Howell Harris
@trefeca.bsky.social
Retired (US, business & technology) historian. Twitter escapee. Hope this doesn't go the same way. Welsh & European. Durham resident. Gardener & cyclist.
Reposted by Howell Harris
The BBC is right to be self-critical and right to apologise to President Trump. But time for a reality check - there is more fake news on Trump's Truth and Social feed in a day than there is on BBC total output in a decade.
November 10, 2025 at 1:54 PM
The BBC is right to be self-critical and right to apologise to President Trump. But time for a reality check - there is more fake news on Trump's Truth and Social feed in a day than there is on BBC total output in a decade.
Read this & wonder at the BBC being done for misrepresentation of its message: apnews.com/article/elec...
Transcript of Trump's speech at rally before US Capitol riot
President Donald Trump spoke at a rally near the White House on Jan. 6 before a mob of his supporters stormed the U.S.
apnews.com
November 10, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Read this & wonder at the BBC being done for misrepresentation of its message: apnews.com/article/elec...
I’m fed up of Labour ministers (& MPs) like this. So cheap.
November 9, 2025 at 9:21 AM
I’m fed up of Labour ministers (& MPs) like this. So cheap.
Good. But the level of non-RT membership participation is turning pathetic. The NT remains vulnerable to astroturfing. The problem is its constitution — giving a vote to “members” most of whom are just customers looking for a discount on their outings. Means an organized minority remains a threat
National Trust council elections saw a defeat for the Restore Trust campaign.
35k members voted to re-elect a slate of council candidates endorsed by the nominations committee
12k - 13.5k voted for candidates on Restore Trust slate
Non-slate candidated
www.nationaltrust.org.uk/who-we-are/a...
35k members voted to re-elect a slate of council candidates endorsed by the nominations committee
12k - 13.5k voted for candidates on Restore Trust slate
Non-slate candidated
www.nationaltrust.org.uk/who-we-are/a...
Voting results from the AGM
Read about the National Trust's 2025 Annual General Meeting and the results from the day.
www.nationaltrust.org.uk
November 9, 2025 at 9:18 AM
Good. But the level of non-RT membership participation is turning pathetic. The NT remains vulnerable to astroturfing. The problem is its constitution — giving a vote to “members” most of whom are just customers looking for a discount on their outings. Means an organized minority remains a threat
Modern cities need more herons like this.
If you don't want to see what a heron does with a freshly caught rat, then that probably reflects very well on your character. But do look away now. #NewRiverBirds
November 8, 2025 at 11:11 AM
Modern cities need more herons like this.
Reposted by Howell Harris
Re the death of Dick Cheney, it is worth reflecting on the inflection point in this chart when considering his legacy.
November 4, 2025 at 12:03 PM
Re the death of Dick Cheney, it is worth reflecting on the inflection point in this chart when considering his legacy.
The view from our balcony tonight, before it went completely dark.
November 1, 2025 at 6:27 PM
The view from our balcony tonight, before it went completely dark.
A great thread on the difference between history (wie es eigentlich gewesen) & stories. Maybe “Philomena” wasn’t altogether true either?
Updated thread on The Lost King film:
I’m digging over old ground but I have to challenge Steve Coogan's line. He claims it’s all true (as has Philippa Langley): Langley will be celebrated for her achievement, Richard Taylor & his personal gripes will be forgotten
So what’s the real story? 1/15
I’m digging over old ground but I have to challenge Steve Coogan's line. He claims it’s all true (as has Philippa Langley): Langley will be celebrated for her achievement, Richard Taylor & his personal gripes will be forgotten
So what’s the real story? 1/15
October 31, 2025 at 9:28 PM
A great thread on the difference between history (wie es eigentlich gewesen) & stories. Maybe “Philomena” wasn’t altogether true either?
Thanks, Ed. This time it really was a Royal knockout.
October 31, 2025 at 7:31 PM
Thanks, Ed. This time it really was a Royal knockout.
Reposted by Howell Harris
It's that moment again for National Trust members to vote to keep the entryists out.
Quick and easy to vote and please do so by 31st of October
Quick Vote link keeps the AstroTurfers out.
Then share. Thank you.
secure.cesvotes.com/V3-3-0/nt25/...
