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One FBI guy's experience of the 'new' FBI under Trump:

"I recount those events more in sorrow than in anger. I love my country and our Constitution with a fervor that mere language will not allow me to articulate, and it pains me that my profession will no longer entail being their servant. As you know, my wife and I are expecting our first child this summer, and this decision will entail no small degree of hardship for us. But as our organization began to decay, I made a vow that I would comport myself in a manner that would allow me to look my son in the eye as I raised him."

Goodbye to All That
https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/goodbye-to-all-that

Good Lord, that was a depressing read

The political capture of both law enforcement and the justice system is happening very rapidly, and far more blatantly than even I expected.

But at least it’s being captured by the right side. By American patriots

In the UK that capture is being done by people, agencies, cultures - that actively hate the UK

Your usual half-baked nonsense. It’s quite obvious that in the US these so-called patriots hate a lot about their own country, and are trashing many of its people, businesses, institutions and alliances. These are, after all, the same people that trashed, or supported the trashing of, their own Capitol not all that long ago.

37 years ago today since the Piper Alpha disaster. My Dad was working off shore in the North Sea at the time but he was away on a short holiday with my Mum and my sister and I were both at home house/cat and dog sitting for them. We had neither the radio or the TV on that day, but I always remember the phone started ringing as old friends of my Dad who didn't realise which rig he worked on or that he was on shore started phoning to check in with him and their relief when they discovered he was away on holiday. I think it was about the third random phonecall from an old friend of his when I said right what is going on and why is everyone suddenly phoning to check in on my Dad today.

I had moved from Aberdeen the year before to take up a nursing job in Edinburgh, but one of my best friends was on duty at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary when the news came in and the hospital went into emergency mode in preparation for a large amount of incoming casualties and she still talks about the utter shock and sadness that overwhelmed the staff on duty there that day when those casualties didn't materialise as the enormity of the tragedy unfolded.

I had my interview for my first job offshore on the day after Piper Alpha.

60 were due to be interviewed. 12 of us turned up.

We all got jobs

I had been with Chevron about a week. An horrific introduction to the North Sea oil and gas industry.

I have spent my whole career in the shadow of that night. It was utterly transformative for the oil industry around the world.... except the USA.

It may be little consolation to the relatives of those who died but it is undoubtedly the case that many times that number have worked in safety because of the changes wrought by Piper Alpha.

And, dare I say it, the changes driven by the lawyers and the insurers as a result of the unbelievable fiscal cost of the disaster. The fees for the lawyers were frankly obscene. My firm gave some of our fees to the families, it simply seemed unconscionable to us.

37 years ago today since the Piper Alpha disaster. My Dad was working off shore in the North Sea at the time but he was away on a short holiday with my Mum and my sister and I were both at home house/cat and dog sitting for them. We had neither the radio or the TV on that day, but I always remember the phone started ringing as old friends of my Dad who didn't realise which rig he worked on or that he was on shore started phoning to check in with him and their relief when they discovered he was away on holiday. I think it was about the third random phonecall from an old friend of his when I said right what is going on and why is everyone suddenly phoning to check in on my Dad today.

I had moved from Aberdeen the year before to take up a nursing job in Edinburgh, but one of my best friends was on duty at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary when the news came in and the hospital went into emergency mode in preparation for a large amount of incoming casualties and she still talks about the utter shock and sadness that overwhelmed the staff on duty there that day when those casualties didn't materialise as the enormity of the tragedy unfolded.

I had my interview for my first job offshore on the day after Piper Alpha.

60 were due to be interviewed. 12 of us turned up.

We all got jobs

I had been with Chevron about a week. An horrific introduction to the North Sea oil and gas industry.

I have spent my whole career in the shadow of that night. It was utterly transformative for the oil industry around the world.... except the USA.

It may be little consolation to the relatives of those who died but it is undoubtedly the case that many times that number have worked in safety because of the changes wrought by Piper Alpha.

37 years ago today since the Piper Alpha disaster. My Dad was working off shore in the North Sea at the time but he was away on a short holiday with my Mum and my sister and I were both at home house/cat and dog sitting for them. We had neither the radio or the TV on that day, but I always remember the phone started ringing as old friends of my Dad who didn't realise which rig he worked on or that he was on shore started phoning to check in with him and their relief when they discovered he was away on holiday. I think it was about the third random phonecall from an old friend of his when I said right what is going on and why is everyone suddenly phoning to check in on my Dad today.

I had moved from Aberdeen the year before to take up a nursing job in Edinburgh, but one of my best friends was on duty at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary when the news came in and the hospital went into emergency mode in preparation for a large amount of incoming casualties and she still talks about the utter shock and sadness that overwhelmed the staff on duty there that day when those casualties didn't materialise as the enormity of the tragedy unfolded.

I had my interview for my first job offshore on the day after Piper Alpha.

60 were due to be interviewed. 12 of us turned up.

