iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Adrian Monck @amonck.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

This is human life, real human life—no rest, no calm enjoyment of the scene, no generous gift of food and wine lavishly offered by the gods—the hard fist of necessity for ever battering man to a shapeless and hopeless fall.

Reapers resting, John Singer Sargent, 1885

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Adrian Monck @amonck.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

There was another wheat-field by the side of which I used to walk sometimes in the evenings, as the grains in the cars began to grow firm.

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Adrian Monck @amonck.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

Just another day in the White House.

Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There Will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin' Strait, you crazy bastards, or you'll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President
DONALD J. TRUMP

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Adrian Monck @amonck.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

Good for them… but philanthropy funded.

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Adrian Monck @amonck.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

It comes out as below standard. Read the detail and see why. It isn't perfect but it does raise most of the issues pretty clearly.

1. Source Diversity & Representation (Score: 4/10) The sourcing is narrow. Named voices are limited to Faten and Mahmoud (Cafe Metro owners) and a spokesperson for the Board of Deputies of British Jews (quoted once). Gail's itself receives only a corporate statement: "a British business with no specific connections to any country or government outside the UK." Absent entirely are: local residents unconnected to either cafe, Gail's staff or management offering a substantive perspective, Islington council, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (mentioned but not quoted), and any independent expert on gentrification, antisemitism, or protest movements. For a piece framing two
businesses as proxies in a conflict, the sourcing is heavily weighted toward one side's lived experience.
2. Contextual Adequacy (Score: 6/10) The article provides useful context on several fronts: Bain Capital's investment links, the history of Cafe Metro
since the 1980s, Faten's family background in Beit Hanoun, and the broader climate of protest restrictions. However, it lacks substantive context on what specifically Bain Capital invests in (we get "Israeli security companies" without detail), the scale or nature of antisemitic incidents affecting Jewish-owned businesses more broadly, or the evidential basis for the gentrification claim beyond assertion. The Gail's-as-gentrifier framing is presented as established fact - "Critics accuse it of accelerating gentrification" - without
interrogation.
3. Framing & Narrative Structure (Score: 5.4/10)
Agency Clarity (sub-score: 5/10, weight 1.5): The article uses active voice for attacks on Cafe Metro - "Pro-Israel activists regularly descend on it to slap stickers on its windows" - but shifts to passive constructions for attacks on Gail's: "Gail's was daubed with red paint" and "all its windows were smashed in." The vandals are never given agency; the actions simply happen. By contrast, the sticker-slapping activists
are identified by ideology. This asymm…

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Adrian Monck @amonck.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

Fragmentation … as hinted at this morning

Many Trump administration officials have privately warned of the disillusionment Kurdish forces have felt when working with the US in the past, and their frequent complaints of feeling hung out to dry by the
Americans.

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Adrian Monck @amonck.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

Ted has not been won over by the Olympics.

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Adrian Monck @amonck.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

“Brexit, just the beginning”

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Adrian Monck @amonck.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

Having seen Mark Carney operate around the edges of WEF for 15 years I can only be grateful that decency and intelligence and realism still have a place in democratic public life. This is a speech that any Western leader could have given. You might be asking why yours didn’t…

Prime Minister of Canada
For decades, countries like Canada prospered under what we called the rules-based international order. We joined its institutions, praised its principles, and benefited from its predictability. We could pursue values-based foreign policies under its protection.
We knew the story of the international rules-based order was partially false. That the strongest would exempt themselves when convenient. That trade rules were enforced asymmetrically. And that international law applied with varying rigour depending on the identity of the accused or the victim.
This fiction was useful, and American hegemony, in particular, helped provide public goods: open sea lanes, a stable financial system, collective security, and support for frameworks for resolving disputes.
So, we placed the sign in the window. We participated in the rituals. And largely avoided calling out the gaps between rhetoric and reality.
This bargain no longer works.
Let me be direct: we are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition.

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Adrian Monck @amonck.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

Risks in the age of WhatsApp diplomacy. Trump attempts to humiliate Macron. Macron’s message reveals how easy it is to divide Europe – as if that needed saying – and that Russia is on the way back in.

