Picked a pound of tomatoes yesterday, and two pounds today plus four cucumbers
I made the Ottolenghi salad for my chef friend today. He’s setting up a new restaurant near Cheddar at the moment and loved it so much he’s going to put it on the menu
The “populists”, or “deniers”, or whatever they are, didn’t get it right anyway.
They keep talking about Sweden, instead of Denmark, for example.
It’s possible they are forgetful, or maybe they just talk shit all day long.
Because Sweden did better at maintaining civil liberties than Denmark did.
The yeahbutDenmark crowd want to use Denmark to justify restrictions. Why would someone who opposes restrictions advocate a Danish solution which was in hindsight worse based upon my priorities?
Whatever the case, Russian media want us to BELIEVE that Putin is prepared to go totally postal
Eschatology hardons aside, Russia wants to hook the leccy production up to Crimea, so a switch off and divert before starting back up down the line seems to be the plan i think
Neither the right or the left have a monopoly on authoritarianism.
It’s a different axis entirely.
And if our Covid response is somebody's idea of "Authoritarianism" they are a precious little creature indeed.
Handle with great care and keep in a darkened room.
Really? The covid response included: - suspension of the right of freedom of movement within the UK - suspension of the right of freedom of association - mass use of advertising of an 'obey the state' nature - freedom of speech? well, I suppose you were allowed to criticise the covid response as a wee bit over the top but it didn't go well for those who did.
You might think (and I don't think you did, if I recall correctly) that this was justified. But If you don't view this as authoritarianism it's hard to imagine what you would call authoritarianism.
Perspective though. Some lost it. To listen to them it was like we were on the road to the gulag and they were going on like this from day 1 and about some really quite trivial matters. Ok, "slippery slope" and all that, "our freedoms" and all that, but c'mon, like I say, perspective. That's what I mean.
- It’s all bluff and will blow over. Putin is a rational actor. Stay out of it. Chinas short/medium term economic/energy interests and long term strategic interests are served by having the west and Russia bogged down in a non-nuclear stand off. China can play off both sides, to its benefit.
- Putin is a mad man, but zaphorizia is far away. A somewhat regionalised nuclear catastrophe has only a small/moderate economic impact on China.
- This shit is serious and china needs to step up as the adult in the room. Impose a peace. This is their time.
Hmm.
As I said at the beginning of this;
Watch China.
I think a key part of Chinese foreign policy is that they don't want third parties interfering in their disputes, and so they're pretty anti third parties interfering in any dispute. Thus it's a basic principle that the war in Ukraine is between Russia and Ukraine, and nothing to do with them or NATO. They won't intervene.
When it is over they will be able to exploit Russia's weakness, and the enmity between Russia and the West, to make Russia a client state, and then they'd expect whoever is nominally in charge of Russia to ask for permission before farting, let alone anything else. And they'd no longer regards themselves as a third party.
- It’s all bluff and will blow over. Putin is a rational actor. Stay out of it. Chinas short/medium term economic/energy interests and long term strategic interests are served by having the west and Russia bogged down in a non-nuclear stand off. China can play off both sides, to its benefit.
- Putin is a mad man, but zaphorizia is far away. A somewhat regionalised nuclear catastrophe has only a small/moderate economic impact on China.
- This shit is serious and china needs to step up as the adult in the room. Impose a peace. This is their time.
Hmm.
As I said at the beginning of this;
Watch China.
China is sending troops to Russia for joint military exercises
Josh Lederman @JoshNBCNews NEWS: A Ukrainian military intelligence official tells @NBCNews that Russia has told its nuclear workers stationed at Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant NOT to go to work tomorrow
On a scale of 1 to 10 of bad news, where 1 is good news, and 10 is bad news, that's about 17, isn't it?
It is certainly sub opttimal. Winds set to turn easterly tomorrow too i believe.........
Yes, I just checked the wind forecast for that area of Uke. Winds will be blowing from the north east to southwest from tomorrow, ie the perfect direction, away from Russia, if you have a big radioactive spill near Russia
Jesus F Christ. Putin can't be that insane, can he?
I suspect hes going to just shut it down though, amplify the energy crisis
A nuclear disaster would be a disaster for Russia along with everyone else. I don't see how it possibly benefits Putin to poison, and render uninhabitable, the Ukraine he has just spent 50,000 Russian lives to capture
So I agree it will be a shutdown, if anything. But that's still scary and destabilising. Perfect time to do it as well, just as summer ends. Press the boot on the throat of European energy supplies
And of course it ramps up fear and European willingness to surrender - esp if you add in the 1% chance he might just blow the fucker up
I think you'd need the workers to shut it down. Though obviously we're treating the 'stay at home' Tweet as fact.
This sort of thing is why Mutti shut down Germany's nuclear power stations after Fukushima. They are a massive strategic liability. I don't know why PB seems so universally in favour of nuclear energy for Britain and bemoaning our lack of these installations.
What's the point of paying for a thumb on the scales if you don't get a thumb on the scales?
Well, some of us pointed out at the time that using estimated grades was a cheat's charter.
But curious that sixth-form colleges tended to not fiddle. Perhaps the teachers at those don't have quite the same pressures on them, but not sure.
Grammars being best of the rest is presumably because they tend to get a lot of As anyway, so less scope to cheat.
If affluent middle class people can't get their children into top academic institutions they will create their own top academic institutions or send their kids to other countries' top academic institutions.
They will also start to question paying their taxes into to a system that does not work for them, as many are starting to do with the NHS.
Hint: 30% of the taxes come from the top 1%.
Hint: People who suggest 30% of the taxes come from the top 1% are either economically illiterate or deliberately misleading (the combination is possible as well of course).
OK I left out the word income. In that article it suggests that the top 10% per cent probably pay not far short of 30% of all the indirect taxes as well as the direct ones.
But hey, nitpick. Its better than trying to counter my argument, right?
Your argument appears to be we should bias educational achievement to the benefit of the rich in case they stop paying taxes here…? I don’t think that’s going to be an electorally popular position.
The reason the top 10% pay that much of the total tax base is because of wealth inequality. If we had an economy that more fairly distributed wealth, this would be less of an issue. I support moves to decrease inequality.
No my argument is that candidates should be selected for university places based merit and not discriminated against because they have wealthy parents. Almost everybody is on board with that, I would have thought.
I get it that you don't like middle class people, but the fact is they pay the bills. They always have, they always will. So snort it up.
"merit" - lol.
This exchange for me nails the essence of the populist right politics you support. The one and only time it sides with 'ordinary people' is when it panders to and seeks to infame and electorally benefit from the bigotry that some of them are sometimes prone to.
It's poison. Sorry but it really is.
I don't think that the slogan 'don't vote for populists who are exploiting your stupidity and racism!' is an election winner somehow.
I could be wrong.
Lack of disagreement on the substance duly noted.
Question is, WHY do you like this type of politics? - this I am genuinely curious about.
Who was most against lockdown as it wore on? who was most against restrictions?
'Populists' like JHB, Darren Grimes, Richard Tice, Laurence Fox, Claire Fox and Steve Baker. Talk Radio was a lone voice in the wilderness at least questioning what was going on, whereas the rest of media simply asked why restrictions weren't tougher.
Who was most in favour of lockdown? Who thought that it should have gone on longer than it did, be more severe than it was, and that coming out of it was 'reckless'
Sir Keir Starmer.
Quite apart from the economic effects (which as we see are horrendous), evidence of the collateral damage of lockdown grows greater every day. Nobody with half a brain is ever contemplating it again.
I hope that answers your question.
You make very good points
This is just one reason we need populist rightwingers. The lefty liberal consensus is not just deadening, it can be actually deadly
The problem is that Tice, Grimes, etc are so repellant as individuals that they actively push more people away than they might attract.
The Lib Dems were also against unending lockdowns, it’s just that nobody noticed.
Nick Griffin very anti COVID lockdown, comparing it to a concentration camp. Given his political history one might wonder whether or not he meant lockdown was a good or indeed mythical thing.
I know Griffers has his fans on here related to his willingness to ‘speak out’.
Everybody despises Griffin, Now that is an unpleasant individual, but it didn't stop him blowing the whistle on grooming gangs (to an astonished Gavin Esler) years before it surfaced in the mainstream.
I sense that unlike the left you are savvy and sophisticated to realize that bad people can do good things.
Would this be fair?
And vice versa. The road to hell can indeed be paved with good intentions....!
Ha yes!
We can do a bit of 'duelling banjos' knockabout again now I've (re)sussed you're never serious but here for the Troll.
Missed that.
I think what freaks you out is people with genuine opinions and convictions whereas you have none.
Hangover from your "journey" I have no doubt; it's left you in limbo.
But all the lines you write on PB are impeccable if that cheers you up.
You just carry on with that there "thinking" Topping ... you'll get there.
The further problem is this: the majority view has been Putin is a pussy when it comes to nuclear, not gonna happen (with undertones from rcs of they prolly don't work too good anyway). This is his last chance to change that perception cos if nothing comes of this, even I move into the pussy camp.
