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@politico

Trump is upending his trade team.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is now taking the lead, with Peter Navarro sidelined and Howard Lutnick recast as the "bad cop."

https://x.com/politico/status/1910415079423554015

@maitlis

This is significant. Gives us a first glimpse of who controlled the events of the last 48 hours. Bessent was critical in talking Trump down from his tariff ledge. And Navarro was over ruled - and is now paying the political price ..

https://x.com/maitlis/status/1910452908593942887

Sounds like a smidgen of sanity beginning to creep in there. Not too much. But a bit.

Went to Tescos today and paid £2.25 for my broccoli instead a pound, because I forgot my club card. First thing that came to mind was that I felt like I was on the wrong end of one of Trump's tariffs

Download the Tesco app to your phone.

This is part of today's problems....download the app to your phone.....how about we just don't take a phone everywhere and interact

When I leave the house, I'm 99% certain to have my wallet - and therefore my clubcard with me. But only about 75% certain to have a working phone with me.

I also don't really want tobe downoading someone else's software onto my phone. Once, you only needed three apps - one for phoning, one for texting and one for exploring the internet. That's all I want and all I need.

My phone has no apps on it nor does it leave my desk unless I have to go away for work reasons

Yeah, I had one of those back in the 70s.

70s? Most people probably still had rotary phones into the early 90s. I'd estimate it was only in the mid-90s that the majority of phones in the UK became the push-button type, which was a few years behind the US.

Which was why the emergency 999 number was so stupid. Should have been 111 as much quicker to dial on rotary phones.

Wasn't it supposed to be the easiest number to find?

Wasn't it an easy number to dial without accidentally dialling it with ease such as 111. Same goes for 911. Less chance of an accidental dial.

Political Polls
@PpollingNumbers
New - Trump approval poll

🟢 Approve 48%
🔴 Disapprove 46%

Morning Consult #C - A - 4/7

They had a female pollster on the 5PM News who said trumps numbers were going down very fast. I can't get it easily but here is a different finding from yesterday

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trumps-approval-rating-keeps-getting-worse.html

This is the Gallup polling:

that's well out from the Morning Consult poll. There could give findoutnow a run for their money

...

Hes going to ban vaccines isnt he.

RFK Jr: "By September we will know what has caused the autism epidemic and we will be able to eliminate those exposures."
https://x.com/atrupar/status/1910385387614146987

Here you go: https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w12632/w12632.pdf

It's correlation based, but seems plausible.

I would think TV as a trigger highly unlikely. My eldest lad demonstrated peculiar traits from a very, very young age. When he started crawling he crawled backwards and at this point getting himself out of corners was nigh on impossible. He was noticeably different from similarly aged children including his brother.

The debilitating element of the condition was social interaction. He was viewed as weird from aged around two and a half by his peers. That continues today. Communication skills including speech and language were slow and not because he was glued to the Teletubbies. Throughout his life he has focused on a particular interest, and I mean focused. It is the only focus in the moment. Firstly it was Thomas the Tank Engine, apparently young autistic boys relate to the faces on the engines (toys, books and on screen). There is certainly a marked neurodiversity about him. He thinks differently to others, and it was notable before he started watching Bob the Builder. He's quite smart, he has a 2:1 programming degree, although he didn't do well at GCSEs and got where he is today via a BTec route, but he only reads stuff that is of interest to him (he passed his driving theory test on the second attempt and a practical driving test on the first) and his general knowledge is shockingly poor. He doesn't assimilate information well but can function well using routine. He is rules based so he meticulously adheres to speed limits and he is unnaturally polite. He is learning Japanese at evening classes. He is different, well different and not just "a bit peculiar"!

So why the burgeoning rates of autism diagnosis? Now I am sceptical when Leon claims, for example, Theresa May is "on the spectrum" because she is "awkward". There is more to it than that, although perhaps over diagnosing awkward people as neurodiverse is an issue that should be looked at and avoided. Sometimes naughty boys are just naughty, and pinning it on ADHD and/or autism is simply a handy hook to hang it on. Perhaps in that instance they watched too much TV.

I have to agree. It strikes me as a bit of an insult to people with autism that it is used use it as a label for anyone who is a bit geeky, clever or socially awkward. Anyone who gets impatient in a queue or reading a book calls says they have ADHD. Does it work the other way? I suppose those who are confident or arrogant are called psychopaths readily enough.

