Robert Rands

reader, writer

[Robert Rands @Vittidinia]

@MaryKostakidis How many more will die as he and his cronies waltz back and forth on the edge of the chasm of armageddon, collecting billions as the stock market sways to their orchestra's tune?

[Robert Rands @Vittidinia]

@RnaudBertrand re - the most consequential victims of Chinese Development ...

Reminding me of the acronym WIERD,
Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich, Democratic

'Democratic'

A shame that C for Chauvinistic would spoil the word.
The good news about Foreign Affairs is it's paywalled.

[Robert Rands @Vittidinia]

Submarine atomic waste,
for your children's children's children

[Robert Rands @Vittidinia]

@anishmoonka re
" ... they spent decades building a way to get the salt out ... "

As you say, the waste brine can affect aquatic life around its outfall.

And strategic vulnerability is an issue.
How many desalination plants have been targeted during the war against Iran and Lebanon?

[Robert Rands @Vittidinia]

@timand2037 I read a science fiction short story in the late 50s
about an invasion by lobster-like creatures that vivisected humans.

Said's book 'Orientalism' comes to mind
with tales of the Orientalist lobsters of the 18th & 19th century & their razor-sharp 'science' of philology

[Peter Cronau @PeterCronau]

After Declassified Australia uncovered dozens of suspicious military transfers from Australia to Israel, only the Greens called for answers in parliament.

https://t.co/nD0sYV48Fc

[giorgio bianchi @Giorgioaki]

Le dimissioni del primo ministro britannico Keir Starmer vengono presentate dai media mainstream come un esempio di responsabilità democratica. In realtà, evidenziano la profonda crisi di legittimità che affligge i leader europei guerrafondai, da Starmer in Gran Bretagna a Emmanuel Macron in Francia e Friedrich Merz in Germania, sempre più impopolari. Lungi dal rappresentare una qualche forma di rinnovamento democratico, le dimissioni di Starmer equivalgono a poco più di un reset controllato per preservare le strutture di potere esistenti, e offrire al contempo un canale di sfogo per la rabbia popolare accumulata. Dopo anni di calo dei consensi, stagnazione economica e rivolte interne al partito, Starmer è stato di fatto costretto alle dimissioni. Il complesso politico-mediatico britannico ha trasformato questa messa in scena in una prova che "il sistema funziona". In realtà, il sistema politico occidentale opera come una plutocrazia globalista: le decisioni che contano sono prese da reti di potere finanziario, multinazionali, banche centrali e istituzioni sovranazionali come l'UE e la NATO, mentre il suffragio universale sembra incapace di alterare questa dinamica. Le politiche che hanno alimentato il diffuso malcontento continuano immutate. L'uscita di scena di Starmer non farà alcuna differenza. La stessa situazione è visibile oltre la Manica, dove leader altrettanto impopolari come Macron e Merz battono i tamburi di guerra nonostante il calo del sostegno interno. Questo schema non è nuovo. L'uscita di scena di Boris Johnson e Liz Truss era stata trattata con una fanfara simile. Questi episodi funzionano come moderni "panem et circenses": forniscono una catarsi emotiva e l'illusione del cambiamento, senza minacciare il regime. In fin dei conti, sostituire un leader laburista con un altro non cambierà la direzione di marcia in materia di politica estera, immigrazione o scelte economiche. La vera domanda che i cittadini devono porsi è se continuare ad accettare questa farsa.

Laura Ruggeri

[Christine Milne AO @ChristineMilne]

Congratulations to dedicated Forest campaigners Paul O’Halloran and Patrick Johnson who have spent hundreds of hours tracking log trucks to Spirit of Tas and Western Junction. Big stories need big hearted people doing the work! #politas #auspol

[Robert Rands @Vittidinia]

@jonnyblundra @SaulStaniforth Blind Freddy can see it, but Jonny blunders about
like Elmer Fudd

Israelis can see it, but not you,
Jonny Blunderer
You see only the letters of the law
https://t.co/fzIf1Q5a7h

[The Husky @Mr_Husky1]