Whatever the case, Russian media want us to BELIEVE that Putin is prepared to go totally postal
Eschatology hardons aside, Russia wants to hook the leccy production up to Crimea, so a switch off and divert before starting back up down the line seems to be the plan i think
Perhaps, but this is much more about blackmail. Russia wants us to freak out, and we are duly freaking out. A toxic deathcloud sweeping across Europe is a lot more frightening than "high inflation through the winter"
It may all be theatre. A Satanic bluff. But we cannot know, and Putin's prior behaviour has cleverly cued us to think Yes, he could do this
Perhaps this was the strategy all along. Act like a madman, then threaten something even madder, and thereby win
- It’s all bluff and will blow over. Putin is a rational actor. Stay out of it. Chinas short/medium term economic/energy interests and long term strategic interests are served by having the west and Russia bogged down in a non-nuclear stand off. China can play off both sides, to its benefit.
- Putin is a mad man, but zaphorizia is far away. A somewhat regionalised nuclear catastrophe has only a small/moderate economic impact on China.
- This shit is serious and china needs to step up as the adult in the room. Impose a peace. This is their time.
Hmm.
As I said at the beginning of this;
Watch China.
China is sending troops to Russia for joint military exercises
What's the point of paying for a thumb on the scales if you don't get a thumb on the scales?
Well, some of us pointed out at the time that using estimated grades was a cheat's charter.
But curious that sixth-form colleges tended to not fiddle. Perhaps the teachers at those don't have quite the same pressures on them, but not sure.
Grammars being best of the rest is presumably because they tend to get a lot of As anyway, so less scope to cheat.
If affluent middle class people can't get their children into top academic institutions they will create their own top academic institutions or send their kids to other countries' top academic institutions.
They will also start to question paying their taxes into to a system that does not work for them, as many are starting to do with the NHS.
Hint: 30% of the taxes come from the top 1%.
Hint: People who suggest 30% of the taxes come from the top 1% are either economically illiterate or deliberately misleading (the combination is possible as well of course).
OK I left out the word income. In that article it suggests that the top 10% per cent probably pay not far short of 30% of all the indirect taxes as well as the direct ones.
But hey, nitpick. Its better than trying to counter my argument, right?
Your argument appears to be we should bias educational achievement to the benefit of the rich in case they stop paying taxes here…? I don’t think that’s going to be an electorally popular position.
The reason the top 10% pay that much of the total tax base is because of wealth inequality. If we had an economy that more fairly distributed wealth, this would be less of an issue. I support moves to decrease inequality.
No my argument is that candidates should be selected for university places based merit and not discriminated against because they have wealthy parents. Almost everybody is on board with that, I would have thought.
I get it that you don't like middle class people, but the fact is they pay the bills. They always have, they always will. So snort it up.
"merit" - lol.
This exchange for me nails the essence of the populist right politics you support. The one and only time it sides with 'ordinary people' is when it panders to and seeks to infame and electorally benefit from the bigotry that some of them are sometimes prone to.
It's poison. Sorry but it really is.
I don't think that the slogan 'don't vote for populists who are exploiting your stupidity and racism!' is an election winner somehow.
I could be wrong.
Lack of disagreement on the substance duly noted.
Question is, WHY do you like this type of politics? - this I am genuinely curious about.
Who was most against lockdown as it wore on? who was most against restrictions?
'Populists' like JHB, Darren Grimes, Richard Tice, Laurence Fox, Claire Fox and Steve Baker. Talk Radio was a lone voice in the wilderness at least questioning what was going on, whereas the rest of media simply asked why restrictions weren't tougher.
Who was most in favour of lockdown? Who thought that it should have gone on longer than it did, be more severe than it was, and that coming out of it was 'reckless'
Sir Keir Starmer.
Quite apart from the economic effects (which as we see are horrendous), evidence of the collateral damage of lockdown grows greater every day. Nobody with half a brain is ever contemplating it again.
I hope that answers your question.
You make very good points
This is just one reason we need populist rightwingers. The lefty liberal consensus is not just deadening, it can be actually deadly
The problem is that Tice, Grimes, etc are so repellant as individuals that they actively push more people away than they might attract.
The Lib Dems were also against unending lockdowns, it’s just that nobody noticed.
Nick Griffin very anti COVID lockdown, comparing it to a concentration camp. Given his political history one might wonder whether or not he meant lockdown was a good or indeed mythical thing.
I know Griffers has his fans on here related to his willingness to ‘speak out’.
Everybody despises Griffin, Now that is an unpleasant individual, but it didn't stop him blowing the whistle on grooming gangs (to an astonished Gavin Esler) years before it surfaced in the mainstream.
I sense that unlike the left you are savvy and sophisticated to realize that bad people can do good things.
Would this be fair?
And vice versa. The road to hell can indeed be paved with good intentions....!
Ha yes!
We can do a bit of 'duelling banjos' knockabout again now I've (re)sussed you're never serious but here for the Troll.
Missed that.
I think what freaks you out is people with genuine opinions and convictions whereas you have none.
Hangover from your "journey" I have no doubt; it's left you in limbo.
But all the lines you write on PB are impeccable if that cheers you up.
You just carry on with that there "thinking" Topping ... you'll get there.
I will absolutely carry on with this here thinking.
Look I would relax. PB really is a place that you can be yourself. No one knows who you are - not your friends/family up north, not your city colleagues, not us. You can be yourself. PB works best when we are all ourselves.
You are not as yet being yourself. You are being someone you think you should be and as I said, it is because you are all over the place in terms of who you think you are, what you think you should show yourself as thinking, and which opinions to accept or reject as you have none of your own, and hence your posts are all "just so" - as I said, impeccable. But look on PB as a sanctuary, a haven, where you really can be yourself.
I think we are allowed to be a tad concerned. A mad despot who has already killed 150,000 people in six months in a pointless terrible war is now openly menacing a nuclear power plant
This is a genius move by Putin. He will threaten us with nuclear annihliation via a defunct power station. So it's not actually war but it's as good as. How do you fight back against that? Nuke him?
Stop the sanctions or the power plant gets it
I should have said "really worried".
Concerned, yes. But I get really worried when people tell me everything is fine.
"Any potential damage to Zaporizhzhia is suicide, it must not be used as part of any military operation: UN chief"
I have just dug off my shelf a book I read many years ago called The Weather Factor by Erik Durschmeid. I did so because I remembered a short chapter in it about the issues the Russians would have with the use of battlefield or tactical nuclear weapons along the western border of Warsaw Pact.
"Nuclear experts in both camps were fully aware that any Soviet nuclear strike on Central Europe would result in Russia’s collective suicide. Not due to the West’s nuclear retaliation, which would be unavoidable, but because of the permanently prevailing weather pattern. The wind factor. The dominant wind direction—west to east—in combination with the Earth’s rotation, would have it that the radioactive cloud from a two-megaton bomb, if exploded over France’s nuclear arsenal in the mountains of Provence, would rapidly extend to Kiev in the Ukraine. Or that a similar nuclear device, dropped on a NATO troop concentration at Germany’s Fulda Gap, would irradiate Moscow within twenty-four hours.2 Such was the equalising justice of the weather."
I am nor sure exactly how accurate this is but it put an interesting spin on Soviet threats to use nukes in Western Europe.
I think Wales received more nuclear fallout from Chernobyl than Moscow did, because of the specific weather pattern at the time. The winds tomorrow make it favourable timing from Russia's point of view.
It kinda doesn't matter if the prevailing winds mean that nuclear fallout heads towards Moscow on 19 days out of 20, if the timing is decided by someone in Moscow who can wait for the 20th day.
Josh Lederman @JoshNBCNews NEWS: A Ukrainian military intelligence official tells @NBCNews that Russia has told its nuclear workers stationed at Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant NOT to go to work tomorrow
On a scale of 1 to 10 of bad news, where 1 is good news, and 10 is bad news, that's about 17, isn't it?
It is certainly sub opttimal. Winds set to turn easterly tomorrow too i believe.........
Yes, I just checked the wind forecast for that area of Uke. Winds will be blowing from the north east to southwest from tomorrow, ie the perfect direction, away from Russia, if you have a big radioactive spill near Russia
Jesus F Christ. Putin can't be that insane, can he?
I suspect hes going to just shut it down though, amplify the energy crisis
A nuclear disaster would be a disaster for Russia along with everyone else. I don't see how it possibly benefits Putin to poison, and render uninhabitable, the Ukraine he has just spent 50,000 Russian lives to capture
So I agree it will be a shutdown, if anything. But that's still scary and destabilising. Perfect time to do it as well, just as summer ends. Press the boot on the throat of European energy supplies
And of course it ramps up fear and European willingness to surrender - esp if you add in the 1% chance he might just blow the fucker up
I think you'd need the workers to shut it down. Though obviously we're treating the 'stay at home' Tweet as fact.
