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aabdab.bsky.social

@aabdab.bsky.social
145 followers 289 following 120 posts

Listening. Language. Optimism. Activism. Trees.

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Reposted by @aabdab.bsky.social
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 01/10/2026
The reduction of politics to voting is part of the 50 year neoliberal project whose foremost goal is to make you think of yourself as an atomized individual and not as a member of a polity.
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Dael Norwood @dael.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
What We Do in the Shadows, consumer edition
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David Simon @audacityofdespair.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
For those of you still waiting for this administration's release of the full Epstein files and the prosecution of those involved in child sexual abuse, consider this moment something of a tell:
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It's Pipes, Mum! Pipes is here! @scriblit.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband; son of a man who had to flee the Nazis: I'm Jewish BBC News: 😠 are you, though? You're doing it wrong Fascist Daniel Thomas, in between attacking teenage cricketers and rnli volunteers: I'm Christian BBC News: 😊
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Julia Smith @juliasmithmum63.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
While I don't condone my son's use of AI to generate elements of this, I do now wish 'Sharples!' existed. @drmatthewsweet.bsky.social @quantick.bsky.social
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aabdab.bsky.social @aabdab.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
@tonythorne007.bsky.social can you promote the term "hydronyms"?!
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Anne-Marie W. Clark 👩‍👧‍👦🐶⚖️😷🌎🚢📚🌦️⚜️ @amwclark.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Did you see this one? Those 2 had to have personally interviewed practically every famous person on the planet at 1 point or another... And yet, they both came away with this impression.
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aabdab.bsky.social @aabdab.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Take note, Burnham government...
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Robert Evans (the Only Robert Evans) @iwriteok.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
RIP Dolly, no celebrity left a finer legacy.
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molly conger @socialistdogmom.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
the guy who said he wanted to chair the harvard department of eugenics and race science??? people are signing a letter in support of his right to bully black men to death in pursuit of his dream of eliminating black people entirely?? just making sure i’m reading this right!!
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Guy Shrubsole @guyshrubsole.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
So Richard Tice, should farmers just "enjoy" low crop yields? Should the thousands who've died from the heatwaves just "enjoy" their premature deaths? What about the families whose homes have burned down in the wildfires? Charlatans with their heads in the sand. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
Reform’s Tice says people should stop fighting climate crisis and ‘enjoy’ heat
Deputy leader says it is ‘arrogant’ to try to halt global heating, despite UK being left reeling by summer firewave
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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
The momentum of this issue is in the wrong direction. The line should be: We're roasting, we're exposed to wildfires, we're experiencing drought, and these nutters aren't prepared to keep British people safe.
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Tanita Tikaram @tanitatikaram.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
White professor ‘ MattGPT ‘ whose most recent book contained fabricated quotations, non-existent source references, & left ChatGPT URLs accidentally embedded in footnotes is sad about Jason Arday’s death but still wants Arday & all black academia held to higher standards than his own writing .
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Tom Roberts @tpgroberts.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Look, put simply, people should not be comfortable saying that in public and the way to fix society runs directly through making them afraid to say it again.
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Caroline Lucas @carolinelucas.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Glad to have added my name to a letter from 50 green groups urging PM to be clear that #climate breakdown is the cause of the current extreme heat crisis. The public deserves leadership that speaks honestly about the nature of the challenges the country faces & offers a robust plan to tackle them
theguardian.com
Green groups urge Andy Burnham to break silence on climate crisis
More than 50 organisations say PM urgently needs to show leadership and prepare British people for scale of change needed as UK struggles through another heatwave
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flyingrodent @flyingrodent.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
I think the lesson here is “if you don’t invest in infrastructure then everything gets worse and gradually falls apart, and governments have to do humiliating announcements about everything being fucked and broken”. That applies to prisons, same as it has to everything else.
Steven Swinford •
@Steven_... 24m
This week's episode of The State of It with the brilliant @patrickkmaguire and @lara_spirit
***Early release***
* The chaos behind the scenes as Andy Burnham grapples with the scale of the challenge. There are no good choices. Can he find another way to mitigate the impact of thousands of violent and serious offenders?
* The bad blood at the MoJ where officials feel they are being unfairly blamed by Burnham for pointing out the limitations of what the government can do. The PM in turn is unhappy with the options he has been presented with. He has staked his personal authority on the issue
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aabdab.bsky.social @aabdab.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
I can't think of a track of his I didn't love. RIP William Orbit.
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Marina Purkiss @marina-purkiss.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
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Rich Neville @richneville.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Rod Liddle was very much like Marmite, in that you wouldn’t want him on your television screen, radio, or newspaper.
