What was I thinking?

A Stranger in a Strange Land from Maryland, USA, now an IT guy in Cambridge, UK.

@[email protected]
"The beat of the butterfly's wing affects us all"
Liminal

[Marc E. Elias @marceelias]

🚨BREAKING: Maryland Federal Court DISMISSES Department of Justice lawsuit to gain access to state voter data. A big victory for our clients Maryland/DC Alliance for Retired Americans and democracy.

DOJ is now 0-9 in these cases. We are undefeated.🗳️💪⚖️ https://t.co/ksCZx1rudO

[Annie @AnnieForTruth]

Gallup data showed fewer than 49% of Americans can afford healthcare. You read that right…half of Americans cannot afford healthcare insurance. 😡 Under Trump, prices have escalated for gas, groceries, electricity, healthcare & housing. Folks are struggling to make ends meet.

[Adrian Gosling @digitalsunshine]

"How on earth have have we ended up in this position?" asks Laura Kuenssberg, who along with Chris Mason, Henry Zeffman and co, have pushed long and hard for us to wind up in exactly this position

#bbclaurak
#BBCBreakfast

[Ken Harbaugh @Team_Harbaugh]

My latest in @TheAtlantic, about the women who form the backbone of Ukraine's resistance.

Many of the drone strikes we're seeing are the last link in a complex kill-chain — one that begins with agents deep behind enemy lines.

I was granted rare access to this network. Their courage is staggering.

https://t.co/HHLgio6QxD

[Mike Levin @MikeLevin]

The Trump administration just paid Invenergy $765 million to cancel four wind projects. That brings the running total to roughly $2.5 billion in taxpayer money spent to stop energy from being built.

Think about that.

At a time when electricity demand is rising, the Trump administration is spending billions to reduce the amount of power that could reach the grid.

Trump has spent years attacking wind turbines as ugly and inefficient. He is entitled to his opinions about how they look. He is not entitled to make taxpayers finance those opinions.

Seven states have already sued over earlier agreements. Federal courts have repeatedly found legal defects in this administration’s efforts to halt offshore wind development. The administration has cited national security concerns while providing little public evidence to support them, and judges have said they were not convinced.

Strip away the politics and what remains is hard to defend.

Billions in taxpayer money paid to private companies to cancel planned energy projects during a period of rising demand.

Governments usually spend money to build things.

This administration is spending billions to make sure some things never get built.
https://t.co/rB2naxc27j

[Ron Filipkowski @RonFilipkowski]

We gave Iran a massive concession they want very badly up front in advance in exchange for a promise to allow inspectors in again with zero specifics about when, how, or what sites they will be allowed to see. This is insanity.

[Thomas Kennedy @tomaskenn]

Robert Hilliard is a 101 years old World War II veteran who was awarded the Purple Heart. He took time on father’s day to speak outside Alligator Alcatraz, warning about growing fascism in the United States and the spread of detention centers.

[Senator Patty Murray @PattyMurray]

Scientists in Atlanta were stopped from criticizing the Trump admin at a scientific conference, so let me do it here:

Trump is destroying biomedical research in America, and it will take decades to get back on track. 

Spread the word. Stand up for science.

[ChrisO_wiki @ChrisO_wiki]

This right here is why smug comments about "Europoors without air conditioning" completely miss the point. It's not just about human comfort. When this kind of heat risks wiping out agriculture en masse, it's very, very bad.

[James Tate @JamesTate121]

Step 1: Remove filters in Reflecting Pool because Obama put them in.
Step 2: Give your criminal neighbor who runs "Greenwater Services" a $20 million no-bid contract to paint the pool.
Step 3: Fill the pool with water from the Potomac River, the phosphates from which cause algae blooms.
Step 4: Freshly sealed pool and extreme heat result in a super scum event
Step 5: Direct National Park Service to dump hydrogen peroxide into the pool which causes the paint to peel.
Step 5: Deploy US National Guard to stop people from taking photos of the swamp as a perfect metaphor for the administration.
Step 6: Blame someone else.

[Ever the Cat, Calls Bullsh*t 💙🌊🇺🇸 🏳️‍🌈🇺🇦 @NastyWomanDem]

@RpsAgainstTrump Everything these maga politician parasites say is a lie

[GET A GRIP @docrussjackson]

🚨 The complete absence of UK media coverage surrounding a major vetting failure in Rupert Lowe’s recent Rape Gang Inquiry Report is astonishing.

​Not a single news outlet (print, broadcast, or online) has picked up on the fact that the 219-page document includes testimony from the mother of Eleanor Williams, a woman whose high-profile claims were proven in court to be a total fabrication.

