Alastair Coote
@alastair.is
British, in Brooklyn. Software engineer making newsy, phone sized things for the @nytimes.com Interactive News team. Infrequently blog about code stuff at https://alastair.is
Reposted by Alastair Coote
Let us simply not check that figure after they stuck most of the BBC in the US behind a paywall a few months ago to increase revenue at the expense of British soft power and influence.
Nowhere in the hysterical pile-on against the BBC in the British press has anyone mentioned that BBC News now has 77 million viewers & listeners in the US and has established itself as the second most trusted news source there.
November 11, 2025 at 1:06 PM
Let us simply not check that figure after they stuck most of the BBC in the US behind a paywall a few months ago to increase revenue at the expense of British soft power and influence.
Reposted by Alastair Coote
"I also worry that Silicon Valley now punishes outward earnestness or virtue; young technologists have expressed fears of appearing soft—or worse—woke."
jasmi.news/p/bait?r=2c7...
jasmi.news/p/bait?r=2c7...
don't take the bait
vice signaling is eating silicon valley
jasmi.news
November 11, 2025 at 3:43 AM
"I also worry that Silicon Valley now punishes outward earnestness or virtue; young technologists have expressed fears of appearing soft—or worse—woke."
jasmi.news/p/bait?r=2c7...
jasmi.news/p/bait?r=2c7...
Reposted by Alastair Coote
Look guys I’ve spent the last day playing this over and over again. Don’t read the comments first and stick it through to the second verse. It is in fact one of the funniest things I’ve ever heard.
second verse on this is one of the funniest things i've ever heard
November 11, 2025 at 12:24 AM
Look guys I’ve spent the last day playing this over and over again. Don’t read the comments first and stick it through to the second verse. It is in fact one of the funniest things I’ve ever heard.
Reposted by Alastair Coote
November 8, 2025 at 3:18 AM
Reposted by Alastair Coote
This hidden provision is so crooked and selfish, it doesn't even apply to US Representatives. Just US Senators.
Look at this new outrage. To open govt, we're retroactively letting 8 Senators sue for $500K each over having had their J6 phone toll records looked at. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/10/u...
Spending Bill Would Pave Way for Senators to Sue Over Phone Searches
www.nytimes.com
November 11, 2025 at 12:43 AM
This hidden provision is so crooked and selfish, it doesn't even apply to US Representatives. Just US Senators.
Reposted by Alastair Coote
Indivisible in an email tonight, starting project to primary Senate capitulators:
"At some point, you gotta either change your leaders’ minds or you gotta change your leaders. And the time for changing minds is over."
"At some point, you gotta either change your leaders’ minds or you gotta change your leaders. And the time for changing minds is over."
November 10, 2025 at 11:10 PM
Indivisible in an email tonight, starting project to primary Senate capitulators:
"At some point, you gotta either change your leaders’ minds or you gotta change your leaders. And the time for changing minds is over."
"At some point, you gotta either change your leaders’ minds or you gotta change your leaders. And the time for changing minds is over."
They’d also need to identify 2-3 hours of spare time on a school night
as the husband of a mahjong addict, dudes need to identify an activity that can be done relatively easily in groups with minimal financial commitment so they can get out of the house for 2-3 hours on a school night, have two beers, and shoot the shit with their buddies.
It won't be mahjong tho.
It won't be mahjong tho.
This is excellent, and great fun to read. www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...
November 10, 2025 at 10:53 PM
They’d also need to identify 2-3 hours of spare time on a school night
Reposted by Alastair Coote
A felon freed by Trump in his first term is sentenced again, this time to 27 months after a judge found that he sexually assaulted a nanny, swung an IV pole at a nurse and dodged tolls in his Lamborghini and Ferrari. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/10/n...
Felon Freed by Trump Is Sentenced Again, This Time to 27 Months
www.nytimes.com
November 10, 2025 at 8:00 PM
A felon freed by Trump in his first term is sentenced again, this time to 27 months after a judge found that he sexually assaulted a nanny, swung an IV pole at a nurse and dodged tolls in his Lamborghini and Ferrari. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/10/n...
