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Reposted by AJ Thomas

JP Spencer @jpspencer.bsky.social · 45m

The map below shows how far behind France and Germany we are in mass transit. In France, every place with over 150,000 people has some form of tram or metro.

But if mayoral areas can 'become builders' as @tracybrabinmayorwy.bsky.social puts it in the foreword, we can turn this around.

🧵

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The UK has very few mass transit systems compared to peers

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JP Spencer @jpspencer.bsky.social · 45m

Let alone Leeds, if Preston or Peterborough were in France then they would have trams too given their size.

Looking at the North, the map below shows some of the places we would expect to have trams given the French example. Places like Hull, Middlesborough and Warrington are all big enough.

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Middlesborough, Preston, Hull and more would have trams if they were in France

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Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · 39m

PS. A political and journalistic class so insulated it's lost complete touch with the impact of policy on real people, therefore impressed by a bit of Badenoch authentically Being Herself. Who cares if your gran can't get Motability and yet another round of promises have gone down in flames? 🤷‍♂️

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Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · 46m

Coverage of Badenoch's speech was one of the worst examples ever of Westminster Brain and Lobbythink. A litany of nonsense applauded by a policy elite that can't even think three moves ahead. (1/3)

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John Rowan @jrowanbxl.bsky.social · 42m

Hang on, Charles Amos is the UKIP kid who is pro-incest and was presumably Reform, has he defected to the Tories now?

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Tom Reagan’s Hat @rufustsuperfly.bsky.social · 20d

Antifa terrorist

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Chris McLaren @chrismclaren.com · 20d

Antifa terrorists.

Audrey Hepburn spent the war years in occupied Holland, where her uncle was killed for resisting the Nazi takeover, and her half-brother was transported to a German labor camp. She aided the Dutch Resistance by doing covert live shows to generate funds and transporting information and goods.

Clark Gable enrolled in the US Army Air Forces after the loss of his wife, Carole Lombard, the first American female battle victim of Wartime. Gable was posted in England and completed five combat missions as an observer-gunner despite joining at the age of 43 after starring in a recruiting film.

Gable returned to America at the end of 1943 to finish his picture, Combat America. Due to his age, he was upgraded to major the next year and was finally discharged from active service on June 12, 1944.

Adolf Hitler was said to be a major Clark Gable admirer who had promised a large prize to anybody who could capture the star alive and bring him back to Germany.

Kirk Douglas was born Issur Danielovitch and brought up as Izzy Demsky. He changed his name to Kirk Douglas immediately before enlisting in the US Navy in 1941.

Kirk Douglas was first rejected from the US Air Force after failing his psychiatric exam. Douglas did not get disheartened by the setback and immediately volunteered in the US Navy. He was admitted despite his impaired vision.

In 1944, he was medically discharged owing to battle injuries as a communications officer in anti-submarine combat.

After graduating from high school in 1943, Paul Newman got enlisted in the US Navy and worked on aircraft carriers in the Pacific theatre as a radio operator and turret gunner. Newman was assigned to Barbers Point, Hawaii, in 1944 to serve as a substitute pilot for torpedo bomber units.

Newman received the following medals after being honorably discharged in 1946:

American Area Campaign medal
The Good Conduct Medal, and
World War II Victory medal.

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Garrett M. Graff @vermontgmg.bsky.social · 8h

White House policy is increasingly driven by (and aimed at) an increasingly small echo chamber of terminally online right wingers, which includes far too many of the administration’s own top officials. No one else can make sense of what they’re talking about much of the time.

David S. Bernstein @dbernstein.bsky.social · 8h

Notable about today’s WH roundtable on Antifa, IMO: not just one outside law enforcement/public safety official brought in for it. Bondi, Patel for administration, but no police chief, state Public Safety Secy, sheriff, etc. Just a dozen right-wing “journalists”. …

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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 7h

Bray is a historian at Rutgers who received death threats after landing on Turning Points USA's Professor Watchlist. As a result, he announced he was moving to Europe. And then this happened.

This kind of harassment and abuse of scholars is Charlie Kirk's legacy and it's only getting worse.

Mark Bray @mark-bray.bsky.social · 7h

“Someone” cancelled my family’s flight out of the country at the last second.

We got our boarding passes. We checked our bags. Went through security. Then at our gate our reservation ‘disappeared.’

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Kelsey Atherton @atherton.bsky.social · 15h

'By applying protections meant for vulnerable groups to shield government actors, Apple has created — within its own ecosystem — a new kind of protected class: state power itself."

migrantinsider.com/p/scoop-appl...

