#john-smith — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #john-smith, aggregated by home.social.
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Harry's Last Stand
"Stay alive. It's almost over."
JM Smith"February 1945. Harry Leslie Smith and his RAF unit had been transferred from England to war-torn Europe. My father turned twenty-two that month and knew the war was nearing its end. If he survived, he understood that the peace following Nazism’s defeat would not resemble the peace his father’s generation had inherited in 1918."
#HarrysLastStand #HarryLeslieSmith #JohnSmith #history #WW2 #fascism #politics
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Harry's Last Stand
"Stay alive. It's almost over."
JM Smith"February 1945. Harry Leslie Smith and his RAF unit had been transferred from England to war-torn Europe. My father turned twenty-two that month and knew the war was nearing its end. If he survived, he understood that the peace following Nazism’s defeat would not resemble the peace his father’s generation had inherited in 1918."
#HarrysLastStand #HarryLeslieSmith #JohnSmith #history #WW2 #fascism #politics
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Harry's Last Stand
Lacking Moral Fibre
JM Smith"Dad was haunted for much of his adult life by the story of Sam described in this chapter from The Green & Pleasant Land. I know this because he told me the story of Sam when I was a small boy. I think he felt he had no one else to tell, so he confessed it to me. Looking back, it wasn’t appropriate to burden me with this story when I was seven because it terrified me."
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Harry's Last Stand
Lacking Moral Fibre
JM Smith"Dad was haunted for much of his adult life by the story of Sam described in this chapter from The Green & Pleasant Land. I know this because he told me the story of Sam when I was a small boy. I think he felt he had no one else to tell, so he confessed it to me. Looking back, it wasn’t appropriate to burden me with this story when I was seven because it terrified me."
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Harry's Last Stand
"Poverty Made Me a Socialist, but Also a Realist."
JM Smith"We are living through a different kind of war than my father’s generation did from 1939 to 1945. But we are in a war. It is a vast political and military conflict that, in the West, pits ordinary citizens against increasingly authoritarian states governed for the benefit of oligarchs."
#HarrysLastStand #HarryLeslieSmith #JohnSmith #politics #war #history
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Harry's Last Stand
"Poverty Made Me a Socialist, but Also a Realist."
JM Smith"We are living through a different kind of war than my father’s generation did from 1939 to 1945. But we are in a war. It is a vast political and military conflict that, in the West, pits ordinary citizens against increasingly authoritarian states governed for the benefit of oligarchs."
#HarrysLastStand #HarryLeslieSmith #JohnSmith #politics #war #history
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Harry's Last Stand
July 5, 1945: When Britain Chose Socialism
JM Smith"In the summer of 2018, it was more difficult to find a positive newspaper opinion piece on Jeremy Corbyn than an empty sun chair poolside in Corfu. During his last months of life, my dad still pitched pieces to the newspapers, especially the Guardian warning that neoliberalism ensured his past would become our future."
#HarrysLastStand #HarryLeslieSmith #JohnSmith #politics #socialism
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Harry's Last Stand
July 5, 1945: When Britain Chose Socialism
JM Smith"In the summer of 2018, it was more difficult to find a positive newspaper opinion piece on Jeremy Corbyn than an empty sun chair poolside in Corfu. During his last months of life, my dad still pitched pieces to the newspapers, especially the Guardian warning that neoliberalism ensured his past would become our future."
#HarrysLastStand #HarryLeslieSmith #JohnSmith #politics #socialism
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Harry's Last Stand
Twenty-Seven Years Gone
Memory, authoritarianism and the last years of the analogue age
JM SmithElfriede Gisele Smith: October 20, 1928 – July 2, 1999
"Twenty-seven years ago today, in a world long past, my mother died. In that final year of the twentieth century, humanity was still mostly living in an analogue reality as the internet was in its infancy." -
Harry's Last Stand
Twenty-Seven Years Gone
Memory, authoritarianism and the last years of the analogue age
JM SmithElfriede Gisele Smith: October 20, 1928 – July 2, 1999
"Twenty-seven years ago today, in a world long past, my mother died. In that final year of the twentieth century, humanity was still mostly living in an analogue reality as the internet was in its infancy." -
Harry's Last Stand
"It's a Nightmare I Can't Wake From"
JM Smith"Today, the Heat Dome is in full force over my city. It’s only 10 a.m., and the temperature is already 30°C, but because of the humidity, it feels more like 40°C. I have a small air conditioner that keeps my living room, if not cool, at least survivable. The bedroom, not so much, because last night I felt like a rasher of bacon frying over a medium heat."