Reposted by Alastair Coote
"The people I spoke to in Europe who asked me where I was from sometimes perked up—probably imagining America's former reputation and its influence on culture—but they often looked upon me with sympathy. What a terrible thing you're experiencing. The world is learning to live without us."
I wrote about how I'm seeing America after my long trip around Europe for my newsletter
madness.ghost.io/an-isolated-...
madness.ghost.io/an-isolated-...
An isolated nightmare
An international perspective on what's happening in the United States.
madness.ghost.io
November 10, 2025 at 6:39 PM
"The people I spoke to in Europe who asked me where I was from sometimes perked up—probably imagining America's former reputation and its influence on culture—but they often looked upon me with sympathy. What a terrible thing you're experiencing. The world is learning to live without us."
“People don’t need the noise, the fumes.” again with the selective blindness folks have to road traffic simply because they’re used to it
"'When we bought our house here, we knew it was a two-fare zone. We didn’t want to live near a subway station.'" -- www.amny.com/nyc-transit/...
Off track: Queens residents say “We don’t need it!” to IBX light-rail plan
Queens residents attended a public meeting about the IBX light rail plan, raising concerns about overcrowding, development and other issues.
www.amny.com
November 10, 2025 at 2:24 PM
“People don’t need the noise, the fumes.” again with the selective blindness folks have to road traffic simply because they’re used to it
“We can’t oppose our opposing party” is a staggering statement for a politician to make
November 10, 2025 at 1:44 PM
“We can’t oppose our opposing party” is a staggering statement for a politician to make
A strange time to be a Brit in the US, as I look home to see the American right wing playbook reenacted in slow motion and the UK establishment react in the exact same hapless way
The fact that the BBC has made serious culpable errors does not negate the point that there is a real and concerted right-wing media campaign to destroy it. Both points can be true at the same time and the campaign would not end even if the errors did.
November 10, 2025 at 1:39 PM
A strange time to be a Brit in the US, as I look home to see the American right wing playbook reenacted in slow motion and the UK establishment react in the exact same hapless way
Reposted by Alastair Coote
The fact that the BBC has made serious culpable errors does not negate the point that there is a real and concerted right-wing media campaign to destroy it. Both points can be true at the same time and the campaign would not end even if the errors did.
November 10, 2025 at 1:08 PM
The fact that the BBC has made serious culpable errors does not negate the point that there is a real and concerted right-wing media campaign to destroy it. Both points can be true at the same time and the campaign would not end even if the errors did.
Well, I’d like to see Ole Donny Trump wriggle his way out of this legal obligation!
*Trump wriggles his way out of legal obligation by completely ignoring it*
Ah! Well. Nevertheless,
*Trump wriggles his way out of legal obligation by completely ignoring it*
Ah! Well. Nevertheless,
November 10, 2025 at 12:55 AM
Well, I’d like to see Ole Donny Trump wriggle his way out of this legal obligation!
*Trump wriggles his way out of legal obligation by completely ignoring it*
Ah! Well. Nevertheless,
*Trump wriggles his way out of legal obligation by completely ignoring it*
Ah! Well. Nevertheless,
Reposted by Alastair Coote
I’ve said it before but news outlets worry a lot about looking biased and not enough about looking phony.
Why should people trust you if you won’t say what they can see plain as day?
Why should people trust you if you won’t say what they can see plain as day?
"Appearing to close his eyes"
November 9, 2025 at 8:33 PM
I’ve said it before but news outlets worry a lot about looking biased and not enough about looking phony.
Why should people trust you if you won’t say what they can see plain as day?
Why should people trust you if you won’t say what they can see plain as day?
Reposted by Alastair Coote
BBC director general Tim Davie and News CEO Deborah Turness resign over Trump documentary edit (Panorama edited two parts of Trump's speech together so he appeared to explicitly encourage the Capitol Hill riots) www.bbc.com/news/live/cd...