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John Gibbons 🇵🇸 🇺🇦 🇪🇺 @thinkorswim.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
There’s “off the charts” and there’s France’s absolutely bonkers June & July 2026 temperatures (see black line below). Bad things are happening. Fast.
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jessamyn @librarian.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
I work at a public library. People who want to use AI seem to have no trouble doing so. People who don't want to use AI have a harder time. I crowdsourced and then finalized this document "How to disable or avoid intrusive AI" and then gave it a short URL: notoai.org Please pass along if it's useful
An aircraft passenger oxygen mask: a drop down passenger mask with air bag and yellow plastic mouth and nose cover, oxygen tube has been cut; Demonstration model used by flight attendant crew for passenger instruction. Has text on the side indicating that it's non-functional.
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Caroline Lucas @carolinelucas.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Is “pragmatic” the new, “grown up” word? Andy, there’s nothing “pragmatic” about drilling for more oil & gas - to even consider it with the planet literally on fire is total madness. How many times must we say it will do nothing for energy bills or security? It would be an act of utter recklessness
theguardian.com
Burnham promises ‘pragmatic’ approach to North Sea oil and gas
PM tells reporters the government cannot ignore the energy resource ‘when people are struggling’
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Zack Polanski @zackpolanski.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
This is an appalling lack of judgement and the surest sign yet that Britain will continue to be Trump's lackey. The war in Iran has cost countless lives, and breached international law - yet we continue to support it. Very, very concerning. Very, very continuity Starmer.
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I Am Incorrigible @imincorrigible.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Economists, think tanks and commentators like Jim O'Neill on #bbcpm keep saying UK welfare spending is "out of control." The BBC reports it uncritically. The Resolution Foundation, one of the UK's most respected economic research bodies, looked at the actual data. Thread. 🧵
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Davenant 📸 @marcdavenant.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Good. Now he needs to scrap Palantir, police facial recognition, the proscription of Palestine Action, the prosecution of climate activists and Starmer’s draconian anti-protest laws. Then ban foreign/crypto donations, ban 2nd jobs and gifts for MPs and make all lobbying have to be publicly declared.
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aabdab.bsky.social @aabdab.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
What is going on here? How has this been allowed to happen?
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Neil Schofield-Hughes @neilschofield.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
Burnham will fail because when a democracy is in a state of existential crisis, it needs political leaders willing to tell uncomfortable truths (and that doesn’t mean dressing up neoliberal tropes as “tough choices”. I see no evidence that Burnham is any such leader.
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aabdab.bsky.social @aabdab.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
During my lifetime, the Labour leadership has encompassed Foot, Corbyn, Blair and Starmer. "Unashamedly Labour" is therefore essentially meaningless. "Unashamedly socialist" would be a much more helpful marker of values, but this feels unattainably radical now.
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The Midnight Society @midnightpals.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
[mysterious circle of robed figures] JK Rowling: hello children Rowling: finally my evil plan reachesss fruition Rowling: it'ss taken me yearss of careful planning but finally Rowling: finally!!! Rowling: finally we can defeat the sscourge of human rightsss
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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
These years of anti-immigration hysteria we're living through right now are going to look utterly incomprehensible in the coming era of closing schools, ageing populations and massively understaffed public services
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Dean Obeidallah @deanobeidallah.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
Michael Fanone's take on Lindsey Graham is one of the most powerful I've read:
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Des @desdelboy.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
Morning all. Of all the many, many photographs I’ve seen this remains one of my all time favourites, like a Caravaggio painting. What a frame. Photograph by Chris Steele Perkins, Blackpool 1972.
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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Never before has a politician announced their intention to run for re-election on an explicitly pro-sleaze, anti-transparency ticket. Never before has a politician gloried in having enriched themselves by breaking the rules, and then demanded a mandate to continue doing so indefinitely
bylinetimes.com
Nigel Farage’s 'Pro-Sleaze' By-Election Is A Sign Of Terminal Weakness
The Reform leader's desperate decision to call a back-me-or-sack-me by-election is a sign of a politician who knows he is finally being exposed for the man he really is, argues Adam Bienkov
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François Raulier @francoisgmr.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Note that the last point on Count Binface’s “manifesto” is arguably the only non-joke one and reads “Hold politicians to account”…. That is a direct challenge to the Farage grifting.
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ayowhose.bsky.social @ayowhose.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
The jolly japester and perennial election candidate Count Binface depicted in the style of the famous Obama ‘Hope’ poster.
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Davenant 📸 @marcdavenant.bsky.social · 10/11/2025
‘A row of coal miners' houses with no windows to the street’, Halifax, 1937 by Bill Brandt. Nostalgia is a seductive liar.
A bleak black and white photograph of a row of houses with dustbins outside. There are steps up to darkened doorways and no visible windows. Each house has four chimneys. To the right are industrial chimneys and in the foreground are barely visible cobbles and what looks like large lumps of coal debris.

