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munross.bsky.social
Harry Smart
@munross.bsky.social
1.1K followers 3.3K following 530 posts
@Munross@mastodon.scot no X, no FB
Poetry (Faber, Drunk Muse) Fiction (Dedalus). Social theory (Routledge)
#Istanbul, Photos. Drums. Greens, Kirk, #LUFC.
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munross.bsky.social
Harry Smart @munross.bsky.social · 10d
Yeniçeriler Caddesi, #Istanbul, late summer evening.
Walking through quiet crowded streets to the #medrese to smoke a nargile and talk with friends.
#streetphotography
a colour photograph, walking along a busy street in Istanbul in the late evening. The sunset has coloured the clouds pink and peach against a sky that still shows a trace of blue. The street is mostly in silhouette, on the righ there is a mosque, to the left mostly shops. You can just make out the people in the street, and the pavement has a dull shine reflecting sunset colours.
munross.bsky.social
"People have cars, people have e-bikes. Those are assets they should contribute to the cost of benefits."

Home Office Minister Alex Norris defending Mahmood's proposal to steal immigrants' valuables.

Rightly outraged by people arriving in small boats with their cars and e-bikes.
#realitydisconnect
November 17, 2025 at 1:45 PM
munross.bsky.social
Mahmood's hateful rhetoric is immoral, but that will count for nothing now that Starmer has remade Labour in his own image.

In terms of practical politics, exactly this. 👇
aphclarkson.bsky.social Alexander Clarkson @aphclarkson.bsky.social · 9h
What Starmer and Mahmood are doing is saying things that will alienate much of the electoral base they rely on to stay afloat while not going far enough to keep right wing voters happy through policies that will fall apart on first contact with reality.
November 17, 2025 at 11:00 AM
munross.bsky.social
looking towards the Sea of Marmara, over backstreet rooftops, #Istanbul #streetphotography #panorama
a panoramic icolour photo, looking out over rooftops towards the Sea of Marmara, from Istanbul. The upper half of the image is sky, pale blue, with pinker tones towards the horizon and over to the right, where the sun is setting. The sea itself is a narrow strip sandwidched between the city and the sky. The rooftops are mostly pink-tiled. The pale stone of a mosque on the left of the image is a warm yellow colour as it catches the late light.
November 16, 2025 at 3:52 PM
munross.bsky.social
beautiful writing from @timothysnyder.bsky.social .. a morning run with his daughter; a short story.
snyder.substack.com/p/running-to...
Running together
A Winter Tale
snyder.substack.com
November 16, 2025 at 10:21 AM
munross.bsky.social
Robert Jenrick's Shabana Mahmood impersonation now difficult to distinguish from Shabana Mahmood's Robert Jenrick impersonation.
November 16, 2025 at 10:06 AM
munross.bsky.social
In the Rubens House, #Antwerp #Rubenshuis #streetphotography
a darkened room in the Rubens House in Antwerp; paintings cover the walls, some picked out by their own small lights; on the far side of the room a high window lets in a little bluish light; visitors sit on benches in the centre of the room, one, wearing a bright red jacket, is picked out by the lighting.
November 16, 2025 at 9:47 AM
munross.bsky.social
Compulsory labour is known as corvée, and it's traditionally been seen as a form of slavery
#newsnight
November 14, 2025 at 10:34 PM
munross.bsky.social
a gulf opens up here between US and UK culture. In the UK comments on this post would be dominated by discussion of Donald Trump in a bikini. So far, 150+ comments in, nobody has gone there.
'Which culture do you prefer: let me know in the comments'
datadrivenmd.social Jorge A. Caballero, MD @datadrivenmd.social · 5d
To recap: Jeffrey Epstein offered a NY Times reporter photos taken in Epstein's kitchen of Donald Trump and girls in bikinis *and* implored the NYT reporter to put this information in the public discourse in 2015

