I wouldn't read much into that. It's still a commanding lead and he lost the Iowa caucus to Ted Cruz in 2015.
My view is that Trump will likely win Iowa handsomely.
The question for him is really what the opposition looks like after that. If Trump gets 55%, and his opposition is split between a dozen candidates, then he is home and dry.
On the other hand, if it is Trump 55%, and Haley or Christie (or even DeSantis) on 30%, then the contest is very different.
The NYTimes polling on this is excellent. 37% of Republicans love Trump. 25% dislike him.
And then there's the final 37% who are big fans of the former President, but who think the Republicans are more likely to win the White House if someone else is the nominee.
That's a very narrow path for an alternative to Trump to walk down. And a couple of blow out wins for him Iowa and New Hampshire with no obvious challenger would close it completely. But at the same time, if there's only one challenger to Trump after Iowa and NH, then the race becomes a lot more interesting.
Which is of course something people like Romney are well aware of, and have already talked about candidates dropping out.
Given the relative low barrier of entry in terms of polling support needed for debates (there are other requirements), it's hard to see aat what point those with very little chance decide they have no chance and swing in behind another candidate, before Iowa and NH.
I mean, there are at least 3 anti-Trump candidates on top of the half dozen or so pro-Trump but wanting to pick up the Trump vote candidates.
Hold baggage is very last century. Only drawback to cabin bag only is I spend the whole time fretting I have nothing to cut my nails with. Even when I am away for 4 days and virtually amputate my fingertips before leaving.
You do know that nail clippers are allowed in carry on.
I have a bone to pick with you, a few weeks ago you posted something very funny from the New Yorker. I signed up to their daily email for New Yorker humour and the cartoons are about as humorous as having your humerus removed violently and shoved up your backside with no lube.
You are forgiven though as a Radiohead fan.
Twenty one years ago, almost to the day, I was cycling* back from a pub in Southwark to Aldgate East where I then lived.
Maybe I'd had one two many beers. Maybe it was the car speeding up Minories far too close to me. And maybe it was some combination of the two. But I came off my bicycle and ended up at the Royal London.
After being X-Rayed, the Nurse Practitioner looked me in the eye and said - word for word - "You fractured your humerus. And I bet you don't think that's very humorous."
* Yeah, cycled. Sue me.
A mad physio*, who I got recommended, told me about how he cracked a vertebra playing rugby.
The local NHS hospital sent him home with some pain killers, having missed the crack in the X-Rays.
After some pain and time, he went private.
He trend up at the NHS hospital and demanded to see the senior chap. As he told hit, the guy was asking if he wanted to sue. "No", he said, "I want you too get your chap in here and show him what at cracked vertebra looks like on an X-Ray, for next time"
*He reminded me strongly of Basil Brush. Drove a souped up version of a Caterham 7, with illegal tires, IIRC.
OK...
About seven years ago (29 October 2016), my wife asked me if I wanted some cheese and wine, and I said "nope, I'm going for a run".
So, I went for a run around Hampstead and Finchley Road, and just as I was on the final stretch on Redington, I tripped and fell.
Standing up and looking at my hand, it was clear that *something* was slightly wrong. Specifically, my little finger was bent back at an unusual angle:
They de-dislocated the finger (by yanking), wrapped it up, gave me painkillers and sent me home, with instructions to the return to the hand clinic the following week.
Which I duly did. Upon meeting with a hand doctor the following week, they were surprised at the extent of the swelling and ordered an X-Ray.
When it came back I was told "Yeah, you should have been X-Rayed last week, because you've fractured a bunch of bones in your hand and we're going to need to operate first thing tomorrow to pin your hand back together."
The moral of that story - never turn down cheese and wine.
I wouldn't read much into that. It's still a commanding lead and he lost the Iowa caucus to Ted Cruz in 2015.
My view is that Trump will likely win Iowa handsomely.
The question for him is really what the opposition looks like after that. If Trump gets 55%, and his opposition is split between a dozen candidates, then he is home and dry.
On the other hand, if it is Trump 55%, and Haley or Christie (or even DeSantis) on 30%, then the contest is very different.
The NYTimes polling on this is excellent. 37% of Republicans love Trump. 25% dislike him.
And then there's the final 37% who are big fans of the former President, but who think the Republicans are more likely to win the White House if someone else is the nominee.
That's a very narrow path for an alternative to Trump to walk down. And a couple of blow out wins for him Iowa and New Hampshire with no obvious challenger would close it completely. But at the same time, if there's only one challenger to Trump after Iowa and NH, then the race becomes a lot more interesting.
Conditional probabilities: if Trump wins the Republican nomination, who will run for the vice-presidency? Trump wouldn't want to take a risk on someone as, er, independent-minded as Mike Pence. So, Tom Cotton?
There's already a market. Probably some value bets there somewhere.
Off topic, but about both betting and politics: "In the years before he represented Donald Trump on charges that the former president conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 election, John Lauro would say that his most successful cases were the ones that didn’t get a lot of attention. . . . But when Lauro represented Tim Donaghy — the disgraced NBA referee who admitted to betting on games he officiated and taking payoffs from bookies — the high-profile case marked a departure from the attorney’s quick-and-quiet approach. He became more publicly combative against the NBA and prosecutors who accused him of overstating his claims in defense of Donaghy." source$: https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2023/08/04/trump-indictment-john-lauro-tim-donaghy/
Donaghy got a sentence of 15 months, and was out to a half-way house after 11. He thinks Trump picked the right lawyer.
Suceava Romania (which isn’t in a war) looks much uglier, scruffier and more desperate than Chernivtsi, Ukraine (which IS)
I thought Romania was a beautiful country scarred by ugly towns and uglier cities. Bucharesti is horrible, Cluj Napoca has pockets of pretty inside otherwise horrible, Alba Iulia has that amazing citadel but the rest is similar. I think its the endless brutalist architecture and festoons of wires.
Which is a pity as I found Romanian people to be warm, welcoming and funny. And even they thought their towns were awful.
Yeah, this is one fucking toilet of a town. West Ukraine is exquisite in comparison. Ceaucescu really did a job on his own country
Talking of toilets this bar I am in (3 hour wait for the train to Bacau) has a squatter toilet. Surely one of the last in Europe? Has anyone else seen one recently?
Still in quite a few of the small rest stops (Aire de ...) on the French autoroutes.
Big fan of squat toilets, much more physiological a position.
Tokyo airport has lovely new shiny technologically-advanced toilets, with a choice of sit or squat options.
And people say Japan is in decline. Nonsense, I say - what is the hallmark of civilization if not plumbing arrangements?
Hold baggage is very last century. Only drawback to cabin bag only is I spend the whole time fretting I have nothing to cut my nails with. Even when I am away for 4 days and virtually amputate my fingertips before leaving.
You do know that nail clippers are allowed in carry on.
I have a bone to pick with you, a few weeks ago you posted something very funny from the New Yorker. I signed up to their daily email for New Yorker humour and the cartoons are about as humorous as having your humerus removed violently and shoved up your backside with no lube.
You are forgiven though as a Radiohead fan.
Twenty one years ago, almost to the day, I was cycling* back from a pub in Southwark to Aldgate East where I then lived.
Maybe I'd had one two many beers. Maybe it was the car speeding up Minories far too close to me. And maybe it was some combination of the two. But I came off my bicycle and ended up at the Royal London.
After being X-Rayed, the Nurse Practitioner looked me in the eye and said - word for word - "You fractured your humerus. And I bet you don't think that's very humorous."
* Yeah, cycled. Sue me.
A mad physio*, who I got recommended, told me about how he cracked a vertebra playing rugby.
The local NHS hospital sent him home with some pain killers, having missed the crack in the X-Rays.
After some pain and time, he went private.
He trend up at the NHS hospital and demanded to see the senior chap. As he told hit, the guy was asking if he wanted to sue. "No", he said, "I want you too get your chap in here and show him what at cracked vertebra looks like on an X-Ray, for next time"
*He reminded me strongly of Basil Brush. Drove a souped up version of a Caterham 7, with illegal tires, IIRC.
That is very cool.
true story; my bro in law had a bad eye injury 5 years ago, looked like he might lose sight [spoiler: he is fine now]
So my sis says to the NHS consultant at Raigmore Inverness: i don't want to diss you but we can afford to go private and go down to Moorfields, if it would alter the odds even 2%, what do you think?
Consultant: weeell, if you do that, don't book him in for a procedure on a Thursday
Sister; WTF?
Consultant: because that's the day I operate at Moorfields every week.
Because of a family thing (harmless condition that they studied *because* it was the harmless version), know Moorfields well. Seriously good people there.
How badly unionised are the baggage workers at Heathrow?
This might be the worst reclaim experience I've ever had. 45 minute wait for just a dribble of bags coming out, and then it stops again. Everyone still waiting.
Being told 40 minutes to 1 hour is "normal" this time of year. I don't think I've ever had it this bad in over 20 years.
Interesting that you chose "badly unionised" over "badly managed".
Do they have enough staff on shift, and are they properly trained, with enough service vehicles?
There are very few staff and they are lazy and slovenly and disinterested in customers.
Unions.
Very few staff sounds a management rather than Union issue. It's them that manage the rota...
A little while ago, I was passing the pubs near Hammersmith bridge, during the early morning.
The landlord of one pub was swearing on his phone, because he couldn't get staff to show up. The next day. Yes, his plan was to phone people up to ask them to do a shit on about 24 hours notice.
The next door pub, I happen to know, the landlord does a spreadsheet for months in advance. And does free laundry of the pub branded polo shirts - and other stuff like that.
Guess who has staff?
Slightly disconcerting typo given the parallel conversation on dodgy khazis ...
Bet the shifts at that pub *are* shit.
I find it very hard to understand the mind state - expecting people to sit by the phone, lives on hold, just waiting for work.
I suppose if there was loads of unemployment and not enough jobs it would work to a degree?
How badly unionised are the baggage workers at Heathrow?
This might be the worst reclaim experience I've ever had. 45 minute wait for just a dribble of bags coming out, and then it stops again. Everyone still waiting.
Being told 40 minutes to 1 hour is "normal" this time of year. I don't think I've ever had it this bad in over 20 years.
Interesting that you chose "badly unionised" over "badly managed".
Do they have enough staff on shift, and are they properly trained, with enough service vehicles?
There are very few staff and they are lazy and slovenly and disinterested in customers.
Unions.
Very few staff sounds a management rather than Union issue. It's them that manage the rota...
A little while ago, I was passing the pubs near Hammersmith bridge, during the early morning.
The landlord of one pub was swearing on his phone, because he couldn't get staff to show up. The next day. Yes, his plan was to phone people up to ask them to do a shit on about 24 hours notice.
The next door pub, I happen to know, the landlord does a spreadsheet for months in advance. And does free laundry of the pub branded polo shirts - and other stuff like that.
Guess who has staff?
Slightly disconcerting typo given the parallel conversation on dodgy khazis ...
Bet the shifts at that pub *are* shit.
I find it very hard to understand the mind state - expecting people to sit by the phone, lives on hold, just waiting for work.
I suppose if there was loads of unemployment and not enough jobs it would work to a degree?
One of those poor value for money degrees the DfE is having its latest drunken rampage over?
How badly unionised are the baggage workers at Heathrow?
This might be the worst reclaim experience I've ever had. 45 minute wait for just a dribble of bags coming out, and then it stops again. Everyone still waiting.
Being told 40 minutes to 1 hour is "normal" this time of year. I don't think I've ever had it this bad in over 20 years.
Interesting that you chose "badly unionised" over "badly managed".
Do they have enough staff on shift, and are they properly trained, with enough service vehicles?
There are very few staff and they are lazy and slovenly and disinterested in customers.
Unions.
Very few staff sounds a management rather than Union issue. It's them that manage the rota...
A little while ago, I was passing the pubs near Hammersmith bridge, during the early morning.
The landlord of one pub was swearing on his phone, because he couldn't get staff to show up. The next day. Yes, his plan was to phone people up to ask them to do a shit on about 24 hours notice.
The next door pub, I happen to know, the landlord does a spreadsheet for months in advance. And does free laundry of the pub branded polo shirts - and other stuff like that.
Guess who has staff?
Slightly disconcerting typo given the parallel conversation on dodgy khazis ...
Bet the shifts at that pub *are* shit.
I find it very hard to understand the mind state - expecting people to sit by the phone, lives on hold, just waiting for work.
I suppose if there was loads of unemployment and not enough jobs it would work to a degree?
One of those poor value for money degrees the DfE is having its latest drunken rampage over?
Well, if that landlord had a degree in management, he needs to get his money back, from the University of Bums on Seats
Off topic, but about both betting and politics: "In the years before he represented Donald Trump on charges that the former president conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 election, John Lauro would say that his most successful cases were the ones that didn’t get a lot of attention. . . . But when Lauro represented Tim Donaghy — the disgraced NBA referee who admitted to betting on games he officiated and taking payoffs from bookies — the high-profile case marked a departure from the attorney’s quick-and-quiet approach. He became more publicly combative against the NBA and prosecutors who accused him of overstating his claims in defense of Donaghy." source$: https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2023/08/04/trump-indictment-john-lauro-tim-donaghy/
Donaghy got a sentence of 15 months, and was out to a half-way house after 11. He thinks Trump picked the right lawyer.
I am not a lawyer, so I will not give you an opinion on that question.)
I'm not a lawyer, but I never let not knowing things slow me down - 70 days?! With all the I'm sure creative legal challenges to get through first? Would be great to see speed whatever the outcome, but would the world be so fortunate to shorten this clown show?
Personally think Trump should just pin everything on Giuliani and Eastman doing the actual actions, he was just talking etc. He could make it up to them after re-election.
A relative of mine works in care and is always getting called up with less than 24 hours notice to work super long shifts. Could say no perhaps, but when you need every penny you can it is hard. Personally think he should have stayed at McDonalds - better pay, better hours, and seemed like a much better employer all around.
https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1687469428584144896 I had a meeting with a member of the Republican Party, former Governor of New Jersey, Christopher Christie. And it is very important that Mr. Christie began his visit to Ukraine with a visit to Bucha to see with his own eyes the threat to freedom and to everyone in the world posed by Russian aggression.
I thanked all Americans, each and every one, for their vital support.
We are confident that we will end this Russian war against freedom with our victory – the victory of the free world, the victory of democracy, the victory of freedom.
Chris Christie: sound on Ukraine.
I know I sound like a broken record, and I know Christie's time in New Jersey ended poorly, but I think he could be a very well organized candidate. And that matters in Iowa where the caucuses mean that second choices and organization matter.
He is 140 on Betfair to be next US President. That is an absolute steal.
Indeed,I have a few quid on, but America is a crazy place and will go for Trum vs Biden.
American politics has jumped the shark.
I'm on.
The tv in my hideous Romanian bar just played a clip of trump after his court case
He made a - for him - quite articulate speech to camera about the state of DC that he’d personally witnessed being driven to the court. The broken roads, the homeless, the degradation
I can see tens of millions of Americans nodding along eagerly. Because he’s right
He has a real chance. Because of this
Biden looks like he doesn’t give a shit about American cities. Or, it is easy to paint him and the democrats that way
Don't the cities vote for the Democrats? DC certainly does.
He obviously has a chance, unfortunately, but will Democrat leaning cities being shit really make the difference in the key states like Arizona and Georgia, where Biden won by a whisker last time? I'd have thought they already thought that, which is why they don't live in those places.
Trump might have an even better chance if he spent more time complaining about mismanagement of Democratic authorities and less time bemoaning his personal legal woes - I know it plays well with his base, but they'd vote for him anyway, and even the small number of GOPers put off by his behaviour would find it easier to back him.
The point is that the shit homeless drugs urban nightmare is now spreading from coastal Democrat cities - inland
How badly unionised are the baggage workers at Heathrow?
This might be the worst reclaim experience I've ever had. 45 minute wait for just a dribble of bags coming out, and then it stops again. Everyone still waiting.
Being told 40 minutes to 1 hour is "normal" this time of year. I don't think I've ever had it this bad in over 20 years.
Interesting that you chose "badly unionised" over "badly managed".
Do they have enough staff on shift, and are they properly trained, with enough service vehicles?
There are very few staff and they are lazy and slovenly and disinterested in customers.
Unions.
Very few staff sounds a management rather than Union issue. It's them that manage the rota...
A little while ago, I was passing the pubs near Hammersmith bridge, during the early morning.
The landlord of one pub was swearing on his phone, because he couldn't get staff to show up. The next day. Yes, his plan was to phone people up to ask them to do a shit on about 24 hours notice.
The next door pub, I happen to know, the landlord does a spreadsheet for months in advance. And does free laundry of the pub branded polo shirts - and other stuff like that.
Guess who has staff?
Slightly disconcerting typo given the parallel conversation on dodgy khazis ...
Bet the shifts at that pub *are* shit.
I find it very hard to understand the mind state - expecting people to sit by the phone, lives on hold, just waiting for work.
Yes - phone calls cost money. Best to make 'em queue outside the pub and say he'll offer work if he's got some.
That's traditionally how it was done on the docks. And in many hotels too.
The "reserve army of labour". "Casual" labour. See also "zero hours" contracts.
How badly unionised are the baggage workers at Heathrow?
This might be the worst reclaim experience I've ever had. 45 minute wait for just a dribble of bags coming out, and then it stops again. Everyone still waiting.
Being told 40 minutes to 1 hour is "normal" this time of year. I don't think I've ever had it this bad in over 20 years.
Interesting that you chose "badly unionised" over "badly managed".
Do they have enough staff on shift, and are they properly trained, with enough service vehicles?
There are very few staff and they are lazy and slovenly and disinterested in customers.
Unions.
Very few staff sounds a management rather than Union issue. It's them that manage the rota...
A little while ago, I was passing the pubs near Hammersmith bridge, during the early morning.
The landlord of one pub was swearing on his phone, because he couldn't get staff to show up. The next day. Yes, his plan was to phone people up to ask them to do a shit on about 24 hours notice.
The next door pub, I happen to know, the landlord does a spreadsheet for months in advance. And does free laundry of the pub branded polo shirts - and other stuff like that.
Guess who has staff?
Slightly disconcerting typo given the parallel conversation on dodgy khazis ...
Bet the shifts at that pub *are* shit.
I find it very hard to understand the mind state - expecting people to sit by the phone, lives on hold, just waiting for work.
I suppose if there was loads of unemployment and not enough jobs it would work to a degree?
In Peru, in the 19th cent, they had a problem with the guano digging. The locals didn't like doing it. This was related to
1) Digging bird shit 2) Pay less than that required to keep your family alive 3) Dangerous working conditions 4) Did I mention bird shit?
Shooting the workers caused problems. It turns out to be quite hard to flog more work out of dead people.
And there is quite a bit of empty stuff in Peru. So people left the guano diggings and didn't come back.
So they imported Japanese workers. This was a bit like importing North Koreans at the time - they would work for nothing, in appalling conditions, because that was what they were used to.
The hacienda types were quite angry with the "xenophobic" and "racist" locals who thought this was all a bit much.
Hold baggage is very last century. Only drawback to cabin bag only is I spend the whole time fretting I have nothing to cut my nails with. Even when I am away for 4 days and virtually amputate my fingertips before leaving.
You do know that nail clippers are allowed in carry on.
I have a bone to pick with you, a few weeks ago you posted something very funny from the New Yorker. I signed up to their daily email for New Yorker humour and the cartoons are about as humorous as having your humerus removed violently and shoved up your backside with no lube.
You are forgiven though as a Radiohead fan.
Twenty one years ago, almost to the day, I was cycling* back from a pub in Southwark to Aldgate East where I then lived.
Maybe I'd had one two many beers. Maybe it was the car speeding up Minories far too close to me. And maybe it was some combination of the two. But I came off my bicycle and ended up at the Royal London.
After being X-Rayed, the Nurse Practitioner looked me in the eye and said - word for word - "You fractured your humerus. And I bet you don't think that's very humorous."
* Yeah, cycled. Sue me.
A mad physio*, who I got recommended, told me about how he cracked a vertebra playing rugby.
The local NHS hospital sent him home with some pain killers, having missed the crack in the X-Rays.
After some pain and time, he went private.
He trend up at the NHS hospital and demanded to see the senior chap. As he told hit, the guy was asking if he wanted to sue. "No", he said, "I want you too get your chap in here and show him what at cracked vertebra looks like on an X-Ray, for next time"
*He reminded me strongly of Basil Brush. Drove a souped up version of a Caterham 7, with illegal tires, IIRC.
OK...
About seven years ago (29 October 2016), my wife asked me if I wanted some cheese and wine, and I said "nope, I'm going for a run".
So, I went for a run around Hampstead and Finchley Road, and just as I was on the final stretch on Redington, I tripped and fell.
Standing up and looking at my hand, it was clear that *something* was slightly wrong. Specifically, my little finger was bent back at an unusual angle:
So I called an Uber to take me to the Royal Free.
They de-dislocated the finger (by yanking), wrapped it up, gave me painkillers and sent me home, with instructions to the return to the hand clinic the following week.
Which I duly did. Upon meeting with a hand doctor the following week, they were surprised at the extent of the swelling and ordered an X-Ray.
When it came back I was told "Yeah, you should have been X-Rayed last week, because you've fractured a bunch of bones in your hand and we're going to need to operate first thing tomorrow to pin your hand back together."
How badly unionised are the baggage workers at Heathrow?
This might be the worst reclaim experience I've ever had. 45 minute wait for just a dribble of bags coming out, and then it stops again. Everyone still waiting.
Being told 40 minutes to 1 hour is "normal" this time of year. I don't think I've ever had it this bad in over 20 years.
Interesting that you chose "badly unionised" over "badly managed".
Do they have enough staff on shift, and are they properly trained, with enough service vehicles?
There are very few staff and they are lazy and slovenly and disinterested in customers.
Unions.
Very few staff sounds a management rather than Union issue. It's them that manage the rota...
A little while ago, I was passing the pubs near Hammersmith bridge, during the early morning.
The landlord of one pub was swearing on his phone, because he couldn't get staff to show up. The next day. Yes, his plan was to phone people up to ask them to do a shit on about 24 hours notice.
The next door pub, I happen to know, the landlord does a spreadsheet for months in advance. And does free laundry of the pub branded polo shirts - and other stuff like that.
Guess who has staff?
Slightly disconcerting typo given the parallel conversation on dodgy khazis ...
Bet the shifts at that pub *are* shit.
I find it very hard to understand the mind state - expecting people to sit by the phone, lives on hold, just waiting for work.
Yes - phone calls cost money. Best to make 'em queue outside the pub and say he'll offer work if he's got some.
That's traditionally how it was done on the docks.
The "reserve army of labour".
The Polish Centre in Hammersmith used to have a queue of people just on the corner, each morning. The long cab pickups and vans would pull up, there would be a brief negotiation, and the chap(s) at the head of the queue would get in.
EDIT: Around the time of BREXIT, some graffiti got scrawled on a wall. Everyone was going "What caused this evil, racist attack?". The graffiti was scrawled on the wall where the queue would form.
How badly unionised are the baggage workers at Heathrow?
This might be the worst reclaim experience I've ever had. 45 minute wait for just a dribble of bags coming out, and then it stops again. Everyone still waiting.
Being told 40 minutes to 1 hour is "normal" this time of year. I don't think I've ever had it this bad in over 20 years.
Interesting that you chose "badly unionised" over "badly managed".
Do they have enough staff on shift, and are they properly trained, with enough service vehicles?
There are very few staff and they are lazy and slovenly and disinterested in customers.
Unions.
Very few staff sounds a management rather than Union issue. It's them that manage the rota...
A little while ago, I was passing the pubs near Hammersmith bridge, during the early morning.
The landlord of one pub was swearing on his phone, because he couldn't get staff to show up. The next day. Yes, his plan was to phone people up to ask them to do a shit on about 24 hours notice.
The next door pub, I happen to know, the landlord does a spreadsheet for months in advance. And does free laundry of the pub branded polo shirts - and other stuff like that.
Guess who has staff?
Slightly disconcerting typo given the parallel conversation on dodgy khazis ...
Bet the shifts at that pub *are* shit.
I find it very hard to understand the mind state - expecting people to sit by the phone, lives on hold, just waiting for work.
I suppose if there was loads of unemployment and not enough jobs it would work to a degree?
In Peru, in the 19th cent, they had a problem with the guano digging. The locals didn't like doing it. This was related to
1) Digging bird shit 2) Pay less than that required to keep your family alive 3) Dangerous working conditions 4) Did I mention bird shit?
Shooting the workers caused problems. It turns out to be quite hard to flog more work out of dead people.
And there is quite a bit of empty stuff in Peru. So people left the guano diggings and didn't come back.
So they imported Japanese workers. This was a bit like importing North Koreans at the time - they would work for nothing, in appalling conditions, because that was what they were used to.
The hacienda types were quite angry with the "xenophobic" and "racist" locals who thought this was all a bit much.
Nothing ever changes.
Or for a British example, see Irish guys imported to work on building sites, and nowadays East European guys.
How badly unionised are the baggage workers at Heathrow?
This might be the worst reclaim experience I've ever had. 45 minute wait for just a dribble of bags coming out, and then it stops again. Everyone still waiting.
Being told 40 minutes to 1 hour is "normal" this time of year. I don't think I've ever had it this bad in over 20 years.
Interesting that you chose "badly unionised" over "badly managed".
Do they have enough staff on shift, and are they properly trained, with enough service vehicles?
There are very few staff and they are lazy and slovenly and disinterested in customers.
Unions.
Very few staff sounds a management rather than Union issue. It's them that manage the rota...
A little while ago, I was passing the pubs near Hammersmith bridge, during the early morning.
The landlord of one pub was swearing on his phone, because he couldn't get staff to show up. The next day. Yes, his plan was to phone people up to ask them to do a shit on about 24 hours notice.
The next door pub, I happen to know, the landlord does a spreadsheet for months in advance. And does free laundry of the pub branded polo shirts - and other stuff like that.
Guess who has staff?
Slightly disconcerting typo given the parallel conversation on dodgy khazis ...
Bet the shifts at that pub *are* shit.
I find it very hard to understand the mind state - expecting people to sit by the phone, lives on hold, just waiting for work.
I suppose if there was loads of unemployment and not enough jobs it would work to a degree?
One of those poor value for money degrees the DfE is having its latest drunken rampage over?
Well, if that landlord had a degree in management, he needs to get his money back, from the University of Bums on Seats
I liked the seats in the photograph of the city's exciting cultural centre. Very reminiscent of @Leon 's favourite Monument to the Glories of Thanet Commuting.
Suceava Romania (which isn’t in a war) looks much uglier, scruffier and more desperate than Chernivtsi, Ukraine (which IS)
I thought Romania was a beautiful country scarred by ugly towns and uglier cities. Bucharesti is horrible, Cluj Napoca has pockets of pretty inside otherwise horrible, Alba Iulia has that amazing citadel but the rest is similar. I think its the endless brutalist architecture and festoons of wires.
Which is a pity as I found Romanian people to be warm, welcoming and funny. And even they thought their towns were awful.
Yeah, this is one fucking toilet of a town. West Ukraine is exquisite in comparison. Ceaucescu really did a job on his own country
Talking of toilets this bar I am in (3 hour wait for the train to Bacau) has a squatter toilet. Surely one of the last in Europe? Has anyone else seen one recently?
Still in quite a few of the small rest stops (Aire de ...) on the French autoroutes.
Big fan of squat toilets, much more physiological a position.
Tokyo airport has lovely new shiny technologically-advanced toilets, with a choice of sit or squat options.
And people say Japan is in decline. Nonsense, I say - what is the hallmark of civilization if not plumbing arrangements?
I once wrote a whole article on this. Because it is true
We know Rome was advanced because they had decent toilets and central heating and good sanitation in general
You CAN measure a civilisation by its bogs
And by the measure the west is falling behind. We still use paper - or at best wet-wipes (which clog sewers) - it is ridiculously unhygienic
East Asians have had integral bidets/washlets/bum guns for years. They find out standard loos as yuk just as we used to abhor squatters
I’ve noticed that luxe hotels in the west are now installing bum guns as standard, to cater for this higher international norm
Suceava Romania (which isn’t in a war) looks much uglier, scruffier and more desperate than Chernivtsi, Ukraine (which IS)
I thought Romania was a beautiful country scarred by ugly towns and uglier cities. Bucharesti is horrible, Cluj Napoca has pockets of pretty inside otherwise horrible, Alba Iulia has that amazing citadel but the rest is similar. I think its the endless brutalist architecture and festoons of wires.
Which is a pity as I found Romanian people to be warm, welcoming and funny. And even they thought their towns were awful.
Yeah, this is one fucking toilet of a town. West Ukraine is exquisite in comparison. Ceaucescu really did a job on his own country
Talking of toilets this bar I am in (3 hour wait for the train to Bacau) has a squatter toilet. Surely one of the last in Europe? Has anyone else seen one recently?
Still in quite a few of the small rest stops (Aire de ...) on the French autoroutes.
Big fan of squat toilets, much more physiological a position.
Tokyo airport has lovely new shiny technologically-advanced toilets, with a choice of sit or squat options.
And people say Japan is in decline. Nonsense, I say - what is the hallmark of civilization if not plumbing arrangements?
I once wrote a whole article on this. Because it is true
We know Rome was advanced because they had decent toilets and central heating and good sanitation in general
You CAN measure a civilisation by its bogs
And by the measure the west is falling behind. We still use paper - or at best wet-wipes (which clog sewers) - it is ridiculously unhygienic
East Asians have had integral bidets/washlets/bum guns for years. They find out standard loos as yuk just as we used to abhor squatters
I’ve noticed that luxe hotels in the west are now installing bum guns as standard, to cater for this higher international norm
How badly unionised are the baggage workers at Heathrow?
This might be the worst reclaim experience I've ever had. 45 minute wait for just a dribble of bags coming out, and then it stops again. Everyone still waiting.
Being told 40 minutes to 1 hour is "normal" this time of year. I don't think I've ever had it this bad in over 20 years.
Interesting that you chose "badly unionised" over "badly managed".
Do they have enough staff on shift, and are they properly trained, with enough service vehicles?
There are very few staff and they are lazy and slovenly and disinterested in customers.
Unions.
Very few staff sounds a management rather than Union issue. It's them that manage the rota...
A little while ago, I was passing the pubs near Hammersmith bridge, during the early morning.
The landlord of one pub was swearing on his phone, because he couldn't get staff to show up. The next day. Yes, his plan was to phone people up to ask them to do a shit on about 24 hours notice.
The next door pub, I happen to know, the landlord does a spreadsheet for months in advance. And does free laundry of the pub branded polo shirts - and other stuff like that.
Guess who has staff?
Slightly disconcerting typo given the parallel conversation on dodgy khazis ...
Bet the shifts at that pub *are* shit.
I find it very hard to understand the mind state - expecting people to sit by the phone, lives on hold, just waiting for work.
Yes - phone calls cost money. Best to make 'em queue outside the pub and say he'll offer work if he's got some.
That's traditionally how it was done on the docks.
The "reserve army of labour".
The Polish Centre in Hammersmith used to have a queue of people just on the corner, each morning. The long cab pickups and vans would pull up, there would be a brief negotiation, and the chap(s) at the head of the queue would get in.
EDIT: Around the time of BREXIT, some graffiti got scrawled on a wall. Everyone was going "What caused this evil, racist attack?". The graffiti was scrawled on the wall where the queue would form.
This is precisely why a union like the IWW is needed - to welcome immigrants with "Good to see you, brother, here's your union card."
I've seen the same kind of queuing for the chance of casual labour in Glasgow too, without an ethnic angle. It's all about supply and demand. Dunno why it surprises some people.
How badly unionised are the baggage workers at Heathrow?
This might be the worst reclaim experience I've ever had. 45 minute wait for just a dribble of bags coming out, and then it stops again. Everyone still waiting.
Being told 40 minutes to 1 hour is "normal" this time of year. I don't think I've ever had it this bad in over 20 years.
Interesting that you chose "badly unionised" over "badly managed".
Do they have enough staff on shift, and are they properly trained, with enough service vehicles?
There are very few staff and they are lazy and slovenly and disinterested in customers.
Unions.
Very few staff sounds a management rather than Union issue. It's them that manage the rota...
A little while ago, I was passing the pubs near Hammersmith bridge, during the early morning.
