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Mike Liggins aka Liggo @mikeliggins.bsky.social · Apr 7

As the world burns, I’m clinging onto to Nature more than ever before…

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Mike Liggins aka Liggo @mikeliggins.bsky.social · Mar 31

Yes - lovely. Good spot.

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Mike Liggins aka Liggo @mikeliggins.bsky.social · Mar 28

Julie Reinger said goodbye to the BBC today after 26 years. She had a very special rapport with the viewers ..and had lots of laughs together.
Go well Jules…

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Mike Liggins aka Liggo @mikeliggins.bsky.social · Mar 22

Yes, this is superb and chilling in equal measure…

Jim Pickard @pickardje.bsky.social · Mar 22

if you read one FT article this weekend make it this blistering piece by @edwardluce.bsky.social on Trump’s assault on democratic norms in America

www.ft.com/content/3741...

Trump's moves, which started on day one with his pardoning of roughly 1,500 people jailed for storming Capitol Hill four years ago, and commuting the terms of the hardest core offenders, have ticked nearly every box on the scholarly checklist of democratic backsliding.
But his alacrity has also cast the system's defenders into disarray.
"This is moving a lot faster than any of us anticipated," says Steven Levitsky, a Harvard scholar and co-author with Daniel Ziblatt of How Democracies Die. The capture of state institutions that took strongmen like Viktor Orbán or Recep Tayyip Erdogan many years to accomplish, "Trump is trying to pull off in months".
Moreover, a hostile seizure of the key government organs has never been tried in a wealthy and established democracy like America, he says. "Trump's speed and intent is remarkable. Even when they happen slowly, such all-out assaults are hard to stop."

The Republican-controlled Senate dutifully confirmed every Trump nominee, including several whose conduct and record would have caused their rapid ejection in any other era.
The US now has, among others, a health secretary who doubts the efficacy of vaccines, an FBI director who has vowed lawfare on Trump's enemies and a director of national intelligence accused of parroting Kremlin propaganda.
Almost no Republicans objected when Trump stripped security protections from erstwhile officials, including Mike Pompeo, his former secretary of state, John Bolton, a former national security adviser, and Brian Hook, his ex-Iran envoy. The FBI says each are on an Iranian hit list.
"It's pure fear and cowardice," says Adam Kinzinger, a former Republican Congressman who served on the committee that investigated the January 6 assault and who Trump has threatened with arrest. "I've lost

Mike Liggins aka Liggo @mikeliggins.bsky.social · Mar 18

“Football fans do not behave like rational customers. Millions of people pay a significant portion of their increasingly stretched incomes to watch a football team mostly not win, for ever.”
Genius writing from @jonathanliew.bsky.social

Jonathan Liew @jonathanliew.bsky.social · Mar 18

as the late economist Allen Sanderson put it: “if you want to inject money into the local economy, it would be better to drop it from a helicopter than invest it in a new ballpark”. column on the facts and the fictions of New Trafford www.theguardian.com/football/202...

A new Manchester United stadium isn’t about regeneration and never will be | Jonathan Liew

If ‘New Trafford’ is such a nailed-on wealth generator, then why aren’t Ratcliffe and the Glazers funding it themselves?

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Mike Liggins aka Liggo

Led By Donkeys @ledbydonkeys.org · Mar 17

Thousands of people are ditching Tesla. Here’s one of them with a message you can see from space.

Location: Black Rock Sands, Wales, UK

Led By Donkeys is 100% funded by small donations.

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Mike Liggins aka Liggo @mikeliggins.bsky.social · Mar 17

Well ..yes, exactly

Dan Snow @thehistoryguy.bsky.social · Mar 17

Today in 180AD Commodus succeeded his father, Marcus Aurlieus as Roman Emperor. He would go berserk, naming the city, months & legions after himself.

One contemporary wrote that he turned Rome "from a kingdom of gold to one of iron and rust".

Mike Liggins aka Liggo @mikeliggins.bsky.social · Mar 17

You’re just being modest 😉

Mike Liggins aka Liggo @mikeliggins.bsky.social · Mar 17

Do you ever open your home to the public? Looks like it’s worth a visit…

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Jonathan Freedland @jonathanfreedland.bsky.social · Mar 14

Donald Trump is crashing the US economy - just one more consequence of him being trapped in a disinformation bubble. Latest column www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Why is Donald Trump crashing the US economy? Because he’s high on his own supply of fake news | Jonathan Freedland

Addicted to Fox News and outlets even more extreme, the president finds justification for actions disastrous to Americans and the world, says Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland

www.theguardian.com

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Mike Liggins aka Liggo @mikeliggins.bsky.social · Mar 14

Impossible to imagine what John Hunt has been through. His victim statement is extraordinary and if you haven’t read it - please do. It just so happens he’s one of the best commentators of this or any era…

The Guardian @theguardian.com · Mar 14

John Hunt returns to Cheltenham days after brave victim statement

* BBC commentator back in place for Gold Cup * ‘I am thinking of those who illuminate this sport’ There was no braver sight at the Cheltenham Festival than the return of John Hunt to the BBC commentary box on Friday, just days after the man who…

www.theguardian.com

Mike Liggins aka Liggo @mikeliggins.bsky.social · Mar 8

Fascinating …and like everything associated with Trump - truly awful. Worth reading

Chris Murphy @chrismurphyct.bsky.social · Mar 8

I wrote a short explainer for my Substack of the biggest (but strangely under the radar) corruption of the Trump White House: the Trump crypto coin. A conduit for secret, shameless bribery of the President. www.chrismurphyct.com/p/trumps-big...