What did the NY Times editors know about this offer?
aridrennen.bsky.social Ari Drennen @aridrennen.bsky.social · 5d
“would you like photos of donald and girls in bikinis in my kitchen?” -Jeffrey Epstein
November 13, 2025 at 1:23 PM
munross.bsky.social
we appear to have an off switch that's very easy for other sides to operate. #lufc
November 9, 2025 at 2:20 PM
munross.bsky.social
Yeniçeriler Caddesi, #Istanbul, late summer evening.
Walking through quiet crowded streets to the #medrese to smoke a nargile and talk with friends.
#streetphotography
a colour photograph, walking along a busy street in Istanbul in the late evening. The sunset has coloured the clouds pink and peach against a sky that still shows a trace of blue. The street is mostly in silhouette, on the righ there is a mosque, to the left mostly shops. You can just make out the people in the street, and the pavement has a dull shine reflecting sunset colours.
November 7, 2025 at 3:28 PM
munross.bsky.social
a celebration of ordinary things, light, time, making and seeing
don't we all desperately need to see beautiful things in such disordered times
brigitstrawbridge.bsky.social Brigit Strawbridge @brigitstrawbridge.bsky.social · 12d
Seed heads in old glass bottles... on the windowsill of a cottage we once lived in, in Shaftesbury
November 7, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Reposted by Harry Smart
jabisanzphotography.com
Aerial image of one of my favourite glacier rivers in Iceland. Image taken just few days ago.
September 1, 2025 at 12:34 PM
munross.bsky.social
late sun on Istiklal Caddesi, #Istanbul
#streetphotography
black and white photo of a busy shopping street, mostly in shadow, except for where the low sun strikes a short stretch of the street. At ground level the buildings have been converted to modern shops, but the upper floors retain their earlier style, old European, with ornate balconies and windows.
November 4, 2025 at 2:21 AM
munross.bsky.social
National Socialist racial purity laws were modelled on US precedent.
Closely and with careful deliberation.
Very grateful to Jermaine Fowler @thehumanityarchive.bsky.social for this.
thehumanityarchive.substack.com/p/this-isnt-...
THIS ISN’T NEW FASCISM. IT’S OLD JIM CROW.
Old Machinery, New Operators.
thehumanityarchive.substack.com
November 3, 2025 at 5:06 PM
munross.bsky.social
side street off #Istiklal, #Istanbul
#streetphotography #panorama
a panoramic colour photo looking along a narrow side street towards a main street. The sun doesn't reach down into the side street thanks to the tall buildings, but in the distance the main street can just be seen and it's sunlit. Along both sides of the side street are cafes and restaurants with customers sitting outside and with fluorescent signage. The signs shine brightly out from the darkened buildings.
November 3, 2025 at 1:04 AM
Reposted by Harry Smart
newseye.bsky.social
NEW: Extraordinary scenes in the Serbian city of Novi Sad right now.

Hundreds of thousands of students have marched for days across Serbia.

A huge protest against Vučić’s government as they commemorate the anniversary of the Novi Sad rail station disaster, a year ago today.

(🎥 Lazar Stojakovic)
November 1, 2025 at 3:39 PM
munross.bsky.social
Redevelopment in Satır Sokak ('Cleaver Street') in #Istanbul.
#streetphotography
November 1, 2025 at 4:18 PM
munross.bsky.social
going to start posting shots from the documentary #photoraphy series I'm working on, about the #medrese in #Istanbul, the nargile cafe there.
black and white photo of a section of wall, on the right there is a doorway into a darkened room. On the wall there is a piece of calligraphy, embellished with gold, in a gilt frame. The whole composition is an arrangement of rectangles.
October 31, 2025 at 3:20 PM
munross.bsky.social
Will the military obey illegal orders? Who are they prepared to shoot. How does that get decided at different command levels .. critical issue in any #coup / attempt

This convo between @radiofreetom.bsky.social and David Frum is worth a read.
www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/arc...
Would U.S. Generals Obey Illegal Trump Orders?
Tom Nichols on Trump, the military, and what happens when loyalty replaces law. Plus: the Trump administration’s “politicized stupidity” and a discussion of Eugène Ionesco’s play Rhinoceros.
www.theatlantic.com
October 30, 2025 at 1:36 AM
munross.bsky.social
The UK govt is approving arms export licences in the knowledge that those arms will be used in genocide. In this case in #Sudan.

from @theguardian.com
www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
paragraphs of text from an article in the Guardian newspaper; the key paragraph is: "Months after the UN security council first received material alleging that the UAE may have supplied British-made items to the RSF, new data indicates that the British government went on to approve further exports to the Gulf state for military equipment of the same type."
October 28, 2025 at 1:34 PM
Reposted by Harry Smart
gilduran.com
Someone went there:

"It Kind of Seems Like Peter Thiel is Losing It"

via @futurism.com

futurism.com/future-socie...
It Kind of Seems Like Peter Thiel Is Losing It
He's spent the past month delivering four high-octane lectures in San Francisco's downtown waterfront on the antichrist.
futurism.com
October 20, 2025 at 4:22 PM
munross.bsky.social
Very sad to see Jimmy go out; lovely bloke and a great striker. Even if it was unforgivable to go from Leeds to Chelsea.
#Strictly #LUFC
October 26, 2025 at 8:08 PM
munross.bsky.social
"The turnout of 16.6% was significantly lower than the last deputy leadership election in 2020 of 58.8%."

83% of members couldn't be bothered to vote.

Labour, Starmer's passionless party.

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Lucy Powell wins Labour deputy leadership election
MP for Manchester Central had been seen as favourite ahead of rival Bridget Phillipson throughout contest
www.theguardian.com
October 25, 2025 at 3:43 PM
munross.bsky.social
US Christian Nationalism in the UK: the strategy is already in play: anti-abortion, anti-immigrant, 'Judeo-Christian' supremacist.

Can someone tell me where in the UK Church there is a counter-strategy in play?

archive.is/202510130628...
archive.is
October 25, 2025 at 12:33 AM
munross.bsky.social
Today in "British Government Does Mad Stuff That Will Divert Shed Loads of Policei Officers From Their Real Jobs At Huge Public Expense"

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
October 17, 2025 at 8:23 PM