The landlord of one pub was swearing on his phone, because he couldn't get staff to show up. The next day. Yes, his plan was to phone people up to ask them to do a shit on about 24 hours notice.
The next door pub, I happen to know, the landlord does a spreadsheet for months in advance. And does free laundry of the pub branded polo shirts - and other stuff like that.
Guess who has staff?
Slightly disconcerting typo given the parallel conversation on dodgy khazis ...
Bet the shifts at that pub *are* shit.
I find it very hard to understand the mind state - expecting people to sit by the phone, lives on hold, just waiting for work.
I suppose if there was loads of unemployment and not enough jobs it would work to a degree?
One of those poor value for money degrees the DfE is having its latest drunken rampage over?
Well, if that landlord had a degree in management, he needs to get his money back, from the University of Bums on Seats
I liked the seats in the photograph of the city's exciting cultural centre. Very reminiscent of @Leon 's favourite Monument to the Glories of Thanet Commuting.
Suceava Romania (which isn’t in a war) looks much uglier, scruffier and more desperate than Chernivtsi, Ukraine (which IS)
I thought Romania was a beautiful country scarred by ugly towns and uglier cities. Bucharesti is horrible, Cluj Napoca has pockets of pretty inside otherwise horrible, Alba Iulia has that amazing citadel but the rest is similar. I think its the endless brutalist architecture and festoons of wires.
Which is a pity as I found Romanian people to be warm, welcoming and funny. And even they thought their towns were awful.
Yeah, this is one fucking toilet of a town. West Ukraine is exquisite in comparison. Ceaucescu really did a job on his own country
Talking of toilets this bar I am in (3 hour wait for the train to Bacau) has a squatter toilet. Surely one of the last in Europe? Has anyone else seen one recently?
Still in quite a few of the small rest stops (Aire de ...) on the French autoroutes.
Big fan of squat toilets, much more physiological a position.
Tokyo airport has lovely new shiny technologically-advanced toilets, with a choice of sit or squat options.
And people say Japan is in decline. Nonsense, I say - what is the hallmark of civilization if not plumbing arrangements?
I once wrote a whole article on this. Because it is true
We know Rome was advanced because they had decent toilets and central heating and good sanitation in general
You CAN measure a civilisation by its bogs
And by the measure the west is falling behind. We still use paper - or at best wet-wipes (which clog sewers) - it is ridiculously unhygienic
East Asians have had integral bidets/washlets/bum guns for years. They find out standard loos as yuk just as we used to abhor squatters
I’ve noticed that luxe hotels in the west are now installing bum guns as standard, to cater for this higher international norm
How badly unionised are the baggage workers at Heathrow?
This might be the worst reclaim experience I've ever had. 45 minute wait for just a dribble of bags coming out, and then it stops again. Everyone still waiting.
Being told 40 minutes to 1 hour is "normal" this time of year. I don't think I've ever had it this bad in over 20 years.
Interesting that you chose "badly unionised" over "badly managed".
Do they have enough staff on shift, and are they properly trained, with enough service vehicles?
There are very few staff and they are lazy and slovenly and disinterested in customers.
Unions.
Very few staff sounds a management rather than Union issue. It's them that manage the rota...
A little while ago, I was passing the pubs near Hammersmith bridge, during the early morning.
The landlord of one pub was swearing on his phone, because he couldn't get staff to show up. The next day. Yes, his plan was to phone people up to ask them to do a shit on about 24 hours notice.
The next door pub, I happen to know, the landlord does a spreadsheet for months in advance. And does free laundry of the pub branded polo shirts - and other stuff like that.
Guess who has staff?
Slightly disconcerting typo given the parallel conversation on dodgy khazis ...
Bet the shifts at that pub *are* shit.
I find it very hard to understand the mind state - expecting people to sit by the phone, lives on hold, just waiting for work.
Yes - phone calls cost money. Best to make 'em queue outside the pub and say he'll offer work if he's got some.
That's traditionally how it was done on the docks.
The "reserve army of labour".
The Polish Centre in Hammersmith used to have a queue of people just on the corner, each morning. The long cab pickups and vans would pull up, there would be a brief negotiation, and the chap(s) at the head of the queue would get in.
EDIT: Around the time of BREXIT, some graffiti got scrawled on a wall. Everyone was going "What caused this evil, racist attack?". The graffiti was scrawled on the wall where the queue would form.
This is precisely why a union like the IWW is needed - to welcome immigrants with "Good to see you, brother, here's your union card."
I've seen the same kind of queuing for the chance of casual labour in Glasgow too, without an ethnic angle. It's all about supply and demand. Dunno why it surprises some people.
Suceava Romania (which isn’t in a war) looks much uglier, scruffier and more desperate than Chernivtsi, Ukraine (which IS)
I thought Romania was a beautiful country scarred by ugly towns and uglier cities. Bucharesti is horrible, Cluj Napoca has pockets of pretty inside otherwise horrible, Alba Iulia has that amazing citadel but the rest is similar. I think its the endless brutalist architecture and festoons of wires.
Which is a pity as I found Romanian people to be warm, welcoming and funny. And even they thought their towns were awful.
Yeah, this is one fucking toilet of a town. West Ukraine is exquisite in comparison. Ceaucescu really did a job on his own country
Talking of toilets this bar I am in (3 hour wait for the train to Bacau) has a squatter toilet. Surely one of the last in Europe? Has anyone else seen one recently?
Still in quite a few of the small rest stops (Aire de ...) on the French autoroutes.
Big fan of squat toilets, much more physiological a position.
Tokyo airport has lovely new shiny technologically-advanced toilets, with a choice of sit or squat options.
And people say Japan is in decline. Nonsense, I say - what is the hallmark of civilization if not plumbing arrangements?
I once wrote a whole article on this. Because it is true
We know Rome was advanced because they had decent toilets and central heating and good sanitation in general
You CAN measure a civilisation by its bogs
And by the measure the west is falling behind. We still use paper - or at best wet-wipes (which clog sewers) - it is ridiculously unhygienic
East Asians have had integral bidets/washlets/bum guns for years. They find out standard loos as yuk just as we used to abhor squatters
I’ve noticed that luxe hotels in the west are now installing bum guns as standard, to cater for this higher international norm
https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1687469428584144896 I had a meeting with a member of the Republican Party, former Governor of New Jersey, Christopher Christie. And it is very important that Mr. Christie began his visit to Ukraine with a visit to Bucha to see with his own eyes the threat to freedom and to everyone in the world posed by Russian aggression.
I thanked all Americans, each and every one, for their vital support.
We are confident that we will end this Russian war against freedom with our victory – the victory of the free world, the victory of democracy, the victory of freedom.
Chris Christie: sound on Ukraine.
I know I sound like a broken record, and I know Christie's time in New Jersey ended poorly, but I think he could be a very well organized candidate. And that matters in Iowa where the caucuses mean that second choices and organization matter.
He is 140 on Betfair to be next US President. That is an absolute steal.
Indeed,I have a few quid on, but America is a crazy place and will go for Trum vs Biden.
American politics has jumped the shark.
I'm on.
The tv in my hideous Romanian bar just played a clip of trump after his court case
He made a - for him - quite articulate speech to camera about the state of DC that he’d personally witnessed being driven to the court. The broken roads, the homeless, the degradation
I can see tens of millions of Americans nodding along eagerly. Because he’s right
He has a real chance. Because of this
Biden looks like he doesn’t give a shit about American cities. Or, it is easy to paint him and the democrats that way
Don't the cities vote for the Democrats? DC certainly does.
He obviously has a chance, unfortunately, but will Democrat leaning cities being shit really make the difference in the key states like Arizona and Georgia, where Biden won by a whisker last time? I'd have thought they already thought that, which is why they don't live in those places.
Trump might have an even better chance if he spent more time complaining about mismanagement of Democratic authorities and less time bemoaning his personal legal woes - I know it plays well with his base, but they'd vote for him anyway, and even the small number of GOPers put off by his behaviour would find it easier to back him.
The point is that the shit homeless drugs urban nightmare is now spreading from coastal Democrat cities - inland
I saw it with my own eyes in Lexington Kentucky
If US cities elected more Republican Mayors that would likely make more of a difference to them than who is next President as the Federal government doesn't have a great deal of influence over city government.
By definition to win Democrat leaning cities Republican candidates need to be moderate and pragmatic and often with business experience at a high level of management too.
Suceava Romania (which isn’t in a war) looks much uglier, scruffier and more desperate than Chernivtsi, Ukraine (which IS)
I thought Romania was a beautiful country scarred by ugly towns and uglier cities. Bucharesti is horrible, Cluj Napoca has pockets of pretty inside otherwise horrible, Alba Iulia has that amazing citadel but the rest is similar. I think its the endless brutalist architecture and festoons of wires.
Which is a pity as I found Romanian people to be warm, welcoming and funny. And even they thought their towns were awful.
Yeah, this is one fucking toilet of a town. West Ukraine is exquisite in comparison. Ceaucescu really did a job on his own country
Talking of toilets this bar I am in (3 hour wait for the train to Bacau) has a squatter toilet. Surely one of the last in Europe? Has anyone else seen one recently?
Still in quite a few of the small rest stops (Aire de ...) on the French autoroutes.
Big fan of squat toilets, much more physiological a position.
Tokyo airport has lovely new shiny technologically-advanced toilets, with a choice of sit or squat options.
And people say Japan is in decline. Nonsense, I say - what is the hallmark of civilization if not plumbing arrangements?
I once wrote a whole article on this. Because it is true
We know Rome was advanced because they had decent toilets and central heating and good sanitation in general
You CAN measure a civilisation by its bogs
And by the measure the west is falling behind. We still use paper - or at best wet-wipes (which clog sewers) - it is ridiculously unhygienic
East Asians have had integral bidets/washlets/bum guns for years. They find out standard loos as yuk just as we used to abhor squatters
I’ve noticed that luxe hotels in the west are now installing bum guns as standard, to cater for this higher international norm
How badly unionised are the baggage workers at Heathrow?
This might be the worst reclaim experience I've ever had. 45 minute wait for just a dribble of bags coming out, and then it stops again. Everyone still waiting.
Being told 40 minutes to 1 hour is "normal" this time of year. I don't think I've ever had it this bad in over 20 years.
Heathrow is run on the basis of get the cheapest workers you can, then treat them like shit. The slight problem is that the ones who can operate opposable thumbs have quit to drive for Amazon.
A friends husband worked in a factory making meals for the airlines there. A manager. He quit because, as he put it, he left Morocco to get away from that kind of shit. Totally un-automated, just pile in the cheap bodies.
He said everything at Heathrow was the same - massive addiction to cheap labour.
How badly unionised are the baggage workers at Heathrow?
This might be the worst reclaim experience I've ever had. 45 minute wait for just a dribble of bags coming out, and then it stops again. Everyone still waiting.
Being told 40 minutes to 1 hour is "normal" this time of year. I don't think I've ever had it this bad in over 20 years.
Interesting that you chose "badly unionised" over "badly managed".
Do they have enough staff on shift, and are they properly trained, with enough service vehicles?
There are very few staff and they are lazy and slovenly and disinterested in customers.
Unions.
Very few staff sounds a management rather than Union issue. It's them that manage the rota...
A little while ago, I was passing the pubs near Hammersmith bridge, during the early morning.
The landlord of one pub was swearing on his phone, because he couldn't get staff to show up. The next day. Yes, his plan was to phone people up to ask them to do a shit on about 24 hours notice.
The next door pub, I happen to know, the landlord does a spreadsheet for months in advance. And does free laundry of the pub branded polo shirts - and other stuff like that.
Guess who has staff?
Slightly disconcerting typo given the parallel conversation on dodgy khazis ...
Bet the shifts at that pub *are* shit.
I find it very hard to understand the mind state - expecting people to sit by the phone, lives on hold, just waiting for work.
Yes - phone calls cost money. Best to make 'em queue outside the pub and say he'll offer work if he's got some.
That's traditionally how it was done on the docks.
The "reserve army of labour".
The Polish Centre in Hammersmith used to have a queue of people just on the corner, each morning. The long cab pickups and vans would pull up, there would be a brief negotiation, and the chap(s) at the head of the queue would get in.
EDIT: Around the time of BREXIT, some graffiti got scrawled on a wall. Everyone was going "What caused this evil, racist attack?". The graffiti was scrawled on the wall where the queue would form.
This is precisely why a union like the IWW is needed - to welcome immigrants with "Good to see you, brother, here's your union card."
I've seen the same kind of queuing for the chance of casual labour in Glasgow too, without an ethnic angle. It's all about supply and demand. Dunno why it surprises some people.
Used to have an ethnic angle in Glasgow ...
Yes OK. I saw it in Springburn. Just saw groups of waiting men, out of whom some would be selected for work that day. There may well have been a sectarian angle. This was in the early 1990s.
How badly unionised are the baggage workers at Heathrow?
This might be the worst reclaim experience I've ever had. 45 minute wait for just a dribble of bags coming out, and then it stops again. Everyone still waiting.
Being told 40 minutes to 1 hour is "normal" this time of year. I don't think I've ever had it this bad in over 20 years.
Heathrow is run on the basis of get the cheapest workers you can, then treat them like shit. The slight problem is that the ones who can operate opposable thumbs have quit to drive for Amazon.
A friends husband worked in a factory making meals for the airlines there. A manager. He quit because, as he put it, he left Morocco to get away from that kind of shit. Totally un-automated, just pile in the cheap bodies.
He said everything at Heathrow was the same - massive addiction to cheap labour.
Sounds horrible.
It was, according to his description. A bloke with a paddle stirring stew in a vat etc...
Suceava Romania (which isn’t in a war) looks much uglier, scruffier and more desperate than Chernivtsi, Ukraine (which IS)
I thought Romania was a beautiful country scarred by ugly towns and uglier cities. Bucharesti is horrible, Cluj Napoca has pockets of pretty inside otherwise horrible, Alba Iulia has that amazing citadel but the rest is similar. I think its the endless brutalist architecture and festoons of wires.
Which is a pity as I found Romanian people to be warm, welcoming and funny. And even they thought their towns were awful.
Yeah, this is one fucking toilet of a town. West Ukraine is exquisite in comparison. Ceaucescu really did a job on his own country
Talking of toilets this bar I am in (3 hour wait for the train to Bacau) has a squatter toilet. Surely one of the last in Europe? Has anyone else seen one recently?
Still in quite a few of the small rest stops (Aire de ...) on the French autoroutes.
Big fan of squat toilets, much more physiological a position.
Tokyo airport has lovely new shiny technologically-advanced toilets, with a choice of sit or squat options.
And people say Japan is in decline. Nonsense, I say - what is the hallmark of civilization if not plumbing arrangements?
I once wrote a whole article on this. Because it is true
We know Rome was advanced because they had decent toilets and central heating and good sanitation in general
You CAN measure a civilisation by its bogs
And by the measure the west is falling behind. We still use paper - or at best wet-wipes (which clog sewers) - it is ridiculously unhygienic
East Asians have had integral bidets/washlets/bum guns for years. They find out standard loos as yuk just as we used to abhor squatters
I’ve noticed that luxe hotels in the west are now installing bum guns as standard, to cater for this higher international norm
https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1687469428584144896 I had a meeting with a member of the Republican Party, former Governor of New Jersey, Christopher Christie. And it is very important that Mr. Christie began his visit to Ukraine with a visit to Bucha to see with his own eyes the threat to freedom and to everyone in the world posed by Russian aggression.
I thanked all Americans, each and every one, for their vital support.
We are confident that we will end this Russian war against freedom with our victory – the victory of the free world, the victory of democracy, the victory of freedom.
Chris Christie: sound on Ukraine.
I know I sound like a broken record, and I know Christie's time in New Jersey ended poorly, but I think he could be a very well organized candidate. And that matters in Iowa where the caucuses mean that second choices and organization matter.
He is 140 on Betfair to be next US President. That is an absolute steal.
Indeed,I have a few quid on, but America is a crazy place and will go for Trum vs Biden.
American politics has jumped the shark.
I'm on.
The tv in my hideous Romanian bar just played a clip of trump after his court case
He made a - for him - quite articulate speech to camera about the state of DC that he’d personally witnessed being driven to the court. The broken roads, the homeless, the degradation
I can see tens of millions of Americans nodding along eagerly. Because he’s right
He has a real chance. Because of this
Biden looks like he doesn’t give a shit about American cities. Or, it is easy to paint him and the democrats that way
Don't the cities vote for the Democrats? DC certainly does.
He obviously has a chance, unfortunately, but will Democrat leaning cities being shit really make the difference in the key states like Arizona and Georgia, where Biden won by a whisker last time? I'd have thought they already thought that, which is why they don't live in those places.
Trump might have an even better chance if he spent more time complaining about mismanagement of Democratic authorities and less time bemoaning his personal legal woes - I know it plays well with his base, but they'd vote for him anyway, and even the small number of GOPers put off by his behaviour would find it easier to back him.
The point is that the shit homeless drugs urban nightmare is now spreading from coastal Democrat cities - inland
I saw it with my own eyes in Lexington Kentucky
If US cities elected more Republican Mayors that would likely make more of a difference to them than who is next President as the Federal government doesn't have a great deal of influence over city government.
By definition to win Democrat leaning cities Republican candidates need to be moderate and pragmatic and often with business experience at a high level of management too.
Sure. Whatever. I’m just saying it’s clever politics by Trump
I reckon he could easily win against doddery old Biden. Trump looks up for the fight and about ten years younger and sharper
A relative of mine works in care and is always getting called up with less than 24 hours notice to work super long shifts. Could say no perhaps, but when you need every penny you can it is hard. Personally think he should have stayed at McDonalds - better pay, better hours, and seemed like a much better employer all around.
Despite the jokes, McD is actually known as a really good employer. They spend a lot of time and money on staff development and training, and also help managers to become franchisees if they wish. They’re responsible for a lot of millionaires who started out flipping burgers at the weekend.
Hold baggage is very last century. Only drawback to cabin bag only is I spend the whole time fretting I have nothing to cut my nails with. Even when I am away for 4 days and virtually amputate my fingertips before leaving.
You do know that nail clippers are allowed in carry on.
I have a bone to pick with you, a few weeks ago you posted something very funny from the New Yorker. I signed up to their daily email for New Yorker humour and the cartoons are about as humorous as having your humerus removed violently and shoved up your backside with no lube.
You are forgiven though as a Radiohead fan.
Twenty one years ago, almost to the day, I was cycling* back from a pub in Southwark to Aldgate East where I then lived.
Maybe I'd had one two many beers. Maybe it was the car speeding up Minories far too close to me. And maybe it was some combination of the two. But I came off my bicycle and ended up at the Royal London.
After being X-Rayed, the Nurse Practitioner looked me in the eye and said - word for word - "You fractured your humerus. And I bet you don't think that's very humorous."
* Yeah, cycled. Sue me.
A mad physio*, who I got recommended, told me about how he cracked a vertebra playing rugby.
The local NHS hospital sent him home with some pain killers, having missed the crack in the X-Rays.
After some pain and time, he went private.
He trend up at the NHS hospital and demanded to see the senior chap. As he told hit, the guy was asking if he wanted to sue. "No", he said, "I want you too get your chap in here and show him what at cracked vertebra looks like on an X-Ray, for next time"
*He reminded me strongly of Basil Brush. Drove a souped up version of a Caterham 7, with illegal tires, IIRC.
OK...
About seven years ago (29 October 2016), my wife asked me if I wanted some cheese and wine, and I said "nope, I'm going for a run".
So, I went for a run around Hampstead and Finchley Road, and just as I was on the final stretch on Redington, I tripped and fell.
Standing up and looking at my hand, it was clear that *something* was slightly wrong. Specifically, my little finger was bent back at an unusual angle:
So I called an Uber to take me to the Royal Free.
They de-dislocated the finger (by yanking), wrapped it up, gave me painkillers and sent me home, with instructions to the return to the hand clinic the following week.
Which I duly did. Upon meeting with a hand doctor the following week, they were surprised at the extent of the swelling and ordered an X-Ray.
When it came back I was told "Yeah, you should have been X-Rayed last week, because you've fractured a bunch of bones in your hand and we're going to need to operate first thing tomorrow to pin your hand back together."
Without wishing this sound like the Three Yorkshireman (or one Derbyshireman...)
A decade or so back, my dad put a nail from a nailgun through his hand whilst working on a roof. Whilst in his seventies. My brother took him to hospital, who X-rayed my dad's hand to look for bone damage. They noticed several fingers that had been broken in the past and healed. "Oh," my dad said. "I smashed my hand in the 1960s, and just taped the fingers together. I didn't realise anything was broken."
Whereas when I fractured my elbow in northern Scotland, it required full family medevac and two 12-hour drives...
A relative of mine works in care and is always getting called up with less than 24 hours notice to work super long shifts. Could say no perhaps, but when you need every penny you can it is hard. Personally think he should have stayed at McDonalds - better pay, better hours, and seemed like a much better employer all around.
Despite the jokes, McD is actually known as a really good employer. They spend a lot of time and money on staff development and training, and also help managers to become franchisees if they wish. They’re responsible for a lot of millionaires who started out flipping burgers at the weekend.
Suceava Romania (which isn’t in a war) looks much uglier, scruffier and more desperate than Chernivtsi, Ukraine (which IS)
I thought Romania was a beautiful country scarred by ugly towns and uglier cities. Bucharesti is horrible, Cluj Napoca has pockets of pretty inside otherwise horrible, Alba Iulia has that amazing citadel but the rest is similar. I think its the endless brutalist architecture and festoons of wires.
Which is a pity as I found Romanian people to be warm, welcoming and funny. And even they thought their towns were awful.
Yeah, this is one fucking toilet of a town. West Ukraine is exquisite in comparison. Ceaucescu really did a job on his own country
Talking of toilets this bar I am in (3 hour wait for the train to Bacau) has a squatter toilet. Surely one of the last in Europe? Has anyone else seen one recently?
Still in quite a few of the small rest stops (Aire de ...) on the French autoroutes.
Big fan of squat toilets, much more physiological a position.
Tokyo airport has lovely new shiny technologically-advanced toilets, with a choice of sit or squat options.
And people say Japan is in decline. Nonsense, I say - what is the hallmark of civilization if not plumbing arrangements?
I once wrote a whole article on this. Because it is true
We know Rome was advanced because they had decent toilets and central heating and good sanitation in general
You CAN measure a civilisation by its bogs
And by the measure the west is falling behind. We still use paper - or at best wet-wipes (which clog sewers) - it is ridiculously unhygienic
East Asians have had integral bidets/washlets/bum guns for years. They find out standard loos as yuk just as we used to abhor squatters
I’ve noticed that luxe hotels in the west are now installing bum guns as standard, to cater for this higher international norm
And yet my flat in Seville (pleasant enough, but hardly deluxe) had one, 25 years ago.
Suceava Romania (which isn’t in a war) looks much uglier, scruffier and more desperate than Chernivtsi, Ukraine (which IS)
I thought Romania was a beautiful country scarred by ugly towns and uglier cities. Bucharesti is horrible, Cluj Napoca has pockets of pretty inside otherwise horrible, Alba Iulia has that amazing citadel but the rest is similar. I think its the endless brutalist architecture and festoons of wires.
Which is a pity as I found Romanian people to be warm, welcoming and funny. And even they thought their towns were awful.
Yeah, this is one fucking toilet of a town. West Ukraine is exquisite in comparison. Ceaucescu really did a job on his own country
Talking of toilets this bar I am in (3 hour wait for the train to Bacau) has a squatter toilet. Surely one of the last in Europe? Has anyone else seen one recently?
Still in quite a few of the small rest stops (Aire de ...) on the French autoroutes.
Big fan of squat toilets, much more physiological a position.
Tokyo airport has lovely new shiny technologically-advanced toilets, with a choice of sit or squat options.
And people say Japan is in decline. Nonsense, I say - what is the hallmark of civilization if not plumbing arrangements?
I once wrote a whole article on this. Because it is true
We know Rome was advanced because they had decent toilets and central heating and good sanitation in general
You CAN measure a civilisation by its bogs
And by the measure the west is falling behind. We still use paper - or at best wet-wipes (which clog sewers) - it is ridiculously unhygienic
East Asians have had integral bidets/washlets/bum guns for years. They find out standard loos as yuk just as we used to abhor squatters
I’ve noticed that luxe hotels in the west are now installing bum guns as standard, to cater for this higher international norm
https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1687469428584144896 I had a meeting with a member of the Republican Party, former Governor of New Jersey, Christopher Christie. And it is very important that Mr. Christie began his visit to Ukraine with a visit to Bucha to see with his own eyes the threat to freedom and to everyone in the world posed by Russian aggression.
I thanked all Americans, each and every one, for their vital support.
We are confident that we will end this Russian war against freedom with our victory – the victory of the free world, the victory of democracy, the victory of freedom.
Chris Christie: sound on Ukraine.
I know I sound like a broken record, and I know Christie's time in New Jersey ended poorly, but I think he could be a very well organized candidate. And that matters in Iowa where the caucuses mean that second choices and organization matter.
He is 140 on Betfair to be next US President. That is an absolute steal.
Indeed,I have a few quid on, but America is a crazy place and will go for Trum vs Biden.
American politics has jumped the shark.
I'm on.
The tv in my hideous Romanian bar just played a clip of trump after his court case
He made a - for him - quite articulate speech to camera about the state of DC that he’d personally witnessed being driven to the court. The broken roads, the homeless, the degradation
I can see tens of millions of Americans nodding along eagerly. Because he’s right
He has a real chance. Because of this
Biden looks like he doesn’t give a shit about American cities. Or, it is easy to paint him and the democrats that way
Don't the cities vote for the Democrats? DC certainly does.
He obviously has a chance, unfortunately, but will Democrat leaning cities being shit really make the difference in the key states like Arizona and Georgia, where Biden won by a whisker last time? I'd have thought they already thought that, which is why they don't live in those places.
Trump might have an even better chance if he spent more time complaining about mismanagement of Democratic authorities and less time bemoaning his personal legal woes - I know it plays well with his base, but they'd vote for him anyway, and even the small number of GOPers put off by his behaviour would find it easier to back him.
The point is that the shit homeless drugs urban nightmare is now spreading from coastal Democrat cities - inland
I saw it with my own eyes in Lexington Kentucky
If US cities elected more Republican Mayors that would likely make more of a difference to them than who is next President as the Federal government doesn't have a great deal of influence over city government.
By definition to win Democrat leaning cities Republican candidates need to be moderate and pragmatic and often with business experience at a high level of management too.
Sure. Whatever. I’m just saying it’s clever politics by Trump
I reckon he could easily win against doddery old Biden. Trump looks up for the fight and about ten years younger and sharper
Suceava Romania (which isn’t in a war) looks much uglier, scruffier and more desperate than Chernivtsi, Ukraine (which IS)
I thought Romania was a beautiful country scarred by ugly towns and uglier cities. Bucharesti is horrible, Cluj Napoca has pockets of pretty inside otherwise horrible, Alba Iulia has that amazing citadel but the rest is similar. I think its the endless brutalist architecture and festoons of wires.
Which is a pity as I found Romanian people to be warm, welcoming and funny. And even they thought their towns were awful.
Yeah, this is one fucking toilet of a town. West Ukraine is exquisite in comparison. Ceaucescu really did a job on his own country
Talking of toilets this bar I am in (3 hour wait for the train to Bacau) has a squatter toilet. Surely one of the last in Europe? Has anyone else seen one recently?
Still in quite a few of the small rest stops (Aire de ...) on the French autoroutes.
Big fan of squat toilets, much more physiological a position.
Tokyo airport has lovely new shiny technologically-advanced toilets, with a choice of sit or squat options.
And people say Japan is in decline. Nonsense, I say - what is the hallmark of civilization if not plumbing arrangements?
I once wrote a whole article on this. Because it is true
We know Rome was advanced because they had decent toilets and central heating and good sanitation in general
You CAN measure a civilisation by its bogs
And by the measure the west is falling behind. We still use paper - or at best wet-wipes (which clog sewers) - it is ridiculously unhygienic
East Asians have had integral bidets/washlets/bum guns for years. They find out standard loos as yuk just as we used to abhor squatters
I’ve noticed that luxe hotels in the west are now installing bum guns as standard, to cater for this higher international norm
https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1687469428584144896 I had a meeting with a member of the Republican Party, former Governor of New Jersey, Christopher Christie. And it is very important that Mr. Christie began his visit to Ukraine with a visit to Bucha to see with his own eyes the threat to freedom and to everyone in the world posed by Russian aggression.
I thanked all Americans, each and every one, for their vital support.
We are confident that we will end this Russian war against freedom with our victory – the victory of the free world, the victory of democracy, the victory of freedom.
Chris Christie: sound on Ukraine.
I know I sound like a broken record, and I know Christie's time in New Jersey ended poorly, but I think he could be a very well organized candidate. And that matters in Iowa where the caucuses mean that second choices and organization matter.
He is 140 on Betfair to be next US President. That is an absolute steal.
Indeed,I have a few quid on, but America is a crazy place and will go for Trum vs Biden.
American politics has jumped the shark.
I'm on.
The tv in my hideous Romanian bar just played a clip of trump after his court case
He made a - for him - quite articulate speech to camera about the state of DC that he’d personally witnessed being driven to the court. The broken roads, the homeless, the degradation
I can see tens of millions of Americans nodding along eagerly. Because he’s right
He has a real chance. Because of this
Biden looks like he doesn’t give a shit about American cities. Or, it is easy to paint him and the democrats that way
Don't the cities vote for the Democrats? DC certainly does.
He obviously has a chance, unfortunately, but will Democrat leaning cities being shit really make the difference in the key states like Arizona and Georgia, where Biden won by a whisker last time? I'd have thought they already thought that, which is why they don't live in those places.
Trump might have an even better chance if he spent more time complaining about mismanagement of Democratic authorities and less time bemoaning his personal legal woes - I know it plays well with his base, but they'd vote for him anyway, and even the small number of GOPers put off by his behaviour would find it easier to back him.
The point is that the shit homeless drugs urban nightmare is now spreading from coastal Democrat cities - inland
I saw it with my own eyes in Lexington Kentucky
If US cities elected more Republican Mayors that would likely make more of a difference to them than who is next President as the Federal government doesn't have a great deal of influence over city government.
By definition to win Democrat leaning cities Republican candidates need to be moderate and pragmatic and often with business experience at a high level of management too.
Sure. Whatever. I’m just saying it’s clever politics by Trump
I reckon he could easily win against doddery old Biden. Trump looks up for the fight and about ten years younger and sharper
Suceava Romania (which isn’t in a war) looks much uglier, scruffier and more desperate than Chernivtsi, Ukraine (which IS)
I thought Romania was a beautiful country scarred by ugly towns and uglier cities. Bucharesti is horrible, Cluj Napoca has pockets of pretty inside otherwise horrible, Alba Iulia has that amazing citadel but the rest is similar. I think its the endless brutalist architecture and festoons of wires.
Which is a pity as I found Romanian people to be warm, welcoming and funny. And even they thought their towns were awful.
Yeah, this is one fucking toilet of a town. West Ukraine is exquisite in comparison. Ceaucescu really did a job on his own country
Talking of toilets this bar I am in (3 hour wait for the train to Bacau) has a squatter toilet. Surely one of the last in Europe? Has anyone else seen one recently?
Still in quite a few of the small rest stops (Aire de ...) on the French autoroutes.
Big fan of squat toilets, much more physiological a position.
Tokyo airport has lovely new shiny technologically-advanced toilets, with a choice of sit or squat options.
And people say Japan is in decline. Nonsense, I say - what is the hallmark of civilization if not plumbing arrangements?
I once wrote a whole article on this. Because it is true
We know Rome was advanced because they had decent toilets and central heating and good sanitation in general
(Snip)
It's a shame the lead plumbing sent all the leaders mad, though ...
Suceava Romania (which isn’t in a war) looks much uglier, scruffier and more desperate than Chernivtsi, Ukraine (which IS)
I thought Romania was a beautiful country scarred by ugly towns and uglier cities. Bucharesti is horrible, Cluj Napoca has pockets of pretty inside otherwise horrible, Alba Iulia has that amazing citadel but the rest is similar. I think its the endless brutalist architecture and festoons of wires.
