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Dr Simon Perkins 🇪🇺🌻🌊🌈 ally #FBPE @simonperkins.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

So true. The cartoon actually reminds me of something else but I just can't seem to put my finger on it. This is the closest I can think of 'Deutsche Eicheln [German Acorns]' (1933) John Heartfield. heartfield.adk.de/node/6516

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Dr Simon Perkins 🇪🇺🌻🌊🌈 ally #FBPE @simonperkins.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

The Brexit Battalion Media Corps Dinner i.e. trigg.gr/tag/2020_Bre... is a good place to start.

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Dr Simon Perkins 🇪🇺🌻🌊🌈 ally #FBPE @simonperkins.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

BTW. this is my father atop the Nōfuku-ji temple Buddha, Kobe, Japan 1946. He was in the en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J_Force His experience there only strengthened his respect for the Japanese people (and empathy for those who had also been caught up in the lunacy of war).

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Dr Simon Perkins 🇪🇺🌻🌊🌈 ally #FBPE @simonperkins.bsky.social · 20/12/2025

AfD co-chair Alice Weidel (centre) with dairy billionaire Theo Müller (of Müller Dairy) and his wife, the businesswoman Beate Ebert. www.spiegel.de/internationa...

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Dr Simon Perkins 🇪🇺🌻🌊🌈 ally #FBPE @simonperkins.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

The sheer scale of US mass shootings compared to everywhere else gets me. I was also quite surprised to see how (relatively) recent the phenomenon is. Makes you realise how normalised expectations have become - as effectively, there have been 360 x Dunblane massacres so far this year in the US!

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Dr Simon Perkins 🇪🇺🌻🌊🌈 ally #FBPE @simonperkins.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

The Gun Violence Archive (GVA) www.gunviolencearchive.org/charts-and-m... seems like a useful resource in this regard e.g.

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Dr Simon Perkins 🇪🇺🌻🌊🌈 ally #FBPE @simonperkins.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

This is so good. I can just imagine his concentration as he 'names' the animals.

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Dr Simon Perkins 🇪🇺🌻🌊🌈 ally #FBPE @simonperkins.bsky.social · 25/10/2025

Seemingly, "Mellon made his first major political donation only four years ago, but since then, he has poured tens of millions of dollars from his oil-fueled inheritance... He was the single largest donor of Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign." www.climatecriminals.org/timothy-mellon

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Dr Simon Perkins 🇪🇺🌻🌊🌈 ally #FBPE @simonperkins.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

It's good to see that The Express' poll is reflecting the truth i.e. that *Yes* - "Rachel Reeves is right to blame Brexit for state of UK economy". xd.wayin.com/display/cont...

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Dr Simon Perkins 🇪🇺🌻🌊🌈 ally #FBPE @simonperkins.bsky.social · 28/09/2025

Here's the poll without the Express page: xd.wayin.com/display/cont... (not sure how long it will work without the page though). This is where we are currently:

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Dr Simon Perkins 🇪🇺🌻🌊🌈 ally #FBPE @simonperkins.bsky.social · 13/09/2025

Romantic nationalism is what McNaughton seems to specialise in e.g. trigg.gr/t/57291, which given all the MAGA nuts must be quite lucrative.

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Dr Simon Perkins 🇪🇺🌻🌊🌈 ally #FBPE @simonperkins.bsky.social · 11/09/2025

I can't see anything inaccurate or inappropriate about @matthewjdowd.bsky.social's response/framing. Sadly, the normalisation of gun violence + mass gun-ownership have consequences... Kirk's death: www.gunviolencearchive.org/incident/330... is no less important than any of these other gun deaths.

MSNBC analyst fired after suggesting Charlie Kirk to blame for own death

Fox News host Jesse Watters called for Dowd to be sacked after he suggested Kirk’s ‘awful words’ led someone to shoot him
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/matthew-dowd-fired-charlie-kirk-msnbc-b2824454.html

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Dr Simon Perkins 🇪🇺🌻🌊🌈 ally #FBPE @simonperkins.bsky.social · 30/08/2025

Debunking the spurious claim that "Guns Don't Kill People, People Kill People": www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtua...

