Rafael Behr is right; by not making clear the damage Brexit has wrought, the Labour Govt. (and Kier Starmer specifically) have let Nigel Farage off the hook, and implicitly allowed him to profit from the implication of political success the referendum result (wrongly) implies.

Its long past the time to make the Brexiters pay the price for their 'leadership' in wrecking our economic prospects. Brexit was a major policy error & that needs to made clear!

#politics #brexit
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/aug/27/nigel-farage-keir-starmer-brexit-truth

Rafael Behr is right; by not making clear the damage Brexit has wrought, the Labour Govt. (and Kier Starmer specifically) have let Nigel Farage off the hook, and implicitly allowed him to profit from the implication of political success the referendum result (wrongly) implies.

Its long past the time to make the Brexiters pay the price for their 'leadership' in wrecking our economic prospects. Brexit was a major policy error & that needs to made clear!

#politics #brexit
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/aug/27/nigel-farage-keir-starmer-brexit-truth

@sjwrenlewis

And in Nottingham ReformUK are showing they've picked up on the Trump playbook by banning engagement with a major local news outlet after the Nottingham Post has been less than supportive in their coverage.

If we are to judge the likely practices & approach of a future (heaven forbid) national ReformUK government by its actions in local government, then we cannot say we haven't been warned about its Trumpian media strategy!

#politics#NewsMedia
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/aug/28/ban-on-news-outlet-by-nottinghamshire-county-council-reform-leader-a-massive-attack-on-local-democracy

@sjwrenlewis

And in Nottingham ReformUK are showing they've picked up on the Trump playbook by banning engagement with a major local news outlet after the Nottingham Post has been less than supportive in their coverage.

If we are to judge the likely practices & approach of a future (heaven forbid) national ReformUK government by its actions in local government, then we cannot say we haven't been warned about its Trumpian media strategy!

#politics#NewsMedia
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/aug/28/ban-on-news-outlet-by-nottinghamshire-county-council-reform-leader-a-massive-attack-on-local-democracy

As @davidallengreen points out we can't say we haven't been warned about the prospect of authoritarian Govt.:

'If an illiberal radical government obtains a firm majority at the next general election, and is competent, then as the law currently stands nothing would hamper them in what they want to do and much would help them.

But those now in government and parliament are doing nothing to limit the scope of such potential damage!'

Relying on luck won't work

#politics
https://emptycity.substack.com/p/yes-an-incoming-illiberal-and-radical

@davidallengreen

I seldom agree with Janan Ganesh (FT) but I *do* think he's right (especially in light of DAG's post - above) that when the liberal elite start to look to *depend* on constitutionalism to protest the country from authoritarianism then they have essentially given up on politics;

They're saying that they've no compelling argument for voters, are not prepared to lead politically (only lamely follow media prompts) & are admitting they cannot win the political argument!

#politics

There will be a Labor Day Protest from 11AM-1PM on Mon Sep 1st along El Camino Real from Santa Clara to Redwood City. The Santa Clara County Democratic Party is hosting a pre-protest gathering from 9:30-10:30AM on Mon Sep 1st at the headquarters, 2901 Moorpark Ave., San Jose, CA 95128.

https://www.mobilize.us/cadems/event/830104/

#politics #democrats #democracy #california #santaclara#USPol#CAPol

There will be a Labor Day Protest from 11AM-1PM on Mon Sep 1st along El Camino Real from Santa Clara to Redwood City. The Santa Clara County Democratic Party is hosting a pre-protest gathering from 9:30-10:30AM on Mon Sep 1st at the headquarters, 2901 Moorpark Ave., San Jose, CA 95128.

https://www.mobilize.us/cadems/event/830104/

#politics #democrats #democracy #california #santaclara#USPol#CAPol

@rbreich But you do accept it. Week after week, month after month, year after year. There are no ten-million-people protests in the US against guns.

Clearly, Americans love their guns more than they love their brothers and sisters, more than they do their fathers and mothers, more than they do their sons and daughters.

Nowhere else in the world has gun crime like you do.

Guns are designed to kill things, primarily humans. That’s what they do. Kill.

Prayers and thoughts for their latest victims are meaningless; even, I would posit, offensive to a rational mind and a heart that ordinarily tends to kindness and understanding.

Get rid of guns and you virtually eliminate gun-related deaths. This has been proven the world over. If you have to, then change your constitution; it’s not written in stone, after all. It wasn’t handed down on a mountain. Constitutions are meant to be changed if they are broken. Yours is broken.

I’m sorry to be so blunt, but maybe if Americans did something concrete, if they understood that liberty demands constant vigilance and defence, if they realised that freedom comes with responsibility for others as much as self, then your friends in the world would not have to be so direct, or even, as I’m sure I have been, offensive.

