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Phil Free

@philfree.bsky.social
1.1K followers 987 following 13K posts

Politics, economics, planet - I live in Essex, UK.

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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 23m
“Whereas optimism is an unreasoned, sunny outlook, false hope involves a more active process of denial & depoliticisation: a cultured ignorance of why an outcome is… unlikely. False hope soothes anxieties while undermining the urgency of transformative action.” www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
tandfonline.com
A caution on climate hope
In this paper, we caution against the tendency in climate discourse to equate hope with progress. While hope is often framed as essential for motivating change, its uncritical celebration can under...
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 13h
“Capital is caught in a contradiction it cannot resolve on its own terms. It requires endless growth to service debt & justify valuations, but the real economy is post-productive—no longer capable of generating the surplus that endless growth demands.” #degrowth open.substack.com/pub/savagemi...
open.substack.com
Until the Paper Itself Tears
AI Debt Bubble and the Post-Productive Economy
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 14h
Palestinians in Masafer Yatta are surviving without water after Israeli settlers cut off a lifeline mondoweiss.net/2026/09/pale...
mondoweiss.net
Palestinians in Masafer Yatta are surviving without water after Israeli settlers cut off a lifeline
In Masafer Yatta in the southern occupied West Bank, Israeli settlers are accelerating their attacks on Palestinian farmers and herders in the area by cutting off their water supply.
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 14h
Ken Paxton’s Financial Disclosures Appear to Violate Federal Ethics Law, Experts Say www.propublica.org/article/ken-...
propublica.org
Ken Paxton’s Financial Disclosures Appear to Violate Federal Ethics Law, Experts Say
The Republican U.S. Senate nominee from Texas appears to have omitted rental income and multiple mortgages from his recent financial disclosures, making it difficult for voters to get the full picture...
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 14h
The Fate of the Endangered Species Act Rests on Two Simple Words grist.org/language/end...
grist.org
The fate of the Endangered Species Act rests on 2 simple words
The Trump administration has upended protections for thousands of endangered species by redefining the words "take" and "harm."
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 15h
Democrats Have Created a Consultant-Driven Echo Chamber jacobin.com/2026/09/bark...
jacobin.com
Democrats Have Created a Consultant-Driven Echo Chamber
In Nothing Left: Confessions of a Democratic Operative, Evan Barker shows how the Democratic Party turned its back on American workers. Her diagnosis is devastating. Her cure, a revenge vote for Donal...
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 17h
View from Brazil: Femicides are skyrocketing newint.org/women/2026/v...
newint.org
View from Brazil: Femicides are skyrocketing
A wave of femicides prompts questions about government failings and potential strategies of resistance, writes Leonardo Sakamoto.
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 18h
“These are not marginal grievances, they amount to an overwhelming consensus that cuts across income brackets, political affiliations, & geography.” People Want Economic Change but Have Stopped Trusting Governments to Deliver It www.socialeurope.eu/people-want-...
socialeurope.eu
People Want Economic Change but Have Stopped Trusting Governments to Deliver It
While two-thirds say that democracy is the best way to govern, four in ten say a strong leader would serve their country better.
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 18h
“To expect elite soldiers, ‘the best of the best’ not to shoot toddlers in the head is too much to ask according to Allison.” Allison Pearson’s Action Man fetish - @brokenbottleboy.bsky.social brokenbottleboy.substack.com/p/allison-pe...
brokenbottleboy.substack.com
Allison Pearson’s Action Man fetish
A deranged and bloodthirsty defence of the SAS and a dismissal of war crimes accusations is exactly what we can expect from one of the Telegraph’s worst.
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 19h
“The grid, the currency, & the just-in-time supply chain are fragile because they are leveraged against a biophysical reality that is calling in its debts.” #PostCapitalism #Degrowth #PostGrowth The Realist’s Protocol: Why Physics Does Not Negotiate theuaob.substack.com/p/the-realis...
theuaob.substack.com
The Realist’s Protocol: Why Physics Does Not Negotiate
The difference between political activism and biophysical reality
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 20h
Palestinian-American Journalist Naqaa Hamed Detained by Israeli Forces After Settlers Targeted Her open.substack.com/pub/dropsite...
open.substack.com
Palestinian-American Journalist Naqaa Hamed Detained by Israeli Forces After Settlers Targeted Her
The freelance journalist and Drop Site contributor was arrested by Israeli authorities as she returned from covering Israeli settler attacks in Masafer Yatta.
