Best Of

I think this polling is a rather depressing reflection of how people think about the economy. More manufacturing does not necessarily mean more jobs, given potential for automation and other forms of innovation.

The UK, for example, produces a very large proportion of our food, yet only 1% of the population work in agriculture. Only 150,000 people work in energy generation, and that will likely fall even as we increase out output via renewables. We could open dozens of new EAFs and produce much more steel than we do now, yet employ fewer people than in our blast furnaces. We might end up entirely replacing the RAF with AI-flown drones.

An economy structured around maximising employment in certain sectors is doomed to fail, IMO. It should really be the opposite, opening up labour for new areas of economic growth, or more time for fun, raising children, looking after elderly relatives and so on.

TLDR Being pro domestic manufacturing does not mean being pro domestic manufacturing jobs.

Another long night in A&E - this time with acute chest pain when breathing, probably pleural. But may be an embolism.

Unlike in genteel Hampstead, there has been an insane woman shouting and swearing for the last 2 hours about some domestic dispute to two extraordinarily patient policemen. She's breached a restraining order and also has some issues with Dunelm along with a number of people whose names she's been broadcasting to us all. Quite what she's doing in hospital God only knows.

At the rate I'm going I'll be writing a guide to A&E departments round the UK.

That sounds nasty.
All the best, Cyclefree.

Recent A&E experiences range from excellent (took someone in with a suspected stroke) to abysmal (sacroiliac tear).
Same A&E.

Well now I am being admitted. And they seem to have found some lumps and fluid.

Bugger!

Sorry to hear that @Cyclefree. Hope things go better for you.

My latest comment on a few points on my favourite Trumpist channel.

I'm always interested to see defences of the Trump line.

Perhaps most revealing is Trump's willingness entirely to ignore law when legal processes are available to achieve his objective. That is overreach, and imo will be his downfall. And then he covers his backside with a blizzard of obfuscation and rhetoric.

Who are these allies whom Mr Trump is going to force to choose the USA or China? Trump has tried to mug them all, and they are wary. It's transactional, and since the USA no longer places any weight on treaties or agreements or trust, cooperation is either a) where there is no option or b) where there is guaranteed leverage or c) where the USA gets a major benefit.

Trump's head is stuck in about 1950, and the USA is not predominant as he thinks. His USA vs China framing does not reflect reality, and will be rejected. I expect the developed democracies (which no longer include the USA) to move over time to a newer structure, and the world will have more poles than USA vs China. The USA will be cooperated with, but has proven that it cannot be trusted.
.

The irony there is that you can’t even trust Trump on a transactional basis - he will accept what you offer and then wriggle out of his side of the deal anyway he can.

It’s why I think most countries if pushed to choice between the USA and China in the forthcoming trade war are likely to land on China’s side of the battle

Another long night in A&E - this time with acute chest pain when breathing, probably pleural. But may be an embolism.

Unlike in genteel Hampstead, there has been an insane woman shouting and swearing for the last 2 hours about some domestic dispute to two extraordinarily patient policemen. She's breached a restraining order and also has some issues with Dunelm along with a number of people whose names she's been broadcasting to us all. Quite what she's doing in hospital God only knows.

At the rate I'm going I'll be writing a guide to A&E departments round the UK.

That sounds nasty.
All the best, Cyclefree.

Recent A&E experiences range from excellent (took someone in with a suspected stroke) to abysmal (sacroiliac tear).
Same A&E.

Well now I am being admitted. And they seem to have found some lumps and fluid.

Bugger!

Good luck Cyclefree, hope it all goes okay.

Another long night in A&E - this time with acute chest pain when breathing, probably pleural. But may be an embolism.

Unlike in genteel Hampstead, there has been an insane woman shouting and swearing for the last 2 hours about some domestic dispute to two extraordinarily patient policemen. She's breached a restraining order and also has some issues with Dunelm along with a number of people whose names she's been broadcasting to us all. Quite what she's doing in hospital God only knows.

At the rate I'm going I'll be writing a guide to A&E departments round the UK.

Best of luck.

In A&E you see all the rich tapestry of human experience. There are no private ones, so it's in all our interests that they function well.

Acute Psychiatic services are very thin in a lot of the country, so the police often wind up involved.

@paleofuture.bsky.social‬

Trump just posted a new rant claiming the tariff exceptions on electronics announced late Friday aren’t actually exceptions and they’ll still get hit with tariffs.

https://bsky.app/profile/paleofuture.bsky.social/post/3lmpsjcja2c2y

@coachfinstock.bsky.social‬

So the market gonna crash again tomorrow and then Wednesday he'll say he's pausing tariffs again and then Thursday he'll make another one of those videos in the Oval Office where he tells everyone how many billions his friends made on the trade

Trump’s on-off again tariffs rapidly approaching the mixed state stage where we get both tariffs and not-tariffs simultaneously.

Trump’s certainly a total Planck

https://x.com/benonwine/status/1911332065431236882

British police warn an elderly, partially-deaf man that saying "speak English" is a hate crime.

Yeah except that isn't true is it. Why not post what actually happened rather than post lies.

He said 'Some people could potentially perceive that to be a hate crime'

Note the words 'Some people', 'potentially' and 'perceive'.

It is people like you who stir up hatred.

Nonsense. The copper is way out of line.

@scampi25 I didn't comment on whether I agreed with what the policeman said or not. I simply pointed out that @williamglenn lied and that is the sort of lie that stirs up hatred.

My husband is ethnically Chinese (although born on British soil) and during COVID he had to put up with constant unpleasant muttering, mainly from miserable old bastards who were behind him in a queue and missed out on the last pack of loo roll. If there'd been a policeman there I would have liked them to say something. Being a fan of English rather than British I would have preferred said policeman to tell the mutterer to act their age and shut up rather than 'some people may potentially consider that a hate crime' or whatever.

An incredible stat here. Someone has done IQ estimates of the “Swedish elite”

Look at the political class. The PARLIAMENTARIANS barely edge over IQ 110. THEY ARE 115 tops. That means quintessential midwits like @kinabalu and @IanB2 are running Sweden. People who should be running second hand bookshops or amateur ballet classes are running entire countries. Hence, perhaps, Sweden’s many modern problems, many of them entirely avoidable if you’re not governed by mediocrities

I am pretty sure we would find the same in the UK. I adduce David Lammy, Jess Philips and Ed Miliband as probative evidence

https://x.com/cremieuxrecueil/status/1719842701229560092?s=61&t=GGp3Vs1t1kTWDiyA-odnZg

We need a new word for this phenomenon. Government by the averagely dim

The Tories and LDs, indeed, all parties, are equally stuffed with these twats. It is not a partisan thing

Without knowing the IQ of the person doing the estimates, how can you take it seriously?

Unless... oh my God... it plays into your existing prejudices, and therefore must be believed and shared.