"although other weapons are involved in homicide, firearms are not only the most deadly instrument of attack but also the most versatile. Firearms make some attacks possible that simply would not occur without firearms. They permit attacks at greater range and from positions of better concealment than other weapons. They also permit attacks by persons physically or psychologically unable to overpower their victim through violent physical contact." https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/firearms-and-assault-guns-dont-kill-people-people-kill-people-gun

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Dr Simon Perkins 🇪🇺🌻🌊🌈 ally #FBPE @simonperkins.bsky.social · 12/07/2025

;-) BTW. your comment reminds me of this meme (which I love):

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Dr Simon Perkins 🇪🇺🌻🌊🌈 ally #FBPE @simonperkins.bsky.social · 11/07/2025

It's what's known as 'crimmigration' i.e. www.populismstudies.org/Vocabulary/c...

“Crimmigration” refers to the increasing resort to criminalization or to quasi-criminalization as a way of disciplining, excluding and indeed expelling migrants or those seen as presumptively unentitled. The blurring of the boundaries between administrative and criminal law, notably in the case of immigration detention, and of the boundaries between civil and criminal law, as in the use of a range of civil, typically preventive orders whose breach nonetheless implies criminal or quasi-criminal liability, is of particular concern in terms of the threat to migrants’ and asylum seekers’ human rights but also of erosion of the rule of law quite generally.

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Dr Simon Perkins 🇪🇺🌻🌊🌈 ally #FBPE @simonperkins.bsky.social · 07/06/2025

Collins cynically confuses the safety-net of Social Security with the myth of 'trickle-down economics'. Importantly, they don't serve the same needs.

conveniently ignoring the realities of trickle-down economics

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Dr Simon Perkins 🇪🇺🌻🌊🌈 ally #FBPE @simonperkins.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

Perhaps, the best depiction of so-called 'robber barons' by Bernhard Gillam (1883) 'The Protectors Of Our Industries' www.loc.gov/pictures/ite... It's worth reflecting that in Trump's "Golden age of America" 2.0. it's the rest of us (MAGAs included) holding up his #Broligarchy

Bernhard Gillam (1883) 'The Protectors Of Our Industries'
https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/94507245/

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Dr Simon Perkins 🇪🇺🌻🌊🌈 ally #FBPE @simonperkins.bsky.social · 18/05/2025

;-) certainly not like spritely #InmateP01135809 who's looking younger every day...

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Dr Simon Perkins 🇪🇺🌻🌊🌈 ally #FBPE @simonperkins.bsky.social · 12/05/2025

‪Thanks for this article Jeffrey - it has left me more curious than I was before. The discussion reminds me a bit of Lyotard's distinction between innovation and experimentation (highlighted below) + his points about "legitimation by performativity" (and presumably, something about valorisation).

Jean-François Lyotard: Knowledge is not something one accumulates but is instead something one uses to create new ideas...

Lyotard argues that legitimation by performativity is against the interests of research...

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Dr Simon Perkins 🇪🇺🌻🌊🌈 ally #FBPE @simonperkins.bsky.social · 12/04/2025

But why hasn't he hung @garypetersonusa.bsky.social's masterpiece after tRump triumphantly survived his assignation attempt? ;-)

GaryPeterson's masterpiece of tRump triumphantly victorious after his assignation attempt

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Dr Simon Perkins 🇪🇺🌻🌊🌈 ally #FBPE @simonperkins.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

#InmateP01135809 / #Felon47 is simply parroting the Putin propaganda / mistruth that supposedly "NATO promised Russia it would not enlarge after the Cold War". When the actual truth is i.e. www.nato.int/cps/en/natoh...

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Dr Simon Perkins 🇪🇺🌻🌊🌈 ally #FBPE @simonperkins.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

Well spotted. The Tass article appears to have been published 6 days (11 Nov 2024) *after* the presidential election (5 Nov 2024). Not sure why it has specially surfaced now. I note that Julia Davis tweeted about it on 11 Nov 2024 i.e. x.com/JuliaDavisNe...

