Best Of

https://www.vox.com/politics/403364/tik-tok-young-voters-2024-election-democrats-david-shor

And if you look at people under the age of 25, every single group — white, nonwhite, male or female — is considerably more conservative than their millennial counterparts. And it even seems that Donald Trump narrowly won nonwhite 18-year-old men, which is not something that has ever happened in Democratic politics before.

More vulnerable to Putin's social media propaganda perhaps?

No, it's just cyclical pushback from the youth revelling against wokeism. In the 60s it was flower power vs war, in the 90s it was grunge vs capitalism, now it's tradvalues vs wokeism.

The youth will always, always rebel against what is today's normal and for the past 10 years we've had woke and DEI shoved down our throats by liberals so they're doing exactly what the youth of other generations have done and telling their elders to get fucked. I wish millennials had even an ounce of their bravery on this, we are without a doubt the lamest gen with parents that were selfish who made us virtue signallers (largely).

"We"? I figured you for Gen X (born 1965 to 1980). If I am wrong, congrats on reaching such a high status so young.

My GenZ son is fiercely woke, far more than me. So much so that I am constantly in danger of receiving a judgmental look or tut. So if this anti-woke tendency in the young is a universal British phenomenon (as opposed to us over analysing what Americans are up to) then he’s yet to get the memo. Nor are his school friends.

My generation of males at the age of 18 were, from memory, not exactly all mini-Farages but widely casually racist, extremely homophobic and with pervasive “locker room” attitudes to women. I’m kind of glad that’s not becoming the norm again.

This is a few days old (so apols if been already commented on), but hopefully might be another way to put the nazi back in his box:

https://dailywrap.net/en-gb/european-space-giants-unite-to-challenge-musks-dominance,7135458251146881a?utm_source=msn&utm_medium=agregator

Sadly, this is a classic dinosaurs mating kind of deal. To properly challenge Starlink, rather than just rehash OneWeb, you need cheap launch and a mega-constellation.

Unfortunately, this is still heresy inside ESA and ArianeSpace. A friend was fired from ESA for being too enthusiastic about the Themis project. Yes, that's right. Being enthusiastic about a 100% European development project is bad politics in Europe. FFS.

See also Macron’s refusal to allow Europe to consider UK defence companies as Europe spends $800bn to rearm

French economic selfishness sometimes reaches such myopic extremes it becomes self-harming. The UK has spent billions on helping Ukraine (more than France); the UK is the natural partner for France and Europe, but it has to be two way or it won’t work; the UK brings intel capabilities significantly in advance of anything in the EU

Yet the French won’t countenance pooling resources with the UK because, of course, European strategic autonomy means, for Paris, lots of German and Italian money being spent in France, and nowhere else

Europe is gonna blow it. All these petty rivalries and divisions. They talk le talk but they don’t walk le fucking walk

Fuck it, fuck Europe, make CANZUK a reality

The combined GDP of the CANZUK nations, under our one king, is about $7.5 TRILLION. Easily the third largest economic power in the world (unless you count the EU which, as proven above, you cannot). With a growing population of 140 million - bigger than Japan and soon overtaking Russia

By geographical size CANZUK would be the largest country on earth: 18,188,325 square kilometers. Absolutely fucking enormous. Twice as big as the USA (in your face, Donald). It would have endless natural resources in all departments, minerals, fisheries, oil, gas, metals, rare earth, everything. It would have a world tier one capital in London, and several tier two super cities like Sydney, Toronto. It would comprise every kind of habitat, from epic rainforest to endless tundra, from temperate meadow to mighty Alps, from fertile prairies to Newent

It would have mulitiple world class universities. It would be an extremely powerful world trader. Its geographical spread would be unrivaled, dominant or significant in three continents, ruling the seas from Scapa Flow to Vancouver, from Auckland to Newfoundland

Let’s do it. Fuck it, CANZUK. Let us bestride the world!!! Scared of no one, not Vlad not Don not Xi and certainly not stupid little Manny Macron

If we made that a reality, it might also be a more natural partner for Scandinavia and Iceland/Greenland than the EU.

The people who promoted CANZUK at the time of Brexit look visonary now.

