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tesslaar.bsky.social
Tess
@tesslaar.bsky.social
350 followers 190 following 160 posts
Full time dog and cat waitress. Science, gardening.
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Reposted by Tess
donmoyn.bsky.social
I did not understand this: one of the five Europeans the US has barred from traveling to the United States...is a permanent resident who lives with his family in the US.

Now he is worried about being arrested and deported for the crime of monitoring online hate.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/25/u...
Judge Blocks Detention of British Researcher Who Scrutinizes Online Hate
www.nytimes.com
December 26, 2025 at 3:55 AM
Reposted by Tess
tollytb.bsky.social
🐢💨
December 26, 2025 at 9:37 AM
Reposted by Tess
aljazeeraworld.bsky.social
Al Jazeera’s journalists continue their coverage despite the destruction caused by the relentless Israeli bombing, mounting casualties and intolerable working conditions across Gaza.

Watch the film, The Price of Truth EP 3: aje.me/thepriceoftr...
December 25, 2025 at 7:00 AM
Reposted by Tess
carolecadwalla.bsky.social
NEW: last night, the US govt launched an assault on the ‘global censorship industrial complex’, aka European tech researchers/campaigners.

It’s a deeply chilling move & speaks as to why we need international solidarity more than ever.

open.substack.com/pub/broligar...
A message to America: we are not your enemy
Last night, the US launched an all-out assault on the "global censorship industrial complex", I respond with some deep breaths, solidarity and a vibey video (it's all I have)
open.substack.com
December 24, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Reposted by Tess
zackpolanski.bsky.social
Oh GB News. Have a day off and enjoy a mince pie.

How dare I talk positively about migration & refugee rights at this time of year that should be about *checks notes* good tidings and warm wishes.

Tune in at 3pm to watch and judge for yourself.

Merry Christmas everyone!
Who does he think he is? Zack Polanski sparks fury by releasing pro migration message at same time as King Charles
December 24, 2025 at 11:44 AM
Reposted by Tess
reformexposed.bsky.social
Reform UK Doesn’t Just Have a Racism Problem - It Has a Racism Infrastructure

Why focusing on Farage’s past misses how racism is incentivised, normalised and repeatedly rewarded in the present
Reform UK Doesn’t Just Have a Racism Problem - It Has a Racism Infrastructure
Why focusing on Farage’s past misses how racism is incentivised, normalised and repeatedly rewarded in the present
www.bearlypolitics.co.uk
December 24, 2025 at 6:48 AM
Reposted by Tess
bestforbritain.org
This is what Reform UK does.

“These closures are nothing short of a betrayal of local people and staff.”

“Derbyshire county council did not stand before the electorate last May pledging to shut care homes."

https://bit.ly/4pOeD9h
Reform council's plan to shut eight care homes ‘a betrayal of local people'
Announcement after proposed sale falls through prompts backlash and union says more than 200 jobs at risk
www.theguardian.com
December 23, 2025 at 7:15 PM
tesslaar.bsky.social
Never gets old. 😂
oddthisday.bsky.social Coates is Odd This Day @oddthisday.bsky.social · 4d
Well, happy anniversary to one of the finest of festive exchanges
Twitter screenshot, 23 December 2016 (and god knows we needed a laugh at the end of that year): Gerry Adams, “This house is like Santa's Grotto. Takes half an hour 2 switch off fairy lights and assorted Yule illuminations. Feel like a grinch now.” Reply from ‘Eddielzzard'sBeret’: “Surely you know someone who can fit a timer.”
December 23, 2025 at 8:17 AM
Reposted by Tess
esqueer.net
Found the actual men in women's bathrooms assaulting women.
davidjbier.bsky.social David Bier @davidjbier.bsky.social · 4d
ICE agents illegally break into a woman's bathroom in a NY nutrition bar manufacturing plant. "Pull up your pants," says a male agent. The agents only had a warrant to review employer documents. They didn't have a warrant to search for, detain, or arrest anyone there.
December 22, 2025 at 8:10 PM
Reposted by Tess
peterstefanovic.bsky.social
The son of a British woman detained alongside her husband in Iran has urged the UK government to do more to help them escape the "dire" conditions they are being held in

