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Ruth Callaghan

@ruthcallaghan.bsky.social
425 followers 1.1K following 565 posts

Australian who talks, writes & thinks (and sometimes gets paid for the privilege). Delighted by shiny things, travel, family and cryptic crosswords.

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Ruth Callaghan @ruthcallaghan.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Dear people of Britain, I need to sound insightful tomorrow on radio describing Clacton so can someone pls tell me if the weather is hot enough to make old Reform voters stay home?
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Ruth Callaghan @ruthcallaghan.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
The king asked the queen/ and the queen asked the dairymaid/ ‘could we have some butter for the royal slice of bread?’ … a tragedy
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Dr Nafeez Ahmed @nafeez.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
My @bylinetimes.bsky.social investigation reveals a network of criminal complicity at heart of Reform UK rooted in identity fraud by George Cottrell - the criminal fraudster secretly funding Farage and Reform - in cahoots with a Reform treasurer and a casino owner 🧵 bylinetimes.com/2026/07/23/p...
bylinetimes.com
‘Posh George’, Two Passports, and a Fraudulent Identity: Convicted Fraudster and Nigel Farage Funder's Connections to Reform UK’s Murky Financial Structures
Why did Reform UK change from being a privately-owned company to a non-profit company limited by guarantee in 2025? Nafeez Ahmed investigates a fraudulent identity used by George Cottrell – and how hi...
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Ruth Callaghan @ruthcallaghan.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
I get that people feel the #Binface bid will fail - I just don’t think that matters. Wait for the first Yougov that shows him with double digit support. The media vox popping outraged bigots apoplectic about an actual alien. The Binface cosplay door knocking teams. Content gold.
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Ruth Callaghan @ruthcallaghan.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Haven’t enjoyed 24 hours of politics this much in years #GetInTheBin
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Nancy Armour @nrarmour.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
The ban is heinous for what it does to transgender athletes. But if you think cisgender girls and young women won’t be caught up in the fallout, too, you are woefully ignorant
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Altrincham Dry Cleaners @altydrycleaners.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Same here, sad bag of curtains. Same here.
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Coleen Murphy @ctmurphy1.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
one anecdote: I was searching for a link to one of my old papers on Google, and the automated Gemini summary attributed all of my lab's work to my husband
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Ruth Callaghan @ruthcallaghan.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
This is the feel-good story you need today.
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Sherrilyn Ifill @sifill.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
Feeling overwhelmed with all of this. LISTEN. Another Louisiana resident (Marshawn is the only name we have) testifies against the state’s racial gerrymander, speaking truth to power up and down the hearing room and predicts how this story will end. Speak your truth, fight and believe.
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Ruth Callaghan @ruthcallaghan.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
Have a cup of tea with Elmer of Malmesbury, the flying* monk en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eilmer_...
en.wikipedia.org
Eilmer of Malmesbury - Wikipedia
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Vince Mpls @vincempls.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
July 21 1935: The Führer orders a new reception hall and ballroom to "entertain foreign diplomats" at the Chancellery. Underneath the dance floor is an air raid shelter. A 2nd deeper bunker is built next to this in 1944, where he would spend his last days as the Reich collapsed.
Leonard Gall (left) architect of the new ballroom, stands with Hitler and Albert Speer at the other major construction project in 1936, the Haus der Deutschen Kunst in MünchenThe new ballroom and reception hall attached to the Old Reich Chancellery, with the floor removed to reveal the Vorbunker. Illustration by Christoph Neubauer www.atelier-neubauer.de
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Dan Immergluck @danimmergluck.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
Brutal.
A WHOLE CIVILIZATION
WILL DIE TONIGHT
My son needs lunch, and I have to put his backpack together, but a whole civilization will die tonight, so I'm wondering if they've closed their schools.
Like, a snow day, maybe, except instead of snow it's
"keep your children home so if you die, you die together" — instead of "well open back up once the plows have cleared" it's
"we don't know if we'll be here tomorrow, hold your babies tight."
It's just "talk" I'm told, which I've been told before.
