Notices by Emeritus Prof Christopher May (chrismayla6@zirk.us), page 3

As you will know I'm no stranger to typos, so this cartoon goes out to anyone who sent me a massage about a typo in a post (as always thanks for your help, much appreciated) bit also to my Mastodon friend @h4890 who will appreciate this on a Saturday morning.

#Libraries #libertarianism #reading #books

There are no shortage of memes & cartoons criticising the Tangerine Tyrant, so here's one to start our Friday.

#USPol

[circulated on LinkeIn]

Ben Jennings (Guardian) hits the nail on the head (again)

#USPol #politics

As Robert Shrimsley (FT) points out the Right (and its championing of culture warrior's deception of the country's problems) are completely misdiagnosing the real crisis the UK faces.

With stagnant growth (in general terms but also in household incomes), with a dysfunctional housing market, a stagnation of productivity improvements and service after service collapsing or in a crisis of regulatory failure, the UK's problems are economic no cultural.

Wilfully ignoring this is idiocy!

#politics

As Google's responses to Govt. requests to remove content become better known, its clear that the Tech Bro's claim there is nothing they could do about content online is just hogwash; when powerful states that can make Google's life difficult request it somehow much of that content can be taken down; when relatively powerless individuals ask, the job is just impossible.

Big Tech is just another oligopoly pandering to the rich & powerful... ever was it thus.

#technology
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/15/google-helped-facilitate-russia-china-censorship-requests

Clive Lewis MP hits the nail on the head:

'The economic orthodoxy the chancellor is embracing has been tried before. Joe Biden’s Democrats achieved GDP growth but still struggled against Trump’s populism. Why? Because growth, when concentrated in the hands of the few, does not translate into security or prosperity for the many. Starmer understood this implicitly when he stated back in 2022 that trickle-down economics “is a piss take”!'

#politics

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/31/labour-mp-government-growth-heathrow-party

h/t @Simon318ppm

Here's @davidallengreen making the crucial point that when Billionaires start saying Court orders can be ignored they are cutting away at the basis of their own wealth.... billionaires depend (for the most part) on the rule of law to maintain their wealth... without its just so much paper & possession (with no firm property rights attached)

So, without comprehensive legal compliance these billionaires suddenly starting looking vulnerable....

#RuleOfLaw #billionnaires

https://emptycity.substack.com/p/the-paradox-of-the-billionaires-saying

Why do centrists always think they must chase the voters who support the Far Right?

Why do they never choose to chase voters on the Left, surely an equally viable strategy?

Well, part of the answer (as has been so often expressed here & elsewhere) is the manner in which the Left is (miss)reported in the mainstream media, and the influence of that media on our political class....

and of course, the class position of our politicians (who always see the 'threat' of the Right as 'overstated'!)

Did she jump or was she pushed?

The head of the Financial Ombudsmen service, Abby Thomas, has quit.

Its not long since Rachel Reeves criticised the Ombudsmen & other regulators for not being sufficiently focused on business interests & growth; too often they'd taken the side of consumers in complaints about financial services misconduct.

So, deregulating the financial services sector by a range of means continues... what could possible go wrong?

I don't know; 2008?

#FinancialService
h/t FT

@djsumdog @spacemanspiff

Well, we'll find out; its you against mainstream economists, on who is impacted by limitations on international trade; my view is can go both ways (as suggested in my earlier reply), but we'll find out soon enough

@spacemanspiff @djsumdog

No I was right.... it is you who is the idiot!

@spacemanspiff @djsumdog
@decayablecoach

What I find puzzling is this:

You all seem still very angry, but your man won the US election & is in the White House doing things you clearly agree with, so why would you be worried (or offended) by anything anyone else says about him?

Of course, if you're just doing it for entertainment then so be it (everyone needs to get their fun where they can).

@spacemanspiff @Milnoc

Given the general move over the last 50 years (through the GATT & then the WTO to an environment patterned by free trade principles & actions) you would be right to presume that in the general case tariffs do often if not always rebound on the country using them.

We might draw a distinction between tariffs used as externally facing 'weapons' & those used as 'infant industry protection', of course.

Broadly speaking, Trump's tariffs look like the former not the latter

Bruce MaKinnon sums up the Court of the Tangerine Tyrant's tariff policy....

Just brilliant!

#USPol #politics #Tariffs

h/t @Milnoc

Q. will Greenland be the litmus test for how Europe responds to Trump?

Nathalie Tocci, thinks it reveals that:

'Europeans are scared. They fear Trump & their fear is paralysing. It freezes their actions & quiets their rhetoric. The more Trump confirms their fears through his repeated threats, the less they are inclined to react. Trump presumably smells the fear & like all bullies revels in it, upping the ante'!

Time to toughen up?

#politics #security #Greenland

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/30/greenland-europe-donald-trump-us-threats

The failure of water privatisation & its subsequent regulation is ever more apparent!

Having drained the water companies of capital via dividends & executive pay, the water companies have now got the supine OFWAT to agree to an average 26% water bill increase this year, the largest since privatisation, to fix the very problems caused by the investors draining the firms of cash;

OFWAT has been well & truly captured by the industry it purports to regulate!

#water #sewage #privatisation
h/t FT

During my academic career (I taught thousands of under-graduate students from a variety of backgrounds), I saw a lot of 'artificial intelligence' usually coming from the mouths of over privileged white men, who thought eloquence was a reasonable substitute for actual knowing or analysing things.

So, forgive me if I am sceptical that AI is the answer for anything; what we need is real intelligence fostered in real people about real things... only then will we solve the world's problems!

#AI

Noam Chomsky offers a thought for your weekend.... as in the Court of the Tangerine Tyrant they yell 'drill baby drill'!

#climate #FossilFuels

@Radical_EgoCom

And that would be where we differ; I'm from the varieties of capitalism (academic/analytical) viewpoint & so *don't* see all capitalisms as the same... indeed, some are a lot better than others... but certainly I know a lot of people who would share your position, and I can see the way one reaches that, even if I disagree.

As January approaches its close, @TomGauld points out our seasonal malaise.....

#January