Which is a pity as I found Romanian people to be warm, welcoming and funny. And even they thought their towns were awful.
Yeah, this is one fucking toilet of a town. West Ukraine is exquisite in comparison. Ceaucescu really did a job on his own country
Talking of toilets this bar I am in (3 hour wait for the train to Bacau) has a squatter toilet. Surely one of the last in Europe? Has anyone else seen one recently?
Still in quite a few of the small rest stops (Aire de ...) on the French autoroutes.
Big fan of squat toilets, much more physiological a position.
Tokyo airport has lovely new shiny technologically-advanced toilets, with a choice of sit or squat options.
And people say Japan is in decline. Nonsense, I say - what is the hallmark of civilization if not plumbing arrangements?
I once wrote a whole article on this. Because it is true
We know Rome was advanced because they had decent toilets and central heating and good sanitation in general
You CAN measure a civilisation by its bogs
And by the measure the west is falling behind. We still use paper - or at best wet-wipes (which clog sewers) - it is ridiculously unhygienic
East Asians have had integral bidets/washlets/bum guns for years. They find out standard loos as yuk just as we used to abhor squatters
I’ve noticed that luxe hotels in the west are now installing bum guns as standard, to cater for this higher international norm
And yet my flat in Seville (pleasant enough, but hardly deluxe) had one, 25 years ago.
That is rare, tho
I bet that’s an owner who had travelled in the Far East
Suceava Romania (which isn’t in a war) looks much uglier, scruffier and more desperate than Chernivtsi, Ukraine (which IS)
I thought Romania was a beautiful country scarred by ugly towns and uglier cities. Bucharesti is horrible, Cluj Napoca has pockets of pretty inside otherwise horrible, Alba Iulia has that amazing citadel but the rest is similar. I think its the endless brutalist architecture and festoons of wires.
Which is a pity as I found Romanian people to be warm, welcoming and funny. And even they thought their towns were awful.
Yeah, this is one fucking toilet of a town. West Ukraine is exquisite in comparison. Ceaucescu really did a job on his own country
Talking of toilets this bar I am in (3 hour wait for the train to Bacau) has a squatter toilet. Surely one of the last in Europe? Has anyone else seen one recently?
Still in quite a few of the small rest stops (Aire de ...) on the French autoroutes.
Big fan of squat toilets, much more physiological a position.
Tokyo airport has lovely new shiny technologically-advanced toilets, with a choice of sit or squat options.
And people say Japan is in decline. Nonsense, I say - what is the hallmark of civilization if not plumbing arrangements?
I once wrote a whole article on this. Because it is true
We know Rome was advanced because they had decent toilets and central heating and good sanitation in general
You CAN measure a civilisation by its bogs
And by the measure the west is falling behind. We still use paper - or at best wet-wipes (which clog sewers) - it is ridiculously unhygienic
East Asians have had integral bidets/washlets/bum guns for years. They find out standard loos as yuk just as we used to abhor squatters
I’ve noticed that luxe hotels in the west are now installing bum guns as standard, to cater for this higher international norm
https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1687469428584144896 I had a meeting with a member of the Republican Party, former Governor of New Jersey, Christopher Christie. And it is very important that Mr. Christie began his visit to Ukraine with a visit to Bucha to see with his own eyes the threat to freedom and to everyone in the world posed by Russian aggression.
I thanked all Americans, each and every one, for their vital support.
We are confident that we will end this Russian war against freedom with our victory – the victory of the free world, the victory of democracy, the victory of freedom.
Chris Christie: sound on Ukraine.
I know I sound like a broken record, and I know Christie's time in New Jersey ended poorly, but I think he could be a very well organized candidate. And that matters in Iowa where the caucuses mean that second choices and organization matter.
He is 140 on Betfair to be next US President. That is an absolute steal.
Indeed,I have a few quid on, but America is a crazy place and will go for Trum vs Biden.
American politics has jumped the shark.
I'm on.
The tv in my hideous Romanian bar just played a clip of trump after his court case
He made a - for him - quite articulate speech to camera about the state of DC that he’d personally witnessed being driven to the court. The broken roads, the homeless, the degradation
I can see tens of millions of Americans nodding along eagerly. Because he’s right
He has a real chance. Because of this
Biden looks like he doesn’t give a shit about American cities. Or, it is easy to paint him and the democrats that way
Don't the cities vote for the Democrats? DC certainly does.
He obviously has a chance, unfortunately, but will Democrat leaning cities being shit really make the difference in the key states like Arizona and Georgia, where Biden won by a whisker last time? I'd have thought they already thought that, which is why they don't live in those places.
Trump might have an even better chance if he spent more time complaining about mismanagement of Democratic authorities and less time bemoaning his personal legal woes - I know it plays well with his base, but they'd vote for him anyway, and even the small number of GOPers put off by his behaviour would find it easier to back him.
The point is that the shit homeless drugs urban nightmare is now spreading from coastal Democrat cities - inland
I saw it with my own eyes in Lexington Kentucky
If US cities elected more Republican Mayors that would likely make more of a difference to them than who is next President as the Federal government doesn't have a great deal of influence over city government.
By definition to win Democrat leaning cities Republican candidates need to be moderate and pragmatic and often with business experience at a high level of management too.
Sure. Whatever. I’m just saying it’s clever politics by Trump
I reckon he could easily win against doddery old Biden. Trump looks up for the fight and about ten years younger and sharper
The same Trump that failed to read his own name and age back in court?
I think people see what they want to see in both candidates, regardless of the actualities.
Suceava Romania (which isn’t in a war) looks much uglier, scruffier and more desperate than Chernivtsi, Ukraine (which IS)
I thought Romania was a beautiful country scarred by ugly towns and uglier cities. Bucharesti is horrible, Cluj Napoca has pockets of pretty inside otherwise horrible, Alba Iulia has that amazing citadel but the rest is similar. I think its the endless brutalist architecture and festoons of wires.
Which is a pity as I found Romanian people to be warm, welcoming and funny. And even they thought their towns were awful.
Yeah, this is one fucking toilet of a town. West Ukraine is exquisite in comparison. Ceaucescu really did a job on his own country
Talking of toilets this bar I am in (3 hour wait for the train to Bacau) has a squatter toilet. Surely one of the last in Europe? Has anyone else seen one recently?
Still in quite a few of the small rest stops (Aire de ...) on the French autoroutes.
Big fan of squat toilets, much more physiological a position.
Tokyo airport has lovely new shiny technologically-advanced toilets, with a choice of sit or squat options.
And people say Japan is in decline. Nonsense, I say - what is the hallmark of civilization if not plumbing arrangements?
I once wrote a whole article on this. Because it is true
We know Rome was advanced because they had decent toilets and central heating and good sanitation in general
You CAN measure a civilisation by its bogs
And by the measure the west is falling behind. We still use paper - or at best wet-wipes (which clog sewers) - it is ridiculously unhygienic
East Asians have had integral bidets/washlets/bum guns for years. They find out standard loos as yuk just as we used to abhor squatters
I’ve noticed that luxe hotels in the west are now installing bum guns as standard, to cater for this higher international norm
Yes. I have one in my flat. They cost pennies to install. Mine has a nice warm water option. Very soothing when you need it
I am genuinely surprised these aren’t universal. Once you’ve got one you never want to go back
I can only conclude most westerners don’t go to east Asia much (or other places where they are increasingly common: like 5 star hotels or the UAE etc)
Hmm.
Hmmm what?? They clean you properly
Ideally you’d get one of those £10k Japanese khazis which do it all with electronics and have an integral dryer. But that’s quite a lot of cash
For £300 you can have a decent warm-or-cold bum gun
In fact this is such an obvious marketing opportunity I might start smuggling them into the UK
“What do you do?”
“Gun running.”
“What??”
“Yep. Bum gun running. Sploosh!”
Those attachments are not legal in the UK. In theory, if the mains pressure were to get too low, they could allow fecal matter to get back into the mains and, thereby, into other households' drinking water.
No shower-type object attached to the mains (including to toilet cisterns) is allowed to reach a toilet bowl. Which is also why very small hotel rooms have inadequate length shower hoses - they mustn't reach the toilet bowl.
Edit: I see that site, sort of, claims their model is legal. In weasel words.
Suceava Romania (which isn’t in a war) looks much uglier, scruffier and more desperate than Chernivtsi, Ukraine (which IS)
I thought Romania was a beautiful country scarred by ugly towns and uglier cities. Bucharesti is horrible, Cluj Napoca has pockets of pretty inside otherwise horrible, Alba Iulia has that amazing citadel but the rest is similar. I think its the endless brutalist architecture and festoons of wires.
Which is a pity as I found Romanian people to be warm, welcoming and funny. And even they thought their towns were awful.
Yeah, this is one fucking toilet of a town. West Ukraine is exquisite in comparison. Ceaucescu really did a job on his own country
Talking of toilets this bar I am in (3 hour wait for the train to Bacau) has a squatter toilet. Surely one of the last in Europe? Has anyone else seen one recently?
Still in quite a few of the small rest stops (Aire de ...) on the French autoroutes.
Big fan of squat toilets, much more physiological a position.
Tokyo airport has lovely new shiny technologically-advanced toilets, with a choice of sit or squat options.
And people say Japan is in decline. Nonsense, I say - what is the hallmark of civilization if not plumbing arrangements?
I once wrote a whole article on this. Because it is true
We know Rome was advanced because they had decent toilets and central heating and good sanitation in general
You CAN measure a civilisation by its bogs
And by the measure the west is falling behind. We still use paper - or at best wet-wipes (which clog sewers) - it is ridiculously unhygienic
East Asians have had integral bidets/washlets/bum guns for years. They find out standard loos as yuk just as we used to abhor squatters
I’ve noticed that luxe hotels in the west are now installing bum guns as standard, to cater for this higher international norm
https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1687469428584144896 I had a meeting with a member of the Republican Party, former Governor of New Jersey, Christopher Christie. And it is very important that Mr. Christie began his visit to Ukraine with a visit to Bucha to see with his own eyes the threat to freedom and to everyone in the world posed by Russian aggression.
I thanked all Americans, each and every one, for their vital support.
We are confident that we will end this Russian war against freedom with our victory – the victory of the free world, the victory of democracy, the victory of freedom.
Chris Christie: sound on Ukraine.
I know I sound like a broken record, and I know Christie's time in New Jersey ended poorly, but I think he could be a very well organized candidate. And that matters in Iowa where the caucuses mean that second choices and organization matter.
He is 140 on Betfair to be next US President. That is an absolute steal.
Indeed,I have a few quid on, but America is a crazy place and will go for Trum vs Biden.
American politics has jumped the shark.
I'm on.
The tv in my hideous Romanian bar just played a clip of trump after his court case
He made a - for him - quite articulate speech to camera about the state of DC that he’d personally witnessed being driven to the court. The broken roads, the homeless, the degradation
I can see tens of millions of Americans nodding along eagerly. Because he’s right
He has a real chance. Because of this
Biden looks like he doesn’t give a shit about American cities. Or, it is easy to paint him and the democrats that way
Don't the cities vote for the Democrats? DC certainly does.
He obviously has a chance, unfortunately, but will Democrat leaning cities being shit really make the difference in the key states like Arizona and Georgia, where Biden won by a whisker last time? I'd have thought they already thought that, which is why they don't live in those places.
Trump might have an even better chance if he spent more time complaining about mismanagement of Democratic authorities and less time bemoaning his personal legal woes - I know it plays well with his base, but they'd vote for him anyway, and even the small number of GOPers put off by his behaviour would find it easier to back him.
The point is that the shit homeless drugs urban nightmare is now spreading from coastal Democrat cities - inland
I saw it with my own eyes in Lexington Kentucky
If US cities elected more Republican Mayors that would likely make more of a difference to them than who is next President as the Federal government doesn't have a great deal of influence over city government.
By definition to win Democrat leaning cities Republican candidates need to be moderate and pragmatic and often with business experience at a high level of management too.
Sure. Whatever. I’m just saying it’s clever politics by Trump
I reckon he could easily win against doddery old Biden. Trump looks up for the fight and about ten years younger and sharper
The 2024 US Presidential election may well be decided in the courtroom more than the ballot box
The odds of the American judicial system moving that fast are the same as the odds of Johnson telling the truth or of Amanda Spielman speaking sense on safeguarding.
The issue is not whether they lock the orange haired loon up, but whether the penny drops with enough Americans that he's a card-carrying fascist who poses a threat to their beloved Constitution for him to lose either the primaries or the real thing.
Current signs are less than brilliantly encouraging.
Suceava Romania (which isn’t in a war) looks much uglier, scruffier and more desperate than Chernivtsi, Ukraine (which IS)
I thought Romania was a beautiful country scarred by ugly towns and uglier cities. Bucharesti is horrible, Cluj Napoca has pockets of pretty inside otherwise horrible, Alba Iulia has that amazing citadel but the rest is similar. I think its the endless brutalist architecture and festoons of wires.
Which is a pity as I found Romanian people to be warm, welcoming and funny. And even they thought their towns were awful.
Yeah, this is one fucking toilet of a town. West Ukraine is exquisite in comparison. Ceaucescu really did a job on his own country
Talking of toilets this bar I am in (3 hour wait for the train to Bacau) has a squatter toilet. Surely one of the last in Europe? Has anyone else seen one recently?
Still in quite a few of the small rest stops (Aire de ...) on the French autoroutes.
Big fan of squat toilets, much more physiological a position.
Tokyo airport has lovely new shiny technologically-advanced toilets, with a choice of sit or squat options.
And people say Japan is in decline. Nonsense, I say - what is the hallmark of civilization if not plumbing arrangements?
I once wrote a whole article on this. Because it is true
We know Rome was advanced because they had decent toilets and central heating and good sanitation in general
You CAN measure a civilisation by its bogs
And by the measure the west is falling behind. We still use paper - or at best wet-wipes (which clog sewers) - it is ridiculously unhygienic
East Asians have had integral bidets/washlets/bum guns for years. They find out standard loos as yuk just as we used to abhor squatters
I’ve noticed that luxe hotels in the west are now installing bum guns as standard, to cater for this higher international norm
https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1687469428584144896 I had a meeting with a member of the Republican Party, former Governor of New Jersey, Christopher Christie. And it is very important that Mr. Christie began his visit to Ukraine with a visit to Bucha to see with his own eyes the threat to freedom and to everyone in the world posed by Russian aggression.
I thanked all Americans, each and every one, for their vital support.
We are confident that we will end this Russian war against freedom with our victory – the victory of the free world, the victory of democracy, the victory of freedom.
Chris Christie: sound on Ukraine.
I know I sound like a broken record, and I know Christie's time in New Jersey ended poorly, but I think he could be a very well organized candidate. And that matters in Iowa where the caucuses mean that second choices and organization matter.
He is 140 on Betfair to be next US President. That is an absolute steal.
Indeed,I have a few quid on, but America is a crazy place and will go for Trum vs Biden.
American politics has jumped the shark.
I'm on.
The tv in my hideous Romanian bar just played a clip of trump after his court case
He made a - for him - quite articulate speech to camera about the state of DC that he’d personally witnessed being driven to the court. The broken roads, the homeless, the degradation
I can see tens of millions of Americans nodding along eagerly. Because he’s right
He has a real chance. Because of this
Biden looks like he doesn’t give a shit about American cities. Or, it is easy to paint him and the democrats that way
Don't the cities vote for the Democrats? DC certainly does.
He obviously has a chance, unfortunately, but will Democrat leaning cities being shit really make the difference in the key states like Arizona and Georgia, where Biden won by a whisker last time? I'd have thought they already thought that, which is why they don't live in those places.
Trump might have an even better chance if he spent more time complaining about mismanagement of Democratic authorities and less time bemoaning his personal legal woes - I know it plays well with his base, but they'd vote for him anyway, and even the small number of GOPers put off by his behaviour would find it easier to back him.
The point is that the shit homeless drugs urban nightmare is now spreading from coastal Democrat cities - inland
I saw it with my own eyes in Lexington Kentucky
If US cities elected more Republican Mayors that would likely make more of a difference to them than who is next President as the Federal government doesn't have a great deal of influence over city government.
By definition to win Democrat leaning cities Republican candidates need to be moderate and pragmatic and often with business experience at a high level of management too.
Sure. Whatever. I’m just saying it’s clever politics by Trump
I reckon he could easily win against doddery old Biden. Trump looks up for the fight and about ten years younger and sharper
The same Trump that failed to read his own name and age back in court?
I think people see what they want to see in both candidates, regardless of the actualities.
Sure, but you may be doing the same. That was just spin, about his name. About his age, "seven seven", I'm still researching that.
He seemed in quite good (for him) psychological shape.
@HY: I'm not so keen on using percentages to appraise his chances. Let's say he may well find fertile ground for the extreme polarisation that he needs. The way he needs the meme of social collapse to work is that he needs to associate it with his opponent...so that a slice of the formerly Democratic voterbase says f*ck it, we don't give a sh*t, we've got f*ck all to lose, and they either stay at home or vote Trump. And then they may find out that actually they do have something to lose.
If he doesn't meet a similar end to Sindona and Epstein, perhaps we'll all need to bend down and kiss our bottoms goodbye, well-washed with bumgun tech or otherwise.
On the other side of the aisle, the Dems need to ditch Biden.
My only wagers so far are on Kamala Harris for the presidency and Tom Cotton for the Rep VP nom.
Suceava Romania (which isn’t in a war) looks much uglier, scruffier and more desperate than Chernivtsi, Ukraine (which IS)
I thought Romania was a beautiful country scarred by ugly towns and uglier cities. Bucharesti is horrible, Cluj Napoca has pockets of pretty inside otherwise horrible, Alba Iulia has that amazing citadel but the rest is similar. I think its the endless brutalist architecture and festoons of wires.
Which is a pity as I found Romanian people to be warm, welcoming and funny. And even they thought their towns were awful.
Yeah, this is one fucking toilet of a town. West Ukraine is exquisite in comparison. Ceaucescu really did a job on his own country
Talking of toilets this bar I am in (3 hour wait for the train to Bacau) has a squatter toilet. Surely one of the last in Europe? Has anyone else seen one recently?
Still in quite a few of the small rest stops (Aire de ...) on the French autoroutes.
Big fan of squat toilets, much more physiological a position.
Tokyo airport has lovely new shiny technologically-advanced toilets, with a choice of sit or squat options.
And people say Japan is in decline. Nonsense, I say - what is the hallmark of civilization if not plumbing arrangements?
I once wrote a whole article on this. Because it is true
We know Rome was advanced because they had decent toilets and central heating and good sanitation in general
You CAN measure a civilisation by its bogs
And by the measure the west is falling behind. We still use paper - or at best wet-wipes (which clog sewers) - it is ridiculously unhygienic
East Asians have had integral bidets/washlets/bum guns for years. They find out standard loos as yuk just as we used to abhor squatters
I’ve noticed that luxe hotels in the west are now installing bum guns as standard, to cater for this higher international norm
https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1687469428584144896 I had a meeting with a member of the Republican Party, former Governor of New Jersey, Christopher Christie. And it is very important that Mr. Christie began his visit to Ukraine with a visit to Bucha to see with his own eyes the threat to freedom and to everyone in the world posed by Russian aggression.
I thanked all Americans, each and every one, for their vital support.
We are confident that we will end this Russian war against freedom with our victory – the victory of the free world, the victory of democracy, the victory of freedom.
Chris Christie: sound on Ukraine.
I know I sound like a broken record, and I know Christie's time in New Jersey ended poorly, but I think he could be a very well organized candidate. And that matters in Iowa where the caucuses mean that second choices and organization matter.
He is 140 on Betfair to be next US President. That is an absolute steal.
Indeed,I have a few quid on, but America is a crazy place and will go for Trum vs Biden.
American politics has jumped the shark.
I'm on.
The tv in my hideous Romanian bar just played a clip of trump after his court case
He made a - for him - quite articulate speech to camera about the state of DC that he’d personally witnessed being driven to the court. The broken roads, the homeless, the degradation
I can see tens of millions of Americans nodding along eagerly. Because he’s right
He has a real chance. Because of this
Biden looks like he doesn’t give a shit about American cities. Or, it is easy to paint him and the democrats that way
Don't the cities vote for the Democrats? DC certainly does.
He obviously has a chance, unfortunately, but will Democrat leaning cities being shit really make the difference in the key states like Arizona and Georgia, where Biden won by a whisker last time? I'd have thought they already thought that, which is why they don't live in those places.
Trump might have an even better chance if he spent more time complaining about mismanagement of Democratic authorities and less time bemoaning his personal legal woes - I know it plays well with his base, but they'd vote for him anyway, and even the small number of GOPers put off by his behaviour would find it easier to back him.
The point is that the shit homeless drugs urban nightmare is now spreading from coastal Democrat cities - inland
I saw it with my own eyes in Lexington Kentucky
If US cities elected more Republican Mayors that would likely make more of a difference to them than who is next President as the Federal government doesn't have a great deal of influence over city government.
By definition to win Democrat leaning cities Republican candidates need to be moderate and pragmatic and often with business experience at a high level of management too.
Sure. Whatever. I’m just saying it’s clever politics by Trump
I reckon he could easily win against doddery old Biden. Trump looks up for the fight and about ten years younger and sharper
The 2024 US Presidential election may well be decided in the courtroom more than the ballot box
The odds of the American judicial system moving that fast are the same as the odds of Johnson telling the truth or of Amanda Spielman speaking sense on safeguarding.
The issue is not whether they lock the orange haired loon up, but whether the penny drops with enough Americans that he's a card-carrying fascist who poses a threat to their beloved Constitution for him to lose either the primaries or the real thing.
Current signs are less than brilliantly encouraging.
I’m less pessimistic. The indictment looks to be a slam dunk, and I can’t see Trump freeing himself from the noose that is gradually tightening around his neck - prevaricating is the only tactic his lawyers have left and I can’t see the court standing for too much more of it.
So Trump is going down for the rest of his natural, and the choice for the GOP is whether they return to their senses and back a candidate such as Hayley or Christie, or they continue to tie themselves to the doomed Trump.
Suceava Romania (which isn’t in a war) looks much uglier, scruffier and more desperate than Chernivtsi, Ukraine (which IS)
I thought Romania was a beautiful country scarred by ugly towns and uglier cities. Bucharesti is horrible, Cluj Napoca has pockets of pretty inside otherwise horrible, Alba Iulia has that amazing citadel but the rest is similar. I think its the endless brutalist architecture and festoons of wires.
Which is a pity as I found Romanian people to be warm, welcoming and funny. And even they thought their towns were awful.
Yeah, this is one fucking toilet of a town. West Ukraine is exquisite in comparison. Ceaucescu really did a job on his own country
Talking of toilets this bar I am in (3 hour wait for the train to Bacau) has a squatter toilet. Surely one of the last in Europe? Has anyone else seen one recently?
Still in quite a few of the small rest stops (Aire de ...) on the French autoroutes.
Big fan of squat toilets, much more physiological a position.
Tokyo airport has lovely new shiny technologically-advanced toilets, with a choice of sit or squat options.
And people say Japan is in decline. Nonsense, I say - what is the hallmark of civilization if not plumbing arrangements?
I once wrote a whole article on this. Because it is true
We know Rome was advanced because they had decent toilets and central heating and good sanitation in general
You CAN measure a civilisation by its bogs
And by the measure the west is falling behind. We still use paper - or at best wet-wipes (which clog sewers) - it is ridiculously unhygienic
East Asians have had integral bidets/washlets/bum guns for years. They find out standard loos as yuk just as we used to abhor squatters
I’ve noticed that luxe hotels in the west are now installing bum guns as standard, to cater for this higher international norm
Yes. I have one in my flat. They cost pennies to install. Mine has a nice warm water option. Very soothing when you need it
I am genuinely surprised these aren’t universal. Once you’ve got one you never want to go back
I can only conclude most westerners don’t go to east Asia much (or other places where they are increasingly common: like 5 star hotels or the UAE etc)
Hmm.
Hmmm what?? They clean you properly
Ideally you’d get one of those £10k Japanese khazis which do it all with electronics and have an integral dryer. But that’s quite a lot of cash
For £300 you can have a decent warm-or-cold bum gun
In fact this is such an obvious marketing opportunity I might start smuggling them into the UK
“What do you do?”
“Gun running.”
“What??”
“Yep. Bum gun running. Sploosh!”
Those attachments are not legal in the UK. In theory, if the mains pressure were to get too low, they could allow fecal matter to get back into the mains and, thereby, into other households' drinking water.
No shower-type object attached to the mains (including to toilet cisterns) is allowed to reach a toilet bowl. Which is also why very small hotel rooms have inadequate length shower hoses - they mustn't reach the toilet bowl.
Edit: I see that site, sort of, claims their model is legal. In weasel words.
You’re talking nonsense. These things are freely available in the UK. My builder/plumber did it without demur. He was used to the request
Suceava Romania (which isn’t in a war) looks much uglier, scruffier and more desperate than Chernivtsi, Ukraine (which IS)
I thought Romania was a beautiful country scarred by ugly towns and uglier cities. Bucharesti is horrible, Cluj Napoca has pockets of pretty inside otherwise horrible, Alba Iulia has that amazing citadel but the rest is similar. I think its the endless brutalist architecture and festoons of wires.
Which is a pity as I found Romanian people to be warm, welcoming and funny. And even they thought their towns were awful.
Yeah, this is one fucking toilet of a town. West Ukraine is exquisite in comparison. Ceaucescu really did a job on his own country
Talking of toilets this bar I am in (3 hour wait for the train to Bacau) has a squatter toilet. Surely one of the last in Europe? Has anyone else seen one recently?
Still in quite a few of the small rest stops (Aire de ...) on the French autoroutes.
Big fan of squat toilets, much more physiological a position.
Tokyo airport has lovely new shiny technologically-advanced toilets, with a choice of sit or squat options.
And people say Japan is in decline. Nonsense, I say - what is the hallmark of civilization if not plumbing arrangements?
I once wrote a whole article on this. Because it is true
We know Rome was advanced because they had decent toilets and central heating and good sanitation in general
You CAN measure a civilisation by its bogs
And by the measure the west is falling behind. We still use paper - or at best wet-wipes (which clog sewers) - it is ridiculously unhygienic
East Asians have had integral bidets/washlets/bum guns for years. They find out standard loos as yuk just as we used to abhor squatters
I’ve noticed that luxe hotels in the west are now installing bum guns as standard, to cater for this higher international norm
https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1687469428584144896 I had a meeting with a member of the Republican Party, former Governor of New Jersey, Christopher Christie. And it is very important that Mr. Christie began his visit to Ukraine with a visit to Bucha to see with his own eyes the threat to freedom and to everyone in the world posed by Russian aggression.
I thanked all Americans, each and every one, for their vital support.
We are confident that we will end this Russian war against freedom with our victory – the victory of the free world, the victory of democracy, the victory of freedom.
Chris Christie: sound on Ukraine.
I know I sound like a broken record, and I know Christie's time in New Jersey ended poorly, but I think he could be a very well organized candidate. And that matters in Iowa where the caucuses mean that second choices and organization matter.
He is 140 on Betfair to be next US President. That is an absolute steal.
Indeed,I have a few quid on, but America is a crazy place and will go for Trum vs Biden.
American politics has jumped the shark.
I'm on.
The tv in my hideous Romanian bar just played a clip of trump after his court case
He made a - for him - quite articulate speech to camera about the state of DC that he’d personally witnessed being driven to the court. The broken roads, the homeless, the degradation
I can see tens of millions of Americans nodding along eagerly. Because he’s right
He has a real chance. Because of this
Biden looks like he doesn’t give a shit about American cities. Or, it is easy to paint him and the democrats that way
Don't the cities vote for the Democrats? DC certainly does.
He obviously has a chance, unfortunately, but will Democrat leaning cities being shit really make the difference in the key states like Arizona and Georgia, where Biden won by a whisker last time? I'd have thought they already thought that, which is why they don't live in those places.
Trump might have an even better chance if he spent more time complaining about mismanagement of Democratic authorities and less time bemoaning his personal legal woes - I know it plays well with his base, but they'd vote for him anyway, and even the small number of GOPers put off by his behaviour would find it easier to back him.
The point is that the shit homeless drugs urban nightmare is now spreading from coastal Democrat cities - inland
I saw it with my own eyes in Lexington Kentucky
If US cities elected more Republican Mayors that would likely make more of a difference to them than who is next President as the Federal government doesn't have a great deal of influence over city government.
By definition to win Democrat leaning cities Republican candidates need to be moderate and pragmatic and often with business experience at a high level of management too.
Sure. Whatever. I’m just saying it’s clever politics by Trump
I reckon he could easily win against doddery old Biden. Trump looks up for the fight and about ten years younger and sharper
The same Trump that failed to read his own name and age back in court?
I think people see what they want to see in both candidates, regardless of the actualities.
Suceava Romania (which isn’t in a war) looks much uglier, scruffier and more desperate than Chernivtsi, Ukraine (which IS)
I thought Romania was a beautiful country scarred by ugly towns and uglier cities. Bucharesti is horrible, Cluj Napoca has pockets of pretty inside otherwise horrible, Alba Iulia has that amazing citadel but the rest is similar. I think its the endless brutalist architecture and festoons of wires.
Which is a pity as I found Romanian people to be warm, welcoming and funny. And even they thought their towns were awful.
Yeah, this is one fucking toilet of a town. West Ukraine is exquisite in comparison. Ceaucescu really did a job on his own country
Talking of toilets this bar I am in (3 hour wait for the train to Bacau) has a squatter toilet. Surely one of the last in Europe? Has anyone else seen one recently?
Still in quite a few of the small rest stops (Aire de ...) on the French autoroutes.
Big fan of squat toilets, much more physiological a position.
Tokyo airport has lovely new shiny technologically-advanced toilets, with a choice of sit or squat options.
And people say Japan is in decline. Nonsense, I say - what is the hallmark of civilization if not plumbing arrangements?
I once wrote a whole article on this. Because it is true
We know Rome was advanced because they had decent toilets and central heating and good sanitation in general
You CAN measure a civilisation by its bogs
And by the measure the west is falling behind. We still use paper - or at best wet-wipes (which clog sewers) - it is ridiculously unhygienic
East Asians have had integral bidets/washlets/bum guns for years. They find out standard loos as yuk just as we used to abhor squatters
I’ve noticed that luxe hotels in the west are now installing bum guns as standard, to cater for this higher international norm
https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1687469428584144896 I had a meeting with a member of the Republican Party, former Governor of New Jersey, Christopher Christie. And it is very important that Mr. Christie began his visit to Ukraine with a visit to Bucha to see with his own eyes the threat to freedom and to everyone in the world posed by Russian aggression.
I thanked all Americans, each and every one, for their vital support.
We are confident that we will end this Russian war against freedom with our victory – the victory of the free world, the victory of democracy, the victory of freedom.
Chris Christie: sound on Ukraine.
I know I sound like a broken record, and I know Christie's time in New Jersey ended poorly, but I think he could be a very well organized candidate. And that matters in Iowa where the caucuses mean that second choices and organization matter.
He is 140 on Betfair to be next US President. That is an absolute steal.
Indeed,I have a few quid on, but America is a crazy place and will go for Trum vs Biden.
American politics has jumped the shark.
I'm on.
The tv in my hideous Romanian bar just played a clip of trump after his court case
He made a - for him - quite articulate speech to camera about the state of DC that he’d personally witnessed being driven to the court. The broken roads, the homeless, the degradation
I can see tens of millions of Americans nodding along eagerly. Because he’s right
He has a real chance. Because of this
Biden looks like he doesn’t give a shit about American cities. Or, it is easy to paint him and the democrats that way
Don't the cities vote for the Democrats? DC certainly does.
He obviously has a chance, unfortunately, but will Democrat leaning cities being shit really make the difference in the key states like Arizona and Georgia, where Biden won by a whisker last time? I'd have thought they already thought that, which is why they don't live in those places.
Trump might have an even better chance if he spent more time complaining about mismanagement of Democratic authorities and less time bemoaning his personal legal woes - I know it plays well with his base, but they'd vote for him anyway, and even the small number of GOPers put off by his behaviour would find it easier to back him.
The point is that the shit homeless drugs urban nightmare is now spreading from coastal Democrat cities - inland
I saw it with my own eyes in Lexington Kentucky
If US cities elected more Republican Mayors that would likely make more of a difference to them than who is next President as the Federal government doesn't have a great deal of influence over city government.
