Phil McDuff
@mcduff.bsky.social
Legitimate businessman
https://ko-fi.com/philmcduff
https://open.substack.com/pub/philmcduff
@philmcduff on the dying bird site
@mcduff.75 on Signal
https://ko-fi.com/philmcduff
https://open.substack.com/pub/philmcduff
@philmcduff on the dying bird site
@mcduff.75 on Signal
Pinned
The Unbearable Weight of Small Absences
This morning my dog Jingles wasn’t in the kitchen while I was making coffee.
open.substack.com
I've had this in the drafts for a while. One month after she went seems like a good time to publish. ❤️
I wonder, all the people who told us that he was God's perfect politician, here to solve our problems with the sheer power of managerial genius: will any of these be asked how they fucked it up so badly?
It's not long ago we heard that Starmer was the perfect PM as he could chair a meeting and open an Excel spreadsheet. Now that the knives are out, he's a misanthrope who can't bear to be in the room with his party for 10 minutes.
I see we've all decided the gloves are off and the boot is getting put in, to clear the way for Wes. Wonder if they think it will go any differently with a different repellent creature nobody likes?
November 12, 2025 at 6:52 PM
I wonder, all the people who told us that he was God's perfect politician, here to solve our problems with the sheer power of managerial genius: will any of these be asked how they fucked it up so badly?
Like the real standard here, obvious but never explicitly stated, is that we cannot fully describe the crimes of the powerful in our society because to lay bare the horror would be to imply the necessity of action, and we're not going to do that.
Our editorial stance is kidnappings are bad. This is not Real Journalism because it's important to be neutral about atrocities
Got turned down on a piece about ICE in Chicago for an international news org because they believed I couldn’t be objective about my neighbors getting kidnapped. And well, guilty as charged I guess.
November 12, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Like the real standard here, obvious but never explicitly stated, is that we cannot fully describe the crimes of the powerful in our society because to lay bare the horror would be to imply the necessity of action, and we're not going to do that.
Reposted by Phil McDuff
Our editorial stance is kidnappings are bad. This is not Real Journalism because it's important to be neutral about atrocities
Got turned down on a piece about ICE in Chicago for an international news org because they believed I couldn’t be objective about my neighbors getting kidnapped. And well, guilty as charged I guess.
November 12, 2025 at 5:28 PM
Our editorial stance is kidnappings are bad. This is not Real Journalism because it's important to be neutral about atrocities
Reposted by Phil McDuff
mike johnson about to reach hitherto unknown levels of haven't seen that
November 12, 2025 at 5:36 PM
mike johnson about to reach hitherto unknown levels of haven't seen that
Reposted by Phil McDuff
The Epstein stuff is always so amazing to me because it's like "yes he was a sex criminal but if you can get past that, he was also an avowed eugenicist"
November 12, 2025 at 5:28 PM
The Epstein stuff is always so amazing to me because it's like "yes he was a sex criminal but if you can get past that, he was also an avowed eugenicist"
Reposted by Phil McDuff
From: Jeffrey Epstein
To: Donald Trump
Subject: Pedophilia
Hello my good friend Donald Trump. I am a pedophile, and I know you are also. We are friends and pedophiles, together.
Best,
Jeffrey Epstein, famous pedophile.
To: Donald Trump
Subject: Pedophilia
Hello my good friend Donald Trump. I am a pedophile, and I know you are also. We are friends and pedophiles, together.
Best,
Jeffrey Epstein, famous pedophile.
November 12, 2025 at 5:17 PM
From: Jeffrey Epstein
To: Donald Trump
Subject: Pedophilia
Hello my good friend Donald Trump. I am a pedophile, and I know you are also. We are friends and pedophiles, together.
Best,
Jeffrey Epstein, famous pedophile.
To: Donald Trump
Subject: Pedophilia
Hello my good friend Donald Trump. I am a pedophile, and I know you are also. We are friends and pedophiles, together.
Best,
Jeffrey Epstein, famous pedophile.
"if people knew the rules they would follow them" sorry is that not the behaviour you're trying to get here?
Our policy has been not to comment on individual accounts. You end up having to litigate every case in public, and we don’t have the capacity for infinite debates in public.
Then there’s also the consequences such as the increased litigation and bad actors gaming your systems.
Then there’s also the consequences such as the increased litigation and bad actors gaming your systems.
November 12, 2025 at 5:36 PM
"if people knew the rules they would follow them" sorry is that not the behaviour you're trying to get here?
