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How glorious

Trump’s attack on the ICC is really an attack on the rule of law
Posted on May 19 2026

The Financial Times has reported that during discussions with Xi Jinping, Donald Trump suggested that the US, China and Russia should effectively collaborate against the International Criminal Court (ICC). As the paper put it:

During his summit with Xi, Trump also suggested that the US, China and Russia should join forces to combat the ICC, saying their interests were aligned, according to the people familiar with the talks.

The same report noted that the Trump administration has described the ICC as engaging in “politicisation”, “abuse of power”, “disregard for US national sovereignty” and “illegitimate judicial over-reach”.

Whether or not Trump actually intended these comments to become public is almost beside the point. What matters is what they reveal about the worldview now shaping much of global politics. The hostility here is not simply towards one court. It is towards the idea that there should be laws capable of constraining power, whether exercised by politicians, states, corporations or military alliances.

Spud then chunters on about all of this and it’s terrible, break of international whatever and so on.

Without actually noting that the US, China nd Russia are not party to the ICC anyway. While they signed the relevant treatry they’ve since withdrawn or in the US casae the Senate never ratified it.

Sigh.

Tsk, Subs!

He was called up for the Lions tour to Australia in 1989, playing in nine of the 11 games; his centre partnership with England’s Jeremy Guscott was a big part of the Lions’ 2-1 Test series victory, and one of the highlights was Hastings’s try-saving tackle on the great David Campese in the third and decisive Test, which ended 19-18 to the Scots.

That last word should be Lions, of course.

A last taste of the west, eh?

Pork sausages were served to passengers on a deportation flight from Ireland to Pakistan, it has emerged.
The men, from the Muslim-majority country, were offered a traditional Irish breakfast on the flight from Dublin to Islamabad last year, which was described as “inappropriate” in a human rights monitor’s report.

If only we could believe that this was intentional.

Erm?

Channel 4 has pulled all episodes of Married at First Sight UK (MAFS) after two women claimed they were raped by their on-screen husbands during filming.
A third woman claimed she had an abortion following a non-consensual sex act by her partner on the reality television show.
The three former contestants said they were not adequately protected by the show, in which single people agree to marry strangers after meeting for the first time at their mock weddings.

Is there some lack of knowledge here, an information gap, about what marriage entails or summat? Or is the claim that new hubby beat ‘er around the head and shagged while she shrieked no, no?

Charlotte Proudman, Lizzie’s barrister,

Ahhhh, now, that does bias me, yes it does.

A third contestant Shona Manderson, who has waived her anonymity, alleged that Bradley Skelly, her on-screen husband, engaged in a non-consensual sex act by ejaculating inside her without permission.

So it’s not, not quite, as Whoopi said then…..

Hoarding, eh?

The billionaires of today are unusually aggressive in their hoarding of cultural and technological influence, according to Mordecai Kurz, a Stanford economist whose research connects monopoly power with political and economic inequality.

It’s the buzzword du jour, hoarding is. And, of course, if we take more of their money off them then they’ll have less of this technological influence to hoard, right?

an extreme version of a pattern that has repeated itself since industrialization: technological power concentrating in the hands of a few, which is eroding democracy.

Oh, and that appeal to the ultimate virtue, democracy. Got your buzzword bingo cards ready, Lads?

Tech giants use the force of their largely unregulated social media networks

Oh yes, so we should have censorship in order to preserve democracy.

“[Social meda] activity is profitable, and sometimes you generate activity by creating falsehoods, which are not good for democracy,”

We must control what is said in order to eliminate falsehoods.

“We want capitalism to support democracy. Capitalism has to become more humane. It has to be more regulated. And in democracy, we don’t leave anybody behind,” he said.

Heavily regulated, publicly contrrolled, capitalism. Whjy is it all these people who insist we must fight fascism end up designing fascism all over again?

Owen’s demands!

Public control must mean democratic public ownership of our utilities.

I never do understand why here. Better control? Well, OK. But this demand that it must be public, democratic…don’t get it.

