Richard

[Richard @Smith67M]

@DD_Geopolitics Has he still got the coat hanger in his jacket?

[Richard @Smith67M]

@clashreport You're not independent though.

[Richard @Smith67M]

@flying_rodent If there's a guy that deserves absolutely zero sympathy, it's Starmer.

[Thanos Angelopoulos @Th_Angelopoulos]

.@MikeTappTweets, nine questions. Each yes or no.

1) Did the International Criminal Court issue arrest warrants on 21 November 2024 against Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, including the use of starvation as a method of warfare? Yes or no.

2) Is the United Kingdom a state party to the Rome Statute, legally obligated to arrest Netanyahu if he enters British territory? Yes or no.

3) Has the UK government continued to license arms exports to the State of Israel since those warrants were issued? Yes or no.

4) Has the UK government continued diplomatic and political cooperation with the government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu since those warrants were issued? Yes or no.

5) Does the United Kingdom's existing criminal legislation, including the International Criminal Court Act 2001, contain offences applicable to those who provide assistance to persons under ICC arrest warrant for war crimes? Yes or no.

6) Could a UK government minister who has personally and publicly endorsed the continuation of arms exports and political cooperation with a government headed by an ICC indictee face individual legal exposure under those same provisions? Yes or no.

7) Is it the case, as documented by the Campaign Against Arms Trade and Transparency International UK, that the United Kingdom maintains an extensive and ongoing revolving door between government and the arms industry, including the movement of former ministers and senior Ministry of Defence officials into companies that profit from continued UK arms exports to the State of Israel? Yes or no.

8) Does Section 53 of the International Criminal Court Act 2001 require the consent of the Attorney General, a political officer of the government, before any prosecution under that Act can be brought? Yes or no.

9) Does the availability of procedural or constitutional defences to government ministers acting in their official capacity alter the underlying factual conduct of those ministers? Yes or no.

If the answer to each of the above is yes, the following should be happening under the United Kingdom's own legal and policy framework.

The Strategic Export Licensing Criteria requires the government not to issue or maintain licences where there is a clear risk that the items might be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international humanitarian law. The government has already made that assessment for around thirty licences.

The ICC arrest warrants, and the charges they contain, materially strengthen the case that this risk applies more broadly. Full suspension of the remaining relevant licences is the only position consistent with the UK's own published rules.

Continued authorisation of exports in these circumstances also raises serious questions about potential ancillary liability under the International Criminal Court Act 2001. An investigation by the Attorney General into ministerial decision-making, with knowledge of the ICC warrants, would be the appropriate next step.

Parliament has a duty to hold individual ministers to account for these decisions.

None of this is happening.

Tell us, Tapp, why none of this is happening?

[Caitlin Johnstone @caitoz]

The human species has essentially been transformed into a giant profit-generating machine for corporations.

Under capitalism, humanity exists to serve the interests of the corporation. We are all livestock; beasts of burden used to carry margin expansion forward from quarterly statement to quarterly statement. Enjoyment of life has no value other than the extent to which it can be used to increase the net worth of the shareholders.

That’s why everyone’s so unhappy. We’re not living with purpose. We’re not working together to build a better world and a better future, we’re just pulling levers to turn gears to make the arrow line go up on the graph in the conference room. It’s a hollow, pointless way for people to live.

It makes our whole culture vapid and soulless.

Music is made to be as profitable as possible, which means giving it the broadest possible appeal using formulaic song structure calculated to cause a chemical response in the largest number of human brains.

Movies are designed to draw the largest possible box office revenue at the lowest possible risk to studios and investors, often by just rehashing a movie that’s already proven successful in the past or by slapping together a story about an IP with pre-existing mass appeal.

Food is made to be fast and addictive rather than nourishing.

Healthy human connection has been commodified as social media intertwines with friendships and dating apps insert themselves into the development of romantic relationships.

Human sexuality is being warped and twisted as internet porn normalizes violence and degradation for the maximum number of clicks.

Attention and engagement have been monetized, creating an information ecosystem dominated by conflict and gossip designed to appeal to our baser instincts.

Advertisement is injected into every possible corner of our waking sensory experience, with any available space where the eye might rest or the ear might listen being flooded with psychological manipulation compelling us to consume. They’ll start running commercials in our dreams the instant they have the technology to do so.

You spend eight hours at the office working to generate corporate profits, then you come home and consume products to profit other corporations. You need your beer and snacks to unwind, your streaming services and social media to distract your mind from the stress of it all, your online clothing purchase to try to feel good about yourself, and your prescription drugs to get to sleep at night. People live their entire lives like this.

And that’s those of us who are lucky enough to be living in the global north. In the global south you get wage slavery and exploitation with far more toil, far less relaxation time, and no cheap products made by impoverished workers on other continents with which to comfort yourself.

All of humanity has been roped into this mess. And for what? To make the numbers in some bank accounts increase. To get some green arrows pointing upward on the stock exchange. To enable a few billionaires to buy islands and elections.

All while destroying the biosphere we all depend on for survival.

This, we are told, is the best possible system we could possibly be living under.

I personally do not believe this is true. I personally believe we can have better. Those who benefit from this current arrangement are going to assure us it’s impossible and do everything they can to stop us from changing it, but we do have the means to reclaim the wealth, dignity and happiness that they have stolen from us.

They built this whole machine on our backs. All we need to do is stand up.

[Richard @Smith67M]

@ATRightMovies Audrey Hepburn

[Richard @Smith67M]

@ATRightMovies Drugstore Cowboy

[Richard @Smith67M]

@fromarsetoelbow They need consumers.

[Richard @Smith67M]

@Tannhaeuse23919 @AngelicaOung Read it a few years ago and really enjoyed it.

[Richard @Smith67M]

@jodymcintyre_ @Kathleen_Tyson_ If you have to ask...

[Richard @Smith67M]

@flying_rodent It's a great scene. Very evocative.
I also really like the first time you hear Miles Caton sing while he's in the car.

It's a fine movie.

[Richard @Smith67M]

@flying_rodent Have you seen https://t.co/PutbzpTr1o

[Thinkwert @Thinkwert]

🎵 That's me in the corner
That's me in the spot-light
Snoozy lil kitten 🎵

[Jediwolf @Jediwolf]

What happens when you post a real Monet and say it’s AI? The coolest art social experiment I’ve seen in a while. Thank you @SHL0MS

[Plutôt la Barbie @plutotlabarbie]

"I can a hundred percent tell you, knowing my seat as I do, that there is no prospect of the Greens taking my constituency" - David Lammy, MP for Tottenham, in the London Borough of Haringey, March 2026

Council seats, May 2026:
🟢 GRN: 28 (+28)
🔴 LAB: 20 (-30)

[Peter Oborne @OborneTweets]

Internationally revered political genius Morgan McSweeney is not being given the credit he deserves for this ground-breaking achievement.

[Richard @Smith67M]

@PeterMcCormack @LynAldenContact Lyn is always worth listening to.

[Richard @Smith67M]

@policytensor China has the potential to severely disrupt India's water supply. India cannot be considered a great power while that threat exists.

[Richard @Smith67M]

@MiddleearthMixr

[Farrukh @implausibleblog]

Left: BBC News cover Nigel Farage condemning antisemitism in Golders Green

Right: One of the 34 people who accused Nigel Farage of antisemitism and racism at school