news.sky.com/story/son-of...
Son of British woman detained in Iran with partner reveals 'dire' conditions of jail
Joe Bennett, whose mum and stepfather have been imprisoned for almost a year, says they are undernourished and cooking among rats after being charged with espionage during a motorcycle tour.
news.sky.com
December 21, 2025 at 4:29 PM
Reposted by Tess
13sarahmurphy.bsky.social
“We have sacrificed our national success because of our fear of immigration. And now, if Farage has his way, we'll do it all over again”

Superb, important analysis of the profound harm Farage does to our country in his rabidly racist and egotistical bid for power
liveapp.inews.co.uk/category/407...
iPaper headline: Photo of Farage speaking with small boat photo superimposed WHO BROKE BRITAIN? Farage's great project is to destroy the country he claims to love Extract: THE EFFECT ON BRITAIN Farage has taken the demon in Powell's 1968 speech and used it to undermine Britain in 2025. He has the same currency as his hero and trades in the same goods. He is defined by hatred toward minorities. It could be that person on the train speaking a foreign language, or that bloke next door who might be Romanian, or the Polish plumber who came to fix the sink, or the desperate young man who made it over on a boat. He will make those people's lives a misery. He will make them afraid. He will make them feel unwelcome. He will turn this country's instinct towards decency around so that it is replaced by antipathy. Every time we follow him down this path, we become poorer and more miserable, tarnishing our own wellbeing through our devotion to his political goal. Minorities suffer because of Farage. But Britain suffers most of all.
December 22, 2025 at 7:18 AM
Reposted by Tess
timothysnyder.bsky.social
In English we know it as “Carol of the Bells,” but the melody arises from a Ukrainian folk tradition of songs welcoming the new year and summoning the forces of nature to meet human labor and bring prosperity.
Do listen.
I wrote about the history here: snyder.substack.com/p/o-generous...
u24.gov.ua UNITED24 @u24.gov.ua · 7d
Another beautiful Shchedryk performance amidst ruins.

It was set in what used to be a DTEK thermal power plant — now destroyed by russia.

The contrast between russia’s destructive nature and the Ukrainian will to create beauty even in the darkest times is palpable.
December 21, 2025 at 9:37 PM
Reposted by Tess
adamcsharp.bsky.social
There’s an Arabic version of “every cloud has a silver lining” that translates to “no cows, no feeding them at dawn.” A Scots version is “today’s rain is tomorrow’s whisky.” And a Romanian phrase for looking on the bright side is un șut în fund, un pas înainte, or “a kick in the ass, a step forward”
December 21, 2025 at 3:58 PM
tesslaar.bsky.social
Not usually a romantic film watcher but, this is one I really love. Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullivan in the The Shop Around the Corner.
Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullivan looking at each other in a black and white film. Christmas lights in the background.
December 21, 2025 at 4:28 PM
Reposted by Tess
baliaid.bsky.social
Wishing all our supporters who celebrate a VERY happy and peaceful Christmas! 🎄☃️🎅
We struggle all year round, but the donations drop especially during Dec, Jan and Feb. Please donate any amount to get us through this tough time 🙏🏻🐾❤ paypal.me/lovinaAW 🙏🏻🐾❤🎄☃️🎅
December 21, 2025 at 3:05 AM
Reposted by Tess
esherukweku.bsky.social
I have always liked Cher, and she has now gone up in my rankings.
December 20, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Reposted by Tess
zoejardiniere.bsky.social
Here’s the link to donate 🥰🥰

Thank you so much to anybody who can give a little or even just share this appeal.