This sort of thing is why Mutti shut down Germany's nuclear power stations after Fukushima. They are a massive strategic liability. I don't know why PB seems so universally in favour of nuclear energy for Britain and bemoaning our lack of these installations.
Because there are alternative nuclear power plants these days that do not have the problems and limitations of these massive dinosaur plants. The knee jerk reaction against anything nuclear is just dumb.
Picked a pound of tomatoes yesterday, and two pounds today plus four cucumbers
I made the Ottolenghi salad for my chef friend today. He’s setting up a new restaurant near Cheddar at the moment and loved it so much he’s going to put it on the menu
Adore Ottolenghi, cooked a few of his recipes.
Terrific tomatoes, as always, did you grow the cucumbers too ?
Whatever the case, Russian media want us to BELIEVE that Putin is prepared to go totally postal
Eschatology hardons aside, Russia wants to hook the leccy production up to Crimea, so a switch off and divert before starting back up down the line seems to be the plan i think
Perhaps, but this is much more about blackmail. Russia wants us to freak out, and we are duly freaking out. A toxic deathcloud sweeping across Europe is a lot more frightening than "high inflation through the winter"
It may all be theatre. A Satanic bluff. But we cannot know, and Putin's prior behaviour has cleverly cued us to think Yes, he could do this
Perhaps this was the strategy all along. Act like a madman, then threaten something even madder, and thereby win
We will see. The West's resolve seems to be creaking, things are rather loose. Of course theres also tons of diversionary horse shit to negotiate to get to the actuality as is always the case in war (and peace as it goes)
I think we are allowed to be a tad concerned. A mad despot who has already killed 150,000 people in six months in a pointless terrible war is now openly menacing a nuclear power plant
This is a genius move by Putin. He will threaten us with nuclear annihliation via a defunct power station. So it's not actually war but it's as good as. How do you fight back against that? Nuke him?
Stop the sanctions or the power plant gets it
I should have said "really worried".
Concerned, yes. But I get really worried when people tell me everything is fine.
"Any potential damage to Zaporizhzhia is suicide, it must not be used as part of any military operation: UN chief"
I have just dug off my shelf a book I read many years ago called The Weather Factor by Erik Durschmeid. I did so because I remembered a short chapter in it about the issues the Russians would have with the use of battlefield or tactical nuclear weapons along the western border of Warsaw Pact.
"Nuclear experts in both camps were fully aware that any Soviet nuclear strike on Central Europe would result in Russia’s collective suicide. Not due to the West’s nuclear retaliation, which would be unavoidable, but because of the permanently prevailing weather pattern. The wind factor. The dominant wind direction—west to east—in combination with the Earth’s rotation, would have it that the radioactive cloud from a two-megaton bomb, if exploded over France’s nuclear arsenal in the mountains of Provence, would rapidly extend to Kiev in the Ukraine. Or that a similar nuclear device, dropped on a NATO troop concentration at Germany’s Fulda Gap, would irradiate Moscow within twenty-four hours.2 Such was the equalising justice of the weather."
I am nor sure exactly how accurate this is but it put an interesting spin on Soviet threats to use nukes in Western Europe.
I think Wales received more nuclear fallout from Chernobyl than Moscow did, because of the specific weather pattern at the time. The winds tomorrow make it favourable timing from Russia's point of view.
It kinda doesn't matter if the prevailing winds mean that nuclear fallout heads towards Moscow on 19 days out of 20, if the timing is decided by someone in Moscow who can wait for the 20th day.
The weather forecasts for S Ukraine for the next ten days show persistent winds from the north east. So pretty much perfect for pushing toxic shit to the south and west
I think we are allowed to be a tad concerned. A mad despot who has already killed 150,000 people in six months in a pointless terrible war is now openly menacing a nuclear power plant
This is a genius move by Putin. He will threaten us with nuclear annihliation via a defunct power station. So it's not actually war but it's as good as. How do you fight back against that? Nuke him?
Stop the sanctions or the power plant gets it
I should have said "really worried".
Concerned, yes. But I get really worried when people tell me everything is fine.
"Any potential damage to Zaporizhzhia is suicide, it must not be used as part of any military operation: UN chief"
I have just dug off my shelf a book I read many years ago called The Weather Factor by Erik Durschmeid. I did so because I remembered a short chapter in it about the issues the Russians would have with the use of battlefield or tactical nuclear weapons along the western border of Warsaw Pact.
"Nuclear experts in both camps were fully aware that any Soviet nuclear strike on Central Europe would result in Russia’s collective suicide. Not due to the West’s nuclear retaliation, which would be unavoidable, but because of the permanently prevailing weather pattern. The wind factor. The dominant wind direction—west to east—in combination with the Earth’s rotation, would have it that the radioactive cloud from a two-megaton bomb, if exploded over France’s nuclear arsenal in the mountains of Provence, would rapidly extend to Kiev in the Ukraine. Or that a similar nuclear device, dropped on a NATO troop concentration at Germany’s Fulda Gap, would irradiate Moscow within twenty-four hours.2 Such was the equalising justice of the weather."
I am nor sure exactly how accurate this is but it put an interesting spin on Soviet threats to use nukes in Western Europe.
I think Wales received more nuclear fallout from Chernobyl than Moscow did, because of the specific weather pattern at the time. The winds tomorrow make it favourable timing from Russia's point of view.
It kinda doesn't matter if the prevailing winds mean that nuclear fallout heads towards Moscow on 19 days out of 20, if the timing is decided by someone in Moscow who can wait for the 20th day.
Not really because that presupposes that the fallout risk disappears before the wind changes direction which is statistically unlikely.
That said, as I mentioned at the bottom of my original posting, I am not sure how realistic these concerns were. Actually we know from documents obtained after the fall of the Soviet Union that THEY took them seriously at least to he extent of recognising the problem. But how realistic those concerns were is unclear for a layman.
I think we are allowed to be a tad concerned. A mad despot who has already killed 150,000 people in six months in a pointless terrible war is now openly menacing a nuclear power plant
This is a genius move by Putin. He will threaten us with nuclear annihliation via a defunct power station. So it's not actually war but it's as good as. How do you fight back against that? Nuke him?
Stop the sanctions or the power plant gets it
I should have said "really worried".
Concerned, yes. But I get really worried when people tell me everything is fine.
"Any potential damage to Zaporizhzhia is suicide, it must not be used as part of any military operation: UN chief"
I have just dug off my shelf a book I read many years ago called The Weather Factor by Erik Durschmeid. I did so because I remembered a short chapter in it about the issues the Russians would have with the use of battlefield or tactical nuclear weapons along the western border of Warsaw Pact.
"Nuclear experts in both camps were fully aware that any Soviet nuclear strike on Central Europe would result in Russia’s collective suicide. Not due to the West’s nuclear retaliation, which would be unavoidable, but because of the permanently prevailing weather pattern. The wind factor. The dominant wind direction—west to east—in combination with the Earth’s rotation, would have it that the radioactive cloud from a two-megaton bomb, if exploded over France’s nuclear arsenal in the mountains of Provence, would rapidly extend to Kiev in the Ukraine. Or that a similar nuclear device, dropped on a NATO troop concentration at Germany’s Fulda Gap, would irradiate Moscow within twenty-four hours.2 Such was the equalising justice of the weather."
I am nor sure exactly how accurate this is but it put an interesting spin on Soviet threats to use nukes in Western Europe.
I think Wales received more nuclear fallout from Chernobyl than Moscow did, because of the specific weather pattern at the time. The winds tomorrow make it favourable timing from Russia's point of view.
It kinda doesn't matter if the prevailing winds mean that nuclear fallout heads towards Moscow on 19 days out of 20, if the timing is decided by someone in Moscow who can wait for the 20th day.
The weather forecasts for S Ukraine for the next ten days show persistent winds from the north east. So pretty much perfect for pushing toxic shit to the south and west
Not great for Turkey, Romania, Greece
*buffs nails* Erdogan said Turkey stands behind Ukraine today you know
⚡️⚡️⚡️ Ukrainian intelligence believed that the Russians are preparing a provocation at Zaporizhzhia NPP on August 19. Russians rarely follow the schedule, BUT they announced an unexpected "day off" at the NPP and all the representatives of 🇷🇺Rosatom have urgently left the site
I think we are allowed to be a tad concerned. A mad despot who has already killed 150,000 people in six months in a pointless terrible war is now openly menacing a nuclear power plant
This is a genius move by Putin. He will threaten us with nuclear annihliation via a defunct power station. So it's not actually war but it's as good as. How do you fight back against that? Nuke him?
Stop the sanctions or the power plant gets it
I should have said "really worried".
Concerned, yes. But I get really worried when people tell me everything is fine.
"Any potential damage to Zaporizhzhia is suicide, it must not be used as part of any military operation: UN chief"
I have just dug off my shelf a book I read many years ago called The Weather Factor by Erik Durschmeid. I did so because I remembered a short chapter in it about the issues the Russians would have with the use of battlefield or tactical nuclear weapons along the western border of Warsaw Pact.
