Notices by Emeritus Prof Christopher May (chrismayla6@zirk.us), page 2

As US/Israeli attacks on Iran, and Iran's response continue the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) & its president Mirjana Spoljaric point out that:

'Upholding the rules of war is an obligation and not a choice'!

Sadly we already know how the Tangerine Tyrant sees 'international obligations' & the Iranian's are likely to (now) to regard such obligations as failing to protect them in the past.

So, you can judge for yourself how those 'obligations' will play out.

#Iran #USpol

As the US & Israel have launched attacks on Iran this morning, we will now find out whether as the Tangerine Tyrant expects, Iran will capitulate & cooperate in regime change, or as Iran-specialists suggested last week, the Iranian rulers/Govt. have calculated they can take more pain than the US has the patience to continue with..... much will depend on the extent & duration of Iran's response (militarily & politically) this weekend.

Now we wait to see....

#Iran #USPol #MiddleEast

Apologies, I was not going to post anymore on Thursday's by-election.... but I've just read this comment by an un-named Labour ministersin the FT:

'A Green victory is easily the worst outcome'....

NO!!!!: a ReformUK Ltd win would have been the worst outcome... the very idea that Labour could see Hannah Spencer's victory as worse than Matthew Goodwin & Reform winning pretty much sums up the problem with the Labour Party!

#politics #Greens #GortonAnd Denton

I'll give the last word today on the Gorton & Denton by-election & its implications to Ben Ansell (UOxford).

The combination of Zac Polanski's reshaping of the Green Party of England & Wales' rhetoric & positioning, and the Labour Party's abandonment of the Left have opened up a space which may be a lot larger than many commentators think, for the Greens to walk into!

#politics #Greens #Labour

Message to all media commentators:

If you're now saying, 'well, of course, the Greens policies will now be subject to some proper scrutiny'.... let me suggest you subject Reform UK Ltd to the same rigorous scrutiny, not keep giving them a free pass on their various (and objectionable) policy stances!

But, lets be clear, attacking the Green Party of England & Wales while waving Reform UK Ltd through scrutiny, actually plays to the Greens' analysis of politics.

#politics #Greens

After the win in Gorton & Denton, the Greens' narrative will (rightly) be that they are in the ascendance & people thinking of voting for them should not be concerned its a 'wasted vote'.

Labour will be trying to maintain by-elections are always anomalous & should be ignored or at least discounted, which in this case may be mistaken?

ReformUK Ltd are already telling a story of conspiracy & voter manipulation.... which is right out of the Trump playbook.

#GortonAndDenton #Politics #Greens

Some great music from the 80s, no.11

Simply Red. Holding back the Years

This lovely ballad by Simply Red is a great end of evening track. It always reminds me of late nights, of last dances & of dimming the lights. The production is quite sparse & has a great lilting rhythm, backing Mick Hucknall's emotive vocal. There was a time when Simply Red were everywhere, but their reputation seems to have faded(?); time to rediscover their sound? Enjoy

#music #80sClassics

RE: https://mastodon.social/@QasimRashid/116125502045270798

The Margaret Atwood vision of the USA continues to become more & more prescient.... we are seeing the Handmaidenisation of the USA.

What was once science fiction is now public policy.... and in the UK there are people f the right who no doubt see this sort of move as entirely justified pronatalsm.

#politics #feminism #pronatalism

FedEx is suing the Tangerine Tyrant's administration at the US Court of International Court for repayment of tariffs declared illegal by the US Supreme Court last week (along with a lot of smaller firms).

How this plays out may well be interesting, as Trump is seeking (re)impose these tariffs by different means, the money being claimed has already been 'spent' (in a sense) & Trump may well turnaround to take revenge on FedEX.

It may get very messy!

#tariffs #USPol
h/t FT

As a political economist, of course I agree with Jostein Hauge when he concludes:

'Economics is fundamentally political — it has never been & never will be, a value-free science. At its core, economics is shaped by ideologies, human morality, competing interests, social norms & political priorities. Pretending otherwise does not make economics more rigorous. It makes it more dangerous. Economics was born as political economy for a reason!'

