Niall Higgins

Irish 🇮🇪 California educated JD (law)🇺🇸 France resident 🇫🇷 #politics, #rugby, #tennis - occasional scribe. @happylecinq.bsky.social

[Hunter Biden @HunterBiden]

Glorification? There was zero glory in my addiction. It was truly the most excruciatingly humiliating and degrading experience you could possibly imagine. I wanted to commit suicide almost daliy, but didn’t have the courage for even that. Instead I’d reach for the pipe or the bottle. The cowards way out. The guilt. The shame. The hurt. The absolute misery of it. Yet here I am. And I am not alone. There are millions upon millions of us. We don’t all agree on politics or people or who we root for on Sunday. But we all have the shared experience of walking through that fire and surviving. I chose to live. That’s not a joke.

[Hunter Biden @HunterBiden]

Things most Americans agree on:

Groceries cost too much.

Tariffs suck and make no sense.

Congress and Presidents shouldn’t trade stocks.

The debt is a mess.

The border should be secure, but legal immigration is good.

Endless wars are stupid, especially ones that nobody wants and have never been explained.

Americans are exhausted.

AI is like my new best friend that also might be trying to take my job, my ability to think for myself, and my humanity in the process. Yo like I love you, but WTF, but I still love you.

Diversity is actually awesome! The opposite is boring AF.

Canadians are super fucking cool.

Mexicans are chill.

Putin isn’t a good guy looking out for America’s best interest. Rocky IV and Miracle are great movies.

Good neighbors are a blessing.

Freedom of religion and coexistence without having to blow each other up is probably a good idea.

We all question, are we alone in the universe?

We all fuck up along the way.

Epstein didn’t hang himself.

The Trumps and Epstein were best friends for decades. It’s like Bert trying to tell us Ernie was just an acquaintance in the same social scene on Sesame Street back in the day.

The Cowboys suck. Go Birds!

Things we’re told to fight about:

Me.
Laptop.
Vaccines.
Transgenders in sports.
Pronouns.

That’s the joke.

[Niall Higgins @happylecinq]

@HunterBiden @mickeyy909 Well said Hunter, the vast majority of us Europeans saw your Dad as a force of good, unselfish, who had the best interests of America at heart, the polar opposite to the present incumbent of the Oval Office!

[Niall Higgins @happylecinq]

Excellent news!

[Jay in Kyiv @JayinKyiv]

True scenes from the USSR are breaking out around Crimea today as black markets for fuel are now one of the few places in which regular citizens can obtain gasoline.

Buying fuel with cash or card is now illegal - only government coupons can be used, and those are available only to the government-connected.

Ukraine's drone blockade is slowly shutting down the penninsula.

[NSTRIKE @NSTRIKE1231]

❗🇺🇦👊 Zelenskyy delivers a strong and direct message to Putin:
🗣️ “If you personally, in your own thoughts, have not yet reached the conclusion that the time has come to end this war, Ukraine will continue to fight for its existence. We will have those who will support us.
But you too will have to fight much harder for your own existence — not for Russia’s, but for your personal one. And this is not a threat from me or from Ukraine. These are the facts of Russian history, which you know very well:
When Russia gets tired, changes happen.”

This is one of Zelenskyy’s sharpest and most psychologically pointed messages to Putin. He places full personal responsibility for the war on the Russian leader and subtly reminds him of the historical fate of Russian rulers who exhaust their country in prolonged conflicts. The tone is confident, calm, and uncompromising.

Video is generated by grok AI

[Mike Levin @MikeLevin]

This is so insanely corrupt, I can’t even believe it.

More than half the donors to Trump’s $400 million White House ballroom just won over $50 billion in new federal contracts in six months.

And here’s the part that should make your blood boil.

Sixteen of these 27 donors were facing federal enforcement actions, antitrust reviews, labor cases, securities charges. Many of those cases have been quietly dropped or scaled back since Trump took office. You write a check, your legal problems disappear. That’s not a coincidence.

The White House won’t even release the full donor list. They’re hiding it on purpose, because daylight is the one thing pay-to-play can’t survive. A federal judge already ruled ballroom construction has to stop until Congress authorizes it.

Government is supposed to serve the people, not auction itself off to the highest bidder. When access goes to whoever pays the most, working families always end up paying the price.

We either end the corruption, or the corruption will end us.

https://t.co/4MGFzSseFl

[Niall Higgins @happylecinq]

@Microinteracti1 Trump is clearly by all accounts not far removed from a visit by the Grim Reaper!

[Gandalv @Microinteracti1]

The President of the United States is asleep at his desk. Again.

Behind him stand seven grown adults in expensive suits, and not one of them is doing anything about it. One is mid-sentence. Another is gazing sideways with the haunted look of a man whose pension depends on never acknowledging what he can see in his peripheral vision.