"over diagnosing awkward people as neurodiverse is an issue that should be looked at and avoided" couldn't agree more

I am going to be controversial here. Genuine autism is not to be "celebrated" or seen as a "superpower", it is f****** horrible to watch someone you love struggle through life because their brain is wired up differently to the rest of us. I'm really looking forward to RFK's cure, but I am not holding my breath.

A friend I previously respected turned up at a social event last summer with his six-year old daughter who was wearing an "autism is my superpower" T-shirt. All I could feel was sadness. Not even cringe.

Went to Tescos today and paid £2.25 for my broccoli instead a pound, because I forgot my club card. First thing that came to mind was that I felt like I was on the wrong end of one of Trump's tariffs

Download the Tesco app to your phone.

This is part of today's problems....download the app to your phone.....how about we just don't take a phone everywhere and interact

When I leave the house, I'm 99% certain to have my wallet - and therefore my clubcard with me. But only about 75% certain to have a working phone with me.

I also don't really want tobe downoading someone else's software onto my phone. Once, you only needed three apps - one for phoning, one for texting and one for exploring the internet. That's all I want and all I need.

My phone has no apps on it nor does it leave my desk unless I have to go away for work reasons

Yeah, I had one of those back in the 70s.

70s? Most people probably still had rotary phones into the early 90s. I'd estimate it was only in the mid-90s that the majority of phones in the UK became the push-button type, which was a few years behind the US.

Which was why the emergency 999 number was so stupid. Should have been 111 as much quicker to dial on rotary phones.

Wasn't it supposed to be the easiest number to find?

...

Hes going to ban vaccines isnt he.

RFK Jr: "By September we will know what has caused the autism epidemic and we will be able to eliminate those exposures."
https://x.com/atrupar/status/1910385387614146987

Here you go: https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w12632/w12632.pdf

It's correlation based, but seems plausible.

I would think TV as a trigger highly unlikely. My eldest lad demonstrated peculiar traits from a very, very young age. When he started crawling he crawled backwards and at this point getting himself out of corners was nigh on impossible. He was noticeably different from similarly aged children including his brother.

The debilitating element of the condition was social interaction. He was viewed as weird from aged around two and a half by his peers. That continues today. Communication skills including speech and language were slow and not because he was glued to the Teletubbies. Throughout his life he has focused on a particular interest, and I mean focused. It is the only focus in the moment. Firstly it was Thomas the Tank Engine, apparently young autistic boys relate to the faces on the engines (toys, books and on screen). There is certainly a marked neurodiversity about him. He thinks differently to others, and it was notable before he started watching Bob the Builder. He's quite smart, he has a 2:1 programming degree, although he didn't do well at GCSEs and got where he is today via a BTec route, but he only reads stuff that is of interest to him (he passed his driving theory test on the second attempt and a practical driving test on the first) and his general knowledge is shockingly poor. He doesn't assimilate information well but can function well using routine. He is rules based so he meticulously adheres to speed limits and he is unnaturally polite. He is learning Japanese at evening classes. He is different, well different and not just "a bit peculiar"!

So why the burgeoning rates of autism diagnosis? Now I am sceptical when Leon claims, for example, Theresa May is "on the spectrum" because she is "awkward". There is more to it than that, although perhaps over diagnosing awkward people as neurodiverse is an issue that should be looked at and avoided. Sometimes naughty boys are just naughty, and pinning it on ADHD and/or autism is simply a handy hook to hang it on. Perhaps in that instance they watched too much TV.

I have to agree. It strikes me as a bit of an insult to people with autism that it is used use it as a label for anyone who is a bit geeky, clever or socially awkward. Anyone who gets impatient in a queue or reading a book calls says they have ADHD. Does it work the other way? I suppose those who are confident or arrogant are called psychopaths readily enough.

"over diagnosing awkward people as neurodiverse is an issue that should be looked at and avoided" couldn't agree more

I am going to be controversial here. Genuine autism is not to be "celebrated" or seen as a "superpower", it is f****** horrible to watch someone you love struggle through life because their brain is wired up differently to the rest of us. I'm really looking forward to RFK's cure, but I am not holding my breath.