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Dr Simon Perkins 🇪🇺🌻🌊🌈 ally #FBPE @simonperkins.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

"'The election campaign is over,' Patrushev noted. 'To achieve success in the election, Donald Trump relied on certain forces to which he has corresponding obligations. As a responsible person, he will be obliged to fulfill them.'" tass.com/politics/187...

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Dr Simon Perkins 🇪🇺🌻🌊🌈 ally #FBPE @simonperkins.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

This is the list of 27 banned words distributed to NSA staff:

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Dr Simon Perkins 🇪🇺🌻🌊🌈 ally #FBPE @simonperkins.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

Snap! It's a fun visual trick isn't it. For context, these are houses in my old home-town - Dunedin, NZ i.e. www.dunedintours.co.nz/destinations...

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Dr Simon Perkins 🇪🇺🌻🌊🌈 ally #FBPE @simonperkins.bsky.social · 02/01/2025

Gladly, I can see that the dials have shifted somewhat since yesterday.

Bizarrely, Daily Express poll asking "Do you agree with Sadiq Khan’s knighthood?" (despite none similar for any of the plethora Conservative peers). With this pool now being neck-and-neck at 50% for and against (progress on yesterday's 39/61%).

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Dr Simon Perkins 🇪🇺🌻🌊🌈 ally #FBPE @simonperkins.bsky.social · 01/01/2025

This is ridiculous, I don't remember there being a poll for Evgeny Lebedev or Nicky Morgan or Charlotte Owen et al. when they were made peers. This is where we're at with the Express' Sir Sadiq Khan poll:

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Dr Simon Perkins 🇪🇺🌻🌊🌈 ally #FBPE @simonperkins.bsky.social · 01/12/2024

I just checked it with Google's Search By Image feature, which in this case brought up the original tweet. The key thing is, Reform UK have no interest in ordinary workers as @richardburgon.bsky.social so rightfully explains.

Richard Burgon MP: "In Parliament tonight, all the Reform MPs voted AGAINST giving workers extra job security and better rights after being kicked around by bad bosses for far too long. Remember that when they pretend to be the voice of ordinary workers" (21 Oct 2024).

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Dr Simon Perkins 🇪🇺🌻🌊🌈 ally #FBPE @simonperkins.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

This is so much better i.e. bypass the main Express page altogether! xd.wayin.com/display/cont...

Latest results of "Do you agree with Carol Vorderman that there should be a referendum on rejoining the EU?" poll.

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Dr Simon Perkins 🇪🇺🌻🌊🌈 ally #FBPE @simonperkins.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

This is clearly lacking #FBPE contribution... www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1980...

Poll results on "Do you agree with Carol Vorderman that there should be a referendum on rejoining the EU?"

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Dr Simon Perkins 🇪🇺🌻🌊🌈 ally #FBPE @simonperkins.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

Seems so. This is what is posted on Twitter: twitter.com/donaldtusk/s...

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Dr Simon Perkins 🇪🇺🌻🌊🌈 ally #FBPE @simonperkins.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

One of the things, which stuns me about countries such as Tonga (and all the other Polynesian/Pacific Islands nations) is that they were able to colonise such a vast ocean using relatively primitive technologies. Compare this to the Europeans who generally sailed from one large landmass to another.

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Dr Simon Perkins 🇪🇺🌻🌊🌈 ally #FBPE @simonperkins.bsky.social · 11/11/2024

Thanks, I had forgotten about Te Aka. The problem with dictionaries though, is that they're only really useful to discovering the meaning of words, which you already know - and as I haven't lived in NZ for a while, I simply wasn't made aware of 'tauiwi' to be able to look it up. This the comparison

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Dr Simon Perkins 🇪🇺🌻🌊🌈 ally #FBPE @simonperkins.bsky.social · 11/11/2024

Thanks, I might need to adopt tauiwi instead of Pākehā. I'm happy to be a non-Māori New Zealander (as defined by the country's first peoples) but less happy about being required to assert further difference. BTW. these are relative differences in 'mentions' of tauiwi and Pākehā according to Google:

relative differences in 'mentions' between tauiwi and Pākehā according to Google

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Dr Simon Perkins 🇪🇺🌻🌊🌈 ally #FBPE @simonperkins.bsky.social · 06/11/2024

I recommend that you read this academic paper by Sara Ahmed where she theorises the power of 'affect' - essentially, the fear of loss and injury felt by white nationalists - and presumably, MAGA as exploited by Trump.

