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@ChrisMurphyCT
I was in a 2 hour briefing today on the Iran War. All the briefings are closed, because Trump can't defend this war in public.

I obviously can't disclose classified info, but you deserve to know how incoherent and incomplete these war plans are.

1/ Here's what I can share:

2/ Maybe the lead is that the war goals DO NOT involve destroying Iran's nuclear weapons program. This is, uh...surprising...since Trump says over and over this is a key goal.

But then of course we already know air strikes can't wipe out their nuclear material.

3/ Second, they confirmed "regime change" is also NOT on the list. So, they are going to spend hundreds of billions of your taxpayer dollars, get a whole bunch of Americans killed, and a hardline regime - probably a MORE anti-American hardline regime - will still be in charge.

4/ Ok, so what ARE the goals? It seems, primarily, destroying lots of missiles and boats and drone factories.

But the question that stumped them: what happens when you stop bombing and they restart production?

They hinted at more bombing. Which is, of course, endless war.

5/ And on the Strait of Hormuz, they had NO PLAN. I can't go into more detail about how Iran gums up the Strait, but suffice it say, right now, they don't know how to get it safely back open.

Which is unforgiveable, because this part of the disaster was 100% foreseeable.

https://x.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/2031531835453309125?s=20

And we are still doing that today and Gordon Brown hasn't been Chancellor since 2007.

Why not ?

Brown keeps resurfacing, looking more like the undead every time.

Given that half the people I worked with at the time lost their jobs I'll keep a flicker of resentment glowing against the self-styled saviour of the world.

My sentence was very cumbersome. I was trying to say that economic activity is still predicated on house price inflation.

I think the sweet spot is house prices rising in nominal terms but falling in real terms.

Leading to housing becoming more affordable but without the negative effects of negative equity.

Such a sweet spot is easier to meet with inflation, and pay rises, at 5% than when they are at 2%.

Hence London house prices are now down 25% in real terms since the pandemic

Do the powers that be genuinely not see where this ends?


"White males will have ‘fewer board seats’ in future, says UK diversity chair"

Financial Times

https://x.com/FT/status/2031160714484674567?s=20

Let me tell them. The end result of all this is the creation of an aggressive "white" identity in the UK. If you are white, you will vote for the "White People's Party", so you are not crushed, nor your kids, by official "anti-white-racism". Thus Britain will become a new South Africa

I am genuinely confused as to why so many erstwhile intelligent people fail to see that playing identity politics drives, err, identity politics.

So moves to reduce the over-representation of white males on company boards (where they're doing an epic job judging from UK productivity) will result in a revolt of white males to maintain their current privileged position?

Ex-lads mag journos with brains rotted by coke don't half lose the plot when they're over the hill and devoid of #metoo opportunities....

It is inevitable that the proportion of white male company directors and executives will fall as more women and ethnic minorities pursue successful careers. Indeed it would be astonishing if we didn't make the best use of the talents in the workforce.

This should be an unremarkeable phenomenon and has happened already across many other sectors including medicine, politics, law, academia etc.

It isn't some sort of culture war, but simply the removal of barriers that have kept people down.