"No pressure existed whatsoever" on the FCDO to appoint Mandelson, Keir Starmer tells the House of the Commons. And that, I think, is gonna be a big big hostage to fortune.

Grim but useful read.

Global energy markets are on the verge of a disaster
economist.com/finance-and-...

Peak Brussels

Denkfabrik war gestern, echte Innovation entsteht in der Faktenfabrik!

Die Queen wäre morgen 100 Jahre alt geworden. Zu Nahbarkeit und Mysterium morgen in der FAZ

zeitung.faz.net/data/748/rea...

The Mandelson fiasco reveals the true nature of Starmerism This is a prime minister who does not understand the difficult trade-offs involved in governing

Ultimately this is a story with a simple cause: the prime minister outsourced his judgement to someone he *really* shouldn’t have, and now he owns the fallout from that, and hard to see how his government gets out from under that one:

This is right. I think can’t rule out that the local elections cause a mass “screw it, we just need to change” panic.

The problem with Starmer's argument (well one of them) is that it depends on an assertion that he wouldn't have appointment Mandelson if he'd known he'd failed vetting.

But he appointed him before vetting was complete.

Very sorry to hear that.

Oh no...hadn't seen that!

Kenny Rogers - The Gambler YouTube video by KennyRogersVEVO

Starmer's song.

Kenny Rogers, The Gambler

youtu.be/7hx4gdlfamo?...

Who does this description of Kaiser Wilhelm II remind you of? (Written by Christopher Clark in 2015).

The extent to which YIMBY and techbro influencers in the 2020s get hyped up about centralised megaprojects is eerily reminiscent of the poetic odes 1920 and 30s Communist intellectuals churned out about steelworks and dams at the heart of Stalinist 5 year plans

Neonazis organisieren Volkstanzgruppen: Die Ringelreihen fest geschlossen In ländlichen Regionen tarnen Neonazis die Verbreitung ihrer NS-Ideologie als „Brauchtumspflege“. Beliebte Rekrutierungsform: völkische Volkstanzgruppen.

In ländlichen Regionen tarnen Neonazis die Verbreitung ihrer NS-Ideologie als „Brauchtumspflege“. Beliebte Rekrutierungsform: völkische Volkstanzgruppen.

That's it. I've checked the very last proofs of the book and it's now off to the printers. I hope it will reach Hobsbawm fans, Hobsbawm sceptics, and anyone curious about the intellectual life of the left in the 20th century!

Publication: 18 Aug (US), 4 Sept (UK)
www.hup.harvard.edu/books/978067...

Anyone surprised at Greens campaigning against centralised mega-projects developed in a technocratic top-down manner from Whitehall with heavy involvement of transnational corporations needs to read a history of the English, Welsh and Scottish Green parties

My take:

Starmer is tolerant of very high risk decisions - or even actively takes them.

And he is not a teamplayer.

Both might be good qualities for a barrister. They are not ideal for a PM.

The results are clear for everyone to see.

Every faction of the Labour Party will try and disown him once this is done - some (Corbynites) more credibly than others (Blue Labour, Labour Together)

Fortunately the attention span of minors these days is strictly limited to 1:30

Possibly the weirdest sentence ever spoken in Congress?

After the latest Mandelson revelations, Starmer needs to get a good lawyer. Wasn’t he supposed to be one? | Jonathan Freedland If only the PM had been the process-obsessed technocrat he was once painted as, this disaster wouldn’t have happened – and he wouldn’t be on the brink, says Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland

Keir Starmer was meant to be a dull, managerial lawyer. If only. Latest column www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Schwarze Moderne und schwarze Kritik Drei Neuübersetzungen der black radical tradition zeigen, wie die kapitalistische Moderne mit Kolonialismus und Rassismus verbunden ist

Ich bin ein bisschen nerdy geworden hiermit, und es geht viel darum, wie wir eigentlich Geschichte denken - also was Geschichte antreibt, wie wir das aufschreiben, wen wir als handelnde Personen wahrnehmen und aus welcher Perspektive wir ökonomische, soziale, kulturelle Strukturen analysieren.

Another datapoint for how too many people on this and the other site tended to ignore how economic and social material conditions can act as constraints on the Iranian regime as much as the Trump administration

CATL, which was founded in 2011, has spent billions of dollars over the years to secure access to key resources including lithium and nickel, running the investments under an internal division. The establishment of a dedicated subsidiary signals an intention to accelerate resource exploration efforts in China and abroad. The unit, Shidai Resources Group, "will actively expand into high-quality domestic and international mineral resource projects" , said CATL, adding that investments would "ensure the raw material supplies and supply chain security". The move comes as China faces intensifying competition from the US for access to materials needed for advanced technologies from electric vehicles and their batteries to missiles and semiconductors. Since returning to the White House, US President Donald Trump has put domestic mining and US access to critical minerals at the top of his agenda.

We’re going to swap one set of choke points and supply chain vulnerabilities for another as we move from an economy based on fossil fuels to one based on metals.

I am planning on appointing someone who has publicly resigned twice in scandal. They resign a third time in even bigger scandal. The fallout should, however, not include me, the person who made the big call in the first place.

Totally untenable.

Thing is, I can sort of believe that Starmer just literally didn't ask whether Mandelson actually passed vetting, and also that his Downing Street imagines this to be an excuse rather than a pretty strong case for resignation in and of itself.

Out today!

NASA releases new image of planet Jupiter captured by James Webb Space Telescope, the most powerful telescope ever built.

A photo of a tree on a hill with the setting sun behind it casting a shadow

Get down to Phoenix Park right now if you want to get your ass kicked....by the overwhelming transcendental power of the natural world.

Very relevant indeed in universities' rush to ensure that their students (and staff) are 'AI literate' for the future workforce.