Thanks. I guess the crux of this matter is what "more support" actually means.
Regardless, this is London bubble stuff.
Is it London bubble stuff? Maybe. It won’t deter me at present for voting left, and it remains a proposal only at this stage.
Nevertheless, it saps confidence in Labour’s ability to look beyond its own client vote. Indeed I would argue that Labour’s biggest risk is not capture by unions but capture by selfish identity groups.
As said, these are ideas and recommendations and Starmer will want nothing that will push wavering ex-Conservatives back into the blue camp.
I'm thinking about the notion a Government should not have the right to revoke my citizenship. Presumably this is a response to the high profile cases of individuals going to the Middle East and joining extreme radical Islamic groups to the extent of even fighting British armed forces and then trying to get back into the UK.
Are there or should there be any circumstances in which a Government should have the right to revoke citizenship? I can understand why some would argue the right should exist but presumably we would also accept there should be strong legal safeguards to prevent a future Government unilaterally revoking the citizenship of anyone it doesn't like and throwing them out the country.
Personally I do not believe that the Government should have the right to revoke anyone’s citizenship.
I’m aware this power has existed in some form for quite a while, but I abhor it.
I think where there is a clear other citizenship (say someone from NZ who also took U.K. citizenship, only to then join a terrorist group fighting against the U.K.) I have no issue with this, assuming there are legal reasons (usually crimes/treason etc). Where no other citizenship exists, no. The Begum case is the latter, and I would like her U.K. citizenship back, and her put on trial, albeit with compassion, as she is clearly a victim of grooming.
No. I don’t accept this.
A citizenship is a citizenship. There should be no second class of citizenship.
Begum should be tried in the UK. If she’s been groomed or whatever, that’s a reason for some sort of clemency. But citizenship should be sacrosanct.
Sorry cannot agree here citizenship is not only a right, it also carries responsibilities. Everyone these days loves to talk about rights but never talk about responsibilities that go with those rights.
Begum renounced her human rights when she signed up with ISIS and decided to renounce her humanity, she renounced her citizenship rights when she renounced her responsibilities to act as a uk citizen.
You want human rights live up to your responsibilites as human, clue beheading people or celebrating it isn't doing it.
Want to keep your rights as a citizen then live up to the responsibilites of being a citizen.
Frankly we revoke rights far too few times
No matter how vile or stupid someone is, they cannot renounce their "human rights" or their "humanity" unless they morph into an alien being from the Triangulum Galaxy. Human rights are for all humans - the clue is in the description. Once you start revoking rights, where do you stop? And who gets to decide?
If Begum is not merely a gullible fool, if she is in some way malicious, then hand her over the authorities and prosecute her.
I didnt say they voluntary renounce them, they act like a barbarian and not a human then the acts they choose to do renounce them. Britain could not prosecute her because she has done nothing here. She is fine with violating the human rights of others so she no longer gets those human rights to hide behind fuck her. I would have some sympathy with the grooming take if she had ever shown remorse but she hasn't so fuck her.
The UK will prosecute UK national who commit crimes overseas
You can guarantee she won't end up being prosecuted or at best get a light sentence due to the "oh but human rights crowd" in the guardian. She chose to move to a shithole let her rot there
If she does come back (very good bet to win this year's Strictly if she does) then you can take comfort from the fact that we at least let all her kids die.
We did not let her kids die, she chose to have kids with a terrorist while living in a shithole without much in the way of medical intervention except prayer. Her choice, her consequences.
Boris will say anything for a bit of media. It is probably in Britain’s best strategic interests at this juncture for Ukraine not to join NATO, nor the EU.
It'd be brilliant for Ukraine and terrible for the EU. It's going to be a depopulated, ruined husk of half a country that's going to need many billions to rebuild it.
I think France, Germany, Hungary and Greece, as a minimum, would veto anyway.
You’re just a miserabilist. Despite the war, it will probably be in better shape than some of the wrecks left by the Soviet empire when it collapsed.
Boris will say anything for a bit of media. It is probably in Britain’s best strategic interests at this juncture for Ukraine not to join NATO, nor the EU.
It'd be brilliant for Ukraine and terrible for the EU. It's going to be a depopulated, ruined husk of half a country that's going to need many billions to rebuild it.
I think France, Germany, Hungary and Greece, as a minimum, would veto anyway.
You’re just a miserabilist. Despite the war, it will probably be in better shape than some of the wrecks left by the Soviet empire when it collapsed.
The guardian lead story suggest EU back peddling on Ukraine membership? 😕
Thanks. I guess the crux of this matter is what "more support" actually means.
Regardless, this is London bubble stuff.
Is it London bubble stuff? Maybe. It won’t deter me at present for voting left, and it remains a proposal only at this stage.
Nevertheless, it saps confidence in Labour’s ability to look beyond its own client vote. Indeed I would argue that Labour’s biggest risk is not capture by unions but capture by selfish identity groups.
As said, these are ideas and recommendations and Starmer will want nothing that will push wavering ex-Conservatives back into the blue camp.
I'm thinking about the notion a Government should not have the right to revoke my citizenship. Presumably this is a response to the high profile cases of individuals going to the Middle East and joining extreme radical Islamic groups to the extent of even fighting British armed forces and then trying to get back into the UK.
Are there or should there be any circumstances in which a Government should have the right to revoke citizenship? I can understand why some would argue the right should exist but presumably we would also accept there should be strong legal safeguards to prevent a future Government unilaterally revoking the citizenship of anyone it doesn't like and throwing them out the country.
Personally I do not believe that the Government should have the right to revoke anyone’s citizenship.
I’m aware this power has existed in some form for quite a while, but I abhor it.
I think where there is a clear other citizenship (say someone from NZ who also took U.K. citizenship, only to then join a terrorist group fighting against the U.K.) I have no issue with this, assuming there are legal reasons (usually crimes/treason etc). Where no other citizenship exists, no. The Begum case is the latter, and I would like her U.K. citizenship back, and her put on trial, albeit with compassion, as she is clearly a victim of grooming.
No. I don’t accept this.
A citizenship is a citizenship. There should be no second class of citizenship.
Begum should be tried in the UK. If she’s been groomed or whatever, that’s a reason for some sort of clemency. But citizenship should be sacrosanct.
Sorry cannot agree here citizenship is not only a right, it also carries responsibilities. Everyone these days loves to talk about rights but never talk about responsibilities that go with those rights.
Begum renounced her human rights when she signed up with ISIS and decided to renounce her humanity, she renounced her citizenship rights when she renounced her responsibilities to act as a uk citizen.
You want human rights live up to your responsibilites as human, clue beheading people or celebrating it isn't doing it.
Want to keep your rights as a citizen then live up to the responsibilites of being a citizen.
Frankly we revoke rights far too few times
No matter how vile or stupid someone is, they cannot renounce their "human rights" or their "humanity" unless they morph into an alien being from the Triangulum Galaxy. Human rights are for all humans - the clue is in the description. Once you start revoking rights, where do you stop? And who gets to decide?
If Begum is not merely a gullible fool, if she is in some way malicious, then hand her over the authorities and prosecute her.
I didnt say they voluntary renounce them, they act like a barbarian and not a human then the acts they choose to do renounce them. Britain could not prosecute her because she has done nothing here. She is fine with violating the human rights of others so she no longer gets those human rights to hide behind fuck her. I would have some sympathy with the grooming take if she had ever shown remorse but she hasn't so fuck her.
