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James Ball

@jamesrball.com

48K followers 1.1K following 6K posts

Tech, policy, politics. Political editor @ The New World, Fellow @ Demos, newsletter @ techtris, PhD researcher @ UCL Laws. Latest book: The Other Pandemic – How QAnon Contaminated The World. 🏳️‍🌈 https://www.jamesrball.com/

www.jamesrball.com

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James Ball @jamesrball.com · Aug 11

Enjoying my posts? (If not: sorry..?)

I have a newsletter here, plz do subscribe: www.jamesrball.com

Details of books I’ve written here: www.jamesrball.com/p/books

And all my writing for @thenewworldmag.bsky.social is here: www.thenewworld.co.uk/contributor/...

I often pop up elsewhere, too.

Techtris | James Ball | Substack

A weekly(ish) newsletter on technology, policy and society, from James Ball. Click to read Techtris, by James Ball, a Substack publication with thousands of subscribers.

www.jamesrball.com

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James Ball @jamesrball.com · 9h

It’s happened again! But this time they’re both claiming “world exclusives” on the same emails between Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein.

What’s going on here? Does one have a mole on the other’s newsdesk? That’s *very* 1990s if so.

James Ball @jamesrball.com · 7d

Looks like someone gave the Sun on Sunday and the Mail on Sunday the same story about Angela Rayner and told them both it was an exclusive…

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James Ball @jamesrball.com · 12h

Washington DC is, by several measures, America’s most liberal city. It no longer has a newspaper that’s even trying to represent that in its op-ed pages.

Philip Bump @pbump.com · 2d

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John Sipher @johnsipher.bsky.social · 16h

Shocking. Hard to imagine this Administration making shit up 😏

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/u...

Report on Soros Cited by Justice Dept. Does Not Show Funding for Terrorism

www.nytimes.com

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ceej @ceej.online · 1d

hardly any floppy disks remain from shakespeare times

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James Ball @jamesrball.com · 20h

What’s the word “vegan” doing in that sentence???

Twlldun @twlldun.bsky.social · 20h

I mean, this is really desperate shit, isn’t it? I am a great deal more woke-sceptic than pretty much all of Bluesky but I honestly can’t be bothered to care about the National Trust putting vegan tampons in the men’s toilets and neither should you

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James Ball @jamesrball.com · 1d

Task based. Writing left handed, phone use right handed. There’s a long list with not much logic to it either.

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Django Wexler @djangowexler.bsky.social · 1d

My boss: so how's our fourth quarter looking?

Me, the sales manager at the company that makes inflatable frog suits: well, you're never going to believe this, but

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James Ball @jamesrball.com · 1d

Can’t believe we’re only like 20% into this season of the presidency and we’re already reusing plot lines.

Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · 1d

oh no

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hannah gais @hannahgais.bsky.social · 1d

Those are three people in inflatable frog suits.

@MrAndyNgo
Now that the local and national press have started to cover the Portland ICE area round-the-clock in reaction to the President, Antifa have devised a plan where they are encouraging one another to come in animal costumes.

The costumes serve the function of masking the violent extremism to make the direct action appear like a family-friendly gathering on camera, and to whitewash the past ultraviolence.

In 2019, Antifa devised a similar plot by giving out free "milkshakes" at a protest. But they couldn't contain their bloodthirst and nearly killed me when they saw me. In 2020, they mobilized a fake "Wall of Moms" where female Antifa supporters and members wore yellow shirts to act as human body shields while violent rioters behind them hurled projectile weapons.

photo of three people in inflatable frog costumes

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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 1d

Trump has sent the National Guard to Chicago and Portland under the guise of protecting DHS agents from threats that don't exist. With this new guidance, it appears FPS agents (who are able to call on ICE, CBP, etc for backup at any time) have been empowered to do their own "protecting."

DHS top lawyer says 'no legal barrier' to actions officers can take to defend federal property

In a memo obtained exclusively by The Handbasket, Federal Protective Service (FPS) officers were given free rein.

www.thehandbasket.co

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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 1d

EXCLUSIVE — DHS Acting General Counsel sent out a memo Wednesday to all Federal Protective Service staff (the sub-agency that guards federal buildings) letting officers know they could take any action necessary "in the vicinity" federal property to protect themselves.

