Dr Gina van Raphael
@aliagvr
Political Anthropologist｜IR: Diplomacy, Authoritarian Rule｜Arab/Saudi Studies — Historiography, Ethnography, Tribe)｜US Policy Intersection | Non Exec Dir UKG | NRS
@gabrielzucman.bsky.social—watched your superb interview with R Stewart and A Campbell. Brilliant, and shocking to see RS visibly pained by your expert solutions (he, not an economist). I calculated ~5 yrs ago that minimum wage in the US in 1960 (w/90% top tax) was $1 per hr. Adj to today: $38.
Look, Count Binface is an Oxford graduate IRL, and has written for Yes Minister, In The Thick Of It, Have I Got News For You, for John Oliver and Armando Iannucci. Farage never went to university — an unlike Count Binface, never intended to be a joke. This is England: may Count Binface win! 🗑️
Would you like us to take it back now? We're on stand-by. 🔥🔥 (The England football team has already infiltrated.)
Brilliant. Just brilliant! And all of 🇬🇧 are still awake and loving it.
I didn't believe Jacob Helberg could be real. Do these guys (no women right?) wake up, look in the mirror, and tell themselves they look great and the world envies them? (Seriously: had to look him up. He's a Trump guy, and posting this clip on that place has literally no comments after 3 days.
It was 100F on July 4th, 1919. Woodrow Wilson was President. "An international peace parade on Pennsylvania Avenue, huge crowds on the Ellipse, and the biggest Fourth Washington had ever seen." Source: Washington Evening Star, Jul 5, 1919, p8 / Library of Congress
Of my three different universities, I most regret the uni of Exeter. Reputation stellar but staff and student support? Dreadful. Already lost most of my colleagues post Covid. No shortage of £. But leadership? Well, those MBAs need more!
This is why Trump didn't recognise his own daughter. Classic dementia sign: can't identify family.
I'm sorry but what is this nonsense?! "Soccer"? No — that's not the game. It is literally right there in FIFA: 'Football Association'. The whole world except the US. We aren't bending on this one. ⚽
From the Cold War throughout the Gulf, Kosovo, Iran, Afghan wars etc the UK remained stable in defence spending. Now? Tony Blair's pops out of the shadows to push AI. Palantir and Starlink wants in to the UK. Trump demands NATO members pay 4%. What a coincidence. @mrjamesob.bsky.social @lbc.co.uk
Have you ever seen the architectural design Albert Speer drew up for the proposed Hitler arch? It looks remarkably similar to Trump's monstrosity, not the Arc de Triomphe.
Pope Leo is adorable! I'm not Catholic but oh my, he is so lovely.
My god I'm glad I blocked Musk over there. Apparently he doesn't really have a SpaceX thing to pay attention to — he far more interested in race-baiting. www.theguardian.com/uk
On Twitter? This — this! — is what Musk considers important trending news. I supposed that's what they pay the big $ for over there. (Unless Musk just has a thing for pool boys.)
The media today is woefully devoid of rigour. No matter what their bias, it's the lack of fact-checking, overt use of AI, absence of legal departments, cut-backs, and cut-and-paste of social media as truth that means — in fact — it's worse now that during WWII.
Today Trump actually said his mother had "a crush" on (then) Prince Charles. Problem: Mary Macleod Trump was 36 years older than King Charles. When Charles was 25 👇, Mother Trump would have been 61. All in the family then? King Charles b. 1948 Trump’s mother b. 1912
A reminder that the last time the US Navy tried to take control over Iran's Strait of Hormuz, it really did not go well. See below 🧵 for a primer on Iran 101.
Here in the UK vegetables are cheap. Giant broccoli heads — bigger than your Costco modified — are 15p each (19c). Big hearty carrots are 15p per kilo (19c per 2.2lbs). A leg of lamb = £6.50 per kilo ($8.70 per 2.2lbs). But thanks to Trump, we do have the equivalent of $11 per gall of petrol.
It was as clear as daylight from the Prime Minister of Pakistan Shehbaz Sharif, Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi, and the Iranian government. How anyone in the US government, media, or punditry class could get away with claiming 'we don't really know' for 2 days is beyond me.
Here is Iran sticking to the same plan it had all along. (Note: Israel would be included in the 'no attacks'. Also, their 10-point plans not Trump's 15.)
We're not supposed to be cool and funky and listen to hard rock loudly either. Apparently.
Since when did politicians listen to actual experts? I was in DC and London after 9/11 testifying, advising, providing reports and sources, talks, you name it. Collective response? Same as now?
From the 1920s–1972 real US gasoline prices fell almost every year—50 yrs of cheap fuel. OPEC's 1973 embargo (response to US support for Israel in the Yom Kippur War) and the 1980 Iran–Iraq War wiped out all gains. By 1981 inflation-adjusted prices had trebled. Israel 🇮🇱 Iran 🇮🇷 Oil 🛢️
I can't edit and add a post between this and the underlying, but I ought to have added ... ... that the Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran, had been paid $47 million by the CIA to sign off on the 1953 coup to oust Mossadegh — with the full participation of the Shah's twin sister Ashraf Pahlavi.
This is what Israel is doing to Beirut, Lebanon right now. The 2 most dangerous men on the planet right now are Netanyahu and Trump. Full stop.