Trump’s Biggest Corruption is Flying Under the Radar

The scale of corruption in Trump’s White House has been stunning and unprecedented.

www.chrismurphyct.com

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Mike Liggins aka Liggo @mikeliggins.bsky.social · Mar 7

Who doesn’t like bum based jokes?

Prof Ben Garrod @bengarrod.bsky.social · Mar 7

Win my books …

There’s dogs, an insight into the inner workings of an animals’ mind, bum-based jokes, the lot …

@headofzeus.bsky.social
@bloomsburybooksuk.bsky.social

ed public relations @edpr.bsky.social · Mar 6

It's less than a month until publication day of @bengarrod.bsky.social's latest book 'Jack-Jack Return of the Chickens' 🐓

Check out @booktrust.org.uk to be in with a chance of winning the first three books in the hilarious and heartwarming #JackJack series 🐕

www.booktrust.org.uk/books-and-re...

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Mike Liggins aka Liggo @mikeliggins.bsky.social · Mar 5

Trump has opened Pandora’s box

Tim O’Brien @timobrien.bsky.social · Mar 5

U.S. Marshals have warned federal judges of unusually high threat levels as Elon Musk and other Trump administration allies ramp up efforts to discredit judges who stand in the way of White House efforts to slash federal jobs and programs. www.reuters.com/world/us/jud...

Exclusive: Judges face rise in threats as Musk blasts them over rulings

U.S. Marshals have warned federal judges of unusually high threat levels as tech billionaire Elon Musk and other Trump administration allies ramp up efforts to discredit judges who stand in the way of White House efforts to slash federal jobs and programs, said several judges with knowledge of the warnings.

www.reuters.com

Mike Liggins aka Liggo @mikeliggins.bsky.social · Mar 4

Special relationship is over for certain- but is the unthinkable happening? Is the US now Europe’s enemy?

News Eye @newseye.bsky.social · Mar 4

NEW: JD Vance describes UK & French troops in Ukraine as “20,000 troops from some random country that hasn’t fought a war in 30 or 40 years”.

Spits in the face of UK & EU troops that died supporting the US in Iraq & Afghanistan.

So revealing. The Atlantic alliance & “special relationship” is dead.

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Mike Liggins aka Liggo @mikeliggins.bsky.social · Mar 2

On occasion, impartiality serves the BBC very badly indeed. Both Chris Mason and Laura Kuensberg asking Zelensky if he’d care to apologise for events in the White House.
Read the room …

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Dr Rachel Clarke @drrachelclarke.com · Mar 2

Tailoring fit for a King, President Zelensky 👌

Zelensky & King Charles together in front of fireplace

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Mike Liggins aka Liggo @mikeliggins.bsky.social · Mar 2

Master stroke-
Ukraine's Zelenksy meets King at Sandringham

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Mike Liggins aka Liggo @mikeliggins.bsky.social · Mar 1

This ⬇️
Europe must assume the worst. Perhaps even a US/Russia alliance ..and work back from there. @lewisgoodall.com is all over this crisis…

Lewis Goodall @lewisgoodall.com · Mar 1

As I argued some weeks ago, we have to listen to what Trump and Vance are telling us, as uncomfortable and even scary as it might be.

open.substack.com/pub/goodalla...

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Lewis Goodall @lewisgoodall.com · Mar 1

For weeks, ministers and other British politicians have been trying to convince the rest of us and perhaps themselves that Trump is more normal than he is, that he cares about Ukraine and Europe more than he does and that is less inclined towards Putin than he is...

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Mike Liggins aka Liggo @mikeliggins.bsky.social · Feb 28

Just when you think Trump, Vance etc can’t get any more awful..they do. But I’m sorry to say - it will get worse.
The world needs to stop treating Trump like a normal person. He isn’t. He’s a narcissist- that’s the easy bit.
No, the question is more how disturbed is he? My guess is very….

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Mark Hamill @markhamillofficial.bsky.social · Feb 25

You first.

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Mike Liggins aka Liggo @mikeliggins.bsky.social · Feb 26

Slowly people around the world are waking up to what Trump is- insane.
Presumably this is the kind of thing going on inside his head?

News Eye @newseye.bsky.social · Feb 26

Few things can capture the vanity and sheer depravity of Trump.

This video, he posted on his Truth Social account overnight, is as close as you’ll get.

It should greet him at the gates of hell.

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Mike Liggins aka Liggo @mikeliggins.bsky.social · Feb 16

If you weren’t depressed enough already - read this.
It’s brilliant and very clear.
Anyone still believe in our ‘special relationship’ with the US?

Gabrielius Landsbergis @glandsbergis.bsky.social · Feb 15

Once again I am leaving the Munich Security Conference in a low mood. Amongst all the noise, the US signalled their plans for Europe, so things are becoming clearer. But things are clearly not good.
This is what we now know, and what we have to do about it:🧵1/17

Reposted by Mike Liggins aka Liggo

David Roberts @volts.wtf · Feb 15

History buffs will know that every authoritarian leader eventually converges on some version of: "I *am* the state. I can not break the law, I am the law, the law is instantiated in me."

Our march to authoritarianism so far has been excruciatingly by-the-book. Hitting every beat. No surprises.

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