Matthew Bates

@thatmattbates.bsky.social

206 Followers 231 Following

Actor/voiceover/audiobook narrator/ adoptive dad and doodle wrangler. Scotland, London, Dudley. Brought up on LFC and narrow boats. All views are personal. https://on.soundcloud.com/zBEbgKRLwvyKEnwEA https://app.spotlight.com/5650-9056-8846

BLITZ by John Nicol, narrated by Matt Bates at 16
Authoritarianism Hijacks Our Survival Responses Authoritarian leaders know fear is a powerful political weapon. They flood the environment with cues of danger - terrorism, "invaders," moral panic - that our neuroception reads as threats. Even if we aren't consciously aware, our bodies react: muscles tensing, hearts racing, or a numb pit in the stomach. Porges notes that when we perceive someone as dangerous (whether true or not), our nervous system automatically launches into defensive behaviors like fight, flight or freeze.
Shows a group of 10 year old children scrambling up a hill to claim a round of cheese.
Trump is very predictable, and always makes his brinksman threats at the weekend, when he can’t tank the economy further with his theatrics. “US President Donald Trump has confirmed he's cancelled his envoys' trip to Islamabad. In a post on Truth Social he says: "I just cancelled the trip of my representatives going is Islamabad, Pakistan, to meet with the Iranians. "Too much time wasted on traveling, too much work! "Besides which, there is tremendous infighting and confusion within their 'leadership.' Nobody knows who is in charge, including them. "Also, we have all the cards, they have none!
Trump cussing out his commentator frenemies on the Right, in the style of a badly written high school alpha female.
Text says- Trump: Inflation is plummeting, incomes are rising, the economy is roaring back and America is respected again, perhaps respected like never before. Rick Wilson Comment- literally none of this is true.
Trump thinks a diplomatic solution can be ‘consummated’. Get your mushroom out of the ice-hole, Donny.
Trump with a face suggesting he’s soiled himself, but daring anyone to call him on it.
Tamara Knoss artwork of Trump standing over a fearful woman, his red tie transformed into a snake ready to attack.
The black pages in Sterne’s Tristram Shandy, 1st published in 1767, when the USA was barely a homunculus in Mad King George’s breeches.
Text clip reads: …I regard the action as just another instance of BBC timidity?° He was probably right. At a time of international tension, there was growing criticism of the corporation - some detected a definite bias in the presentation of news items and talks'51 - and there was a fear that Patriotism Ltd would simply give its enemies more ammunition.
Text says: A controversy arose when Carr, the FCC chairman, called for action against Jimmy Kimmel after the late-night host joked about Trump's mourning of Charlie Kirk and appeared to falsely suggest the right-wing influencer's killer was a Trump supporter.
AI generated image depicting a rocky desert with the US flag flying half mast on a semi automatic weapon, with piles of money at its base and torn paper titled “Free Speech” about to blow away.
Text says “On Tuesday evening, most parts of the UK should see either totally clear skies or long clear intervals. After sunset, areas of cloud and scattered showers are likely to develop across parts of Northern Ireland and the far north-west of England for a time, before drifting into central and southern Scotland. Another area of low cloud will gradually move in to obscure skies in parts of southern England and south Wales.”
Article by Rosie Sullivan on the Gen Z state- a blank look in social situations when something more is usually expected.
Pronunciation guide for Galite contradicts itself- giving a phonetic rendering gah-LEE-tee, but then saying the “e” at the end is silent. Pick a side, AI!
Troy Bouffard, a University of Alaska professor focused on arctic security, told the BBC that Trump is leaning on his business sense to accomplish what he wants in the region, rather than geopolitics or diplomacy. "If you're thinking of this issue only in terms of diplomacy, you're going to miss out on what other options the US might have to close this deal to pressure the main actors into negotiating or compromising," he said. Prof Bouffard said the endgame for the US is to a have "much more robust relationship" with Greenland. One of the potential scenarios could be axing Denmark from the picture, and having the US establish a relationship that replaces Denmark, he noted.
British newspapers from 1956 with headlines “Our troops in Suez today?” And “We’re going in”
Headline reads: Putin agrees fighting in Ukraine must end but says any plan must lead to 'enduring peace' The Russian president says any ceasefire should also "remove the underlying causes of this crisis"
“Trump to pause tariffs on Canada..for at least 30 days” Quelle surprise.
The leopards eating people’s faces party -Proud Member , logo designed by violue available on Redbubble
Tweet saying the main villain in The Batman 2 will be really surprising, next to tweet of a photo of a middle aged British man in a mustard sweater, brown shorts and woolly socks outside an antiques shop.
Steven Bartlett podcast justifies dubious Covid vaccine conspiracy by claiming ‘the truth is usually somewhere near the middle’- known as the middle ground fallacy.
Shows two sandy coloured dogs on a road, charging ahead on a lead at night by flashlight.
What You Make It, a book of short stories by Michael Marshall Smith
Colette- My Mother’s House and Sido (English translation)
Cover of John Wyndham’s The Day of the Triffids.