Peter Raitt

It’s not just one thing — it’s another thing techcrunch.com/2026/04/20/ai-…

'There have been at least 114 mass shootings in the United States so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which like CNN defines a mass shooting as one in which four or more people are shot, not including the shooter.' cnn.com/2026/04/19/us/…

Israel still killing relief workers.

Pancreatic cancer mRNA vaccine shows lasting results in an early trial. Scientists caution that more research is needed, but nearly all of the patients who responded to the personalized vaccine are still alive six years later. nbcnews.com/health/cancer/…

In 2025, there were 29.0 million households in the UK, 66.8% of which contained one family (a couple with or without children or a lone-parent living with at least one child) and 29.5% contained a single person. Read more ➡️ ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulati…

You can still “see” a 1100-year-old Viking frontier in England through place names. “-by” and “-thorpe” cluster in the former Danelaw, while “-ton” and “-ham” dominate elsewhere. Not a clean border, but a lasting cultural imprint. Source: reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comm…

@fundypost It’s a big jump to assume that it’s increased leisure time which is responsible for increased dissatisfaction and populism rather than an increasing number of people for whom no amount of work will enable them to afford a house or let them afford to have children, etc.

'At the century’s midpoint, the average person could be someone with no need to work and just one child. A lot will then hinge on how a species wired for scarcity takes to unprecedented comfort.' archive.today/pcPOL

A few weeks ago I had a conversation with an American who genuinely believed Europe and Canada would help the United States in its war with Iran. I asked him why he thought that, given that Trump had spent months threatening to annex Canada and seize Greenland. He went quiet. Then he said he had never heard of any of that. Not that he disagreed. Not that he thought it was exaggerated. He had simply never encountered the information. It had never arrived. This is worth pausing on. Because in every other functioning democracy on earth, that information would have been impossible to avoid. Not because Europeans are smarter or more curious. But because of how news works outside the United States. The BBC and The Daily Telegraph hate each other. Le Monde and Le Figaro disagree on everything. Aftenposten and Dagbladet have been arguing since before most of their readers were born. But they all cover the same events. A threat to annex Canada is not a left-wing story or a right-wing story. It is a story. It runs everywhere. You hear it on the radio driving to work. You see it on the newsstand. Your colleague mentions it at lunch. Facts are not a channel you choose. They are the weather. You step outside and they hit you. The only media ecosystems on earth that work differently are not political opposites of each other. They are North Korea and Russia. Not because the content resembles MAGA content. But because the architecture is the same. In all three cases, outside information does not get filtered or reinterpreted. It gets blocked at the door. A completely parallel reality is built inside, maintained by repetition, and sealed from correction. This is why the rest of the world does not just disagree with MAGA voters on foreign policy. It finds them genuinely disorienting to talk to. Not offensive. Disorienting. Like speaking to someone who is absolutely certain the building has two floors when you are standing on the third. Which brings us to today’s masterclass. And this screenshot says everything. A Trump supporter posted: “Absolute masterclass by Trump. He got the Strait open without any help from Europe and without any boots on the ground.” That post was written on the same day a refinery on Lavan Island burned for hours after the ceasefire was announced. On the same day Iran’s own official statement read “this does not signify the termination of the war.” On the same day Iran kept its toll system, its uranium program, its protocol over the strait, and walked away with sanctions relief and reconstruction aid. The post is not stupid. It is not written by a bad person. It is written by someone who received a completely different set of facts than the rest of the world did. And from inside that information environment, with only that data, the conclusion is perfectly logical. That is what makes it so unsettling. It is not ignorance. It is a sealed universe, doing exactly what sealed universes do. Gandalv / @Microinteracti1

UPDATE: Letters from Leo can now independently confirm that the meeting took place — and that the Vatican was so alarmed by the Pentagon’s tactics that Pope Leo XIV shelved plans to visit the United States later this year. Many in the Vatican saw the Pentagon’s reference to an Avignon papacy as a threat to use military force against the Holy See.

@simongerman600 Don’t trust any articles without links to sources to back up their claims.

I’ve found the same on my account with around 250,000 followers. Links are poison. Let the doomscrolling go on indefinitely!

This isn’t even capitalism. It’s medieval lordship. Father starts a war. Sons sell the weapons to countries that need his protection to survive. Buyers know the purchase is tribute. Saddam Hussein would have recognised it instantly. The US isn’t a democracy right now. It’s a protection racket with a flag. Britain needs to face that fact - and build something different with Europe before it’s too late.

The regime change happened successfully. MAGA😀

Notice how quickly all that bullshit about liberating Iranians disappeared, and now it's all about bombing them back to the Stone Age, destroying their bridges and universities, poisoning their air and water, and stealing their oil.

Quite the midterm message: we can afford wars and ballrooms, but not your “daycare, Medicaid, Medicare, all these things”

@hendry_hugh At least they can sometimes sound sophisticated - unlike the orange one.

𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚊𝚗𝚘𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚜𝚎𝚛𝚖𝚘𝚗 𝚏𝚛𝚘𝚖 𝚊 𝚎𝚞𝚛𝚘𝚙𝚎𝚊𝚗 𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚛 𝚠𝚑𝚘𝚜𝚎 𝚋𝚊𝚜𝚎 𝚍𝚎𝚙𝚎𝚗𝚍𝚜 𝚘𝚗 𝚖𝚊𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚏𝚞𝚜𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚜𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚍 𝚜𝚘𝚙𝚑𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚌𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚍.

𝚊𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚘𝚏 𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚠𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚝𝚛𝚞𝚖𝚙.

The President of the United States woke up this morning and posted a 150-word personal attack on Bruce Springsteen. Not on Iran. Not on the tariffs crashing global markets. Not on the recession warnings. Bruce Springsteen. There is a standard psychological tool called the Hare Psychopathy Checklist. It has 20 items scored on a scale from 0 to 40. The cutoff for a diagnosis of psychopathy is 30.  The average person scores around 4. The average maximum security prisoner scores 22.  A panel of eminent psychiatrists assessed Trump before his 2024 sentencing in New York. He scored 36 out of 40.  The 25th Amendment exists precisely for this. Section 4 allows the Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet to declare the president unable to carry out his duties.  It has never been used. In any normally functioning democracy, the bar would be far lower. Most leaders in that position resign themselves. Instead, this one is on Truth Social at 7:58 AM calling a rock legend a dried-up prune. America is fighting a war it cannot exit in Iran. Markets are in freefall. Allies are making alternative plans. And the man with the nuclear codes is writing concert reviews. Gandalv / @Microinteracti1

Ranked: Americans’ Favorite News Sites 📰 visualcapitalist.com/ranked-america…

The Asian Century now makes room for the African Century.

BREAKING: President Trump is "strongly considering" withdrawing the US from NATO, per The Telegraph. Details include: 1. Trump called NATO a "paper tiger" and said removing America from the defense treaty is now "beyond reconsideration" 2. The White House no longer regards Europe as a "reliable defense partner" after their rejection to help open the Strait of Hormuz 3. "Iran was a test, and we were there for them, and we would always have been there for them. They weren’t there for us," Trump said 4. Secretary of State Rubio called NATO a “one-way street” Trump says "Putin knows" NATO is a "paper tiger."