The UK will prosecute UK national who commit crimes overseas
You can guarantee she won't end up being prosecuted or at best get a light sentence due to the "oh but human rights crowd" in the guardian. She chose to move to a shithole let her rot there
If she does come back (very good bet to win this year's Strictly if she does) then you can take comfort from the fact that we at least let all her kids die.
We did not let her kids die, she chose to have kids with a terrorist while living in a shithole without much in the way of medical intervention except prayer. Her choice, her consequences.
We didn't kill her kids she did
Whatever one thinks of Begum or others, and their actions, and regardless of whether or not Begum was groomed or not, it seems inexplicable and supremely ironic that a large swathe of the country and our politicians are simultaneously aghast, because they think that:
On the one hand: Evil Overseas nationals who commit terrible crimes in Britain should be deported as swiftly as possible, and lose any residency rights etc, and be sent back to whatever (often poor) country or failed state they hailed from originally.
On the other hand Evil British nationals (like Begum) who travel elsewhere and commit terrible crimes Overseas should be barred from entering the UK and have their nationality stripped, and thus remain in whatever poor country or failed state they committed their crime in...
I just can't...
This is not about Begum's rights, its about ethics, and the rights of people outside the UK (who are just as entitled to have OUR criminals dealt with properly by their home country!).
Policies shouldn't be made for individual cases, under popular pressure. They must be fair and consistent.
In Begum's case for example, the UK Government argued that they could claim Bangladeshi nationality as of right, and thus wouldn't be stateless, which is of course nonsense.
So we, the rich UK where Begum and even more dangerous criminals were brought up, educated (and possibly groomed) and which has more wealth, know-how, and resources than the vast majority of countries in the world, can wash our hands of these dirty criminals - criminals that came from Britain, but who are too dangerous for us, but fine to wander around, for example, Bangladesh, or a refugee camp in Syria, and become 'their' responsibility - 'states' Begum has no affiliation with, and where are there are next to no resources for dealing with dangerous criminals, and far more terrorist acts, and far more opportunities to commit crimes, cause fear, and harm people.
I'm not one to colour everything as colonialism, but this is a remnant of a colonial mindset.
Boris will say anything for a bit of media. It is probably in Britain’s best strategic interests at this juncture for Ukraine not to join NATO, nor the EU.
It'd be brilliant for Ukraine and terrible for the EU. It's going to be a depopulated, ruined husk of half a country that's going to need many billions to rebuild it.
I think France, Germany, Hungary and Greece, as a minimum, would veto anyway.
You’re just a miserabilist. Despite the war, it will probably be in better shape than some of the wrecks left by the Soviet empire when it collapsed.
The guardian lead story suggest EU back peddling on Ukraine membership? 😕
Meanwhile…
US defence officials say Ukrainian forces won't be able to recapture Crimea anytime soon - report Ukrainian forces are unlikely to be able to recapture Crimea from Russian troops in the near future, senior US defence officials have said, according to Politico. The news outlet reported that four defence department officials told House Armed Services Committee lawmakers in a classified briefing that the Pentagon doesn't believe Ukraine has – or will have – the ability to force Russian troops out of the peninsula. One of the officials told Politico the briefing was more ambiguous, but the point remained that "Ukraine's victory in an offensive to retake the illegally annexed territory wasn't assured". Just for reference, Moscow seized Crimea back in 2014, way before the Ukraine war began. The issue of retaking Crimea has been a contentious one for months, as American and European officials insist the peninsula is legally part of Ukraine. However, they have stopped short of fully equipping Kyiv to be able to move into the area.
What do EU leadership and Western defence officials think happens in backing away from Ukraine and selling them short like this - this stuff on our media is mood killer playing into Putin’s hands. They anticipate the Russian machine grinding out a Ukraine submission on the battlefield, so are already positioning their stance for when that happens?
You are a one man doomsday cult constantly predicting the end of the world
I am aware that I must come across like that. And apologies. But if you thread together the Avian Flu stories over the last year, the implications are freaky-deaky frightening
It is wiping out hundreds of millions of birds, at an unprecedented rate, and has now been found in foxes, otters, bears, seals, elk, coyotes, you name it
Now we have the first evidence of mammal to mammal transmission: a mink farm in Spain
It is one or two iterations from making the leap to humans, where it has a mortality rate of 50-60%. It would make Covid look like a global sniffle
“Let me put H5N1 in perspective in terms of COVID. H5N1 is what I have been speaking about for years. It would be >100x worse than COVID assuming it maintains the mortality levels we have seen with it historically. In other terms, 1 billion deaths.”
I’ve just seen the PS note at the bottom of the lead article from OGH. Best wishes Mike. I hope it all goes well. Look forward to seeing you back at the helm of HMS PB before too long. 😀
“Reminder as worrying H5N1 news spreads: in 21-22 the trolley shut down Vaccine Taskforce, shut down sewage monitoring, shut down much critical work for next pandemic - hard to describe the level of insanity & of course the media & Labour have ignored ~100%”
Thanks. I guess the crux of this matter is what "more support" actually means.
Regardless, this is London bubble stuff.
Is it London bubble stuff? Maybe. It won’t deter me at present for voting left, and it remains a proposal only at this stage.
Nevertheless, it saps confidence in Labour’s ability to look beyond its own client vote. Indeed I would argue that Labour’s biggest risk is not capture by unions but capture by selfish identity groups.
As said, these are ideas and recommendations and Starmer will want nothing that will push wavering ex-Conservatives back into the blue camp.
I'm thinking about the notion a Government should not have the right to revoke my citizenship. Presumably this is a response to the high profile cases of individuals going to the Middle East and joining extreme radical Islamic groups to the extent of even fighting British armed forces and then trying to get back into the UK.
Are there or should there be any circumstances in which a Government should have the right to revoke citizenship? I can understand why some would argue the right should exist but presumably we would also accept there should be strong legal safeguards to prevent a future Government unilaterally revoking the citizenship of anyone it doesn't like and throwing them out the country.
Personally I do not believe that the Government should have the right to revoke anyone’s citizenship.
I’m aware this power has existed in some form for quite a while, but I abhor it.
I think where there is a clear other citizenship (say someone from NZ who also took U.K. citizenship, only to then join a terrorist group fighting against the U.K.) I have no issue with this, assuming there are legal reasons (usually crimes/treason etc). Where no other citizenship exists, no. The Begum case is the latter, and I would like her U.K. citizenship back, and her put on trial, albeit with compassion, as she is clearly a victim of grooming.
No. I don’t accept this.
A citizenship is a citizenship. There should be no second class of citizenship.
Begum should be tried in the UK. If she’s been groomed or whatever, that’s a reason for some sort of clemency. But citizenship should be sacrosanct.
Sorry cannot agree here citizenship is not only a right, it also carries responsibilities. Everyone these days loves to talk about rights but never talk about responsibilities that go with those rights.
Begum renounced her human rights when she signed up with ISIS and decided to renounce her humanity, she renounced her citizenship rights when she renounced her responsibilities to act as a uk citizen.
You want human rights live up to your responsibilites as human, clue beheading people or celebrating it isn't doing it.
Want to keep your rights as a citizen then live up to the responsibilites of being a citizen.
Frankly we revoke rights far too few times
No matter how vile or stupid someone is, they cannot renounce their "human rights" or their "humanity" unless they morph into an alien being from the Triangulum Galaxy. Human rights are for all humans - the clue is in the description. Once you start revoking rights, where do you stop? And who gets to decide?
If Begum is not merely a gullible fool, if she is in some way malicious, then hand her over the authorities and prosecute her.