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Harry's Last Stand
"It's a Nightmare I Can't Wake From"
JM Smith"Today, the Heat Dome is in full force over my city. It’s only 10 a.m., and the temperature is already 30°C, but because of the humidity, it feels more like 40°C. I have a small air conditioner that keeps my living room, if not cool, at least survivable. The bedroom, not so much, because last night I felt like a rasher of bacon frying over a medium heat."
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Harry's Last Stand
Searching for Home on Canada Day
JM Smith"I hold two nationalities: British and Canadian. Neither of them inspires me with any sense of pride or patriotism, and never did. And yet if I am away from them, I feel homesick for the geography and the people. Right or Wrong those two countries helped forge what I have become. Like a stray cat, I can reject them every day, but they will keep following me."
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Harry's Last Stand
Searching for Home on Canada Day
JM Smith"I hold two nationalities: British and Canadian. Neither of them inspires me with any sense of pride or patriotism, and never did. And yet if I am away from them, I feel homesick for the geography and the people. Right or Wrong those two countries helped forge what I have become. Like a stray cat, I can reject them every day, but they will keep following me."
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Harry's Last Stand
Our Factory Default Setting Is Now Fight or Flight
JM Smith"Everybody now lives in fight-or-flight mode. I am tired, you’re tired, and the people we walk past while going about our day are tired. I wouldn’t want to be young again, but I’d happily borrow their natural energy.
As I’ve written before, I’m doing a temporary gig that won’t last much longer."
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Harry's Last Stand
Our Factory Default Setting Is Now Fight or Flight
JM Smith"Everybody now lives in fight-or-flight mode. I am tired, you’re tired, and the people we walk past while going about our day are tired. I wouldn’t want to be young again, but I’d happily borrow their natural energy.
As I’ve written before, I’m doing a temporary gig that won’t last much longer."
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Harry's Last Stand
Integrity on Neoliberalism's Hot Tin Roof
JM Smith"At around four in the morning, the heatwave arrived like a much-delayed flight. Last year and in the years before, heat domes sat over my city by early June. Although tardy in 2026, it hadn’t forgotten how to sit on top of the air in my bedroom like a weighted blanket."
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Harry's Last Stand
Integrity on Neoliberalism's Hot Tin Roof
JM Smith"At around four in the morning, the heatwave arrived like a much-delayed flight. Last year and in the years before, heat domes sat over my city by early June. Although tardy in 2026, it hadn’t forgotten how to sit on top of the air in my bedroom like a weighted blanket."
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Harry's Last Stand
Chapter Thirty-Four: Keep The Effing Load Light
JM Smith"This final clean-up of The Green and Pleasant Land manuscript has had its swings and roundabouts. It’s certainly worth the effort, but it has also been emotionally exhausting. I believe Harry Leslie Smith deserves his final say from beyond the grave, helping to preserve not so much his legacy as the lives he lived before, during, and after the Welfare State."
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Harry's Last Stand
Chapter Thirty-Four: Keep The Effing Load Light
JM Smith"This final clean-up of The Green and Pleasant Land manuscript has had its swings and roundabouts. It’s certainly worth the effort, but it has also been emotionally exhausting. I believe Harry Leslie Smith deserves his final say from beyond the grave, helping to preserve not so much his legacy as the lives he lived before, during, and after the Welfare State."
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Harry's Last Stand
Society in the Dog Days of Capitalism
JM Smith"It hasn’t come here to Canada yet, but the heat will reach 40°C within the next week. The dog days of summer have already come to Britain and the rest of Europe, which has been sweltering under a heat dome for four days. It arrived like a guest a day early for a party, and the hosts weren’t prepared."
#HarrysLastStand #HarryLeslieSmith #JohnSmith #ClimateCrisis #neoliberalism #politics #capitalism
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Harry's Last Stand
Society in the Dog Days of Capitalism
JM Smith"It hasn’t come here to Canada yet, but the heat will reach 40°C within the next week. The dog days of summer have already come to Britain and the rest of Europe, which has been sweltering under a heat dome for four days. It arrived like a guest a day early for a party, and the hosts weren’t prepared."
#HarrysLastStand #HarryLeslieSmith #JohnSmith #ClimateCrisis #neoliberalism #politics #capitalism
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Harry's Last Stand
Brexit Was the Symptom, Not the Disease
J M Smith"Introduction
Today was the tenth anniversary of the Brexit Referendum. It would be nice to think all our troubles stemmed from it. But the ruin of ordinary people in Britain has less to do with Brexit and more to do with neoliberalism that created the conditions for Brexit."