By definition to win Democrat leaning cities Republican candidates need to be moderate and pragmatic and often with business experience at a high level of management too.
Sure. Whatever. I’m just saying it’s clever politics by Trump
I reckon he could easily win against doddery old Biden. Trump looks up for the fight and about ten years younger and sharper
The 2024 US Presidential election may well be decided in the courtroom more than the ballot box
The odds of the American judicial system moving that fast are the same as the odds of Johnson telling the truth or of Amanda Spielman speaking sense on safeguarding.
The issue is not whether they lock the orange haired loon up, but whether the penny drops with enough Americans that he's a card-carrying fascist who poses a threat to their beloved Constitution for him to lose either the primaries or the real thing.
Current signs are less than brilliantly encouraging.
I’m less pessimistic. The indictment looks to be a slam dunk, and I can’t see Trump freeing himself from the noose that is gradually tightening around his neck - prevaricating is the only tactic his lawyers have left and I can’t see the court standing for too much more of it.
So Trump is going down for the rest of his natural, and the choice for the GOP is whether they return to their senses and back a candidate such as Hayley or Christie, or they continue to tie themselves to the doomed Trump.
I agree the case is a slam dunk. The only reason we've got a few people on here who doubt it is because there are mad Trumpers wherever you look.
I just can also see it taking three years to come to trial. Which would be a leetle too late.
He might cut a deal of course, but since that would be damaging to him it seems unlikely.
Suceava Romania (which isn’t in a war) looks much uglier, scruffier and more desperate than Chernivtsi, Ukraine (which IS)
I thought Romania was a beautiful country scarred by ugly towns and uglier cities. Bucharesti is horrible, Cluj Napoca has pockets of pretty inside otherwise horrible, Alba Iulia has that amazing citadel but the rest is similar. I think its the endless brutalist architecture and festoons of wires.
Which is a pity as I found Romanian people to be warm, welcoming and funny. And even they thought their towns were awful.
Yeah, this is one fucking toilet of a town. West Ukraine is exquisite in comparison. Ceaucescu really did a job on his own country
Talking of toilets this bar I am in (3 hour wait for the train to Bacau) has a squatter toilet. Surely one of the last in Europe? Has anyone else seen one recently?
Still in quite a few of the small rest stops (Aire de ...) on the French autoroutes.
Big fan of squat toilets, much more physiological a position.
Tokyo airport has lovely new shiny technologically-advanced toilets, with a choice of sit or squat options.
And people say Japan is in decline. Nonsense, I say - what is the hallmark of civilization if not plumbing arrangements?
I once wrote a whole article on this. Because it is true
We know Rome was advanced because they had decent toilets and central heating and good sanitation in general
You CAN measure a civilisation by its bogs
And by the measure the west is falling behind. We still use paper - or at best wet-wipes (which clog sewers) - it is ridiculously unhygienic
East Asians have had integral bidets/washlets/bum guns for years. They find out standard loos as yuk just as we used to abhor squatters
I’ve noticed that luxe hotels in the west are now installing bum guns as standard, to cater for this higher international norm
Yes. I have one in my flat. They cost pennies to install. Mine has a nice warm water option. Very soothing when you need it
I am genuinely surprised these aren’t universal. Once you’ve got one you never want to go back
I can only conclude most westerners don’t go to east Asia much (or other places where they are increasingly common: like 5 star hotels or the UAE etc)
Hmm.
Hmmm what?? They clean you properly
Ideally you’d get one of those £10k Japanese khazis which do it all with electronics and have an integral dryer. But that’s quite a lot of cash
For £300 you can have a decent warm-or-cold bum gun
In fact this is such an obvious marketing opportunity I might start smuggling them into the UK
“What do you do?”
“Gun running.”
“What??”
“Yep. Bum gun running. Sploosh!”
Those attachments are not legal in the UK. In theory, if the mains pressure were to get too low, they could allow fecal matter to get back into the mains and, thereby, into other households' drinking water.
No shower-type object attached to the mains (including to toilet cisterns) is allowed to reach a toilet bowl. Which is also why very small hotel rooms have inadequate length shower hoses - they mustn't reach the toilet bowl.
Edit: I see that site, sort of, claims their model is legal. In weasel words.
The problem is that poo might get sucked up the attachment or fly into the sink or what? That's nuts!
What kind of country wants to control how you clean your bum?
Suceava Romania (which isn’t in a war) looks much uglier, scruffier and more desperate than Chernivtsi, Ukraine (which IS)
I thought Romania was a beautiful country scarred by ugly towns and uglier cities. Bucharesti is horrible, Cluj Napoca has pockets of pretty inside otherwise horrible, Alba Iulia has that amazing citadel but the rest is similar. I think its the endless brutalist architecture and festoons of wires.
Which is a pity as I found Romanian people to be warm, welcoming and funny. And even they thought their towns were awful.
Yeah, this is one fucking toilet of a town. West Ukraine is exquisite in comparison. Ceaucescu really did a job on his own country
Talking of toilets this bar I am in (3 hour wait for the train to Bacau) has a squatter toilet. Surely one of the last in Europe? Has anyone else seen one recently?
Still in quite a few of the small rest stops (Aire de ...) on the French autoroutes.
Big fan of squat toilets, much more physiological a position.
Tokyo airport has lovely new shiny technologically-advanced toilets, with a choice of sit or squat options.
And people say Japan is in decline. Nonsense, I say - what is the hallmark of civilization if not plumbing arrangements?
I once wrote a whole article on this. Because it is true
We know Rome was advanced because they had decent toilets and central heating and good sanitation in general
You CAN measure a civilisation by its bogs
And by the measure the west is falling behind. We still use paper - or at best wet-wipes (which clog sewers) - it is ridiculously unhygienic
East Asians have had integral bidets/washlets/bum guns for years. They find out standard loos as yuk just as we used to abhor squatters
I’ve noticed that luxe hotels in the west are now installing bum guns as standard, to cater for this higher international norm
Yes. I have one in my flat. They cost pennies to install. Mine has a nice warm water option. Very soothing when you need it
I am genuinely surprised these aren’t universal. Once you’ve got one you never want to go back
I can only conclude most westerners don’t go to east Asia much (or other places where they are increasingly common: like 5 star hotels or the UAE etc)
Hmm.
Hmmm what?? They clean you properly
Ideally you’d get one of those £10k Japanese khazis which do it all with electronics and have an integral dryer. But that’s quite a lot of cash
For £300 you can have a decent warm-or-cold bum gun
In fact this is such an obvious marketing opportunity I might start smuggling them into the UK
“What do you do?”
“Gun running.”
“What??”
“Yep. Bum gun running. Sploosh!”
Those attachments are not legal in the UK. In theory, if the mains pressure were to get too low, they could allow fecal matter to get back into the mains and, thereby, into other households' drinking water.
No shower-type object attached to the mains (including to toilet cisterns) is allowed to reach a toilet bowl. Which is also why very small hotel rooms have inadequate length shower hoses - they mustn't reach the toilet bowl.
Edit: I see that site, sort of, claims their model is legal. In weasel words.
The problem is that poo might get sucked up the attachment or fly into the sink or what? That's nuts!
What kind of country wants to control how you clean your bum?
Suceava Romania (which isn’t in a war) looks much uglier, scruffier and more desperate than Chernivtsi, Ukraine (which IS)
I thought Romania was a beautiful country scarred by ugly towns and uglier cities. Bucharesti is horrible, Cluj Napoca has pockets of pretty inside otherwise horrible, Alba Iulia has that amazing citadel but the rest is similar. I think its the endless brutalist architecture and festoons of wires.
Which is a pity as I found Romanian people to be warm, welcoming and funny. And even they thought their towns were awful.
Yeah, this is one fucking toilet of a town. West Ukraine is exquisite in comparison. Ceaucescu really did a job on his own country
Talking of toilets this bar I am in (3 hour wait for the train to Bacau) has a squatter toilet. Surely one of the last in Europe? Has anyone else seen one recently?
Still in quite a few of the small rest stops (Aire de ...) on the French autoroutes.
Big fan of squat toilets, much more physiological a position.
Tokyo airport has lovely new shiny technologically-advanced toilets, with a choice of sit or squat options.
And people say Japan is in decline. Nonsense, I say - what is the hallmark of civilization if not plumbing arrangements?
I once wrote a whole article on this. Because it is true
We know Rome was advanced because they had decent toilets and central heating and good sanitation in general
You CAN measure a civilisation by its bogs
And by the measure the west is falling behind. We still use paper - or at best wet-wipes (which clog sewers) - it is ridiculously unhygienic
East Asians have had integral bidets/washlets/bum guns for years. They find out standard loos as yuk just as we used to abhor squatters
I’ve noticed that luxe hotels in the west are now installing bum guns as standard, to cater for this higher international norm
Yes. I have one in my flat. They cost pennies to install. Mine has a nice warm water option. Very soothing when you need it
I am genuinely surprised these aren’t universal. Once you’ve got one you never want to go back
I can only conclude most westerners don’t go to east Asia much (or other places where they are increasingly common: like 5 star hotels or the UAE etc)
Hmm.
Hmmm what?? They clean you properly
Ideally you’d get one of those £10k Japanese khazis which do it all with electronics and have an integral dryer. But that’s quite a lot of cash
For £300 you can have a decent warm-or-cold bum gun
In fact this is such an obvious marketing opportunity I might start smuggling them into the UK
“What do you do?”
“Gun running.”
“What??”
“Yep. Bum gun running. Sploosh!”
Those attachments are not legal in the UK. In theory, if the mains pressure were to get too low, they could allow fecal matter to get back into the mains and, thereby, into other households' drinking water.
No shower-type object attached to the mains (including to toilet cisterns) is allowed to reach a toilet bowl. Which is also why very small hotel rooms have inadequate length shower hoses - they mustn't reach the toilet bowl.
Edit: I see that site, sort of, claims their model is legal. In weasel words.
The problem is that poo might get sucked up the attachment or fly into the sink or what? That's nuts!
What kind of country wants to control how you clean your bum?
The hygiene issues of not cleaning yourself properly PLUS the sewer blocking issues of paper washlets (as people slowly realise that using dry paper to clean yourself is not an ideal solution) render the tiny possibility of “bum gun poop blowback” an utter irrelevance
POLITICALBETTING: dealing with today’s issues, today
Suceava Romania (which isn’t in a war) looks much uglier, scruffier and more desperate than Chernivtsi, Ukraine (which IS)
I thought Romania was a beautiful country scarred by ugly towns and uglier cities. Bucharesti is horrible, Cluj Napoca has pockets of pretty inside otherwise horrible, Alba Iulia has that amazing citadel but the rest is similar. I think its the endless brutalist architecture and festoons of wires.
Which is a pity as I found Romanian people to be warm, welcoming and funny. And even they thought their towns were awful.
Yeah, this is one fucking toilet of a town. West Ukraine is exquisite in comparison. Ceaucescu really did a job on his own country
Talking of toilets this bar I am in (3 hour wait for the train to Bacau) has a squatter toilet. Surely one of the last in Europe? Has anyone else seen one recently?
Still in quite a few of the small rest stops (Aire de ...) on the French autoroutes.
Big fan of squat toilets, much more physiological a position.
Tokyo airport has lovely new shiny technologically-advanced toilets, with a choice of sit or squat options.
And people say Japan is in decline. Nonsense, I say - what is the hallmark of civilization if not plumbing arrangements?
I once wrote a whole article on this. Because it is true
We know Rome was advanced because they had decent toilets and central heating and good sanitation in general
You CAN measure a civilisation by its bogs
And by the measure the west is falling behind. We still use paper - or at best wet-wipes (which clog sewers) - it is ridiculously unhygienic
East Asians have had integral bidets/washlets/bum guns for years. They find out standard loos as yuk just as we used to abhor squatters
I’ve noticed that luxe hotels in the west are now installing bum guns as standard, to cater for this higher international norm
Yes. I have one in my flat. They cost pennies to install. Mine has a nice warm water option. Very soothing when you need it
I am genuinely surprised these aren’t universal. Once you’ve got one you never want to go back
I can only conclude most westerners don’t go to east Asia much (or other places where they are increasingly common: like 5 star hotels or the UAE etc)
Hmm.
Hmmm what?? They clean you properly
Ideally you’d get one of those £10k Japanese khazis which do it all with electronics and have an integral dryer. But that’s quite a lot of cash
For £300 you can have a decent warm-or-cold bum gun
In fact this is such an obvious marketing opportunity I might start smuggling them into the UK
“What do you do?”
“Gun running.”
“What??”
“Yep. Bum gun running. Sploosh!”
Those attachments are not legal in the UK. In theory, if the mains pressure were to get too low, they could allow fecal matter to get back into the mains and, thereby, into other households' drinking water.
No shower-type object attached to the mains (including to toilet cisterns) is allowed to reach a toilet bowl. Which is also why very small hotel rooms have inadequate length shower hoses - they mustn't reach the toilet bowl.
Edit: I see that site, sort of, claims their model is legal. In weasel words.
You’re talking nonsense. These things are freely available in the UK. My builder/plumber did it without demur. He was used to the request
A simple non-return valve is apparently not enough:
"Some installers believe they can comply with the Water Fittings Regulations by placing a double check valve in the hose feed to prevent water travelling in the reverse direction. However, the Water Fittings Regulations state that a double check valve only provides protection against backflow to fluid category 3, so must not be used to provide backflow protection from ablutionary showers."
Suceava Romania (which isn’t in a war) looks much uglier, scruffier and more desperate than Chernivtsi, Ukraine (which IS)
I thought Romania was a beautiful country scarred by ugly towns and uglier cities. Bucharesti is horrible, Cluj Napoca has pockets of pretty inside otherwise horrible, Alba Iulia has that amazing citadel but the rest is similar. I think its the endless brutalist architecture and festoons of wires.
Which is a pity as I found Romanian people to be warm, welcoming and funny. And even they thought their towns were awful.
Yeah, this is one fucking toilet of a town. West Ukraine is exquisite in comparison. Ceaucescu really did a job on his own country
Talking of toilets this bar I am in (3 hour wait for the train to Bacau) has a squatter toilet. Surely one of the last in Europe? Has anyone else seen one recently?
Still in quite a few of the small rest stops (Aire de ...) on the French autoroutes.
Big fan of squat toilets, much more physiological a position.
Tokyo airport has lovely new shiny technologically-advanced toilets, with a choice of sit or squat options.
And people say Japan is in decline. Nonsense, I say - what is the hallmark of civilization if not plumbing arrangements?
I once wrote a whole article on this. Because it is true
We know Rome was advanced because they had decent toilets and central heating and good sanitation in general
You CAN measure a civilisation by its bogs
And by the measure the west is falling behind. We still use paper - or at best wet-wipes (which clog sewers) - it is ridiculously unhygienic
East Asians have had integral bidets/washlets/bum guns for years. They find out standard loos as yuk just as we used to abhor squatters
I’ve noticed that luxe hotels in the west are now installing bum guns as standard, to cater for this higher international norm
https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1687469428584144896 I had a meeting with a member of the Republican Party, former Governor of New Jersey, Christopher Christie. And it is very important that Mr. Christie began his visit to Ukraine with a visit to Bucha to see with his own eyes the threat to freedom and to everyone in the world posed by Russian aggression.
I thanked all Americans, each and every one, for their vital support.
We are confident that we will end this Russian war against freedom with our victory – the victory of the free world, the victory of democracy, the victory of freedom.
Chris Christie: sound on Ukraine.
I know I sound like a broken record, and I know Christie's time in New Jersey ended poorly, but I think he could be a very well organized candidate. And that matters in Iowa where the caucuses mean that second choices and organization matter.
He is 140 on Betfair to be next US President. That is an absolute steal.
Indeed,I have a few quid on, but America is a crazy place and will go for Trum vs Biden.
American politics has jumped the shark.
I'm on.
The tv in my hideous Romanian bar just played a clip of trump after his court case
He made a - for him - quite articulate speech to camera about the state of DC that he’d personally witnessed being driven to the court. The broken roads, the homeless, the degradation
I can see tens of millions of Americans nodding along eagerly. Because he’s right
He has a real chance. Because of this
Biden looks like he doesn’t give a shit about American cities. Or, it is easy to paint him and the democrats that way
Don't the cities vote for the Democrats? DC certainly does.
He obviously has a chance, unfortunately, but will Democrat leaning cities being shit really make the difference in the key states like Arizona and Georgia, where Biden won by a whisker last time? I'd have thought they already thought that, which is why they don't live in those places.
Trump might have an even better chance if he spent more time complaining about mismanagement of Democratic authorities and less time bemoaning his personal legal woes - I know it plays well with his base, but they'd vote for him anyway, and even the small number of GOPers put off by his behaviour would find it easier to back him.
The point is that the shit homeless drugs urban nightmare is now spreading from coastal Democrat cities - inland
I saw it with my own eyes in Lexington Kentucky
If US cities elected more Republican Mayors that would likely make more of a difference to them than who is next President as the Federal government doesn't have a great deal of influence over city government.
By definition to win Democrat leaning cities Republican candidates need to be moderate and pragmatic and often with business experience at a high level of management too.
Sure. Whatever. I’m just saying it’s clever politics by Trump
I reckon he could easily win against doddery old Biden. Trump looks up for the fight and about ten years younger and sharper
The 2024 US Presidential election may well be decided in the courtroom more than the ballot box
The odds of the American judicial system moving that fast are the same as the odds of Johnson telling the truth or of Amanda Spielman speaking sense on safeguarding.
The issue is not whether they lock the orange haired loon up, but whether the penny drops with enough Americans that he's a card-carrying fascist who poses a threat to their beloved Constitution for him to lose either the primaries or the real thing.
Current signs are less than brilliantly encouraging.
I’m less pessimistic. The indictment looks to be a slam dunk, and I can’t see Trump freeing himself from the noose that is gradually tightening around his neck - prevaricating is the only tactic his lawyers have left and I can’t see the court standing for too much more of it.
So Trump is going down for the rest of his natural, and the choice for the GOP is whether they return to their senses and back a candidate such as Hayley or Christie, or they continue to tie themselves to the doomed Trump.
I agree the case is a slam dunk. The only reason we've got a few people on here who doubt it is because there are mad Trumpers wherever you look.
I just can also see it taking three years to come to trial. Which would be a leetle too late.
He might cut a deal of course, but since that would be damaging to him it seems unlikely.
The big deal would be he gets pardoned and doesn't run for the presidency, but we're not anywhere near that yet.
I don't reckon it's a slam dunk. Look at OJ Simpson.
Financial scam allegations against Trump University and other state-level stuff may be a slam dunk.
Suceava Romania (which isn’t in a war) looks much uglier, scruffier and more desperate than Chernivtsi, Ukraine (which IS)
I thought Romania was a beautiful country scarred by ugly towns and uglier cities. Bucharesti is horrible, Cluj Napoca has pockets of pretty inside otherwise horrible, Alba Iulia has that amazing citadel but the rest is similar. I think its the endless brutalist architecture and festoons of wires.
Which is a pity as I found Romanian people to be warm, welcoming and funny. And even they thought their towns were awful.
Yeah, this is one fucking toilet of a town. West Ukraine is exquisite in comparison. Ceaucescu really did a job on his own country
Talking of toilets this bar I am in (3 hour wait for the train to Bacau) has a squatter toilet. Surely one of the last in Europe? Has anyone else seen one recently?
Still in quite a few of the small rest stops (Aire de ...) on the French autoroutes.
Big fan of squat toilets, much more physiological a position.
Tokyo airport has lovely new shiny technologically-advanced toilets, with a choice of sit or squat options.
And people say Japan is in decline. Nonsense, I say - what is the hallmark of civilization if not plumbing arrangements?
I once wrote a whole article on this. Because it is true
We know Rome was advanced because they had decent toilets and central heating and good sanitation in general
You CAN measure a civilisation by its bogs
And by the measure the west is falling behind. We still use paper - or at best wet-wipes (which clog sewers) - it is ridiculously unhygienic
East Asians have had integral bidets/washlets/bum guns for years. They find out standard loos as yuk just as we used to abhor squatters
I’ve noticed that luxe hotels in the west are now installing bum guns as standard, to cater for this higher international norm
Yes. I have one in my flat. They cost pennies to install. Mine has a nice warm water option. Very soothing when you need it
I am genuinely surprised these aren’t universal. Once you’ve got one you never want to go back
I can only conclude most westerners don’t go to east Asia much (or other places where they are increasingly common: like 5 star hotels or the UAE etc)
Hmm.
Hmmm what?? They clean you properly
Ideally you’d get one of those £10k Japanese khazis which do it all with electronics and have an integral dryer. But that’s quite a lot of cash
For £300 you can have a decent warm-or-cold bum gun
In fact this is such an obvious marketing opportunity I might start smuggling them into the UK
“What do you do?”
“Gun running.”
“What??”
“Yep. Bum gun running. Sploosh!”
Those attachments are not legal in the UK. In theory, if the mains pressure were to get too low, they could allow fecal matter to get back into the mains and, thereby, into other households' drinking water.
No shower-type object attached to the mains (including to toilet cisterns) is allowed to reach a toilet bowl. Which is also why very small hotel rooms have inadequate length shower hoses - they mustn't reach the toilet bowl.
Edit: I see that site, sort of, claims their model is legal. In weasel words.
You’re talking nonsense. These things are freely available in the UK. My builder/plumber did it without demur. He was used to the request
A simple non-return valve is apparently not enough:
"Some installers believe they can comply with the Water Fittings Regulations by placing a double check valve in the hose feed to prevent water travelling in the reverse direction. However, the Water Fittings Regulations state that a double check valve only provides protection against backflow to fluid category 3, so must not be used to provide backflow protection from ablutionary showers."
Suceava Romania (which isn’t in a war) looks much uglier, scruffier and more desperate than Chernivtsi, Ukraine (which IS)
I thought Romania was a beautiful country scarred by ugly towns and uglier cities. Bucharesti is horrible, Cluj Napoca has pockets of pretty inside otherwise horrible, Alba Iulia has that amazing citadel but the rest is similar. I think its the endless brutalist architecture and festoons of wires.
Which is a pity as I found Romanian people to be warm, welcoming and funny. And even they thought their towns were awful.
Yeah, this is one fucking toilet of a town. West Ukraine is exquisite in comparison. Ceaucescu really did a job on his own country
Talking of toilets this bar I am in (3 hour wait for the train to Bacau) has a squatter toilet. Surely one of the last in Europe? Has anyone else seen one recently?
Still in quite a few of the small rest stops (Aire de ...) on the French autoroutes.
Big fan of squat toilets, much more physiological a position.
Tokyo airport has lovely new shiny technologically-advanced toilets, with a choice of sit or squat options.
And people say Japan is in decline. Nonsense, I say - what is the hallmark of civilization if not plumbing arrangements?
I once wrote a whole article on this. Because it is true
We know Rome was advanced because they had decent toilets and central heating and good sanitation in general
You CAN measure a civilisation by its bogs
And by the measure the west is falling behind. We still use paper - or at best wet-wipes (which clog sewers) - it is ridiculously unhygienic
East Asians have had integral bidets/washlets/bum guns for years. They find out standard loos as yuk just as we used to abhor squatters
I’ve noticed that luxe hotels in the west are now installing bum guns as standard, to cater for this higher international norm
Yes. I have one in my flat. They cost pennies to install. Mine has a nice warm water option. Very soothing when you need it
I am genuinely surprised these aren’t universal. Once you’ve got one you never want to go back
I can only conclude most westerners don’t go to east Asia much (or other places where they are increasingly common: like 5 star hotels or the UAE etc)
Hmm.
Hmmm what?? They clean you properly
Ideally you’d get one of those £10k Japanese khazis which do it all with electronics and have an integral dryer. But that’s quite a lot of cash
For £300 you can have a decent warm-or-cold bum gun
In fact this is such an obvious marketing opportunity I might start smuggling them into the UK
“What do you do?”
“Gun running.”
“What??”
“Yep. Bum gun running. Sploosh!”
Those attachments are not legal in the UK. In theory, if the mains pressure were to get too low, they could allow fecal matter to get back into the mains and, thereby, into other households' drinking water.
No shower-type object attached to the mains (including to toilet cisterns) is allowed to reach a toilet bowl. Which is also why very small hotel rooms have inadequate length shower hoses - they mustn't reach the toilet bowl.
Edit: I see that site, sort of, claims their model is legal. In weasel words.
You’re talking nonsense. These things are freely available in the UK. My builder/plumber did it without demur. He was used to the request
A simple non-return valve is apparently not enough:
"Some installers believe they can comply with the Water Fittings Regulations by placing a double check valve in the hose feed to prevent water travelling in the reverse direction. However, the Water Fittings Regulations state that a double check valve only provides protection against backflow to fluid category 3, so must not be used to provide backflow protection from ablutionary showers."
Suceava Romania (which isn’t in a war) looks much uglier, scruffier and more desperate than Chernivtsi, Ukraine (which IS)
I thought Romania was a beautiful country scarred by ugly towns and uglier cities. Bucharesti is horrible, Cluj Napoca has pockets of pretty inside otherwise horrible, Alba Iulia has that amazing citadel but the rest is similar. I think its the endless brutalist architecture and festoons of wires.
Which is a pity as I found Romanian people to be warm, welcoming and funny. And even they thought their towns were awful.
Yeah, this is one fucking toilet of a town. West Ukraine is exquisite in comparison. Ceaucescu really did a job on his own country
Talking of toilets this bar I am in (3 hour wait for the train to Bacau) has a squatter toilet. Surely one of the last in Europe? Has anyone else seen one recently?
Still in quite a few of the small rest stops (Aire de ...) on the French autoroutes.
Big fan of squat toilets, much more physiological a position.
Tokyo airport has lovely new shiny technologically-advanced toilets, with a choice of sit or squat options.
And people say Japan is in decline. Nonsense, I say - what is the hallmark of civilization if not plumbing arrangements?
I once wrote a whole article on this. Because it is true
We know Rome was advanced because they had decent toilets and central heating and good sanitation in general
You CAN measure a civilisation by its bogs
And by the measure the west is falling behind. We still use paper - or at best wet-wipes (which clog sewers) - it is ridiculously unhygienic
East Asians have had integral bidets/washlets/bum guns for years. They find out standard loos as yuk just as we used to abhor squatters
I’ve noticed that luxe hotels in the west are now installing bum guns as standard, to cater for this higher international norm
https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1687469428584144896 I had a meeting with a member of the Republican Party, former Governor of New Jersey, Christopher Christie. And it is very important that Mr. Christie began his visit to Ukraine with a visit to Bucha to see with his own eyes the threat to freedom and to everyone in the world posed by Russian aggression.
I thanked all Americans, each and every one, for their vital support.
We are confident that we will end this Russian war against freedom with our victory – the victory of the free world, the victory of democracy, the victory of freedom.
Chris Christie: sound on Ukraine.
I know I sound like a broken record, and I know Christie's time in New Jersey ended poorly, but I think he could be a very well organized candidate. And that matters in Iowa where the caucuses mean that second choices and organization matter.
He is 140 on Betfair to be next US President. That is an absolute steal.
Indeed,I have a few quid on, but America is a crazy place and will go for Trum vs Biden.
American politics has jumped the shark.
I'm on.
The tv in my hideous Romanian bar just played a clip of trump after his court case
He made a - for him - quite articulate speech to camera about the state of DC that he’d personally witnessed being driven to the court. The broken roads, the homeless, the degradation
I can see tens of millions of Americans nodding along eagerly. Because he’s right
He has a real chance. Because of this
Biden looks like he doesn’t give a shit about American cities. Or, it is easy to paint him and the democrats that way
Don't the cities vote for the Democrats? DC certainly does.
He obviously has a chance, unfortunately, but will Democrat leaning cities being shit really make the difference in the key states like Arizona and Georgia, where Biden won by a whisker last time? I'd have thought they already thought that, which is why they don't live in those places.
Trump might have an even better chance if he spent more time complaining about mismanagement of Democratic authorities and less time bemoaning his personal legal woes - I know it plays well with his base, but they'd vote for him anyway, and even the small number of GOPers put off by his behaviour would find it easier to back him.
The point is that the shit homeless drugs urban nightmare is now spreading from coastal Democrat cities - inland
I saw it with my own eyes in Lexington Kentucky
If US cities elected more Republican Mayors that would likely make more of a difference to them than who is next President as the Federal government doesn't have a great deal of influence over city government.
By definition to win Democrat leaning cities Republican candidates need to be moderate and pragmatic and often with business experience at a high level of management too.
Sure. Whatever. I’m just saying it’s clever politics by Trump
I reckon he could easily win against doddery old Biden. Trump looks up for the fight and about ten years younger and sharper
The same Trump that failed to read his own name and age back in court?
I think people see what they want to see in both candidates, regardless of the actualities.
Sure, but you may be doing the same. That was just spin, about his name. About his age, "seven seven", I'm still researching that.
He seemed in quite good (for him) psychological shape.
@HY: I'm not so keen on using percentages to appraise his chances. Let's say he may well find fertile ground for the extreme polarisation that he needs. The way he needs the meme of social collapse to work is that he needs to associate it with his opponent...so that a slice of the formerly Democratic voterbase says f*ck it, we don't give a sh*t, we've got f*ck all to lose, and they either stay at home or vote Trump. And then they may find out that actually they do have something to lose.
If he doesn't meet a similar end to Sindona and Epstein, perhaps we'll all need to bend down and kiss our bottoms goodbye, well-washed with bumgun tech or otherwise.
On the other side of the aisle, the Dems need to ditch Biden.
My only wagers so far are on Kamala Harris for the presidency and Tom Cotton for the Rep VP nom.
Harris would lose by a landslide, she would be the worst Democrat candidate for decades. She makes Hillary Clinton look charismatic and a great campaigner. Biden at least can say he has already beaten Trump
Suceava Romania (which isn’t in a war) looks much uglier, scruffier and more desperate than Chernivtsi, Ukraine (which IS)
I thought Romania was a beautiful country scarred by ugly towns and uglier cities. Bucharesti is horrible, Cluj Napoca has pockets of pretty inside otherwise horrible, Alba Iulia has that amazing citadel but the rest is similar. I think its the endless brutalist architecture and festoons of wires.
Which is a pity as I found Romanian people to be warm, welcoming and funny. And even they thought their towns were awful.
Yeah, this is one fucking toilet of a town. West Ukraine is exquisite in comparison. Ceaucescu really did a job on his own country
Talking of toilets this bar I am in (3 hour wait for the train to Bacau) has a squatter toilet. Surely one of the last in Europe? Has anyone else seen one recently?
Still in quite a few of the small rest stops (Aire de ...) on the French autoroutes.
Big fan of squat toilets, much more physiological a position.
Tokyo airport has lovely new shiny technologically-advanced toilets, with a choice of sit or squat options.
And people say Japan is in decline. Nonsense, I say - what is the hallmark of civilization if not plumbing arrangements?
I once wrote a whole article on this. Because it is true
We know Rome was advanced because they had decent toilets and central heating and good sanitation in general
You CAN measure a civilisation by its bogs
And by the measure the west is falling behind. We still use paper - or at best wet-wipes (which clog sewers) - it is ridiculously unhygienic
East Asians have had integral bidets/washlets/bum guns for years. They find out standard loos as yuk just as we used to abhor squatters
I’ve noticed that luxe hotels in the west are now installing bum guns as standard, to cater for this higher international norm
https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1687469428584144896 I had a meeting with a member of the Republican Party, former Governor of New Jersey, Christopher Christie. And it is very important that Mr. Christie began his visit to Ukraine with a visit to Bucha to see with his own eyes the threat to freedom and to everyone in the world posed by Russian aggression.
I thanked all Americans, each and every one, for their vital support.
We are confident that we will end this Russian war against freedom with our victory – the victory of the free world, the victory of democracy, the victory of freedom.
Chris Christie: sound on Ukraine.
I know I sound like a broken record, and I know Christie's time in New Jersey ended poorly, but I think he could be a very well organized candidate. And that matters in Iowa where the caucuses mean that second choices and organization matter.
He is 140 on Betfair to be next US President. That is an absolute steal.
Indeed,I have a few quid on, but America is a crazy place and will go for Trum vs Biden.
