🧐🤔YOU WANTED A WALL, TRUMP? YOU’LL HAVE ONE. Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, responded to Trump’s threats: “So you voted to build a wall. Well then, dear Americans — even if geography isn’t your strong suit, and you see America as a country rather than a continent — you should know that on the other side of that wall stand 7 billion people. And if the word ‘people’ doesn’t resonate with you, let’s call them ‘consumers.’ Those 7 billion consumers can switch from iPhone to Samsung or Huawei in less than two days. They can trade Levi’s for Zara or Massimo Dutti, and within six months replace Ford and Chevrolet with Toyota, KIA, Mazda, Honda, Hyundai, Volvo, Subaru, Renault, or BMW — brands that are already more popular in many places. They can cancel DirecTV. And even if they choose not to, they can stop watching Hollywood films and turn instead to higher-quality productions from Latin America or Europe — with richer storytelling and better filmmaking. Believe it or not, people can skip Disney and visit the Xcaret resort in Cancún instead — or explore destinations across Mexico, Canada, or South America. Even in Mexico, you can find better burgers than McDonald’s — with higher nutritional value. Have you ever seen pyramids in the United States? Egypt, Mexico, Peru, Guatemala, and Sudan have ancient wonders — none of them in the U.S. If they were, Trump would probably have bought and resold them by now. We know Nike isn’t the only sneaker brand. There’s Adidas — and even Mexican brands like Panama. We understand economics better than you think. And we also know that when those 7 billion consumers stop buying American products, unemployment will rise, and your economy — trapped behind its own self-imposed wall — will begin to collapse to the point where you’ll be begging for help. We didn’t want to do this. But you wanted a wall? Well. You’ve got one.” Her approval rating has reached a historic level — according to a recent poll, it stands at 85%.

Really must read.

OLLIE'S BIG CLEAR OUT! Here are 3 shelves of HUGELY popular kids books You can have any FOUR for £10 (free P P). Deals can be negotiated. Please share (and buy). UK only.

Happy Birthday 🎂 🥳 🎉 🎈 🎁 BIG MAN!!! HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY! COYS COYS COYS

Zelensky cannot back down on the issue of "UPA Heroes" and the elite military unit. Ever since the open death threats directed at him by Azov and Right Sector figures in 2019, he has become politically dependent on Ukraine's militant far right and extremists of every stripe. A bargain was struck: they receive military and political influence, while he receives protection for his position and political survival. So go ahead and remove the White Eagle. And prepare for the next stage of Banderization in Ukraine. What was once a marginal regional cult confined largely to Western Ukraine has now been elevated into official national policy 💁‍♀️

It's official: The Beatles' first album, PLEASE PLEASE ME, was released closer to the 1800s than to the present day. Dec 31, 1899 to March 22, 1963 = 23,091 days March 22, 1963 to June 11, 2026 = 23,092 days

The Beatles composing one of the most influential songs in music history. ✨ Pure genius at work. Watch the magic happen.

Is it not? Wow. How many spectacular careers have been built on claiming the opposite.

Introducing the Scottish-American travel dictionary 🇺🇸🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 We’ve put together this guide to keep the Tartan Army out of trouble in the States. Read carefully to avoid confusing the locals, deeply offending the country, or being interrogated by Homeland Security over a sandwich.

HOLY SHIT 🇩🇪🚨 A woman in Germany says “Free Palestine.” Police swarm, cover her mouth, drag her down like a beast. That slogan is now banned in Germany because it’s considered antisemitic. If you say it, the state silences you by force.

1. The UK State Pension. How much is in the "pot"? How much can the govt afford to pay? Should we contribute more to private pensions so the government can "borrow" those funds to fund a green transition? A wee thread...🧵👇

I can't properly describe to anyone under the age of 30 just how cool the Internet was before Amazon, Google, Meta, and Apple turned it all into a walled garden of garbage and commerce.

“Radical centre” today means unhinged militarism, mindless foreign policy extremism, McCarthyist witch-hunt, xenophobia, nazi laundering abroad and trying to emulate far right populists at home while losing to them miserably. A political ideology for immoral conformists on defence industry’s payroll.

"I think we are misunderstanding efficiency. Efficiency is not about making people's capacity to generate text faster. Efficiency in complex social systems is having really high trust interactions so that we're not slowed down at every interaction by all these questions...

She looks nice.

I posted this elsewhere. Some of you might appreciate it.

The fact that you've tried to hijack this thread and distract attention from the important economic analysis in the first post proves the point I'm about to make. The linked book explains the destructive 'cultural turn' in detail. Not only are you wrong, you're catastrophically wrong. Important civil rights movements were effortlessly hijacked and incorporated by the right to energise 'progressive neoliberalism'. The belief that inclusion, fairness and equality can be achieved in the neoliberal economic system as it stands became dominant - as the fraud Foucault averred, "let's give the market a chance". Corporate DEI policies systematically promoted individuals representing formerly marginalised groups, making any commitment they had to the left at best tenuous and at worst irrational. It was a clever political move. In neoliberalism's divisive context, the focus on culture and identity created a weak, fragmented and economically illiterate left dominated by middle-class liberals whose contempt for the traditional working class was palpable. The right and the faux-left 'Spiked' crew didn't need to construct a divisive 'woke' identity politics narrative - it was handed to them by the stupid liberalised left. In 2008 the left had no solution to the financial crisis. Even Corbynomics fell significantly short. The traditional left founded on socieconomic concerns shared by the multiethnic working class as a whole despite cultural prejudices and tensions died. National populism thrived in the vacuum - it was too easy for the fake 'far right' and assorted racists to convince an electorally significant number of working-class whites that the liberalised left was at best useless and at worst their mortal enemy. Polanski is doing his best to refocus the left on economic concerns and promote economic literacy without abandoning civil rights. Good luck to him. But the chasm opened by 'progressive neoliberalism' is deep and wide. I hope it isn't too late.

Zelensky's new state hero, Andrii Melnyk, in July 1941: "We collaborate closely with Germany and invest everything in this collaboration...we believe that Adolf Hitler’s new order in Europe is the real order, and that Ukraine is one of the avant-gardes" x.com/KyivIndependent/status…

Trying to have a conversation about glyphosate, and someone falsely brings up the IARC classifying it as a carcinogen? I am here to the rescue, with exactly the ammunition you need to fight back and stand up for science: open.substack.com/pub/briand…

Must read.