#HarrysLastStand #HarryLeslieSmith #JohnSmith #politics #Brexit
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Harry's Last Stand
Brexit Was the Symptom, Not the Disease
J M Smith"Introduction
Today was the tenth anniversary of the Brexit Referendum. It would be nice to think all our troubles stemmed from it. But the ruin of ordinary people in Britain has less to do with Brexit and more to do with neoliberalism that created the conditions for Brexit."
#HarrysLastStand #HarryLeslieSmith #JohnSmith #politics #Brexit
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Harry's Last Stand
#Starmer : Undertaker to the Welfare State and the Greatest Generation's Legacy
JM Smith"Across the years, I have met enough hollow men to know Keir Starmer is a hollow man. He’s not empty of the animal intelligence necessary for success in politics or business, but hollow of compassion, depth and vision. Starmer is a technocrat, an apparatchik to whatever ideology fits his ambition for power, prestige and wealth."
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Harry's Last Stand
#Starmer : Undertaker to the Welfare State and the Greatest Generation's Legacy
JM Smith"Across the years, I have met enough hollow men to know Keir Starmer is a hollow man. He’s not empty of the animal intelligence necessary for success in politics or business, but hollow of compassion, depth and vision. Starmer is a technocrat, an apparatchik to whatever ideology fits his ambition for power, prestige and wealth."
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Harry's Last Stand
The Awfully Big Adventure of Being
JM Smith"It’s been eight years since my dad was alive for Father’s Day. I think he knew it was his last, but we didn’t talk about it. He drank a shandy with the roast dinner I made him. Later, Dad tucked into a strawberry flan and watched television before nodding off in his chair.
Five months later, my father died because that’s what 95-year-old bodies do." -
Harry's Last Stand
The Awfully Big Adventure of Being
JM Smith"It’s been eight years since my dad was alive for Father’s Day. I think he knew it was his last, but we didn’t talk about it. He drank a shandy with the roast dinner I made him. Later, Dad tucked into a strawberry flan and watched television before nodding off in his chair.
Five months later, my father died because that’s what 95-year-old bodies do." -
Harry's Last Stand
"I Walked All the Way From My Prison in Africa to This Prison in France"
JM Smith"Everyone does it when they take a ferry from England to France; they look out of the observation window.
The sea is indifferent to how we voyage across it, whether in large vessels or small boats; it is all the same to the surrounding water: ride on me at your peril."
#HarrysLastStand #HarryLeslieSmith #JohnSmith #refugees #fascism
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Harry's Last Stand
"I Walked All the Way From My Prison in Africa to This Prison in France"
JM Smith"Everyone does it when they take a ferry from England to France; they look out of the observation window.
The sea is indifferent to how we voyage across it, whether in large vessels or small boats; it is all the same to the surrounding water: ride on me at your peril."
#HarrysLastStand #HarryLeslieSmith #JohnSmith #refugees #fascism
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Harry's Last Stand
"My Ambition Was Simple: Outlive The War"
JM Smith"It seems like forever now that I’ve been piecing together and editing my dad’s The Green and Pleasant Land. The first volume is done, aside from some tinkering. This gives me a sense of enormous relief because I am always concerned that my health will pack right in before this job is finished."
#HarrysLastStand #HarryLeslieSmith #JohnSmith #politics #fascism #history #WorldWar2 #socialism
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Harry's Last Stand
"My Ambition Was Simple: Outlive The War"
JM Smith"It seems like forever now that I’ve been piecing together and editing my dad’s The Green and Pleasant Land. The first volume is done, aside from some tinkering. This gives me a sense of enormous relief because I am always concerned that my health will pack right in before this job is finished."
#HarrysLastStand #HarryLeslieSmith #JohnSmith #politics #fascism #history #WorldWar2 #socialism
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Harry's Last Stand
On Trump's 80th Birthday, the Clocks Strike Thirteen for America
JM Smith"At midnight, the clocks struck thirteen for Donald Trump’s 80th birthday. On Hitler’s 50th birthday in 1939, the clocks also tolled 13 times. My mother was thirteen at the time and said all of Hamburg, like everywhere else in Germany, was out in the streets cheering military parades to celebrate their Führer. "
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Harry's Last Stand
On Trump's 80th Birthday, the Clocks Strike Thirteen for America
JM Smith"At midnight, the clocks struck thirteen for Donald Trump’s 80th birthday. On Hitler’s 50th birthday in 1939, the clocks also tolled 13 times. My mother was thirteen at the time and said all of Hamburg, like everywhere else in Germany, was out in the streets cheering military parades to celebrate their Führer. "
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Harry's Last Stand
"It's so beautiful, I will miss it."
Winter 1942 – Summer 2018
JM Smith"David Hockney died today.
