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It’s a mistake to think of the election as just LAB vs CON – politicalbetting.com

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  • Stark_DawningStark_Dawning Posts: 9,679
    edited December 2022

    Cookie said:

    kle4 said:

    Rejoice.

    Eddie Jones sacked.

    Best sporting news in the past week.

    Not 'by mutual consent', the usual code for sacking?
    While I think Eddie has taken England as far as he can, and it's time to try someone else, I can't help feeling he's been treated a bit shabbily here.
    He should have gone a year or two ago. He developed an effective plan with the goal of winning the world cup and that nearly worked (England played poorly in the final and unlucky with some injuries like Cokanasiga and Sinckler).

    However since then, the rest of the rugby world have developed at a faster rate and now have very effective plans to dealing with England's rather 1-d attack. There is no real evidence that Jones has changed England's approach despite this, its still very much dependent on big man at centre hitting the line hard and box kick chase with May / Nowell / Steward challenge in the air.
    Still probably a dumb move. They have now removed the highest performing coach that England have had in recent years and leave them with an interim only months before a world cup. Jones has performed well in the big competitions if one looks at it objectively. By comparison, I wonder how many pundits were calling for Gareth Southgate's sacking a few months ago?
    Yes, I suspect any interim leader is going to achieve bugger all in this short space of time, so the next World Cup has effectively been forfeited. May as well have stuck with Eddie in the hope he could conjure up a miracle. Sack him after that if need be.
  • WillGWillG Posts: 2,366
    DavidL said:

    Whiffy. Apart from anything else a crappy, ill-fitting metaphor.


    Thought it was quite funny myself.
    I am being slow. What do the rubber ducks refer to?
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,397

    kle4 said:

    HYUFD said:

    Nigelb said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    kle4 said:

    Foxy said:

    Nigelb said:

    Trump clarifies that while he called for terminating the Constitution, he didn’t mean terminating the whole Constitution, just the bits that relate to the operation of our democracy and anything else that might prevent him from seizing power
    https://twitter.com/originalspin/status/1599923908391882753

    His postings on the subject are increasingly deranged, it really would be astonishing for the Rupublicans to pick him again.


    It seems more likely than ever when even that insanity doesn't get called out. They agree or are afraid of him.
    For his base, he can never go too far. Angry, paranoid authoritarianism is his brand and his core would genuinely love to have him as dictator-for-life, doing away with democracy altogether.

    The spineless Republicans who have been a willing host organism for this insane parasite will hopefully get their eventual comeuppance as they tear themselves apart in the primaries.
    It’s going to be great seeing the no-holds-barred abuse that Trump will throw at his rivals in the primaries. What will be interesting is how much the craven toadies will feel able to throw back at him.
    The 2024 Presidential is going to be a fucking carnival of filth. It's going to be great.
    I suspect the primaries might provide most of the fun.
    The main event could be an anticlimax, depending on who emerge as the candidates.
    Agree.
    I think that Trump is on the way out, but the Republicans will still probably choose an extreme right candidate and then hopefully get beaten again. Maybe in 2028 they'll choose an electable candidate.
    In the meantime, I'm thinking that the Georgia runoff will not be as close as some pundits are saying with Raphael Warnock easily winning.
    Trump proved himself to be electable in 2016 as he won the EC, even in 2020 47% of US voters voted for him despite Biden's win.

    People use the term electable a bit casually. Obviously someone is literally capable of being elected, especially if they have been before. But his negatives were seen to outweigh his positives in 2020, so the question for 2024 is has he returned to a 2016 level of electability, or has he made his 2020 position even worse.

    It should be even worse, given his refusal to accept defeat, the insurrection, his myriad of legal issues many of which look pretty strong cases, but nothing phases some people.
    It's also a relative question. Clinton had strong negatives in 2016, much stronger than Biden in 2020, so that was always going to make 2020 a harder year for the GOP.

    Is Biden accumulating negatives? Might the Dem nominee be someone less well-suited for a Presidential run than Clinton 2016?

    The President is old and I don't think the vice-President is a strong candidate for a Presidential election campaign. You can construct scenarios where a Trump win is not outlandish.
    Other than Trump himself or somebody with a criminal past like O J Simpson it is remarkably difficult to think who meets that qualification.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 122,969
    Heathener said:

    Another day, another stonking Labour opinion poll lead. 20% is an increase on a week ago.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_next_United_Kingdom_general_election#2022

    Mike isn't someone to change his mind I don't think, so we'll have another 18 months of this (it won't be 24 months) but, yes, Labour are going to win a huge majority at the next election.

    Cameron had an over 20% poll lead over PM Brown in mid 2008 which had more than halved by polling day in 2010.
  • LostPasswordLostPassword Posts: 18,362
    WillG said:

    kle4 said:

    HYUFD said:

    Nigelb said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    kle4 said:

    Foxy said:

    Nigelb said:

    Trump clarifies that while he called for terminating the Constitution, he didn’t mean terminating the whole Constitution, just the bits that relate to the operation of our democracy and anything else that might prevent him from seizing power
    https://twitter.com/originalspin/status/1599923908391882753

    His postings on the subject are increasingly deranged, it really would be astonishing for the Rupublicans to pick him again.


    It seems more likely than ever when even that insanity doesn't get called out. They agree or are afraid of him.
    For his base, he can never go too far. Angry, paranoid authoritarianism is his brand and his core would genuinely love to have him as dictator-for-life, doing away with democracy altogether.

    The spineless Republicans who have been a willing host organism for this insane parasite will hopefully get their eventual comeuppance as they tear themselves apart in the primaries.
    It’s going to be great seeing the no-holds-barred abuse that Trump will throw at his rivals in the primaries. What will be interesting is how much the craven toadies will feel able to throw back at him.
    The 2024 Presidential is going to be a fucking carnival of filth. It's going to be great.
    I suspect the primaries might provide most of the fun.
    The main event could be an anticlimax, depending on who emerge as the candidates.
    Agree.
    I think that Trump is on the way out, but the Republicans will still probably choose an extreme right candidate and then hopefully get beaten again. Maybe in 2028 they'll choose an electable candidate.
    In the meantime, I'm thinking that the Georgia runoff will not be as close as some pundits are saying with Raphael Warnock easily winning.
    Trump proved himself to be electable in 2016 as he won the EC, even in 2020 47% of US voters voted for him despite Biden's win.

    People use the term electable a bit casually. Obviously someone is literally capable of being elected, especially if they have been before. But his negatives were seen to outweigh his positives in 2020, so the question for 2024 is has he returned to a 2016 level of electability, or has he made his 2020 position even worse.

    It should be even worse, given his refusal to accept defeat, the insurrection, his myriad of legal issues many of which look pretty strong cases, but nothing phases some people.
    It's also a relative question. Clinton had strong negatives in 2016, much stronger than Biden in 2020, so that was always going to make 2020 a harder year for the GOP.

    Is Biden accumulating negatives? Might the Dem nominee be someone less well-suited for a Presidential run than Clinton 2016?

    The President is old and I don't think the vice-President is a strong candidate for a Presidential election campaign. You can construct scenarios where a Trump win is not outlandish.
    There is very little age gap between Biden and Trump. And despite Biden's stammer, Trump is now clearly less coherent than him. Also, 2016 Trump did not back a violent storming of the US government to overturn an election.
    The point about Biden being old is not that age is an advantage for Trump, but that it makes it more likely than normal that the vice-President will contest the next election. When the VP is Kamala Harris that is a relevant factor in determining the electability of the GOP nominee.