From président Macron to President Trump
My friend,
We are totally in line on Syria
We can do great things on Iran
I do not understand what you are doing on Greenland
Let us try to build great things:
1) i can set up a g7 meeting after Davos in Paris on thursday afternoon. I can invite the ukrainians, the danish, the syrians and the russians in the margins
2) let us have a dinner together in Paris together on thursday before you go back to the us
Emmanuel
5:01 PM

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Adrian Monck @amonck.bsky.social · 17/01/2026

Russia’s peace negotiator writes:

Collapse of the transatlantic union.
Finally—something actually worth discussing in Davos.
Rapid Response 47
@RapidResponse... • 5h
Donald J. Trump C @reaDonald Trump
We have subsidized Denmark, and all of the Countries of the European Union, and others, for many years by not charging them Tariffs, or any other forms of remuneration. Now, after Centuries, it is time for Denmark to give back - World Peace is at stake! China and Russia want Greenland, and there is not a thing that Denmark can do about it. They currently have two dogsleds as protection, one added recently. Only the United States of America, under PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP, can play in this game, and very successfully, at that! Nobody will touch this sacred piece of Land, especially since the National Security of the United States, and the World at large, is at stake.

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Adrian Monck @amonck.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

Anti-European “satire” on X.

Living in Europe is Paradise
You wake up at 6:57 AM and hear your three roommates are already up. The apartment is 41 square meters and the walls are thin. Even though you're 38 years old, you like living with other people....
19:58•14/1/26. 1.5M Views

Almost the entire car is filled with immigrant families and their screaming kids. You do quick mental math for fun: each mother seems to have on average seven children. You're quietly happy there are so many of them - these kids are the future generation of Europe, filling the continent with life.

A group of eight teenagers in puffer jackets riding electric scooters fly past and clip your elbow. They laugh and yell at you in what you're pretty sure is Arabic. "Kids, am I right?' you say to Henrik.

You look outside. It's still dark. "Netherlands in winter is so beautiful" you whisper to the passenger next to you. "Sorry habibi, I don't speak
Dutch," he responds.

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Adrian Monck @amonck.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

The Telegraph gives voice to a range of views reflecting strands of the British establishment on Greenland. They foreground the peculiar British conviction that surrendering before you’re asked constitutes diplomatic cunning.

Former MI6 chief backs Trump's plan to run
Greenland

military Threat to l
How Trump can take
Greenland without firing a shot
Washington has more than military might at its disposal as it seeks to take over the vast Arctic island

Greenland belongs in the United States
Denmark cannot defend the territory. It is too strategically important for the US to leave it vulnerable to potential Chinese control

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Adrian Monck @amonck.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

Meanwhile on Threads UK govt accounts are absent, dormant or mothballed…

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Adrian Monck @amonck.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

🇩🇰 Danish PM responds to US threats: “It makes absolutely no sense to talk about the need for the United States to take over Greenland… Denmark - and thus Greenland - is part of NATO and is therefore covered by the alliance's security guarantee.”

"I have to say this very directly to the United States:
It makes absolutely no sense to talk about the need for the United States to take over Greenland.
The United States has no right to annex any of the three countries in the Commonwealth.
The Kingdom of Denmark - and thus Greenland - is part of NATO and is therefore covered by the alliance's security guarantee. We already have a defense agreement between the Kingdom and the United States today, which gives the United States wide access to Greenland. And we, on the part of the Kingdom, have invested significantly in security in the Arctic.
I would therefore strongly urge the United States to stop the threats against a historically close ally and against another country and another people who have said very clearly that they are not for sale."

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Adrian Monck @amonck.bsky.social · 03/01/2026

A reminder of Fiona Hill’s 2019 testimony on Venezuela and Ukraine.