We all got jobs

On topic, TSE says: "Labour’s problem is self inflicted, for fourteen years Labour kept on saying austerity was a choice, this week’s vote was when those chickens came home to roost."

The thing about this is, it *was* a choice. The economy was understimulated, you kind of could print money and spend it and nothing bad would happen, there would just be more useful work happening in the economy. Now there's inflation, and any money you spend on one thing has to come from somewhere else.

The problem here is that political messages have a time lag on reality ranging from 5 to 40 years. This is why Osborne applied the lessons from the 1970s and early 1980s to post-Lehman-shock Britain, and it's also why Starmer is now lumbered with a party full of people who don't realize that if you spend money on one thing you can't spend it on another thing.

37 years ago today since the Piper Alpha disaster. My Dad was working off shore in the North Sea at the time but he was away on a short holiday with my Mum and my sister and I were both at home house/cat and dog sitting for them. We had neither the radio or the TV on that day, but I always remember the phone started ringing as old friends of my Dad who didn't realise which rig he worked on or that he was on shore started phoning to check in with him and their relief when they discovered he was away on holiday. I think it was about the third random phonecall from an old friend of his when I said right what is going on and why is everyone suddenly phoning to check in on my Dad today.

I had moved from Aberdeen the year before to take up a nursing job in Edinburgh, but one of my best friends was on duty at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary when the news came in and the hospital went into emergency mode in preparation for a large amount of incoming casualties and she still talks about the utter shock and sadness that overwhelmed the staff on duty there that day when those casualties didn't materialise as the enormity of the tragedy unfolded.

It is not to defend HYUFD's stance, which I disagree with, but two 20ish girls I spoke to recently were furious with 'Emily Pankhurst' for forcing women into the workplace 'How dare she make that decision for everyone else?'.

There's no conflict between feminism and women choosing not to work and look after their kids: the point is that it has to be a choice and not forced. But being beholden to a partner for money can also make them subservient to the partner if the partner is so inclined. Which again is fine if it is a free choice; but also somewhat goes against some feminist thinking.

However, it is interesting to see people say that women should be able to choose not to work, and those who want to ban the hijab, niqab or burqa as they are 'forced' on women.

If a woman can choose to be subservient to a partner in a relationship, why can another woman not choose to wear such headgear?

The issue with the hijab, niquab and burqua....I agree with you if they choose it. However some dont choose that life and have it forced on them. I give an example my son had been dating a girl for a couple of years and they were getting on for two years when they were getting towards two years, she had been round the house lots eaten with us, she was bright. They were getting serious so had to ask her do your parents know, did talk it over with my son first about what might happen. Yes her parents objected 1 month later she had been to pakistan and was married to a cousin she had never met. Now personally I think that might have been forced and now instead of the bright friendly intelligent girl I remember next time I saw her was traipsing along 2m behind her new husband eyes downcast and ignoring all her old friends from school

Indeed. But it's the same with women not working and having to look after loads of babies: some don't choose that life and have it forced upon them.

In fact, that was probably the norm just a few decades ago.

And that's where @HYUFD wants us to return to. And like the burqa etc, it is because of a particular religious interpretation.

It is not just the very religious, as already stated young men across the western world are increasingly voting for far right and populist right parties in part because they back their support for a return to more traditional gender roles

Lets cull young men then it will sort the issue

Or they could cull the likes of you

I however am not the problem young men are expecting stuff they cant have

Yes having a committed relationship with a woman and the prospect of fatherhood as every generation of men before them has had is something they are no longer entitled to in your view.

Hence they will vote ever more far right and populist right

Nobody is "entitled" to a relationship.

If you want a relationship, work on pleasing the other person more than you try to please yourself.

That also requires women to play ball
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-11878629/Why-time-ditch-alpha-male-addiction-bag-beta.html

Sorry why should they play ball, they know what they want if men cant meet that then the fault is on the men

So apparently the 90% of men who are not rich and good looking Alpha males have to be lifelong single and celibate because most women are chasing an unattainable for most 10% of men!

That statistic is clearly bollocks. The vast majority of non-alpha* males have long term successful relationships, including both you** and me.

*I don't accept the entire classification. We are not baboons and are social relationships are much more complicated.

** this is a compliment. I have never encountered anyone who self describes as "alpha male" who wasn't an arrogant arsehole.

This is clearly wrong because I’m a self-confessed alpha male, to the extent I am known in my neighbourhood as “THE FALCON”, and the idea I’m arrogant is obvious nonsense

An alpha male by some accounts previously identifying as LadyG.?

I'm not commenting on Ladyboy G .

More generally on alpha males, I think an important point is that "Alpha Males" are not alpha males. They are sad pricks in constant need of reassurance, including from themselves by affected dominance, and behave badly towards others (bullying, deprecation, abuse, sometimes violence) because they are insecure in their own skins.

They have a need to grow up and look in the mirror at what they really are, then they can relax a little and be amenable human beings.