Reposted by Phil McDuff
My takeaway from every new Epstein revelation is that some powerful people victimized many powerless young women, many more knew, some actively enabled it--and we're still being told that MeToo and accountability for sexual violence have gone too far
November 12, 2025 at 5:05 PM
My takeaway from every new Epstein revelation is that some powerful people victimized many powerless young women, many more knew, some actively enabled it--and we're still being told that MeToo and accountability for sexual violence have gone too far
Reposted by Phil McDuff
When you have never seen a single Will Stancil vs. the communists flamewar
November 12, 2025 at 4:44 PM
When you have never seen a single Will Stancil vs. the communists flamewar
Reposted by Phil McDuff
i think this is true to some extent but it's easy to underestimate the extent to which society does not really care about women or children despite many ostentatious declarations to the contrary
Yes there's a lot of denial, but I've seen it: when it snaps, it snaps hard.
"Powerful men covered up child sex abuse" isn't outlandish when you've seen that happen in church, boy scouts, school athletics, and every other social pillar of your conservative middle-class life in the past few decades.
"Powerful men covered up child sex abuse" isn't outlandish when you've seen that happen in church, boy scouts, school athletics, and every other social pillar of your conservative middle-class life in the past few decades.
November 12, 2025 at 4:57 PM
i think this is true to some extent but it's easy to underestimate the extent to which society does not really care about women or children despite many ostentatious declarations to the contrary
Reposted by Phil McDuff
he's like if the word gout came to life, peeled itself out of the dictionary and became a famous reactionary tosspot
Mike Graham sacked from TalkTV after ‘failure’ to assist inquiry into racist post
Mike Graham sacked from TalkTV after ‘failure’ to assist inquiry into racist post
Broadcaster suspended presenter last month over Facebook post he said happened after account was hacked
The presenter Mike Graham has been dismissed from Rupert Murdoch’s digital channel TalkTV, after the company said he had failed to cooperate with an investigation into a racist post that appeared on one of his social media accounts.
Graham, 65, was suspended by the broadcaster, owned by Murdoch’s News UK, after concerns were raised about the message, which was posted on his Facebook account last month. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
November 12, 2025 at 5:18 PM
he's like if the word gout came to life, peeled itself out of the dictionary and became a famous reactionary tosspot
Reposted by Phil McDuff
it's easier for a lot of people, even people who consider themselves "high-information," to believe that Joe Biden defunded the police than that Republican policies actually have taken food and medicine from people while willfully exposing them to more pollution
Part of the reason for this is that the truth is so awful it defies belief -- akin to literally stating GOP policy positions, people will literally not believe you because, paradoxically, it is so bad that they think, if it were true, everyone would already know and no one would stand for it.
November 12, 2025 at 2:54 PM
it's easier for a lot of people, even people who consider themselves "high-information," to believe that Joe Biden defunded the police than that Republican policies actually have taken food and medicine from people while willfully exposing them to more pollution
Reposted by Phil McDuff
this is exactly what it has felt like for a long time to try to teach about US imperialism. students just like cannot believe that the CIA has overturned the government in almost every country in Latin America, even though that's not a controversial fact at all.
November 12, 2025 at 4:41 PM
this is exactly what it has felt like for a long time to try to teach about US imperialism. students just like cannot believe that the CIA has overturned the government in almost every country in Latin America, even though that's not a controversial fact at all.
Reposted by Phil McDuff
Yes, the guys with the operator aesthetics and all the tunic tats are deffo doing it because of their allegiance to the Nordic pantheon. That's what's going on.
Hegseth: "We don't need to be a military of beardos anymore. Do you know how many troops claim to be Nordic Pagan? No, suddenly it's become this real fake religious affiliation inside the Pentagon where troops came to be Nordic Pagan so they can grow a beard and nobody challenges them on it."
November 12, 2025 at 5:23 PM
Yes, the guys with the operator aesthetics and all the tunic tats are deffo doing it because of their allegiance to the Nordic pantheon. That's what's going on.
Reposted by Phil McDuff
If I was writing fake e-mails that implicated my enemies in apalling sex crimes, they'd be so much more subtle than these.
November 12, 2025 at 5:24 PM
If I was writing fake e-mails that implicated my enemies in apalling sex crimes, they'd be so much more subtle than these.
Look, lads. If there are rules and you're applying them fairly, it's not "gaming the system" to know what they are.
