This is quite literally true in the case of the original fascist movement. The king of Italy refused to sign the military order that would have prevented Mussolini’s March on Rome in 1922.

Never forget that, while the arrival of fascism is always blamed on 'the people', it is clear that it is those who had most power to stop it who refused to act decisively

The enabling of fascism takes many shapes and forms but it is predominantly and unsurprisingly a top down process

Reality check: Modular home in back garden = bed in a shed

Reality check:
Modular home in back garden = bed in a shed

Completely agree. Replete with insights & anecdotes.
Leaves one wondering how he would have handled Trump II, in which US friends of NATO are entirely excluded from the administration. I still suspect he would have more backbone than Rutte.

Lobbying against a requirement to say how much energy you are using.
That says a lot.

Hardly surprising that the same industry seems to be making an effort to limit the visibility of information about their own environmental impact/emissions in their LLMs.

www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etud...

This was a pro-democracy rally. Why misname it?

3/3. It’s hard for Trump to end a war when Putin is making so much money from it.

Behind Trump’s Public Bravado on the War, He Grapples With His Own Fears The president’s impulsive style has never been tested in a sustained military conflict, and he’s been ruminating on Jimmy Carter’s failure in Iran.

Props to the WSJ, they managed to pack almost every Trump decision-making pathology into a single story. It’s all here:

1) Short attention span
2) Impulsive behavior
3) Knowledge deficits
4) Gambling for resurrection
5) Belief in the madman theory

www.wsj.com/politics/nat...

Clearly, this disqualifies Palentir as a business partner for any other country than the U.S., not just in defense and security related sector but ANY sector — as information is power.

European countries should not just start new collaboration with Palentir, they should divest it ASAP!

There’s a palpable “mob” mentality surging across social media in the aftermath of the Orbán era. Former power brokers, propagandists, and loyal enablers are being dragged into the light - facing demands for accountability and public shaming.🧵

Strategic foresight also involves close engagement with worst case scenarios.
Hope for the best - but plan for the worst.

A Barcelone, des dirigeants internationaux de gauche veulent "renforcer" la démocratie Le Premier ministre espagnol Pedro Sánchez en tête, des dirigeants internationaux de gauche se sont réunis samedi à Barcelone pour "protéger et renforcer" la démocratie lors d'un forum marquant aussi un réchauffement des relations entre l'Espagne et le Mexique de la présidente Claudia Sheinbaum.

A Barcelone, des dirigeants internationaux de gauche veulent "renforcer" la démocratie

📺TV en DIRECTO | María Corina Machado: "La garantía de la estabilidad y la paz en Venezuela son elecciones limpias y libres. Es la garantía para avanzar en una transición ordenada para que puedan volver los millones de venezolanos forzados a dejar su país"

Have I Got News For You last evening: a visit from JD Vance is a kiss of death nowadays. He’s expected to be in Tottenham’s dugout today.
Painful!

This weekend's @theipaper.com cartoon

Meinungsfreiheit: Deutschland ist laut Europarat zu streng mit Antisemitismus-Begriff Die Auslegung des Antisemitismus-Begriffs in Deutschland schränkt die freie Meinungsäußerung laut Europarat zu stark ein. Legitime Kritik an Israel werde so unterbunden.

Menschenrechtskommissar des Europarats: Die IHRA-Antisemitismusdefinition schränkt die Meinungsäußerungsfreiheit ein! In Deutschland (und auch in Österreich).

Wir von @amnesty.at haben erst kürzlich einen Bericht über die Anwendung dieser Definition verfasst.

www.zeit.de/gesellschaft...

US tech firms successfully lobbied EU to keep datacentre emissions secret Legally questionable confidentiality clause adopted almost word for word from demands of Microsoft and trade groups

Data centres are turning out to be a dirty business.
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

This is a genuinely mindblowing combination. 1) Deliberately false information, 2) promoted in schools, 3) using public money, 4) in the service of private profits, 5) at the cost of our collapsing ecosystem.

Fun fact: the world’s longest yacht, stood on its end, would be taller than any building constructed before 1908.

Indeed. US political discourse has degraded to the extent that those in power consider that any criticism of the president is illegitimate.
And that is not how democracy works.

Trying to explain St Augustine to the pope, the former head of the Augustinian order, who wrote his doctoral thesis on Augustine, on his way back from celebrating mass at the Basilica of St Augustine in Annaba, Algeria, overlooking the site where Augustine lived is peak Adult Catholic Convert.

Credit where it's due, "If you're going to opine on matters of theology" is an extremely funny thing to say to the Actual Pope.

First it sued a small Swiss media outlet for reporting on #Palantir, now critics in the UK have become the target. When I asked questions as an MEP, I learned Palantir doesn't like scrutiny. Meanwhile countries in Europe are quietly signing contracts with Palantir, voluntarily walking into a lock-in

Amnesty SG drags Kaja Kallas for her UN speech "lamenting the gravest violation and breakdown of international law since WW2"

It contained 10 mentions of Russia, zero of Israel, zero of the US

"The double standards inherent in Ms. Kallas speech are destroying international law"

“The pope can’t talk about us, because we have nothing to do with morality.”

Good luck to anyone trying to predict what kind of government might emerge when a single-seat, first past the post election system meets this kind of vote distribution.

One of the most interesting interventions here was made by @labourlewis.bsky.social a few months ago, when he argued that a war state requires a parallel project for social solidarity. I'm not sure our current welfare system does that, but it is certainly not a case of warfare vs welfare.

The effective federal corporate income tax rate:

1950: 50%
1990: 25%
2020: 13%

Stop asking "but how we will pay for it?" Restore the corporate tax rate.

That is how we will pay for it.