    I certainly agree that Trump 2024 is a weaker candidate than Trump 2016, but my point is that Trump 2024 can still win if he's up against a sufficiently poor candidate for the Dems.
  • WillGWillG Posts: 2,366

    What a great summary from William Shatner down there, on that page, always an underrated creative mind and actor.

    William Shatner (Blue Origin NS-18, 2021) said immediately after landing that "everybody in the world needs to do this. ... The covering of blue was... the sheet, this blanket, this comforter of blue that we have around us... And then suddenly you shoot through it... as though you whip off a sheet off you when you’re asleep, and you’re looking into blackness, into black ugliness, and you look down, there’s the blue down there, and the black up there and it’s... Mother Earth and comfort, and there is—is there death? I don’t know".[22]

    Shatner was clearly very shaken by the experience. Meanwhile the billionaire Bezos was just treating it like a party on a private jet. We are increasingly economically governed by a handful of sickeningly privileged empty souls.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,397
    WillG said:

    DavidL said:

    Whiffy. Apart from anything else a crappy, ill-fitting metaphor.


    Thought it was quite funny myself.
    I am being slow. What do the rubber ducks refer to?
    Rubber boats - the dinghy crossings!
  • Sterlings/Stirlings in order of precedence for SKS.

    1. Raheem
    2. £
    3. That Jock place.


    At least he didn't try to spell Auchtermuchty.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,270
    HYUFD said:

    Bozza said:



    As the impressive Nadim Zahawi pointed out on Sunday, the strikes are an attempt by a Russia/UnionBaron/ Labour cabal to destabilise our great nation. They cannot and will not prevail. The future of Great Britain and Northern Ireland depends on steadfast government.

    Gosh - you actually sound less credible than the Russian trolls who visit this place. It's quite an achievement!
    Yes, but Mick Lynch says that Ukraine 'provoked' Putin. I know that's not too far from your own 'poked' view, but it's hideous victim-blaming.

    And the RMT's deputy assistant secretary is Eddie Dempsey, was friends with the oddest of people:
    https://www.workersliberty.org/story/2019-10-23/eddie-dempsey-and-misogynistic-warlord

    Dempsey should have been sacked for that.

    The RMT leaderships should understand that if you don't want to be associated with evil fascists, it's best not to praise evil fascists, write glowing obituaries for them and to victim-blame the fascists' victims.
    Mick Lynch is anti Western capitalism so no surprise there (though he did back Brexit)
    Both of them are your bog standard Left Negative Nationalists.

    So seeing them support the same dreary laundry list of wackiness is surprising as the wetness of water.
  • WhisperingOracleWhisperingOracle Posts: 9,158
    edited December 2022
    WillG said:

    What a great summary from William Shatner down there, on that page, always an underrated creative mind and actor.

    William Shatner (Blue Origin NS-18, 2021) said immediately after landing that "everybody in the world needs to do this. ... The covering of blue was... the sheet, this blanket, this comforter of blue that we have around us... And then suddenly you shoot through it... as though you whip off a sheet off you when you’re asleep, and you’re looking into blackness, into black ugliness, and you look down, there’s the blue down there, and the black up there and it’s... Mother Earth and comfort, and there is—is there death? I don’t know".[22]

    Shatner was clearly very shaken by the experience. Meanwhile the billionaire Bezos was just treating it like a party on a private jet. We are increasingly economically governed by a handful of sickeningly privileged empty souls.
    Yes, I remember that grim contrast too. Various people were drunkenly shouting in the background, too. "Woo-hoo ! "

    It was like a living contrast between Ayn Rand's "masters of the universe" - the kind of people that Bezos, Musk and Thiel imagine themselves to be, and are the role models in our current society, and someone with some actual real imaginative and creative conception of the universe. At the same time it was the billionaire-titan ethos that had actually allowed it on this occasion, in terms of Shatner seeing it, so I have very mixed feelings about that. I'd personally prefer space to be the realm of collective effort rather than profit, much like that fantastic 1960's film of someone travelling in a spaceship-greenhouse through Space. What was it called ?
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,073
    .
    Carnyx said:

    Nigelb said:

    Mone prepares to unsheath the simple sword of truth, and pick up the trusty shield of British fair play...

    Conservative peer Michelle Mone to take leave of absence from Lords
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63871448
    Tory peer Michelle Mone is taking a leave of absence from the Lords "to clear her name of the allegations that have been unjustly levelled against her", her spokesman has said.

    Why does she need to stop attending the HoL and claiming her exes to do that? Confused.
    She's only attended nine times in the last year, so it's not pressure of time.

    Releases her from the obligation to report member's interests ... which she has been failing to report.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,073
    WillG said:

    kinabalu said:

    Nigelb said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    kle4 said:

    Foxy said:

    Nigelb said:

    Trump clarifies that while he called for terminating the Constitution, he didn’t mean terminating the whole Constitution, just the bits that relate to the operation of our democracy and anything else that might prevent him from seizing power
    https://twitter.com/originalspin/status/1599923908391882753

    His postings on the subject are increasingly deranged, it really would be astonishing for the Rupublicans to pick him again.


    It seems more likely than ever when even that insanity doesn't get called out. They agree or are afraid of him.
    For his base, he can never go too far. Angry, paranoid authoritarianism is his brand and his core would genuinely love to have him as dictator-for-life, doing away with democracy altogether.

    The spineless Republicans who have been a willing host organism for this insane parasite will hopefully get their eventual comeuppance as they tear themselves apart in the primaries.
    It’s going to be great seeing the no-holds-barred abuse that Trump will throw at his rivals in the primaries. What will be interesting is how much the craven toadies will feel able to throw back at him.
    The 2024 Presidential is going to be a fucking carnival of filth. It's going to be great.
    I suspect the primaries might provide most of the fun.
    The main event could be an anticlimax, depending on who emerge as the candidates.
    Trump is going to burn the House down - which so long as the House in question is the GOP not the USA is absolutely fine.
    Mitch McConnell is probably the smartest political operator on the American right. The fact he won't condemn Trump's call to suspend the US constitution says a lot about where power still lays.
    It shows how craven he is, like the vast majority of Republican politicians.
  • WillGWillG Posts: 2,366

    WillG said:

    What a great summary from William Shatner down there, on that page, always an underrated creative mind and actor.

    William Shatner (Blue Origin NS-18, 2021) said immediately after landing that "everybody in the world needs to do this. ... The covering of blue was... the sheet, this blanket, this comforter of blue that we have around us... And then suddenly you shoot through it... as though you whip off a sheet off you when you’re asleep, and you’re looking into blackness, into black ugliness, and you look down, there’s the blue down there, and the black up there and it’s... Mother Earth and comfort, and there is—is there death? I don’t know".[22]

    Shatner was clearly very shaken by the experience. Meanwhile the billionaire Bezos was just treating it like a party on a private jet. We are increasingly economically governed by a handful of sickeningly privileged empty souls.
    Yes, I remember that grim contrast too. Various people were drunkenly shouting in the background.

    It was like a living contrast between Ayn Rand's "masters of the universe" - the kind of people that Bezos, Musk and Thiel imagine themselves to be, and someone with some actual real imaginative and creative conception of the universe. At the same time the billionaire-titan ethos had actually allowed it in this case, so I have mixed feelings about that. I'd still prefer space to be the realm of collective effort rather than profit.
    The existence of the super rich has pros and cons. Their purchasing power buying expensive things often creates the beginning of a demand for something that can gradually move towards the mass market, where it will usually become far more efficient than government agencies can do. On the other hand, they can really push up the prices of inelastic goods like housing, elite colleges and healthcare via what economists call "cost disease".