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 21h
Artificial Intelligence: Hype for the few, harm for the many? open.substack.com/pub/equals/p...
open.substack.com
Artificial Intelligence: Hype for the few, harm for the many?
Who is AI really for?
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 21h
“This is not ordinary corporate greenwash. This is corruption on an industrial scale, dressed up as engineering, & a lie politicians can hide behind, giving comforting words to a worried public that their fears are being taken care of.” #CCS Bullshit Capture peeta462032.substack.com/p/bullshit-c...
peeta462032.substack.com
Bullshit Capture
Carbon capture doesn’t work, the only technology that actually pulls carbon from the air is the one we keep paying to destroy.
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 22h
Nobody knows the future of energy open.substack.com/pub/theclima...
open.substack.com
Nobody knows the future of energy
coal collapsed, renewables boomed, and the forecasts mostly missed it
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 23h
Lorna Finlayson, Irreversible newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...
newleftreview.org
Lorna Finlayson, Irreversible — Sidecar
On Britain’s universities.
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 23h
Oncology & emergency care collapse in the West Bank www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
thelancet.com
Oncology and emergency care collapse in the West Bank
The health-care system in the occupied Palestinian territory is undergoing a silent, catastrophic collapse, pushing regional public hospitals to the brink of total structural failure. As an emergency medicine and oncology physician at Dura Governmental Hospital, West Bank—a crucial secondary-care hub—I witness daily the devastating erosion of our capacity to deliver basic, life-saving medical care. Prolonged fiscal blockades, severe restrictions on movement, and the economic isolation of the Palestinian health sector have culminated in an unprecedented shortage of essential medicines and crucial medical infrastructure.
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Reposted by Phil Free
Phil M 🦻🏼💚 🍉 🏳️‍⚧️ 🇵🇸 @phillm.bsky.social · 23h
“Honestly, it feels very Palantir. Very Big Brother. ‘We are watching you. We know what you are saying.’ There’s definitely a sense of power there. ‘This is what you are up against’... They have access to my health records. What else do they have access to? And how could they use it?”
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 23h
A Marxist Theory of Crisis in the Contemporary World thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2026/06/13/a...
thenextrecession.wordpress.com
A Marxist Theory of Crisis in the Contemporary World
This is an English translation of an interview published in Chinese by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in 2025 in World Socialist Research. 1. Michael Roberts, thank you for your time! Could…
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Can Renewables Replace Fossil Fuels? Yes, but... livingearth.substack.com/p/can-renewa...
livingearth.substack.com
Can Renewables Replace Fossil Fuels? Yes, but...
An assessment by Mark Kelly
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
'Judaise medicine': Palestinian doctors are under attack in Israel www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/juda...
middleeasteye.net
'Judaise medicine': Palestinian doctors are under attack in Israel
Israeli politicians and pundits want Arabic driven from hospital wards in a country where Palestinian citizens make up a quarter of doctors
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Israeli settlers set Palestinian homes & cars alight in West Bank rampage www.middleeasteye.net/news/settler...
middleeasteye.net
Israeli settlers set Palestinian homes and cars alight in West Bank rampage
Large groups of attackers set fire to the Toubasi family’s homes in Jalud, forcing them to flee after earlier attacks aimed at taking over the property
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
AI Data Centers Are Driving a Surge in “Forever Chemicals,” Research Finds truthout.org/articles/ai-...
truthout.org
AI Data Centers Are Driving a Surge in “Forever Chemicals,” Research Finds
Calls grow for a global ban on PFAS, which are tied to a range of health issues, including various cancers.
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Tech Giant Nvidia Announces the Largest Stock Buyback in US History truthout.org/articles/tec...
truthout.org
Tech Giant Nvidia Announces the Largest Stock Buyback in US History
Nvidia is one of the chief beneficiaries of the AI data center boom that’s sparked widespread opposition across the US.
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
“Some neoliberal policies had already begun under the 1974-79 Labour governments. This included the prioritisation of inflation control over keeping unemployment as low as possible [&] policies to boost profits at the expense of wages & some… financial deregulation.” jacobin.com/2026/09/labo...
jacobin.com
A Labour Prime Minister Inaugurated Britain’s Neoliberal Era
Fifty years ago, British Labour leader James Callaghan used his party conference speech to promote some of the key ideas associated with neoliberalism. A close look at the speech can help explain why ...