I didnt say they voluntary renounce them, they act like a barbarian and not a human then the acts they choose to do renounce them. Britain could not prosecute her because she has done nothing here. She is fine with violating the human rights of others so she no longer gets those human rights to hide behind fuck her. I would have some sympathy with the grooming take if she had ever shown remorse but she hasn't so fuck her.
The UK will prosecute UK national who commit crimes overseas
You can guarantee she won't end up being prosecuted or at best get a light sentence due to the "oh but human rights crowd" in the guardian. She chose to move to a shithole let her rot there
If she does come back (very good bet to win this year's Strictly if she does) then you can take comfort from the fact that we at least let all her kids die.
We did not let her kids die, she chose to have kids with a terrorist while living in a shithole without much in the way of medical intervention except prayer. Her choice, her consequences.
We didn't kill her kids she did
Whatever one thinks of Begum or others, and their actions, and regardless of whether or not Begum was groomed or not, it seems inexplicable and supremely ironic that a large swathe of the country and our politicians are simultaneously aghast, because they think that:
On the one hand: Evil Overseas nationals who commit terrible crimes in Britain should be deported as swiftly as possible, and lose any residency rights etc, and be sent back to whatever (often poor) country or failed state they hailed from originally.
On the other hand Evil British nationals (like Begum) who travel elsewhere and commit terrible crimes Overseas should be barred from entering the UK and have their nationality stripped, and thus remain in whatever poor country or failed state they committed their crime in...
I just can't...
This is not about Begum's rights, its about ethics, and the rights of people outside the UK (who are just as entitled to have OUR criminals dealt with properly by their home country!).
Policies shouldn't be made for individual cases, under popular pressure. They must be fair and consistent.
In Begum's case for example, the UK Government argued that they could claim Bangladeshi nationality as of right, and thus wouldn't be stateless, which is of course nonsense.
So we, the rich UK where Begum and even more dangerous criminals were brought up, educated (and possibly groomed) and which has more wealth, know-how, and resources than the vast majority of countries in the world, can wash our hands of these dirty criminals - criminals that came from Britain, but who are too dangerous for us, but fine to wander around, for example, Bangladesh, or a refugee camp in Syria, and become 'their' responsibility - 'states' Begum has no affiliation with, and where are there are next to no resources for dealing with dangerous criminals, and far more terrorist acts, and far more opportunities to commit crimes, cause fear, and harm people.
I'm not one to colour everything as colonialism, but this is a remnant of a colonial mindset.
Just let the evil bitch be tried in court by the actual victims of her crimes. The Syrians, Iraqis and Yazidi. Let her face THEIR justice in THEIR courts. That is their right
She will likely be found guilty, and then she will be executed. End of problem. Enough of this pitiful weeping
You are a one man doomsday cult constantly predicting the end of the world
I am aware that I must come across like that. And apologies. But if you thread together the Avian Flu stories over the last year, the implications are freaky-deaky frightening
It is wiping out hundreds of millions of birds, at an unprecedented rate, and has now been found in foxes, otters, bears, seals, elk, coyotes, you name it
Now we have the first evidence of mammal to mammal transmission: a mink farm in Spain
It is one or two iterations from making the leap to humans, where it has a mortality rate of 50-60%. It would make Covid look like a global sniffle
“Let me put H5N1 in perspective in terms of COVID. H5N1 is what I have been speaking about for years. It would be >100x worse than COVID assuming it maintains the mortality levels we have seen with it historically. In other terms, 1 billion deaths.”
You are a one man doomsday cult constantly predicting the end of the world
I am aware that I must come across like that. And apologies. But if you thread together the Avian Flu stories over the last year, the implications are freaky-deaky frightening
It is wiping out hundreds of millions of birds, at an unprecedented rate, and has now been found in foxes, otters, bears, seals, elk, coyotes, you name it
Now we have the first evidence of mammal to mammal transmission: a mink farm in Spain
It is one or two iterations from making the leap to humans, where it has a mortality rate of 50-60%. It would make Covid look like a global sniffle
“Let me put H5N1 in perspective in terms of COVID. H5N1 is what I have been speaking about for years. It would be >100x worse than COVID assuming it maintains the mortality levels we have seen with it historically. In other terms, 1 billion deaths.”
You are a one man doomsday cult constantly predicting the end of the world
I am aware that I must come across like that. And apologies. But if you thread together the Avian Flu stories over the last year, the implications are freaky-deaky frightening
It is wiping out hundreds of millions of birds, at an unprecedented rate, and has now been found in foxes, otters, bears, seals, elk, coyotes, you name it
Now we have the first evidence of mammal to mammal transmission: a mink farm in Spain
It is one or two iterations from making the leap to humans, where it has a mortality rate of 50-60%. It would make Covid look like a global sniffle
“Let me put H5N1 in perspective in terms of COVID. H5N1 is what I have been speaking about for years. It would be >100x worse than COVID assuming it maintains the mortality levels we have seen with it historically. In other terms, 1 billion deaths.”
You are a one man doomsday cult constantly predicting the end of the world
I am aware that I must come across like that. And apologies. But if you thread together the Avian Flu stories over the last year, the implications are freaky-deaky frightening
It is wiping out hundreds of millions of birds, at an unprecedented rate, and has now been found in foxes, otters, bears, seals, elk, coyotes, you name it
Now we have the first evidence of mammal to mammal transmission: a mink farm in Spain
It is one or two iterations from making the leap to humans, where it has a mortality rate of 50-60%. It would make Covid look like a global sniffle
“Let me put H5N1 in perspective in terms of COVID. H5N1 is what I have been speaking about for years. It would be >100x worse than COVID assuming it maintains the mortality levels we have seen with it historically. In other terms, 1 billion deaths.”
Green gain in Bristol. They become the largest party on the council.
Thank you. My friend Snookie made this happen. I keep saying Labour will lose all their Bristols parliamentary seats to or thanks to greens at the next election, and no one on PB listens. Snookie reckons where they are strongest and seat they will take most easiest is Thaghams Debonairre.
It’s the Labour vote going green in the city, in their supposed safe areas. Last time I pointed out Labour being wiped out in their own Bristol territories, Nick Palmer took a look and said temporary blip, nothing to worry about 🤷♀️
You are a one man doomsday cult constantly predicting the end of the world
I am aware that I must come across like that. And apologies. But if you thread together the Avian Flu stories over the last year, the implications are freaky-deaky frightening
It is wiping out hundreds of millions of birds, at an unprecedented rate, and has now been found in foxes, otters, bears, seals, elk, coyotes, you name it
Now we have the first evidence of mammal to mammal transmission: a mink farm in Spain
It is one or two iterations from making the leap to humans, where it has a mortality rate of 50-60%. It would make Covid look like a global sniffle
“Let me put H5N1 in perspective in terms of COVID. H5N1 is what I have been speaking about for years. It would be >100x worse than COVID assuming it maintains the mortality levels we have seen with it historically. In other terms, 1 billion deaths.”
Green gain in Bristol. They become the largest party on the council.
Thank you. My friend Snookie made this happen. I keep saying Labour will lose all their Bristols parliamentary seats to or thanks to greens at the next election, and no one on PB listens. Snookie reckons where they are strongest and seat they will take most easiest is Thaghams Debonairre.