In May of 1965, a 28-year-old teacher walked into a fourth-grade classroom in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston and did something that would change the course of his life — and eventually, the lives of millions.
His name was Jonathan Kozol. He had graduated from Harvard with highest honors. He had studied at Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship. He could have chosen almost any path. Instead, he chose a crumbling public school in one of Boston's poorest neighborhoods, where the textbooks were two decades old, the heating system didn't work through winter, and a new student walked out the door — or simply disappeared — almost every single week.
That morning, he read his class of African-American nine-year-olds a poem by Langston Hughes. It was called The Ballad of the Landlord — a poem about a Black tenant standing up to a white landlord over an apartment falling apart at the seams, and what happened to him when he dared to speak up. It was not on the Boston Public Schools' approved reading list.
The next morning, Kozol was handed a dismissal letter.
The official reason: he had read material that wasn't in the approved curriculum, without permission from a superior. There had also been complaints from parents who had heard about the poem.
He had been teaching for seven months.
Another man might have accepted the verdict and walked away. Kozol did the opposite. He sat down and wrote. He documented everything — the broken heaters, the outdated books, the overcrowded rooms, the letter that ended his career over a poem about justice. He called the book Death at an Early Age.
Houghton Mifflin published it in October of 1967. Five months later, it won the National Book Award. Over the following decades, it sold more than two million copies.
But Kozol didn't stop there. He spent the next sixty years going back — back to the classrooms, back to the neighborhoods, back to the families that the system kept failing. He wrote about homeless children sleeping in welfare hotels. He wrote about the staggering gap between what wealthy school districts spent on each child and what poor ones could afford. He wrote about the Bronx, about segregation, about the America that existed just a few miles from the America most people saw.
He turned 89 in September of 2025. He is still writing.
All of it began on a May morning in 1965, when a young teacher decided that nine-year-olds in a cold, underfunded classroom deserved to hear a poem about what it felt like when the world wasn't fair.
He read it to them. And they fired him for it.
He made sure the whole world heard it anyway.

[Robert Rands @Vittidinia]

@RogersHistory That matter of explaining what Keir Starmer did that made him so unpopular with the electorate - Were they watching somethig youmided?

Blind Freddy can see it, Tom.
Israelis can see it,too.

[B'Tselem בצלם بتسيلم @btselem]

הג'נוסייד בעזה והאלימות הגואה בגדה המערבית מתקיימיים בחסות דה-הומניזציה עמוקה וארוכת שנים. "השיח הזה הפך לנורמלי לחלוטין בשיח הישראלי, הציבורי והפוליטי", מסבירה יולי נובק, מנכ"לית בצלם, בכנס של פעילים וקובעי מדיניות בארצות הברית.

[Robert Rands @Vittidinia]

#Politas

[Christine Milne AO @ChristineMilne]

No surprise TCCI boosts Marinus Link. They did same for Basslink, the $500m Basslink undersea cable project in 2001, advocating that integrating the state into the NEM would drive economic growth, lower power bills, and create jobs. Wrong then, it went broke. Wrong now.#politas

[Robert Rands @Vittidinia]

@academic_la The one sin God will not forgive is to refuse to come to the bed of a woman who invites you.

Zorba the Greek said that in the movie.

Shaiel.
I dearly hope you do something greater than confessing to your sin on Twitter.

That said,
though I am nowhere near God, I forgive you.

[Breaking the Silence @BtSIsrael]

"Never before have such serious accusations been leveled against an Israeli government and the entire defense establishment, certainly not by someone who once held ultimate responsibility for Israel's security. But after a long and painful period of restraint, there is no choice but to say these things plainly and in full"

An op-ed by former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
https://t.co/GUvZXOSZUS

[Sony Thăng @nxt888]

You can spend your whole life inside the U.S. narrative and never encounter a single real question.

You will be asked if you support the troops.

Never if you support the wars.

You will be asked if you stand with Israel.

Never if you stand with international law.

You will be asked if you feel safe.

Never if others deserve to.

That is how you manufacture consent.

You do not ban questions.

You just never ask the right ones.

[Robert Rands @Vittidinia]

@MaryKostakidis re
"I think we are done with the hubris. Over it. Even [47] is over it."
He & his motley ilk are dancing to & fro near the edge of the abyss, & picking up the loose change (by the billions) as the markets react

Is Alan Greenspan watching down?
47 is as
sentimental as a scorpion

[Actu Foot @ActuFoot_]

🚨 LES IRANIENS ONT LAISSÉ UN MESSAGE DE PAIX DANS LE VESTIAIRE APRÈS LE MATCH FACE À LA BELGIQUE. ☮️🇮🇷

« Nous sommes venus à Los Angeles avec fierté, avons joué avec honneur et repartons avec dignité. Merci, Los Angeles, pour votre hospitalité.

Et merci à chaque Iranien qui a donné de son cœur, de sa voix et de son âme pour l'Iran durant ces 180 minutes.

Que la paix, le respect et l'amitié règnent entre toutes les nations. »

Avec un hommage aux victimes du bombardement de l’école de Minab, principalement des écolières âgées de 7 à 12 ans. 😥

🗞️ @RMCsport

[Robert Rands @Vittidinia]

@BroOfHoppers
Greenspan goes to heaven

According to K Vonnegut, all dead humans go to heaven. All.

Alan,
"A gentleman who, for decades, preached that the personal interest of the predator was the invisible hand of the common good."

[Yanis Varoufakis @yanisvaroufakis]

Ο Άλαν Γκρίνσπαν μας αποχαιρέτησε σήμερα. Ο άνθρωπος που το σύστημα είχε αναδείξει ως τον «κεντρικό τραπεζίτη των κεντρικών τραπεζιτών» και ο οποίος λάμβανε ως αλήθεια την πλάνη ότι οι αγορές είναι θεότητες και η ασταθεία αρετή.