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
“While even during the campaign the Leave side were frequently accused of racism & race-coding their anti-immigration message, the victory in the referendum helped to mainstream these messages to a degree not seen since the late 1960s.” blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandp...
blogs.lse.ac.uk
Brexit and the paradox of race in British politics | LSE British Politics
Brexit unleashed a new wave of racism while at the same time, it propelled politicians from ethnic minorities to the forefront of British politics.
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
How Big Oil Blocked a Plastic Pollution Treaty climateandcapitalism.com/2026/06/30/h...
climateandcapitalism.com
How Big Oil Blocked a Plastic Pollution Treaty | Climate & Capitalism
A handful of oil-producing countries and their corporate allies stalled and ultimately derailed the entire process…
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
What’s Left of the Climate Movement? tribunemag.co.uk/2026/09/what...
tribunemag.co.uk
What’s Left of the Climate Movement?
To reignite the climate movement, organisers must respond to the most pressing issues today: imperialism, the cost of living, and the genocide in Gaza.
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
“It’s sound economics for a living world—value creation that adds to life, not subtract from it. Because in the 21st century, the most successful societies won’t be the ones that own the most, but the ones that regenerate the most.” #degrowth ernestopvanpeborgh.substack.com/p/from-extra...
ernestopvanpeborgh.substack.com
From Extraction to Regeneration
How We Monetize Nature Will Define Our Future
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
How D.C. Works join.substack.com/p/how-dc-wor...
join.substack.com
How D.C. Works
What's the reality of Washington? I interview an anonymous progressive lobbyist.
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Tony Blair Institute’s $25,000 corporate network “smells like cash for access” democracyforsale.substack.com/p/breaking-t...
democracyforsale.substack.com
BREAKING: Tony Blair Institute’s $25,000 corporate network “smells like cash for access”
Exclusive documents show Tony Blair's think tank offers corporate members such as BP and Uber "networking" at party conferences and "a stronger voice" in policy debates.
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
“With high-quality, universal services in place & an economy structured around the imperatives of social need rather than those of private profit, the importance of work in daily life would dramatically recede.” - @lukewsavage.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/lukewsav...
open.substack.com
Between luddism and creative destruction
Technological progress could set us free. Under capitalism, it destroys jobs instead.
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
“Making discussion of climate risk, ecological destabilisation & inevitable economic change politically toxic limits the quality of governance we get, on some of the most consequential challenges of our time.” - @alexsteffen.bsky.social alexsteffen.substack.com/p/will-your-...
alexsteffen.substack.com
Will your next home be a climate lemon?
Efforts to suppress disclosure of grave climate risks in brittle areas cheat buyers and sabotage communities.
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
“Through all of it, an AI Force will form & the weapons of our destruction will emerge, with the people shut out because it has become a matter of ‘national security’—which is to say, none of our business.” - @kenklippenstein.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/kenklipp...
open.substack.com
Trump Announces New “AI Force”
Proposed AI military branch is most overlooked story this week
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
“All of them, & now Andy Burnham, signed up to the belief that the purpose of government was to meet the needs of the financial services sector, & not the people of this country.” It is time for people of courage to walk away from Labour www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2026/09...
taxresearch.org.uk
It is time for people of courage to walk away from Labour
As I say on fiscal rules in the glossary to this blog: Fiscal rules are targets set by governments to limit borrowing, debt, or deficits over time. They are presented as if they are neutral, technical...
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Reposted by Phil Free
Vanessa Spedding @vanessaspedding.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
And may he be long-remembered
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Place-based solidarity: Crisis, austerity & the devolution of responsibility www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Emergency Prices: How Private Equity Captured the Ambulance Market open.substack.com/pub/mattstol...
open.substack.com
Emergency Prices: How Private Equity Captured the Ambulance Market
Emergency service costs have been going up for years, frustrating city officials. One reason seems to be private equity, which bought up ambulance makers and raised prices.