It’s the Labour vote going green in the city, in their supposed safe areas. Last time I pointed out Labour being wiped out in their own Bristol territories, Nick Palmer took a look and said temporary blip, nothing to worry about 🤷♀️
You are a one man doomsday cult constantly predicting the end of the world
I am aware that I must come across like that. And apologies. But if you thread together the Avian Flu stories over the last year, the implications are freaky-deaky frightening
It is wiping out hundreds of millions of birds, at an unprecedented rate, and has now been found in foxes, otters, bears, seals, elk, coyotes, you name it
Now we have the first evidence of mammal to mammal transmission: a mink farm in Spain
It is one or two iterations from making the leap to humans, where it has a mortality rate of 50-60%. It would make Covid look like a global sniffle
“Let me put H5N1 in perspective in terms of COVID. H5N1 is what I have been speaking about for years. It would be >100x worse than COVID assuming it maintains the mortality levels we have seen with it historically. In other terms, 1 billion deaths.”
Whilst you are in a bird flu flap, I actually asked a mink for opinion.
“You inhumane genocidal human butchers! I’m snogging every bird I can entice over. We are going to wipe you off the face of earth, you murderous scum!”
Green gain in Bristol. They become the largest party on the council.
Thank you. My friend Snookie made this happen. I keep saying Labour will lose all their Bristols parliamentary seats to or thanks to greens at the next election, and no one on PB listens. Snookie reckons where they are strongest and seat they will take most easiest is Thaghams Debonairre.
It’s the Labour vote going green in the city, in their supposed safe areas. Last time I pointed out Labour being wiped out in their own Bristol territories, Nick Palmer took a look and said temporary blip, nothing to worry about 🤷♀️
Snookie sounds a little plushie
I encourage her to be on this site, but she can never find the link or the time! Then she can tel you herself about the great green breakthrough that’s coming.
To be political betting serious, you are going to look at their current GE polling and say “Nah” if anything they will vote Labour. BUT they already got and hold one seat on that level of polling, it can develop they gain and hold other target seats in future on that level of polling, by being strong in the wards on the parliamentary seat, popular running council, and persuade voters to give them parliamentary seat.
I would point out that pretty much all stories fall into one of a small number of categories:
The Innocent: "Forrest Gump" The Orphan: "Harry Potter" The Hero: "The Matrix" The Outlaw: "Mad Max: Fury Road" The Explorer: "Indiana Jones" The Regular Guy/Girl: "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" The Jester: "Deadpool" The Sage: "The Shawshank Redemption"
It's actually quite scary to realise that basically everything you read - or every movie you watch - falls into one of a very limited number of character arcs
The AZ race next time around could be really fascinating, with a three fight between Sisnema, Gallegos and whoever the Republicans put up. (On which note, Sisnema was seen lunching today with McCarthy. Could she go full Republican and cross the floor?)
These frontline reports are fascinating, but leave me feeling sad. I feel so sad for this hard up people in poor region of world.
It didn’t really tell us how the war likely to go? It was odd Ukrainians dug into a trench talking about spotting Russians slithering towards them like snakes whilst footage showed old lady walking by with shopping bags.
It did touch on how a family split between pro Ukraine and backing Russia, and gave immpression most of those still there likely Russian. BUT one thing did not add up, how could there be the Russian man and his sons not mobilised? How come the Ukraine soldiers don’t shoot them or they shoot the Ukraine soldiers? How can they co exist in same battle ground? Fishy to me.
ChiCom spy balloon is now floating over sensitive areas of the continental US: "A Chinese surveillance balloon has been spotted over the continental United States and scrutinized by the U.S. military for several days, prompting the Pentagon to consider shooting it down, senior U.S. officials said Thursday, a striking development in a time of rising tension between the two world powers." source$: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/02/02/chinese-spy-balloon-pentagon/
Apprently, it's not the first such balloon.
Sometiimes I think "Emperor" Xi doesn't want to be friends with us. I hope I'm wrong about that.
Words that should strike terror into the hearts of all UK politicians as they wonder what Black Swan is queued up in your absence...
Like all sensible readers of PB I am doing an emergency audit of stocking levels in my fall out shelter.
Very wise. I cannot stay long as I am at the checkout in Tesco having purchased all tinned goods in the food aisle. They should make bigger trolleys...
Toilet rolls, don't forget the toilet rolls!
Oh cr*p!
Shhhhh. Look at it another way. This is a chance for us to have a party on here. It can be open Mike night.
Like every day on PB?
After the first dozen posts, it does not matter what the header is
You are a one man doomsday cult constantly predicting the end of the world
I am aware that I must come across like that. And apologies. But if you thread together the Avian Flu stories over the last year, the implications are freaky-deaky frightening
It is wiping out hundreds of millions of birds, at an unprecedented rate, and has now been found in foxes, otters, bears, seals, elk, coyotes, you name it
Now we have the first evidence of mammal to mammal transmission: a mink farm in Spain
It is one or two iterations from making the leap to humans, where it has a mortality rate of 50-60%. It would make Covid look like a global sniffle
“Let me put H5N1 in perspective in terms of COVID. H5N1 is what I have been speaking about for years. It would be >100x worse than COVID assuming it maintains the mortality levels we have seen with it historically. In other terms, 1 billion deaths.”
I posted that when it was published, but no one really noted it.
The virus in its current form doesn’t seem to have quite the historic mortality levels: There are some signs that 2.3.4.4b is less pathogenic in humans than earlier versions, which killed roughly half of those infected, says Thomas Mettenleiter, head of the Friedrich Loeffler Institute. “Of course that can be bad news, too, because it might make it easier for the virus to start spreading under the radar, giving it more opportunity to evolve,”..
And of course if it were to mutate sufficiently for widespread human to human transmission, we don’t know how that would change how pathogenic it is. But that’s hardly a reason to be relaxed about it.
Hype aside, it is seriously concerning, and I have agree with Cummings for once.
Note that mink farms are just about the perfect setting for nature to perform serial passage experiments in a mammalian model whose airway quite closely resembles ours.
You are a one man doomsday cult constantly predicting the end of the world
I am aware that I must come across like that. And apologies. But if you thread together the Avian Flu stories over the last year, the implications are freaky-deaky frightening
It is wiping out hundreds of millions of birds, at an unprecedented rate, and has now been found in foxes, otters, bears, seals, elk, coyotes, you name it
Now we have the first evidence of mammal to mammal transmission: a mink farm in Spain
It is one or two iterations from making the leap to humans, where it has a mortality rate of 50-60%. It would make Covid look like a global sniffle
“Let me put H5N1 in perspective in terms of COVID. H5N1 is what I have been speaking about for years. It would be >100x worse than COVID assuming it maintains the mortality levels we have seen with it historically. In other terms, 1 billion deaths.”
I posted that when it was published, but no one really noted it.
The virus in its current form doesn’t seem to have quite the historic mortality levels: There are some signs that 2.3.4.4b is less pathogenic in humans than earlier versions, which killed roughly half of those infected, says Thomas Mettenleiter, head of the Friedrich Loeffler Institute. “Of course that can be bad news, too, because it might make it easier for the virus to start spreading under the radar, giving it more opportunity to evolve,”..
And of course if it were to mutate sufficiently for widespread human to human transmission, we don’t know how that would change how pathogenic it is. But that’s hardly a reason to be relaxed about it.
Hype aside, it is seriously concerning, and I have agree with Cummings for once.
Note that mink farms are just about the perfect setting for nature to perform serial passage experiments in a mammalian model whose airway quite closely resembles ours.
