Gregory Norminton

@gregorynorminton.bsky.social

Yet another writer: THE GHOST WHO BLED (2017), THE DEVIL'S HIGHWAY (2018), THE REPUBLIC OF BREATH, THE SPOILS & other stories, SWEENEY'S PROGRESS (forthcoming). Environmentalist. Lives in Sheffield. https://substack.com/@gregorynorminton

@markreckons.bsky.socialReposted by @gregorynorminton.bsky.social

Why on earth does this BBC piece on Burnham telling an interviewer the UK security services confirmed Russian interference in the Brexit referendum require a response from a pro Brexit pressure group? It's literally our Prime Minister telling us about election security. It's nothing to do with them.

The prime minister told The Rest is Politics podcast that upon arriving in No 10, he had asked about possible Russian interference in the 2016 vote, adding: "I've had the clear answer that, yes, there was." "I think we've been too much on the back foot on that actually and we haven't informed people sufficiently about the extent to which people are seeking to disrupt the political process from overseas," he added. Burnham did not provide further details about the type or extent of Moscow's activity during the Brexit referendum. Britain Unbound, a pro-Brexit campaign group, said Burnham's comments were "another crude attempt to undermine the legitimacy of the decision that the British people made in 2016". It said that foreign interference in UK elections was "obviously unacceptable" but added: "There is no good reason to believe that Russian intervention influenced the outcome of the referendum in 2016.
@chadbourn.bsky.socialReposted by @gregorynorminton.bsky.social

Ukraine blows up Russian data centres and immediately and mysteriously online talk about Germany’s Far Right AfD virtually disappears. Stop Putin you stop the Far Right.

Chart showing online talk about the AfD going off a cliff edge
@twmcltd.bsky.socialReposted by @gregorynorminton.bsky.social

Welcome to THE daily Ukraine thread on Day 1691 of Russia's full-invasion of its peaceful neighbour. But the feeling in Ukraine is that they are now fighting a criminal Putin regime supported by Iran, North Korea, China & now the U.S. Yet a proud country stands defiant 💙💛

@juddlegum.bsky.socialReposted by @gregorynorminton.bsky.social

1. Trump’s new White House press secretary Katie Zacharia is a prolific user of Truth Social where she regularly promoted Pizzagate and QAnon conspiracies, accusing elites in the Democratic Party and Hollywood of running child sex rings and eating people.

@josefoshea.bsky.socialReposted by @gregorynorminton.bsky.social

What a weird world we live in - Ukraine hits a data centre deep in Russia - Irish twitter users see racist posts about IPAS centres in Offaly fall off a cliff

Alina Pereverzieva 🇺🇦@perevaa.bsky.social

And now the best part: Bot traffic from the #Yandex network has plunged to near zero following the strike on its Vladimir data center. Bot traffic includes automated requests from search crawlers, scrapers and other online services. Twitter must be a ghost town by now.

@tendar.bsky.socialReposted by @gregorynorminton.bsky.social

Poland‘s Prime Minister Tusk had a phone call with Ukrainian president Zelenskyy. He made the following statement afterwards:

@robertsaunders.bsky.socialReposted by @gregorynorminton.bsky.social

Public executions were not abolished out of tenderness towards the criminal. They were abolished because of the effect on the people watching, and the dangers of making human death a source of commercial entertainment. Here's Charles Dickens in The Times, after witnessing an execution in 1849.

"I have seen, habitually, some of the worst sources of general contamination and corruption in this country, and I think there are not many phases of London life that could surprise me. I am solemnly convinced that nothing that ingenuity could devise to be done in this city, in the same compass of time, could work such ruin as one public execution, and I stand astounded and appalled by the wickedness it exhibits. I do not believe that any community can prosper where such a scene of horror and demoralization as was enacted this morning outside Horsemonger Lane Gaol is presented at the very doors of good citizens, and is passed by, unknown or forgotten. And when in our prayers and thanksgivings for the season we are humbly expressing before God our desire to remove the moral evils of the land, I would ask your readers to consider whether it is not a time to think of this one, and to root it out. I am, Sir, your faithful Servant. Charles Dickens".
@schooley.bsky.socialReposted by @gregorynorminton.bsky.social

Bearded box of rocks.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com

BRENNAN: Nidal Hasan is in a wheelchair. Doesn't the administration risk livestreaming this and making him a martyr? Couldn't this be a risk to the homeland? MARKWAYNE MULLIN: No one has to watch it B: Well then why are you livestreaming it? MULLIN: The president is restoring American values

@nicholasgrossman.bsky.socialReposted by @gregorynorminton.bsky.social

The "Party of Reagan" has the United States siding with Russian aggression against NATO allies and a brutal war on a European democratic US partner. Yes, the whole party. If they didn't, they would impeach and remove the president who is blatantly breaking US law to help fund Russia's war effort.

@jamesrball.comReposted by @gregorynorminton.bsky.social

If you're going to relitigate the Brexit/Russia debate as prime minister, it would be helpful to do so with a clear briefing: what kind of interference are you saying took place, on what scale, and how effective did you judge it to be? Are we talking online bots? Financing? Something else?

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