charlie baker

🔻Witold Pilecki is known as the only person who voluntarily entered the Auschwitz concentration camp. Inside, he organized a resistance group, managed to escape, and reported the crimes committed there to the outside world. Here's his story. Thread:

Today’s neologism: “Rape-cist”.

Using fire to visualise sound waves

Oh lord I have absolutely no memory of this at all! Did we really ????

1/ I’m an Israeli historian. My community is still too silent about the horrible war in Gaza. Over 8 months I’ve closely followed the war, reading >1000 articles and viewing >1000 videos/images of the war from all sides. My summary conclusions & full report are in the 🧵:

Grand Rapids GOP party chair introduces Donald Trump.

Nate White, a British writer penned the best description of Donald Trump I’ve ever read: “Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?” A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief. Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty. Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness. There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface. Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege. And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead. There are unspoken rules to this stuff – the Queensberry rules of basic decency – and he breaks them all. He punches downwards – which a gentleman should, would, could never do – and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless – and he kicks them when they are down. So the fact that a significant minority – perhaps a third – of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think ‘Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that: • Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are. • You don’t need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man. This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss. After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum. God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid. He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart. In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws – he would make a Trump. And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish: ‘My God… what… have… I… created?' If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set.”

All being well, this is my last New Year’s Eve in the U.K. after returning 5 years ago when my dad was diagnosed with cancer. That rolled into mum’s diagnosis and 5 very difficult years all said. As an Irishman who was brought up in the U.K. I’m hugely fond of the British. There’s nobody funnier anywhere, and I think deep down it’s a compassionate and caring nation. That said, returning here after many years abroad, I found I’d come back to a totally different country. I was fortunate enough to miss the entire Brexit debate but let me tell you it’s created a huge chasm between people who ordinarily rub along just fine, and having stepped away and then come back, it’s crept into everything and now millions of people are suddenly outraged on demand over something that was designed to do exactly that. Divide and rule, and at any cost. The people who designed Brexit, and forced it through won’t be at all affected by the economic plummet, rising inflation, intolerable mortgage rates etc, and yet oddly I observe people cheering them on with an empty wallet and an empty bank account. If I had one wish it’d be that when I next return to the U.K. that people would finally have gathered themselves to the extent that at least an honest debate can be had, and one without tropes, slogans, and the likes of Matthew Elliott and Dominic Cummings quite literally ruining the country with ostentatious falsehoods and jingoistic tripe. It’s actually heartbreaking to see a nation tearing itself apart clinging to this new footballification of politics where facts no longer matter a jot. I do fear for you guys and hope a path of repair can be found. You’re a really good bunch and you shouldn’t be at each other when you need to be united…. Anyway enough meanderings from me. Just to wish every single one of you regardless of your politics, views, colour, sexual preference, or pronouns a very happy and healthy New Year 2024. From me and Alfie. Love to all ☘️🐝 🥰

Statement of resignation from the Labour Party, Cllr Amna Abdullatif, Manchester City Council.