#economics #politics

https://www.theglobalcurrents.com/p/economics-is-fundamentally-political

Perhaps unsurprisingly given the bookies' odds, tactical voting advice (now going online) for the Gorton & Denton by-election is focussing on voting Green (Hannah Spencer) as the best route to block a win by ReformUK Ltd.

This is exactly what Labour fears; as the Green Parties (of England & Wales, and Scottish) become the best route for tactical voters, their support will start to consolidate more widely sapping Labour's remaining support.

#GortonAndDenton #politics
https://stopreformuk.vote/parl/gorton-and-denton

Some great music from the 80s, no.7

Tom Browne. Funkin' for Jamaica

From its initial trumpet note, this is a great bit of early 80's jazz-funk. Tom Browne's signature tune combines some stringent trumpet playing with a burbling semi-disco funky rhythm. The song itself is nothing much but the groove is a stone cold classic killer. The conversational backing vocals & general party atmosphere add to the general grooviness. Browne never bettered these minutes of funkiness!

#Music #80sClassics

Hmmm.... so it now appears that AI (& LLMs) 'memorise' much of their training data than had been previously thought... to the extent that they can largely reproduce verbatim novels that were used in there training process.

As you can imagine this further complicates the claims about copyright infringement & the fair use defence that have been deployed by Big Tech.

Its more evidence of the theft at the heart of the (so-called) AI 'revolution'!

#AI #copyright

h/t FT

There's been little acknowledgement but Susan George (political scientist as Wikipedia have it, or political economist, as I would prefer) passed on 14th February. I've seen no obituaries, but here is her Wikipedia entry which included the long list of her excellent & insightful books... many of which were always on my reading lists

I'm sure the lack of obits has nothing to do with her being a women or a critique of global capitalism. /s

#politics

h/t @AnnPettifor

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_George_(political_scientist)

Looks like Palantir may have fallen into the Streisand trap;

in seeking their right to reply (under Swiss media law) via the courts, they have drawn a lot more attention to two articles (based on Freedom of Information requests) that reveal why the Swiss state refused to do a deal with Palantir for some military software; they were worried data would be obtained by the US Govt.

Now a story, originally limited to the Swiss is gaining traction across Europe; oops.

#Palantir #politics
h/t FT

@Infoseepage

And of course, the messaging from Trump - we're on the way to help - which are to nothing for the protestors will further have dissuaded them from siding with Trump-related/inspired forces in any domestic upheaval(s)

@Infoseepage

Its possible that's the shining behind the move, but I think they may misapprehend the Iranian population's suspicion of the US as a 'saviour' - certainly Iran is ripe for political reform, but whether that could be 'supercharged' by a bombing campaign? Iranians may well be galvanised to huddle round the regime rather than reject it?

@Infoseepage

And of course, as discussed earlier this week, in Tehran a war is seen as both survivable but also possibly bettering their bargaining position as the US will fatigue quite quickly of the aggressions & response(s)

Simon Tisdall sets out the betrayal of Ukraine by the US, starting (rightly) with the failure to uphold the so-called 'security guarantees' offered by President Clinton to ensure that Ukraine gave up it nuclear weapons on independence...

How different the situation would have looked if those guarantees had actually been fulfilled (or of course, Ukraine had kept the nukes stationed on its soil).

Who now would believe anything the US 'guaranteed'?

#Ukraine #politics
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/21/ukraine-us-betrayal-donald-trump-vladimir-putin

@gemlog @mpjgregoire

Yes, you're right; I'm not too focussed on Canada's internal politics; we all read (and mostly admired) his Davos speech & likely agreed, mostly, with the notion of 'rupture' and what it might mean in global political terms.... as to what he's doing *in* Canada, I see the occasional FT story, but its more in my peripheral vision....