That awkward moment when the guy you decide is going to take the fall turns out to be a basically competent human being who can accurately describe what happened and your whole Machiavellian plan falls apart.

A photo from the HoC. Keir Starmer at the dispatch box. Either side of him are Lammy [L] & Reeves [R]. Lammy has his eyes closed like he's checked out. Reeves looks grim af

The end for Lammy & Reeves too & they know it

The way he says "buzz" is like nails on a chalkboard.

left-wing Labour members in 2020 trying to convince themselves to vote for him during the leadership election:

we are informing the press that the prime minister will shortly have a sincere & unscripted display of human emotion

I understand that this is a charming quirk of our Parliamentary system but doesn't the pre-prepared question "Mr. Speaker ... Does the Prime Minister agree ... that he was absolutely right ... ?" just feel a bit insulting to everyone's time and intelligence?

Displaced Lebanese wary as ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah begins Tensions linger as evacuees await clarity on the ceasefire’s terms before risking a return to war-torn villages.

Many in Lebanon told me they don’t trust this ceasefire. Some went to check their homes but didn’t stay.

Many expect a resumption of fighting at some point.

www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/4/...

Yes, they do make a neat pair.

This reads like just another babbling manifesto by a mass shooter which, of course, is exactly what it is.

Ex-model, arrested by Aventura police and deported, causes White House stir — Miami Herald A Brazilian brought to the U.S. on an Epstein plane at age 16 lashes out at the Trumps, saying she was betrayed by her friend Melania.

for those who missed it, here's the reason behind Melania's batshit crazy "press conference."

Surprise: Melania is a liar.

apple.news/AsZ7RsmlqTB6...

At least he didn't literally shit his pants.

Who's there, boy? Who's at the door? Is it Banquo? Is it Banquo, boy? [to guests] He thinks he sees Banquo

One of the most powerful people to ever live getting a round of applause for being able to write his own name.

Kuwait Is Stripping Its People of Citizenship at an Unprecedented Rate Behind the language of legality, the new emir has pushed a political project to narrow national identity and roll back decades of democratic reform

This is lowkey one of the most important things happening in the Middle East rn and very few people are paying attention to it

*Starmer appoints a diplomat who failed his security checks*

"This is because of Tory mismanagement of the economy"

Have you ever worried that young people have too much legal entitlement to education? Keir Starmer has. It keeps him up at night.

Ministers need to steer through a special educational needs and disabilities bill to put in place curbs on legal entitlements to education, health and care plans. These entitlements to extra support will be limited to the most severe cases.

A planned welfare bill that will restrict some benefits — for example, banning under-22s from claiming incapacity benefits — looks set to be delayed until the new year. Reforms to disability benefits will also come later.

From the FT's preview of the King's speech. The government has clearly decided that disabled people's participation in society is a luxury we can't afford. Notice how they've stopped pretending it's about "fraud" and started pretending it's about people not being disabled enough.

Preach!

Eh, I've been operating as "Mediocre Dave" for two decades so I'm casting no aspersions.

In this Strategy and its war plans, the British State makes clear that everything and everyone – “every element of society” – is worth sacrificing for the British State. The logic of war expressed clearly in these war plans is: first the State and then your “way of life” and “prosperity”. To most commentators this is common sense, rather than a cue to question what kind of society so desperately requires an authority to rule over it that the idea that a large number of its members must suffer and die to protect that authority is taken for granted

In case you didn't happen to read the UK's most recent National Security Strategy document, @critisticuffs.org has a piece highlighting how much it promises to sacrifice for the security of the state.
critisticuffs.org/texts/what-t...

Same people who want the Iranian people to do a violent coup also think that rude voicemails are a step too far?

Yes, I think this is all true. I certainly don't buy that he's a mouthpiece of any meaningful youth culture. He has been transformed, or been allowed to transform himself, into an abject curiosity.

He seems both deeply unhappy and also a cause of nothing but happiness in others.

I see a lot of people doing performative bewilderment at Clavicular's popularity which is kind of grating because it's not that mysterious but I guess that's just another way of expressing how bleakly miserable the whole thing is.

I've hit a point in my life where when I hear about a twenty year old nazi overdosing I just think "man, society really failed that kid".

Go, right now, and find a Sharpie to label it. Do it now. You do not need to live like this.

"I prescribe it even to teens in some circumstances"

Yes, absolutely. They aspire to be policed by people who aren't bastards.

Policing by Consent — Abolitionist Futures The state could maintain its power through direct military oppression but, with a strategically deployed police force and the cultivation of a consenting public, it doesn’t need to.

Policing by consent isn't just a slogan, unfortunately.

abolitionistfutures.com/latest-news/...