"Nuclear experts in both camps were fully aware that any Soviet nuclear strike on Central Europe would result in Russia’s collective suicide. Not due to the West’s nuclear retaliation, which would be unavoidable, but because of the permanently prevailing weather pattern. The wind factor. The dominant wind direction—west to east—in combination with the Earth’s rotation, would have it that the radioactive cloud from a two-megaton bomb, if exploded over France’s nuclear arsenal in the mountains of Provence, would rapidly extend to Kiev in the Ukraine. Or that a similar nuclear device, dropped on a NATO troop concentration at Germany’s Fulda Gap, would irradiate Moscow within twenty-four hours.2 Such was the equalising justice of the weather."
I am nor sure exactly how accurate this is but it put an interesting spin on Soviet threats to use nukes in Western Europe.
I think Wales received more nuclear fallout from Chernobyl than Moscow did, because of the specific weather pattern at the time. The winds tomorrow make it favourable timing from Russia's point of view.
It kinda doesn't matter if the prevailing winds mean that nuclear fallout heads towards Moscow on 19 days out of 20, if the timing is decided by someone in Moscow who can wait for the 20th day.
The weather forecasts for S Ukraine for the next ten days show persistent winds from the north east. So pretty much perfect for pushing toxic shit to the south and west
Not great for Turkey, Romania, Greece
*buffs nails* Erdogan said Turkey stands behind Ukraine today you know
I think we are allowed to be a tad concerned. A mad despot who has already killed 150,000 people in six months in a pointless terrible war is now openly menacing a nuclear power plant
This is a genius move by Putin. He will threaten us with nuclear annihliation via a defunct power station. So it's not actually war but it's as good as. How do you fight back against that? Nuke him?
Stop the sanctions or the power plant gets it
I should have said "really worried".
Concerned, yes. But I get really worried when people tell me everything is fine.
"Any potential damage to Zaporizhzhia is suicide, it must not be used as part of any military operation: UN chief"
I have just dug off my shelf a book I read many years ago called The Weather Factor by Erik Durschmeid. I did so because I remembered a short chapter in it about the issues the Russians would have with the use of battlefield or tactical nuclear weapons along the western border of Warsaw Pact.
"Nuclear experts in both camps were fully aware that any Soviet nuclear strike on Central Europe would result in Russia’s collective suicide. Not due to the West’s nuclear retaliation, which would be unavoidable, but because of the permanently prevailing weather pattern. The wind factor. The dominant wind direction—west to east—in combination with the Earth’s rotation, would have it that the radioactive cloud from a two-megaton bomb, if exploded over France’s nuclear arsenal in the mountains of Provence, would rapidly extend to Kiev in the Ukraine. Or that a similar nuclear device, dropped on a NATO troop concentration at Germany’s Fulda Gap, would irradiate Moscow within twenty-four hours.2 Such was the equalising justice of the weather."
I am nor sure exactly how accurate this is but it put an interesting spin on Soviet threats to use nukes in Western Europe.
I think Wales received more nuclear fallout from Chernobyl than Moscow did, because of the specific weather pattern at the time. The winds tomorrow make it favourable timing from Russia's point of view.
It kinda doesn't matter if the prevailing winds mean that nuclear fallout heads towards Moscow on 19 days out of 20, if the timing is decided by someone in Moscow who can wait for the 20th day.
Not really because that presupposes that the fallout risk disappears before the wind changes direction which is statistically unlikely.
That said, as I mentioned at the bottom of my original posting, I am not sure how realistic these concerns were. Actually we know from documents obtained after the fall of the Soviet Union that THEY took them seriously at least to he extent of recognising the problem. But how realistic those concerns were is unclear for a layman.
Any nuking of troops would have been airburst to maximise death and destruction, but much less fallout which is of course from material taken up in a ground burst mainly
I think we are allowed to be a tad concerned. A mad despot who has already killed 150,000 people in six months in a pointless terrible war is now openly menacing a nuclear power plant
This is a genius move by Putin. He will threaten us with nuclear annihliation via a defunct power station. So it's not actually war but it's as good as. How do you fight back against that? Nuke him?
Stop the sanctions or the power plant gets it
I should have said "really worried".
Concerned, yes. But I get really worried when people tell me everything is fine.
"Any potential damage to Zaporizhzhia is suicide, it must not be used as part of any military operation: UN chief"
I have just dug off my shelf a book I read many years ago called The Weather Factor by Erik Durschmeid. I did so because I remembered a short chapter in it about the issues the Russians would have with the use of battlefield or tactical nuclear weapons along the western border of Warsaw Pact.
"Nuclear experts in both camps were fully aware that any Soviet nuclear strike on Central Europe would result in Russia’s collective suicide. Not due to the West’s nuclear retaliation, which would be unavoidable, but because of the permanently prevailing weather pattern. The wind factor. The dominant wind direction—west to east—in combination with the Earth’s rotation, would have it that the radioactive cloud from a two-megaton bomb, if exploded over France’s nuclear arsenal in the mountains of Provence, would rapidly extend to Kiev in the Ukraine. Or that a similar nuclear device, dropped on a NATO troop concentration at Germany’s Fulda Gap, would irradiate Moscow within twenty-four hours.2 Such was the equalising justice of the weather."
I am nor sure exactly how accurate this is but it put an interesting spin on Soviet threats to use nukes in Western Europe.
So how was the equation of affection for the book, distress (perhaps) at it's condition, and the enthusiasm for the the text?
None of either. It was a book that disappointed in its original reading, promising much but failing to deliver. Unfulfilling one might say.
- It’s all bluff and will blow over. Putin is a rational actor. Stay out of it. Chinas short/medium term economic/energy interests and long term strategic interests are served by having the west and Russia bogged down in a non-nuclear stand off. China can play off both sides, to its benefit.
- Putin is a mad man, but zaphorizia is far away. A somewhat regionalised nuclear catastrophe has only a small/moderate economic impact on China.
- This shit is serious and china needs to step up as the adult in the room. Impose a peace. This is their time.
Hmm.
As I said at the beginning of this;
Watch China.
I think a key part of Chinese foreign policy is that they don't want third parties interfering in their disputes, and so they're pretty anti third parties interfering in any dispute. Thus it's a basic principle that the war in Ukraine is between Russia and Ukraine, and nothing to do with them or NATO. They won't intervene.
When it is over they will be able to exploit Russia's weakness, and the enmity between Russia and the West, to make Russia a client state, and then they'd expect whoever is nominally in charge of Russia to ask for permission before farting, let alone anything else. And they'd no longer regards themselves as a third party.
Picked a pound of tomatoes yesterday, and two pounds today plus four cucumbers
I made the Ottolenghi salad for my chef friend today. He’s setting up a new restaurant near Cheddar at the moment and loved it so much he’s going to put it on the menu
Adore Ottolenghi, cooked a few of his recipes.
Terrific tomatoes, as always, did you grow the cucumbers too ?
I did grow the cucumbers. They’re a variety called Mini Star and I’ve had more than fifty of them - off one plant - so far
I think we are allowed to be a tad concerned. A mad despot who has already killed 150,000 people in six months in a pointless terrible war is now openly menacing a nuclear power plant
This is a genius move by Putin. He will threaten us with nuclear annihliation via a defunct power station. So it's not actually war but it's as good as. How do you fight back against that? Nuke him?
Stop the sanctions or the power plant gets it
I should have said "really worried".
Concerned, yes. But I get really worried when people tell me everything is fine.
"Any potential damage to Zaporizhzhia is suicide, it must not be used as part of any military operation: UN chief"
I have just dug off my shelf a book I read many years ago called The Weather Factor by Erik Durschmeid. I did so because I remembered a short chapter in it about the issues the Russians would have with the use of battlefield or tactical nuclear weapons along the western border of Warsaw Pact.
"Nuclear experts in both camps were fully aware that any Soviet nuclear strike on Central Europe would result in Russia’s collective suicide. Not due to the West’s nuclear retaliation, which would be unavoidable, but because of the permanently prevailing weather pattern. The wind factor. The dominant wind direction—west to east—in combination with the Earth’s rotation, would have it that the radioactive cloud from a two-megaton bomb, if exploded over France’s nuclear arsenal in the mountains of Provence, would rapidly extend to Kiev in the Ukraine. Or that a similar nuclear device, dropped on a NATO troop concentration at Germany’s Fulda Gap, would irradiate Moscow within twenty-four hours.2 Such was the equalising justice of the weather."
I am nor sure exactly how accurate this is but it put an interesting spin on Soviet threats to use nukes in Western Europe.
I think Wales received more nuclear fallout from Chernobyl than Moscow did, because of the specific weather pattern at the time. The winds tomorrow make it favourable timing from Russia's point of view.
It kinda doesn't matter if the prevailing winds mean that nuclear fallout heads towards Moscow on 19 days out of 20, if the timing is decided by someone in Moscow who can wait for the 20th day.