Yes, I agree. File under "Hmmm, time to worry", but not "Fuck, burn my clothes and run into the South China Sea"
It seems - the internet is confused on the issue - that we have vaccines for this in place, but maybe not enough and, some say, hard to suddenly scale to enormous size and also of doubtful efficacy (it is claimed)
I agree on minks as well. One thing is obvious from reading this stuff for an hour or two is BAN MINK FARMS. They are petri dishes for mutating this virus. Why do we even need them? No one will die of starvation without mink farms, and they are cruel and polluting, to boot
You are a one man doomsday cult constantly predicting the end of the world
I am aware that I must come across like that. And apologies. But if you thread together the Avian Flu stories over the last year, the implications are freaky-deaky frightening
It is wiping out hundreds of millions of birds, at an unprecedented rate, and has now been found in foxes, otters, bears, seals, elk, coyotes, you name it
Now we have the first evidence of mammal to mammal transmission: a mink farm in Spain
It is one or two iterations from making the leap to humans, where it has a mortality rate of 50-60%. It would make Covid look like a global sniffle
“Let me put H5N1 in perspective in terms of COVID. H5N1 is what I have been speaking about for years. It would be >100x worse than COVID assuming it maintains the mortality levels we have seen with it historically. In other terms, 1 billion deaths.”
Just for a change I'm not going to be critical of you for panicking, but it isn't really news. I talked about the risk of bird flu mutating and potentially being transmitted between humans at the time of the COVID pandemic and I'm no expert. The risk has been known for sometime. If it did and maintained its ability to be caught and kill it would be in a completely different league to COVID.
Thanks. I guess the crux of this matter is what "more support" actually means.
Regardless, this is London bubble stuff.
Is it London bubble stuff? Maybe. It won’t deter me at present for voting left, and it remains a proposal only at this stage.
Nevertheless, it saps confidence in Labour’s ability to look beyond its own client vote. Indeed I would argue that Labour’s biggest risk is not capture by unions but capture by selfish identity groups.
As said, these are ideas and recommendations and Starmer will want nothing that will push wavering ex-Conservatives back into the blue camp.
I'm thinking about the notion a Government should not have the right to revoke my citizenship. Presumably this is a response to the high profile cases of individuals going to the Middle East and joining extreme radical Islamic groups to the extent of even fighting British armed forces and then trying to get back into the UK.
Are there or should there be any circumstances in which a Government should have the right to revoke citizenship? I can understand why some would argue the right should exist but presumably we would also accept there should be strong legal safeguards to prevent a future Government unilaterally revoking the citizenship of anyone it doesn't like and throwing them out the country.
Personally I do not believe that the Government should have the right to revoke anyone’s citizenship.
I’m aware this power has existed in some form for quite a while, but I abhor it.
I think where there is a clear other citizenship (say someone from NZ who also took U.K. citizenship, only to then join a terrorist group fighting against the U.K.) I have no issue with this, assuming there are legal reasons (usually crimes/treason etc). Where no other citizenship exists, no. The Begum case is the latter, and I would like her U.K. citizenship back, and her put on trial, albeit with compassion, as she is clearly a victim of grooming.
No. I don’t accept this.
A citizenship is a citizenship. There should be no second class of citizenship.
Begum should be tried in the UK. If she’s been groomed or whatever, that’s a reason for some sort of clemency. But citizenship should be sacrosanct.
Sorry cannot agree here citizenship is not only a right, it also carries responsibilities. Everyone these days loves to talk about rights but never talk about responsibilities that go with those rights.
Begum renounced her human rights when she signed up with ISIS and decided to renounce her humanity, she renounced her citizenship rights when she renounced her responsibilities to act as a uk citizen.
You want human rights live up to your responsibilites as human, clue beheading people or celebrating it isn't doing it.
Want to keep your rights as a citizen then live up to the responsibilites of being a citizen.
Frankly we revoke rights far too few times
No matter how vile or stupid someone is, they cannot renounce their "human rights" or their "humanity" unless they morph into an alien being from the Triangulum Galaxy. Human rights are for all humans - the clue is in the description. Once you start revoking rights, where do you stop? And who gets to decide?
If Begum is not merely a gullible fool, if she is in some way malicious, then hand her over the authorities and prosecute her.
I didnt say they voluntary renounce them, they act like a barbarian and not a human then the acts they choose to do renounce them. Britain could not prosecute her because she has done nothing here. She is fine with violating the human rights of others so she no longer gets those human rights to hide behind fuck her. I would have some sympathy with the grooming take if she had ever shown remorse but she hasn't so fuck her.
The UK will prosecute UK national who commit crimes overseas
You can guarantee she won't end up being prosecuted or at best get a light sentence due to the "oh but human rights crowd" in the guardian. She chose to move to a shithole let her rot there
If she does come back (very good bet to win this year's Strictly if she does) then you can take comfort from the fact that we at least let all her kids die.
We did not let her kids die, she chose to have kids with a terrorist while living in a shithole without much in the way of medical intervention except prayer. Her choice, her consequences.
We didn't kill her kids she did
That's not true, the British government stripped her of her citizenship while at least one of her children was still alive. It could have brought her and the child back but wouldn't, and the child then died because of the conditions they were living in.
You are a one man doomsday cult constantly predicting the end of the world
I am aware that I must come across like that. And apologies. But if you thread together the Avian Flu stories over the last year, the implications are freaky-deaky frightening
It is wiping out hundreds of millions of birds, at an unprecedented rate, and has now been found in foxes, otters, bears, seals, elk, coyotes, you name it
Now we have the first evidence of mammal to mammal transmission: a mink farm in Spain
It is one or two iterations from making the leap to humans, where it has a mortality rate of 50-60%. It would make Covid look like a global sniffle
“Let me put H5N1 in perspective in terms of COVID. H5N1 is what I have been speaking about for years. It would be >100x worse than COVID assuming it maintains the mortality levels we have seen with it historically. In other terms, 1 billion deaths.”
Just for a change I'm not going to be critical of you for panicking, but it isn't really news. I talked about the risk of bird flu mutating and potentially being transmitted between humans at the time of the COVID pandemic and I'm no expert. The risk has been known for sometime. If it did and maintained its ability to be caught and kill it would be in a completely different league to COVID.
1. I'm not panicking, I'm sipping coffee in my rooftop bar, and 2. Yes, it is news, because in the last few weeks - even days - we have seen multiple new crossovers to mammalian species, eg:
BBC News (UK) @BBCNews · Feb 2 Avian flu spills over from birds to foxes and otters in UK
Jess @MeetJess · Jan 25 Three juvenile grizzly bears found disoriented and suffering from neurological issues such as partial blindness tested positive for avian flu, Montana wildlife officials confirmed Tuesday.
Avian flu has been found in seals that died a ‘mass mortality event’ in the Caspian Sea. Now scientists are investigating whether it is the first transmission of the virus between mammals in the wild.
The seal outbreak is actually less worrying than the Spanish mink farm. The first might just be seals eating dead and diseased birds. The second might illustrate mammal to mammal transmission (and mutation)
It would be really boring if we had to endure another pandemic caused by another virus. If nature wants to keep this show going it really needs to show a bit more variety and be a bit more left field. What about the collapse of the Thwaites glacier and ice shelf suddenly bumping up sea levels a few feet in a very short period of time? That would be more exciting.
It would be really boring if we had to endure another pandemic caused by another virus. If nature wants to keep this show going it really needs to show a bit more variety and be a bit more left field. What about the collapse of the Thwaites glacier and ice shelf suddenly bumping up sea levels a few feet in a very short period of time? That would be more exciting.