There is an exuberant joy in his work. When I was younger and less experienced in the brevity of life, I dismissed it as being shallow.
In truth, I lacked the maturity needed to understand the transience of existence or the beauty in capturing its fleetingness whether mundane or intimate."
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Harry's Last Stand
"It's so beautiful, I will miss it."
Winter 1942 – Summer 2018
JM Smith"David Hockney died today.
There is an exuberant joy in his work. When I was younger and less experienced in the brevity of life, I dismissed it as being shallow.
In truth, I lacked the maturity needed to understand the transience of existence or the beauty in capturing its fleetingness whether mundane or intimate."
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Harry's Last Stand
In 1942, My Civilian Self Receded
JM SmithChapter Thirty: Square Bashing
From Harry Leslie Smith’s The Green And Pleasant Land
"It was standing room only on the overbooked train to Padgate. A fug of damp clothing, sweat, tobacco, and beer hung in the air.
Sheets of winter rain fell against the third-class carriage windows."#HarrysLastStand #HarryLeslieSmith #JohnSmith #WW2 #history #fascism
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Harry's Last Stand
In 1942, My Civilian Self Receded
JM SmithChapter Thirty: Square Bashing
From Harry Leslie Smith’s The Green And Pleasant Land
"It was standing room only on the overbooked train to Padgate. A fug of damp clothing, sweat, tobacco, and beer hung in the air.
Sheets of winter rain fell against the third-class carriage windows."#HarrysLastStand #HarryLeslieSmith #JohnSmith #WW2 #history #fascism
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Harry's Last Stand
"I Can’t Remember When I First Became a Zionist. But I Remember When I Stopped."
JM Smith"If you were born during the 1960s in North America, Zionism was an ideological default setting everyone was required to possess or face accusations of antisemitism.
At the time, Israel was portrayed in popular culture as a democratic flower in a desert of Arab potentates."
#HarrysLastStand #HarryLeslieSmith #JohnSmith #Zionism #fascism #GazaGenocide
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Harry's Last Stand
Not Patriotism But Socialism and a Dream of Escape Sent Me To War
JM Smith"It’s the 82nd anniversary of D-Day.
It’s a day 21st-century neoliberal politicians commemorate soldiers from a long-ago war for the sacrifices they made to preserve Western democracy.
Dying for our freedoms is the slogan.
It’s a bit much, isn’t it? Frankly, it’s nauseating."
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Harry's Last Stand
Not Patriotism But Socialism and a Dream of Escape Sent Me To War
JM Smith"It’s the 82nd anniversary of D-Day.
It’s a day 21st-century neoliberal politicians commemorate soldiers from a long-ago war for the sacrifices they made to preserve Western democracy.
Dying for our freedoms is the slogan.
It’s a bit much, isn’t it? Frankly, it’s nauseating."
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Harry's Last Stand
The 1% Murdered History with Curated Nostalgia
How social media, orchestrated collective amnesia, and the erasure of COVID helped bury the past to usher in fascism.
JM Smith"It’s the anniversary of Tiananmen Square today. When the protest was put down by the Chinese government in 1989, I saw the world very differently."
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Harry's Last Stand
The 1% Murdered History with Curated Nostalgia
How social media, orchestrated collective amnesia, and the erasure of COVID helped bury the past to usher in fascism.
JM Smith"It’s the anniversary of Tiananmen Square today. When the protest was put down by the Chinese government in 1989, I saw the world very differently."
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Harry's Last Stand
Twelve Years On, Harry's Last Stand Went from Warning to Reality
JM Smith"Harry’s Last Stand, Twelve Years On
For almost forty years, the Welfare State improved the lives of the many. It wasn’t perfect, but citizens living under it had good reason to believe their lives were more comfortable and purposeful."
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Harry's Last Stand
Twelve Years On, Harry's Last Stand Went from Warning to Reality
JM Smith"Harry’s Last Stand, Twelve Years On
For almost forty years, the Welfare State improved the lives of the many. It wasn’t perfect, but citizens living under it had good reason to believe their lives were more comfortable and purposeful."
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Harry's Last Stand
History Isn't Repeating. It's Frozen in Fascism
JM Smith"Trying not to think about what lies ahead is what humans do in a capitalist world. Spare time is rationed out to us by the entitled the way my father once tore a stick of gum into strips to share with my brother and me.
People invest their slivers of free time trying to survive a cost-of-living crisis that has no off-ramp."
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Harry's Last Stand
History Isn't Repeating. It's Frozen in Fascism
JM Smith"Trying not to think about what lies ahead is what humans do in a capitalist world. Spare time is rationed out to us by the entitled the way my father once tore a stick of gum into strips to share with my brother and me.