And I was also told by Amos and other colleagues that they had some linkages, so I also want to, you know, get you to step back at this period. This is, you know, March,
April, into May, where we were having a standoff over Venezuela. And the Russians at this particular juncture were signaling very strongly that they wanted to somehow make some very strange swap arrangement between Venezuela and Ukraine.
In other words, if we were going to exert some semblance
of the Monroe Doctrine of, you know, Russia keeping out of our backyard, because this is after the Russians had sent in these hundred operatives essentially to, you know, basically secure the Venezuelan Government and, you know, to preempt
what they were obviously taking to be some kind of U.S.
military action, they were basically signaling: You know, you have your Monroe doctrine. You want us out of your
backyard. Well, you know, we have our own version of this.
You're in our backyard in Ukraine. And we were getting that
sent to us, you know, kind of informally through channels.
It was in the Russian press, various commentators.
UNCLASSIFIED

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Adrian Monck @amonck.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

A writer becomes a day labourer and learns something about the fentanyl crisis… which is really, of course, a “no social safety net” crisis

In that moment, I saw before me - with an inner tremor - the path that too many of my neighbors had taken. Without steady, decently paying employment, they took on physically demanding day labor, got hurt, relied on painkillers and slid into a downward spiral.

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Adrian Monck @amonck.bsky.social · 29/12/2025

Estonia’s spy chief on Russia and Europe re-arming: “Russia clearly sees value in … promot[ing] the idea that an arms race is pointless – that it diverts money away from other areas like social welfare and that, ultimately, it's harmful to Europe itself.

What we're seeing is that Russia's interest lies in slowing down Europe's momentum toward rearmament. Ihere are various ways to achieve that and the toolbox is likely quite broad.
On one hand, we're already seeing efforts to send a calming, peace-focused message to Europe. For example, Putin has publicly stated that Russia might even write into its legislation that it has no intention of attacking Europe. That's part of this "soothing" narrative, meant to give the impression that everything is fine, that Russia poses no threat and there's no need to rush into rearmament.
On the other hand, Russia clearly sees value in engaging with certain political parties or population groups to promote the idea that an arms race is pointless — that it diverts money away from other areas like social welfare and that, ultimately, it's harmful to Europe itself. The goal is to create societal divisions and put political pressure on decision-makers. It's a multi-layered approach and we can already clearly see it in action.

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Adrian Monck @amonck.bsky.social · 24/12/2025

A senior US official shares a post mocking the Downing Street Chief of Staff. Britain’s public silence speaks volumes. 👇👇👇

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Adrian Monck @amonck.bsky.social · 24/12/2025

Melvyn Bragg bids his farewell.

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Adrian Monck @amonck.bsky.social · 24/12/2025

🧵 1/ The Death of Digital Sovereignty: The US just sanctioned the CEO of an organisation set up by Keir Starmer’s chief of staff. The charge? Supporting laws that regulate American platforms.

WE'VE SANCTIONED: Imran Ahmed, key collaborator with the Biden Administration's effort to weaponize the government against U.S. citizens. Ahmed's group, Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), created the infamous
"disinformation dozen" report, which called for platforms to deplatform twelve American "anti-vaxxers", including now-HHS Secretary @SecKennedy. Leaked documents from CCDH show the organization listed "kill Musk's Twitter" and "trigger EU and UK regulatory action" as priorities. The organization supports the UK's Online Safety Act and EU's Digital Services Act to expand censorship in Europe and around the world.

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Adrian Monck @amonck.bsky.social · 22/12/2025

“We have been promoting this story on social media for days…. When it fails to air without a credible explanation, the public will correctly identify this as corporate censorship.”

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Adrian Monck @amonck.bsky.social · 20/12/2025

“The Baltics think they’re first.”

The intelligence also contradicts the Russian leader's denials that he is a threat to Europe.
The U.S. findings have been consistent since Putin launched his full-scale invasion in 2022. They largely align with the views of European leaders and spy agencies that he covets all of Ukraine and territories of former Soviet bloc states, including members of the NATO alliance, according to the sources.
"The intelligence has always been that Putin wants more,"
Mike Quigley, a Democratic member of the House Intelligence Committee, said in a Reuters interview. "The Europeans are convinced of it. The Poles are absolutely convinced of it. The Baltics think they're first."