The weather forecasts for S Ukraine for the next ten days show persistent winds from the north east. So pretty much perfect for pushing toxic shit to the south and west
Not great for Turkey, Romania, Greece
*buffs nails* Erdogan said Turkey stands behind Ukraine today you know
He ain't afraid of no nuclear apocalypse.
Magog aint afraid of no Gog. What could possibly go wrong Ezekiel?
He's not wrong. Capitalism as it is constituted has failed us. Because its corporatism, globalised corporatism. We are no longer customers of the market, we are commodities of it. As a wise man etc .... fuck that shit, man
. . .The Aug. 23 primary is still a few days away, but there are already signs of what’s in store for whichever Democratic candidate for governor manages to prevail.
. . . Gov. Ron DeSantis and . . . Republican Party of Florida – have basically kept pace on television ads even as the focus has been on Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried and Rep. Charlie Crist. An analysis done by AdImpact shows that out of the more than $13.2 million spent so far on the governor’s race, nearly $5.6 million has gone to boosting DeSantis.
. . . Fried has spent about $2.4 million, while Crist has dropped about $4.91 million for ads that have been a mix of the upbeat positive messaging and jabs at DeSantis. The two rivals have also taken sharp shots at each other over who’s better on abortion rights and a truer Democrat.
. . . DeSantis campaign has kept the focus squarely on the governor by stressing his Covid-19 anti-lockdown policies. And on Wednesday, the campaign showed the firepower to come by rolling out 11 different ads it plans to air – many of them first person testimonials praising DeSantis – as well as one . . . education ad – which contends he is “putting students first, protecting parents rights” . . .
. . . So far, the governor’s re-election campaign has not booked a lot of broadcast or cable time after August but the campaign is still sitting on more than $130 million in the bank, so that could change quickly.
The message — Most of what the governor’s re-election campaign has rolled out so far has been about reinforcing DeSantis’s record . . . Despite overwhelmingly superior resources, there’s been no real effort by DeSantis or Republicans to wade into the Democratic primary.
. . . All indications are that the DeSantis campaign doesn’t really care about which [Dem] emerges next Tuesday. But Fried theoretically poses a bit more of a challenge because she provides more of a contrast, not the least of which is that her position on abortion rights have been more consistent than Crist's. Fried could also provoke DeSantis more than Crist. (If you want proof of that, just look at the governor’s decision to schedule a Cabinet meeting on the day of the primary to force Fried to start her day in Tallahassee.)
The pitch — Another argument made by Fried and her supporters is that the playbook to defeat Crist has already been written, and that’s why she would be a better nominee. The rebuttal, of course, is that she failed to unify the party around her over the last year on the campaign trail. If she somehow scores an upset next week, she will come out of the primary with very little left in the bank although she contended this week she would be able to reload quickly. Still, whomever emerges will be at a serious disadvantage.
I think we are allowed to be a tad concerned. A mad despot who has already killed 150,000 people in six months in a pointless terrible war is now openly menacing a nuclear power plant
This is a genius move by Putin. He will threaten us with nuclear annihliation via a defunct power station. So it's not actually war but it's as good as. How do you fight back against that? Nuke him?
Stop the sanctions or the power plant gets it
I should have said "really worried".
Concerned, yes. But I get really worried when people tell me everything is fine.
"Any potential damage to Zaporizhzhia is suicide, it must not be used as part of any military operation: UN chief"
I have just dug off my shelf a book I read many years ago called The Weather Factor by Erik Durschmeid. I did so because I remembered a short chapter in it about the issues the Russians would have with the use of battlefield or tactical nuclear weapons along the western border of Warsaw Pact.
"Nuclear experts in both camps were fully aware that any Soviet nuclear strike on Central Europe would result in Russia’s collective suicide. Not due to the West’s nuclear retaliation, which would be unavoidable, but because of the permanently prevailing weather pattern. The wind factor. The dominant wind direction—west to east—in combination with the Earth’s rotation, would have it that the radioactive cloud from a two-megaton bomb, if exploded over France’s nuclear arsenal in the mountains of Provence, would rapidly extend to Kiev in the Ukraine. Or that a similar nuclear device, dropped on a NATO troop concentration at Germany’s Fulda Gap, would irradiate Moscow within twenty-four hours.2 Such was the equalising justice of the weather."
I am nor sure exactly how accurate this is but it put an interesting spin on Soviet threats to use nukes in Western Europe.
I think Wales received more nuclear fallout from Chernobyl than Moscow did, because of the specific weather pattern at the time. The winds tomorrow make it favourable timing from Russia's point of view.
It kinda doesn't matter if the prevailing winds mean that nuclear fallout heads towards Moscow on 19 days out of 20, if the timing is decided by someone in Moscow who can wait for the 20th day.
Not really because that presupposes that the fallout risk disappears before the wind changes direction which is statistically unlikely.
That said, as I mentioned at the bottom of my original posting, I am not sure how realistic these concerns were. Actually we know from documents obtained after the fall of the Soviet Union that THEY took them seriously at least to he extent of recognising the problem. But how realistic those concerns were is unclear for a layman.
My recollection is that the fallout risk from a one-off explosion does die away quite rapidly, within the limits of accurate modern weather forecasting.
Less so with the forecasting skill of the 1970s, but even then, most weather patterns persist for periods on order of a week. They would have had good odds of being able to choose the timing to avoid fallout reaching Moscow.
That hardcore diet of mine now feels a bit pointless
Frim the war diaries of Operation Square Leg (which simulated 130 warheads hitting the UK with ca 26 to 41 million deaths)..... warwickshire regional command managed to get organised evening meal distribution by day 13 after the attack. Calorific content to be 600 Calories plus one pint water for non workers, a whopping 800 calories and 2 pints of water for those press ganged into work. Yum.
Whatever the case, Russian media want us to BELIEVE that Putin is prepared to go totally postal
Eschatology hardons aside, Russia wants to hook the leccy production up to Crimea, so a switch off and divert before starting back up down the line seems to be the plan i think
Perhaps, but this is much more about blackmail. Russia wants us to freak out, and we are duly freaking out.
That hardcore diet of mine now feels a bit pointless
Cheer up mate, you’ve lived a good life. You’ve had some fun. You can always go out and gorge yourself senseless now.
True.
I might take a last walk up Primrose Hill in the sun, before it's all - y'know - GONE
It will still be there it will just look a little different.
Nah, Russian nuclear targeting is based on a similar principle to the Baedeker raids. They've catalogued all of Leon's favourite places and will land a warhead directly onto each one.
That hardcore diet of mine now feels a bit pointless
Cheer up mate, you’ve lived a good life. You’ve had some fun. You can always go out and gorge yourself senseless now.
True.
I might take a last walk up Primrose Hill in the sun, before it's all - y'know - GONE
It will still be there it will just look a little different.
Nah, Russian nuclear targeting is based on a similar principle to the Baedeker raids. They've catalogued all of Leon's favourite places and will land a warhead directly onto each one.
That hardcore diet of mine now feels a bit pointless
Cheer up mate, you’ve lived a good life. You’ve had some fun. You can always go out and gorge yourself senseless now.
True.
I might take a last walk up Primrose Hill in the sun, before it's all - y'know - GONE
It will still be there it will just look a little different.
Nah, Russian nuclear targeting is based on a similar principle to the Baedeker raids. They've catalogued all of Leon's favourite places and will land a warhead directly onto each one.
Josh Lederman @JoshNBCNews NEWS: A Ukrainian military intelligence official tells @NBCNews that Russia has told its nuclear workers stationed at Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant NOT to go to work tomorrow
On a scale of 1 to 10 of bad news, where 1 is good news, and 10 is bad news, that's about 17, isn't it?
It is certainly sub opttimal. Winds set to turn easterly tomorrow too i believe.........
Yes, I just checked the wind forecast for that area of Uke. Winds will be blowing from the north east to southwest from tomorrow, ie the perfect direction, away from Russia, if you have a big radioactive spill near Russia
Jesus F Christ. Putin can't be that insane, can he?
I suspect hes going to just shut it down though, amplify the energy crisis
A nuclear disaster would be a disaster for Russia along with everyone else. I don't see how it possibly benefits Putin to poison, and render uninhabitable, the Ukraine he has just spent 50,000 Russian lives to capture
So I agree it will be a shutdown, if anything. But that's still scary and destabilising. Perfect time to do it as well, just as summer ends. Press the boot on the throat of European energy supplies
And of course it ramps up fear and European willingness to surrender - esp if you add in the 1% chance he might just blow the fucker up
I think you'd need the workers to shut it down. Though obviously we're treating the 'stay at home' Tweet as fact.
This sort of thing is why Mutti shut down Germany's nuclear power stations after Fukushima. They are a massive strategic liability. I don't know why PB seems so universally in favour of nuclear energy for Britain and bemoaning our lack of these installations.
Because there are alternative nuclear power plants these days that do not have the problems and limitations of these massive dinosaur plants. The knee jerk reaction against anything nuclear is just dumb.
If the mini reactors don't leave us with a massive target on our derriere, I'm cautiously in favour. However, until I hear definitive info otherwise, I'll continue to be wary.