Our policy has been not to comment on individual accounts. You end up having to litigate every case in public, and we don’t have the capacity for infinite debates in public.
Then there’s also the consequences such as the increased litigation and bad actors gaming your systems.
Then there’s also the consequences such as the increased litigation and bad actors gaming your systems.
November 12, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Look, lads. If there are rules and you're applying them fairly, it's not "gaming the system" to know what they are.
Reposted by Phil McDuff
this is bullshit, people are asking for a simple statement of the reason, not a debate. If you don't want people to ask for the reason, then tell the user you suspended
Our policy has been not to comment on individual accounts. You end up having to litigate every case in public, and we don’t have the capacity for infinite debates in public.
Then there’s also the consequences such as the increased litigation and bad actors gaming your systems.
Then there’s also the consequences such as the increased litigation and bad actors gaming your systems.
November 12, 2025 at 4:47 PM
this is bullshit, people are asking for a simple statement of the reason, not a debate. If you don't want people to ask for the reason, then tell the user you suspended
I see we've all decided the gloves are off and the boot is getting put in, to clear the way for Wes. Wonder if they think it will go any differently with a different repellent creature nobody likes?
From Patrick Maguire's sub stack. Says an awful lot, and none of it good.
November 12, 2025 at 4:47 PM
I see we've all decided the gloves are off and the boot is getting put in, to clear the way for Wes. Wonder if they think it will go any differently with a different repellent creature nobody likes?
Reposted by Phil McDuff
the president admitted to sexual assault on camera and it didn't matter
November 12, 2025 at 3:35 PM
the president admitted to sexual assault on camera and it didn't matter
Reposted by Phil McDuff
You can’t have guilty men bragging about their crimes against the public, where people can see. You see how that looks in America, after all.
November 12, 2025 at 2:55 PM
You can’t have guilty men bragging about their crimes against the public, where people can see. You see how that looks in America, after all.
Reposted by Phil McDuff
But we talk a good game don’t we, about how awful this system is and what needs to change. Well, here you go: we acknowledge l MPs and the press actively collaborated on a series of absurd frauds to inflict Boris Johnson and hard Brexit on everyone, or we stop complaining and accept that’s How It Is
November 12, 2025 at 2:54 PM
But we talk a good game don’t we, about how awful this system is and what needs to change. Well, here you go: we acknowledge l MPs and the press actively collaborated on a series of absurd frauds to inflict Boris Johnson and hard Brexit on everyone, or we stop complaining and accept that’s How It Is
Reposted by Phil McDuff
I don’t think this system can be fixed to deliver anything meaningfully democratic, because doing so incriminates too many people who can steamroller criticism that comes their way. But this bullshit, this hilarious corruption, is a core problem and nothing will ever improve until it is dealt with.
November 12, 2025 at 2:51 PM
I don’t think this system can be fixed to deliver anything meaningfully democratic, because doing so incriminates too many people who can steamroller criticism that comes their way. But this bullshit, this hilarious corruption, is a core problem and nothing will ever improve until it is dealt with.
Reposted by Phil McDuff
My point is more: a system in which this stuff can happen with the enthusiastic complicity of the national press, who then shuffle and cough awkwardly when the culprits brag in public about what they did, is profoundly bent and sick and it needs to be drastically refashioned.
November 12, 2025 at 2:50 PM
My point is more: a system in which this stuff can happen with the enthusiastic complicity of the national press, who then shuffle and cough awkwardly when the culprits brag in public about what they did, is profoundly bent and sick and it needs to be drastically refashioned.
Reposted by Phil McDuff
I raise this not to say Let’s Go Back And Change It: the bed, once shat, cannot be unshat. Nor is it to blub and beg sympathy, or to demand appropriate punishment. I don’t think *frank acknowledgement* of what happened here is possible within the existing system, let alone punishment.
November 12, 2025 at 2:49 PM
I raise this not to say Let’s Go Back And Change It: the bed, once shat, cannot be unshat. Nor is it to blub and beg sympathy, or to demand appropriate punishment. I don’t think *frank acknowledgement* of what happened here is possible within the existing system, let alone punishment.
Reposted by Phil McDuff
As evidence, I offer the now multiple books filled with people explaining the purpose was always to crash the plane, so that they themselves could again pilot the wreckage.
November 12, 2025 at 2:49 PM
As evidence, I offer the now multiple books filled with people explaining the purpose was always to crash the plane, so that they themselves could again pilot the wreckage.