Sara Ahmed (2004). "Affective Economies." Social Text 22(2): 117-139.

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Dr Simon Perkins 🇪🇺🌻🌊🌈 ally #FBPE @simonperkins.bsky.social · 20/10/2024

businessinsider.com/man-charged-capitol-riot-went-dc-bus-turning-point-usa-2021https://www.businessinsider.com/man-charged-capitol-riot-went-dc-bus-turning-point-usa-2021-3

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Dr Simon Perkins 🇪🇺🌻🌊🌈 ally #FBPE @simonperkins.bsky.social · 24/09/2024

Thanks Matt, I have made a note of your clip here: trigg.gr/t/158461#158... (as a supplement to an archived tweet criticising the 2020 Capitol Siege).

An archived tweet criticising the 2020 Capitol Siege with supplementary video by Matt Motyl discussing political polarisation: http://trigg.gr/t/158461#158461B924590S

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Dr Simon Perkins 🇪🇺🌻🌊🌈 ally #FBPE @simonperkins.bsky.social · 07/09/2024

Glad to see that this has now been corrected. Click to sign: xd.wayin.com/display/cont...

UK Daily Express poll asking if Suella Braverman be sacked. Click to sign: https://xd.wayin.com/display/container/dc/ab769beb-4479-4784-a469-64148b87184c/entry

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Dr Simon Perkins 🇪🇺🌻🌊🌈 ally #FBPE @simonperkins.bsky.social · 19/08/2024

More latent anxieties about the 'other' used to further racist causes i.e. "The brute caricature portrays black men as innately savage, animalistic, destructive, and criminal ... predators who target helpless victims, especially white women." jimcrowmuseum.ferris.edu/brute/homepa...

The book cover for Don Tracy's 'How Sleeps the Beast' (1950) provides a salient illustration of the 'brute caricature'.

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Dr Simon Perkins 🇪🇺🌻🌊🌈 ally #FBPE @simonperkins.bsky.social · 09/08/2024

Is this from the Powell and Pressburger film, The Red Shoes (1948)?

Ludmilla Tchérina (left), Robert Helpmann (center), Léonide Massine (right) from The Red Shoes (1948)

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Dr Simon Perkins 🇪🇺🌻🌊🌈 ally #FBPE @simonperkins.bsky.social · 24/07/2024

Looks like more epic trolling by Gary Peterson i.e. twitter.com/GaryPeterson... :-)

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Dr Simon Perkins 🇪🇺🌻🌊🌈 ally #FBPE @simonperkins.bsky.social · 20/06/2024

I saw this epic bit of trolling yesterday, which I reckon is worth sharing. It's by Gary Peterson i.e. www.thepoke.com/2024/05/09/1... This is the source: twitter.com/GaryPeterson...

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Dr Simon Perkins 🇪🇺🌻🌊🌈 ally #FBPE @simonperkins.bsky.social · 18/03/2024

I love how poetic the image is (the way that Magda Förstner's limbs mirror the rotation/twisting of the bust) and at the same time how playful it feels (there is a real sense that Förstner and Kertész are enjoying what they are doing). chagalov.tumblr.com/post/1712179...

André Kertész :: Satiric Dancer, Paris, 1927. | src High Museum of Art https://unregardoblique.com/category/andre-kertesz-andre-kertesz/

André Kertész :: Satiric Dancer, Paris, 1927 | src Art Institute Chicago https://unregardoblique.com/category/andre-kertesz-andre-kertesz/

Magda Förstner and Etienne Beöthy, Paris 1926 -by André Kertész

André Kertész :: Etienne Beöthy in His Studio, Paris, 1928. | src MoMA https://unregardoblique.com/category/andre-kertesz-andre-kertesz/

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Dr Simon Perkins 🇪🇺🌻🌊🌈 ally #FBPE @simonperkins.bsky.social · 18/03/2024

André Kertész is a bit of a favourite of mine. I've always really loved his 'Satiric Dancer' from 1926 i.e. www.intellectures.de/2011/05/31/d...

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