That hardcore diet of mine now feels a bit pointless
Cheer up mate, you’ve lived a good life. You’ve had some fun. You can always go out and gorge yourself senseless now.
True.
I might take a last walk up Primrose Hill in the sun, before it's all - y'know - GONE
It will still be there it will just look a little different.
Nah, Russian nuclear targeting is based on a similar principle to the Baedeker raids. They've catalogued all of Leon's favourite places and will land a warhead directly onto each one.
Lucky escape for the people of Wick.
Bit of a bugger that I’ve had to postpone my trip to Newent though.
Edit - just seen Leon’s comment. Maybe not if it’s going to be suddenly very crowded…
The further problem is this: the majority view has been Putin is a pussy when it comes to nuclear, not gonna happen (with undertones from rcs of they prolly don't work too good anyway). This is his last chance to change that perception cos if nothing comes of this, even I move into the pussy camp.
Wuss.
The only way to beat a madman is to out madman him.
The further problem is this: the majority view has been Putin is a pussy when it comes to nuclear, not gonna happen (with undertones from rcs of they prolly don't work too good anyway). This is his last chance to change that perception cos if nothing comes of this, even I move into the pussy camp.
Wuss.
The only way to beat a madman is to out madman him.
Time to give Ukraine nukes.
Slightly easier to say that from Brentwood LA, than it is from London, UK. And it also easier to say it in London than it is in Berlin, Athens or Riga
The further problem is this: the majority view has been Putin is a pussy when it comes to nuclear, not gonna happen (with undertones from rcs of they prolly don't work too good anyway). This is his last chance to change that perception cos if nothing comes of this, even I move into the pussy camp.
Wuss.
The only way to beat a madman is to out madman him.
Time to give Ukraine nukes.
Nah, just tell him we will send special forces to kidnap him, and will then display him naked outside the High Street Gate in Salisbury, charging people £5 a time to look through the microscope so they can judge for themselves how small his dick is.
Neither the right or the left have a monopoly on authoritarianism.
It’s a different axis entirely.
And if our Covid response is somebody's idea of "Authoritarianism" they are a precious little creature indeed.
Handle with great care and keep in a darkened room.
Really? The covid response included: - suspension of the right of freedom of movement within the UK - suspension of the right of freedom of association - mass use of advertising of an 'obey the state' nature - freedom of speech? well, I suppose you were allowed to criticise the covid response as a wee bit over the top but it didn't go well for those who did.
You might think (and I don't think you did, if I recall correctly) that this was justified. But If you don't view this as authoritarianism it's hard to imagine what you would call authoritarianism.
Perspective though. Some lost it. To listen to them it was like we were on the road to the gulag and they were going on like this from day 1 and about some really quite trivial matters. Ok, "slippery slope" and all that, "our freedoms" and all that, but c'mon, like I say, perspective. That's what I mean.
You're right perspective was lost completely by people obsessing about "death" above everything else but only COVID deaths at that.
Some people sold their souls to the trolley problem and lost all perspective.
Disturbingly when I wargame this in my head, as Vlad Putin, I keep reaching the conclusion: Do Something Bad
ie Leak at least a bit of radiation, blame it on the Ukrainians, say it was shelled. What's not to like? Don't destroy the plant and the world, but do enough - poison a town or two - to put terror into your enemies, and make Europe sue for peace
Putin and Russia rely on the impression of power and aggression. If they back down now, and nothing happens, then it will look weak. So it was all a bluff. The West will gain resolve
For this gambit to work best for him, he needs to do something bad at the power plant, just not something apocalyptic, yet
Initially i was a little irked to be bombarded on a more than daily basis with Herschel Walker emails. Now, they are providing a drip feed of happiness and satifiscation. This hour's missive include this crocodile tear-inducing snippet:
"As a result of the tough fundraising environment Republicans are seeing across the nation, we're not raising enough money to run the campaign that we need to be running. That means we've had to make some hard decisions. Today we made the toughest call we've had to make since last August.
"We don't have enough money in the bank to keep our TV ads on air. As of this morning, our ads are no longer running across Georgia."
Initially i was a little irked to be bombarded on a more than daily basis with Herschel Walker emails. Now, they are providing a drip feed of happiness and satifiscation. This hour's missive include this crocodile tear-inducing snippet:
"As a result of the tough fundraising environment Republicans are seeing across the nation, we're not raising enough money to run the campaign that we need to be running. That means we've had to make some hard decisions. Today we made the toughest call we've had to make since last August.
"We don't have enough money in the bank to keep our TV ads on air. As of this morning, our ads are no longer running across Georgia."
The further problem is this: the majority view has been Putin is a pussy when it comes to nuclear, not gonna happen (with undertones from rcs of they prolly don't work too good anyway). This is his last chance to change that perception cos if nothing comes of this, even I move into the pussy camp.
Wuss.
The only way to beat a madman is to out madman him.
Time to give Ukraine nukes.
Nah, just tell him we will send special forces to kidnap him, and will then display him naked outside the High Street Gate in Salisbury, charging people £5 a time to look through the microscope so they can judge for themselves how small his dick is.
I ran my Evil Mastermind exercise in an online workshop today. Participants are asked to describe what biological weapon they'd make, how they would use it, against whom, for what purpose.
The very best (at least for giggles) of today's crop was to create a pathogen that causes the infected person to have uncontrollable body hair growth all over their body. Perhaps that is something we could use again Putin, Trump and some other dangerous politicians.
Although my preferred option would be a pathogen to give them unending explosive diarrhea coupled with aphasia so they could only talk gibberish.
Disturbingly when I wargame this in my head, as Vlad Putin, I keep reaching the conclusion: Do Something Bad
ie Leak at least a bit of radiation, blame it on the Ukrainians, say it was shelled. What's not to like? Don't destroy the plant and the world, but do enough - poison a town or two - to put terror into your enemies, and make Europe sue for peace
Putin and Russia rely on the impression of power and aggression. If they back down now, and nothing happens, then it will look weak. So it was all a bluff. The West will gain resolve
For this gambit to work best for him, he needs to do something bad at the power plant, just not something apocalyptic, yet
In order to dissuade Putin from following such a course we need to make sure that our response is strong enough to make Putin fear what our response would be if he goes further.
The further problem is this: the majority view has been Putin is a pussy when it comes to nuclear, not gonna happen (with undertones from rcs of they prolly don't work too good anyway). This is his last chance to change that perception cos if nothing comes of this, even I move into the pussy camp.
Wuss.
The only way to beat a madman is to out madman him.
Time to give Ukraine nukes.
Nah, just tell him we will send special forces to kidnap him, and will then display him naked outside the High Street Gate in Salisbury, charging people £5 a time to look through the microscope so they can judge for themselves how small his dick is.
I ran my Evil Mastermind exercise in an online workshop today. Participants are asked to describe what biological weapon they'd make, how they would use it, against whom, for what purpose.
The very best (at least for giggles) of today's crop was to create a pathogen that causes the infected person to have uncontrollable body hair growth all over their body. Perhaps that is something we could use again Putin, Trump and some other dangerous politicians.
Although my preferred option would be a pathogen to give them unending explosive diarrhea coupled with aphasia so they could only talk gibberish.
In the case of Putin, Trump, Johnson, Sultana and Spielman, that would probably actually improve the quality of their verbal discourse.
Initially i was a little irked to be bombarded on a more than daily basis with Herschel Walker emails. Now, they are providing a drip feed of happiness and satifiscation. This hour's missive include this crocodile tear-inducing snippet:
"As a result of the tough fundraising environment Republicans are seeing across the nation, we're not raising enough money to run the campaign that we need to be running. That means we've had to make some hard decisions. Today we made the toughest call we've had to make since last August.
"We don't have enough money in the bank to keep our TV ads on air. As of this morning, our ads are no longer running across Georgia."
Oh dear, how sad. Never mind.
I think you need the Jeremy Clarkson meme to go with that ...
What's the point of paying for a thumb on the scales if you don't get a thumb on the scales?
Well, some of us pointed out at the time that using estimated grades was a cheat's charter.
But curious that sixth-form colleges tended to not fiddle. Perhaps the teachers at those don't have quite the same pressures on them, but not sure.
Grammars being best of the rest is presumably because they tend to get a lot of As anyway, so less scope to cheat.
If affluent middle class people can't get their children into top academic institutions they will create their own top academic institutions or send their kids to other countries' top academic institutions.
They will also start to question paying their taxes into to a system that does not work for them, as many are starting to do with the NHS.
Hint: 30% of the taxes come from the top 1%.
Hint: People who suggest 30% of the taxes come from the top 1% are either economically illiterate or deliberately misleading (the combination is possible as well of course).
OK I left out the word income. In that article it suggests that the top 10% per cent probably pay not far short of 30% of all the indirect taxes as well as the direct ones.
But hey, nitpick. Its better than trying to counter my argument, right?
Your argument appears to be we should bias educational achievement to the benefit of the rich in case they stop paying taxes here…? I don’t think that’s going to be an electorally popular position.