BBC director general Tim Davie and News CEO Deborah Turness resign over Trump documentary edit
Davie says
www.bbc.com
November 9, 2025 at 6:16 PM
BBC director general Tim Davie and News CEO Deborah Turness resign over Trump documentary edit (Panorama edited two parts of Trump's speech together so he appeared to explicitly encourage the Capitol Hill riots) www.bbc.com/news/live/cd...
This is an AI generated fake but I’ve seen it around enough that I’ll bet someone is now going to try to make one. It’ll be a disaster, rip easily, get mouldy, whatever. Then we’ll be onto the next AI generated novelty
November 9, 2025 at 5:50 PM
This is an AI generated fake but I’ve seen it around enough that I’ll bet someone is now going to try to make one. It’ll be a disaster, rip easily, get mouldy, whatever. Then we’ll be onto the next AI generated novelty
Reposted by Alastair Coote
This is 100% not someone who has been trained to use a gun. He's waving it around nervously. This is insane
November 9, 2025 at 3:29 PM
This is 100% not someone who has been trained to use a gun. He's waving it around nervously. This is insane
Reposted by Alastair Coote
This is the ~fifth? ~sixth? time they spent the tariff money? First, it was financing the tax cuts; then it was financing the farmer aid; then it was paying troops during the shutdown (questionable legality); then we somehow found $40b to bailout Argentina; now it's 'rebate' checks?
Trump says tariffs to yield dividends 'of at least $2,000 a person'
Trump says tariffs to yield dividends 'of at least $2,000 a person'
But Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent cast the discussion in a bit of a different light.
dlvr.it
November 9, 2025 at 4:28 PM
This is the ~fifth? ~sixth? time they spent the tariff money? First, it was financing the tax cuts; then it was financing the farmer aid; then it was paying troops during the shutdown (questionable legality); then we somehow found $40b to bailout Argentina; now it's 'rebate' checks?
Reposted by Alastair Coote
lol she got his ass and he knows it
November 9, 2025 at 3:36 PM
lol she got his ass and he knows it
Reposted by Alastair Coote
Here’s how we should all be reporting on the spurious claims from these agencies that have repeatedly been caught in lies and exaggerations:
Border patrol chief reprimanded for lying claims shots were fired at immigration officers in Chicago
Gregory Bovino was called out by a judge only two days earlier for lying about being assaulted by a protester
www.theguardian.com
November 9, 2025 at 1:59 PM
Here’s how we should all be reporting on the spurious claims from these agencies that have repeatedly been caught in lies and exaggerations:
Reposted by Alastair Coote
Article says private jets are 1/6 of all traffic handled by FAA and entire reduction in FAA load could be shouldered by grounding private jets. No need to affect commercial flights.
These millionaires have a suggestion for the FAA: Cancel all private jet flights during the shutdown
Private jets make up one in six flights handled by the FAA, and taxpayers already foot the bill for their 'jet setting,' says Patriotic Millionaires.
www.fastcompany.com
November 8, 2025 at 10:46 PM
Article says private jets are 1/6 of all traffic handled by FAA and entire reduction in FAA load could be shouldered by grounding private jets. No need to affect commercial flights.
Reposted by Alastair Coote
Can confirm that travel out of LGA is brutal this evening. Numerous planes stuck on the tarmac despite many cancellations and delayed departures. Now 3 hours late and counting with no end in sight. Pilot is getting virtually no guidance from air traffic control. I guess this I the new normal.
The departure delay at LaGuardia #Airport (#LGA) has increased to 121-135 minutes and is still increasing. #AirportStatusBot
November 9, 2025 at 12:36 AM
Can confirm that travel out of LGA is brutal this evening. Numerous planes stuck on the tarmac despite many cancellations and delayed departures. Now 3 hours late and counting with no end in sight. Pilot is getting virtually no guidance from air traffic control. I guess this I the new normal.