​In March 2023, Eleanor Williams was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison after being convicted on eight counts of perverting the course of justice.

​The trial established that her specific allegations of an "Asian grooming gang" were a complete fiction, supported only by fabricated evidence and self-inflicted injuries, including hammer wounds.

​The inquiry report is clearly aware of this history. On page 41, it includes a disclaimer noting that Williams was found guilty of perverting the course of justice for lying about being groomed by an Asian grooming gang and sentenced to eight years in prison. It then adds that her mother, "Sally," nonetheless "believes there is evidence to suggest her daughter was a genuine victim."

​To pre-empt the inevitable defence: it is a matter of record that individuals named by Williams, or those close to her, had separate, historical convictions for abuse. Crucially, however, the separate criminal history of those men does not validate her legally disproven narrative. A prior or separate conviction cannot retroactively transform a fabricated case into a factual account of institutional failure.

​Despite its own explicit acknowledgment, Rupert Lowe’s report still chooses to print the mother’s unverified account in its victim testimony appendix, presenting it alongside genuine examples of systemic failure.

​This editorial decision creates three critical vulnerabilities:

1. ​It hands critics a factual sledgehammer.

By knowingly including testimony tied to a legally disproven hoax, the report gives opponents an easy justification to dismiss the entire document. Critics do not even need to dig; the report openly flags the issue on page 41.

2. ​It dilutes the voices of actual survivors.

Grouping a manufactured case alongside the verified, devastating experiences of victims from Rotherham, Rochdale, Telford, and elsewhere diminishes the gravity of genuine systemic failures. A parent’s belief cannot be equated with established truth.

3. ​It compromises editorial authority.

For a report meant to expose serious institutional blind spots, choosing to publish unverified claims that directly contradict a landmark court ruling signals a lack of basic methodology. Inclusion based on personal belief rather than vetted fact undermines the report’s credibility.

​To serve the cause of child protection effectively, any inquiry must be beyond reproach. By knowingly including a discredited narrative in its appendices, this report severely compromises its own utility, and the media’s silence leaves a glaring blind spot in the public debate.

https://t.co/m8coBxhy4b

[Marco Foster @MarcoFoster_]

John C. Reilly: “Why aren’t people on the right wing concerned about human rights? They’re human too. Elon Musk says don’t be fooled by the empathy trap. Empathy is not a trap, empathy is a superpower. It’s what makes human beings exceptional, our ability to look outside ourself”

[Democracy Docket @DemocracyDocket]

Trump wants to create a national database of every registered voter in the country.

Then, he and the GOP want to decide who gets to stay on it.

“It’s a way of essentially taking over the voter registration process,” Marc Elias says, “or, more precisely, taking over the results.”

[Liz Webster @LizWebsterSBF]

🚨 Brexit loophole: Doctors banned or struck off in EU countries are still able to practise in the UK.

The GMC no longer automatically receives warnings from the EU’s medical licensing system.

This is another example of Brexit creating dangerous gaps in patient safety and regulatory cooperation.

Taking back control has real-world consequences.

[Anthony Scaramucci @Scaramucci]

Trump told Leslie Stahl something years ago that everyone should hear.

She asked Trump he kept calling the media fake news.

He said, I do it because I need to discredit you, so that when you say negative things about me, nobody believes you.

That is EXACTLY what he’s done.

The problem everyone has with him is that most of us grew up with values, ethics, and integrity.

That is not Donald Trump.

He figured out a long time ago that he can bully his way through any rule and if he keeps pushing harder and harder, people will relent.

For most of his life they did, but we must stand up against it.

[Sam @SamCKx]

A democratically elected British Prime Minister has been driven from office by a relentless campaign of propaganda and misinformation; funded, amplified and perpetuated by foreign billionaires and elites whose interests bear zero resemblance to those of ordinary working people.

A noble gesture from an emotional Keir Starmer, entirely consistent with his conduct in office.

A truly sad day for British democracy.

His full resignation speech:

[Anonymous @YourAnonNews]

This is the stupidity we're talking about: She got an abortion after helping ban them. Blamed the democrats for the struggle she had to get one. And doesn't want interviews talking about it to be public.

[BladeoftheSun @BladeoftheS]

The UK is only in debt because it Privatised everything.

If Margaret Thatcher had never existed and we never privatised Oil, Gas, Electricity, Airports, Water, Mail, Rail, Rolls Royce, British Airways...

We would have Trillions of Pounds and own everything, just like Norway.