Mark Basil Butler

writer, parent, husband, grandfather, innocent bystander

[The Washington Post @washingtonpost]

New York City registered voters give Mayor Zohran Mamdani high job approval ratings, and the vast majority say the democratic socialist is doing better as mayor than they expected, according to a new poll. https://t.co/THZ8nwBauF

[Aaron Smith @aaronsmith]

Warren Pickering exploring his sexuality isn't an issue, and nobody is arguing otherwise. Malcolm Roberts may, of course, require a separate briefing. Nor, on their own, are his drug use or three DUI convictions.

People fuck up. People change. People can deserve grace.

But grace is exactly what One Nation has spent decades refusing to extend to people it finds politically useful to demonise.

Immigrants are criminals. Single mothers are welfare cheats. Muslims can’t be trusted, becuase "there are no good muslims". Australia will be "swamped by Asians".

There’s something depressingly familiar about this strain of conservative politics.

Gay people are easy to condemn until a conservative discovers their own son is gay. Voluntary assisted dying is easy to oppose until a conservative watches someone they love endure a long, painful death.

Then, suddenly, complexity exists. Suddenly lived experience matters. Suddenly compassion becomes possible, and empathy activates when the suffering enters your own house.

Now their own leader has a complicated past and we're being invited to discover nuance, forgiveness and redemption,

Sure, but also, fuck that.

If your compassion only extends to people once their story becomes your story, it isn’t much of a moral principle.

When you’ve built a political movement denying grace to others, you don’t get to demand it the moment you need some for yourself.

One Nation built a political strategy out of hate and grievance, and tried to dress it up as patriotic principle. That's why the hypocrisy is so complete when the rules suddenly change for their own.

[Aaron Smith @aaronsmith]

@superphenix2023 @tanya_plibersek The Shovel says it best. The rank hypocrisy of this media-dodging, scrutiny-dodging party of fraudsters, rape apologists and staggering incompetence is becoming a farce.

A complete and utter shit-show.
https://t.co/ZmWFaSpwky

[Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan]

Hi Dems, don’t think that millions of Muslims - & not just Muslims but anti-racist liberal & leftist Americans - don’t hear the deafening silence from most of you as the Muslim Democratic mayor of New York is being smeared and attacked by the GOP and right-wing media over 9/11.

[Aaron Smith @aaronsmith]

One Nation expects a level of grace for Warren Pickering it would never extend to anyone else.

If a migrant fronted with Pickering’s history, One Nation wouldn’t be talking about redemption, they’d be demanding immediate deportation.

[Don McGowan @donmcgowan]

Remember the Reform UK corruption scandal that was dropped by @Verbatim_Media and Channel 4 last week?

No? That's the point.

Remember that Nigel Farage failed to declare £5,000,000 from an overseas donor?

No? That's the point.

Do you see how they work now?

Reform UK, like their Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda predecessors, are masters of media manipulation.

[(((Dan Hodges))) @DPJHodges]

OK. One last time. People may not like the Government. They may not like Andy Burnham. They may not think he's doing enough to stop the boats. But if the choice at the next election is these guys or Burnham, Burnham will win by a landslide.

[Warren @swd2]

Mamdani is doing something that Rudy Giuliani refused to do. He’s releasing all the documents showing officials knew the air in NYC was full of asbestos and other toxins after 9/11 but lied and spent 25 years covering it up. The “scary communist” is delivering transparency.

[The Shovel @TheShovel]

“Foreign people taking drugs is a failure of multiculturalism. Warren taking drugs is a complex personal journey"

Read the full story:
https://t.co/nImPj9UvGs

[Farrukh @implausibleblog]

Victoria Derbyshire, "The police did say that a small number of officers were injured and some vehicles were damaged"

Reform UK voter and protestor, "Yeah yeah, well, that's what they say, but I didn't witness it.. It was a bit rowdy, not too bad, there was no violence, no violence"

Victoria Derbyshire, "Why do you think people were wearing balaclavas and masks?"

Reform UK voter and protestor, "I saw a couple, that's about it, no more.. I didn't see em personally, no"

Victoria Derbyshire, "When the government says small boat crossings are down 43% compared to last year, they say, progress is being made"

Reform UK voter and protestor, "I just don't believe it. I've heard so much rubbish over the years. They keep saying: smash the gangs. It's nothing to do with gangs, they're no gangs. The government are allowing this, for some reason or another and I can't understand why"

"I can't understand why you'd want unvetted fighting aged men in this country, I just cant get me head around it"

---

They do not believe anything that challenges what they already want to believe.

Police officers injured? “That’s what they say.”

Vehicles damaged? “I didn’t see it.”

People in masks? “Only a couple.”

Small-boat crossings down 43%? “I don’t believe it.”

Criminal gangs? “There are no gangs.”

It is not scepticism. It is simply rejecting every fact that gets in the way of a pre-written story - and then describing human beings as "fighting-age men" to make fear and hostility seem reasonable.

[Nick Reeves #RejoinEU #NAFO #FBPE @nickreeves9876]

Farage and Reform UK are in deep trouble. However, after 3 days, @Verbatim_Media's 37 minute video of their extraordinary year-long undercover investigation into Reform UK's illegal foreign donations has only got 161k views. It should have several million.

So please repost this and then share the video.
https://t.co/aUHQimmSm6

[Ronni🧂Salt-WhoWroteGunnawahYeahThatOne @RonniSalt]

The only body able to press charges for this particular alleged offence in Victoria = Victoria Police/Public Prosecutor

Saying you're raising money to "get charges laid" is like saying you're saving up to become King Charles

Only dangerously stupid, irresponsible people would promote this

[John Cleese @JohnCleese]

This is extraordinary

All the 'newspapers' hushing up the story of the day - of corruption in the Reform party, confirmed by two immediate resignations

How is this even POSSIBLE ?

[David Shoebridge @DavidShoebridge]

Defence officials today tried to prevent the sharing of public evidence on social media at a hearing into Defence land sales.

The fact I am posting this should tell you how that went.

[Peter Cronau @PeterCronau]

The censorial nature of the Defence Department in attempting to suppress public information is laid bare.

[Channel 4 News @Channel4News]

“It worked, boom.”

That’s Nigel Farage celebrating a Reform UK plot to break election law - by having a US company secretly pay for three influential political polls that benefitted the party.

Earlier in the investigation, Reform’s Head of Policy James Orr and senior advisor Dan Jukes arranged for a Verbatim reporter to pay for the polls through a US company. Orr and Jukes believed the firm was run by the reporter’s American father.

Mr Farage was filmed by undercover reporters from @Verbatim_Media as part of a year-long investigation that Channel 4 News has thoroughly checked and verified.

This meeting took place in his Clacton constituency in July - when Mr Farage was fighting a by-election he called after separate allegations about his finances.

Watch the full investigation on YouTube.

[Verbatim @Verbatim_Media]

Our yearlong investigation reveals Nigel Farage courting illicit funding as part of a plot to bring foreign money into British politics, orchestrated by his top aides and caught on hidden camera.

[Dr Nafeez Ahmed @NafeezAhmed]

Outstanding journalism. Serious implications for Nigel Farage and James Orr - criminal implications. And for that ridiculous "polling company" cum propaganda firm JL Partners which regularly puts out dubious stats

[God @TheTweetOfGod]

If I wanted you to do My work I'd have made you competent.

[Matthew Todd 🌏🔥 @MrMatthewTodd]

The more emotional people get the more the people with all the power: journalists and politicians - write this off as hysteria. But unfortunately, physics doesn’t lie.
I would not make long-term plans right now.
#juststopoil