The reason the top 10% pay that much of the total tax base is because of wealth inequality. If we had an economy that more fairly distributed wealth, this would be less of an issue. I support moves to decrease inequality.
No my argument is that candidates should be selected for university places based merit and not discriminated against because they have wealthy parents. Almost everybody is on board with that, I would have thought.
I get it that you don't like middle class people, but the fact is they pay the bills. They always have, they always will. So snort it up.
"merit" - lol.
This exchange for me nails the essence of the populist right politics you support. The one and only time it sides with 'ordinary people' is when it panders to and seeks to infame and electorally benefit from the bigotry that some of them are sometimes prone to.
It's poison. Sorry but it really is.
I don't think that the slogan 'don't vote for populists who are exploiting your stupidity and racism!' is an election winner somehow.
I could be wrong.
Lack of disagreement on the substance duly noted.
Question is, WHY do you like this type of politics? - this I am genuinely curious about.
Who was most against lockdown as it wore on? who was most against restrictions?
'Populists' like JHB, Darren Grimes, Richard Tice, Laurence Fox, Claire Fox and Steve Baker. Talk Radio was a lone voice in the wilderness at least questioning what was going on, whereas the rest of media simply asked why restrictions weren't tougher.
Who was most in favour of lockdown? Who thought that it should have gone on longer than it did, be more severe than it was, and that coming out of it was 'reckless'
Sir Keir Starmer.
Quite apart from the economic effects (which as we see are horrendous), evidence of the collateral damage of lockdown grows greater every day. Nobody with half a brain is ever contemplating it again.
I hope that answers your question.
You make very good points
This is just one reason we need populist rightwingers. The lefty liberal consensus is not just deadening, it can be actually deadly
The problem is that Tice, Grimes, etc are so repellant as individuals that they actively push more people away than they might attract.
The Lib Dems were also against unending lockdowns, it’s just that nobody noticed.
Nick Griffin very anti COVID lockdown, comparing it to a concentration camp. Given his political history one might wonder whether or not he meant lockdown was a good or indeed mythical thing.
I know Griffers has his fans on here related to his willingness to ‘speak out’.
Everybody despises Griffin, Now that is an unpleasant individual, but it didn't stop him blowing the whistle on grooming gangs (to an astonished Gavin Esler) years before it surfaced in the mainstream.
I sense that unlike the left you are savvy and sophisticated to realize that bad people can do good things.
Would this be fair?
And vice versa. The road to hell can indeed be paved with good intentions....!
Ha yes!
We can do a bit of 'duelling banjos' knockabout again now I've (re)sussed you're never serious but here for the Troll.
Missed that.
I think what freaks you out is people with genuine opinions and convictions whereas you have none.
Hangover from your "journey" I have no doubt; it's left you in limbo.
But all the lines you write on PB are impeccable if that cheers you up.
You just carry on with that there "thinking" Topping ... you'll get there.
I will absolutely carry on with this here thinking.
Look I would relax. PB really is a place that you can be yourself. No one knows who you are - not your friends/family up north, not your city colleagues, not us. You can be yourself. PB works best when we are all ourselves.
You are not as yet being yourself. You are being someone you think you should be and as I said, it is because you are all over the place in terms of who you think you are, what you think you should show yourself as thinking, and which opinions to accept or reject as you have none of your own, and hence your posts are all "just so" - as I said, impeccable. But look on PB as a sanctuary, a haven, where you really can be yourself.
Neither the right or the left have a monopoly on authoritarianism.
It’s a different axis entirely.
And if our Covid response is somebody's idea of "Authoritarianism" they are a precious little creature indeed.
Handle with great care and keep in a darkened room.
Really? The covid response included: - suspension of the right of freedom of movement within the UK - suspension of the right of freedom of association - mass use of advertising of an 'obey the state' nature - freedom of speech? well, I suppose you were allowed to criticise the covid response as a wee bit over the top but it didn't go well for those who did.
You might think (and I don't think you did, if I recall correctly) that this was justified. But If you don't view this as authoritarianism it's hard to imagine what you would call authoritarianism.
Perspective though. Some lost it. To listen to them it was like we were on the road to the gulag and they were going on like this from day 1 and about some really quite trivial matters. Ok, "slippery slope" and all that, "our freedoms" and all that, but c'mon, like I say, perspective. That's what I mean.
You're right perspective was lost completely by people obsessing about "death" above everything else but only COVID deaths at that.
Some people sold their souls to the trolley problem and lost all perspective.
What's the point of paying for a thumb on the scales if you don't get a thumb on the scales?
Well, some of us pointed out at the time that using estimated grades was a cheat's charter.
But curious that sixth-form colleges tended to not fiddle. Perhaps the teachers at those don't have quite the same pressures on them, but not sure.
Grammars being best of the rest is presumably because they tend to get a lot of As anyway, so less scope to cheat.
If affluent middle class people can't get their children into top academic institutions they will create their own top academic institutions or send their kids to other countries' top academic institutions.
They will also start to question paying their taxes into to a system that does not work for them, as many are starting to do with the NHS.
Hint: 30% of the taxes come from the top 1%.
Hint: People who suggest 30% of the taxes come from the top 1% are either economically illiterate or deliberately misleading (the combination is possible as well of course).
OK I left out the word income. In that article it suggests that the top 10% per cent probably pay not far short of 30% of all the indirect taxes as well as the direct ones.
But hey, nitpick. Its better than trying to counter my argument, right?
Your argument appears to be we should bias educational achievement to the benefit of the rich in case they stop paying taxes here…? I don’t think that’s going to be an electorally popular position.
The reason the top 10% pay that much of the total tax base is because of wealth inequality. If we had an economy that more fairly distributed wealth, this would be less of an issue. I support moves to decrease inequality.
No my argument is that candidates should be selected for university places based merit and not discriminated against because they have wealthy parents. Almost everybody is on board with that, I would have thought.
I get it that you don't like middle class people, but the fact is they pay the bills. They always have, they always will. So snort it up.
"merit" - lol.
This exchange for me nails the essence of the populist right politics you support. The one and only time it sides with 'ordinary people' is when it panders to and seeks to infame and electorally benefit from the bigotry that some of them are sometimes prone to.
It's poison. Sorry but it really is.
I don't think that the slogan 'don't vote for populists who are exploiting your stupidity and racism!' is an election winner somehow.
I could be wrong.
Lack of disagreement on the substance duly noted.
Question is, WHY do you like this type of politics? - this I am genuinely curious about.
Who was most against lockdown as it wore on? who was most against restrictions?
'Populists' like JHB, Darren Grimes, Richard Tice, Laurence Fox, Claire Fox and Steve Baker. Talk Radio was a lone voice in the wilderness at least questioning what was going on, whereas the rest of media simply asked why restrictions weren't tougher.
Who was most in favour of lockdown? Who thought that it should have gone on longer than it did, be more severe than it was, and that coming out of it was 'reckless'
Sir Keir Starmer.
Quite apart from the economic effects (which as we see are horrendous), evidence of the collateral damage of lockdown grows greater every day. Nobody with half a brain is ever contemplating it again.
I hope that answers your question.
You make very good points
This is just one reason we need populist rightwingers. The lefty liberal consensus is not just deadening, it can be actually deadly
The problem is that Tice, Grimes, etc are so repellant as individuals that they actively push more people away than they might attract.
The Lib Dems were also against unending lockdowns, it’s just that nobody noticed.
Nick Griffin very anti COVID lockdown, comparing it to a concentration camp. Given his political history one might wonder whether or not he meant lockdown was a good or indeed mythical thing.
I know Griffers has his fans on here related to his willingness to ‘speak out’.
Everybody despises Griffin, Now that is an unpleasant individual, but it didn't stop him blowing the whistle on grooming gangs (to an astonished Gavin Esler) years before it surfaced in the mainstream.
I sense that unlike the left you are savvy and sophisticated to realize that bad people can do good things.
Would this be fair?
And vice versa. The road to hell can indeed be paved with good intentions....!
Ha yes!
We can do a bit of 'duelling banjos' knockabout again now I've (re)sussed you're never serious but here for the Troll.
Missed that.
I think what freaks you out is people with genuine opinions and convictions whereas you have none.
Hangover from your "journey" I have no doubt; it's left you in limbo.
But all the lines you write on PB are impeccable if that cheers you up.
You just carry on with that there "thinking" Topping ... you'll get there.
I will absolutely carry on with this here thinking.
Look I would relax. PB really is a place that you can be yourself. No one knows who you are - not your friends/family up north, not your city colleagues, not us. You can be yourself. PB works best when we are all ourselves.
You are not as yet being yourself. You are being someone you think you should be and as I said, it is because you are all over the place in terms of who you think you are, what you think you should show yourself as thinking, and which opinions to accept or reject as you have none of your own, and hence your posts are all "just so" - as I said, impeccable. But look on PB as a sanctuary, a haven, where you really can be yourself.
