This is one of the dumbest fucking statements I've ever seen a human write.
#politics #conservative #UK

Twitter: I follow news and political giants, but all I see are bad people and arguments
Bluesky: I follow 10% of my old friends who were able to get out of twitter in time and sometimes it works
Threads: I follow my friends but I can’t see them through the algorithm of businesses
Mastodon: oh look a beekeeper in the Netherlands

This.

Vivek Ramaswamy wants to force 18-24 year olds to pass the US citizenship exam in order to vote.

Vivek Ramaswamy said the Constitution allowed us to win the Revolution.

The Revolution was from 1775-81. The Constitution was written in 1787.

He would fail the citizenship test.

"If they don’t like it they can fuck off back to France."

Not Britain First. Not the National Front. Not the BNP. Not the British Union of Fascists.

The Deputy Chairman of the Conservative and Unionist Party.

Hard to tell the difference these days, ain't it?

[EDIT] FLIP is saved!
https://newatlas.com/marine/flipping-flip-ship-saved/
---
Well it had to happen eventually. #Scripps is retiring FLIP (FLoating Instrument Platform). This is an amazing piece of engineering (and soooo weird on the inside - everything pivots, so walls become floors). The #ship to be towed out to a location, and it would literally flip, sinking most of the ship directly down to give a *very stable platform for #oceanography research. Launched in 1962.

https://maritime-executive.com/article/world-s-strangest-research-vessel-heads-for-scrapyard-after-51-years

Churchill hated the BBC so much it was pathological. One day he called the controller to angrily complain (as he often did) about something said on the 9 o'clock news. The controller politely informed him that was impossible as it was still only 8:50pm. 'For once, Churchill was rendered speechless'.

the way we live now:

Bluesky informs me Twitter is down, and also that Bluesky can’t handle the resulting surge in use, so I come to Mastodon to post about it

@jaystephens

Vetinari is the problematic link, I think. He's in the story as an absolute administrative authority, but also as a force of overall reason (in keeping with his Machiavellian archetype) against which Vimes is positioned as a force of absolute (eventually) moral authority.

They tried Vimes under an oppressive leader (Night Watch) and Vetinari as an authority with hard limits (Jingo, the Moist series), but Pterry kept coming back to a Corporatist status quo, where Vimes and the Guilds deliver stability.

Even statist bureaucratic systems were seen as being overall beneficial (the running gag of new and more diverse officers being imposed on the Watch) as opposed to the depredations of more powerful, but less humanistic interest groups.

Which famous leftist said (to paraphrase): "Man is entitled to just enough property to sustain himself. Anything more than this is the property of the public, who have created it and who should be able choose how it should be used."

Ans: Ben Franklin

@damonyoung

Yeah, a step below Autonomous and Future of Another Timeline. So little of it SANG (especially when it tried to become a journalistic thriller in the third act).

The opening was so promising, too.

@damonyoung

Read this a few weeks ago and still aren't sure what I think about it. Despite all the trappings felt curiously unambituous with underlying questions (instead framing the main narrative arc as a straightforward cyberpunk plot).

Thought the three time period structure also really limited ongoing identification with the characters.

Agree with you about the messiness of social change being a strong part.

@erlend @pluralistic I've come around to the opinion that we need a maximum wealth distribution: one order of magnitude between the poorest (hint: universal basic income) and the wealthiest (hint: 100% income tax above 10x UBI level—progressive taxation bands below it). Socialized education, healthcare, housing, and old age/disability support. Only by ensuring even the richest need the common services as much as the poor can we guarantee the services will be properly funded.

No place like home- my cartoon for the Guardian #homelessness #housingcrisis https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2023/mar/30/the-housing-crisis-has-gone-from-bad-to-worse?CMP=share_btn_tw#comments

@cstross Variety is the spice of a long career. :)

@cstross

The blurb reads like a bit of light escapist reading (Note: By comparison to the first two books ONLY).

Heading back to mainline Laundry continuity next, or exploring pastures new?

TWO MONTH COUNTDOWN!

"Season of Skulls" coming May 16th (UK), May 20th (US).

US preorders: https://publishing.tor.com/seasonofskulls-charlesstross/9781250839404/

UK preorders: https://www.orbit-books.co.uk/titles/charles-stross/season-of-skulls/9780356516967/

The year is 1816. The Village of Portmeiron is serving as an internment camp for French sorcerers captured during the Napoleonic wars. Eve Starkey, an involuntary time traveller from 2016, is imprisoned there as Number Six. The New Management has given her a deadline …and she's about to get the full Bridgerton experience. With Shoggoths!

well that escalated quickly https://tapas.io/episode/2080763

AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH