Almost everything we argue about is a substitute for the thing we should be arguing about: the immense wealth & power of an oligarchic class, which captures governments, ruins lives and wrecks the living planet.
This class redirects our rage at scapegoats. To resist its lies is to resist its power.
Ma Yuan's studies of the properties of water, southern Song Dynasty China, ca. 1190 - 1225 CE
1
youtu.be/L-57FrioeuE?...
Pope Leo XIV condemns the Trump administration in new speech:
"Woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth."
Turkey on daily basis, replace Christianity with the other one.
Authoritarianism wrapped up in fake, performative Christianity.
“If all we make is known-branded IP, we’re going to run out of gas. There is nothing more important than giving the audience visual stories, and they can be in any form, but we need to tell more original stories.”
Cover image: THE EDINBURGH COMPANION TO ALASDAIR GRAY AND THE ARTS Edited by Marie-Odile Pittin-Hedon, Camille Manfredi and Kirsten Stirling Cover image: Part of Alasdair Gray’s ceiling mural in the Òran Mór, Glasgow. A series of gothic arches come together to form a half-dome. The ribs are plainted black, with gold letters, reading WHERE ARE WE FROM? WHAT ARE WE? WHERE ARE WE GOING? Life is Rooted in Death's Republic Animals Who Want More Than We Need Our Seed Returns To Death's Republic Within the frames, against a deep blue background spangled with stars, are vividly coloured images of men, women, children, winged horses, and other fantastic visions.
Coming May 2026:
The Edinburgh Companion to Alasdair Gray & the Arts
Ed. Marie-Odile Pittin-Hedon, Camille Manfredi, Kirsten Stirling
Interrogating Alasdair Gray’s literary & visual artistic practice & exploring relationships between these forms
edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-the-edi...
Our article “‘Every time we walk, it is a pride march!’ A conversation on the everyday politics of queer walking” is now out in RiDE's special issue on walking. Huge thanks to editors Dee Heddon, Stephanie Springgay, and Harry Wilson! @uofgsociology.bsky.social
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
god have mercy
Orban's inability to prevent last year's Pride protests—attended by 300k despite being banned—was a turning point in his authoritarian grip of the country.
Queer people are always leading the fight against authoritarianism, as we are often its first targets. Never cower to fear.
May Victor Orbán simply be the first in a string of countries engaging in overdue housecleaning by kicking their authoritarian leaders to the curb.
A series of posts from journalist Mark Chadbourn reporting on the acceptance speech of Péter Magyar after Hungarian elections: Péter Magyar: "Our country wants to live again. It wants to be a European country again." Mark Chadbourn• @chadbourn.bsky.social • 24m Magyar's speech is powered. From a contact in the audience: "He's basically just asked all the puppets, all the supreme justices, all the heads of media, all the heads of the ministries to leave their jobs tomorrow and not wait to be fired." •.. Mark Chadbourn• @chadbourn.bsky.social • 22m He's announced that Hungary will join the European Prosecution Office so anyone in the country can be charged. Mark Chadbourn• @chadbourn.bsky.social • 21m Magyar: "No mercy, they will need to take responsibility for all their actions." ... Mark Chadbourn• @chadbourn.bsky.social • 20m Magyar says he's starting work with the EU and NATO immediately. "The EU doesn't have to worry anymore."
From new Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar's acceptance speech tonight. This is the absolute BARE MINIMUM platform for any Democrat running for President in 2028.
Victor Orbán’s removal sends a timely signal.
Corrupt kleptocratic Christian nationalism was on the ballot in Hungary today — just as it will be on the ballots that Americans will cast in November.
It was repudiated abroad — may it be repudiated here in November (and beyond).
Historical illustration from "Deutsches Vogelbuch für Forst- und Landwirte" (1906-1907) depicting four bird species. Top left: Ringeltaube (Columba palumbus) perched on a pine branch. Top right: Hohltaube (Columba oenas) on an oak branch. Bottom left: Turteltaube (Turtur turtur) shown with an adult on a nest of twigs and needles containing a juvenile bird. Bottom right: Birkhuhn (Tetrao tetrix), male with striking black and white plumage and red eye combs, alongside a female in subdued brown tones on a branch. The nest scene in the third panel is notable for depicting parental care and nest structure among these forest and farmland birds.
🐣 Deutsches Vogelbuch für Forst- und Landwirte
Stuttgart: Kosmos, Gesellschaft der Naturfreunde[1906]-1907.
[Source]
Biblical
An old Greek style window featuring arched, dark green metal shutters set within a weathered stone frame. Bright sunlight filters through overhead foliage, casting intricate shadows on the surface of the shutters.
When a person loses 1 sense the others are heightened. That's why people who have no sense of humor have an amazing sense of self-importance.
Certain numbers accompany us through our lives, connected to our memories of people and places, of significant events. What numbers remain with you decades later? And why?
This poem is taken from Whatever You Do, Just Don't (HappenStance Press, 2023), my second full collection...
The National Museum of Denmark’s photo shows fourty-four annular (ring-shaped) translucent turquoise blue glass beads strung on a modern circular thread and displayed against a black background. In 1885, Jens Jensen, a farmer, found the forty-four glass beads in a large cremation urn in the ploughed-over Kongehøj burial mound, near Humlum church, Denmark. The broken urn contained burnt bones, forty-four turquoise blue glass beads, and two gold spiral rings. The cremation burial is dated circa 1,100 BC. A research project published in 2015, analysed twenty-three blue glass beads from various Danish Bronze Age graves. The analysis showed that the glass of two of the beads originated in Egypt, and the others originated in Mesopotamia. The forty-four glass beads from Kongehøj at Humlum, originated in Mesopotamia. They date to the same long-distance exchange period as Baltic amber moving south. The research project links glass moving north with Baltic amber moving south, which points to complex, far-reaching trade and exchange in exotic goods some 3,000 years ago.
Beautiful blue glass beads from the Danish Bronze Age.
Found by a farmer at Humlum in Denmark in 1885. Glass analysis published in 2015 shows the beads originated in Mesopotamia indicating far-reaching trade networks some 3,000 years ago.
📷 National Museum of Denmark
#Archaeology
You lie badly www.euractiv.com/news/chief-o...
I want to read the comments. UK folks are great at bitter comments.
The irony meter is just a smoking hunk of melted glass and metal at this point.
I like to believe there will be a reckoning for this shit at some point.
I dunno if I ACTUALLY believe it, but I LIKE to believe it.
What's that you say? You have a plan to kill a few thousand people, burn through $200 billion, spread war throughout the middle east and drive the world into oil shock, inflation and recession, just so you can end up with exactly the same deal Biden and Obama had?
What a stable genius!!
file under "you can't make this up"