It would be EXCEPTIONALLY boring
What we need is for Mad Vlad Putin to modestly nuke every mink farm and poultry prison in the world, at which point we give him Ukraine and move on
I would point out that pretty much all stories fall into one of a small number of categories:
The Innocent: "Forrest Gump" The Orphan: "Harry Potter" The Hero: "The Matrix" The Outlaw: "Mad Max: Fury Road" The Explorer: "Indiana Jones" The Regular Guy/Girl: "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" The Jester: "Deadpool" The Sage: "The Shawshank Redemption"
It's actually quite scary to realise that basically everything you read - or every movie you watch - falls into one of a very limited number of character arcs
It would be really boring if we had to endure another pandemic caused by another virus. If nature wants to keep this show going it really needs to show a bit more variety and be a bit more left field. What about the collapse of the Thwaites glacier and ice shelf suddenly bumping up sea levels a few feet in a very short period of time? That would be more exciting.
It would also be a damn shame, if Putin vaporised Shemima Begum, but I guess we'd somehow cope
Just takes a missile and a couple of minutes apparently, according to Boris. Watched parts 2 and 3 of Putin's war last night on I Player. I am not normally a great fan of the BBC but this was documentary making at its very finest. Direct and unmediated reportage from those in almost every room. The cast of people willing to do this for the BBC was simply stellar and it was a great watch.
Overall conclusion that Putin is a demented psychopath and pathological liar was not especially encouraging. The number of western leaders who thought that they could divert him by a personal relationship started to get a bit comic by the end. Oh, and if anyone had any doubts about Trump being far too stupid to be President....
It would be really boring if we had to endure another pandemic caused by another virus. If nature wants to keep this show going it really needs to show a bit more variety and be a bit more left field. What about the collapse of the Thwaites glacier and ice shelf suddenly bumping up sea levels a few feet in a very short period of time? That would be more exciting.
It would be really boring if we had to endure another pandemic caused by another virus. If nature wants to keep this show going it really needs to show a bit more variety and be a bit more left field. What about the collapse of the Thwaites glacier and ice shelf suddenly bumping up sea levels a few feet in a very short period of time? That would be more exciting.
Make me a beachfront home too.
The foresight to buy a house in a village with the word "hill" in the title 30 years ago would be vindicated at last.
The AZ race next time around could be really fascinating, with a three fight between Sisnema, Gallegos and whoever the Republicans put up. (On which note, Sisnema was seen lunching today with McCarthy. Could she go full Republican and cross the floor?)
Lake getting the Republican nomination would be pretty good news for the Democrats. Sinema (just the one 's') will only cross the floor if she running again, but that would be problematic for her prospects I think.
BUT one thing did not add up, how could there be the Russian man and his sons not mobilised?
Who is going to mobilise them? Mobilisation is a task for the civilian authorities and there is no functioning civilian government of any type in Bakhmut. There is just war and desperate people regressing to a medieval lifestyle trying to survive.
How come the Ukraine soldiers don’t shoot them or they shoot the Ukraine soldiers? How can they co exist in same battle ground?
The AFU don't go door to door like Jehovah's Witnesses asking if people are sympathetic to the Russian Federation then shooting all the positive respondees in the head. There isn't a line on the ground to the east of which everyone is a Russian Uruk-Hai and to the west everyone is a Ukrainian Hobbit. In places like Bakhmut it's much more complicated than that.
Green gain in Bristol. They become the largest party on the council.
Thank you. My friend Snookie made this happen. I keep saying Labour will lose all their Bristols parliamentary seats to or thanks to greens at the next election, and no one on PB listens. Snookie reckons where they are strongest and seat they will take most easiest is Thaghams Debonairre.
It’s the Labour vote going green in the city, in their supposed safe areas. Last time I pointed out Labour being wiped out in their own Bristol territories, Nick Palmer took a look and said temporary blip, nothing to worry about 🤷♀️
I don't bother debating with you as you're too monotonously anti-Labour, Moon. But it's a Green gain from LibDems in a Green-LD marginal. The Labour vote was squeezed and went more to the Greens - which won't apply in a GE.
I would point out that pretty much all stories fall into one of a small number of categories:
The Innocent: "Forrest Gump" The Orphan: "Harry Potter" The Hero: "The Matrix" The Outlaw: "Mad Max: Fury Road" The Explorer: "Indiana Jones" The Regular Guy/Girl: "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" The Jester: "Deadpool" The Sage: "The Shawshank Redemption"
It's actually quite scary to realise that basically everything you read - or every movie you watch - falls into one of a very limited number of character arcs
According to the late and much missed Christoper Booker, there are just 7 plots.
It would also be a damn shame, if Putin vaporised Shemima Begum, but I guess we'd somehow cope
Just takes a missile and a couple of minutes apparently, according to Boris. Watched parts 2 and 3 of Putin's war last night on I Player. I am not normally a great fan of the BBC but this was documentary making at its very finest. Direct and unmediated reportage from those in almost every room. The cast of people willing to do this for the BBC was simply stellar and it was a great watch.
Overall conclusion that Putin is a demented psychopath and pathological liar was not especially encouraging. The number of western leaders who thought that they could divert him by a personal relationship started to get a bit comic by the end. Oh, and if anyone had any doubts about Trump being far too stupid to be President....
I've just finished Stranger Things 3 (highly silly but vastly entertaining) so I shall give that a go next. TA
You are a one man doomsday cult constantly predicting the end of the world
I am aware that I must come across like that. And apologies. But if you thread together the Avian Flu stories over the last year, the implications are freaky-deaky frightening
It is wiping out hundreds of millions of birds, at an unprecedented rate, and has now been found in foxes, otters, bears, seals, elk, coyotes, you name it
Now we have the first evidence of mammal to mammal transmission: a mink farm in Spain
It is one or two iterations from making the leap to humans, where it has a mortality rate of 50-60%. It would make Covid look like a global sniffle
“Let me put H5N1 in perspective in terms of COVID. H5N1 is what I have been speaking about for years. It would be >100x worse than COVID assuming it maintains the mortality levels we have seen with it historically. In other terms, 1 billion deaths.”
Just for a change I'm not going to be critical of you for panicking, but it isn't really news. I talked about the risk of bird flu mutating and potentially being transmitted between humans at the time of the COVID pandemic and I'm no expert. The risk has been known for sometime. If it did and maintained its ability to be caught and kill it would be in a completely different league to COVID.
1. I'm not panicking, I'm sipping coffee in my rooftop bar, and 2. Yes, it is news, because in the last few weeks - even days - we have seen multiple new crossovers to mammalian species, eg:
BBC News (UK) @BBCNews · Feb 2 Avian flu spills over from birds to foxes and otters in UK
Jess @MeetJess · Jan 25 Three juvenile grizzly bears found disoriented and suffering from neurological issues such as partial blindness tested positive for avian flu, Montana wildlife officials confirmed Tuesday.
Avian flu has been found in seals that died a ‘mass mortality event’ in the Caspian Sea. Now scientists are investigating whether it is the first transmission of the virus between mammals in the wild.
The seal outbreak is actually less worrying than the Spanish mink farm. The first might just be seals eating dead and diseased birds. The second might illustrate mammal to mammal transmission (and mutation)
I think you missed the point of my post. I said I am 'NOT' going to be critical of you. You are correct and over the years there have been a number of human deaths, with the very occasional fear of human to human transmission.
It would also be a damn shame, if Putin vaporised Shemima Begum, but I guess we'd somehow cope
Just takes a missile and a couple of minutes apparently, according to Boris. Watched parts 2 and 3 of Putin's war last night on I Player. I am not normally a great fan of the BBC but this was documentary making at its very finest. Direct and unmediated reportage from those in almost every room. The cast of people willing to do this for the BBC was simply stellar and it was a great watch.