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
“We watch their performative violence on the streets of America, in the debris of Gaza, & atop the pallets of County Tyrone. It is a global phenomenon with local manifestations.” That Fascist Feeling fiftysixdegreesnorth.substack.com/p/that-fasci...
fiftysixdegreesnorth.substack.com
That Fascist Feeling
Stochastic violence is the medium of our era.
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
No body, no death certificate: the bureaucratic limbo trapping the widows of Gaza’s missing men mondoweiss.net/2026/09/no-b...
mondoweiss.net
No body, no death certificate: the bureaucratic limbo trapping the widows of Gaza’s missing men
In Gaza, women whose husbands are missing or buried under rubble are facing a little-known crisis. Without death certificates for their husbands, they’re locked out of bank accounts, aid, and custody ...
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
The Big Crypto Whiff prospect.org/2026/09/17/c...
prospect.org
The Big Crypto Whiff - The American Prospect
The crypto industry wasn’t able to buy support for its biggest legislative priority in the Senate this week, despite unparalleled levels of spending in the midterms.
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
The Trump Administration Creates a Monopolization Machine prospect.org/2026/09/16/t...
prospect.org
The Trump Administration Creates a Monopolization Machine - The American Prospect
New rules could grant ‘small business’ benefits to companies with up to $5 billion in assets. Actual small businesses may have no choice but to sell.
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Why is Trump bombing Somalia? www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/se...
lrb.co.uk
Tom Stevenson | Why is Trump bombing Somalia?
Over the past twenty months, the US has launched airstrikes in Somalia using MQ-9 Reaper drones and sometimes manned...
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
SNAP Cuts Take More than Food Away - @inequality.org inequality.org/article/snap...
inequality.org
SNAP Cuts Take More than Food Away
For my family, SNAP meant one less impossible choice at the end of the month. Millions are now losing that lifeline.
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
“The War Game is propaganda dressed in the second-hand clothes donated by reality shows & mid-week dramas.” In the terrifying world of Dr StrangeGove - @brokenbottleboy.bsky.social brokenbottleboy.substack.com/p/in-the-ter...
brokenbottleboy.substack.com
In the terrifying world of Dr StrangeGove
Sky’s The War Game put ex-politicians in a simulation where nuclear conflict was inevitable. It was arms industry propaganda pretending to be something serious.
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Reposted by Phil Free
flyingrodent @flyingrodent.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
A rare example of pets coming to resemble their owners
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
“Agricultural collapse guarantees economic collapse. & all of it guarantees societal collapse at different speeds in different places since there is no resilience in our brittle, hyper-connected world.” Kicking the Can geoffreydeihl.substack.com/p/kicking-th...
geoffreydeihl.substack.com
Kicking the Can
Down a dead-end street of lies.
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
“We learn from our gardens to deal with the most urgent question of the time: How much is enough? You can best serve civilisation by being against what usually passes for it.” #PostCapitalism #Degrowth #PostGrowth #Sufficiency Remembering Wendell Berry poeticoutlaws.substack.com/p/a-place-on...
poeticoutlaws.substack.com
A Place on Earth: Remembering Wendell Berry
By: Erik Rittenberry
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
“A.I. provides a bountiful distraction to the material world, promulgating the myth of dematerialisation as a solution to the climate crisis, just as dematerialising a human—splitting soul from body—provides the solution of eternal life.” www.planetcritical.com/the-messiah-...
planetcritical.com
The Messiah is an A.I.
And A.I. is a dominatrix
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Record breaking areas of Brazil’s land goes up in flames. & Earth Innovation Institute proposes the false solution of selling carbon credits to the oil & gas industry - @reddmonitor.bsky.social reddmonitor.substack.com/p/record-bre...
reddmonitor.substack.com
Record breaking areas of Brazil’s land goes up in flames. And Earth Innovation Institute proposes the false solution of selling carbon credits to the oil and gas industry
Earth Innovation Institute pretends to be oblivious to what is driving drought and forest fires in Brazil, which is, of course, the fossil fuel industry.
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
U.S. Makes, Israel Takes: The Real Story of U.S.-Israeli Military Cooperation open.substack.com/pub/dropsite...
open.substack.com
U.S. Makes, Israel Takes: The Real Story of U.S.-Israeli Military Cooperation
The Iron Beam laser and Arrow anti-ballistic missile systems are touted as examples of Israeli military ingenuity. But they were largely developed and financed by the U.S.
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