    I think the best approach is to allow them and their insane luxuries to exist, but they have to pay high marginal taxes to do it. And I don't have time for any whining when they only have the income due to an insane ROI they have achieved on the public goods provided to their businesses.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,397
    Nigelb said:

    WillG said:

    kinabalu said:

    Nigelb said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    kle4 said:

    Foxy said:

    Nigelb said:

    Trump clarifies that while he called for terminating the Constitution, he didn’t mean terminating the whole Constitution, just the bits that relate to the operation of our democracy and anything else that might prevent him from seizing power
    https://twitter.com/originalspin/status/1599923908391882753

    His postings on the subject are increasingly deranged, it really would be astonishing for the Rupublicans to pick him again.


    It seems more likely than ever when even that insanity doesn't get called out. They agree or are afraid of him.
    For his base, he can never go too far. Angry, paranoid authoritarianism is his brand and his core would genuinely love to have him as dictator-for-life, doing away with democracy altogether.

    The spineless Republicans who have been a willing host organism for this insane parasite will hopefully get their eventual comeuppance as they tear themselves apart in the primaries.
    It’s going to be great seeing the no-holds-barred abuse that Trump will throw at his rivals in the primaries. What will be interesting is how much the craven toadies will feel able to throw back at him.
    The 2024 Presidential is going to be a fucking carnival of filth. It's going to be great.
    I suspect the primaries might provide most of the fun.
    The main event could be an anticlimax, depending on who emerge as the candidates.
    Trump is going to burn the House down - which so long as the House in question is the GOP not the USA is absolutely fine.
    Mitch McConnell is probably the smartest political operator on the American right. The fact he won't condemn Trump's call to suspend the US constitution says a lot about where power still lays.
    It shows how craven he is, like the vast majority of Republican politicians.
    A shiver will go round the Republican senate caucus when Trump starts campaigning properly.

    But there will be no spine for it to run down...
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,339
    On the Eddie Jones sacking, I reckon that Test match just done in Rawalpindi might have been the last straw. English cricket has gone from drab defeat and dull timidity to a World Cup triumph, some stunning Test results, and now one of the greatest Test victories in the history of the sport, playing magnificent aggressive cricket

    The talent was always there, it turned out, it just needed the right coach with the right attitude. The read across to rugby is painfully clear

    But I bet the RFU replace Jones with another coach with the same robotic approach
  • Dura_AceDura_Ace Posts: 13,677

    WillG said:

    What a great summary from William Shatner down there, on that page, always an underrated creative mind and actor.

    William Shatner (Blue Origin NS-18, 2021) said immediately after landing that "everybody in the world needs to do this. ... The covering of blue was... the sheet, this blanket, this comforter of blue that we have around us... And then suddenly you shoot through it... as though you whip off a sheet off you when you’re asleep, and you’re looking into blackness, into black ugliness, and you look down, there’s the blue down there, and the black up there and it’s... Mother Earth and comfort, and there is—is there death? I don’t know".[22]

    Shatner was clearly very shaken by the experience. Meanwhile the billionaire Bezos was just treating it like a party on a private jet. We are increasingly economically governed by a handful of sickeningly privileged empty souls.
    Yes, I remember that grim contrast too. Various people were drunkenly shouting in the background, too. "Woo-hoo ! "

    It was like a living contrast between Ayn Rand's "masters of the universe" - the kind of people that Bezos, Musk and Thiel imagine themselves to be, and are the role models in our current society, and someone with some actual real imaginative and creative conception of the universe. At the same time it was the billionaire-titan ethos that had actually allowed it on this occasion, in terms of Shatner seeing it, so I have very mixed feelings about that. I'd personally prefer space to be the realm of collective effort rather than profit, much like that fantastic 1960's film of someone travelling in a spaceship-greenhouse through Space. What was it called ?
    Silent Running. Very depressing film.
  • Leon said:

    On the Eddie Jones sacking, I reckon that Test match just done in Rawalpindi might have been the last straw. English cricket has gone from drab defeat and dull timidity to a World Cup triumph, some stunning Test results, and now one of the greatest Test victories in the history of the sport, playing magnificent aggressive cricket

    The talent was always there, it turned out, it just needed the right coach with the right attitude. The read across to rugby is painfully clear

    But I bet the RFU replace Jones with another coach with the same robotic approach

    Maybe they should hire GPT-Chat....
  • NickPalmerNickPalmer Posts: 21,526
    Heathener said:

    Another day, another stonking Labour opinion poll lead. 20% is an increase on a week ago.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_next_United_Kingdom_general_election#2022

    Mike isn't someone to change his mind I don't think, so we'll have another 18 months of this (it won't be 24 months) but, yes, Labour are going to win a huge majority at the next election.

    I'm not into counting chickens 22 months out (I think it'll be Oct 24), but, continuing the farmyard imagery, I agree the ducks are coming into a row. Labour raising more money than the Tories even not counting union gifts is another.

    The Tories need either an astonishing turn of events in which something they do really benefits the average voter, or a huge Starmer own goal which makes ex-Tories determined to stop this hideous menace. Expect Starmer to continue his low-key avoidance strategy accordingly.
  • WillGWillG Posts: 2,366
    ydoethur said:

    WillG said:

    DavidL said:

    Whiffy. Apart from anything else a crappy, ill-fitting metaphor.


    Thought it was quite funny myself.
    I am being slow. What do the rubber ducks refer to?
    Rubber boats - the dinghy crossings!
    Gotcha!
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 42,159

    WillG said:

    kle4 said:

    HYUFD said:

    Nigelb said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    kle4 said:

    Foxy said:

    Nigelb said:

    Trump clarifies that while he called for terminating the Constitution, he didn’t mean terminating the whole Constitution, just the bits that relate to the operation of our democracy and anything else that might prevent him from seizing power
    https://twitter.com/originalspin/status/1599923908391882753

    His postings on the subject are increasingly deranged, it really would be astonishing for the Rupublicans to pick him again.


    It seems more likely than ever when even that insanity doesn't get called out. They agree or are afraid of him.
    For his base, he can never go too far. Angry, paranoid authoritarianism is his brand and his core would genuinely love to have him as dictator-for-life, doing away with democracy altogether.

    The spineless Republicans who have been a willing host organism for this insane parasite will hopefully get their eventual comeuppance as they tear themselves apart in the primaries.
    It’s going to be great seeing the no-holds-barred abuse that Trump will throw at his rivals in the primaries. What will be interesting is how much the craven toadies will feel able to throw back at him.
    The 2024 Presidential is going to be a fucking carnival of filth. It's going to be great.
    I suspect the primaries might provide most of the fun.
    The main event could be an anticlimax, depending on who emerge as the candidates.
    Agree.
    I think that Trump is on the way out, but the Republicans will still probably choose an extreme right candidate and then hopefully get beaten again. Maybe in 2028 they'll choose an electable candidate.
    In the meantime, I'm thinking that the Georgia runoff will not be as close as some pundits are saying with Raphael Warnock easily winning.
    Trump proved himself to be electable in 2016 as he won the EC, even in 2020 47% of US voters voted for him despite Biden's win.

    People use the term electable a bit casually. Obviously someone is literally capable of being elected, especially if they have been before. But his negatives were seen to outweigh his positives in 2020, so the question for 2024 is has he returned to a 2016 level of electability, or has he made his 2020 position even worse.

    It should be even worse, given his refusal to accept defeat, the insurrection, his myriad of legal issues many of which look pretty strong cases, but nothing phases some people.
    It's also a relative question. Clinton had strong negatives in 2016, much stronger than Biden in 2020, so that was always going to make 2020 a harder year for the GOP.