American politics has jumped the shark.
I'm on.
The tv in my hideous Romanian bar just played a clip of trump after his court case
He made a - for him - quite articulate speech to camera about the state of DC that he’d personally witnessed being driven to the court. The broken roads, the homeless, the degradation
I can see tens of millions of Americans nodding along eagerly. Because he’s right
He has a real chance. Because of this
Biden looks like he doesn’t give a shit about American cities. Or, it is easy to paint him and the democrats that way
Don't the cities vote for the Democrats? DC certainly does.
He obviously has a chance, unfortunately, but will Democrat leaning cities being shit really make the difference in the key states like Arizona and Georgia, where Biden won by a whisker last time? I'd have thought they already thought that, which is why they don't live in those places.
Trump might have an even better chance if he spent more time complaining about mismanagement of Democratic authorities and less time bemoaning his personal legal woes - I know it plays well with his base, but they'd vote for him anyway, and even the small number of GOPers put off by his behaviour would find it easier to back him.
The point is that the shit homeless drugs urban nightmare is now spreading from coastal Democrat cities - inland
I saw it with my own eyes in Lexington Kentucky
If US cities elected more Republican Mayors that would likely make more of a difference to them than who is next President as the Federal government doesn't have a great deal of influence over city government.
By definition to win Democrat leaning cities Republican candidates need to be moderate and pragmatic and often with business experience at a high level of management too.
Sure. Whatever. I’m just saying it’s clever politics by Trump
I reckon he could easily win against doddery old Biden. Trump looks up for the fight and about ten years younger and sharper
The 2024 US Presidential election may well be decided in the courtroom more than the ballot box
The odds of the American judicial system moving that fast are the same as the odds of Johnson telling the truth or of Amanda Spielman speaking sense on safeguarding.
The issue is not whether they lock the orange haired loon up, but whether the penny drops with enough Americans that he's a card-carrying fascist who poses a threat to their beloved Constitution for him to lose either the primaries or the real thing.
Current signs are less than brilliantly encouraging.
I’m less pessimistic. The indictment looks to be a slam dunk, and I can’t see Trump freeing himself from the noose that is gradually tightening around his neck - prevaricating is the only tactic his lawyers have left and I can’t see the court standing for too much more of it.
So Trump is going down for the rest of his natural, and the choice for the GOP is whether they return to their senses and back a candidate such as Hayley or Christie, or they continue to tie themselves to the doomed Trump.
I agree the case is a slam dunk. The only reason we've got a few people on here who doubt it is because there are mad Trumpers wherever you look.
I just can also see it taking three years to come to trial. Which would be a leetle too late.
He might cut a deal of course, but since that would be damaging to him it seems unlikely.
The big deal would be he gets pardoned and doesn't run for the presidency, but we're not anywhere near that yet.
I don't reckon it's a slam dunk. Look at OJ Simpson.
Financial scam allegations against Trump University and other state-level stuff may be a slam dunk.
A trial in Washington and he's toast, which is why his attorneys want it moved to West Virginia.
But - that presupposes a 'speedy' trial and also that he isn't President at the time.
Suceava Romania (which isn’t in a war) looks much uglier, scruffier and more desperate than Chernivtsi, Ukraine (which IS)
I thought Romania was a beautiful country scarred by ugly towns and uglier cities. Bucharesti is horrible, Cluj Napoca has pockets of pretty inside otherwise horrible, Alba Iulia has that amazing citadel but the rest is similar. I think its the endless brutalist architecture and festoons of wires.
Which is a pity as I found Romanian people to be warm, welcoming and funny. And even they thought their towns were awful.
Yeah, this is one fucking toilet of a town. West Ukraine is exquisite in comparison. Ceaucescu really did a job on his own country
Talking of toilets this bar I am in (3 hour wait for the train to Bacau) has a squatter toilet. Surely one of the last in Europe? Has anyone else seen one recently?
Still in quite a few of the small rest stops (Aire de ...) on the French autoroutes.
Big fan of squat toilets, much more physiological a position.
Tokyo airport has lovely new shiny technologically-advanced toilets, with a choice of sit or squat options.
And people say Japan is in decline. Nonsense, I say - what is the hallmark of civilization if not plumbing arrangements?
I once wrote a whole article on this. Because it is true
We know Rome was advanced because they had decent toilets and central heating and good sanitation in general
You CAN measure a civilisation by its bogs
And by the measure the west is falling behind. We still use paper - or at best wet-wipes (which clog sewers) - it is ridiculously unhygienic
East Asians have had integral bidets/washlets/bum guns for years. They find out standard loos as yuk just as we used to abhor squatters
I’ve noticed that luxe hotels in the west are now installing bum guns as standard, to cater for this higher international norm
Yes. I have one in my flat. They cost pennies to install. Mine has a nice warm water option. Very soothing when you need it
I am genuinely surprised these aren’t universal. Once you’ve got one you never want to go back
I can only conclude most westerners don’t go to east Asia much (or other places where they are increasingly common: like 5 star hotels or the UAE etc)
Hmm.
Hmmm what?? They clean you properly
Ideally you’d get one of those £10k Japanese khazis which do it all with electronics and have an integral dryer. But that’s quite a lot of cash
For £300 you can have a decent warm-or-cold bum gun
In fact this is such an obvious marketing opportunity I might start smuggling them into the UK
“What do you do?”
“Gun running.”
“What??”
“Yep. Bum gun running. Sploosh!”
Those attachments are not legal in the UK. In theory, if the mains pressure were to get too low, they could allow fecal matter to get back into the mains and, thereby, into other households' drinking water.
No shower-type object attached to the mains (including to toilet cisterns) is allowed to reach a toilet bowl. Which is also why very small hotel rooms have inadequate length shower hoses - they mustn't reach the toilet bowl.
Edit: I see that site, sort of, claims their model is legal. In weasel words.
You’re talking nonsense. These things are freely available in the UK. My builder/plumber did it without demur. He was used to the request
A simple non-return valve is apparently not enough:
"Some installers believe they can comply with the Water Fittings Regulations by placing a double check valve in the hose feed to prevent water travelling in the reverse direction. However, the Water Fittings Regulations state that a double check valve only provides protection against backflow to fluid category 3, so must not be used to provide backflow protection from ablutionary showers."
There is a problem for some vegans and vegetarians in the US: "Nearly 40% of girls and young women in the U.S. may have iron deficiency, which can lead to fatigue and increase the risk of many health problems, according to a new study.
The researchers also found that 6 in every 100 of the girls and young women had extremely low iron levels, known as iron-deficiency anemia, which impacts the blood’s ability to carry oxygen throughout the body. . . . The Cleveland Clinic says the most common causes of iron-deficiency anemia are those that involve blood loss, including heavy menstrual periods. The body gets iron from food, and not getting enough iron from food, such as due to eating a vegan or vegetarian diet, can also lead to deficiency." source: https://www.webmd.com/women/news/20230628/young-girls-women-high-risk-iron-deficiency-study-about
There are, as I am sure most of you know, solutions. But they are easier for those who regularly eat red meat. For example, I once lived with a young woman who, once a month, cooked liver and onions for us. (I never objected, though that is not one of my favorite dishes.)
But I suspect those solutions take more work for vegans and vegetarians, and perhas should include regular screenings.
Old-time GPs would prescribe a bottle of stout for anaemia, and you might often see an old woman sitting alone in a pub nursing half a pint of Guinness.
https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1687469428584144896 I had a meeting with a member of the Republican Party, former Governor of New Jersey, Christopher Christie. And it is very important that Mr. Christie began his visit to Ukraine with a visit to Bucha to see with his own eyes the threat to freedom and to everyone in the world posed by Russian aggression.
I thanked all Americans, each and every one, for their vital support.
We are confident that we will end this Russian war against freedom with our victory – the victory of the free world, the victory of democracy, the victory of freedom.
Chris Christie: sound on Ukraine.
I know I sound like a broken record, and I know Christie's time in New Jersey ended poorly, but I think he could be a very well organized candidate. And that matters in Iowa where the caucuses mean that second choices and organization matter.
He is 140 on Betfair to be next US President. That is an absolute steal.
Indeed,I have a few quid on, but America is a crazy place and will go for Trum vs Biden.
American politics has jumped the shark.
I'm on.
The tv in my hideous Romanian bar just played a clip of trump after his court case
He made a - for him - quite articulate speech to camera about the state of DC that he’d personally witnessed being driven to the court. The broken roads, the homeless, the degradation
I can see tens of millions of Americans nodding along eagerly. Because he’s right
He has a real chance. Because of this
Biden looks like he doesn’t give a shit about American cities. Or, it is easy to paint him and the democrats that way
Don't the cities vote for the Democrats? DC certainly does.
He obviously has a chance, unfortunately, but will Democrat leaning cities being shit really make the difference in the key states like Arizona and Georgia, where Biden won by a whisker last time? I'd have thought they already thought that, which is why they don't live in those places.
Trump might have an even better chance if he spent more time complaining about mismanagement of Democratic authorities and less time bemoaning his personal legal woes - I know it plays well with his base, but they'd vote for him anyway, and even the small number of GOPers put off by his behaviour would find it easier to back him.
The point is that the shit homeless drugs urban nightmare is now spreading from coastal Democrat cities - inland
I saw it with my own eyes in Lexington Kentucky
If US cities elected more Republican Mayors that would likely make more of a difference to them than who is next President as the Federal government doesn't have a great deal of influence over city government.
By definition to win Democrat leaning cities Republican candidates need to be moderate and pragmatic and often with business experience at a high level of management too.
Sure. Whatever. I’m just saying it’s clever politics by Trump
I reckon he could easily win against doddery old Biden. Trump looks up for the fight and about ten years younger and sharper
People also tend to misunderstand the salience of the Ukraine war for the election. It's not about geopolitics or being pro- or anti-Putin but about the contrast between what is seen as endless flows of cash for Ukraine and the state of the country at home.
Suceava Romania (which isn’t in a war) looks much uglier, scruffier and more desperate than Chernivtsi, Ukraine (which IS)
I thought Romania was a beautiful country scarred by ugly towns and uglier cities. Bucharesti is horrible, Cluj Napoca has pockets of pretty inside otherwise horrible, Alba Iulia has that amazing citadel but the rest is similar. I think its the endless brutalist architecture and festoons of wires.
Which is a pity as I found Romanian people to be warm, welcoming and funny. And even they thought their towns were awful.
Yeah, this is one fucking toilet of a town. West Ukraine is exquisite in comparison. Ceaucescu really did a job on his own country
Talking of toilets this bar I am in (3 hour wait for the train to Bacau) has a squatter toilet. Surely one of the last in Europe? Has anyone else seen one recently?
Still in quite a few of the small rest stops (Aire de ...) on the French autoroutes.
Big fan of squat toilets, much more physiological a position.
Tokyo airport has lovely new shiny technologically-advanced toilets, with a choice of sit or squat options.
And people say Japan is in decline. Nonsense, I say - what is the hallmark of civilization if not plumbing arrangements?
I once wrote a whole article on this. Because it is true
We know Rome was advanced because they had decent toilets and central heating and good sanitation in general
You CAN measure a civilisation by its bogs
And by the measure the west is falling behind. We still use paper - or at best wet-wipes (which clog sewers) - it is ridiculously unhygienic
East Asians have had integral bidets/washlets/bum guns for years. They find out standard loos as yuk just as we used to abhor squatters
I’ve noticed that luxe hotels in the west are now installing bum guns as standard, to cater for this higher international norm
Yes. I have one in my flat. They cost pennies to install. Mine has a nice warm water option. Very soothing when you need it
I am genuinely surprised these aren’t universal. Once you’ve got one you never want to go back
I can only conclude most westerners don’t go to east Asia much (or other places where they are increasingly common: like 5 star hotels or the UAE etc)
Hmm.
Hmmm what?? They clean you properly
Ideally you’d get one of those £10k Japanese khazis which do it all with electronics and have an integral dryer. But that’s quite a lot of cash
For £300 you can have a decent warm-or-cold bum gun
In fact this is such an obvious marketing opportunity I might start smuggling them into the UK
“What do you do?”
“Gun running.”
“What??”
“Yep. Bum gun running. Sploosh!”
Those attachments are not legal in the UK. In theory, if the mains pressure were to get too low, they could allow fecal matter to get back into the mains and, thereby, into other households' drinking water.
No shower-type object attached to the mains (including to toilet cisterns) is allowed to reach a toilet bowl. Which is also why very small hotel rooms have inadequate length shower hoses - they mustn't reach the toilet bowl.
Edit: I see that site, sort of, claims their model is legal. In weasel words.
You’re talking nonsense. These things are freely available in the UK. My builder/plumber did it without demur. He was used to the request
A simple non-return valve is apparently not enough:
"Some installers believe they can comply with the Water Fittings Regulations by placing a double check valve in the hose feed to prevent water travelling in the reverse direction. However, the Water Fittings Regulations state that a double check valve only provides protection against backflow to fluid category 3, so must not be used to provide backflow protection from ablutionary showers."
I suspect it's over-cautious. But I was not making it up
Please tell me the EU is to blame. Then I can sell the story to the Daily Mail
Sadly no. One of ours. We have unusually strict bathroom building regulations. For example, most European countries (indeed most countries full stop) will happily have ordinary electrical sockets in their bathrooms.
Suceava Romania (which isn’t in a war) looks much uglier, scruffier and more desperate than Chernivtsi, Ukraine (which IS)
I thought Romania was a beautiful country scarred by ugly towns and uglier cities. Bucharesti is horrible, Cluj Napoca has pockets of pretty inside otherwise horrible, Alba Iulia has that amazing citadel but the rest is similar. I think its the endless brutalist architecture and festoons of wires.
Which is a pity as I found Romanian people to be warm, welcoming and funny. And even they thought their towns were awful.
Yeah, this is one fucking toilet of a town. West Ukraine is exquisite in comparison. Ceaucescu really did a job on his own country
Talking of toilets this bar I am in (3 hour wait for the train to Bacau) has a squatter toilet. Surely one of the last in Europe? Has anyone else seen one recently?
Still in quite a few of the small rest stops (Aire de ...) on the French autoroutes.
Big fan of squat toilets, much more physiological a position.
Tokyo airport has lovely new shiny technologically-advanced toilets, with a choice of sit or squat options.
And people say Japan is in decline. Nonsense, I say - what is the hallmark of civilization if not plumbing arrangements?
I once wrote a whole article on this. Because it is true
We know Rome was advanced because they had decent toilets and central heating and good sanitation in general
You CAN measure a civilisation by its bogs
And by the measure the west is falling behind. We still use paper - or at best wet-wipes (which clog sewers) - it is ridiculously unhygienic
East Asians have had integral bidets/washlets/bum guns for years. They find out standard loos as yuk just as we used to abhor squatters
I’ve noticed that luxe hotels in the west are now installing bum guns as standard, to cater for this higher international norm
https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1687469428584144896 I had a meeting with a member of the Republican Party, former Governor of New Jersey, Christopher Christie. And it is very important that Mr. Christie began his visit to Ukraine with a visit to Bucha to see with his own eyes the threat to freedom and to everyone in the world posed by Russian aggression.
I thanked all Americans, each and every one, for their vital support.
We are confident that we will end this Russian war against freedom with our victory – the victory of the free world, the victory of democracy, the victory of freedom.
Chris Christie: sound on Ukraine.
I know I sound like a broken record, and I know Christie's time in New Jersey ended poorly, but I think he could be a very well organized candidate. And that matters in Iowa where the caucuses mean that second choices and organization matter.
He is 140 on Betfair to be next US President. That is an absolute steal.
Indeed,I have a few quid on, but America is a crazy place and will go for Trum vs Biden.
American politics has jumped the shark.
I'm on.
The tv in my hideous Romanian bar just played a clip of trump after his court case
He made a - for him - quite articulate speech to camera about the state of DC that he’d personally witnessed being driven to the court. The broken roads, the homeless, the degradation
I can see tens of millions of Americans nodding along eagerly. Because he’s right
He has a real chance. Because of this
Biden looks like he doesn’t give a shit about American cities. Or, it is easy to paint him and the democrats that way
Don't the cities vote for the Democrats? DC certainly does.
He obviously has a chance, unfortunately, but will Democrat leaning cities being shit really make the difference in the key states like Arizona and Georgia, where Biden won by a whisker last time? I'd have thought they already thought that, which is why they don't live in those places.
Trump might have an even better chance if he spent more time complaining about mismanagement of Democratic authorities and less time bemoaning his personal legal woes - I know it plays well with his base, but they'd vote for him anyway, and even the small number of GOPers put off by his behaviour would find it easier to back him.
The point is that the shit homeless drugs urban nightmare is now spreading from coastal Democrat cities - inland
I saw it with my own eyes in Lexington Kentucky
If US cities elected more Republican Mayors that would likely make more of a difference to them than who is next President as the Federal government doesn't have a great deal of influence over city government.
By definition to win Democrat leaning cities Republican candidates need to be moderate and pragmatic and often with business experience at a high level of management too.
Sure. Whatever. I’m just saying it’s clever politics by Trump
I reckon he could easily win against doddery old Biden. Trump looks up for the fight and about ten years younger and sharper
The 2024 US Presidential election may well be decided in the courtroom more than the ballot box
The odds of the American judicial system moving that fast are the same as the odds of Johnson telling the truth or of Amanda Spielman speaking sense on safeguarding.
The issue is not whether they lock the orange haired loon up, but whether the penny drops with enough Americans that he's a card-carrying fascist who poses a threat to their beloved Constitution for him to lose either the primaries or the real thing.
Current signs are less than brilliantly encouraging.
I’m less pessimistic. The indictment looks to be a slam dunk, and I can’t see Trump freeing himself from the noose that is gradually tightening around his neck - prevaricating is the only tactic his lawyers have left and I can’t see the court standing for too much more of it.
So Trump is going down for the rest of his natural, and the choice for the GOP is whether they return to their senses and back a candidate such as Hayley or Christie, or they continue to tie themselves to the doomed Trump.
I agree the case is a slam dunk. The only reason we've got a few people on here who doubt it is because there are mad Trumpers wherever you look.
I just can also see it taking three years to come to trial. Which would be a leetle too late.
He might cut a deal of course, but since that would be damaging to him it seems unlikely.
The big deal would be he gets pardoned and doesn't run for the presidency, but we're not anywhere near that yet.
I don't reckon it's a slam dunk. Look at OJ Simpson.
Financial scam allegations against Trump University and other state-level stuff may be a slam dunk.
A trial in Washington and he's toast, which is why his attorneys want it moved to West Virginia.
But - that presupposes a 'speedy' trial and also that he isn't President at the time.
Legitimately he's saying a Washington trial might be unfair. I think he's a clown, but clowns have rights as everyone does.
Suceava Romania (which isn’t in a war) looks much uglier, scruffier and more desperate than Chernivtsi, Ukraine (which IS)
I thought Romania was a beautiful country scarred by ugly towns and uglier cities. Bucharesti is horrible, Cluj Napoca has pockets of pretty inside otherwise horrible, Alba Iulia has that amazing citadel but the rest is similar. I think its the endless brutalist architecture and festoons of wires.
Which is a pity as I found Romanian people to be warm, welcoming and funny. And even they thought their towns were awful.
Yeah, this is one fucking toilet of a town. West Ukraine is exquisite in comparison. Ceaucescu really did a job on his own country
Talking of toilets this bar I am in (3 hour wait for the train to Bacau) has a squatter toilet. Surely one of the last in Europe? Has anyone else seen one recently?
Still in quite a few of the small rest stops (Aire de ...) on the French autoroutes.
Big fan of squat toilets, much more physiological a position.
Tokyo airport has lovely new shiny technologically-advanced toilets, with a choice of sit or squat options.
And people say Japan is in decline. Nonsense, I say - what is the hallmark of civilization if not plumbing arrangements?
I once wrote a whole article on this. Because it is true
We know Rome was advanced because they had decent toilets and central heating and good sanitation in general
You CAN measure a civilisation by its bogs
And by the measure the west is falling behind. We still use paper - or at best wet-wipes (which clog sewers) - it is ridiculously unhygienic
East Asians have had integral bidets/washlets/bum guns for years. They find out standard loos as yuk just as we used to abhor squatters
I’ve noticed that luxe hotels in the west are now installing bum guns as standard, to cater for this higher international norm
https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1687469428584144896 I had a meeting with a member of the Republican Party, former Governor of New Jersey, Christopher Christie. And it is very important that Mr. Christie began his visit to Ukraine with a visit to Bucha to see with his own eyes the threat to freedom and to everyone in the world posed by Russian aggression.
I thanked all Americans, each and every one, for their vital support.
We are confident that we will end this Russian war against freedom with our victory – the victory of the free world, the victory of democracy, the victory of freedom.
Chris Christie: sound on Ukraine.
I know I sound like a broken record, and I know Christie's time in New Jersey ended poorly, but I think he could be a very well organized candidate. And that matters in Iowa where the caucuses mean that second choices and organization matter.
He is 140 on Betfair to be next US President. That is an absolute steal.
Indeed,I have a few quid on, but America is a crazy place and will go for Trum vs Biden.
American politics has jumped the shark.
I'm on.
The tv in my hideous Romanian bar just played a clip of trump after his court case
He made a - for him - quite articulate speech to camera about the state of DC that he’d personally witnessed being driven to the court. The broken roads, the homeless, the degradation
I can see tens of millions of Americans nodding along eagerly. Because he’s right
He has a real chance. Because of this
Biden looks like he doesn’t give a shit about American cities. Or, it is easy to paint him and the democrats that way
Don't the cities vote for the Democrats? DC certainly does.
He obviously has a chance, unfortunately, but will Democrat leaning cities being shit really make the difference in the key states like Arizona and Georgia, where Biden won by a whisker last time? I'd have thought they already thought that, which is why they don't live in those places.
Trump might have an even better chance if he spent more time complaining about mismanagement of Democratic authorities and less time bemoaning his personal legal woes - I know it plays well with his base, but they'd vote for him anyway, and even the small number of GOPers put off by his behaviour would find it easier to back him.
The point is that the shit homeless drugs urban nightmare is now spreading from coastal Democrat cities - inland
I saw it with my own eyes in Lexington Kentucky
If US cities elected more Republican Mayors that would likely make more of a difference to them than who is next President as the Federal government doesn't have a great deal of influence over city government.
By definition to win Democrat leaning cities Republican candidates need to be moderate and pragmatic and often with business experience at a high level of management too.
Sure. Whatever. I’m just saying it’s clever politics by Trump
I reckon he could easily win against doddery old Biden. Trump looks up for the fight and about ten years younger and sharper
The 2024 US Presidential election may well be decided in the courtroom more than the ballot box
The odds of the American judicial system moving that fast are the same as the odds of Johnson telling the truth or of Amanda Spielman speaking sense on safeguarding.
The issue is not whether they lock the orange haired loon up, but whether the penny drops with enough Americans that he's a card-carrying fascist who poses a threat to their beloved Constitution for him to lose either the primaries or the real thing.
Current signs are less than brilliantly encouraging.
I’m less pessimistic. The indictment looks to be a slam dunk, and I can’t see Trump freeing himself from the noose that is gradually tightening around his neck - prevaricating is the only tactic his lawyers have left and I can’t see the court standing for too much more of it.
So Trump is going down for the rest of his natural, and the choice for the GOP is whether they return to their senses and back a candidate such as Hayley or Christie, or they continue to tie themselves to the doomed Trump.
I agree the case is a slam dunk. The only reason we've got a few people on here who doubt it is because there are mad Trumpers wherever you look.
I just can also see it taking three years to come to trial. Which would be a leetle too late.
He might cut a deal of course, but since that would be damaging to him it seems unlikely.
The big deal would be he gets pardoned and doesn't run for the presidency, but we're not anywhere near that yet.
I don't reckon it's a slam dunk. Look at OJ Simpson.
Financial scam allegations against Trump University and other state-level stuff may be a slam dunk.
A trial in Washington and he's toast, which is why his attorneys want it moved to West Virginia.
But - that presupposes a 'speedy' trial and also that he isn't President at the time.
Legitimately he's saying a Washington trial might be unfair. I think he's a clown, but clowns have rights as everyone does.
The problem is wherever you hold the trial it will be unfair. America is so polarised you will find only his supporters or his opponents. Certainly in West Virginia there is no chance of a neutral jury which is why Trump wants to hold the trial there.
This in itself is one reason I suspect the trial will be delayed. How to solve the jury issue is a knotty conundrum.
Hold baggage is very last century. Only drawback to cabin bag only is I spend the whole time fretting I have nothing to cut my nails with. Even when I am away for 4 days and virtually amputate my fingertips before leaving.
You do know that nail clippers are allowed in carry on.
I have a bone to pick with you, a few weeks ago you posted something very funny from the New Yorker. I signed up to their daily email for New Yorker humour and the cartoons are about as humorous as having your humerus removed violently and shoved up your backside with no lube.
You are forgiven though as a Radiohead fan.
Twenty one years ago, almost to the day, I was cycling* back from a pub in Southwark to Aldgate East where I then lived.
Maybe I'd had one two many beers. Maybe it was the car speeding up Minories far too close to me. And maybe it was some combination of the two. But I came off my bicycle and ended up at the Royal London.
After being X-Rayed, the Nurse Practitioner looked me in the eye and said - word for word - "You fractured your humerus. And I bet you don't think that's very humorous."
* Yeah, cycled. Sue me.
A mad physio*, who I got recommended, told me about how he cracked a vertebra playing rugby.
The local NHS hospital sent him home with some pain killers, having missed the crack in the X-Rays.
After some pain and time, he went private.
He trend up at the NHS hospital and demanded to see the senior chap. As he told hit, the guy was asking if he wanted to sue. "No", he said, "I want you too get your chap in here and show him what at cracked vertebra looks like on an X-Ray, for next time"
*He reminded me strongly of Basil Brush. Drove a souped up version of a Caterham 7, with illegal tires, IIRC.
OK...
About seven years ago (29 October 2016), my wife asked me if I wanted some cheese and wine, and I said "nope, I'm going for a run".
So, I went for a run around Hampstead and Finchley Road, and just as I was on the final stretch on Redington, I tripped and fell.
Standing up and looking at my hand, it was clear that *something* was slightly wrong. Specifically, my little finger was bent back at an unusual angle:
So I called an Uber to take me to the Royal Free.
They de-dislocated the finger (by yanking), wrapped it up, gave me painkillers and sent me home, with instructions to the return to the hand clinic the following week.
Which I duly did. Upon meeting with a hand doctor the following week, they were surprised at the extent of the swelling and ordered an X-Ray.
When it came back I was told "Yeah, you should have been X-Rayed last week, because you've fractured a bunch of bones in your hand and we're going to need to operate first thing tomorrow to pin your hand back together."
Without wishing this sound like the Three Yorkshireman (or one Derbyshireman...)
A decade or so back, my dad put a nail from a nailgun through his hand whilst working on a roof. Whilst in his seventies. My brother took him to hospital, who X-rayed my dad's hand to look for bone damage. They noticed several fingers that had been broken in the past and healed. "Oh," my dad said. "I smashed my hand in the 1960s, and just taped the fingers together. I didn't realise anything was broken."
Whereas when I fractured my elbow in northern Scotland, it required full family medevac and two 12-hour drives...
Pah! Amateur hour. At school I fractured my pelvis playing football, was in lots of pain but just figured it’s a sports injury. Went to lessons after and by about 5.45 I was feeling very unpleasant. Walked to the school sanitorium, puking along the way for the fifteen minute hobble and was taken to hospital and it turned out I had fractured my pelvis.
Then at University was living on Prince of Wales Drive in Battersea and there was some crazy big slide made out of metal sheets for kids to go down in sacks across the road in Battersea Park. We used to go over the fence whilst pissed in the early hours of the morning and race down drunk but at night they put a chain across with tires along it to stop people like us doing what we did. Anyway, had a bit of a wipeout and next day, when I remembered I didn’t get hangovers but my head felt like it was about to fall off I went to the Chelsea and Westminster where the docs made me draw a cartoon strip of what happened and pissed themselves, long story, whilst they told me I had fractured my skull and sent me home with painkillers.
Suceava Romania (which isn’t in a war) looks much uglier, scruffier and more desperate than Chernivtsi, Ukraine (which IS)
I thought Romania was a beautiful country scarred by ugly towns and uglier cities. Bucharesti is horrible, Cluj Napoca has pockets of pretty inside otherwise horrible, Alba Iulia has that amazing citadel but the rest is similar. I think its the endless brutalist architecture and festoons of wires.
Which is a pity as I found Romanian people to be warm, welcoming and funny. And even they thought their towns were awful.
Yeah, this is one fucking toilet of a town. West Ukraine is exquisite in comparison. Ceaucescu really did a job on his own country
Talking of toilets this bar I am in (3 hour wait for the train to Bacau) has a squatter toilet. Surely one of the last in Europe? Has anyone else seen one recently?
Still in quite a few of the small rest stops (Aire de ...) on the French autoroutes.
Big fan of squat toilets, much more physiological a position.
Tokyo airport has lovely new shiny technologically-advanced toilets, with a choice of sit or squat options.
And people say Japan is in decline. Nonsense, I say - what is the hallmark of civilization if not plumbing arrangements?
I once wrote a whole article on this. Because it is true
We know Rome was advanced because they had decent toilets and central heating and good sanitation in general
You CAN measure a civilisation by its bogs
And by the measure the west is falling behind. We still use paper - or at best wet-wipes (which clog sewers) - it is ridiculously unhygienic
East Asians have had integral bidets/washlets/bum guns for years. They find out standard loos as yuk just as we used to abhor squatters
I’ve noticed that luxe hotels in the west are now installing bum guns as standard, to cater for this higher international norm
https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1687469428584144896 I had a meeting with a member of the Republican Party, former Governor of New Jersey, Christopher Christie. And it is very important that Mr. Christie began his visit to Ukraine with a visit to Bucha to see with his own eyes the threat to freedom and to everyone in the world posed by Russian aggression.
I thanked all Americans, each and every one, for their vital support.
We are confident that we will end this Russian war against freedom with our victory – the victory of the free world, the victory of democracy, the victory of freedom.
Chris Christie: sound on Ukraine.
I know I sound like a broken record, and I know Christie's time in New Jersey ended poorly, but I think he could be a very well organized candidate. And that matters in Iowa where the caucuses mean that second choices and organization matter.
He is 140 on Betfair to be next US President. That is an absolute steal.
Indeed,I have a few quid on, but America is a crazy place and will go for Trum vs Biden.
American politics has jumped the shark.
I'm on.
The tv in my hideous Romanian bar just played a clip of trump after his court case
He made a - for him - quite articulate speech to camera about the state of DC that he’d personally witnessed being driven to the court. The broken roads, the homeless, the degradation
I can see tens of millions of Americans nodding along eagerly. Because he’s right
He has a real chance. Because of this
Biden looks like he doesn’t give a shit about American cities. Or, it is easy to paint him and the democrats that way
Don't the cities vote for the Democrats? DC certainly does.
He obviously has a chance, unfortunately, but will Democrat leaning cities being shit really make the difference in the key states like Arizona and Georgia, where Biden won by a whisker last time? I'd have thought they already thought that, which is why they don't live in those places.
Trump might have an even better chance if he spent more time complaining about mismanagement of Democratic authorities and less time bemoaning his personal legal woes - I know it plays well with his base, but they'd vote for him anyway, and even the small number of GOPers put off by his behaviour would find it easier to back him.
The point is that the shit homeless drugs urban nightmare is now spreading from coastal Democrat cities - inland
I saw it with my own eyes in Lexington Kentucky
If US cities elected more Republican Mayors that would likely make more of a difference to them than who is next President as the Federal government doesn't have a great deal of influence over city government.
By definition to win Democrat leaning cities Republican candidates need to be moderate and pragmatic and often with business experience at a high level of management too.
Sure. Whatever. I’m just saying it’s clever politics by Trump
I reckon he could easily win against doddery old Biden. Trump looks up for the fight and about ten years younger and sharper
The same Trump that failed to read his own name and age back in court?
I think people see what they want to see in both candidates, regardless of the actualities.
Sure, but you may be doing the same. That was just spin, about his name. About his age, "seven seven", I'm still researching that.
He seemed in quite good (for him) psychological shape.