It does genuinely make sense now. CANZUK. It makes much more sense geopolitically than the EU. One language, one monarchy, one common law, one parliamentary system - we already have all of that

It would have the economic muscle to build very
serious defence capabilities - including nukes, enough to ward off Putin and Donald and Xi

si vous pensez que le Canada est monolingue, j'ai un pont au Québec à vous vendre

This is a few days old (so apols if been already commented on), but hopefully might be another way to put the nazi back in his box:

https://dailywrap.net/en-gb/european-space-giants-unite-to-challenge-musks-dominance,7135458251146881a?utm_source=msn&utm_medium=agregator

Sadly, this is a classic dinosaurs mating kind of deal. To properly challenge Starlink, rather than just rehash OneWeb, you need cheap launch and a mega-constellation.

Unfortunately, this is still heresy inside ESA and ArianeSpace. A friend was fired from ESA for being too enthusiastic about the Themis project. Yes, that's right. Being enthusiastic about a 100% European development project is bad politics in Europe. FFS.

See also Macron’s refusal to allow Europe to consider UK defence companies as Europe spends $800bn to rearm

French economic selfishness sometimes reaches such myopic extremes it becomes self-harming. The UK has spent billions on helping Ukraine (more than France); the UK is the natural partner for France and Europe, but it has to be two way or it won’t work; the UK brings intel capabilities significantly in advance of anything in the EU

Yet the French won’t countenance pooling resources with the UK because, of course, European strategic autonomy means, for Paris, lots of German and Italian money being spent in France, and nowhere else

Europe is gonna blow it. All these petty rivalries and divisions. They talk le talk but they don’t walk le fucking walk

Fuck it, fuck Europe, make CANZUK a reality

The combined GDP of the CANZUK nations, under our one king, is about $7.5 TRILLION. Easily the third largest economic power in the world (unless you count the EU which, as proven above, you cannot). With a growing population of 140 million - bigger than Japan and soon overtaking Russia

By geographical size CANZUK would be the largest country on earth: 18,188,325 square kilometers. Absolutely fucking enormous. Twice as big as the USA (in your face, Donald). It would have endless natural resources in all departments, minerals, fisheries, oil, gas, metals, rare earth, everything. It would have a world tier one capital in London, and several tier two super cities like Sydney, Toronto. It would comprise every kind of habitat, from epic rainforest to endless tundra, from temperate meadow to mighty Alps, from fertile prairies to Newent

It would have mulitiple world class universities. It would be an extremely powerful world trader. Its geographical spread would be unrivaled, dominant or significant in three continents, ruling the seas from Scapa Flow to Vancouver, from Auckland to Newfoundland

Let’s do it. Fuck it, CANZUK. Let us bestride the world!!! Scared of no one, not Vlad not Don not Xi and certainly not stupid little Manny Macron

If we made that a reality, it might also be a more natural partner for Scandinavia and Iceland/Greenland than the EU.

The people who promoted CANZUK at the time of Brexit look visonary now.

Although not as much as those who at the time of Brexit opposed Brexit.

Seven EU countries back Czech plan to fund Radio Free Europe

The Czech Republic initiated talks with EU partners about funding Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which is headquartered in the Czech capital, following cuts to US support
https://x.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1901999034492981468

Meanwhile our government follows the last lot in wanting to chop the BBC World Service.

Bloody ridiculous. I object to the TV licence but there are certain things that the Government (ie the taxpayer) should be paying for. The World Service is a massive benefit to the country as a whole and vital for foreign policy and, increasingly, for defence. We should be maintaining or expanding it, not cutting it and allowing other countries - the Chinesee particularly - to move into the cultural and diplomatic spaces we have created.

On the subject of underrated tv shows and movies - on the London-Sao Paulo leg of my journey I watched Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II

Ok it’s not in the same league as the original but the original was something of a masterpiece. It is still a rip roaring piece of cinematic entertainment, not intellectually demanding but full of fun - exploding rhinos, weird killer baboon-dogs - some decent performances from Paul Mescal, the creepy dual emperors. Just needed more gratuitous sex

A solid B or even B+

I felt the same about Scott’s Napoleon. The reviews were so awful I anticipated the worst - yet it’s a vivid and quite accurate romp through Bonaparte’s life with a truly fine performance in the middle

B++

People are overhating on Ridders Scott

Christ I didn't realise he is 87 years old.

Yes in the category of surprisingly old famous directors I think he’s faring better than Scorsese and Coppola and maybe Spielberg, and also has better projects in the pipeline than David Lynch

David Lynch has the minor issue of being brown bread....