Notices by the magnificent rhys (rhys@mastodon.rhys.wtf)

I'm hopeful beyond hope that somehow this reporting helps Starmer, Merz, Macron, and some others turn Trump around on this.

They've shown some adeptness at steering him where they need him to go, in amongst the undignified flattery, but as Thursday looms, I'm not sure they have the time to shift Americans' chosen leader before he doubles down.

Gosh, it tries the soul. I can't imagine what this fiasco feels like for Ukrainians.

#USPol #USPolitics #Ukraine

This ought to be the scandal of the century.

The US envoy for peace is caught on tape accepting maximalist Russian demands as the basis for their so-called peace plan. They don't realise it given they're a real estate developer, but they've betrayed both Ukraine and the entire western world and pointed us all toward a horrific future.

It's heartbreaking — and also infuriating to know it could've been avoided had folks just voted Harris.

#Ukraine #USPol #USPolitics

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/25/trump-envoy-on-russia-ukraine-peace-deal

Suddenly some recent conversations about the conspiracy theory that sunscreen causes cancer make a bit more sense.

I wasn't aware this was a plank of the MAHA so-called alternative medicine nonsense, but this piece explores it — along with sun exposure and tanning more generally.

Gifted link, free for fourteen days.

#sunscreen #trump #maga #maha

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2025/07/tanning-sunburn-safety-maha-rfk/683608/?gift=y-oC1QlmgLOUZVvlEoH84yaRwE5RkXQ5DJwNon4NO90&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

I'm honestly super fascinated by this whole sunscreen thing.

"We've taken a massive backwards step," says Dr Kate McCann, a preventative health specialist. "The message that the sun is good and sunscreen causes cancer is a complete loss of health literacy."

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgn69w9k0eo

@Polychrome I honestly don't think it'd have been workable had they won. I've been to Israel and wish more people would go and visit to shatter the preconceptions internet discourse conveys, but had they won I think it'd have to have been treated like when Ukraine won — acknowledgement that it'd have been untenable to host it there, and instead hosting it in a friendly nation.

This was a bad year overall. I feel sad for Iceland, and some others — Latvia springs to mind.

But I'm very glad Israel did so well. Their song was in the trend of winners and should have been expected to do well in normal times, even in a bland year like this one.

But in getting some folks to recognise that their view of things isn't universal? This was a good result for that — and might have been better had they come first.

#Eurovision

Lots of folks struggling with seeing their preconceptions clash with the reality of public opinion.

Politics aside, Israel's song was legit better than Austria's — but neither were the best presented tonight.

What a strange night though! I can't believe Iceland did so poorly!

#Eurovision

Fwiw, last year I hosted a #Eurovision party and had to manage one person shouting anti-Israel things. Not to get into the specifics, but it was their view that their song quality didn't matter — it was purely about the war, and their particular view of the war.

This year, I was at their house and that person plus one other were vociferously anti-Israel — and that's fine. You're allowed to be that. Go nuts.

But you can't be surprised when most voters in a song contest don't adopt your view.

And I find it a weird mix of delicious and sad seeing people immediately turning conspiracy theorist in the wake of seeing how the UK voted, backing Israel for #1.

First, how one reacts to seeing data contradicting their world view is a damn good measure of their character.

Second, in both last year and this year's contests I was the only one * in the parties I was at who voted. Anecdotal, but oh my gosh, how these folks preconceived their assumptions on how the wider public act.

#Eurovision

Amazing, just as the Greens begin to be a serious threat.

I support this. The few Green MPs were elected on an impossible manifesto and haven't taken their Parliamentary roles seriously, backing frivolous amendments, making absurd speeches, and opposing green infrastructure when it lands in their constituencies.

Ramping that absurdity up to 11 with an insane 'eco-populist' leader will put an end to their surge — even if he loses.

#UKPolitics #UKPol

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/may/05/green-deputy-zack-polanski-launches-leadership-bid-with-uk-eco-populism-vision

Played a little bit of #OblivionRemastered and it hits the nostalgia HARD! Picard's voice at the beginning... Just wonderful.

It's pretty beautiful for a remaster and runs fairly well, but the forced Lumen ray tracing sucks — either due to my 7900XTX or due to my being on Linux — necessitating FSR that appears to have a buggy implementation that causes insane ghosting.

I'm away for work for a few days but I can't wait to smash through this again.

#Games #Gaming #Oblivion

A fine example here of the harm these #tariffs are doing in the short term: https://fosstodon.org/@frameworkcomputer/114303895437739215

My condolences to American nerds who are going to miss out on tons of cool shit — and my strong encouragement to Europeans and the rest of the world in ramping up their nerdery to make up for the dampened American market.

I uhhh, wow. I haven't felt any pride or kinship with gamers for a long time. Bravo.

#gamers #gaming #musk

I have no particular insight to add on these tariffs other than they're insane, insanely large, and are going to be devastating to the global economy — starting with the US economy, which will be ravaged early once supply chain stocks are exhausted.

Seeing some figures here claiming us receiving *only* a 10% tariff rate compared to the EU's 20% is a 'brexit benefit' is utterly laughable and entirely economically illiterate.

#tariffs #USPolitics #USPol #trump #UKPol #UKPolitics

I think the world has to prepare now for another round of global inflation and supply chain shortage crises, as well as likely recessions across much of the world.

Europe's plans to rearm are now going to be massively more precarious — but may benefit a small amount from reinvigorated domestic production.

Long-term, there may be some benefits to be had among European economies as they realign themselves, but there'll be a lot of pain for a long time first.

What a stupid timeline.

Here's a dumb post, some folks I encourage listening to:

@ele
@Em0nM4stodon
@hacks4pancakes
@stux
@wild1145

I have like 15 more people who are at that intersect of loving the Fediverse while also being informed about shit.

I'll get better at these but let's call this a first start at #FollowFriday

@GossiTheDog Can confirm rhys.wtf's only downtime through this eventful year was the time I accidentally removed my user from the sudoers file and had to restore from backup.

@vga @gravitas_deficiency Adhering to the much-flaunted spending commitments wasn't ridiculous, but Trump's framing of it was.

Back when he raised it, he was threatening to withdraw the US from the alliance if other nations didn't start adhering to it, and as recently as this year he's said he'll encourage Putin to do "whatever the hell he wants" to states who don't meet the spending commitment, directly undermining the collective defence principle of NATO.

Democracy must defend itself — against military conquest by authoritarian states, against information warfare aiming to disrupt and manipulate its integrity, against theocratic terror, and against a princely billionaire-class pursuing a fascist future.

Also against apathy and disillusionment that enables all of the above.

I've been experimenting with not doing CWs for my politics posts lately, and I've been having more and better conversations as a result.

Of my followers, if you don't like this, please let me know — in a reply or a DM.

I know the reasons people like CWs and I know the reasons some accounts don't do them. I'm all about what *I* should do.

Reach out and tell me if you want me to go back to CWs — by email at rhys@rhys.wtf if you want to remain sorta anonymous.