@HY: I'm not so keen on using percentages to appraise his chances. Let's say he may well find fertile ground for the extreme polarisation that he needs. The way he needs the meme of social collapse to work is that he needs to associate it with his opponent...so that a slice of the formerly Democratic voterbase says f*ck it, we don't give a sh*t, we've got f*ck all to lose, and they either stay at home or vote Trump. And then they may find out that actually they do have something to lose.
If he doesn't meet a similar end to Sindona and Epstein, perhaps we'll all need to bend down and kiss our bottoms goodbye, well-washed with bumgun tech or otherwise.
On the other side of the aisle, the Dems need to ditch Biden.
My only wagers so far are on Kamala Harris for the presidency and Tom Cotton for the Rep VP nom.
Harris would lose by a landslide, she would be the worst Democrat candidate for decades. Biden at least can say he has already beaten Trump
I like Biden and I dislike Harris but I try to put my personal likes aside. Harris the presidential candidate would be different from Harris as she has been framed so far. A comparison here would be with Biden himself as VP and then presidential candidate although in his case there was a gap.
Trump would find places he could bite into with both Biden and Harris...but the Dems have got to have somebody as their candidate.
I bought Harris about 50 anyway. Value. She's still value now at 44.
Suceava Romania (which isn’t in a war) looks much uglier, scruffier and more desperate than Chernivtsi, Ukraine (which IS)
I thought Romania was a beautiful country scarred by ugly towns and uglier cities. Bucharesti is horrible, Cluj Napoca has pockets of pretty inside otherwise horrible, Alba Iulia has that amazing citadel but the rest is similar. I think its the endless brutalist architecture and festoons of wires.
Which is a pity as I found Romanian people to be warm, welcoming and funny. And even they thought their towns were awful.
Yeah, this is one fucking toilet of a town. West Ukraine is exquisite in comparison. Ceaucescu really did a job on his own country
Talking of toilets this bar I am in (3 hour wait for the train to Bacau) has a squatter toilet. Surely one of the last in Europe? Has anyone else seen one recently?
Still in quite a few of the small rest stops (Aire de ...) on the French autoroutes.
Big fan of squat toilets, much more physiological a position.
Tokyo airport has lovely new shiny technologically-advanced toilets, with a choice of sit or squat options.
And people say Japan is in decline. Nonsense, I say - what is the hallmark of civilization if not plumbing arrangements?
I once wrote a whole article on this. Because it is true
We know Rome was advanced because they had decent toilets and central heating and good sanitation in general
You CAN measure a civilisation by its bogs
And by the measure the west is falling behind. We still use paper - or at best wet-wipes (which clog sewers) - it is ridiculously unhygienic
East Asians have had integral bidets/washlets/bum guns for years. They find out standard loos as yuk just as we used to abhor squatters
I’ve noticed that luxe hotels in the west are now installing bum guns as standard, to cater for this higher international norm
https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1687469428584144896 I had a meeting with a member of the Republican Party, former Governor of New Jersey, Christopher Christie. And it is very important that Mr. Christie began his visit to Ukraine with a visit to Bucha to see with his own eyes the threat to freedom and to everyone in the world posed by Russian aggression.
I thanked all Americans, each and every one, for their vital support.
We are confident that we will end this Russian war against freedom with our victory – the victory of the free world, the victory of democracy, the victory of freedom.
Chris Christie: sound on Ukraine.
I know I sound like a broken record, and I know Christie's time in New Jersey ended poorly, but I think he could be a very well organized candidate. And that matters in Iowa where the caucuses mean that second choices and organization matter.
He is 140 on Betfair to be next US President. That is an absolute steal.
Indeed,I have a few quid on, but America is a crazy place and will go for Trum vs Biden.
American politics has jumped the shark.
I'm on.
The tv in my hideous Romanian bar just played a clip of trump after his court case
He made a - for him - quite articulate speech to camera about the state of DC that he’d personally witnessed being driven to the court. The broken roads, the homeless, the degradation
I can see tens of millions of Americans nodding along eagerly. Because he’s right
He has a real chance. Because of this
Biden looks like he doesn’t give a shit about American cities. Or, it is easy to paint him and the democrats that way
Don't the cities vote for the Democrats? DC certainly does.
He obviously has a chance, unfortunately, but will Democrat leaning cities being shit really make the difference in the key states like Arizona and Georgia, where Biden won by a whisker last time? I'd have thought they already thought that, which is why they don't live in those places.
Trump might have an even better chance if he spent more time complaining about mismanagement of Democratic authorities and less time bemoaning his personal legal woes - I know it plays well with his base, but they'd vote for him anyway, and even the small number of GOPers put off by his behaviour would find it easier to back him.
The point is that the shit homeless drugs urban nightmare is now spreading from coastal Democrat cities - inland
I saw it with my own eyes in Lexington Kentucky
If US cities elected more Republican Mayors that would likely make more of a difference to them than who is next President as the Federal government doesn't have a great deal of influence over city government.
By definition to win Democrat leaning cities Republican candidates need to be moderate and pragmatic and often with business experience at a high level of management too.
Sure. Whatever. I’m just saying it’s clever politics by Trump
I reckon he could easily win against doddery old Biden. Trump looks up for the fight and about ten years younger and sharper
The 2024 US Presidential election may well be decided in the courtroom more than the ballot box
The odds of the American judicial system moving that fast are the same as the odds of Johnson telling the truth or of Amanda Spielman speaking sense on safeguarding.
The issue is not whether they lock the orange haired loon up, but whether the penny drops with enough Americans that he's a card-carrying fascist who poses a threat to their beloved Constitution for him to lose either the primaries or the real thing.
Current signs are less than brilliantly encouraging.
I’m less pessimistic. The indictment looks to be a slam dunk, and I can’t see Trump freeing himself from the noose that is gradually tightening around his neck - prevaricating is the only tactic his lawyers have left and I can’t see the court standing for too much more of it.
So Trump is going down for the rest of his natural, and the choice for the GOP is whether they return to their senses and back a candidate such as Hayley or Christie, or they continue to tie themselves to the doomed Trump.
I agree the case is a slam dunk. The only reason we've got a few people on here who doubt it is because there are mad Trumpers wherever you look.
I just can also see it taking three years to come to trial. Which would be a leetle too late.
He might cut a deal of course, but since that would be damaging to him it seems unlikely.
The big deal would be he gets pardoned and doesn't run for the presidency, but we're not anywhere near that yet.
I don't reckon it's a slam dunk. Look at OJ Simpson.
Financial scam allegations against Trump University and other state-level stuff may be a slam dunk.
A trial in Washington and he's toast, which is why his attorneys want it moved to West Virginia.
But - that presupposes a 'speedy' trial and also that he isn't President at the time.
Quite some supposition. Personally I bit the carpet when so many Republican senators didn't vote guilty at the second impeachment trial.
We have scotch'd the snake, not kill'd it: She'll close and be herself, whilst our poor malice Remains in danger of her former tooth. But let the frame of things disjoint, both the worlds suffer, Ere we will eat our meal in fear and sleep In the affliction of these terrible dreams That shake us nightly: better be with the dead, Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace, Than on the torture of the mind to lie In restless ecstasy.
Suceava Romania (which isn’t in a war) looks much uglier, scruffier and more desperate than Chernivtsi, Ukraine (which IS)
I thought Romania was a beautiful country scarred by ugly towns and uglier cities. Bucharesti is horrible, Cluj Napoca has pockets of pretty inside otherwise horrible, Alba Iulia has that amazing citadel but the rest is similar. I think its the endless brutalist architecture and festoons of wires.
Which is a pity as I found Romanian people to be warm, welcoming and funny. And even they thought their towns were awful.
Yeah, this is one fucking toilet of a town. West Ukraine is exquisite in comparison. Ceaucescu really did a job on his own country
Talking of toilets this bar I am in (3 hour wait for the train to Bacau) has a squatter toilet. Surely one of the last in Europe? Has anyone else seen one recently?
Still in quite a few of the small rest stops (Aire de ...) on the French autoroutes.
Big fan of squat toilets, much more physiological a position.
Tokyo airport has lovely new shiny technologically-advanced toilets, with a choice of sit or squat options.
And people say Japan is in decline. Nonsense, I say - what is the hallmark of civilization if not plumbing arrangements?
I once wrote a whole article on this. Because it is true
We know Rome was advanced because they had decent toilets and central heating and good sanitation in general
You CAN measure a civilisation by its bogs
And by the measure the west is falling behind. We still use paper - or at best wet-wipes (which clog sewers) - it is ridiculously unhygienic
East Asians have had integral bidets/washlets/bum guns for years. They find out standard loos as yuk just as we used to abhor squatters
I’ve noticed that luxe hotels in the west are now installing bum guns as standard, to cater for this higher international norm
https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1687469428584144896 I had a meeting with a member of the Republican Party, former Governor of New Jersey, Christopher Christie. And it is very important that Mr. Christie began his visit to Ukraine with a visit to Bucha to see with his own eyes the threat to freedom and to everyone in the world posed by Russian aggression.
I thanked all Americans, each and every one, for their vital support.
We are confident that we will end this Russian war against freedom with our victory – the victory of the free world, the victory of democracy, the victory of freedom.
Chris Christie: sound on Ukraine.
I know I sound like a broken record, and I know Christie's time in New Jersey ended poorly, but I think he could be a very well organized candidate. And that matters in Iowa where the caucuses mean that second choices and organization matter.
He is 140 on Betfair to be next US President. That is an absolute steal.
Indeed,I have a few quid on, but America is a crazy place and will go for Trum vs Biden.
American politics has jumped the shark.
I'm on.
The tv in my hideous Romanian bar just played a clip of trump after his court case
He made a - for him - quite articulate speech to camera about the state of DC that he’d personally witnessed being driven to the court. The broken roads, the homeless, the degradation
I can see tens of millions of Americans nodding along eagerly. Because he’s right
He has a real chance. Because of this
Biden looks like he doesn’t give a shit about American cities. Or, it is easy to paint him and the democrats that way
Don't the cities vote for the Democrats? DC certainly does.
He obviously has a chance, unfortunately, but will Democrat leaning cities being shit really make the difference in the key states like Arizona and Georgia, where Biden won by a whisker last time? I'd have thought they already thought that, which is why they don't live in those places.
Trump might have an even better chance if he spent more time complaining about mismanagement of Democratic authorities and less time bemoaning his personal legal woes - I know it plays well with his base, but they'd vote for him anyway, and even the small number of GOPers put off by his behaviour would find it easier to back him.
The point is that the shit homeless drugs urban nightmare is now spreading from coastal Democrat cities - inland
I saw it with my own eyes in Lexington Kentucky
If US cities elected more Republican Mayors that would likely make more of a difference to them than who is next President as the Federal government doesn't have a great deal of influence over city government.
By definition to win Democrat leaning cities Republican candidates need to be moderate and pragmatic and often with business experience at a high level of management too.
Sure. Whatever. I’m just saying it’s clever politics by Trump
I reckon he could easily win against doddery old Biden. Trump looks up for the fight and about ten years younger and sharper
The 2024 US Presidential election may well be decided in the courtroom more than the ballot box
The odds of the American judicial system moving that fast are the same as the odds of Johnson telling the truth or of Amanda Spielman speaking sense on safeguarding.
The issue is not whether they lock the orange haired loon up, but whether the penny drops with enough Americans that he's a card-carrying fascist who poses a threat to their beloved Constitution for him to lose either the primaries or the real thing.
Current signs are less than brilliantly encouraging.
I’m less pessimistic. The indictment looks to be a slam dunk, and I can’t see Trump freeing himself from the noose that is gradually tightening around his neck - prevaricating is the only tactic his lawyers have left and I can’t see the court standing for too much more of it.
So Trump is going down for the rest of his natural, and the choice for the GOP is whether they return to their senses and back a candidate such as Hayley or Christie, or they continue to tie themselves to the doomed Trump.
I agree the case is a slam dunk. The only reason we've got a few people on here who doubt it is because there are mad Trumpers wherever you look.
I just can also see it taking three years to come to trial. Which would be a leetle too late.
He might cut a deal of course, but since that would be damaging to him it seems unlikely.
The big deal would be he gets pardoned and doesn't run for the presidency, but we're not anywhere near that yet.
I don't reckon it's a slam dunk. Look at OJ Simpson.
Financial scam allegations against Trump University and other state-level stuff may be a slam dunk.
A trial in Washington and he's toast, which is why his attorneys want it moved to West Virginia.
But - that presupposes a 'speedy' trial and also that he isn't President at the time.
Legitimately he's saying a Washington trial might be unfair. I think he's a clown, but clowns have rights as everyone does.
The problem is wherever you hold the trial it will be unfair. America is so polarised you will find only his supporters or his opponents. Certainly in West Virginia there is no chance of a neutral jury which is why Trump wants to hold the trial there.
This in itself is one reason I suspect the trial will be delayed. How to solve the jury issue is a knotty conundrum.
Well obviously now it's all gotten out of hand they need to once again bend the knee to C3, and he'll sort it out.
Whilst he's at it he can make bits of Scotland better too.
Suceava Romania (which isn’t in a war) looks much uglier, scruffier and more desperate than Chernivtsi, Ukraine (which IS)
I thought Romania was a beautiful country scarred by ugly towns and uglier cities. Bucharesti is horrible, Cluj Napoca has pockets of pretty inside otherwise horrible, Alba Iulia has that amazing citadel but the rest is similar. I think its the endless brutalist architecture and festoons of wires.
Which is a pity as I found Romanian people to be warm, welcoming and funny. And even they thought their towns were awful.
Yeah, this is one fucking toilet of a town. West Ukraine is exquisite in comparison. Ceaucescu really did a job on his own country
Talking of toilets this bar I am in (3 hour wait for the train to Bacau) has a squatter toilet. Surely one of the last in Europe? Has anyone else seen one recently?
Still in quite a few of the small rest stops (Aire de ...) on the French autoroutes.
Big fan of squat toilets, much more physiological a position.
Tokyo airport has lovely new shiny technologically-advanced toilets, with a choice of sit or squat options.
And people say Japan is in decline. Nonsense, I say - what is the hallmark of civilization if not plumbing arrangements?
I once wrote a whole article on this. Because it is true
We know Rome was advanced because they had decent toilets and central heating and good sanitation in general
You CAN measure a civilisation by its bogs
And by the measure the west is falling behind. We still use paper - or at best wet-wipes (which clog sewers) - it is ridiculously unhygienic
East Asians have had integral bidets/washlets/bum guns for years. They find out standard loos as yuk just as we used to abhor squatters
I’ve noticed that luxe hotels in the west are now installing bum guns as standard, to cater for this higher international norm
Yes. I have one in my flat. They cost pennies to install. Mine has a nice warm water option. Very soothing when you need it
I am genuinely surprised these aren’t universal. Once you’ve got one you never want to go back
I can only conclude most westerners don’t go to east Asia much (or other places where they are increasingly common: like 5 star hotels or the UAE etc)
Hmm.
Hmmm what?? They clean you properly
Ideally you’d get one of those £10k Japanese khazis which do it all with electronics and have an integral dryer. But that’s quite a lot of cash
For £300 you can have a decent warm-or-cold bum gun
In fact this is such an obvious marketing opportunity I might start smuggling them into the UK
“What do you do?”
“Gun running.”
“What??”
“Yep. Bum gun running. Sploosh!”
Those attachments are not legal in the UK. In theory, if the mains pressure were to get too low, they could allow fecal matter to get back into the mains and, thereby, into other households' drinking water.
No shower-type object attached to the mains (including to toilet cisterns) is allowed to reach a toilet bowl. Which is also why very small hotel rooms have inadequate length shower hoses - they mustn't reach the toilet bowl.
Edit: I see that site, sort of, claims their model is legal. In weasel words.
You’re talking nonsense. These things are freely available in the UK. My builder/plumber did it without demur. He was used to the request
A simple non-return valve is apparently not enough:
"Some installers believe they can comply with the Water Fittings Regulations by placing a double check valve in the hose feed to prevent water travelling in the reverse direction. However, the Water Fittings Regulations state that a double check valve only provides protection against backflow to fluid category 3, so must not be used to provide backflow protection from ablutionary showers."
Suceava Romania (which isn’t in a war) looks much uglier, scruffier and more desperate than Chernivtsi, Ukraine (which IS)
I thought Romania was a beautiful country scarred by ugly towns and uglier cities. Bucharesti is horrible, Cluj Napoca has pockets of pretty inside otherwise horrible, Alba Iulia has that amazing citadel but the rest is similar. I think its the endless brutalist architecture and festoons of wires.
Which is a pity as I found Romanian people to be warm, welcoming and funny. And even they thought their towns were awful.
Yeah, this is one fucking toilet of a town. West Ukraine is exquisite in comparison. Ceaucescu really did a job on his own country
Talking of toilets this bar I am in (3 hour wait for the train to Bacau) has a squatter toilet. Surely one of the last in Europe? Has anyone else seen one recently?
Still in quite a few of the small rest stops (Aire de ...) on the French autoroutes.
Big fan of squat toilets, much more physiological a position.
Tokyo airport has lovely new shiny technologically-advanced toilets, with a choice of sit or squat options.
And people say Japan is in decline. Nonsense, I say - what is the hallmark of civilization if not plumbing arrangements?
I once wrote a whole article on this. Because it is true
We know Rome was advanced because they had decent toilets and central heating and good sanitation in general
You CAN measure a civilisation by its bogs
And by the measure the west is falling behind. We still use paper - or at best wet-wipes (which clog sewers) - it is ridiculously unhygienic
East Asians have had integral bidets/washlets/bum guns for years. They find out standard loos as yuk just as we used to abhor squatters
I’ve noticed that luxe hotels in the west are now installing bum guns as standard, to cater for this higher international norm
Yes. I have one in my flat. They cost pennies to install. Mine has a nice warm water option. Very soothing when you need it
I am genuinely surprised these aren’t universal. Once you’ve got one you never want to go back
I can only conclude most westerners don’t go to east Asia much (or other places where they are increasingly common: like 5 star hotels or the UAE etc)
Hmm.
Hmmm what?? They clean you properly
Ideally you’d get one of those £10k Japanese khazis which do it all with electronics and have an integral dryer. But that’s quite a lot of cash
For £300 you can have a decent warm-or-cold bum gun
In fact this is such an obvious marketing opportunity I might start smuggling them into the UK
“What do you do?”
“Gun running.”
“What??”
“Yep. Bum gun running. Sploosh!”
Those attachments are not legal in the UK. In theory, if the mains pressure were to get too low, they could allow fecal matter to get back into the mains and, thereby, into other households' drinking water.
No shower-type object attached to the mains (including to toilet cisterns) is allowed to reach a toilet bowl. Which is also why very small hotel rooms have inadequate length shower hoses - they mustn't reach the toilet bowl.
Edit: I see that site, sort of, claims their model is legal. In weasel words.
You’re talking nonsense. These things are freely available in the UK. My builder/plumber did it without demur. He was used to the request
A simple non-return valve is apparently not enough:
"Some installers believe they can comply with the Water Fittings Regulations by placing a double check valve in the hose feed to prevent water travelling in the reverse direction. However, the Water Fittings Regulations state that a double check valve only provides protection against backflow to fluid category 3, so must not be used to provide backflow protection from ablutionary showers."
According to this article, they became fashionable under Franco ("Look peasants, you must be rich because you can wash your bottoms. Vote for me, except you can't because we have an organic democracy.") and became less common as bathrooms became smaller.
Suceava Romania (which isn’t in a war) looks much uglier, scruffier and more desperate than Chernivtsi, Ukraine (which IS)
I thought Romania was a beautiful country scarred by ugly towns and uglier cities. Bucharesti is horrible, Cluj Napoca has pockets of pretty inside otherwise horrible, Alba Iulia has that amazing citadel but the rest is similar. I think its the endless brutalist architecture and festoons of wires.
Which is a pity as I found Romanian people to be warm, welcoming and funny. And even they thought their towns were awful.
Yeah, this is one fucking toilet of a town. West Ukraine is exquisite in comparison. Ceaucescu really did a job on his own country
Talking of toilets this bar I am in (3 hour wait for the train to Bacau) has a squatter toilet. Surely one of the last in Europe? Has anyone else seen one recently?
Still in quite a few of the small rest stops (Aire de ...) on the French autoroutes.
Big fan of squat toilets, much more physiological a position.
Tokyo airport has lovely new shiny technologically-advanced toilets, with a choice of sit or squat options.
And people say Japan is in decline. Nonsense, I say - what is the hallmark of civilization if not plumbing arrangements?
I once wrote a whole article on this. Because it is true
We know Rome was advanced because they had decent toilets and central heating and good sanitation in general
You CAN measure a civilisation by its bogs
And by the measure the west is falling behind. We still use paper - or at best wet-wipes (which clog sewers) - it is ridiculously unhygienic
East Asians have had integral bidets/washlets/bum guns for years. They find out standard loos as yuk just as we used to abhor squatters
I’ve noticed that luxe hotels in the west are now installing bum guns as standard, to cater for this higher international norm
Yes. I have one in my flat. They cost pennies to install. Mine has a nice warm water option. Very soothing when you need it
I am genuinely surprised these aren’t universal. Once you’ve got one you never want to go back
I can only conclude most westerners don’t go to east Asia much (or other places where they are increasingly common: like 5 star hotels or the UAE etc)
Hmm.
Hmmm what?? They clean you properly
Ideally you’d get one of those £10k Japanese khazis which do it all with electronics and have an integral dryer. But that’s quite a lot of cash
For £300 you can have a decent warm-or-cold bum gun
In fact this is such an obvious marketing opportunity I might start smuggling them into the UK
“What do you do?”
“Gun running.”
“What??”
“Yep. Bum gun running. Sploosh!”
Those attachments are not legal in the UK. In theory, if the mains pressure were to get too low, they could allow fecal matter to get back into the mains and, thereby, into other households' drinking water.
No shower-type object attached to the mains (including to toilet cisterns) is allowed to reach a toilet bowl. Which is also why very small hotel rooms have inadequate length shower hoses - they mustn't reach the toilet bowl.
Edit: I see that site, sort of, claims their model is legal. In weasel words.
You’re talking nonsense. These things are freely available in the UK. My builder/plumber did it without demur. He was used to the request
A simple non-return valve is apparently not enough:
"Some installers believe they can comply with the Water Fittings Regulations by placing a double check valve in the hose feed to prevent water travelling in the reverse direction. However, the Water Fittings Regulations state that a double check valve only provides protection against backflow to fluid category 3, so must not be used to provide backflow protection from ablutionary showers."
There is a problem for some vegans and vegetarians in the US: "Nearly 40% of girls and young women in the U.S. may have iron deficiency, which can lead to fatigue and increase the risk of many health problems, according to a new study.
The researchers also found that 6 in every 100 of the girls and young women had extremely low iron levels, known as iron-deficiency anemia, which impacts the blood’s ability to carry oxygen throughout the body. . . . The Cleveland Clinic says the most common causes of iron-deficiency anemia are those that involve blood loss, including heavy menstrual periods. The body gets iron from food, and not getting enough iron from food, such as due to eating a vegan or vegetarian diet, can also lead to deficiency." source: https://www.webmd.com/women/news/20230628/young-girls-women-high-risk-iron-deficiency-study-about
There are, as I am sure most of you know, solutions. But they are easier for those who regularly eat red meat. For example, I once lived with a young woman who, once a month, cooked liver and onions for us. (I never objected, though that is not one of my favorite dishes.)
But I suspect those solutions take more work for vegans and vegetarians, and perhas should include regular screenings.
Old-time GPs would prescribe a bottle of stout for anaemia, and you might often see an old woman sitting alone in a pub nursing half a pint of Guinness.
There must be plenty of ways of getting enough iron without eating red meat, since the animals that the meat comes from don't eat meat. Spinach and other leafy vegetables, for instance. I've not eaten meat for 35 years and I've never been anaemic. On the other hand, I have been to many American supermarkets and so I know that fresh vegetables aren't necessarily a prominent dietary feature for a lot of Americans.
Off-topic but techy. I've been using my new MacBook Pro all week, and I'm wondering what kept me away. To start with, the build quality of this thing is unreal. The solid metal chassis is solid. The keyboard and trackpad are both sensational. The screen is pretty (though I still prefer a 3:2 ratio).
I am getting used to the software - a few "why does it work like that" moments. Of which the most annoying are that for Control on Windows I need Command - which is next to space rather than away from it - and that @ and " are swapped. And no touch screen.
Ok I spent £dollar and bought a specced one, but having done my first video editing session on thing thing I was impressed by how non-plussed it was.
Come home from holiday to find a speeding notice to prosecute from Northamptonshire Police, from when I drove back from helping my folks move house. No good deed goes unpunished. 70 on the M1, but allegedly a bit with a 60 variable limit, which I must have been insufficiently attentive to notice (driving from London to Scotland and back over a four day period does that to you). Is trying to get through Northamptonshire as quickly as possible a legitimate defence?
https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1687469428584144896 I had a meeting with a member of the Republican Party, former Governor of New Jersey, Christopher Christie. And it is very important that Mr. Christie began his visit to Ukraine with a visit to Bucha to see with his own eyes the threat to freedom and to everyone in the world posed by Russian aggression.
I thanked all Americans, each and every one, for their vital support.
We are confident that we will end this Russian war against freedom with our victory – the victory of the free world, the victory of democracy, the victory of freedom.
Chris Christie: sound on Ukraine.
I know I sound like a broken record, and I know Christie's time in New Jersey ended poorly, but I think he could be a very well organized candidate. And that matters in Iowa where the caucuses mean that second choices and organization matter.
He is 140 on Betfair to be next US President. That is an absolute steal.
Indeed,I have a few quid on, but America is a crazy place and will go for Trum vs Biden.
American politics has jumped the shark.
I'm on.
The tv in my hideous Romanian bar just played a clip of trump after his court case
He made a - for him - quite articulate speech to camera about the state of DC that he’d personally witnessed being driven to the court. The broken roads, the homeless, the degradation
I can see tens of millions of Americans nodding along eagerly. Because he’s right
He has a real chance. Because of this
Biden looks like he doesn’t give a shit about American cities. Or, it is easy to paint him and the democrats that way
Don't the cities vote for the Democrats? DC certainly does.
He obviously has a chance, unfortunately, but will Democrat leaning cities being shit really make the difference in the key states like Arizona and Georgia, where Biden won by a whisker last time? I'd have thought they already thought that, which is why they don't live in those places.
Trump might have an even better chance if he spent more time complaining about mismanagement of Democratic authorities and less time bemoaning his personal legal woes - I know it plays well with his base, but they'd vote for him anyway, and even the small number of GOPers put off by his behaviour would find it easier to back him.
The point is that the shit homeless drugs urban nightmare is now spreading from coastal Democrat cities - inland
I saw it with my own eyes in Lexington Kentucky
If US cities elected more Republican Mayors that would likely make more of a difference to them than who is next President as the Federal government doesn't have a great deal of influence over city government.
By definition to win Democrat leaning cities Republican candidates need to be moderate and pragmatic and often with business experience at a high level of management too.
Sure. Whatever. I’m just saying it’s clever politics by Trump
I reckon he could easily win against doddery old Biden. Trump looks up for the fight and about ten years younger and sharper
People also tend to misunderstand the salience of the Ukraine war for the election. It's not about geopolitics or being pro- or anti-Putin but about the contrast between what is seen as endless flows of cash for Ukraine and the state of the country at home.
Correct. Biden’s been annoying the hell out of me since this war started, by talking about hundreds of billions of aid to Ukraine, which mostly consists of obsolete kit that was paid for decades ago. No other country does this talking about numbers, and it’s allowed the issue to become politicised.
Suceava Romania (which isn’t in a war) looks much uglier, scruffier and more desperate than Chernivtsi, Ukraine (which IS)
I thought Romania was a beautiful country scarred by ugly towns and uglier cities. Bucharesti is horrible, Cluj Napoca has pockets of pretty inside otherwise horrible, Alba Iulia has that amazing citadel but the rest is similar. I think its the endless brutalist architecture and festoons of wires.
Which is a pity as I found Romanian people to be warm, welcoming and funny. And even they thought their towns were awful.
Yeah, this is one fucking toilet of a town. West Ukraine is exquisite in comparison. Ceaucescu really did a job on his own country
Talking of toilets this bar I am in (3 hour wait for the train to Bacau) has a squatter toilet. Surely one of the last in Europe? Has anyone else seen one recently?
Still in quite a few of the small rest stops (Aire de ...) on the French autoroutes.
Big fan of squat toilets, much more physiological a position.
Tokyo airport has lovely new shiny technologically-advanced toilets, with a choice of sit or squat options.
And people say Japan is in decline. Nonsense, I say - what is the hallmark of civilization if not plumbing arrangements?
I once wrote a whole article on this. Because it is true
We know Rome was advanced because they had decent toilets and central heating and good sanitation in general
You CAN measure a civilisation by its bogs
And by the measure the west is falling behind. We still use paper - or at best wet-wipes (which clog sewers) - it is ridiculously unhygienic
East Asians have had integral bidets/washlets/bum guns for years. They find out standard loos as yuk just as we used to abhor squatters
I’ve noticed that luxe hotels in the west are now installing bum guns as standard, to cater for this higher international norm
https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1687469428584144896 I had a meeting with a member of the Republican Party, former Governor of New Jersey, Christopher Christie. And it is very important that Mr. Christie began his visit to Ukraine with a visit to Bucha to see with his own eyes the threat to freedom and to everyone in the world posed by Russian aggression.
I thanked all Americans, each and every one, for their vital support.
We are confident that we will end this Russian war against freedom with our victory – the victory of the free world, the victory of democracy, the victory of freedom.
Chris Christie: sound on Ukraine.
I know I sound like a broken record, and I know Christie's time in New Jersey ended poorly, but I think he could be a very well organized candidate. And that matters in Iowa where the caucuses mean that second choices and organization matter.
He is 140 on Betfair to be next US President. That is an absolute steal.
Indeed,I have a few quid on, but America is a crazy place and will go for Trum vs Biden.
American politics has jumped the shark.
I'm on.
The tv in my hideous Romanian bar just played a clip of trump after his court case
He made a - for him - quite articulate speech to camera about the state of DC that he’d personally witnessed being driven to the court. The broken roads, the homeless, the degradation
I can see tens of millions of Americans nodding along eagerly. Because he’s right
He has a real chance. Because of this
Biden looks like he doesn’t give a shit about American cities. Or, it is easy to paint him and the democrats that way
Don't the cities vote for the Democrats? DC certainly does.
He obviously has a chance, unfortunately, but will Democrat leaning cities being shit really make the difference in the key states like Arizona and Georgia, where Biden won by a whisker last time? I'd have thought they already thought that, which is why they don't live in those places.
Trump might have an even better chance if he spent more time complaining about mismanagement of Democratic authorities and less time bemoaning his personal legal woes - I know it plays well with his base, but they'd vote for him anyway, and even the small number of GOPers put off by his behaviour would find it easier to back him.
The point is that the shit homeless drugs urban nightmare is now spreading from coastal Democrat cities - inland
I saw it with my own eyes in Lexington Kentucky
If US cities elected more Republican Mayors that would likely make more of a difference to them than who is next President as the Federal government doesn't have a great deal of influence over city government.
By definition to win Democrat leaning cities Republican candidates need to be moderate and pragmatic and often with business experience at a high level of management too.
Sure. Whatever. I’m just saying it’s clever politics by Trump
I reckon he could easily win against doddery old Biden. Trump looks up for the fight and about ten years younger and sharper
The same Trump that failed to read his own name and age back in court?
I think people see what they want to see in both candidates, regardless of the actualities.
Sure, but you may be doing the same. That was just spin, about his name. About his age, "seven seven", I'm still researching that.
He seemed in quite good (for him) psychological shape.
@HY: I'm not so keen on using percentages to appraise his chances. Let's say he may well find fertile ground for the extreme polarisation that he needs. The way he needs the meme of social collapse to work is that he needs to associate it with his opponent...so that a slice of the formerly Democratic voterbase says f*ck it, we don't give a sh*t, we've got f*ck all to lose, and they either stay at home or vote Trump. And then they may find out that actually they do have something to lose.
If he doesn't meet a similar end to Sindona and Epstein, perhaps we'll all need to bend down and kiss our bottoms goodbye, well-washed with bumgun tech or otherwise.