    Is Biden accumulating negatives? Might the Dem nominee be someone less well-suited for a Presidential run than Clinton 2016?

    The President is old and I don't think the vice-President is a strong candidate for a Presidential election campaign. You can construct scenarios where a Trump win is not outlandish.
    There is very little age gap between Biden and Trump. And despite Biden's stammer, Trump is now clearly less coherent than him. Also, 2016 Trump did not back a violent storming of the US government to overturn an election.
    The point about Biden being old is not that age is an advantage for Trump, but that it makes it more likely than normal that the vice-President will contest the next election. When the VP is Kamala Harris that is a relevant factor in determining the electability of the GOP nominee.

    I certainly agree that Trump 2024 is a weaker candidate than Trump 2016, but my point is that Trump 2024 can still win if he's up against a sufficiently poor candidate for the Dems.
    He definitely CAN win but what are the chances? His odds are 7. For me that's a lay because I give him less than a 10% chance - but this is largely big picture intuitive on my part. I can see the case for backing him at 7 if you do more of an atomized analysis, going through each thing that needs to happen to end up with him back in the WH.
  • DriverDriver Posts: 4,963

    Heathener said:

    Another day, another stonking Labour opinion poll lead. 20% is an increase on a week ago.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_next_United_Kingdom_general_election#2022

    Mike isn't someone to change his mind I don't think, so we'll have another 18 months of this (it won't be 24 months) but, yes, Labour are going to win a huge majority at the next election.

    I'm not into counting chickens 22 months out (I think it'll be Oct 24), but, continuing the farmyard imagery, I agree the ducks are coming into a row. Labour raising more money than the Tories even not counting union gifts is another.

    The Tories need either an astonishing turn of events in which something they do really benefits the average voter, or a huge Starmer own goal which makes ex-Tories determined to stop this hideous menace. Expect Starmer to continue his low-key avoidance strategy accordingly.
    Deeply depressing conclusion there. Is Sir Keir trying to just win the next election or does he want to actually do something in power?
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 53,839

    Sterlings/Stirlings in order of precedence for SKS.

    1. Raheem
    2. £
    3. That Jock place.


    At least he didn't try to spell Auchtermuchty.
    Or pronounce Milngavie.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,397
    WillG said:

    ydoethur said:

    WillG said:

    DavidL said:

    Whiffy. Apart from anything else a crappy, ill-fitting metaphor.


    Thought it was quite funny myself.
    I am being slow. What do the rubber ducks refer to?
    Rubber boats - the dinghy crossings!
    Gotcha!
    Unlike the French...
  • WhisperingOracleWhisperingOracle Posts: 9,158
    edited December 2022
    Dura_Ace said:

    WillG said:

    What a great summary from William Shatner down there, on that page, always an underrated creative mind and actor.

    William Shatner (Blue Origin NS-18, 2021) said immediately after landing that "everybody in the world needs to do this. ... The covering of blue was... the sheet, this blanket, this comforter of blue that we have around us... And then suddenly you shoot through it... as though you whip off a sheet off you when you’re asleep, and you’re looking into blackness, into black ugliness, and you look down, there’s the blue down there, and the black up there and it’s... Mother Earth and comfort, and there is—is there death? I don’t know".[22]

    Shatner was clearly very shaken by the experience. Meanwhile the billionaire Bezos was just treating it like a party on a private jet. We are increasingly economically governed by a handful of sickeningly privileged empty souls.
    Yes, I remember that grim contrast too. Various people were drunkenly shouting in the background, too. "Woo-hoo ! "

    It was like a living contrast between Ayn Rand's "masters of the universe" - the kind of people that Bezos, Musk and Thiel imagine themselves to be, and are the role models in our current society, and someone with some actual real imaginative and creative conception of the universe. At the same time it was the billionaire-titan ethos that had actually allowed it on this occasion, in terms of Shatner seeing it, so I have very mixed feelings about that. I'd personally prefer space to be the realm of collective effort rather than profit, much like that fantastic 1960's film of someone travelling in a spaceship-greenhouse through Space. What was it called ?
    Silent Running. Very depressing film.
    Dura_Ace said:

    WillG said:

    What a great summary from William Shatner down there, on that page, always an underrated creative mind and actor.

    William Shatner (Blue Origin NS-18, 2021) said immediately after landing that "everybody in the world needs to do this. ... The covering of blue was... the sheet, this blanket, this comforter of blue that we have around us... And then suddenly you shoot through it... as though you whip off a sheet off you when you’re asleep, and you’re looking into blackness, into black ugliness, and you look down, there’s the blue down there, and the black up there and it’s... Mother Earth and comfort, and there is—is there death? I don’t know".[22]

    Shatner was clearly very shaken by the experience. Meanwhile the billionaire Bezos was just treating it like a party on a private jet. We are increasingly economically governed by a handful of sickeningly privileged empty souls.
    Yes, I remember that grim contrast too. Various people were drunkenly shouting in the background, too. "Woo-hoo ! "

    It was like a living contrast between Ayn Rand's "masters of the universe" - the kind of people that Bezos, Musk and Thiel imagine themselves to be, and are the role models in our current society, and someone with some actual real imaginative and creative conception of the universe. At the same time it was the billionaire-titan ethos that had actually allowed it on this occasion, in terms of Shatner seeing it, so I have very mixed feelings about that. I'd personally prefer space to be the realm of collective effort rather than profit, much like that fantastic 1960's film of someone travelling in a spaceship-greenhouse through Space. What was it called ?
    Silent Running. Very depressing film.
    Ah thanks - I can see from wikipedia that it was the last scene that is often remembered as extraordinary powerful, so maybe that was the part I was remembering as more hopeful. One man on his own carefully tending to his plants with a watering-can as they travel through space together.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,073
    Dura_Ace said:

    WillG said:

    What a great summary from William Shatner down there, on that page, always an underrated creative mind and actor.

    William Shatner (Blue Origin NS-18, 2021) said immediately after landing that "everybody in the world needs to do this. ... The covering of blue was... the sheet, this blanket, this comforter of blue that we have around us... And then suddenly you shoot through it... as though you whip off a sheet off you when you’re asleep, and you’re looking into blackness, into black ugliness, and you look down, there’s the blue down there, and the black up there and it’s... Mother Earth and comfort, and there is—is there death? I don’t know".[22]

    Shatner was clearly very shaken by the experience. Meanwhile the billionaire Bezos was just treating it like a party on a private jet. We are increasingly economically governed by a handful of sickeningly privileged empty souls.
    Yes, I remember that grim contrast too. Various people were drunkenly shouting in the background, too. "Woo-hoo ! "

    It was like a living contrast between Ayn Rand's "masters of the universe" - the kind of people that Bezos, Musk and Thiel imagine themselves to be, and are the role models in our current society, and someone with some actual real imaginative and creative conception of the universe. At the same time it was the billionaire-titan ethos that had actually allowed it on this occasion, in terms of Shatner seeing it, so I have very mixed feelings about that. I'd personally prefer space to be the realm of collective effort rather than profit, much like that fantastic 1960's film of someone travelling in a spaceship-greenhouse through Space. What was it called ?
    Silent Running. Very depressing film.
    Bruce Dern at his best.
  • WillG said:

    kle4 said:

    HYUFD said:

    Nigelb said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    kle4 said:

    Foxy said:

    Nigelb said:

    Trump clarifies that while he called for terminating the Constitution, he didn’t mean terminating the whole Constitution, just the bits that relate to the operation of our democracy and anything else that might prevent him from seizing power
    https://twitter.com/originalspin/status/1599923908391882753

    His postings on the subject are increasingly deranged, it really would be astonishing for the Rupublicans to pick him again.