Overall conclusion that Putin is a demented psychopath and pathological liar was not especially encouraging. The number of western leaders who thought that they could divert him by a personal relationship started to get a bit comic by the end. Oh, and if anyone had any doubts about Trump being far too stupid to be President....
I've just finished Stranger Things 3 (highly silly but vastly entertaining) so I shall give that a go next. TA
I started Stranger Things just before Christmas but got distracted. Worth persevering with?
I really enjoyed the Peripheral last month. Vastly more comprehensible than the book!
Just coming around the coast of south Fife on my train, the view is a grey blue sea and coastline blurring into a blue grey sky at some indeterminate point. It is really quite beautiful in a mournful kind of way.
Green gain in Bristol. They become the largest party on the council.
Thank you. My friend Snookie made this happen. I keep saying Labour will lose all their Bristols parliamentary seats to or thanks to greens at the next election, and no one on PB listens. Snookie reckons where they are strongest and seat they will take most easiest is Thaghams Debonairre.
It’s the Labour vote going green in the city, in their supposed safe areas. Last time I pointed out Labour being wiped out in their own Bristol territories, Nick Palmer took a look and said temporary blip, nothing to worry about 🤷♀️
I don't bother debating with you as you're too monotonously anti-Labour, Moon. But it's a Green gain from LibDems in a Green-LD marginal. The Labour vote was squeezed and went more to the Greens - which won't apply in a GE.
Moon's predications verge between the eye-catching and the outlandish at times.
Though I would say that my experience with those who I know (family and friends) do not align with the polls. This group, which I would generalise as "fairly low-information habitual Tory voters", are generally not happy yet have no intention of voting Labour. And they quite like Sunak.
However I think that my social circle here in the Midlands is out of kilter with general opinion. It must be.
It would also be a damn shame, if Putin vaporised Shemima Begum, but I guess we'd somehow cope
Just takes a missile and a couple of minutes apparently, according to Boris. Watched parts 2 and 3 of Putin's war last night on I Player. I am not normally a great fan of the BBC but this was documentary making at its very finest. Direct and unmediated reportage from those in almost every room. The cast of people willing to do this for the BBC was simply stellar and it was a great watch.
Overall conclusion that Putin is a demented psychopath and pathological liar was not especially encouraging. The number of western leaders who thought that they could divert him by a personal relationship started to get a bit comic by the end. Oh, and if anyone had any doubts about Trump being far too stupid to be President....
I've just finished Stranger Things 3 (highly silly but vastly entertaining) so I shall give that a go next. TA
I loved the first series but I felt that it went downhill after that.
It would be really boring if we had to endure another pandemic caused by another virus. If nature wants to keep this show going it really needs to show a bit more variety and be a bit more left field. What about the collapse of the Thwaites glacier and ice shelf suddenly bumping up sea levels a few feet in a very short period of time? That would be more exciting.
It would be really boring if we had to endure another pandemic caused by another virus. If nature wants to keep this show going it really needs to show a bit more variety and be a bit more left field. What about the collapse of the Thwaites glacier and ice shelf suddenly bumping up sea levels a few feet in a very short period of time? That would be more exciting.
Make me a beachfront home too.
The foresight to buy a house in a village with the word "hill" in the title 30 years ago would be vindicated at last.
Comments
We didn't kill her kids she did
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATIWSZqcGA0
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/02/02/sweden-has-become-gangsters-paradise-case-study-how-not-integrate/
Despite the war, it will probably be in better shape than some of the wrecks left by the Soviet empire when it collapsed.
Reschenthaler: You can’t condemn socialism? You know what Putin, Kim Jong Un and Xi have in common, right?
Waters: Trump
https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1620945578996961280
A selection of comments:
How many murders will this stop, you think? Ballpark
I understand that a lot of young men are radicalised by Tom Jones. It's basically Welsh drill music.
In Bohemian Rhapsody, Freddie Mercury stated he had killed a man. Why was he never arrested?
You do know Bob Marley and the Wailers didn’t actually shoot a sheriff?
AVIAN FLU
😶
On the one hand:
Evil Overseas nationals who commit terrible crimes in Britain should be deported as swiftly as possible, and lose any residency rights etc, and be sent back to whatever (often poor) country or failed state they hailed from originally.
On the other hand
Evil British nationals (like Begum) who travel elsewhere and commit terrible crimes Overseas should be barred from entering the UK and have their nationality stripped, and thus remain in whatever poor country or failed state they committed their crime in...
I just can't...
This is not about Begum's rights, its about ethics, and the rights of people outside the UK (who are just as entitled to have OUR criminals dealt with properly by their home country!).
Policies shouldn't be made for individual cases, under popular pressure. They must be fair and consistent.
In Begum's case for example, the UK Government argued that they could claim Bangladeshi nationality as of right, and thus wouldn't be stateless, which is of course nonsense.
So we, the rich UK where Begum and even more dangerous criminals were brought up, educated (and possibly groomed) and which has more wealth, know-how, and resources than the vast majority of countries in the world, can wash our hands of these dirty criminals - criminals that came from Britain, but who are too dangerous for us, but fine to wander around, for example, Bangladesh, or a refugee camp in Syria, and become 'their' responsibility - 'states' Begum has no affiliation with, and where are there are next to no resources for dealing with dangerous criminals, and far more terrorist acts, and far more opportunities to commit crimes, cause fear, and harm people.
I'm not one to colour everything as colonialism, but this is a remnant of a colonial mindset.
US defence officials say Ukrainian forces won't be able to recapture Crimea anytime soon - report
Ukrainian forces are unlikely to be able to recapture Crimea from Russian troops in the near future, senior US defence officials have said, according to Politico.
The news outlet reported that four defence department officials told House Armed Services Committee lawmakers in a classified briefing that the Pentagon doesn't believe Ukraine has – or will have – the ability to force Russian troops out of the peninsula.
One of the officials told Politico the briefing was more ambiguous, but the point remained that "Ukraine's victory in an offensive to retake the illegally annexed territory wasn't assured".
Just for reference, Moscow seized Crimea back in 2014, way before the Ukraine war began.
The issue of retaking Crimea has been a contentious one for months, as American and European officials insist the peninsula is legally part of Ukraine.
However, they have stopped short of fully equipping Kyiv to be able to move into the area.
What do EU leadership and Western defence officials think happens in backing away from Ukraine and selling them short like this - this stuff on our media is mood killer playing into Putin’s hands. They anticipate the Russian machine grinding out a Ukraine submission on the battlefield, so are already positioning their stance for when that happens?
Or should we on PB still remain optimistic?
And Nabiullina is likely a very rude euphemism in Russian.