On the other side of the aisle, the Dems need to ditch Biden.
My only wagers so far are on Kamala Harris for the presidency and Tom Cotton for the Rep VP nom.
Harris would lose by a landslide, she would be the worst Democrat candidate for decades. Biden at least can say he has already beaten Trump
I like Biden and I dislike Harris but I try to put my personal likes aside. Harris the presidential candidate would be different from Harris as she has been framed so far. A comparison here would be with Biden himself as VP and then presidential candidate although in his case there was a gap.
Trump would find places he could bite into with both Biden and Harris...but the Dems have got to have somebody as their candidate.
I bought Harris about 50 anyway. Value. She's still value now at 44.
Suceava Romania (which isn’t in a war) looks much uglier, scruffier and more desperate than Chernivtsi, Ukraine (which IS)
I thought Romania was a beautiful country scarred by ugly towns and uglier cities. Bucharesti is horrible, Cluj Napoca has pockets of pretty inside otherwise horrible, Alba Iulia has that amazing citadel but the rest is similar. I think its the endless brutalist architecture and festoons of wires.
Which is a pity as I found Romanian people to be warm, welcoming and funny. And even they thought their towns were awful.
Yeah, this is one fucking toilet of a town. West Ukraine is exquisite in comparison. Ceaucescu really did a job on his own country
Talking of toilets this bar I am in (3 hour wait for the train to Bacau) has a squatter toilet. Surely one of the last in Europe? Has anyone else seen one recently?
Still in quite a few of the small rest stops (Aire de ...) on the French autoroutes.
Big fan of squat toilets, much more physiological a position.
Tokyo airport has lovely new shiny technologically-advanced toilets, with a choice of sit or squat options.
And people say Japan is in decline. Nonsense, I say - what is the hallmark of civilization if not plumbing arrangements?
I once wrote a whole article on this. Because it is true
We know Rome was advanced because they had decent toilets and central heating and good sanitation in general
You CAN measure a civilisation by its bogs
And by the measure the west is falling behind. We still use paper - or at best wet-wipes (which clog sewers) - it is ridiculously unhygienic
East Asians have had integral bidets/washlets/bum guns for years. They find out standard loos as yuk just as we used to abhor squatters
I’ve noticed that luxe hotels in the west are now installing bum guns as standard, to cater for this higher international norm
https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1687469428584144896 I had a meeting with a member of the Republican Party, former Governor of New Jersey, Christopher Christie. And it is very important that Mr. Christie began his visit to Ukraine with a visit to Bucha to see with his own eyes the threat to freedom and to everyone in the world posed by Russian aggression.
I thanked all Americans, each and every one, for their vital support.
We are confident that we will end this Russian war against freedom with our victory – the victory of the free world, the victory of democracy, the victory of freedom.
Chris Christie: sound on Ukraine.
I know I sound like a broken record, and I know Christie's time in New Jersey ended poorly, but I think he could be a very well organized candidate. And that matters in Iowa where the caucuses mean that second choices and organization matter.
He is 140 on Betfair to be next US President. That is an absolute steal.
Indeed,I have a few quid on, but America is a crazy place and will go for Trum vs Biden.
American politics has jumped the shark.
I'm on.
The tv in my hideous Romanian bar just played a clip of trump after his court case
He made a - for him - quite articulate speech to camera about the state of DC that he’d personally witnessed being driven to the court. The broken roads, the homeless, the degradation
I can see tens of millions of Americans nodding along eagerly. Because he’s right
He has a real chance. Because of this
Biden looks like he doesn’t give a shit about American cities. Or, it is easy to paint him and the democrats that way
Don't the cities vote for the Democrats? DC certainly does.
He obviously has a chance, unfortunately, but will Democrat leaning cities being shit really make the difference in the key states like Arizona and Georgia, where Biden won by a whisker last time? I'd have thought they already thought that, which is why they don't live in those places.
Trump might have an even better chance if he spent more time complaining about mismanagement of Democratic authorities and less time bemoaning his personal legal woes - I know it plays well with his base, but they'd vote for him anyway, and even the small number of GOPers put off by his behaviour would find it easier to back him.
The point is that the shit homeless drugs urban nightmare is now spreading from coastal Democrat cities - inland
I saw it with my own eyes in Lexington Kentucky
If US cities elected more Republican Mayors that would likely make more of a difference to them than who is next President as the Federal government doesn't have a great deal of influence over city government.
By definition to win Democrat leaning cities Republican candidates need to be moderate and pragmatic and often with business experience at a high level of management too.
Sure. Whatever. I’m just saying it’s clever politics by Trump
I reckon he could easily win against doddery old Biden. Trump looks up for the fight and about ten years younger and sharper
The 2024 US Presidential election may well be decided in the courtroom more than the ballot box
The odds of the American judicial system moving that fast are the same as the odds of Johnson telling the truth or of Amanda Spielman speaking sense on safeguarding.
The issue is not whether they lock the orange haired loon up, but whether the penny drops with enough Americans that he's a card-carrying fascist who poses a threat to their beloved Constitution for him to lose either the primaries or the real thing.
Current signs are less than brilliantly encouraging.
I’m less pessimistic. The indictment looks to be a slam dunk, and I can’t see Trump freeing himself from the noose that is gradually tightening around his neck - prevaricating is the only tactic his lawyers have left and I can’t see the court standing for too much more of it.
So Trump is going down for the rest of his natural, and the choice for the GOP is whether they return to their senses and back a candidate such as Hayley or Christie, or they continue to tie themselves to the doomed Trump.
I agree the case is a slam dunk. The only reason we've got a few people on here who doubt it is because there are mad Trumpers wherever you look.
I just can also see it taking three years to come to trial. Which would be a leetle too late.
He might cut a deal of course, but since that would be damaging to him it seems unlikely.
The big deal would be he gets pardoned and doesn't run for the presidency, but we're not anywhere near that yet.
I don't reckon it's a slam dunk. Look at OJ Simpson.
Financial scam allegations against Trump University and other state-level stuff may be a slam dunk.
A trial in Washington and he's toast, which is why his attorneys want it moved to West Virginia.
But - that presupposes a 'speedy' trial and also that he isn't President at the time.
Quite some supposition. Personally I bit the carpet when so many Republican senators didn't vote guilty at the second impeachment trial.
We have scotch'd the snake, not kill'd it: She'll close and be herself, whilst our poor malice Remains in danger of her former tooth. But let the frame of things disjoint, both the worlds suffer, Ere we will eat our meal in fear and sleep In the affliction of these terrible dreams That shake us nightly: better be with the dead, Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace, Than on the torture of the mind to lie In restless ecstasy.
Harris would lose almost all the Midwest, rustbelt and South and West, she would just hold California, Illinois and New York and a few coastal states
There is a problem for some vegans and vegetarians in the US: "Nearly 40% of girls and young women in the U.S. may have iron deficiency, which can lead to fatigue and increase the risk of many health problems, according to a new study.
The researchers also found that 6 in every 100 of the girls and young women had extremely low iron levels, known as iron-deficiency anemia, which impacts the blood’s ability to carry oxygen throughout the body. . . . The Cleveland Clinic says the most common causes of iron-deficiency anemia are those that involve blood loss, including heavy menstrual periods. The body gets iron from food, and not getting enough iron from food, such as due to eating a vegan or vegetarian diet, can also lead to deficiency." source: https://www.webmd.com/women/news/20230628/young-girls-women-high-risk-iron-deficiency-study-about
There are, as I am sure most of you know, solutions. But they are easier for those who regularly eat red meat. For example, I once lived with a young woman who, once a month, cooked liver and onions for us. (I never objected, though that is not one of my favorite dishes.)
But I suspect those solutions take more work for vegans and vegetarians, and perhas should include regular screenings.
Old-time GPs would prescribe a bottle of stout for anaemia, and you might often see an old woman sitting alone in a pub nursing half a pint of Guinness.
There must be plenty of ways of getting enough iron without eating red meat, since the animals that the meat comes from don't eat meat. Spinach and other leafy vegetables, for instance. I've not eaten meat for 35 years and I've never been anaemic. On the other hand, I have been to many American supermarkets and so I know that fresh vegetables aren't necessarily a prominent dietary feature for a lot of Americans.
I've been vegetarian for > 30 years (but < 35, so I bow to your seniority) and have suffered from anaemia (one symptom being feeling cold all the time), and a family member died from congenital anaemia, but fortunately as well as spinach and other dark green vegetables there are also iron tablets.
https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1687469428584144896 I had a meeting with a member of the Republican Party, former Governor of New Jersey, Christopher Christie. And it is very important that Mr. Christie began his visit to Ukraine with a visit to Bucha to see with his own eyes the threat to freedom and to everyone in the world posed by Russian aggression.
I thanked all Americans, each and every one, for their vital support.
We are confident that we will end this Russian war against freedom with our victory – the victory of the free world, the victory of democracy, the victory of freedom.
Chris Christie: sound on Ukraine.
I know I sound like a broken record, and I know Christie's time in New Jersey ended poorly, but I think he could be a very well organized candidate. And that matters in Iowa where the caucuses mean that second choices and organization matter.
He is 140 on Betfair to be next US President. That is an absolute steal.
Indeed,I have a few quid on, but America is a crazy place and will go for Trum vs Biden.
American politics has jumped the shark.
I'm on.
The tv in my hideous Romanian bar just played a clip of trump after his court case
He made a - for him - quite articulate speech to camera about the state of DC that he’d personally witnessed being driven to the court. The broken roads, the homeless, the degradation
I can see tens of millions of Americans nodding along eagerly. Because he’s right
He has a real chance. Because of this
Biden looks like he doesn’t give a shit about American cities. Or, it is easy to paint him and the democrats that way
Don't the cities vote for the Democrats? DC certainly does.
He obviously has a chance, unfortunately, but will Democrat leaning cities being shit really make the difference in the key states like Arizona and Georgia, where Biden won by a whisker last time? I'd have thought they already thought that, which is why they don't live in those places.
Trump might have an even better chance if he spent more time complaining about mismanagement of Democratic authorities and less time bemoaning his personal legal woes - I know it plays well with his base, but they'd vote for him anyway, and even the small number of GOPers put off by his behaviour would find it easier to back him.
The point is that the shit homeless drugs urban nightmare is now spreading from coastal Democrat cities - inland
I saw it with my own eyes in Lexington Kentucky
If US cities elected more Republican Mayors that would likely make more of a difference to them than who is next President as the Federal government doesn't have a great deal of influence over city government.
By definition to win Democrat leaning cities Republican candidates need to be moderate and pragmatic and often with business experience at a high level of management too.
Sure. Whatever. I’m just saying it’s clever politics by Trump
I reckon he could easily win against doddery old Biden. Trump looks up for the fight and about ten years younger and sharper
People also tend to misunderstand the salience of the Ukraine war for the election. It's not about geopolitics or being pro- or anti-Putin but about the contrast between what is seen as endless flows of cash for Ukraine and the state of the country at home.
Hold baggage is very last century. Only drawback to cabin bag only is I spend the whole time fretting I have nothing to cut my nails with. Even when I am away for 4 days and virtually amputate my fingertips before leaving.
You do know that nail clippers are allowed in carry on.
I have a bone to pick with you, a few weeks ago you posted something very funny from the New Yorker. I signed up to their daily email for New Yorker humour and the cartoons are about as humorous as having your humerus removed violently and shoved up your backside with no lube.
You are forgiven though as a Radiohead fan.
Twenty one years ago, almost to the day, I was cycling* back from a pub in Southwark to Aldgate East where I then lived.
Maybe I'd had one two many beers. Maybe it was the car speeding up Minories far too close to me. And maybe it was some combination of the two. But I came off my bicycle and ended up at the Royal London.
After being X-Rayed, the Nurse Practitioner looked me in the eye and said - word for word - "You fractured your humerus. And I bet you don't think that's very humorous."
* Yeah, cycled. Sue me.
A mad physio*, who I got recommended, told me about how he cracked a vertebra playing rugby.
The local NHS hospital sent him home with some pain killers, having missed the crack in the X-Rays.
After some pain and time, he went private.
He trend up at the NHS hospital and demanded to see the senior chap. As he told hit, the guy was asking if he wanted to sue. "No", he said, "I want you too get your chap in here and show him what at cracked vertebra looks like on an X-Ray, for next time"
*He reminded me strongly of Basil Brush. Drove a souped up version of a Caterham 7, with illegal tires, IIRC.
OK...
About seven years ago (29 October 2016), my wife asked me if I wanted some cheese and wine, and I said "nope, I'm going for a run".
So, I went for a run around Hampstead and Finchley Road, and just as I was on the final stretch on Redington, I tripped and fell.
Standing up and looking at my hand, it was clear that *something* was slightly wrong. Specifically, my little finger was bent back at an unusual angle:
So I called an Uber to take me to the Royal Free.
They de-dislocated the finger (by yanking), wrapped it up, gave me painkillers and sent me home, with instructions to the return to the hand clinic the following week.
Which I duly did. Upon meeting with a hand doctor the following week, they were surprised at the extent of the swelling and ordered an X-Ray.
When it came back I was told "Yeah, you should have been X-Rayed last week, because you've fractured a bunch of bones in your hand and we're going to need to operate first thing tomorrow to pin your hand back together."
Without wishing this sound like the Three Yorkshireman (or one Derbyshireman...)
A decade or so back, my dad put a nail from a nailgun through his hand whilst working on a roof. Whilst in his seventies. My brother took him to hospital, who X-rayed my dad's hand to look for bone damage. They noticed several fingers that had been broken in the past and healed. "Oh," my dad said. "I smashed my hand in the 1960s, and just taped the fingers together. I didn't realise anything was broken."
Whereas when I fractured my elbow in northern Scotland, it required full family medevac and two 12-hour drives...
Pah! Amateur hour. At school I fractured my pelvis playing football, was in lots of pain but just figured it’s a sports injury. Went to lessons after and by about 5.45 I was feeling very unpleasant. Walked to the school sanitorium, puking along the way for the fifteen minute hobble and was taken to hospital and it turned out I had fractured my pelvis.
Then at University was living on Prince of Wales Drive in Battersea and there was some crazy big slide made out of metal sheets for kids to go down in sacks across the road in Battersea Park. We used to go over the fence whilst pissed in the early hours of the morning and race down drunk but at night they put a chain across with tires along it to stop people like us doing what we did. Anyway, had a bit of a wipeout and next day, when I remembered I didn’t get hangovers but my head felt like it was about to fall off I went to the Chelsea and Westminster where the docs made me draw a cartoon strip of what happened and pissed themselves, long story, whilst they told me I had fractured my skull and sent me home with painkillers.
Hold baggage is very last century. Only drawback to cabin bag only is I spend the whole time fretting I have nothing to cut my nails with. Even when I am away for 4 days and virtually amputate my fingertips before leaving.
You do know that nail clippers are allowed in carry on.
I have a bone to pick with you, a few weeks ago you posted something very funny from the New Yorker. I signed up to their daily email for New Yorker humour and the cartoons are about as humorous as having your humerus removed violently and shoved up your backside with no lube.
You are forgiven though as a Radiohead fan.
Twenty one years ago, almost to the day, I was cycling* back from a pub in Southwark to Aldgate East where I then lived.
Maybe I'd had one two many beers. Maybe it was the car speeding up Minories far too close to me. And maybe it was some combination of the two. But I came off my bicycle and ended up at the Royal London.
After being X-Rayed, the Nurse Practitioner looked me in the eye and said - word for word - "You fractured your humerus. And I bet you don't think that's very humorous."
* Yeah, cycled. Sue me.
A mad physio*, who I got recommended, told me about how he cracked a vertebra playing rugby.
The local NHS hospital sent him home with some pain killers, having missed the crack in the X-Rays.
After some pain and time, he went private.
He trend up at the NHS hospital and demanded to see the senior chap. As he told hit, the guy was asking if he wanted to sue. "No", he said, "I want you too get your chap in here and show him what at cracked vertebra looks like on an X-Ray, for next time"
*He reminded me strongly of Basil Brush. Drove a souped up version of a Caterham 7, with illegal tires, IIRC.
OK...
About seven years ago (29 October 2016), my wife asked me if I wanted some cheese and wine, and I said "nope, I'm going for a run".
So, I went for a run around Hampstead and Finchley Road, and just as I was on the final stretch on Redington, I tripped and fell.
Standing up and looking at my hand, it was clear that *something* was slightly wrong. Specifically, my little finger was bent back at an unusual angle:
So I called an Uber to take me to the Royal Free.
They de-dislocated the finger (by yanking), wrapped it up, gave me painkillers and sent me home, with instructions to the return to the hand clinic the following week.
Which I duly did. Upon meeting with a hand doctor the following week, they were surprised at the extent of the swelling and ordered an X-Ray.
When it came back I was told "Yeah, you should have been X-Rayed last week, because you've fractured a bunch of bones in your hand and we're going to need to operate first thing tomorrow to pin your hand back together."
Without wishing this sound like the Three Yorkshireman (or one Derbyshireman...)
A decade or so back, my dad put a nail from a nailgun through his hand whilst working on a roof. Whilst in his seventies. My brother took him to hospital, who X-rayed my dad's hand to look for bone damage. They noticed several fingers that had been broken in the past and healed. "Oh," my dad said. "I smashed my hand in the 1960s, and just taped the fingers together. I didn't realise anything was broken."
Whereas when I fractured my elbow in northern Scotland, it required full family medevac and two 12-hour drives...
Pah! Amateur hour. At school I fractured my pelvis playing football, was in lots of pain but just figured it’s a sports injury. Went to lessons after and by about 5.45 I was feeling very unpleasant. Walked to the school sanitorium, puking along the way for the fifteen minute hobble and was taken to hospital and it turned out I had fractured my pelvis.
Then at University was living on Prince of Wales Drive in Battersea and there was some crazy big slide made out of metal sheets for kids to go down in sacks across the road in Battersea Park. We used to go over the fence whilst pissed in the early hours of the morning and race down drunk but at night they put a chain across with tires along it to stop people like us doing what we did. Anyway, had a bit of a wipeout and next day, when I remembered I didn’t get hangovers but my head felt like it was about to fall off I went to the Chelsea and Westminster where the docs made me draw a cartoon strip of what happened and pissed themselves, long story, whilst they told me I had fractured my skull and sent me home with painkillers.
Off thread - cos of betting,I'm vaguely following the hundred. I'm mildly amused that in order to be scrupulously even handed between the male and female teams, the team based in Cardiff is described as 'Welsh Fire men". Which is actually a less ridiculous way of describing a group of individuals, even if no more accurate.
Hold baggage is very last century. Only drawback to cabin bag only is I spend the whole time fretting I have nothing to cut my nails with. Even when I am away for 4 days and virtually amputate my fingertips before leaving.
You do know that nail clippers are allowed in carry on.
I have a bone to pick with you, a few weeks ago you posted something very funny from the New Yorker. I signed up to their daily email for New Yorker humour and the cartoons are about as humorous as having your humerus removed violently and shoved up your backside with no lube.
You are forgiven though as a Radiohead fan.
Twenty one years ago, almost to the day, I was cycling* back from a pub in Southwark to Aldgate East where I then lived.
Maybe I'd had one two many beers. Maybe it was the car speeding up Minories far too close to me. And maybe it was some combination of the two. But I came off my bicycle and ended up at the Royal London.
After being X-Rayed, the Nurse Practitioner looked me in the eye and said - word for word - "You fractured your humerus. And I bet you don't think that's very humorous."
* Yeah, cycled. Sue me.
A mad physio*, who I got recommended, told me about how he cracked a vertebra playing rugby.
The local NHS hospital sent him home with some pain killers, having missed the crack in the X-Rays.
After some pain and time, he went private.
He trend up at the NHS hospital and demanded to see the senior chap. As he told hit, the guy was asking if he wanted to sue. "No", he said, "I want you too get your chap in here and show him what at cracked vertebra looks like on an X-Ray, for next time"
*He reminded me strongly of Basil Brush. Drove a souped up version of a Caterham 7, with illegal tires, IIRC.
OK...
About seven years ago (29 October 2016), my wife asked me if I wanted some cheese and wine, and I said "nope, I'm going for a run".
So, I went for a run around Hampstead and Finchley Road, and just as I was on the final stretch on Redington, I tripped and fell.
Standing up and looking at my hand, it was clear that *something* was slightly wrong. Specifically, my little finger was bent back at an unusual angle:
So I called an Uber to take me to the Royal Free.
They de-dislocated the finger (by yanking), wrapped it up, gave me painkillers and sent me home, with instructions to the return to the hand clinic the following week.
Which I duly did. Upon meeting with a hand doctor the following week, they were surprised at the extent of the swelling and ordered an X-Ray.
When it came back I was told "Yeah, you should have been X-Rayed last week, because you've fractured a bunch of bones in your hand and we're going to need to operate first thing tomorrow to pin your hand back together."
Without wishing this sound like the Three Yorkshireman (or one Derbyshireman...)
A decade or so back, my dad put a nail from a nailgun through his hand whilst working on a roof. Whilst in his seventies. My brother took him to hospital, who X-rayed my dad's hand to look for bone damage. They noticed several fingers that had been broken in the past and healed. "Oh," my dad said. "I smashed my hand in the 1960s, and just taped the fingers together. I didn't realise anything was broken."
Whereas when I fractured my elbow in northern Scotland, it required full family medevac and two 12-hour drives...
Pah! Amateur hour. At school I fractured my pelvis playing football, was in lots of pain but just figured it’s a sports injury. Went to lessons after and by about 5.45 I was feeling very unpleasant. Walked to the school sanitorium, puking along the way for the fifteen minute hobble and was taken to hospital and it turned out I had fractured my pelvis.
Then at University was living on Prince of Wales Drive in Battersea and there was some crazy big slide made out of metal sheets for kids to go down in sacks across the road in Battersea Park. We used to go over the fence whilst pissed in the early hours of the morning and race down drunk but at night they put a chain across with tires along it to stop people like us doing what we did. Anyway, had a bit of a wipeout and next day, when I remembered I didn’t get hangovers but my head felt like it was about to fall off I went to the Chelsea and Westminster where the docs made me draw a cartoon strip of what happened and pissed themselves, long story, whilst they told me I had fractured my skull and sent me home with painkillers.
Hold baggage is very last century. Only drawback to cabin bag only is I spend the whole time fretting I have nothing to cut my nails with. Even when I am away for 4 days and virtually amputate my fingertips before leaving.
You do know that nail clippers are allowed in carry on.
I have a bone to pick with you, a few weeks ago you posted something very funny from the New Yorker. I signed up to their daily email for New Yorker humour and the cartoons are about as humorous as having your humerus removed violently and shoved up your backside with no lube.
You are forgiven though as a Radiohead fan.
Twenty one years ago, almost to the day, I was cycling* back from a pub in Southwark to Aldgate East where I then lived.
Maybe I'd had one two many beers. Maybe it was the car speeding up Minories far too close to me. And maybe it was some combination of the two. But I came off my bicycle and ended up at the Royal London.
After being X-Rayed, the Nurse Practitioner looked me in the eye and said - word for word - "You fractured your humerus. And I bet you don't think that's very humorous."
* Yeah, cycled. Sue me.
A mad physio*, who I got recommended, told me about how he cracked a vertebra playing rugby.
The local NHS hospital sent him home with some pain killers, having missed the crack in the X-Rays.
After some pain and time, he went private.
He trend up at the NHS hospital and demanded to see the senior chap. As he told hit, the guy was asking if he wanted to sue. "No", he said, "I want you too get your chap in here and show him what at cracked vertebra looks like on an X-Ray, for next time"
*He reminded me strongly of Basil Brush. Drove a souped up version of a Caterham 7, with illegal tires, IIRC.
OK...
About seven years ago (29 October 2016), my wife asked me if I wanted some cheese and wine, and I said "nope, I'm going for a run".
So, I went for a run around Hampstead and Finchley Road, and just as I was on the final stretch on Redington, I tripped and fell.
Standing up and looking at my hand, it was clear that *something* was slightly wrong. Specifically, my little finger was bent back at an unusual angle:
So I called an Uber to take me to the Royal Free.
They de-dislocated the finger (by yanking), wrapped it up, gave me painkillers and sent me home, with instructions to the return to the hand clinic the following week.
Which I duly did. Upon meeting with a hand doctor the following week, they were surprised at the extent of the swelling and ordered an X-Ray.
When it came back I was told "Yeah, you should have been X-Rayed last week, because you've fractured a bunch of bones in your hand and we're going to need to operate first thing tomorrow to pin your hand back together."
Without wishing this sound like the Three Yorkshireman (or one Derbyshireman...)
A decade or so back, my dad put a nail from a nailgun through his hand whilst working on a roof. Whilst in his seventies. My brother took him to hospital, who X-rayed my dad's hand to look for bone damage. They noticed several fingers that had been broken in the past and healed. "Oh," my dad said. "I smashed my hand in the 1960s, and just taped the fingers together. I didn't realise anything was broken."
Whereas when I fractured my elbow in northern Scotland, it required full family medevac and two 12-hour drives...
Pah! Amateur hour. At school I fractured my pelvis playing football, was in lots of pain but just figured it’s a sports injury. Went to lessons after and by about 5.45 I was feeling very unpleasant. Walked to the school sanitorium, puking along the way for the fifteen minute hobble and was taken to hospital and it turned out I had fractured my pelvis.
Then at University was living on Prince of Wales Drive in Battersea and there was some crazy big slide made out of metal sheets for kids to go down in sacks across the road in Battersea Park. We used to go over the fence whilst pissed in the early hours of the morning and race down drunk but at night they put a chain across with tires along it to stop people like us doing what we did. Anyway, had a bit of a wipeout and next day, when I remembered I didn’t get hangovers but my head felt like it was about to fall off I went to the Chelsea and Westminster where the docs made me draw a cartoon strip of what happened and pissed themselves, long story, whilst they told me I had fractured my skull and sent me home with painkillers.
Hold baggage is very last century. Only drawback to cabin bag only is I spend the whole time fretting I have nothing to cut my nails with. Even when I am away for 4 days and virtually amputate my fingertips before leaving.
You do know that nail clippers are allowed in carry on.
I have a bone to pick with you, a few weeks ago you posted something very funny from the New Yorker. I signed up to their daily email for New Yorker humour and the cartoons are about as humorous as having your humerus removed violently and shoved up your backside with no lube.
You are forgiven though as a Radiohead fan.
Twenty one years ago, almost to the day, I was cycling* back from a pub in Southwark to Aldgate East where I then lived.
Maybe I'd had one two many beers. Maybe it was the car speeding up Minories far too close to me. And maybe it was some combination of the two. But I came off my bicycle and ended up at the Royal London.
After being X-Rayed, the Nurse Practitioner looked me in the eye and said - word for word - "You fractured your humerus. And I bet you don't think that's very humorous."
* Yeah, cycled. Sue me.
A mad physio*, who I got recommended, told me about how he cracked a vertebra playing rugby.
The local NHS hospital sent him home with some pain killers, having missed the crack in the X-Rays.
After some pain and time, he went private.
He trend up at the NHS hospital and demanded to see the senior chap. As he told hit, the guy was asking if he wanted to sue. "No", he said, "I want you too get your chap in here and show him what at cracked vertebra looks like on an X-Ray, for next time"
*He reminded me strongly of Basil Brush. Drove a souped up version of a Caterham 7, with illegal tires, IIRC.
OK...
About seven years ago (29 October 2016), my wife asked me if I wanted some cheese and wine, and I said "nope, I'm going for a run".
So, I went for a run around Hampstead and Finchley Road, and just as I was on the final stretch on Redington, I tripped and fell.
Standing up and looking at my hand, it was clear that *something* was slightly wrong. Specifically, my little finger was bent back at an unusual angle:
So I called an Uber to take me to the Royal Free.
They de-dislocated the finger (by yanking), wrapped it up, gave me painkillers and sent me home, with instructions to the return to the hand clinic the following week.
Which I duly did. Upon meeting with a hand doctor the following week, they were surprised at the extent of the swelling and ordered an X-Ray.
When it came back I was told "Yeah, you should have been X-Rayed last week, because you've fractured a bunch of bones in your hand and we're going to need to operate first thing tomorrow to pin your hand back together."
Without wishing this sound like the Three Yorkshireman (or one Derbyshireman...)
A decade or so back, my dad put a nail from a nailgun through his hand whilst working on a roof. Whilst in his seventies. My brother took him to hospital, who X-rayed my dad's hand to look for bone damage. They noticed several fingers that had been broken in the past and healed. "Oh," my dad said. "I smashed my hand in the 1960s, and just taped the fingers together. I didn't realise anything was broken."
Whereas when I fractured my elbow in northern Scotland, it required full family medevac and two 12-hour drives...
Pah! Amateur hour. At school I fractured my pelvis playing football, was in lots of pain but just figured it’s a sports injury. Went to lessons after and by about 5.45 I was feeling very unpleasant. Walked to the school sanitorium, puking along the way for the fifteen minute hobble and was taken to hospital and it turned out I had fractured my pelvis.
Then at University was living on Prince of Wales Drive in Battersea and there was some crazy big slide made out of metal sheets for kids to go down in sacks across the road in Battersea Park. We used to go over the fence whilst pissed in the early hours of the morning and race down drunk but at night they put a chain across with tires along it to stop people like us doing what we did. Anyway, had a bit of a wipeout and next day, when I remembered I didn’t get hangovers but my head felt like it was about to fall off I went to the Chelsea and Westminster where the docs made me draw a cartoon strip of what happened and pissed themselves, long story, whilst they told me I had fractured my skull and sent me home with painkillers.
Soccer or win co fo?
It was obv Win:Co:Fo. OMG are you one too?
We are everywhere….
I'm just waiting for the day when Rishi says "We" this, that, or the other, when I will write a letter to a "quality" newspaper and say you don't speak for me, matey.
Hold baggage is very last century. Only drawback to cabin bag only is I spend the whole time fretting I have nothing to cut my nails with. Even when I am away for 4 days and virtually amputate my fingertips before leaving.
You do know that nail clippers are allowed in carry on.
I have a bone to pick with you, a few weeks ago you posted something very funny from the New Yorker. I signed up to their daily email for New Yorker humour and the cartoons are about as humorous as having your humerus removed violently and shoved up your backside with no lube.
You are forgiven though as a Radiohead fan.
Twenty one years ago, almost to the day, I was cycling* back from a pub in Southwark to Aldgate East where I then lived.
Maybe I'd had one two many beers. Maybe it was the car speeding up Minories far too close to me. And maybe it was some combination of the two. But I came off my bicycle and ended up at the Royal London.
After being X-Rayed, the Nurse Practitioner looked me in the eye and said - word for word - "You fractured your humerus. And I bet you don't think that's very humorous."
* Yeah, cycled. Sue me.
A mad physio*, who I got recommended, told me about how he cracked a vertebra playing rugby.
The local NHS hospital sent him home with some pain killers, having missed the crack in the X-Rays.
After some pain and time, he went private.
He trend up at the NHS hospital and demanded to see the senior chap. As he told hit, the guy was asking if he wanted to sue. "No", he said, "I want you too get your chap in here and show him what at cracked vertebra looks like on an X-Ray, for next time"
*He reminded me strongly of Basil Brush. Drove a souped up version of a Caterham 7, with illegal tires, IIRC.
OK...
About seven years ago (29 October 2016), my wife asked me if I wanted some cheese and wine, and I said "nope, I'm going for a run".
So, I went for a run around Hampstead and Finchley Road, and just as I was on the final stretch on Redington, I tripped and fell.
Standing up and looking at my hand, it was clear that *something* was slightly wrong. Specifically, my little finger was bent back at an unusual angle:
So I called an Uber to take me to the Royal Free.
They de-dislocated the finger (by yanking), wrapped it up, gave me painkillers and sent me home, with instructions to the return to the hand clinic the following week.
Which I duly did. Upon meeting with a hand doctor the following week, they were surprised at the extent of the swelling and ordered an X-Ray.
When it came back I was told "Yeah, you should have been X-Rayed last week, because you've fractured a bunch of bones in your hand and we're going to need to operate first thing tomorrow to pin your hand back together."
Without wishing this sound like the Three Yorkshireman (or one Derbyshireman...)
