Best Of

I see various Canadian provinces have already stopped stocking US alcohol.

I can see the 'boycott USA' gaining traction over there. You have a President imposing tariffs on you for no reason, threateningly calling ok you to become the 51st state.

USD strengthening too, which makes US exports even less competitive on top of retaliatory tariffs. Great way to improve a trade deficit.

The Democrats just need to hold steady and call out Trump for making things more expensive for ordinary Americans. Because that is the inevitable result on his trade policy.

I suspect boycott USA might be going a bit far in the UK. Boycott Tesla though I can definitely imagine.

"Just Get A Nazi"

Boycott the Swasti-car.

Can I defend Wetherspoon's please?

As one of those unfortunate types (I know, I know, we're a rare breed on this forum) who definitely have to watch their pennies when going to the pub, the 'double breakfast' whereby one can order two whole Wetherspoon's breakfasts and not have to chop off one's own toenails for sale on the black market in recompense pleases me greatly.

Wetherspoons is unfairly maligned, it provides okay meals on a budget for when people are out and about with a good pint of bitter. It saved me a lot when I was at uni on a budget and there's a lot of remainer snobbishness about it since Brexit.

Yes, Spoons is almost never worse than adequate, usually in the top half of quality beer in any given town, and excellent value for money.
In Terry Pratchett's Colour of Magic, he discusses the efforts pubs went to in the80s to attract custom - music, refurbs, entertainment, themes - and
wonders that no-one yet appears to have considered sellinggood quality beer cheaply. A few years later, Spoons came along doing exactly that. And it works.

@thetimes

Investors fleeing the cryptocurrency market after President Trump ignited a trade war have wiped more than $500bn off the value of digital assets ⬇️

https://x.com/basileuspi/status/1886410925684781431

You can bet your boots Trump and Musk have been shorting crypto and have each made a gazillion dollars today in hard cash by the time they were finished. Luvvly Jubbly.

Actually, I don't think that's true at all.

I doubt Trump has any positions other than in $TRUMP, and that he'll be trying to dump at high speed, and this trade war doesn't help him.

Musk is a true believer in Bitcoin, and a large chunk of Tesla's Q4 earnings came from revaluing its Bitcoin holdings upwards.

So they've f***** themselves? How did that happen?

You're overthinking this.

Trump believes that tariffs are paid by exporters. He also believes that when America was truly great, it needed no income tax, and got all its taxes from tariffs.

He puts these two together and thinks TARIFFS ARE THE ANSWER.

Did they not teach about the Great Depression and the casual effect of the Smoot Hawley Act at his elementary school?

Trump thinks that “Smoot Hawley” is a brothel in Rotterdam.

The food in Spoons is, by and large, crap unless you're starving, on a budget and just need to plug a hole.

I agree the beer is cracking value, though.

I haven't been into a 'spoons for a couple of years, so this might be out of date. However:

It's not the worst pub food, which tends to be rather (ahem) variable if you're in an unfamiliar town.

But best of all, the food tends to arrive quickly. Which is probably not the best sign of freshness and brilliant food, but does mean that you can rely on it if you are in a hurry.

I can forgive a lot in any pub/venue of any sort, in my experience Spoons is one such, that generally avoids background music.

Lidl scores high on the same ground.