The rest of the world is watching, and the rest of the world has noticed something. Americans are terrified of authority. That fear has settled over this administration like a fog, and it turns otherwise functional adults into warm furniture. Nobody moves. Nobody speaks. The paralysis is total.

In any European parliament, in any boardroom from Oslo to Ljubljana, someone would have leaned over by now. Tapped a shoulder. Said, quietly but clearly, that perhaps this isn’t the moment. Somebody would have done something, because the alternative, pretending a sleeping man is running a meeting, would have been too absurd to sustain.

Not here. Here, seven men have collectively decided that the correct professional response to the President losing consciousness in the Oval Office is to carry on as though he were a particularly demanding houseplant.

[Giorgi Revishvili @revishvilig]

General Biletksyi, Commander of Ukraine's 3rd Army Corps:

Russia’s winter campaign was largely unsuccessful, and its spring campaign has also failed to achieve its objectives.

A turning point is taking place at both the tactical and operational levels. 1/10

[UAVoyager🇺🇦 @NAFOvoyager]

She was simply trying to get her children to safety.

Veronika, a mother of two, was killed yesterday in Kyiv by a russian strike while running to a shelter.

Her sons, aged 2 and 4, remain in Okhmatdyt Hospital, critically injured.

We don’t hate russia enough.

[Niall Higgins @happylecinq]

@commons96055467 With a bit of luck the Grim Reaper and his sidekick Rigor Mortis paid him a visit!! 🍾

[Niall Higgins @happylecinq]

@dpakman @annofbigbeach Maybe the Grim Reaper has paid him a visit!!

[Niall Higgins @happylecinq]

Worth sharing again as this guy has nailed it!

[Gianl1974 @Gianl1974]

*BRITISH WRITER PENS THE BEST DESCRIPTION OF TRUMP*
Someone asked "Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?" Nate White, an articulate and witty writer from England wrote the following response:

A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed.
So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump's limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.
Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever.
I don't say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman.
But with Trump, it's a fact. He doesn't even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty. Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers.
And scarily, he doesn't just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness. There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It's all surface.
Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don't. We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He's not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He's more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege.
And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead.
There are unspoken rules to this stuff – the Queensberry rules of basic decency – and he breaks them all. He punches downwards – which a gentleman should, would, could never do – and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless or female – and he kicks them when they are down. So the fact that a significant minority – perhaps a third – of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think 'Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy' is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that:
• Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and most are.
• You don't need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man.
This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss.
After all, it's impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum. God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid. He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart. In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws – he would make a Trump.

[Maria Drutska 🇺🇦 @maria_drutska]

Fuel shortages are rapidly spreading across Russia and the temporarily occupied territories.

St. Petersburg, Ryazan, Kursk, and Belgorod have fuel purchase limits now, and Sevastopol has stopped fuel sales entirely.

This is only the start. It will keep getting worse, quickly.

[Niall Higgins @happylecinq]

@JamesTate121 Bully boy Trump spewing his venom again towards a journalist that had the temerity to ask him a question!

[Niall Higgins @happylecinq]

Too right 💯 the GOP’s inaction is tantamount to culpability I’d say!!

[Gianl1974 @Gianl1974]

A message to all sane Republicans:

He pardoned 1,600 violent criminals.
You said nothing.

He bulldozed the East Wing.
You said nothing.

He interfered with the release of the Epstein files. You said nothing.

He took over the Kennedy Center and renamed it after himself. You said nothing.

He accepted a $400 million airplane as a personal gift. You said nothing.

He threatened Canada, Cuba, Denmark, Greenland, Venezuela, Colombia, and Brazil. You said nothing.

He tariffed just about everyone but Russia, causing inflation and instability worldwide. You said nothing.

He attacked a nation during mediated negotiations. You said nothing.

His ill-conceived war killed 175 children on day one. You said nothing.

He alienated and insulted our allies. You said nothing.

His ICE Army terrorized and murdered U.S. citizens. You said nothing.

He committed murder on the high seas. You said nothing.

He co-opted the Justice Department and directed it to prosecute his political enemies. You said nothing.

It’s time to start talking.

[Niall Higgins @happylecinq]

FFS Trump is classless, a despicable buffoon!

[Jay in Kyiv @JayinKyiv]

What a moron.

[Roman Sheremeta 🇺🇸🇺🇦 @rshereme]

Russians have erased entire Ukrainian cities to the ground. The only thing russia brings is death and destruction, which they call “liberation”.

We must help Ukraine survive this genocide and push this evil back into Mordor. Stand with Ukraine!

[sarah @sahouraxo]

Israel executed Theodosia today in Qlayaa, South Lebanon.

She was on her way to take her exams.

Israel dropped a bomb on her car, killing her and her parents.

[Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський @ZelenskyyUa]

Between January and May this year, our warriors struck 15 Russian oil refineries. Russia has already imposed bans on exports of aviation fuel and gasoline, and is also considering a ban on diesel exports. As of May, nearly 40% of Russia’s primary oil refining capacity is offline.