#politics #gunviolence #america #democracy

“root causes”

I hate linking to The Hill, but here we go:

RFK Jr. says agency will reveal causes of autism in September

No, he fucking won’t. He literally shut down actual studies working on such things, because as with all fundamentalist-approach cardboard science, anything he does is driven by producing the answer he wants, not any answer that’s actually real.

So given all that, here’re a few key lies about “causes” I think we can expect:

  • “Overvaccination,” which isn’t a thing; it’s just a wedge to start rolling back vaccination in favour of “wellness” horseshit and pseudoscience that doesn’t fucking work;
  • High-fructose corn syrup, which in its most common formulation – for those who don’t remember – is chemically identical to honey. There’s literally not a way to tell filtered honey apart from 55/45 HFCS. This is also why filtered honey is fucking awful; once you filter out the water and the pollen remnants you don’t have any flavour other than sweetness.

    (This may be substituted out for artificial colours and/or flavours, he’s got bugaboos about those too.)

    And finally:

  • Hormone-based contraception.

Yeah. I think there’s a pretty good chance they’ll go there. I can’t be sure – this is all speculation, I assure you – but it’s been floated around in christofascism on and off for a while. Not as strongly as other lies about “the pill” (christ they’re so old) causing breast cancer (again: a lie), and being an abortifacient (again: a lie). So why not here? Why not go for it?

It has the added bonus of blaming the woman, which is another thing they always want to do.

Maybe I’ll be wrong. Maybe they won’t. But he used one word in particular that makes me think I’m right. That word is “interventions,” as in “interventions” that cause autism. That’s a word I’ve heard plenty of times before when fundamentalists talk about birth control, and also by the new age crowd that merged in with them, calling hormonal birth control an “unnatural intervention.” In other words, both upstream forks of his anti-vax “wellness” following have a history of using that word to describe hormonal birth control.

And here it is again. That word. “Intervention.”

Really could be a coincidence; really, genuinely could. That word is used by a lot of actual medical people for good and real medical treatments; it’s not one of their own made-up words.

But … they really do have a history of using it that way. And the orange fuckfash muttered on about “a drug or something” as the intervention at work, so… yeah.

I’m smelling an attack on birth control.

They’ve really been wanting to go at it, and given the increased… severity in tone… that we’re seeing out of the fascists, it feels like they’re slamming the metaphorical pedal to the metaphorical metal, and they might just go ahead and go for it.

Stock up on your meds, folks. Clock’s ticking.

#fascism #medicine #politics #science #uspol #uspolitics

"The Trump administration will move to pull the COVID vaccine off the U.S. market “within months,” one of RFK Jr.’s closest associates has told the Daily Beast.

Dr. Aseem Malhotra, a British cardiologist who has repeatedly claimed in the face of scientific consensus that the vaccines are more dangerous than the virus, told the Daily Beast that Kennedy’s stance is shared by “influential” members of trump’s family."

Ideology trumps science.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-and-robert-f-kennedy-junior-to-ban-covid-19-vaccine-within-months/
#Politics#Health
1/n

Featured story, from Candice Bernd: “It’s been an open secret in the Legislature for a while that if your bill has the word ‘climate’ in the caption, it’s not getting a hearing. That has been true for many sessions.” https://www.texasobserver.org/gop-flood-relief-what-not-pass-climate/

#environment#TXlege#Texas#ClimateChange #news #politics#USpol #weather #flooding

Previously: “He has never been imprisoned or had a criminal record. His life has always been marked by hard work and integrity. He has no connection to the Tren de Aragua case.” https://www.texasobserver.org/a-venezuelan-was-detained-as-a-documented-gang-member-by-ice-which-refused-to-provide-proof/

#ICE #immigration#HumanRights #politics#USpol#Texas #news #fascism

From our magazine: Rural #Texas wears a friendly facade. You know everyone, and everyone treats each other so kindly, but, if you’re Black, you just ignore the stares when you walk into the local steakhouse for fish fry night.
https://www.texasobserver.org/racism-wrapped-rural-warmth/

#racism #politics#USpol #culture #rural

New from @josephinelee: Many of Jodey Arrington's constituents stand to lose access to both their healthcare and their local hospitals under the massive tax-and-spending bill, which will slash Medicaid and ACA spending by more than $1T and knock 10M more people off of insurance nationwide. https://www.texasobserver.org/jodey-arrington-obbba-cuts-west-texas-rural-hospitals/

#healthcare #rural #politics#USpol#Trump#WestTexas#Texas #news

“More people are being held by the United States in #immigration detention than ever before, with many facilities housing more individuals than they were built to contain,. Reports of mistreatment have been widespread and have included disturbing details of overcrowding, food shortages, lack of adequate medical care, and unsanitary conditions.” https://www.texasobserver.org/dems-congress-ice-detention-oversight-lawsuit/

#ICE#Politics#USpol #news#Democrats#HumanRights #law