Together we can make love win! ❤️ www.justgiving.com/campaign/tog...
Together in Solidarity
At Calais Appeal, we come together with varied areas of expertise to provide essential support. We are committed to continuing this essential network of solidarity, but we need your support to do so.
www.justgiving.com
December 20, 2025 at 12:39 PM
Reposted by Tess
zackpolanski.bsky.social
🎄 Just getting my last Xmas cards out there.

✍🏼 Dear cabinet....
Dear sir Keir, wishing you a very hopey Christmas. I wanted to wish you good luck with your relaunch in January. I heard you want to focus on three things. So here's my advice. Tax billionaires, cut bills, stop scapegoating migrants. Zack. Dear Wes, wishing you a very hopey Christmas. When you're not measuring the curtains in downing street, our hopes for you are that you can finally reduce NHS waiting lists in 2026 and stop taking donations from private healthcare. Peace and love, Zack. Dear Yvette, Christmas should surely be a time to think about peace - and the governments role in prosecuting those calling for it. Peace and love, Zack.
December 20, 2025 at 11:42 AM
Reposted by Tess
oddthisday.bsky.social
Came across Clarissa Dickson-Wright’s autobiography in a charity shop. It is everything a devotee of weird history could hope for
Photo of a page of a book: I didn't realise that the people who came to the house were often famous. There was the nice man who stood on his head to amuse me and who I called Udi who was Yehudi Menuhin. He once said to my mother, 'Molly, I love you because you never ask me to bring my violin.' Of course he sometimes did. There was the funny little man who once cooked a sponge cake in a frying pan to entertain me who was Philip Harben, the first TV cook. There was the sweet Welshman who sang to me with a wonderful voice who was Harry Secombe. There was the serious Scotsman Uncle Alex Fleming who did tricks of legerdemain to divert me; and so many others. One of my mother's great friends was Audrey Pleydell-Bouverie who would sweep in smelling wonderful and call me poppet. She was lady-in-waiting to the Queen Mother, and when the King was alive she used to collect risqué jokes from my father for the QM to tell the King who adored them. She was the woman who had introduced the Prince of Wales to Wallis Simpson, thereby doing the country a great favour, as she put it. The Prince of Wales, later Edward VIll, had a very unpleasant side; he was also born with one ball and a tiny penis so his obsession with Wallis was entirely sexual, and by using alum to… …shrink her vagina and cold cream to lubricate it she enabled him to have 'normal' sex for the first time. As Audrey said, he wasn't a potential breeder so had the monarchy survived him we would have ended up with Queen Elizabeth in any event.
December 19, 2025 at 8:31 AM
Reposted by Tess
ledbydonkeys.org
The story of Farage and Putin, told by British-Ukrainian soldier Shaun Pinner on a destroyed apartment block in Kyiv.
December 19, 2025 at 4:54 PM
tesslaar.bsky.social
Johnson is a disgusting individual. How is this not deemed inciting violence?
tobyontv.bsky.social Toby Earle 🇺🇦 @tobyontv.bsky.social · 7d
Jo Cox was murdered before the vote by a far-right terrorist & this is the language this complete disgrace chooses to use
BORIS JOHNSON: If Labour MPs try to reverse Brexit they will be walking into a hail of machine gun fire - and if that's the fight they want, bring it on! But they should heed my warning before things get bloody..
December 20, 2025 at 11:35 AM
Reposted by Tess
kojamf.bsky.social
scheduled post
Lauri Porra
December 20, 2025 at 8:00 AM
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kojamf.bsky.social
December 19, 2025 at 10:43 PM
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lebassett.bsky.social
Muting a Black woman to claim the vote was unanimous is so incredibly on the nose
repbeatty.bsky.social Rep. Joyce Beatty @repbeatty.bsky.social · 8d
The White House claims the vote to rename the Kennedy Center was “unanimous.” That is false. I was muted on the call and denied the opportunity to speak or register my opposition. That is not consensus. That is censorship.
December 18, 2025 at 10:22 PM