    It seems more likely than ever when even that insanity doesn't get called out. They agree or are afraid of him.
    For his base, he can never go too far. Angry, paranoid authoritarianism is his brand and his core would genuinely love to have him as dictator-for-life, doing away with democracy altogether.

    The spineless Republicans who have been a willing host organism for this insane parasite will hopefully get their eventual comeuppance as they tear themselves apart in the primaries.
    It’s going to be great seeing the no-holds-barred abuse that Trump will throw at his rivals in the primaries. What will be interesting is how much the craven toadies will feel able to throw back at him.
    The 2024 Presidential is going to be a fucking carnival of filth. It's going to be great.
    I suspect the primaries might provide most of the fun.
    The main event could be an anticlimax, depending on who emerge as the candidates.
    Agree.
    I think that Trump is on the way out, but the Republicans will still probably choose an extreme right candidate and then hopefully get beaten again. Maybe in 2028 they'll choose an electable candidate.
    In the meantime, I'm thinking that the Georgia runoff will not be as close as some pundits are saying with Raphael Warnock easily winning.
    Trump proved himself to be electable in 2016 as he won the EC, even in 2020 47% of US voters voted for him despite Biden's win.

    People use the term electable a bit casually. Obviously someone is literally capable of being elected, especially if they have been before. But his negatives were seen to outweigh his positives in 2020, so the question for 2024 is has he returned to a 2016 level of electability, or has he made his 2020 position even worse.

    It should be even worse, given his refusal to accept defeat, the insurrection, his myriad of legal issues many of which look pretty strong cases, but nothing phases some people.
    It's also a relative question. Clinton had strong negatives in 2016, much stronger than Biden in 2020, so that was always going to make 2020 a harder year for the GOP.

    Is Biden accumulating negatives? Might the Dem nominee be someone less well-suited for a Presidential run than Clinton 2016?

    The President is old and I don't think the vice-President is a strong candidate for a Presidential election campaign. You can construct scenarios where a Trump win is not outlandish.
    There is very little age gap between Biden and Trump. And despite Biden's stammer, Trump is now clearly less coherent than him. Also, 2016 Trump did not back a violent storming of the US government to overturn an election.
    The point about Biden being old is not that age is an advantage for Trump, but that it makes it more likely than normal that the vice-President will contest the next election. When the VP is Kamala Harris that is a relevant factor in determining the electability of the GOP nominee.

    I certainly agree that Trump 2024 is a weaker candidate than Trump 2016, but my point is that Trump 2024 can still win if he's up against a sufficiently poor candidate for the Dems.
    The Dems should have a primary for the *VP* slot.
  • TazTaz Posts: 14,405

    Heathener said:

    Another day, another stonking Labour opinion poll lead. 20% is an increase on a week ago.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_next_United_Kingdom_general_election#2022

    Mike isn't someone to change his mind I don't think, so we'll have another 18 months of this (it won't be 24 months) but, yes, Labour are going to win a huge majority at the next election.

    I'm not into counting chickens 22 months out (I think it'll be Oct 24), but, continuing the farmyard imagery, I agree the ducks are coming into a row. Labour raising more money than the Tories even not counting union gifts is another.

    The Tories need either an astonishing turn of events in which something they do really benefits the average voter, or a huge Starmer own goal which makes ex-Tories determined to stop this hideous menace. Expect Starmer to continue his low-key avoidance strategy accordingly.
    Starmer is playing a blinder and winding up all the right people to wind up in Labour at the same time.

    He doesn't need to make errors when the Tories are continuing to do so. Just let them get on with it.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,270

    WillG said:

    What a great summary from William Shatner down there, on that page, always an underrated creative mind and actor.

    William Shatner (Blue Origin NS-18, 2021) said immediately after landing that "everybody in the world needs to do this. ... The covering of blue was... the sheet, this blanket, this comforter of blue that we have around us... And then suddenly you shoot through it... as though you whip off a sheet off you when you’re asleep, and you’re looking into blackness, into black ugliness, and you look down, there’s the blue down there, and the black up there and it’s... Mother Earth and comfort, and there is—is there death? I don’t know".[22]

    Shatner was clearly very shaken by the experience. Meanwhile the billionaire Bezos was just treating it like a party on a private jet. We are increasingly economically governed by a handful of sickeningly privileged empty souls.
    Yes, I remember that grim contrast too. Various people were drunkenly shouting in the background, too. "Woo-hoo ! "

    It was like a living contrast between Ayn Rand's "masters of the universe" - the kind of people that Bezos, Musk and Thiel imagine themselves to be, and are the role models in our current society, and someone with some actual real imaginative and creative conception of the universe. At the same time it was the billionaire-titan ethos that had actually allowed it on this occasion, in terms of Shatner seeing it, so I have very mixed feelings about that. I'd personally prefer space to be the realm of collective effort rather than profit, much like that fantastic 1960's film of someone travelling in a spaceship-greenhouse through Space. What was it called ?
    I found the low key of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inspiration4 an interesting contrast.
  • The SNP is electing a new Westminster leader today, with a contest between Stephen Flynn and Alison Thewliss. Group leadership might seem like a bubble story and indeed the campaign is entirely internal, but it strikes me there’s one key reason why all of this matters more widely

    If the SNP is to treat the next general election as a de facto referendum, then people won’t be putting a cross in a box next to the word Yes - they’ll be voting for Stephen Flynn, or Alison Thewliss, or Ronnie Cowan, or Anum Qaisar, or Marion Fellows, or John McNally, etc etc

    If that election is to be the vehicle for the constitutional question then these MPs are going to be right on the front line. So who they are and who leads them - and what the latter says about the former, and indeed their unity as a group - is going to matter like never before.


    https://twitter.com/BBCPhilipSim/status/1600076625646743554

  • Dura_AceDura_Ace Posts: 13,677
    Driver said:

    Heathener said:

    Another day, another stonking Labour opinion poll lead. 20% is an increase on a week ago.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_next_United_Kingdom_general_election#2022

    Mike isn't someone to change his mind I don't think, so we'll have another 18 months of this (it won't be 24 months) but, yes, Labour are going to win a huge majority at the next election.

    I'm not into counting chickens 22 months out (I think it'll be Oct 24), but, continuing the farmyard imagery, I agree the ducks are coming into a row. Labour raising more money than the Tories even not counting union gifts is another.

    The Tories need either an astonishing turn of events in which something they do really benefits the average voter, or a huge Starmer own goal which makes ex-Tories determined to stop this hideous menace. Expect Starmer to continue his low-key avoidance strategy accordingly.
    Deeply depressing conclusion there. Is Sir Keir trying to just win the next election or does he want to actually do something in power?
    He can't do the latter until he does the former. Hence taqiya on Brexit before he wins and BRINO after the election.
  • CookieCookie Posts: 13,803
    Leon said:

    On the Eddie Jones sacking, I reckon that Test match just done in Rawalpindi might have been the last straw. English cricket has gone from drab defeat and dull timidity to a World Cup triumph, some stunning Test results, and now one of the greatest Test victories in the history of the sport, playing magnificent aggressive cricket

    The talent was always there, it turned out, it just needed the right coach with the right attitude. The read across to rugby is painfully clear

    But I bet the RFU replace Jones with another coach with the same robotic approach

    Yes: the main argument for keeping Jones was that it is too close to a WC for someone else to come in and turn things around. But McCullum and Stokes have shown just how quickly things have been turned around.