Quick and easy to vote and please do so by 31st of October
Quick Vote link keeps the AstroTurfers out.
Then share. Thank you.
secure.cesvotes.com/V3-3-0/nt25/...
Log In
Welcome to the National Trust 2025 voting website, hosted by independent voting service provider Civica Election Services.
secure.cesvotes.com
October 25, 2025 at 10:11 AM
It's that moment again for National Trust members to vote to keep the entryists out.
Quick and easy to vote and please do so by 31st of October
Quick Vote link keeps the AstroTurfers out.
Then share. Thank you.
secure.cesvotes.com/V3-3-0/nt25/...
Quick and easy to vote and please do so by 31st of October
Quick Vote link keeps the AstroTurfers out.
Then share. Thank you.
secure.cesvotes.com/V3-3-0/nt25/...
Not the Most Moral Prison Service in the World. Perhaps “fighters” is not the best translation from the Hebrew?
Israel: Barghouti was brought in with broken ribs on both sides of his chest — but received no medical care, instead returned to his cell still soaked in blood.”
Ben-Gvir said: “We are proud conditions have changed during my tenure. I give my full support to the fighters of the prison service.”
Ben-Gvir said: “We are proud conditions have changed during my tenure. I give my full support to the fighters of the prison service.”
October 26, 2025 at 8:18 AM
Not the Most Moral Prison Service in the World. Perhaps “fighters” is not the best translation from the Hebrew?
Reposted by Howell Harris
I for one think the Epstein Ballroom will be magnificent. I love the decor theme of “what if Uday Hussein ran a Ramada Inn.” And giving it a theme song everyone will associate with it is a stroke of brilliance! “Thank Heaven for Little Girls” is very catchy.
October 23, 2025 at 2:17 AM
I for one think the Epstein Ballroom will be magnificent. I love the decor theme of “what if Uday Hussein ran a Ramada Inn.” And giving it a theme song everyone will associate with it is a stroke of brilliance! “Thank Heaven for Little Girls” is very catchy.
Reposted by Howell Harris
The very definition of an optimist.
I would take this even a bit further and say that the death cult Trump now leads is on a glide path to forever power and the end of American democracy. In other words, if nothing changes from how things are going right now, it is highly unlikely America will be *any* sort of democracy by early 2027.
Trump and GOP are planning on forever power. I still don't think people realize it. You need Democrats who are willing to step up and fight.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/21/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/21/u...
October 21, 2025 at 5:09 PM
The very definition of an optimist.
It’s a beautiful morning, for a change. I prefer this to grey.
October 20, 2025 at 8:11 AM
It’s a beautiful morning, for a change. I prefer this to grey.
Good thing the military isn't woke anymore and is willing to take the fight to our enemies, like Colombian fisherman and Interstate 5.
October 20, 2025 at 6:51 AM
Reposted by Howell Harris
A bleak dystopia where Sharia law predominates, while economic and cultural divisions mean that the different communities live parallel, segregated lives.
Oh, wait, that’s Dubai …
Oh, wait, that’s Dubai …
October 18, 2025 at 8:24 AM
A bleak dystopia where Sharia law predominates, while economic and cultural divisions mean that the different communities live parallel, segregated lives.
Oh, wait, that’s Dubai …
Oh, wait, that’s Dubai …
This might interest somebody -- @johnspringford.bsky.social are you the guy who's recently(ish) had a heat pump fitted? Well, we haven't, but we do have 4 Kw of solar panels. So I've checked the "energy balance" of our house this year. What you see is our gas & grid elec consumption minus PV output
October 15, 2025 at 1:13 PM
This might interest somebody -- @johnspringford.bsky.social are you the guy who's recently(ish) had a heat pump fitted? Well, we haven't, but we do have 4 Kw of solar panels. So I've checked the "energy balance" of our house this year. What you see is our gas & grid elec consumption minus PV output
News that matters, not that anything will be done about it.
I think I now count 3 tipping points passed on climate change or collapse: coral; the Arctic halocline and the AMOC....
October 14, 2025 at 12:18 PM
News that matters, not that anything will be done about it.
Even if this image is AI, I DO NOT CARE. It deserves to be true. Ludicrous, vain old ****.