Ο επιτάφιός του; Μια μοναδική, λαμπρή ομολογία: «Βρήκα ένα ελάττωμα στο μοντέλο μου για τον κόσμο». ¨Ένα ελάττωμα", ομολόγησε, λες κι επρόκειτο για σωλήνα που στάζει αντί για την ολοκληρωτική και με αναστρέψιμη κατάρρευση του νεοφιλελεύθερου ιδεολογήματος που τον ανέδειξε σε «Μάντη των Αγορών». Ποιον; Έναν κύριο που, για δεκαετίες, κήρυττε ότι το προσωπικό συμφέρον του αρπακτικού ήταν το αόρατο χέρι του κοινού καλού.

Τότε, το 2008, όταν το θεριό καταβρόχθησε τις αγαπημένες αγορές του, προς τιμήν του, ο Γκίνσπαν αμφιταλαντεύτηκε, παραδεχόμενος ότι ολόκληρη η κοσμοθεωρία του —αυτή που οι κεντρικοί τραπεζίτες είχ��ν αναγάγει σε δόγμα και η "καλή κοινωνία" είχε καταπιεί αμάσητη— ήταν ένα παραμύθι επικερδές για τους εισοδηματίες.

Φυσικά, ο Γκρίνσπαν δεν παραδέχτηκε την ευθύνη του. Αυτό θα απαιτούσε ηθική πυξίδα, ένα εργαλείο που απουσιάζει εμφανώς από την εμπνευσμένη από την Άιν Ραντ εργαλειοθήκη του. Όχι, απλώς ομολόγησε την αστοχία του και κατόπιν επέστρεψε στην σιωπή του.

Αντίο, λοιπόν, Μαέστρο. Βοήθησες να χτιστεί μια χυδαία παγκόσμια οικονομία-καζίνο, αλλά τουλάχιστον είχες την ευπρέπεια να διαβάσεις δυνατά την έκθεση της αυτοψίας της. Δυστυχώς, αμέτρητα εκατομμύρια εξακολουθούν να πληρώνουν το σφάλμα στο μοντέλ�� σου.

https://t.co/ftWXeIeAQr

[Robert Rands @Vittidinia]

@SenatorWong
@AlboMP
@MRowlandMP

Which side are you on?

[IslamophobiaUK @uk_islamophobia]

Boris Johnson posed for a photo with a British soldier who went on to fight in Gaza.

Sam Sank, from Stanmore, served 114 days in the Israeli army there.

On the 58th day of the war he wrote of Palestinians:

"we cannot trust these animals and it's time to start pummelling them again."

Of his final week: "anyone caught in our sights was neutralised in what is effectively a death zone."

He is one of 2,069.

In February 2026 Declassified UK obtained Israeli military data.

1,686 British-Israeli dual nationals served in the IDF during the genocide in Gaza.
Plus 383 more with British, Israeli, and at least one other nationality.

The Foreign Office confirmed it does not collect this data.

In April 2026 the Met closed its file on ten of those British nationals.
Without investigating one of them.

Sank kept his passport.
A former Prime Minister had shaken his hand.

Now meet Tauqir Sharif.

Born in London.
Went to Syria in 2012.
Built an aid organisation employing nearly 200 people.

In 2017 the Home Office stripped his British citizenship.
They told him only that it was "conducive to the public good."
He says he was given no evidence to challenge.

"The only country I have ever known is the UK," he wrote.
Now stranded with his wife and five children.

He has never been charged.
He has never been convicted.

Declassified UK and the ICJP have opened a public letter to Shabana Mahmood and Yvette Cooper.

Track Britons who fought for Israel.
Screen them at the border.
Investigate them in line with the law.

Over 60 lawyers, genocide scholars, veterans and politicians have signed.
The letter is now open to the public.

Tomorrow, Monday 22 June at 4.30pm, Westminster Hall debates e-petition 752646.

A public call for a formal inquiry into pro-Israel lobbying influence on UK politics and democracy.
Over 117,000 people signed it.
The government said it would not support one.

The debate will be broadcast live on the UK Parliament YouTube channel.

Thousands fought.
One delivered aid.

The state already decided which Briton was the threat.

Tomorrow parliament has been asked to explain why it still won't look.

Report: https://t.co/D9amGp36nm
Keep us alive: https://t.co/Z8H0FlgBUw
Substack: https://t.co/52Z6Nx2jIU
IG: @islamophobiauk

[Robert Rands @Vittidinia]

@RichardMarlesMP Is the OTHR it going to Israel, like all those artilleray shells andairplane parts?
Shame on Labor.
#FishNChipsLady is coming for you,
or has she arrived? I ask because you & her ilk raised student visas.

I bet that Comrade Gough would call you a pissant.

I'd agree, in spades