"It's how the president makes his deals." But I've never heard anyone talk about other human beings this way, and I'm not certain I can look my son in the eyes if we all agree to stomach it one more time.
A civilization will die tonight, but as I zip up his backpack and kiss him off to school I think: if this is what we call leadership then I'm not entirely sure ours isn't already dead.
@michaelfdubois
Mukad A QuBoy
@michacifdubois
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mahsa alimardani @mahsaalimardani.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
We didn't deserve this day.
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Ruth Callaghan @ruthcallaghan.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
NOT NOW N.KOREA
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Allison Gill @muellershewrote.com · 07/04/2026
23 people could stop this genocidal war criminal. That’s it. 23. 20 Republican senators and 3 republican reps in the house and he’d be out of politics forever. But they won’t. They’re addicted to power. A drug so strong they’d rather see a civilization die than give it up.
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Ruth Callaghan @ruthcallaghan.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
I suspect that Elon is very mad in a way he can’t articulate that these are humanity’s real space pioneers and he’s just a toddler with a trillion dollars and a tantrum
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Ruth Callaghan @ruthcallaghan.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
I know we don’t say ‘can you imagine if Biden’ anymore but ‘can you JUST IMAGINE if BIDEN …’
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 30/03/2026
i think this is exactly right and it is part of what i was trying to get at last week when i wrote about the narcissism of the president and his allies. they fundamentally do not believe other people are real, and do not understand the decisions they make.
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Sarah Churchwell @sarahchurchwell.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
This is the company the UK government has embedded in the nation’s services. Seriously, fuck everyone who is excusing this.
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Ruth Callaghan @ruthcallaghan.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
Whenever I fly … ‘It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on Earth has ever produced the expression "as pretty as an airport".’
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Phil Harrison @mrpmharrison.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
Absolutely enthralling piece. "When you cover capital crime cases, you notice the ways in which stupidity and evil become indistinguishable..." www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
lrb.co.uk
Andrew O’Hagan · Stay Classy: Mummy’s Favourite
The late queen can be held responsible for much, but nobody could accuse her of seeming to enjoy her role. For the...
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Ruth Callaghan @ruthcallaghan.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
Hey Chatty: what’s a good way to get women votes back … no don’t do any critical thinking just your first guess will do www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
theguardian.com
Nationals push for tripling paid parental leave to 18 months and lowering Hecs debt for mothers
Exclusive: the party is trying to shape Coalition policies with attempt to widen appeal to women and young people
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Norm Charlatan @normcharlatan.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
I think this is about the temperature but honestly it works for decades as well
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derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 08/03/2026
me paying $30 in gas to buy imported things that have been hit with tariffs bc joe rogan is learning about politics at age 58
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Dmitry Grozoubinski @explaintrade.com · 04/03/2026
9/ Both escalation and de-escalation are now not entirely within US control and there are other actors, with genuine agency. This is not a genie you can necessarily stuff back into the bottle, and the time for more sensible implementation was before you went all LE EPIC MEMELORD FURY PEW PEW.
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Jane Mayl🍷n 🍇 @janetrad.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
"As his post goes on, his language gets older. 100 years older with each jump. The spelling changes. The grammar changes. Words you know are replaced by unfamiliar words" Fascinating. So how far back in time can YOU go?
deadlanguagesociety.com
How far back in time can you understand English?
An experiment in language change
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Ed BooOOooOOmila @edburmila.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
I appreciate all of these detailed analysis of what’s wrong with the policy, but the crucial thing to keep in mind here is that Donald Trump sincerely, literally does not understand what a tariff is and when that is your starting point, nothing beyond it really matters.
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George Takei @georgetakei.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
History teaches us that the greatest harms often begin with the quiet acceptance of the unacceptable. I have seen where that road leads, and I will not walk it again without resistance.
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Ruth Callaghan @ruthcallaghan.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
I would absolutely buy a little desk flagpole and a set of flags if it meant I could signal coworkers to cease their intentions
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Nicole Bedera @nbedera.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
The biggest risk in this moment is something sociologists call “symbolic compliance.” That’s when an institution that is violating civil rights gives the public just enough symbolic victories that accountability efforts lose steam before there has been any meaningful change.