    On reflection, I think the tendency to try to synchronise contracts of coaches with World Cups is mistaken. Most World Cups are neither triumphs nor disasters, and don't necessarily make it clear whether the coach should be given four more years. Maybe the time to ask is two years out or so: are we on the right track with this coach, or would someone else be doing a better job?

    What I don't know is who would be doing a better job, who isn't currently about to take another side to the WC?
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,073
    edited December 2022

    Dura_Ace said:

    WillG said:

    What a great summary from William Shatner down there, on that page, always an underrated creative mind and actor.

    William Shatner (Blue Origin NS-18, 2021) said immediately after landing that "everybody in the world needs to do this. ... The covering of blue was... the sheet, this blanket, this comforter of blue that we have around us... And then suddenly you shoot through it... as though you whip off a sheet off you when you’re asleep, and you’re looking into blackness, into black ugliness, and you look down, there’s the blue down there, and the black up there and it’s... Mother Earth and comfort, and there is—is there death? I don’t know".[22]

    Shatner was clearly very shaken by the experience. Meanwhile the billionaire Bezos was just treating it like a party on a private jet. We are increasingly economically governed by a handful of sickeningly privileged empty souls.
    Yes, I remember that grim contrast too. Various people were drunkenly shouting in the background, too. "Woo-hoo ! "

    It was like a living contrast between Ayn Rand's "masters of the universe" - the kind of people that Bezos, Musk and Thiel imagine themselves to be, and are the role models in our current society, and someone with some actual real imaginative and creative conception of the universe. At the same time it was the billionaire-titan ethos that had actually allowed it on this occasion, in terms of Shatner seeing it, so I have very mixed feelings about that. I'd personally prefer space to be the realm of collective effort rather than profit, much like that fantastic 1960's film of someone travelling in a spaceship-greenhouse through Space. What was it called ?
    Silent Running. Very depressing film.
    Dura_Ace said:

    WillG said:

    What a great summary from William Shatner down there, on that page, always an underrated creative mind and actor.

    William Shatner (Blue Origin NS-18, 2021) said immediately after landing that "everybody in the world needs to do this. ... The covering of blue was... the sheet, this blanket, this comforter of blue that we have around us... And then suddenly you shoot through it... as though you whip off a sheet off you when you’re asleep, and you’re looking into blackness, into black ugliness, and you look down, there’s the blue down there, and the black up there and it’s... Mother Earth and comfort, and there is—is there death? I don’t know".[22]

    Shatner was clearly very shaken by the experience. Meanwhile the billionaire Bezos was just treating it like a party on a private jet. We are increasingly economically governed by a handful of sickeningly privileged empty souls.
    Yes, I remember that grim contrast too. Various people were drunkenly shouting in the background, too. "Woo-hoo ! "

    It was like a living contrast between Ayn Rand's "masters of the universe" - the kind of people that Bezos, Musk and Thiel imagine themselves to be, and are the role models in our current society, and someone with some actual real imaginative and creative conception of the universe. At the same time it was the billionaire-titan ethos that had actually allowed it on this occasion, in terms of Shatner seeing it, so I have very mixed feelings about that. I'd personally prefer space to be the realm of collective effort rather than profit, much like that fantastic 1960's film of someone travelling in a spaceship-greenhouse through Space. What was it called ?
    Silent Running. Very depressing film.
    Ah thanks - I can see from wikipedia that it was the last scene that is often remembered as extraordinary powerful, so maybe that was the part I was remembering as more hopeful. One man on his own carefully tending to his plants with a watering-can as they travel through space together.
    Robot, not man.
    And given the tech, it was more of a futile gesture than anything hopeful. (Also the decision to destroy the last of earth's flora was a cost cutting measure.)
    As Dura says, pretty depressing stuff.

    (edit) All that and Joan Baez, too. Serious downer.
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 53,839

    The SNP is electing a new Westminster leader today, with a contest between Stephen Flynn and Alison Thewliss. Group leadership might seem like a bubble story and indeed the campaign is entirely internal, but it strikes me there’s one key reason why all of this matters more widely

    If the SNP is to treat the next general election as a de facto referendum, then people won’t be putting a cross in a box next to the word Yes - they’ll be voting for Stephen Flynn, or Alison Thewliss, or Ronnie Cowan, or Anum Qaisar, or Marion Fellows, or John McNally, etc etc

    If that election is to be the vehicle for the constitutional question then these MPs are going to be right on the front line. So who they are and who leads them - and what the latter says about the former, and indeed their unity as a group - is going to matter like never before.


    https://twitter.com/BBCPhilipSim/status/1600076625646743554

    Hmm....What actually matters today is whether or not Sturgeon is losing her iron grip on the party at the time that her referendum has run out of road.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,073
    How the ‘independent legislature’ case before SCOTUS could upend elections
    https://www.politico.com/news/2022/12/06/conservative-scotus-majority-under-scrutiny-in-major-independent-legislature-elections-case-00072429
    ...“The three liberal justices are not going to be buying into this theory, based on their overall ideological approach* to things,” said Rick Hasen, a prominent election law professor at UCLA who authored an amicus brief urging the court to reject the theory. He added that conservative Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito “are sympathetic to this argument, if not already fully committed to it,” based on past writings.

    That leaves Chief Justice John Roberts, along with associate Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett as swing votes. “Those three justices in the middle are the ones that matter the most,” Hasen said...


    *They are sane.
  • DriverDriver Posts: 4,963
    Dura_Ace said:

    Driver said:

    Heathener said:

    Another day, another stonking Labour opinion poll lead. 20% is an increase on a week ago.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_next_United_Kingdom_general_election#2022

    Mike isn't someone to change his mind I don't think, so we'll have another 18 months of this (it won't be 24 months) but, yes, Labour are going to win a huge majority at the next election.

    I'm not into counting chickens 22 months out (I think it'll be Oct 24), but, continuing the farmyard imagery, I agree the ducks are coming into a row. Labour raising more money than the Tories even not counting union gifts is another.

    The Tories need either an astonishing turn of events in which something they do really benefits the average voter, or a huge Starmer own goal which makes ex-Tories determined to stop this hideous menace. Expect Starmer to continue his low-key avoidance strategy accordingly.
    Deeply depressing conclusion there. Is Sir Keir trying to just win the next election or does he want to actually do something in power?
    He can't do the latter until he does the former. Hence taqiya on Brexit before he wins and BRINO after the election.
    This is true, but he also can't do the latter without rolling the pitch first.
  • Nigelb said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    WillG said:

    What a great summary from William Shatner down there, on that page, always an underrated creative mind and actor.

    William Shatner (Blue Origin NS-18, 2021) said immediately after landing that "everybody in the world needs to do this. ... The covering of blue was... the sheet, this blanket, this comforter of blue that we have around us... And then suddenly you shoot through it... as though you whip off a sheet off you when you’re asleep, and you’re looking into blackness, into black ugliness, and you look down, there’s the blue down there, and the black up there and it’s... Mother Earth and comfort, and there is—is there death? I don’t know".[22]

    Shatner was clearly very shaken by the experience. Meanwhile the billionaire Bezos was just treating it like a party on a private jet. We are increasingly economically governed by a handful of sickeningly privileged empty souls.
    Yes, I remember that grim contrast too. Various people were drunkenly shouting in the background, too. "Woo-hoo ! "

    It was like a living contrast between Ayn Rand's "masters of the universe" - the kind of people that Bezos, Musk and Thiel imagine themselves to be, and are the role models in our current society, and someone with some actual real imaginative and creative conception of the universe. At the same time it was the billionaire-titan ethos that had actually allowed it on this occasion, in terms of Shatner seeing it, so I have very mixed feelings about that. I'd personally prefer space to be the realm of collective effort rather than profit, much like that fantastic 1960's film of someone travelling in a spaceship-greenhouse through Space. What was it called ?
    Silent Running. Very depressing film.
    Dura_Ace said:

    WillG said:

    What a great summary from William Shatner down there, on that page, always an underrated creative mind and actor.