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Adrian Monck @amonck.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

How irresponsible to organise this in the world’s most dangerous city

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Adrian Monck @amonck.bsky.social · 11/12/2025

“The question is not whether truth is governed. Truth is governed now – by algorithms optimised for outrage, by platforms accountable to oligarchs’ whims rather than citizens’ wishes. The question is whether that governance should be democratic or plutocratic.”

Who Governs
Truth?
Musk, Zuckerberg, and the fight for Europe's information space
Less social media.
7THIN.GS

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Adrian Monck @amonck.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

From @defenseone.bsky.social and the longer US National Security Strategy 👇

Working from the premise that Europe is facing
"civilizational erasure" because of its immigration policies and "censorship of free speech," the NSS proposes to focus U.S. relationships with European countries on a few nations with like-minded-right-wing, presumably-current administrations and movements.
Austria, Hungary, Italy, and Poland are listed as countries the U.S. should "work more with... with the goal of pulling them away from the [European Union]."
"And we should support parties, movements, and intellectual and cultural figures who seek sovereignty and preservation/restoration of traditional European ways of life..while remaining pro-American," the document says.

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Adrian Monck @amonck.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

A friend sent me this. Written 25 years ago, me taking to Rob Butler about Omagh…

12:00]
LOOKAHEAD
260
In Vision:
(IN VISION)
Well Rob, the inquest opens into the brutal killing
of dozens of people in a shopping street in the small town of Omagh some two years ago. The
people who planned, arranged and assisted in
this crime are out there right now - perhaps even
watching this programme - and no doubt they
have their own excuses to shield themselves
from confessing to the crime, or even to
admitting that it was anything more than an
unfortunate mistake, a little bomb-making negligence.
But out there they are, and tonight we'll be reminding them of just a little of the pain and the
loss they caused - that's all at six o'clock.
ed: 06/10/00 15:24
by Adrian Monck
0'34" 260

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Adrian Monck @amonck.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

Don’t listen to Benny Goodman kids

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Adrian Monck @amonck.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

3/25 Traditional bread-making required hours of kneading and fermentation. CBP reduced the entire process – flour to sliced, packaged loaf – to about 3.5 hours. How? A little bit of fat, Vitamin C (a fast-acting oxidising agent), and some high-speed mechanical mixing.

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Adrian Monck @amonck.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

🧵🍞 1/25 In the early 1960s, a small engineering firm in Burnley, Lancashire, built the machine that would transform bread-making worldwide. Thirty years later, its operations had been shuttered, absorbed, and relocated. This is the story of British innovation – and what happened next. 🧵

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Adrian Monck @amonck.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

New newsletter is out ($) 👇 – don’t be put off by the nerdy title.

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Adrian Monck @amonck.bsky.social · 30/09/2025

1 Nearly 800 generals and admirals ordered home from posts worldwide. No explanation given. At Quantico, they discovered why: America’s cities would now become military training grounds against ‘the enemy within’ – a phrase borrowed from Stephen Miller’s mentor David Horowitz.

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Adrian Monck @amonck.bsky.social · 14/09/2025

One Big Thing -> Newsletter out Tuesday ($)

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Adrian Monck @amonck.bsky.social · 06/09/2025

The golden dome still gleams above Vienna, monument to both achievement and warning. Lueger’s techniques – economic nationalism, cultural grievance, mass mobilisation against elite success – never disappeared. They simply lie in wait for the next crisis to make them relevant again. /end

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Adrian Monck @amonck.bsky.social · 06/09/2025

The lessons? Economic transformation creates both innovation and backlash. Jewish industrial capital made Viennese modernism possible. That same success – and immigration – generated the envy that authoritarian politicians could weaponise. Progress and reaction emerged from identical conditions.

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Adrian Monck @amonck.bsky.social · 06/09/2025

Credit-Anstalt’s collapse in 1931 completes the circle. The Rothschild bank that had financed Austria’s post-1873 recovery finally crashed, taking the economy with it. 25% unemployment provided the conditions for Austrian fascism’s rise. The cycle that began with the 1873 crash ended with Anschluss.

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