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Ruth Callaghan @ruthcallaghan.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
🛑 Stop what you are doing and click. 🐧
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Ruth Callaghan @ruthcallaghan.bsky.social · 18/01/2026
Did he? ‘Wrong’? My stars. Thank heavens we have headline writers able to capture the historic gravity of this moment.
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Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
Yes, JD. Let’s ask them if they think a stay at home mom, avowed Christian, and widow of a veteran deserved to be shot in the face and left to bleed out in her own car after dropping her 6-year-old off at school, for the crime of looking out for her neighbors. Let’s ask everyone running for office.
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Patton Oswalt @pattonoswalt.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
I mean yeah it’s an authoritarian takeover but can we take some comfort in the fact that the people doing it are INSANELY stupid?
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Durrell @durrell.bsky.social · 20/12/2025
Pantone just updated their Color Of The Year
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Dmitry Grozoubinski @explaintrade.com · 19/12/2025
Can't think of a stronger endorsement for Erasmus.
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David Milner @davemilbo.bsky.social · 19/12/2025
Here's me. "Weaponising the Bondi tragedy is a betrayal of all our children"
theshot.net.au
Weaponising the Bondi tragedy is a betrayal of all our children - The Shot
Breathe, slowly. It helps.  Cry if you need to. All of this hurts. But please understand, before we go any...
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Rachel Withers @rachelwithers.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
The vast majority of Australians, everyone I've spoken to, my Jewish friends, my Muslim friends, want to just be good to one another in this moment, and avoid inflaming the endless blame cycle. A loud minority want otherwise. Unfortunately they're among the loudest in the nation
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Lucas @lucasdstewart.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
If the conservatives go fully down the path of "the PM is weak on antisemitism" to respond to this tragedy while the government go down the sensible further reforms to gun laws route, I know which approach I'd have my money on most Australians backing.
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Possum @pollytics.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
If the conservatives in Australia don't pull back their culture war bullshit over this, the Australian public will blowback. I've been involved/done polling on how ostensibly foreign issues debated in Australia are politically perceived domestically for 30 years. (1/2)
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Possum @pollytics.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
A pretty large majority support the debate in a 'whatevs' kind of way, but once it crosses into material consequences or even crowding out other issues, a majority clicks into a "send it back to where it came from" response. And it isn't a white person thing, it's an everyone thing (2/2)
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Rachel Withers @rachelwithers.bsky.social · 15/12/2025
Ah yes, that's where a recently unemployed 24-year-old bricklayer, who spent years hanging around Australia's pro-IS network, and his 50-year-old migrant father were radicalised: university anti-genocide protests 🙄 Be fucking serious for a moment.
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Dmitry Grozoubinski @explaintrade.com · 15/12/2025
I think the best way to explain the X vs Bluesky preference is whether a person thinks the left is more annoying than the right is dangerous. The reason so many Noah Smiths end up on the X side of that equation is that while the left annoys them personally, the right mostly endangers other people.
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Rebecca Watson @skepchick.org · 15/12/2025
One way that the reaction to Rob Reiner's murder mirrors Charlie Kirk's is that the best way to eulogize each of them is to quote their words, and in both cases, doing so pisses off conservatives.
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James @gravitysra1nbow.bsky.social · 13/12/2025
After much consideration, I have decided to apologize for my past statements, and I have embraced the need for the DoD to adopt the Silicon Valley Mindset. I'm introducing what I would like to call App-Centric Warfare. othermeans.io/p/app-centri...
othermeans.io
App-Centric Warfare
How To Dominate the 21st Century Battlefield
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Ruth Callaghan @ruthcallaghan.bsky.social · 13/12/2025
I’d like to extend an apology to Suetonius. I assumed his mad bad Caligula stories were hyperbole, but now not so sure. 🤦‍♀️
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Rachel Vindman @natsechobbyist.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
If only there had been signs that a group of below average men who espouse misogynist views and are led by an adjudicated rapist would treat their female colleagues poorly.
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