    William Shatner (Blue Origin NS-18, 2021) said immediately after landing that "everybody in the world needs to do this. ... The covering of blue was... the sheet, this blanket, this comforter of blue that we have around us... And then suddenly you shoot through it... as though you whip off a sheet off you when you’re asleep, and you’re looking into blackness, into black ugliness, and you look down, there’s the blue down there, and the black up there and it’s... Mother Earth and comfort, and there is—is there death? I don’t know".[22]

    Shatner was clearly very shaken by the experience. Meanwhile the billionaire Bezos was just treating it like a party on a private jet. We are increasingly economically governed by a handful of sickeningly privileged empty souls.
    Yes, I remember that grim contrast too. Various people were drunkenly shouting in the background, too. "Woo-hoo ! "

    It was like a living contrast between Ayn Rand's "masters of the universe" - the kind of people that Bezos, Musk and Thiel imagine themselves to be, and are the role models in our current society, and someone with some actual real imaginative and creative conception of the universe. At the same time it was the billionaire-titan ethos that had actually allowed it on this occasion, in terms of Shatner seeing it, so I have very mixed feelings about that. I'd personally prefer space to be the realm of collective effort rather than profit, much like that fantastic 1960's film of someone travelling in a spaceship-greenhouse through Space. What was it called ?
    Silent Running. Very depressing film.
    Ah thanks - I can see from wikipedia that it was the last scene that is often remembered as extraordinary powerful, so maybe that was the part I was remembering as more hopeful. One man on his own carefully tending to his plants with a watering-can as they travel through space together.
    Robot, not man.
    And given the tech, it was more of a futile gesture than anything hopeful. (Also the decision to destroy the last of earth's flora was a cost cutting measure.)
    As Dura says, pretty depressing stuff.

    (edit) All that and Joan Baez, too. Serious downer.
    Reading about it here I suddenly thought: is that the film with the three droids Huey, Dewey, and Louie? And yes it was. I think the only time I saw it was about forty years ago.
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 35,990
    Russian state-owned bank VTB hit by largest DDoS attack in its history http://reut.rs/3HeC7Bd https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1600116674920865794/photo/1
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,073
    On Russian state TV they're having real trouble working out what Ukrainians are fighting for

    A "simply misanthropic" ideology "linked to cannibalism" seems to be their entirely reasonable conclusion

    https://mobile.twitter.com/francis_scarr/status/1600076070975258626
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,397
    Nigelb said:

    On Russian state TV they're having real trouble working out what Ukrainians are fighting for

    A "simply misanthropic" ideology "linked to cannibalism" seems to be their entirely reasonable conclusion

    https://mobile.twitter.com/francis_scarr/status/1600076070975258626

    I wonder if he actually intended that ironically and knew he was perfectly describing Russia's policy.
  • SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 22,015
    DavidL said:

    The SNP is electing a new Westminster leader today, with a contest between Stephen Flynn and Alison Thewliss. Group leadership might seem like a bubble story and indeed the campaign is entirely internal, but it strikes me there’s one key reason why all of this matters more widely

    If the SNP is to treat the next general election as a de facto referendum, then people won’t be putting a cross in a box next to the word Yes - they’ll be voting for Stephen Flynn, or Alison Thewliss, or Ronnie Cowan, or Anum Qaisar, or Marion Fellows, or John McNally, etc etc

    If that election is to be the vehicle for the constitutional question then these MPs are going to be right on the front line. So who they are and who leads them - and what the latter says about the former, and indeed their unity as a group - is going to matter like never before.


    https://twitter.com/BBCPhilipSim/status/1600076625646743554

    Hmm....What actually matters today is whether or not Sturgeon is losing her iron grip on the party at the time that her referendum has run out of road.
    Independence? I thought it was all about blokes in frocks in the SNP these days.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,397

    DavidL said:

    The SNP is electing a new Westminster leader today, with a contest between Stephen Flynn and Alison Thewliss. Group leadership might seem like a bubble story and indeed the campaign is entirely internal, but it strikes me there’s one key reason why all of this matters more widely

    If the SNP is to treat the next general election as a de facto referendum, then people won’t be putting a cross in a box next to the word Yes - they’ll be voting for Stephen Flynn, or Alison Thewliss, or Ronnie Cowan, or Anum Qaisar, or Marion Fellows, or John McNally, etc etc

    If that election is to be the vehicle for the constitutional question then these MPs are going to be right on the front line. So who they are and who leads them - and what the latter says about the former, and indeed their unity as a group - is going to matter like never before.


    https://twitter.com/BBCPhilipSim/status/1600076625646743554

    Hmm....What actually matters today is whether or not Sturgeon is losing her iron grip on the party at the time that her referendum has run out of road.
    Independence? I thought it was all about blokes in frocks in the SNP these days.
    These days? The Highlanders have been wearing skirts for 300 years.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,103
    edited December 2022
    Nigelb said:

    .

    Carnyx said:

    Nigelb said:

    Mone prepares to unsheath the simple sword of truth, and pick up the trusty shield of British fair play...

    Conservative peer Michelle Mone to take leave of absence from Lords
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63871448
    Tory peer Michelle Mone is taking a leave of absence from the Lords "to clear her name of the allegations that have been unjustly levelled against her", her spokesman has said.

    Why does she need to stop attending the HoL and claiming her exes to do that? Confused.
    She's only attended nine times in the last year, so it's not pressure of time.

    Releases her from the obligation to report member's interests ... which she has been failing to report.
    Attendance requirements please Keir, before abolishment.

    They aren't MPs and cannot easily be removed, so minimum standards are reasonable. Say 25% vote participation.

    Otherwise it's just a fancy title, probably bought, and that's what honours are for, not peerages.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,073
    Another win for Biden's chips initiative.

    TSMC to triple U.S. chip investment to $40bn to serve Apple, others
    https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Tech/Semiconductors/TSMC-to-triple-U.S.-chip-investment-to-40bn-to-serve-Apple-others

    This is genuinely a big deal, and just on its own represents a good return on the Chips Act investment.
  • WhisperingOracleWhisperingOracle Posts: 9,158
    edited December 2022
    Hmm.

    Here is the final scene :

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZ0JGjKYVdU

    As you say, robot, not man. The man with the plants is from earlier on .


    At the same time, to me it carries some sort of 1960's hope that is very far from where we are now - look at the reaction and comments on youtube to it. I think it's the still surprising juxtaposition of plants and the realm of space and space-ships, that still somehow means progress or hope - life going on.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,103
    Nigelb said:

    On Russian state TV they're having real trouble working out what Ukrainians are fighting for

    A "simply misanthropic" ideology "linked to cannibalism" seems to be their entirely reasonable conclusion

    https://mobile.twitter.com/francis_scarr/status/1600076070975258626

    It's so simple I'm angry I didn't see it before.
  • DavidL said:

    The SNP is electing a new Westminster leader today, with a contest between Stephen Flynn and Alison Thewliss. Group leadership might seem like a bubble story and indeed the campaign is entirely internal, but it strikes me there’s one key reason why all of this matters more widely

    If the SNP is to treat the next general election as a de facto referendum, then people won’t be putting a cross in a box next to the word Yes - they’ll be voting for Stephen Flynn, or Alison Thewliss, or Ronnie Cowan, or Anum Qaisar, or Marion Fellows, or John McNally, etc etc

    If that election is to be the vehicle for the constitutional question then these MPs are going to be right on the front line. So who they are and who leads them - and what the latter says about the former, and indeed their unity as a group - is going to matter like never before.


    https://twitter.com/BBCPhilipSim/status/1600076625646743554

    Hmm....What actually matters today is whether or not Sturgeon is losing her iron grip on the party at the time that her referendum has run out of road.
    Tr: Yoons swithering between their two default positions of the EssEnnPee at war with itself v EssEnnPee a cult that will brook no dissent. Sair heids all round..
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 53,839
    Nigelb said:

    Another win for Biden's chips initiative.