This is an image which always triggers a strong response. 

People often claim it is East Durham rather than Halifax. This comes from a mistake in the labelling of this photo in the V&A collection which has now been corrected but the myth persists.

People often claim the label is misleading but this is the title given to the photo by Brandt himself. It is likely that there were windows on the other side but four chimneys normally means four rooms. You must judge for yourself whether any of the rooms were windowless.

People often claim there were no mines in Halifax. This is incorrect, although there weren’t many mines the area is on the edge of a coalfield. 

Ultimately we must remember than none of Bill Brandt’s photos can be taken at face value and neither can the titles he gave them. That’s all part of the mystery of his work.
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Maurice J. Casey @mauricejcasey.com · 04/07/2026
I maintain a running list of unusual nouns Belfast natives describe to me as “wee”. Yesterday I collected an all timer: “wee crypt”
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Nick Pettigrew @nick-pettigrew.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
What is it about white people that makes them so violent? Should we tolerate white culture in the UK? Is the fact he was arrested without violence evidence of two-tier policing? Should white people still be given housing when non-whites remain homeless? Will white leaders condemn this? etc.
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Melissa Nadia Viviana 🐸 @resistrebelrevolt.net · 19/06/2026
Funny how that keeps happening.
apnews.com
Talks between the US and Iran are called off because of fighting in Lebanon, officials say
Talks between the U.S. and Iran were called off after intense fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
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🦋 Mark Edgerton @mark-edgerton.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
« Were #Farage really heading for Downing Street then he would be winning places like this with ease. That he has not suggests that his hopes of winning power in three years time are far lower than we have all been so strongly encouraged to believe. » Adam Bienkov
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Marie Phillips @mariephillips.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
No, it's because only 3.1 percent of the Dutch population live in poverty as opposed to 20 percent of the British population. The Guardian really needs to stop publishing irresponsible lifestyle crap as news. (The Avondvierdaagse is a nice tradition though.) www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...
theguardian.com
Dutch children are unusually happy and healthy. Is it because of the Avondvierdaagse?
Once a year, Dutch kids, parents and teachers take part in a walking festival, heading out for four nights in a single week to explore their neighbourhoods, exercise and make friends. It’s a tradition...
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Liberal Currents @liberalcurrents.com · 13/06/2026
“More than 700 women have been murdered in the UK since 2020, but we didn’t see those claiming that their actions are about ‘protecting women and girls’ riot over those, because the majority of perpetrators were white.” www.liberalcurrents.com/the-violence...
liberalcurrents.com
The Violence on the Streets of the UK is About Political Rhetoric, Not Migration
These riots are about race politics, not concerns rooted in reality.
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aabdab.bsky.social @aabdab.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
I don't understand why politicians aren't kicking Twitter to the kerb.
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aabdab.bsky.social @aabdab.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
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aabdab.bsky.social @aabdab.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
Why is X still used by the government?
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Teresa Heffernan @tjheffernan.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
In case people have not got it yet...this is not faulty tech but the point of the AI Industry: "Google’s AI Overviews are peddling misinformation on a scale that may be virtually unprecedented in human history."
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Joanne Harris @joannechocolat.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
Yes, I use dashes. Yes, I use the Oxford comma. Yes, I sometimes say: “Not… but.” Fuck anyone who thinks those things belong to AI. Who did you think they were stolen from in the first place?
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aabdab.bsky.social @aabdab.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
Also applicable to the UK
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aabdab.bsky.social @aabdab.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
Into the bin with you, o increasingly spectral irrelevance: Tony Blair’s essay on Labour failings gets full marks for being unhelpful www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
Tony Blair’s essay on Labour failings gets full marks for being unhelpful
Intervention by former PM feels almost designed to inflict maximum annoyance on his party
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