People invest their slivers of free time trying to survive a cost-of-living crisis that has no off-ramp."
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Principal's Fall After Retirement Party Raises Questions
Former Northwood High Principal John Smith died May 22nd, 2026, after his retirement party. His death in a construction ditch is under investigation.
#JohnSmith, #NorthwoodHigh, #RetirementParty, #DeathInvestigation, #SchoolNews
https://newsletter.tf/northwood-high-ex-principal-dies-after-party/
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Former Northwood High Principal John Smith died hours after his retirement party on May 22nd, 2026. His body was found in a construction ditch.
#JohnSmith, #NorthwoodHigh, #RetirementParty, #DeathInvestigation, #SchoolNews
https://newsletter.tf/northwood-high-ex-principal-dies-after-party/ -
Harry's Last Stand
Our Coming Storm Will Be Worse Than 1938
JM Smith"“Can it get any worse?” asked a young person.
“No,” I lied because it was their birthday. “Good things are just around the corner for you.”
Perhaps the truth would have been kinder, but that is for another time when it isn’t their birthday."
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Harry's Last Stand
Our Coming Storm Will Be Worse Than 1938
JM Smith"“Can it get any worse?” asked a young person.
“No,” I lied because it was their birthday. “Good things are just around the corner for you.”
Perhaps the truth would have been kinder, but that is for another time when it isn’t their birthday."
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Harry's Last Stand
There Will Be Time Before Last Orders
JM Smith"The weather, like my mood, was unsettled this morning. I walked along the bank of the river that cuts my city in two. I was on my way to an appointment—a meet and greet at a recently opened doctor’s surgery. I was being interviewed by a doctor new to the area to see if I was a good match for her GP surgery."
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Harry's Last Stand
There Will Be Time Before Last Orders
JM Smith"The weather, like my mood, was unsettled this morning. I walked along the bank of the river that cuts my city in two. I was on my way to an appointment—a meet and greet at a recently opened doctor’s surgery. I was being interviewed by a doctor new to the area to see if I was a good match for her GP surgery."
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Harry's Last Stand
“I Got Out, Dad”
JM Smith"Sometimes memory acts like a stab wound; other times, like a paper cut.
Yesterday, seeing a photo return on my phone like a migrating bird brought happiness and sadness at the twelve years separating me from that moment. It was of my dad holding a freshly printed copy of his book Harry’s Last Stand, taken in May 2014 just before we flew to England to begin his book tour."
https://open.substack.com/pub/jmsmith/p/i-got-out-dad?r=12u3ju&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
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Harry's Last Stand
“I Got Out, Dad”
JM Smith"Sometimes memory acts like a stab wound; other times, like a paper cut.
Yesterday, seeing a photo return on my phone like a migrating bird brought happiness and sadness at the twelve years separating me from that moment. It was of my dad holding a freshly printed copy of his book Harry’s Last Stand, taken in May 2014 just before we flew to England to begin his book tour."
https://open.substack.com/pub/jmsmith/p/i-got-out-dad?r=12u3ju&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
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Harry's Last Stand
Ours is an Age of Exhaustion
JM Smith"My apartment building’s laundry room has been out of commission for ten days now.
No one, including the building manager, knows when it will be working again. So the tenants wait, grumble and learn to live with another inconvenience that comes from renting during a housing crisis.
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Harry's Last Stand
Ours is an Age of Exhaustion
JM Smith"My apartment building’s laundry room has been out of commission for ten days now.
No one, including the building manager, knows when it will be working again. So the tenants wait, grumble and learn to live with another inconvenience that comes from renting during a housing crisis.
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Harry's Last Stand
AI Is Rewriting the Past to Own Our Future
JM Smith"Many of the photos that appear on social media platforms, especially the historical ones, make me wonder if they are real or AI-generated. Changing our consciousness about the past, present, and future is not creativity; it is malevolence."
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Harry's Last Stand
AI Is Rewriting the Past to Own Our Future
JM Smith"Many of the photos that appear on social media platforms, especially the historical ones, make me wonder if they are real or AI-generated. Changing our consciousness about the past, present, and future is not creativity; it is malevolence."
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Harry's Last Stand
"Hitler's Going To Put Us In The Shit."
JM Smith"It is unnerving to live through a time when ordinary citizens face economic collapse while the better-paid indulge in gilded-age fantasies. Civil society has been deliberately unmade by the 1%, along with the political parties and news media that serve their interests."
#HarrysLastStand #HarryLeslieSmith #JohnSmith #politics #fascism #poverty #NeoLiberalism