Best Of

Musk has more wealth than three quarters of the world’s nations.

And I bet it still doesn’t make him happy.

Point of order ( I’m not defending it): if he is a $ trillionaire that’s his wealth on a given day. The figures the media are bandying about that he’s as “wealthy as Switzerland or Saudi” are an apples and pears situation, in that they are comparing Swiss and Saudi GDPs which are income not the stock of Swiss and Saudi net assets which are wealth.

Perhaps of interest, using total economy net worth (sum of public and private assets and liabilities)

Rank	Country	National Net Wealth (US$ trillions, approx.)
1	United States	156
2	Japan	25
3	Germany	20
4	United Kingdom	17
5	France	16
6	Canada	13
7	Italy	12
8	South Korea	11
9	Australia	10
10	Spain	9
11	Netherlands	6
12	Switzerland	5
13	Belgium	3
14	Sweden	3
15	Denmark	2.5
16	Norway	2.4
17	Poland	2
18	Austria	2
19	Israel	1.8
20	Turkey	1.7
21	Portugal	1.5
22	New Zealand	1.4
23	Ireland	1.2
24	Czech Republic	1.1
25	Finland	0.9
26	Greece	0.8
27	Hungary	0.5
28	Slovakia	0.4
29	Slovenia	0.3
30	Lithuania	0.3

One day into the World Cup, FIFA is doing “actually, the stadiums ARE full” posts stating that there are “ticketed fans… standing in concourses rather than staying in their assigned seats”

https://bsky.app/profile/rodger.bsky.social/post/3mo4o2wcf622m

Three matches in and the first two big matches...two of the three host nations. Full stadiums is hardly surprising at this stage and tonights was only a 40k capacity.

Peter.

yeah, the point is the stadiums are not full. FIFA are claiming the empty seats belong to people who definitely bought the tickets and are definitely at the stadiums, you just can't see them on TV

I recall the same story from the opening days of London 2012, which they had to act quickly to resolve?

Start warming up the school busses!

America's flying start last night, beating a hapless Paraguay 4-1 (and Paraguay has form against Argentina and Brazil) might help sell a few tickets. Does anyone know any trillionaires who might subsidise tickets for schools?

Are you thinking of some pedo guy?

No. Musk is the ket guy.

He repeatedly asked to go to Epstein Island, but Epstein didn’t want him.

Other way around. Epstein kept asking Musk to go to his island, and Musk repeatedly turned him down.

That's his version, but it isn't borne out by the actual emails they exchanged:

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/elon-musk/expressed-interest-visiting-jeffrey-epstein-island-emails-show-doj-rcna256784

Epstein initiated the conversation, and Musk didn’t go to the island.

Which conversation? Epstein may have made initial contact (although the files we have cast doubt on that, they are not conclusive) but certainly on the evidence we have (rather than Musk's statements) it's certainly Musk that was angling for the invitation and Epstein kept putting him off.

One day into the World Cup, FIFA is doing “actually, the stadiums ARE full” posts stating that there are “ticketed fans… standing in concourses rather than staying in their assigned seats”

https://bsky.app/profile/rodger.bsky.social/post/3mo4o2wcf622m

Three matches in and the first two big matches...two of the three host nations. Full stadiums is hardly surprising at this stage and tonights was only a 40k capacity.

Peter.

yeah, the point is the stadiums are not full. FIFA are claiming the empty seats belong to people who definitely bought the tickets and are definitely at the stadiums, you just can't see them on TV

I recall the same story from the opening days of London 2012, which they had to act quickly to resolve?

Start warming up the school busses!

America's flying start last night, beating a hapless Paraguay 4-1 (and Paraguay has form against Argentina and Brazil) might help sell a few tickets. Does anyone know any trillionaires who might subsidise tickets for schools?

Are you thinking of some pedo guy?

No. Musk is the ket guy.

He repeatedly asked to go to Epstein Island, but Epstein didn’t want him.

Other way around. Epstein kept asking Musk to go to his island, and Musk repeatedly turned him down.

Lies. Not what we read in the epstein files.

you gonna file this under ignore like trump repeatedly abusing teenage beauty parade contestants?

One day into the World Cup, FIFA is doing “actually, the stadiums ARE full” posts stating that there are “ticketed fans… standing in concourses rather than staying in their assigned seats”

https://bsky.app/profile/rodger.bsky.social/post/3mo4o2wcf622m

Three matches in and the first two big matches...two of the three host nations. Full stadiums is hardly surprising at this stage and tonights was only a 40k capacity.

Peter.

yeah, the point is the stadiums are not full. FIFA are claiming the empty seats belong to people who definitely bought the tickets and are definitely at the stadiums, you just can't see them on TV

I recall the same story from the opening days of London 2012, which they had to act quickly to resolve?

Start warming up the school busses!

America's flying start last night, beating a hapless Paraguay 4-1 (and Paraguay has form against Argentina and Brazil) might help sell a few tickets. Does anyone know any trillionaires who might subsidise tickets for schools?

Are you thinking of some pedo guy?

No. Musk is the ket guy.

He repeatedly asked to go to Epstein Island, but Epstein didn’t want him.

Other way around. Epstein kept asking Musk to go to his island, and Musk repeatedly turned him down.