October 13, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Even if this image is AI, I DO NOT CARE. It deserves to be true. Ludicrous, vain old ****.
Absolutely. Hence my impatience with any “brave little Israel” or Everything is Self-Defence narrative, which ran out of road half a century ago.
In the long term? Probably not.
In the short term? Absolutely.
Which was what I said back in August. www.politico.com/news/magazin...
In the short term? Absolutely.
Which was what I said back in August. www.politico.com/news/magazin...
October 7, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Absolutely. Hence my impatience with any “brave little Israel” or Everything is Self-Defence narrative, which ran out of road half a century ago.
A reminder that the Telegraph was once a serious newspaper with proper reporters. How did this ever get through their editorial scrutiny?
Truth and critical appraisal from unexpected quarters - The Telegraph
Nigel Farage has a Russia problem
The leader of Reform has a long history of being swayed by Putin's propaganda
Well done David Blair, Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent.
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/10...
Nigel Farage has a Russia problem
The leader of Reform has a long history of being swayed by Putin's propaganda
Well done David Blair, Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent.
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/10...
![Farage's dogged and instinctive exoneration of Putin should not have come as a surprise. In 2013, the Kremlin's friendly dictator, Bashar al-Assad in Syria, used poison gas to kill over a thousand people in a rebel-held area of Damascus.
Russia tried to hide Assad's atrocity by claiming that the rebels had gassed themselves as a "provocation". Who should endorse this absurdity but Farage.
"I did admire what he [Putin] had done over Syria," he said in April 2014. "Poison gas had been used and everybody in London and Washington and Brussels assumed it had been used by Assad. And Putin said 'hang on a second, don't be so sure'. It turns out it's more than likely it was the rebels that used the gas."
One problem: Farage was talking nonsense. By then, United Nations inspectors had already established that the gas in question had been sarin nerve agent (possessed by Assad but not the rebels) and the rockets had been fired from regime-held areas of Damascus.
To believe "it was the rebels" you had to convince yourself that they had manufactured sarin, despite having no such capacity, and then secretly advanced across the frontline into an area held by their bitter enemy, before launching their rockets back into a suburb under their control; inhabited by their own families, and then leaving without anyone noticing.
No wonder a UN Commission of Inquiry later documented 33 chemical attacks by Assad's regime between 2013 and 2018. Farage not only proved himself a sucker for this pack of Kremlin lies, he later paid fulsome tribute to its author. In May 2014, he had this to say of Putin: "The way he played the whole Syria thing - brilliant. Not that I approve of him politically."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2kf2qj56o2vq7jfaq4x4ogp6/bafkreigpq6c6opo5q7bfbzwpkgay5ano3gt6x2geexbpho2pznz567rppu@jpeg)
October 4, 2025 at 10:36 AM
A reminder that the Telegraph was once a serious newspaper with proper reporters. How did this ever get through their editorial scrutiny?
Public Service Announcement: time to save the NT from astroturfing reactionary nutters, AGAIN.
Time to cast your Quick-vote: it does what it says on the tin.
Time to cast your vote – help shape the future of the National Trust ahead of our Annual General Meeting (AGM): buff.ly/kmcNfha
It’s your opportunity, as a member, to tell us what matters to you. Make sure you have your say before midnight on 31 Oct!
It’s your opportunity, as a member, to tell us what matters to you. Make sure you have your say before midnight on 31 Oct!
September 19, 2025 at 8:01 PM
Public Service Announcement: time to save the NT from astroturfing reactionary nutters, AGAIN.
Reposted by Howell Harris
Reposted by Howell Harris
Exactly. Politics in the US is no longer a debate about which policies to adopt within a liberal framework of accepted rules. It's now a blood sport and one side playing it like it's still cricket won't work
look, it is comforting to think that your political opponents are, at the end of the day, just people like you who really want us all to live together as Americans.
it's just very obviously not *true* in MAGA's case, as you can tell through, well, what they say and do.
it's just very obviously not *true* in MAGA's case, as you can tell through, well, what they say and do.
September 17, 2025 at 8:27 PM
Exactly. Politics in the US is no longer a debate about which policies to adopt within a liberal framework of accepted rules. It's now a blood sport and one side playing it like it's still cricket won't work