What's the point of paying for a thumb on the scales if you don't get a thumb on the scales?
Well, some of us pointed out at the time that using estimated grades was a cheat's charter.
But curious that sixth-form colleges tended to not fiddle. Perhaps the teachers at those don't have quite the same pressures on them, but not sure.
Grammars being best of the rest is presumably because they tend to get a lot of As anyway, so less scope to cheat.
If affluent middle class people can't get their children into top academic institutions they will create their own top academic institutions or send their kids to other countries' top academic institutions.
They will also start to question paying their taxes into to a system that does not work for them, as many are starting to do with the NHS.
Hint: 30% of the taxes come from the top 1%.
Hint: People who suggest 30% of the taxes come from the top 1% are either economically illiterate or deliberately misleading (the combination is possible as well of course).
OK I left out the word income. In that article it suggests that the top 10% per cent probably pay not far short of 30% of all the indirect taxes as well as the direct ones.
But hey, nitpick. Its better than trying to counter my argument, right?
Your argument appears to be we should bias educational achievement to the benefit of the rich in case they stop paying taxes here…? I don’t think that’s going to be an electorally popular position.
The reason the top 10% pay that much of the total tax base is because of wealth inequality. If we had an economy that more fairly distributed wealth, this would be less of an issue. I support moves to decrease inequality.
No my argument is that candidates should be selected for university places based merit and not discriminated against because they have wealthy parents. Almost everybody is on board with that, I would have thought.
I get it that you don't like middle class people, but the fact is they pay the bills. They always have, they always will. So snort it up.
"merit" - lol.
This exchange for me nails the essence of the populist right politics you support. The one and only time it sides with 'ordinary people' is when it panders to and seeks to infame and electorally benefit from the bigotry that some of them are sometimes prone to.
It's poison. Sorry but it really is.
If not academic merit what do you think university graduates should be selected on? Wokeness?....left wing bigotry?....being a complete wanker?
Comments
I made the Ottolenghi salad for my chef friend today. He’s setting up a new restaurant near Cheddar at the moment and loved it so much he’s going to put it on the menu
When it is over they will be able to exploit Russia's weakness, and the enmity between Russia and the West, to make Russia a client state, and then they'd expect whoever is nominally in charge of Russia to ask for permission before farting, let alone anything else. And they'd no longer regards themselves as a third party.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/china-send-troops-russia-joint-military-exercise-rcna43460
Beijing's participation in the joint exercises was “unrelated to the current international and regional situation,” the country's defense ministry said in a statement....
This sort of thing is why Mutti shut down Germany's nuclear power stations after Fukushima. They are a massive strategic liability. I don't know why PB seems so universally in favour of nuclear energy for Britain and bemoaning our lack of these installations.
It may all be theatre. A Satanic bluff. But we cannot know, and Putin's prior behaviour has cleverly cued us to think Yes, he could do this
Perhaps this was the strategy all along. Act like a madman, then threaten something even madder, and thereby win
Look I would relax. PB really is a place that you can be yourself. No one knows who you are - not your friends/family up north, not your city colleagues, not us. You can be yourself. PB works best when we are all ourselves.
You are not as yet being yourself. You are being someone you think you should be and as I said, it is because you are all over the place in terms of who you think you are, what you think you should show yourself as thinking, and which opinions to accept or reject as you have none of your own, and hence your posts are all "just so" - as I said, impeccable. But look on PB as a sanctuary, a haven, where you really can be yourself.
I assure you you will feel all the better for it.
It kinda doesn't matter if the prevailing winds mean that nuclear fallout heads towards Moscow on 19 days out of 20, if the timing is decided by someone in Moscow who can wait for the 20th day.
Terrific tomatoes, as always, did you grow the cucumbers too ?
Of course theres also tons of diversionary horse shit to negotiate to get to the actuality as is always the case in war (and peace as it goes)
Not great for Turkey, Romania, Greece
That said, as I mentioned at the bottom of my original posting, I am not sure how realistic these concerns were. Actually we know from documents obtained after the fall of the Soviet Union that THEY took them seriously at least to he extent of recognising the problem. But how realistic those concerns were is unclear for a layman.
⚡️⚡️⚡️ Ukrainian intelligence believed that the Russians are preparing a provocation at Zaporizhzhia NPP on August 19.
Russians rarely follow the schedule, BUT they announced an unexpected "day off" at the NPP and all the representatives of 🇷🇺Rosatom have urgently left the site
https://twitter.com/IuliiaMendel/status/1560295165562068992?s=20&t=zwGbWGQVWsnixGFjcHEHKw
https://twitter.com/goldtelegraph_/status/1560252410374807552?s=21&t=NdtgYLmPxyl4K44AStrHlg
‘We’ve had it up to here with a government that says we can go on as a society treating people like shit.’
https://twitter.com/bmay/status/1560246026921037830?s=21&t=6EO3xHFfnJ3Ff6vBXbmulQ
As a wise man etc .... fuck that shit, man
I might take a last walk up Primrose Hill in the sun, before it's all - y'know - GONE
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/florida-playbook/2022/08/18/the-wave-of-television-ads-ahead-of-florida-primary-00052579
. . .The Aug. 23 primary is still a few days away, but there are already signs of what’s in store for whichever Democratic candidate for governor manages to prevail.
. . . Gov. Ron DeSantis and . . . Republican Party of Florida – have basically kept pace on television ads even as the focus has been on Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried and Rep. Charlie Crist. An analysis done by AdImpact shows that out of the more than $13.2 million spent so far on the governor’s race, nearly $5.6 million has gone to boosting DeSantis.
. . . Fried has spent about $2.4 million, while Crist has dropped about $4.91 million for ads that have been a mix of the upbeat positive messaging and jabs at DeSantis. The two rivals have also taken sharp shots at each other over who’s better on abortion rights and a truer Democrat.
. . . DeSantis campaign has kept the focus squarely on the governor by stressing his Covid-19 anti-lockdown policies. And on Wednesday, the campaign showed the firepower to come by rolling out 11 different ads it plans to air – many of them first person testimonials praising DeSantis – as well as one . . . education ad – which contends he is “putting students first, protecting parents rights” . . .
. . . So far, the governor’s re-election campaign has not booked a lot of broadcast or cable time after August but the campaign is still sitting on more than $130 million in the bank, so that could change quickly.
The message — Most of what the governor’s re-election campaign has rolled out so far has been about reinforcing DeSantis’s record . . . Despite overwhelmingly superior resources, there’s been no real effort by DeSantis or Republicans to wade into the Democratic primary.
. . . All indications are that the DeSantis campaign doesn’t really care about which [Dem] emerges next Tuesday. But Fried theoretically poses a bit more of a challenge because she provides more of a contrast, not the least of which is that her position on abortion rights have been more consistent than Crist's. Fried could also provoke DeSantis more than Crist. (If you want proof of that, just look at the governor’s decision to schedule a Cabinet meeting on the day of the primary to force Fried to start her day in Tallahassee.)
The pitch — Another argument made by Fried and her supporters is that the playbook to defeat Crist has already been written, and that’s why she would be a better nominee. The rebuttal, of course, is that she failed to unify the party around her over the last year on the campaign trail. If she somehow scores an upset next week, she will come out of the primary with very little left in the bank although she contended this week she would be able to reload quickly. Still, whomever emerges will be at a serious disadvantage.
https://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=157095
Less so with the forecasting skill of the 1970s, but even then, most weather patterns persist for periods on order of a week. They would have had good odds of being able to choose the timing to avoid fallout reaching Moscow.
Lucky escape for the people of Wick.
The great thing about studying geology.
It gives you a wonderful sense of perspective.
Edit - just seen Leon’s comment. Maybe not if it’s going to be suddenly very crowded…
The only way to beat a madman is to out madman him.
Time to give Ukraine nukes.
I wonder what @Cicero is thinking, right now
Some people sold their souls to the trolley problem and lost all perspective.
ie Leak at least a bit of radiation, blame it on the Ukrainians, say it was shelled. What's not to like? Don't destroy the plant and the world, but do enough - poison a town or two - to put terror into your enemies, and make Europe sue for peace
Putin and Russia rely on the impression of power and aggression. If they back down now, and nothing happens, then it will look weak. So it was all a bluff. The West will gain resolve
For this gambit to work best for him, he needs to do something bad at the power plant, just not something apocalyptic, yet
"As a result of the tough fundraising environment Republicans are seeing across the nation, we're not raising enough money to run the campaign that we need to be running. That means we've had to make some hard decisions. Today we made the toughest call we've had to make since last August.
"We don't have enough money in the bank to keep our TV ads on air. As of this morning, our ads are no longer running across Georgia."
The very best (at least for giggles) of today's crop was to create a pathogen that causes the infected person to have uncontrollable body hair growth all over their body. Perhaps that is something we could use again Putin, Trump and some other dangerous politicians.
Although my preferred option would be a pathogen to give them unending explosive diarrhea coupled with aphasia so they could only talk gibberish.
Sink the Black Sea Fleet or something.