That's his version, but it isn't borne out by the actual emails they exchanged:

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/elon-musk/expressed-interest-visiting-jeffrey-epstein-island-emails-show-doj-rcna256784

It's happened again. See social media for video footage of the incident.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gypqp0rp9o

Girl, 17, stabbed in the neck in street attack

The homicide rate in the UK is at its lowest since 1977.

Were we getting many stabbings in the neck and attempted public beheadings in 1977?

Who knows, because back in 1977 we didn't have phones and CCTV to film all this stuff and make it as 'newsworthy'. That's what's different now - the amount captured on film and distributed on social media.

However, data shows that the rate of violent crime was higher in 1977 than it is now.

I think we knew on public murders, because cameras and newspapers still existed even if they didn't capture in "real time".

FWIW, this is @bondegezou usual one-man-rebuttal-unit bullshit again. The graph he's referring to is here and the murder rate was higher than in 1977 less than 2 years ago:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/articles/homicideinenglandandwales/yearendingmarch2025

There's a big spike in 2003. Initially my mind jumped to the 7/7 terror attacks, but they were in 2005 and those are probably captured differently.

2003 was when all Shipman's victims went on the books.

It's happened again. See social media for video footage of the incident.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gypqp0rp9o

Girl, 17, stabbed in the neck in street attack

The homicide rate in the UK is at its lowest since 1977.

Were we getting many stabbings in the neck and attempted public beheadings in 1977?

Nah, the Teddy boys were a bit before then and the football casuals a bit after.

Casual violence has declined, which is a good thing.

Terrorism has probably declined too, tbh, which is also a good thing.

That doesn't mean we should brush aside horrific attacks like Belfast because we want to hold on to cherished beliefs about the enrichment immigration offers us, which is all @bondegezou cares about.

It's happened again. See social media for video footage of the incident.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gypqp0rp9o

Girl, 17, stabbed in the neck in street attack

The homicide rate in the UK is at its lowest since 1977.

Were we getting many stabbings in the neck and attempted public beheadings in 1977?

Tons of stabbings. Blades and horrific usage of same come up frequently in the history of crime (organised and otherwise) in London, Liverpool, Birmingham, Glasgow…

The change is that, in the Goode Olde Days* such things were rarely reported in the “major” papers, unless they were especially egregious or happened to “decent people”**

As opposed to spammed to every discussion fora and going ping on your personal telephonic device.

*Which weren’t that good, really
**yes, the definition of “decent” was a whole problem by itself.

One day into the World Cup, FIFA is doing “actually, the stadiums ARE full” posts stating that there are “ticketed fans… standing in concourses rather than staying in their assigned seats”

https://bsky.app/profile/rodger.bsky.social/post/3mo4o2wcf622m

Three matches in and the first two big matches...two of the three host nations. Full stadiums is hardly surprising at this stage and tonights was only a 40k capacity.

Peter.

yeah, the point is the stadiums are not full. FIFA are claiming the empty seats belong to people who definitely bought the tickets and are definitely at the stadiums, you just can't see them on TV

I recall the same story from the opening days of London 2012, which they had to act quickly to resolve?

Start warming up the school busses!

America's flying start last night, beating a hapless Paraguay 4-1 (and Paraguay has form against Argentina and Brazil) might help sell a few tickets. Does anyone know any trillionaires who might subsidise tickets for schools?

Are you thinking of some pedo guy?

No. Musk is the ket guy.

He repeatedly asked to go to Epstein Island, but Epstein didn’t want him.

Other way around. Epstein kept asking Musk to go to his island, and Musk repeatedly turned him down.

That's his version, but it isn't borne out by the actual emails they exchanged:

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/elon-musk/expressed-interest-visiting-jeffrey-epstein-island-emails-show-doj-rcna256784

Epstein initiated the conversation, and Musk didn’t go to the island.

Which conversation? Epstein may have made initial contact (although the files we have cast doubt on that, they are not conclusive) but certainly on the evidence we have (rather than Musk's statements) it's certainly Musk that was angling for the invitation and Epstein kept putting him off.

Otoh Musk proposed taking his wife/girlfriend along so even if he expected an orgy, it was probably not an underaged one he had in mind.

Someone once said that taking your wife to an orgy is like taking your own cookies to a restaurant.

ICYMI: yesterday was a very dark day for the UK justice system.

Four people sentenced for a crime they were not convicted of, after a trial where the judge deliberately concealed that possibility from the jury and prevented the media from reporting on it.

I’ve not doubt they would have been acquitted had the jury been made aware of what crime they were convicting them off, so in effect trial by jury has ended in the UK.

The only logical response for jurors is to always acquit in the future.

Acquited of the terrorism charge or ALL the charges?

I do think this is a challenging case on I don't think the approach taken here is the right one. If you think someone is a terrorist, use the laws that exist already to establish this and give the appropriate punishment.

In Scotland you often get a choice between, say, careless and dangerous driving or full acquittal. If that were the case for this I think most people would have certainly convicted the sledgehammer guy of greivous bodily harm and possibly terrorism too. if it was just plain terrorism for criminal damage then it would have been full acquittals 90% of the time.

But this is rather beside the point. If juries want to convict on terrorism charges then fair enough - but they should be given the choice rather than have it deliberately concealed from them.