co/CHb4VKcq2E

[GET A GRIP @docrussjackson]

For the benefit of our American friends, "roundly" comes from Middle English (roundly, roundely, or roundliche), formed by adding the adverb suffix -ly to the adjective round. It has been in use as an adverb since at least the 15th century.

In modern English (especially from the 19th century onward), "roundly" became a common intensifier in phrases like 'roundly condemned', 'roundly defeated' or 'roundly disliked' - the latter conveying that the negative opinion is unanimous, emphatic, or shared by almost everyone - not just mild or partial dislike.

Thus, the polite, quintessentially English phrase 'roundly disliked' is a classic example of British understatement - essentially a euphamism for 'fucking hate the cunt'.

[Idoseerussia @ididseerussia]

@TheRealThelmaJ1 I've never seen anyone that has ZERO empathy towards the less fortunate. Any Christian who thinks he was sent by God is as bad as he is. I wasn't raised that way and I've spent 45 years nursing folks that way. It's vile and repugnant. 🤬

[Daniel Lismore @daniellismore]

People on low incomes in County Durham are about to be hit with a council tax bill for the first time.

Reform-led Durham County Council has voted to scrap full council tax exemptions for people on the lowest incomes. From April many residents who previously paid nothing will now be required to pay at least 10% of their council tax.

This change affects people already struggling. Those on benefits. Those in insecure work. Those choosing between food heating and rent. For many households even a small new bill is not small at all. It is another pressure in a cost of living crisis.

The deputy leader of the council Darren Grimes has described the move as “fair and efficient”. That raises an obvious question. Fair for who. Efficient for who. When the poorest are asked to pay more while councils face budget holes created by political choices higher up the chain that is not fairness. It is cost shifting.

This decision comes at the same time Reform councils elsewhere are applying for large council tax rises and emergency loans. In Worcestershire a Reform-controlled council has applied for permission to raise council tax by up to 10%. In other areas Reform councillors have faced criticism for overspending while residents are told to tighten their belts.

This is what Reform in power looks like. Cuts to support. New charges for those least able to pay. Big talk about efficiency followed by ordinary people picking up the bill.

If you are on a low income this matters. If you care about fairness this matters.

Reform are not your friends.

[Jamie Bonkiewicz @JamieBonkiewicz]

Things that have never ruined my day:
• Trans people existing
• Gender-neutral bathrooms
• Women in charge
• Immigrants wanting a better life
• Drag queen story time
• Pronouns
• Education
• Science and progress
• Diversity in the workplace

Things that have ruined my day:
Conservatives

[Paul Rees. ex Rucksack. @HannahIamthest1]

One of my favourite jokes from the big yin!!

A bus was completely full, every seat was taken, when a dwarf got on. He looked around and saw that every seat was taken so he stood. The bus pulled away.
A mother told her little girl who was sitting next to her to get up and offer her seat to the dwarf. So the little girl went up to him and said “excuse me, I wonder if you would like my seat, it’s yours if you want it”
The dwarf looked at her and said in a very loud voice so that everyone on the bus could hear; “Why would you offer me your seat? Is it because I’m a dwarf and you feel sorry for me? Well let me tell you I’ve lived my whole life as a dwarf and I don’t want your pity, or your seat”. So the little girl, obviously upset, went back and sat with her mum.
At the next stop a woman got off, but made a point of speaking to the dwarf as she was getting off. “I’m getting off here, so my seats free” Again the dwarf said in a very loud voice; “You’re another one, just because I’m a dwarf you think you should feel sorry for me ….” The woman interrupted him and said in a similarly loud voice “No sir it’s not because you are a dwarf, it’s because you are a human being, the same as everyone on this bus. Also you should apologise to the little girl you upset when she offered you her seat. You were very rude and do you know what?”
“What?” Said the dwarf.
“I hope when you get home Snow White kicks your arse”

🤣🤣

[Daryl Cartlidge @CartlidgeDaryl]

@Rainmaker1973 Babylon 5. Big story arc.

[Brandon @LibOrNormal]

This was her first birdie 👁👁

[Ally1391 Strikes Back 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏒 @Ally1391B44134]

@RejoinP

[Daryl Cartlidge @CartlidgeDaryl]

@stevensongs Gotta be human. How could you programme A I to do this? Out of this world.

[Dr. Ezzideen @ezzingaza]

Since early morning, my family and I have been living in a state of total psychological collapse.
Today we learned that our homes, our land, and our entire neighborhood, every house belonging to our family and our neighbors, have been completely erased. Bulldozed. Flattened into a barren stretch of yellow dust.

From the first light of day, we have been living the full meaning of defeat.
We have lost more than seventy members of our family. We have lost our land.
We now have no home to return to, no walls to protect us, no place left to call our own.

And then, one of Hamas’s leaders appears on television declaring that “the people have not been defeated,” that “Gaza has stood firm and fought a historic war.”

So let history record this:
I, Dr. Ezzideen Shehab, from Gaza, together with my family, my friends, and their families, did not fight any war.
We were the victims of an annihilation ignited by Hamas from within our homes, only for the Israeli army to descend upon us and unleash its full cruelty on the civilians of Gaza, while Hamas’s fighters vanished into their tunnels.

Let history record the truth: we were defeated, utterly, painfully, and completely defeated.
And it is we, the people of Gaza, who have the right to say whether we were defeated or not, not those who sit comfortably in Qatar or Turkey.

We were crushed, humiliated, and broken after our city was destroyed, occupied, and erased from existence.
We were displaced, stripped of everything we had built, left to wander through the ruins of our own lives.

And somewhere amid all this, I understood something simple and terrible:
My mother’s tears are holier than the homeland itself, and my father’s brokenness matters more to me than any flag.
Because what meaning does a homeland hold when it devours the ones you love, when it glorifies death but forgets the living?

We were not steadfast. We were held hostage in our own land.
We could not leave. We could not change those who claimed to rule us.
We were trapped between a merciless occupier and rulers who feed on our suffering.

And if there is one moment in my life when I must speak the truth, without fear, without hesitation, then this is that moment.

Let it be written clearly:
We were not soldiers in a war.
We were the bodies buried beneath it.

#GazaGenocide