Best Of

I hope we've all digested this story: https://www.theverge.com/news/847159/trump-media-tae-technologies-merger-nuclear-fusion

Trump Media is merging with a nuclear fusion company. Of course they are.

His other businesses were a mess and, whilst wealthy, not as valuable as he would claim. Trump Media has been a real godsend for him, he really leveraged being President to make money.

In spades. "Ask not what you can do in the White House for the country, ask what being in the White House can do for you."

On the plus side, he'll be dead before he manages to use all his corruptly gotten gains.

On the downside, his children appear to be as awful as him.

It's very amusing to here all the advise for the Tories from non-tories. Anyone would think the panic about Reform was growing. Yet only the other day some were posting that Reform had peaked. Indeed I doubt they can get much beyond 33/5% and probably less. However, it's also quite possibly true tha the Labour bottom is not yet there. All very funny.

Gavin Barwell is a particularly unappealing lib dem adjacent entryist. He may deserve tactical votes from Lib Dem, Labour and Green voters - he sure as heck doesn't deserve any from Tories.

It's funny the journey people go on.

When I met Gavin, he was the President of the Union Society at Cambridge. I ran the Union Ball, and he was President at that time. He also went on to be the President of the Cambridge University Conservative Association. (One of several people to hold both roles!)

He was a hard as nails Thatcherite at that time.

But then he got elected in Croydon, and that pulled him towards the centre.

I think he recognized that his consituency was not calling out for the same things that seemed so important to him when he was 23.

I guess he wasn't a migrant and so it wasn't a priority.

I understand this is the approved response to male offences against women.

Never underestimate the madness that can be created by semi-voluntary organisations.

Years ago, there was a case involving a local sports club. Turned out that a committee member had been hiring private investigators to bug members, steal email, and "phone hack" - aka listen to voice mails by guessing the password. He spent a fortune on doing this. Used the information to harass and manipulate everyone around him.

Barking mad, of course.

What I found interesting was the statement from the PIs involved - that this was a standard package of services offered. This was before the Phone Hacking Scandal hit big.

The smaller the power involved, the more vicious the internal politics.

PB cooking update.

Yesterday I went on a long cycle, and after getting back had a strong desire not to go to the store, and also -given the particularly hilly route I'd rode- for some pasta.

So... I put some spaghetti in a pot to boil (with a little olive oil and lots of salt).

While that was cooking I heated some olive oil in a pan, and put in one clove of thinly sliced garlic, and another 2-3 crushed cloves. Once those were getting a little fragrant, I chucked in a spoonful of capers. I then grabbed a little can of the nicest tuna I could find, and chucked it in with the capers and garlic. I then kept this on a very low heat and broke the fillets up somewhat.

When the pasta was al dente, I drained all but a cup (or maybe a little less) of the water, and put it in with the garlic, olive oil, capers and tuna, and mixed it well.

I then headed off to the fridge again, found some parsley, chopped it, and dumped it in with the pasta.

Very simple, really. The only expensive bit was the tuna. But even that is only $7 on Amazon if bought as part of a pack of 6. (Tonnino yellowfin tuna fillets in olive oil.)

Wife and children declared it deilicious.

Tonight I'm doing a tortellini soup.

Mm! Very reminiscent of our supper last night - fried aubergines and onions and courgettes with hot smoked salmon and an egg broken in, served with pasta and cooked samphire. Normally we have capers but we'd run out!

But yours is still simpler. Definitely worth a try.

You want simple ?

My recipe for omelette in a paper cup.
Microwave a knob of butter for 1min to melt it. Add coarsely chopped watercress and three eggs; stir.
Microwave at the medium setting for 2min 20 sec (may need experimentation for your particular microwave).

Surprisingly good.

Omlettes are not exactly that complicated to make, though. You are basically swapping a tiny bit of washing up for a disgarded paper cup.

For breakfast without a kitchen.

But with a microwave.

Got it.

Very useful, but only in a limited range of scenarios.

Many offices have only a microwave.

Quite a few people live in tiny flats with minimal cooking facilities - there's a whole genre of cook books on how to live out of a rice cooker, for example.

Blimey, the housing shortage is more serious than even @BartholomewRoberts thought if we're pressing rice cookers into service as living spaces.

Political analysis of the week.
(Truncated for brevity.)

https://x.com/CAgovernor/status/2001479563222954403
Trump tonight:

Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me..

A great example of how Gavin Newsom is as unsuitable as Kamala Harris was as a presidential candidate. He’s not going to out-Trump the president, no matter how hard he tries.

“Make America California Again” has little support in California any more, especially when there’s been precisely no houses rebuilt from January’s fires.

I don't much like Newsom, but he has the advantage over Trump that he is not senile, insane, stupid, nor malevolent.

His problem is that he believes in nothing except achieving power, and that his record in California is terrible. He is, like Kamala Harris, another one of those politicians who has kept failing upwards.

He also won’t be running against Trump.

A Trump supporter complains about someone else believing in nothing except achieving power!

Trump believes in more than achieving power.

He believes in abusing that power to satisfy petty vengeance.