The Handbasket reports:

DHS top lawyer says 'no legal barrier' to actions officers can take to defend federal property

In a memo obtained exclusively by The Handbasket, Federal Protective Service (FPS) officers were given free rein.

www.thehandbasket.co

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James Ball @jamesrball.com · 1d

“Stupid as it is, the reality is that Norway risks facing political and diplomatic repercussions for not awarding the Nobel Peace Prize this year to Trump, just as they would have faced ridicule had they given it to him.” inews.co.uk/opinion/nobe...

The Nobel Peace Prize committee has played Trump – and won

María Corina Machado’s selection as this year’s winner is clearly both a tactical and a political choice

inews.co.uk

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James Ball @jamesrball.com · 1d

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Ryan Mac 🙃 @rmac.bsky.social · 1d

If you listen to enough Thiel, you realize that he repeats himself. In the past, there have been repeated references to Star Wars and Star Trek. Recently, he's been fixated on comparing Greta Thunberg to the antichrist. Just because he's packaged stuff into "off record" lectures doesn't mean its new

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James Ball @jamesrball.com · 1d

Thiel needs the supervillain hype, in a strange way. Perhaps even more than Elon Musk does. As if there’s one listed company in the world more overvalued and overhyped than Tesla it is surely Palantir.

Happily ‘critical’ journalists and outlets are happy to give him the antihype he wants and needs.

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James Ball @jamesrball.com · 1d

Thiel talks about his stuff in lengthy, rambling podcast interviews and he’s an awful speaker. He’s repetitive, shallow, not very coherent – I’ve listened to several and never written them up because they’re mostly just *boring*. There’s no big secret to it!

Ryan Mac 🙃 @rmac.bsky.social · 1d

It's strange seeing a bunch of outlets pub stories about Thiel's antichrist lectures and label them as exclusives. For one, they aren't exclusive if a source offered the same material to half the tech press.

It's also kind of silly for folks just to parrot Thiel when he's saying this:

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James Ball @jamesrball.com · 1d

It’s a joke about her first book’s title…

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James Ball @jamesrball.com · 1d

No-one tell Naomi Klein.

tazman1a.bsky.social @tazman1a.bsky.social · 3d

Antifa even has logos.

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Alexander Clarkson @aphclarkson.bsky.social · 1d

Pavel Durov tweeted this from UAE after making an immense fortune in Putin's Russia

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James Ball @jamesrball.com · 1d

“Trump has more than three years left to serve of his second term. That’s three more attempts at the Nobel Peace Prize while he’s still in office. So, there’s always next year – and who knows? If he actually manages to make his Gaza peace deal stick, perhaps he might even earn it.”

inews.co.uk

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James Ball @jamesrball.com · 1d

“International relations, diplomacy and peace are often the result of grubby deals and trade-offs. Perhaps the prize can teach us more than it first appears.”

inews.co.uk/opinion/nobe...

inews.co.uk

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James Ball @jamesrball.com · 1d

Did it, though?

a man with a beard is smiling while talking to another man .

ALT: a man with a beard is smiling while talking to another man .

media.tenor.com

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James Ball @jamesrball.com · Aug 19

Leftfield Nobel Peace Prize idea: award it to Ghislaine Maxwell, for being the catalyst in encouraging Trump to reignite his interest in a Russia/Ukraine peace deal, if for no other reason than to move the news agenda on…

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Jacob Shamsian @jayshams.bsky.social · 2d

I've been wondering why Dominion Voting Systems suddenly reached settlements with Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, and One America News.

Turns out, it's been purchased by a Republican-owned election tech firm that insisted on it, per Axios.

www.axios.com/2025/10/09/d...

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James Ball @jamesrball.com · 2d

Absolutely not.

Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 2d

Here’s a primer on ‘primer.’

It’s pronounced ‘PRIMM-er’ if you mean “a small book” or “a short informative piece of writing.”

It’s pronounced ‘PRY-mer’ if you mean “an initial coat of paint.”

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