Anyway:

But the left is a force that must be listened to, rather than swindled all over again.

No, swindle ’em. Then stomp ’em, obviously.

The AI doesn’t grasp Spud’s views

Few topics in contemporary British economic debate attract more sustained criticism from Richard Murphy than fiscal rules. For the better part of three decades, successive Chancellors of the Exchequer have reached for these self-imposed constraints as proof of their financial seriousness. Richard Murphy’s view is simple and consistent: fiscal rules are not laws of economics. They are political inventions, dressed up as economic necessities, and they have caused serious and ongoing harm to public services, living standards, and democratic accountability.

Hmmm

A defensible fiscal framework would also accept the monetary reality: that a sovereign government issuing its own currency is not revenue-constrained in the way a household or local authority is. It is resource-constrained. The question is not whether the government can afford to spend, but whether the real economy has the capacity to absorb that spending without generating inflation. That is the discipline that matters. Everything else is theatre.

That is, of course, a fiscal rule. When inflation appears either stop the spending or increase taxes. A fiscal rule.

Standard march through the institutions

Children are being taught that black people cannot be racist towards white people as part of an education initiative aimed at countering racism.

Teenage pupils are told that black people can be racially prejudiced towards white people but that this is not racism because that can be exhibited only by those who hold cultural power, such as white people over black people.

Children as young as seven are also being taught that white people are likely to be privileged because of the colour of their skin.

Of course we must root out the people doing this. The only interesting question is whether we use the Tyburn Tree – common criminals – or Tower Hill – actual traitors.

Fun, eh?

The area has become more European now but back then it was quite wild, and while lots of dual-nationality couples (French, British and Canadian women with Moroccan partners)

Seems a little biased there, no?

I see Nesrine’s error

But the words that fill our papers and airwaves have consequences. They shape the beliefs and political views of the people who have, make no mistake, turned against their neighbours and voted Reform.

The media follows the prejudices of the population, not causes them. That things Nes is not happy about are believed by significant portions of the British population is because things Nes is not happy about are believed by significcant portions of the British population.

This is, obviously, the problem with democracy. The things the plebs believe, eh?

Clear? How?

“Farewell,” the flag-waving Chinese children chanted to Donald Trump as he strolled along the red carpet back to Air Force One at the end of his summit with Xi Jinping in Beijing.

The US leader claimed he was leaving with a cluster of “fantastic” trade deals to sell US oil, jets and soya beans to China. That has not been confirmed by his smiling host, but one thing was crystal clear from the two days of meetings: the global balance of power is shifting, from the declining petrostate in the west to the rising electrostate in the east.

Or just the usual lust from a European intellectual – darn them damn Yankees?

Trump flew home to chaos – war with Iran, surging gas prices, spectacular unpopularity, friction with former allies and a 20th-century policy of “energy dominance” that seeks to turn back the clock

US is a net exporter. Higher fossil fuel prices benefits them.

a more useful – and maybe even hopeful – analysis needs to take into account the tectonic changes that are shaking not just the foundations of politics, but the very nature of human power, as the world shifts from molecules to electrons.

Sigh.

History has proven that when the dominant form of energy changes, there is often a shift in the global pecking order. We are now in the midst of one such transition as the epoch of petrol, predominantly produced in the United States, Russia and Gulf states, starts to give way to an era of renewables, overwhelmingly manufactured in China. But the outcome remains contested, and the process could be ugly. The new energy order is winning the economic and technological battle – wind turbines and solar panels were already producing record-cheap electricity even before the Iran war pushed up the costs of gas and oil-fired power plants. But the old petro-interests still have political, military and financial might on their side, and they are using that to try to turn back the energy clock.

Yep, usual European intellectual wankfest. So there’s a new tech in town, is there? Cool! So, the people who will get rich, who will have the power, will be the people who *use* the new tech best. Not who sell it, or make it, but who *use* it. From the failure to grasp that all other errors follow.

Sigh.