It is wiping out hundreds of millions of birds, at an unprecedented rate, and has now been found in foxes, otters, bears, seals, elk, coyotes, you name it
Now we have the first evidence of mammal to mammal transmission: a mink farm in Spain
It is one or two iterations from making the leap to humans, where it has a mortality rate of 50-60%. It would make Covid look like a global sniffle
“Let me put H5N1 in perspective in terms of COVID. H5N1 is what I have been speaking about for years. It would be >100x worse than COVID assuming it maintains the mortality levels we have seen with it historically. In other terms, 1 billion deaths.”
https://twitter.com/maolesen/status/1620934530831110145?s=46&t=dvvUGdfYNv5llmcTPVzNjA
https://fortune.com/well/2023/01/23/unprescendented-pandemic-avian-bird-flu-h5n1-us-united-states-poultry-industry-peril-humans-risk-spanish-flu/
“Largest ever” outbreak of Bird flu (H5N1) 'spills over' to otters and foxes in UK - BBC News
https://twitter.com/ianpitchford/status/1621143713522061313?s=46&t=dvvUGdfYNv5llmcTPVzNjA
#ICYMI: Death of thousands of wild birds from avian flu is ‘new Silent Spring’
Expert warns impact of H5N1 virus across the world is on a scale akin to the devastation wreaked by the use of DDT pesticides in the 1950s and 1960s“
https://twitter.com/conejoclint/status/1618632424258408450?s=46&t=dvvUGdfYNv5llmcTPVzNjA
Even Big Dom is worried
“Reminder as worrying H5N1 news spreads: in 21-22 the trolley shut down Vaccine Taskforce, shut down sewage monitoring, shut down much critical work for next pandemic - hard to describe the level of insanity & of course the media & Labour have ignored ~100%”
https://twitter.com/dominic2306/status/1621103908721496070?s=46&t=dvvUGdfYNv5llmcTPVzNjA
She will likely be found guilty, and then she will be executed. End of problem. Enough of this pitiful weeping
“‘Incredibly concerning’: Bird flu outbreak at Spanish mink farm triggers pandemic fear“
https://www.science.org/content/article/incredibly-concerning-bird-flu-outbreak-spanish-mink-farm-triggers-pandemic-fears
It’s the Labour vote going green in the city, in their supposed safe areas. Last time I pointed out Labour being wiped out in their own Bristol territories, Nick Palmer took a look and said temporary blip, nothing to worry about 🤷♀️
https://unherd.com/2023/02/welcome-to-human-centipede-culture/
“You inhumane genocidal human butchers! I’m snogging every bird I can entice over. We are going to wipe you off the face of earth, you murderous scum!”
Vicious little mammals aren’t they?
To be political betting serious, you are going to look at their current GE polling and say “Nah” if anything they will vote Labour. BUT they already got and hold one seat on that level of polling, it can develop they gain and hold other target seats in future on that level of polling, by being strong in the wards on the parliamentary seat, popular running council, and persuade voters to give them parliamentary seat.
The Innocent: "Forrest Gump"
The Orphan: "Harry Potter"
The Hero: "The Matrix"
The Outlaw: "Mad Max: Fury Road"
The Explorer: "Indiana Jones"
The Regular Guy/Girl: "The 40-Year-Old Virgin"
The Jester: "Deadpool"
The Sage: "The Shawshank Redemption"
It's actually quite scary to realise that basically everything you read - or every movie you watch - falls into one of a very limited number of character arcs
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/02/02/kari-lake-nrsc-officials-00081000
The AZ race next time around could be really fascinating, with a three fight between Sisnema, Gallegos and whoever the Republicans put up. (On which note, Sisnema was seen lunching today with McCarthy. Could she go full Republican and cross the floor?)
https://www.france24.com/en/tv-shows/reporters/20230111-bakhmut-inside-the-frontline-city
These frontline reports are fascinating, but leave me feeling sad. I feel so sad for this hard up people in poor region of world.
It didn’t really tell us how the war likely to go? It was odd Ukrainians dug into a trench talking about spotting Russians slithering towards them like snakes whilst footage showed old lady walking by with shopping bags.
It did touch on how a family split between pro Ukraine and backing Russia, and gave immpression most of those still there likely Russian. BUT one thing did not add up, how could there be the Russian man and his sons not mobilised? How come the Ukraine soldiers don’t shoot them or they shoot the Ukraine soldiers? How can they co exist in same battle ground? Fishy to me.
"A Chinese surveillance balloon has been spotted over the continental United States and scrutinized by the U.S. military for several days, prompting the Pentagon to consider shooting it down, senior U.S. officials said Thursday, a striking development in a time of rising tension between the two world powers."
source$: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/02/02/chinese-spy-balloon-pentagon/
Apprently, it's not the first such balloon.
Sometiimes I think "Emperor" Xi doesn't want to be friends with us. I hope I'm wrong about that.
No sign of WW3 yet.....
The virus in its current form doesn’t seem to have quite the historic mortality levels:
There are some signs that 2.3.4.4b is less pathogenic in humans than earlier versions, which killed roughly half of those infected, says Thomas Mettenleiter, head of the Friedrich Loeffler Institute. “Of course that can be bad news, too, because it might make it easier for the virus to start spreading under the radar, giving it more opportunity to evolve,”..
And of course if it were to mutate sufficiently for widespread human to human transmission, we don’t know how that would change how pathogenic it is. But that’s hardly a reason to be relaxed about it.
Hype aside, it is seriously concerning, and I have agree with Cummings for once.
Note that mink farms are just about the perfect setting for nature to perform serial passage experiments in a mammalian model whose airway quite closely resembles ours.
It seems - the internet is confused on the issue - that we have vaccines for this in place, but maybe not enough and, some say, hard to suddenly scale to enormous size and also of doubtful efficacy (it is claimed)
I agree on minks as well. One thing is obvious from reading this stuff for an hour or two is BAN MINK FARMS. They are petri dishes for mutating this virus. Why do we even need them? No one will die of starvation without mink farms, and they are cruel and polluting, to boot
Get rid
BBC News (UK)
@BBCNews
·
Feb 2
Avian flu spills over from birds to foxes and otters in UK
https://twitter.com/BBCNews/status/1621037001901281280?s=20&t=DUeN0E65-BdlOUqzGCVZDA
Jess
@MeetJess
·
Jan 25
Three juvenile grizzly bears found disoriented and suffering from neurological issues such as partial blindness tested positive for avian flu, Montana wildlife officials confirmed Tuesday.
https://twitter.com/MeetJess/status/1618060217731760129?s=20&t=DUeN0E65-BdlOUqzGCVZDA
Kate Pritchard
@KatePri14608408
·
Feb 2
2500 dead seals
Avian flu has been found in seals that died a ‘mass mortality event’ in the Caspian Sea. Now scientists are investigating whether it is the first transmission of the virus between mammals in the wild.
@NjbBari3
@DavidJoffe64
https://twitter.com/KatePri14608408/status/1620911470493188101?s=20&t=DUeN0E65-BdlOUqzGCVZDA
The seal outbreak is actually less worrying than the Spanish mink farm. The first might just be seals eating dead and diseased birds. The second might illustrate mammal to mammal transmission (and mutation)
What we need is for Mad Vlad Putin to modestly nuke every mink farm and poultry prison in the world, at which point we give him Ukraine and move on
Overall conclusion that Putin is a demented psychopath and pathological liar was not especially encouraging. The number of western leaders who thought that they could divert him by a personal relationship started to get a bit comic by the end. Oh, and if anyone had any doubts about Trump being far too stupid to be President....
be pretty good news for the Democrats.
Sinema (just the one 's') will only cross the floor if she running again, but that would be problematic for her prospects I think.
I see Lake has found faith, just like Trump did.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Basic_Plots
*UK graphene chip startup.
In case our own @dixiedean missed it. Can Haaland score more than 60 goals this season?
I started Stranger Things just before Christmas but got distracted. Worth persevering with?
I really enjoyed the Peripheral last month. Vastly more comprehensible than the book!
Though I would say that my experience with those who I know (family and friends) do not align with the polls. This group, which I would generalise as "fairly low-information habitual Tory voters", are generally not happy yet have no intention of voting Labour. And they quite like Sunak.
However I think that my social circle here in the Midlands is out of kilter with general opinion. It must be.
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