SCOOP: Apple Quietly Made ICE Agents a Protected Class

Internal emails show tech giant used anti-hate-speech rules meant for minorities to block an app documenting immigration enforcement.

migrantinsider.com

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AJ Thomas @zzypt.bsky.social · 30m

Seems a fair attempt 😊

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Dmitry Grozoubinski @explaintrade.com · 6h

The thing about crashing a tank through a museum of antiquities is that you don't have to be a particularly skilled driver to do a lot of damage.

James @gravitysra1nbow.bsky.social · 7h

It's difficult at times to hold both "this admin is doing lasting and serious damage to our institutions and the globe" and "this admin is full of the most bafflingly incompetent idiots you've ever seen who fall over themselves like a Vaudeville act constantly."

The duality of man is incredible.

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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 10h

Unironically, you can see how these guys’ Twitter brainrot has progressed to this stage where they have trouble remembering that you’re supposed to talk about the Nazis as the bad guys. It’s not a winking nod to neo-Nazis so much as them genuinely forgetting which way is supposed to be up

Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 11h

"Antifa has been around in various iterations for almost 100 years in some instances, going back to the Weimar Republic in Germany."

- Jack Posobiec at Trump's roundtable on antifa

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Cathy @leadahorse.bsky.social · 3h

Yes, there have been freedom loving patriots fighting against fascism in countries around the globe for a century.

Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 11h

"Antifa has been around in various iterations for almost 100 years in some instances, going back to the Weimar Republic in Germany."

- Jack Posobiec at Trump's roundtable on antifa

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Denise Wheeler @denisedwheeler.bsky.social · 1d

Reuters photographer Jonathan Ernst noticed that Bondi flipped open a file during the Senate hearing and he zoomed in.

Inside were her crib notes for attacking the senators.

The GOP now practicing Cliff's Notes Fascism

In other words, under oath Bondi was purely a performance.

Bondi senate hearing had a folder full of notes for attacking the senators

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AJ Thomas @zzypt.bsky.social · 1h

The one that makes no sense to anyone is Belvoir, pronounced “beaver”.

Leicester also causes problems.

Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 12h

What’s the word where you’re from that, when pronounced exactly as it looks, identifies a tourist immediately?

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Rick @flipchartrick.bsky.social · 10h

I thought we already had ‘24 hour drinking’ if the pubs wanted to open late.
Many pubs don’t even open for all the hours they are allowed. If they can’t get the customers, they shut early.

Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 11h

Genuinely outstanding news, even if this news story can apparently only report on it by cramming it full of every objection imaginable. People should be able to drink as late as they please. And by 'people' I mean me.
www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Pubs to stay open until early hours in push for UK growth

Exclusive: Plans for England and Wales would help ailing hospitality sector but health experts criticise plans

www.theguardian.com

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Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 10h

Donald Trump is breaching the Constitution and breaking the law.

A show of force so he can militarize our cities because of the 2026 elections.

We need to stand up together and speak up.

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AJ Thomas @zzypt.bsky.social · 1h

Government’s didn’t used to promote their own crimes because they feared consequences.

Tina Smith @smith.senate.gov · 16h

Weird how that didn’t make the cut.

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Joyce White Vance @joycewhitevance.bsky.social · 13h

This administration is flooding the zone so furiously that people have largely lost track of the lethal attacks on boats in the Caribbean, the gov’t shutdown, the economy, failed release of the Epstein files & so much else. It’s a tactic of would-be strongmen.

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Cian Ó Muilleoir @rugbykino.bsky.social · 10h

Even better, ⅔ of it (€500k of a €750k increase) is ringfenced for developing the women's game. 🤌

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AJ Thomas @zzypt.bsky.social · 1h

They are Truman Show-ing him, but it’s all bad things he sees.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 11h

Trump: "I don't know what could be worse than Portland. You don't even have stores anymore. They don't even put glass up. They put plywood on their windows."

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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 11h

Portland is ... right there. It's a real place. People live in it. People can go look at it. You could call someone there right now.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 11h

Trump: "I don't know what could be worse than Portland. You don't even have stores anymore. They don't even put glass up. They put plywood on their windows."

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Leslie @missilepanda.bsky.social · 11h

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timoconnorbl.bsky.social @timoconnorbl.bsky.social · 12h

Ah, I see the inside-thought/outside-thought barrier has completely eroded away.

“We took the freedom of speech away” - that’s a nice useful quote.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 12h

Trump: "We took the freedom of speech away because that's been through the courts and the courts said you have freedom of speech, but what has happened is when they burn a flag it agitates and irritates crowds."

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