As a result, democracies across the planet are now threatened by what might be called fossil fuel fascism – an extremist political movement that breaks laws, spreads lies and threatens violence in an increasingly desperate attempt to maintain markets for oil, gas and coal that would otherwise be replaced by cheaper renewables.

Oh, and a good dose of conspirazoid fantasies of course.

Scandal!

The Financial Times has published remarkable data on inheritance tax in the UK. Just five London parliamentary constituencies paid more inheritance tax than the whole of Scotland and Wales combined. Ten London seats paid more than the entire north of England over five years.

But the FT then drew the wrong conclusion.

This video explains why the real story is not that Britain depends on wealthy Londoners to fund the state. A currency-issuing government does not depend on the rich for money. Instead, the data reveals something much bigger and more important, which is the catastrophic consequences of the concentration of wealth in London and the long-term failure of UK regional economic policy.

Rich peoples move to London. Woes, eh?

Yes, this is fair

Homes with bigger gardens to be penalised with higher water bills
Water firms test tiered tariffs that charge more per unit as consumption rises

That a place as wet as England has problems with water supply is odd, obviously. That system of never allowing any reservoirs etc. But yes, rising charges for water consumption, entirely sensible. Exactly what we have here. Can be painful if a pipe bursts or even if a toilet cistern keeps running. But then that’s part of the point – get ‘er fixed.

Erm, yes, OK

“At what point do we start believing the children,” asked Jeanne. She is one of seven parents who spoke to The Telegraph about alleged abuse at nurseries and elementary schools in the French capital.
Some of the children, who were aged from three to 10, were allegedly locked in rooms, sexually abused and threatened with violence if they told anyone.
The accused are not teachers but “animateur périscolaires” – extracurricular activity leaders who look after children before and after classes, and during breaks.
Fewer than one in five has a permanent role, and they are paid as little as €12 an hour (about £10.50). They are employed by the town hall, rather than by schools.

We know very well that not every allegation of child abuse is true. But it’s also true that those who wish to do so will go where the kiddies are that they can then abuse.

There have now been 15 complaints of alleged rape by the same man, but there has never been a trial.

Adult blokes willing to work for the occasional €12.50 an hour might be worth the occasional side eye, eh?

Bollore

I’ve no idea about his other views – apparently conservative Catholic – but:

Far right and reactionary these days means anti-immigration does it? Rather than, say, invading Poland?

Which tells us something about how far right anti-immigration is or where the declared centre of French politics is?

If only someone could explain financial markets

Everywhere, and without exception, traders are, utterly bizarrely, at a time of crisis when they should be heading for safety, selling bonds and buying shares. After all, the money to fund this mania has to come from somewhere, and this chart makes clear its source. When government bonds are sold, the effective interest rate increases. That is because, in practice, the amount of interest paid on bonds is fixed, meaning that if the price falls, as happens in a net selling market, that fixed interest payment appears to be more valuable in terms of the interest rate earned.
….
The likelihood that this might be as bad as 1929, with consequences at least as severe if governments do not take action to bail out many of those who will be impacted, is very high indeed. In that case, if you look at what is happening in financial markets, the only reasonable conclusion to reach is that those trading in them are giving themselves a massive dopamine hit at cost to the rest of the world before the crisis arrives.

I am angry because governments are going to have to bail out banks and even major corporations as a result of what is going to happen. We will be doing QE again, but this time we have to get it right.

Govts are going to print more money and piss it up the wall again. This will ignite inflation.

Bond prices should be falling in such a scenario, no?

This works, yes

The climate crisis should be declared a global public health emergency by the World Health Organization, or millions more people will die unnecessarily, leading international experts have said.

The independent pan-European commission on climate and health, which was convened by the WHO, concluded the climate crisis was such a worldwide threat to health that the WHO should declare it “a public health emergency of international concern” (Pheic).

The international spread of vector-borne disease, such as dengue and chikungunya,

Declare the climate emergency and thus stop creating wetlands. Kill all the beavers and keep pumping out the Soerset Levels. ‘S Climate change, see? A global emergency. Can’t be going around creating ague ridden swamps now, can we?