    TSMC to triple U.S. chip investment to $40bn to serve Apple, others
    https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Tech/Semiconductors/TSMC-to-triple-U.S.-chip-investment-to-40bn-to-serve-Apple-others

    This is genuinely a big deal, and just on its own represents a good return on the Chips Act investment.

    If I was Taiwan I would be a bit concerned. You could be confident the US would defend you when you made all their chips. But when you don't?
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,397
    DavidL said:

    Nigelb said:

    Another win for Biden's chips initiative.

    TSMC to triple U.S. chip investment to $40bn to serve Apple, others
    https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Tech/Semiconductors/TSMC-to-triple-U.S.-chip-investment-to-40bn-to-serve-Apple-others

    This is genuinely a big deal, and just on its own represents a good return on the Chips Act investment.

    If I was Taiwan I would be a bit concerned. You could be confident the US would defend you when you made all their chips. But when you don't?
    Ukraine doesn't have chips, but the Americans seem happy to back them up.
  • SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 22,015
    This thread took three poor penalties and has been knocked out of the tournament.
  • eristdooferistdoof Posts: 5,065
    kinabalu said:

    Nigelb said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    kle4 said:

    Foxy said:

    Nigelb said:

    Trump clarifies that while he called for terminating the Constitution, he didn’t mean terminating the whole Constitution, just the bits that relate to the operation of our democracy and anything else that might prevent him from seizing power
    https://twitter.com/originalspin/status/1599923908391882753

    His postings on the subject are increasingly deranged, it really would be astonishing for the Rupublicans to pick him again.


    It seems more likely than ever when even that insanity doesn't get called out. They agree or are afraid of him.
    For his base, he can never go too far. Angry, paranoid authoritarianism is his brand and his core would genuinely love to have him as dictator-for-life, doing away with democracy altogether.

    The spineless Republicans who have been a willing host organism for this insane parasite will hopefully get their eventual comeuppance as they tear themselves apart in the primaries.
    It’s going to be great seeing the no-holds-barred abuse that Trump will throw at his rivals in the primaries. What will be interesting is how much the craven toadies will feel able to throw back at him.
    The 2024 Presidential is going to be a fucking carnival of filth. It's going to be great.
    I suspect the primaries might provide most of the fun.
    The main event could be an anticlimax, depending on who emerge as the candidates.
    Trump is going to burn the House down - which so long as the House in question is the GOP not the USA is absolutely fine.
    Trump has managed to get a Madness song and a Talking Heads song out of PBers within just a few hours!
  • eristdooferistdoof Posts: 5,065
    Nooo fred
  • Northern_AlNorthern_Al Posts: 8,383
    Driver said:

    Heathener said:

    Another day, another stonking Labour opinion poll lead. 20% is an increase on a week ago.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_next_United_Kingdom_general_election#2022

    Mike isn't someone to change his mind I don't think, so we'll have another 18 months of this (it won't be 24 months) but, yes, Labour are going to win a huge majority at the next election.

    I'm not into counting chickens 22 months out (I think it'll be Oct 24), but, continuing the farmyard imagery, I agree the ducks are coming into a row. Labour raising more money than the Tories even not counting union gifts is another.

    The Tories need either an astonishing turn of events in which something they do really benefits the average voter, or a huge Starmer own goal which makes ex-Tories determined to stop this hideous menace. Expect Starmer to continue his low-key avoidance strategy accordingly.
    Deeply depressing conclusion there. Is Sir Keir trying to just win the next election or does he want to actually do something in power?
    You obviously weren't paying attention yesterday, so here's 155 pages of what Starmer wants to do, combined with all the other recent announcements.

    https://labourlist.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Commission-on-the-UKs-Future.pdf

    Apologies that it hasn't yet been transformed into three short soundbites.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,073

    Hmm.

    Here is the final scene :

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZ0JGjKYVdU

    As you say, robot, not man. The man with the plants is from earlier on .


    At the same time, to me it carries some sort of 1960's hope that is very far from where we are now - look at the reaction and comments on youtube to it. I think it's the still surprising juxtaposition of plants and the realm of space and space-ships, that still somehow means progress or hope, life going on.

    It's early 70s - and the comments are seriously rose tinted stuff.

    (FIFTY YEAR OLD SPOILER WARNING)
    Bruce murders all his companions and them kills himself as he nukes most of the space gardens in a desperate effort to preserve what remains, and the sole surviving one is more a symbol of futile striving than hope.

    Apart from that...
  • ChrisChris Posts: 11,749
    Carnyx said:

    Nigelb said:

    Mone prepares to unsheath the simple sword of truth, and pick up the trusty shield of British fair play...

    Conservative peer Michelle Mone to take leave of absence from Lords
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63871448
    Tory peer Michelle Mone is taking a leave of absence from the Lords "to clear her name of the allegations that have been unjustly levelled against her", her spokesman has said.

    Why does she need to stop attending the HoL and claiming her exes to do that? Confused.
    The BBC comments:
    "It also means she does not have to register her financial interests, although her request for a leave of absence could be refused. "
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,662

    Heathener said:

    Another day, another stonking Labour opinion poll lead. 20% is an increase on a week ago.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_next_United_Kingdom_general_election#2022

    Mike isn't someone to change his mind I don't think, so we'll have another 18 months of this (it won't be 24 months) but, yes, Labour are going to win a huge majority at the next election.

    I'm not into counting chickens 22 months out (I think it'll be Oct 24), but, continuing the farmyard imagery, I agree the ducks are coming into a row. Labour raising more money than the Tories even not counting union gifts is another.

    The Tories need either an astonishing turn of events in which something they do really benefits the average voter, or a huge Starmer own goal which makes ex-Tories determined to stop this hideous menace. Expect Starmer to continue his low-key avoidance strategy accordingly.
    I think that Starmer is indeed planning to bore his way to power. While I fully intend to vote for whoever will most likely defeat my local Tory, Starmer has done nothing to attract my vote.
  • WhisperingOracleWhisperingOracle Posts: 9,158
    edited December 2022
    Nigelb said:

    Hmm.

    Here is the final scene :

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZ0JGjKYVdU

    As you say, robot, not man. The man with the plants is from earlier on .


    At the same time, to me it carries some sort of 1960's hope that is very far from where we are now - look at the reaction and comments on youtube to it. I think it's the still surprising juxtaposition of plants and the realm of space and space-ships, that still somehow means progress or hope, life going on.

    It's early 70s - and the comments are seriously rose tinted stuff.

    (FIFTY YEAR OLD SPOILER WARNING)
    Bruce murders all his companions and them kills himself as he nukes most of the space gardens in a desperate effort to preserve what remains, and the sole surviving one is more a symbol of futile striving than hope.

    Apart from that...
    I know, the plot's grim - but that last scene looks still looks much more about hope and a particular kind of environmental-technological redemption that many still believed in in the late '60s and early '70s, from where I'm standing.
This discussion has been closed.