Nathan Brewer

[Aaron Smith @aaronsmith]

You probably know the start of this Olympic story, but do you know how it finished?

This photo is of Eric Moussambani, aka 'Eric the Eel' from Equatorial Guinea, competing in the 100m Freestyle event at the Sydney 2000 Olympics, alone.

Why?

/1

[CALL TO ACTIVISM @CalltoActivism]

A British writer penned the best description of Donald Trump I’ve ever read:

“Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?”

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 – 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 mostly 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.

And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish: ‘My God… what… have… I… created?' If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set.”

-Nate White

[Benjamin Carlson @bfcarlson]

How do you incubate a mind virus? How do you cause a culture to self-destruct? In 1984, this KGB defector exposed the 4-stages identified by Soviet intelligence as the necessary steps to cause the psychological implosion of American society.

Stage 1: Demoralization (15–20 yrs)

[Nick Knudsen 🇺🇸 @NickKnudsenUS]

Holy moly. This is worth every minute.

Jonathan Katz exposes Katie Britt as a lying sack of shit. 👀

[Nathan Linley @NathanALinley]

Loved watching this video when I was a kid. The epitome of @Crap90sFootball.

https://t.co/HgvH6w79lR

[The Redheaded libertarian @TRHLofficial]

“Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence?

Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons in the revolutionary army, another had two sons captured. Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the revolutionary war.
They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.
What kind of men were they? Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners, men of means, well educated. But they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured.
Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags.
Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward.
Vandals or soldiers or both, looted the properties of Ellery, Clymer, Hall, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.
At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson Jr., noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. The owner quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.
Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months.
John Hart was driven from his wife’s bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished. A few weeks later he died from exhaustion and a broken heart. Norris and Livingston suffered similar fates.
Such were the stories and sacrifices of the American Revolution. These were not wild eyed, rabble-rousing ruffians. They were soft-spoken men of means and education. They had security, but they valued liberty more. Standing tall, straight, and unwavering, they pledged: ‘For the support of this declaration, with firm reliance on the protection of the divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.’”

Michael W Smith

[Andrew Levi @AndrewPRLevi]

“Brexit” has been going for less than two years (more about that later).

Even in that short time it has shown itself to be an obviously unsustainable, accelerating disaster.

@RishiSunak @Keir_Starmer & other party leaders: this is on you.

A long 🧵. /1.

[Led By Donkeys @ByDonkeys]

Solidarity with Ukraine ✊
(Russian Embassy, London)

[No Great Reset @PaulusGeeve]

@DrEliDavid In the last interview of his life (1996), astronomer Carl Sagan gave an eerily prescient warning of the dangers of not being able to ask skeptical scientific questions of those in authority. Watch and ask yourself: was he right?

[Alexey Navalny @navalny]

1/6 It has been exactly two years since I returned to Russia. I have spent these two years in prison. When you write a post like this, you have to ask yourself: How many more of such anniversary posts will you have to write?

[Savan Qadir @savanQadir]

best explanation of the current politics I have ever seen! 🔥

[ClassicMovieClips @clips_classic]

Goodfellas; you’re really funny

[Nathan Brewer @NathanJBrewer]

@ChrisHewitt Congratulations! All the best

[Nathan Brewer @NathanJBrewer]

@ChrisHewitt Fik erf you sad pathtic winker 😆

[Led By Donkeys @ByDonkeys]

211 Conservative MPs are fine with this 👇

[Byline TV @BylineTV]

Paul Kelley is one of the biggest turkey suppliers in Britain.

He’s given countless interviews with mainstream media about recent supply chain chaos but they refused to air a word of it as soon as he mentioned Brexit.

So here’s the truth.

[Peter Stefanovic @PeterStefanovi2]

This is superb from @ByDonkeys and @hassan_akkad

[That Peter Crouch Podcast @PeterCrouchPod]

Equaliser-Housery

[Ros Atkins @BBCRosAtkins]

Here's video 4 in our series on Brexit - on what was promised and what happened. This time we've looked at the ambition to take control of the UK's laws and regulations AKA divergence. @MichaelCoxJ @MHosseini01 @rhartmann_ https://t.co/RE2HqJoH3U

[FotMob @FotMob]

🇩🇰 Sit back and enjoy the goal of the season contenders from Denmark.

Includes bangers, halfway line stunners, scorpion kicks and of course that never before seen volley-bar-volley self-assist.

You'll know it when you see it.

🎥: @DBUfodbold