A decade or so back, my dad put a nail from a nailgun through his hand whilst working on a roof. Whilst in his seventies. My brother took him to hospital, who X-rayed my dad's hand to look for bone damage. They noticed several fingers that had been broken in the past and healed. "Oh," my dad said. "I smashed my hand in the 1960s, and just taped the fingers together. I didn't realise anything was broken."
Whereas when I fractured my elbow in northern Scotland, it required full family medevac and two 12-hour drives...
Pah! Amateur hour. At school I fractured my pelvis playing football, was in lots of pain but just figured it’s a sports injury. Went to lessons after and by about 5.45 I was feeling very unpleasant. Walked to the school sanitorium, puking along the way for the fifteen minute hobble and was taken to hospital and it turned out I had fractured my pelvis.
Then at University was living on Prince of Wales Drive in Battersea and there was some crazy big slide made out of metal sheets for kids to go down in sacks across the road in Battersea Park. We used to go over the fence whilst pissed in the early hours of the morning and race down drunk but at night they put a chain across with tires along it to stop people like us doing what we did. Anyway, had a bit of a wipeout and next day, when I remembered I didn’t get hangovers but my head felt like it was about to fall off I went to the Chelsea and Westminster where the docs made me draw a cartoon strip of what happened and pissed themselves, long story, whilst they told me I had fractured my skull and sent me home with painkillers.
Soccer or win co fo?
It was obv Win:Co:Fo. OMG are you one too?
No comment. But broken pelvis playing football gives a misleading impression to those not on top of their notions
Suceava Romania (which isn’t in a war) looks much uglier, scruffier and more desperate than Chernivtsi, Ukraine (which IS)
I thought Romania was a beautiful country scarred by ugly towns and uglier cities. Bucharesti is horrible, Cluj Napoca has pockets of pretty inside otherwise horrible, Alba Iulia has that amazing citadel but the rest is similar. I think its the endless brutalist architecture and festoons of wires.
Which is a pity as I found Romanian people to be warm, welcoming and funny. And even they thought their towns were awful.
Yeah, this is one fucking toilet of a town. West Ukraine is exquisite in comparison. Ceaucescu really did a job on his own country
Talking of toilets this bar I am in (3 hour wait for the train to Bacau) has a squatter toilet. Surely one of the last in Europe? Has anyone else seen one recently?
Still in quite a few of the small rest stops (Aire de ...) on the French autoroutes.
Big fan of squat toilets, much more physiological a position.
Tokyo airport has lovely new shiny technologically-advanced toilets, with a choice of sit or squat options.
And people say Japan is in decline. Nonsense, I say - what is the hallmark of civilization if not plumbing arrangements?
I once wrote a whole article on this. Because it is true
We know Rome was advanced because they had decent toilets and central heating and good sanitation in general
You CAN measure a civilisation by its bogs
And by the measure the west is falling behind. We still use paper - or at best wet-wipes (which clog sewers) - it is ridiculously unhygienic
East Asians have had integral bidets/washlets/bum guns for years. They find out standard loos as yuk just as we used to abhor squatters
I’ve noticed that luxe hotels in the west are now installing bum guns as standard, to cater for this higher international norm
Yes. I have one in my flat. They cost pennies to install. Mine has a nice warm water option. Very soothing when you need it
I am genuinely surprised these aren’t universal. Once you’ve got one you never want to go back
I can only conclude most westerners don’t go to east Asia much (or other places where they are increasingly common: like 5 star hotels or the UAE etc)
Hmm.
Hmmm what?? They clean you properly
Ideally you’d get one of those £10k Japanese khazis which do it all with electronics and have an integral dryer. But that’s quite a lot of cash
For £300 you can have a decent warm-or-cold bum gun
In fact this is such an obvious marketing opportunity I might start smuggling them into the UK
“What do you do?”
“Gun running.”
“What??”
“Yep. Bum gun running. Sploosh!”
Those attachments are not legal in the UK. In theory, if the mains pressure were to get too low, they could allow fecal matter to get back into the mains and, thereby, into other households' drinking water.
No shower-type object attached to the mains (including to toilet cisterns) is allowed to reach a toilet bowl. Which is also why very small hotel rooms have inadequate length shower hoses - they mustn't reach the toilet bowl.
Edit: I see that site, sort of, claims their model is legal. In weasel words.
You’re talking nonsense. These things are freely available in the UK. My builder/plumber did it without demur. He was used to the request
A simple non-return valve is apparently not enough:
"Some installers believe they can comply with the Water Fittings Regulations by placing a double check valve in the hose feed to prevent water travelling in the reverse direction. However, the Water Fittings Regulations state that a double check valve only provides protection against backflow to fluid category 3, so must not be used to provide backflow protection from ablutionary showers."
Off thread - cos of betting,I'm vaguely following the hundred. I'm mildly amused that in order to be scrupulously even handed between the male and female teams, the team based in Cardiff is described as 'Welsh Fire men". Which is actually a less ridiculous way of describing a group of individuals, even if no more accurate.
It's been a great success for English Women's cricket. A complete disaster otherwise.
It's too late now to spark the T20 flame in the UK. I think we're well behind the US (astonishingly) in this. Perhaps though the best cricket that's ever been played just recently being here and the Ashes just might salvage something.
There is a problem for some vegans and vegetarians in the US: "Nearly 40% of girls and young women in the U.S. may have iron deficiency, which can lead to fatigue and increase the risk of many health problems, according to a new study.
The researchers also found that 6 in every 100 of the girls and young women had extremely low iron levels, known as iron-deficiency anemia, which impacts the blood’s ability to carry oxygen throughout the body. . . . The Cleveland Clinic says the most common causes of iron-deficiency anemia are those that involve blood loss, including heavy menstrual periods. The body gets iron from food, and not getting enough iron from food, such as due to eating a vegan or vegetarian diet, can also lead to deficiency." source: https://www.webmd.com/women/news/20230628/young-girls-women-high-risk-iron-deficiency-study-about
There are, as I am sure most of you know, solutions. But they are easier for those who regularly eat red meat. For example, I once lived with a young woman who, once a month, cooked liver and onions for us. (I never objected, though that is not one of my favorite dishes.)
But I suspect those solutions take more work for vegans and vegetarians, and perhas should include regular screenings.
Old-time GPs would prescribe a bottle of stout for anaemia, and you might often see an old woman sitting alone in a pub nursing half a pint of Guinness.
There must be plenty of ways of getting enough iron without eating red meat, since the animals that the meat comes from don't eat meat. Spinach and other leafy vegetables, for instance. I've not eaten meat for 35 years and I've never been anaemic. On the other hand, I have been to many American supermarkets and so I know that fresh vegetables aren't necessarily a prominent dietary feature for a lot of Americans.
I was once in Waitrose in a posh part of London where a group of middle-aged American tourists were fascinated to see redcurrants, which despite redcurrant jelly being a necessary component of Thanksgiving dinners, they'd never seen raw.
Hold baggage is very last century. Only drawback to cabin bag only is I spend the whole time fretting I have nothing to cut my nails with. Even when I am away for 4 days and virtually amputate my fingertips before leaving.
You do know that nail clippers are allowed in carry on.
I have a bone to pick with you, a few weeks ago you posted something very funny from the New Yorker. I signed up to their daily email for New Yorker humour and the cartoons are about as humorous as having your humerus removed violently and shoved up your backside with no lube.
You are forgiven though as a Radiohead fan.
Twenty one years ago, almost to the day, I was cycling* back from a pub in Southwark to Aldgate East where I then lived.
Maybe I'd had one two many beers. Maybe it was the car speeding up Minories far too close to me. And maybe it was some combination of the two. But I came off my bicycle and ended up at the Royal London.
After being X-Rayed, the Nurse Practitioner looked me in the eye and said - word for word - "You fractured your humerus. And I bet you don't think that's very humorous."
* Yeah, cycled. Sue me.
A mad physio*, who I got recommended, told me about how he cracked a vertebra playing rugby.
The local NHS hospital sent him home with some pain killers, having missed the crack in the X-Rays.
After some pain and time, he went private.
He trend up at the NHS hospital and demanded to see the senior chap. As he told hit, the guy was asking if he wanted to sue. "No", he said, "I want you too get your chap in here and show him what at cracked vertebra looks like on an X-Ray, for next time"
*He reminded me strongly of Basil Brush. Drove a souped up version of a Caterham 7, with illegal tires, IIRC.
OK...
About seven years ago (29 October 2016), my wife asked me if I wanted some cheese and wine, and I said "nope, I'm going for a run".
So, I went for a run around Hampstead and Finchley Road, and just as I was on the final stretch on Redington, I tripped and fell.
Standing up and looking at my hand, it was clear that *something* was slightly wrong. Specifically, my little finger was bent back at an unusual angle:
So I called an Uber to take me to the Royal Free.
They de-dislocated the finger (by yanking), wrapped it up, gave me painkillers and sent me home, with instructions to the return to the hand clinic the following week.
Which I duly did. Upon meeting with a hand doctor the following week, they were surprised at the extent of the swelling and ordered an X-Ray.
When it came back I was told "Yeah, you should have been X-Rayed last week, because you've fractured a bunch of bones in your hand and we're going to need to operate first thing tomorrow to pin your hand back together."
Without wishing this sound like the Three Yorkshireman (or one Derbyshireman...)
A decade or so back, my dad put a nail from a nailgun through his hand whilst working on a roof. Whilst in his seventies. My brother took him to hospital, who X-rayed my dad's hand to look for bone damage. They noticed several fingers that had been broken in the past and healed. "Oh," my dad said. "I smashed my hand in the 1960s, and just taped the fingers together. I didn't realise anything was broken."
Whereas when I fractured my elbow in northern Scotland, it required full family medevac and two 12-hour drives...
Pah! Amateur hour. At school I fractured my pelvis playing football, was in lots of pain but just figured it’s a sports injury. Went to lessons after and by about 5.45 I was feeling very unpleasant. Walked to the school sanitorium, puking along the way for the fifteen minute hobble and was taken to hospital and it turned out I had fractured my pelvis.
Then at University was living on Prince of Wales Drive in Battersea and there was some crazy big slide made out of metal sheets for kids to go down in sacks across the road in Battersea Park. We used to go over the fence whilst pissed in the early hours of the morning and race down drunk but at night they put a chain across with tires along it to stop people like us doing what we did. Anyway, had a bit of a wipeout and next day, when I remembered I didn’t get hangovers but my head felt like it was about to fall off I went to the Chelsea and Westminster where the docs made me draw a cartoon strip of what happened and pissed themselves, long story, whilst they told me I had fractured my skull and sent me home with painkillers.
Soccer or win co fo?
It was obv Win:Co:Fo. OMG are you one too?
No comment. But broken pelvis playing football gives a misleading impression to those not on top of their notions
As has been the case since time immemorial immemorable,
How badly unionised are the baggage workers at Heathrow?
This might be the worst reclaim experience I've ever had. 45 minute wait for just a dribble of bags coming out, and then it stops again. Everyone still waiting.
Being told 40 minutes to 1 hour is "normal" this time of year. I don't think I've ever had it this bad in over 20 years.
Interesting that you chose "badly unionised" over "badly managed".
Do they have enough staff on shift, and are they properly trained, with enough service vehicles?
There are very few staff and they are lazy and slovenly and disinterested in customers.
Unions.
Very few staff sounds a management rather than Union issue. It's them that manage the rota...
A little while ago, I was passing the pubs near Hammersmith bridge, during the early morning.
The landlord of one pub was swearing on his phone, because he couldn't get staff to show up. The next day. Yes, his plan was to phone people up to ask them to do a shit on about 24 hours notice.
The next door pub, I happen to know, the landlord does a spreadsheet for months in advance. And does free laundry of the pub branded polo shirts - and other stuff like that.
Guess who has staff?
Slightly disconcerting typo given the parallel conversation on dodgy khazis ...
Bet the shifts at that pub *are* shit.
I find it very hard to understand the mind state - expecting people to sit by the phone, lives on hold, just waiting for work.
Yes - phone calls cost money. Best to make 'em queue outside the pub and say he'll offer work if he's got some.
That's traditionally how it was done on the docks.
The "reserve army of labour".
The Polish Centre in Hammersmith used to have a queue of people just on the corner, each morning. The long cab pickups and vans would pull up, there would be a brief negotiation, and the chap(s) at the head of the queue would get in.
EDIT: Around the time of BREXIT, some graffiti got scrawled on a wall. Everyone was going "What caused this evil, racist attack?". The graffiti was scrawled on the wall where the queue would form.
This is precisely why a union like the IWW is needed - to welcome immigrants with "Good to see you, brother, here's your union card."
I've seen the same kind of queuing for the chance of casual labour in Glasgow too, without an ethnic angle. It's all about supply and demand. Dunno why it surprises some people.
Used to have an ethnic angle in Glasgow ...
Yes OK. I saw it in Springburn. Just saw groups of waiting men, out of whom some would be selected for work that day. There may well have been a sectarian angle. This was in the early 1990s.
Can confirm it's a thing in modern Glasgow. Big groups of central/eastern European blokes stood around in the early morning and depending on the 'foreman' specific groups are picked to work that day.
Not entirely sure if it's a ethnic thing or just a more general 'treat them mean, keep them keen' thing.
Suceava Romania (which isn’t in a war) looks much uglier, scruffier and more desperate than Chernivtsi, Ukraine (which IS)
I thought Romania was a beautiful country scarred by ugly towns and uglier cities. Bucharesti is horrible, Cluj Napoca has pockets of pretty inside otherwise horrible, Alba Iulia has that amazing citadel but the rest is similar. I think its the endless brutalist architecture and festoons of wires.
Which is a pity as I found Romanian people to be warm, welcoming and funny. And even they thought their towns were awful.
Yeah, this is one fucking toilet of a town. West Ukraine is exquisite in comparison. Ceaucescu really did a job on his own country
Talking of toilets this bar I am in (3 hour wait for the train to Bacau) has a squatter toilet. Surely one of the last in Europe? Has anyone else seen one recently?
Still in quite a few of the small rest stops (Aire de ...) on the French autoroutes.
Big fan of squat toilets, much more physiological a position.
Tokyo airport has lovely new shiny technologically-advanced toilets, with a choice of sit or squat options.
And people say Japan is in decline. Nonsense, I say - what is the hallmark of civilization if not plumbing arrangements?
I once wrote a whole article on this. Because it is true
We know Rome was advanced because they had decent toilets and central heating and good sanitation in general
You CAN measure a civilisation by its bogs
And by the measure the west is falling behind. We still use paper - or at best wet-wipes (which clog sewers) - it is ridiculously unhygienic
East Asians have had integral bidets/washlets/bum guns for years. They find out standard loos as yuk just as we used to abhor squatters
I’ve noticed that luxe hotels in the west are now installing bum guns as standard, to cater for this higher international norm
Yes. I have one in my flat. They cost pennies to install. Mine has a nice warm water option. Very soothing when you need it
I am genuinely surprised these aren’t universal. Once you’ve got one you never want to go back
I can only conclude most westerners don’t go to east Asia much (or other places where they are increasingly common: like 5 star hotels or the UAE etc)
Hmm.
Hmmm what?? They clean you properly
Ideally you’d get one of those £10k Japanese khazis which do it all with electronics and have an integral dryer. But that’s quite a lot of cash
For £300 you can have a decent warm-or-cold bum gun
In fact this is such an obvious marketing opportunity I might start smuggling them into the UK
“What do you do?”
“Gun running.”
“What??”
“Yep. Bum gun running. Sploosh!”
Those attachments are not legal in the UK. In theory, if the mains pressure were to get too low, they could allow fecal matter to get back into the mains and, thereby, into other households' drinking water.
No shower-type object attached to the mains (including to toilet cisterns) is allowed to reach a toilet bowl. Which is also why very small hotel rooms have inadequate length shower hoses - they mustn't reach the toilet bowl.
Edit: I see that site, sort of, claims their model is legal. In weasel words.
You’re talking nonsense. These things are freely available in the UK. My builder/plumber did it without demur. He was used to the request
A simple non-return valve is apparently not enough:
"Some installers believe they can comply with the Water Fittings Regulations by placing a double check valve in the hose feed to prevent water travelling in the reverse direction. However, the Water Fittings Regulations state that a double check valve only provides protection against backflow to fluid category 3, so must not be used to provide backflow protection from ablutionary showers."
However, this in turn was repealed by the EU in 2011. So, it's not clear to what extent it is EU derived.
The EU directive refers to "The construction works must be designed and built in such a way that they will, throughout their life cycle, not be a threat to the hygiene or health and safety of workers, occupants or neighbours, nor have an exceedingly high impact, over their entire life cycle, on the environmental quality or on the climate during their construction, use and demolition, in particular as a result of any of the following:
(a)the giving-off of toxic gas; (b)the emissions of dangerous substances, volatile organic compounds (VOC), greenhouse gases or dangerous particles into indoor or outdoor air; (c)the emission of dangerous radiation; (d)the release of dangerous substances into ground water, marine waters, surface waters or soil; (e)the release of dangerous substances into drinking water or substances which have an otherwise negative impact on drinking water; (f)faulty discharge of waste water, emission of flue gases or faulty disposal of solid or liquid waste; (g)dampness in parts of the construction works or on surfaces within the construction works."
So, the answer probably lies in how we implemented the EU regulation.
Hold baggage is very last century. Only drawback to cabin bag only is I spend the whole time fretting I have nothing to cut my nails with. Even when I am away for 4 days and virtually amputate my fingertips before leaving.
You do know that nail clippers are allowed in carry on.
I have a bone to pick with you, a few weeks ago you posted something very funny from the New Yorker. I signed up to their daily email for New Yorker humour and the cartoons are about as humorous as having your humerus removed violently and shoved up your backside with no lube.
You are forgiven though as a Radiohead fan.
Twenty one years ago, almost to the day, I was cycling* back from a pub in Southwark to Aldgate East where I then lived.
Maybe I'd had one two many beers. Maybe it was the car speeding up Minories far too close to me. And maybe it was some combination of the two. But I came off my bicycle and ended up at the Royal London.
After being X-Rayed, the Nurse Practitioner looked me in the eye and said - word for word - "You fractured your humerus. And I bet you don't think that's very humorous."
* Yeah, cycled. Sue me.
A mad physio*, who I got recommended, told me about how he cracked a vertebra playing rugby.
The local NHS hospital sent him home with some pain killers, having missed the crack in the X-Rays.
After some pain and time, he went private.
He trend up at the NHS hospital and demanded to see the senior chap. As he told hit, the guy was asking if he wanted to sue. "No", he said, "I want you too get your chap in here and show him what at cracked vertebra looks like on an X-Ray, for next time"
*He reminded me strongly of Basil Brush. Drove a souped up version of a Caterham 7, with illegal tires, IIRC.
OK...
About seven years ago (29 October 2016), my wife asked me if I wanted some cheese and wine, and I said "nope, I'm going for a run".
So, I went for a run around Hampstead and Finchley Road, and just as I was on the final stretch on Redington, I tripped and fell.
Standing up and looking at my hand, it was clear that *something* was slightly wrong. Specifically, my little finger was bent back at an unusual angle:
So I called an Uber to take me to the Royal Free.
They de-dislocated the finger (by yanking), wrapped it up, gave me painkillers and sent me home, with instructions to the return to the hand clinic the following week.
Which I duly did. Upon meeting with a hand doctor the following week, they were surprised at the extent of the swelling and ordered an X-Ray.
When it came back I was told "Yeah, you should have been X-Rayed last week, because you've fractured a bunch of bones in your hand and we're going to need to operate first thing tomorrow to pin your hand back together."
Without wishing this sound like the Three Yorkshireman (or one Derbyshireman...)
A decade or so back, my dad put a nail from a nailgun through his hand whilst working on a roof. Whilst in his seventies. My brother took him to hospital, who X-rayed my dad's hand to look for bone damage. They noticed several fingers that had been broken in the past and healed. "Oh," my dad said. "I smashed my hand in the 1960s, and just taped the fingers together. I didn't realise anything was broken."
Whereas when I fractured my elbow in northern Scotland, it required full family medevac and two 12-hour drives...
Pah! Amateur hour. At school I fractured my pelvis playing football, was in lots of pain but just figured it’s a sports injury. Went to lessons after and by about 5.45 I was feeling very unpleasant. Walked to the school sanitorium, puking along the way for the fifteen minute hobble and was taken to hospital and it turned out I had fractured my pelvis.
Then at University was living on Prince of Wales Drive in Battersea and there was some crazy big slide made out of metal sheets for kids to go down in sacks across the road in Battersea Park. We used to go over the fence whilst pissed in the early hours of the morning and race down drunk but at night they put a chain across with tires along it to stop people like us doing what we did. Anyway, had a bit of a wipeout and next day, when I remembered I didn’t get hangovers but my head felt like it was about to fall off I went to the Chelsea and Westminster where the docs made me draw a cartoon strip of what happened and pissed themselves, long story, whilst they told me I had fractured my skull and sent me home with painkillers.
Soccer or win co fo?
It was obv Win:Co:Fo. OMG are you one too?
No comment. But broken pelvis playing football gives a misleading impression to those not on top of their notions
Was very confused by the conversations re bikes this week, I guess it was a reference to bogles.
Off-topic but techy. I've been using my new MacBook Pro all week, and I'm wondering what kept me away. To start with, the build quality of this thing is unreal. The solid metal chassis is solid. The keyboard and trackpad are both sensational. The screen is pretty (though I still prefer a 3:2 ratio).
I am getting used to the software - a few "why does it work like that" moments. Of which the most annoying are that for Control on Windows I need Command - which is next to space rather than away from it - and that @ and " are swapped. And no touch screen.
Ok I spent £dollar and bought a specced one, but having done my first video editing session on thing thing I was impressed by how non-plussed it was.
So, all hail Apple. And there goes my soul...
And when you open a terminal, you have a really good BSD UNIX to work in - all the standard UNIX tools are either there or can be installed easily.
Hold baggage is very last century. Only drawback to cabin bag only is I spend the whole time fretting I have nothing to cut my nails with. Even when I am away for 4 days and virtually amputate my fingertips before leaving.
You do know that nail clippers are allowed in carry on.
I have a bone to pick with you, a few weeks ago you posted something very funny from the New Yorker. I signed up to their daily email for New Yorker humour and the cartoons are about as humorous as having your humerus removed violently and shoved up your backside with no lube.
You are forgiven though as a Radiohead fan.
Twenty one years ago, almost to the day, I was cycling* back from a pub in Southwark to Aldgate East where I then lived.
Maybe I'd had one two many beers. Maybe it was the car speeding up Minories far too close to me. And maybe it was some combination of the two. But I came off my bicycle and ended up at the Royal London.
After being X-Rayed, the Nurse Practitioner looked me in the eye and said - word for word - "You fractured your humerus. And I bet you don't think that's very humorous."
* Yeah, cycled. Sue me.
A mad physio*, who I got recommended, told me about how he cracked a vertebra playing rugby.
The local NHS hospital sent him home with some pain killers, having missed the crack in the X-Rays.
After some pain and time, he went private.
He trend up at the NHS hospital and demanded to see the senior chap. As he told hit, the guy was asking if he wanted to sue. "No", he said, "I want you too get your chap in here and show him what at cracked vertebra looks like on an X-Ray, for next time"
*He reminded me strongly of Basil Brush. Drove a souped up version of a Caterham 7, with illegal tires, IIRC.
OK...
About seven years ago (29 October 2016), my wife asked me if I wanted some cheese and wine, and I said "nope, I'm going for a run".
So, I went for a run around Hampstead and Finchley Road, and just as I was on the final stretch on Redington, I tripped and fell.
Standing up and looking at my hand, it was clear that *something* was slightly wrong. Specifically, my little finger was bent back at an unusual angle:
So I called an Uber to take me to the Royal Free.
They de-dislocated the finger (by yanking), wrapped it up, gave me painkillers and sent me home, with instructions to the return to the hand clinic the following week.
Which I duly did. Upon meeting with a hand doctor the following week, they were surprised at the extent of the swelling and ordered an X-Ray.
When it came back I was told "Yeah, you should have been X-Rayed last week, because you've fractured a bunch of bones in your hand and we're going to need to operate first thing tomorrow to pin your hand back together."
Without wishing this sound like the Three Yorkshireman (or one Derbyshireman...)
A decade or so back, my dad put a nail from a nailgun through his hand whilst working on a roof. Whilst in his seventies. My brother took him to hospital, who X-rayed my dad's hand to look for bone damage. They noticed several fingers that had been broken in the past and healed. "Oh," my dad said. "I smashed my hand in the 1960s, and just taped the fingers together. I didn't realise anything was broken."
Whereas when I fractured my elbow in northern Scotland, it required full family medevac and two 12-hour drives...
Pah! Amateur hour. At school I fractured my pelvis playing football, was in lots of pain but just figured it’s a sports injury. Went to lessons after and by about 5.45 I was feeling very unpleasant. Walked to the school sanitorium, puking along the way for the fifteen minute hobble and was taken to hospital and it turned out I had fractured my pelvis.
Then at University was living on Prince of Wales Drive in Battersea and there was some crazy big slide made out of metal sheets for kids to go down in sacks across the road in Battersea Park. We used to go over the fence whilst pissed in the early hours of the morning and race down drunk but at night they put a chain across with tires along it to stop people like us doing what we did. Anyway, had a bit of a wipeout and next day, when I remembered I didn’t get hangovers but my head felt like it was about to fall off I went to the Chelsea and Westminster where the docs made me draw a cartoon strip of what happened and pissed themselves, long story, whilst they told me I had fractured my skull and sent me home with painkillers.
Soccer or win co fo?
It was obv Win:Co:Fo. OMG are you one too?
No comment. But broken pelvis playing football gives a misleading impression to those not on top of their notions
Was very confused by the conversations re bikes this week, I guess it was a reference to bogles.
How badly unionised are the baggage workers at Heathrow?
This might be the worst reclaim experience I've ever had. 45 minute wait for just a dribble of bags coming out, and then it stops again. Everyone still waiting.
Being told 40 minutes to 1 hour is "normal" this time of year. I don't think I've ever had it this bad in over 20 years.
Interesting that you chose "badly unionised" over "badly managed".
Do they have enough staff on shift, and are they properly trained, with enough service vehicles?
There are very few staff and they are lazy and slovenly and disinterested in customers.
Unions.
Very few staff sounds a management rather than Union issue. It's them that manage the rota...
A little while ago, I was passing the pubs near Hammersmith bridge, during the early morning.
The landlord of one pub was swearing on his phone, because he couldn't get staff to show up. The next day. Yes, his plan was to phone people up to ask them to do a shit on about 24 hours notice.
The next door pub, I happen to know, the landlord does a spreadsheet for months in advance. And does free laundry of the pub branded polo shirts - and other stuff like that.
Guess who has staff?
Slightly disconcerting typo given the parallel conversation on dodgy khazis ...
Bet the shifts at that pub *are* shit.
I find it very hard to understand the mind state - expecting people to sit by the phone, lives on hold, just waiting for work.
Yes - phone calls cost money. Best to make 'em queue outside the pub and say he'll offer work if he's got some.
That's traditionally how it was done on the docks.
The "reserve army of labour".
The Polish Centre in Hammersmith used to have a queue of people just on the corner, each morning. The long cab pickups and vans would pull up, there would be a brief negotiation, and the chap(s) at the head of the queue would get in.
EDIT: Around the time of BREXIT, some graffiti got scrawled on a wall. Everyone was going "What caused this evil, racist attack?". The graffiti was scrawled on the wall where the queue would form.
This is precisely why a union like the IWW is needed - to welcome immigrants with "Good to see you, brother, here's your union card."
I've seen the same kind of queuing for the chance of casual labour in Glasgow too, without an ethnic angle. It's all about supply and demand. Dunno why it surprises some people.
Used to have an ethnic angle in Glasgow ...
Yes OK. I saw it in Springburn. Just saw groups of waiting men, out of whom some would be selected for work that day. There may well have been a sectarian angle. This was in the early 1990s.
Bit too late, I think, for the sectarian stuff. More 1960s and before. Certainly prewar.
Suceava Romania (which isn’t in a war) looks much uglier, scruffier and more desperate than Chernivtsi, Ukraine (which IS)
I thought Romania was a beautiful country scarred by ugly towns and uglier cities. Bucharesti is horrible, Cluj Napoca has pockets of pretty inside otherwise horrible, Alba Iulia has that amazing citadel but the rest is similar. I think its the endless brutalist architecture and festoons of wires.
Which is a pity as I found Romanian people to be warm, welcoming and funny. And even they thought their towns were awful.
Yeah, this is one fucking toilet of a town. West Ukraine is exquisite in comparison. Ceaucescu really did a job on his own country
Talking of toilets this bar I am in (3 hour wait for the train to Bacau) has a squatter toilet. Surely one of the last in Europe? Has anyone else seen one recently?
Still in quite a few of the small rest stops (Aire de ...) on the French autoroutes.
Big fan of squat toilets, much more physiological a position.
Tokyo airport has lovely new shiny technologically-advanced toilets, with a choice of sit or squat options.
And people say Japan is in decline. Nonsense, I say - what is the hallmark of civilization if not plumbing arrangements?
I once wrote a whole article on this. Because it is true
We know Rome was advanced because they had decent toilets and central heating and good sanitation in general
You CAN measure a civilisation by its bogs
And by the measure the west is falling behind. We still use paper - or at best wet-wipes (which clog sewers) - it is ridiculously unhygienic
East Asians have had integral bidets/washlets/bum guns for years. They find out standard loos as yuk just as we used to abhor squatters
I’ve noticed that luxe hotels in the west are now installing bum guns as standard, to cater for this higher international norm
Suceava Romania (which isn’t in a war) looks much uglier, scruffier and more desperate than Chernivtsi, Ukraine (which IS)
I thought Romania was a beautiful country scarred by ugly towns and uglier cities. Bucharesti is horrible, Cluj Napoca has pockets of pretty inside otherwise horrible, Alba Iulia has that amazing citadel but the rest is similar. I think its the endless brutalist architecture and festoons of wires.
Which is a pity as I found Romanian people to be warm, welcoming and funny. And even they thought their towns were awful.
Yeah, this is one fucking toilet of a town. West Ukraine is exquisite in comparison. Ceaucescu really did a job on his own country
Talking of toilets this bar I am in (3 hour wait for the train to Bacau) has a squatter toilet. Surely one of the last in Europe? Has anyone else seen one recently?
Still in quite a few of the small rest stops (Aire de ...) on the French autoroutes.
Big fan of squat toilets, much more physiological a position.
Tokyo airport has lovely new shiny technologically-advanced toilets, with a choice of sit or squat options.
And people say Japan is in decline. Nonsense, I say - what is the hallmark of civilization if not plumbing arrangements?
I once wrote a whole article on this. Because it is true
We know Rome was advanced because they had decent toilets and central heating and good sanitation in general
You CAN measure a civilisation by its bogs
And by the measure the west is falling behind. We still use paper - or at best wet-wipes (which clog sewers) - it is ridiculously unhygienic
East Asians have had integral bidets/washlets/bum guns for years. They find out standard loos as yuk just as we used to abhor squatters
I’ve noticed that luxe hotels in the west are now installing bum guns as standard, to cater for this higher international norm
Yes. I have one in my flat. They cost pennies to install. Mine has a nice warm water option. Very soothing when you need it
I am genuinely surprised these aren’t universal. Once you’ve got one you never want to go back
I can only conclude most westerners don’t go to east Asia much (or other places where they are increasingly common: like 5 star hotels or the UAE etc)
Hmm.
Hmmm what?? They clean you properly
Ideally you’d get one of those £10k Japanese khazis which do it all with electronics and have an integral dryer. But that’s quite a lot of cash
For £300 you can have a decent warm-or-cold bum gun
In fact this is such an obvious marketing opportunity I might start smuggling them into the UK
“What do you do?”
“Gun running.”
“What??”
“Yep. Bum gun running. Sploosh!”
Those attachments are not legal in the UK. In theory, if the mains pressure were to get too low, they could allow fecal matter to get back into the mains and, thereby, into other households' drinking water.
No shower-type object attached to the mains (including to toilet cisterns) is allowed to reach a toilet bowl. Which is also why very small hotel rooms have inadequate length shower hoses - they mustn't reach the toilet bowl.
Edit: I see that site, sort of, claims their model is legal. In weasel words.
You’re talking nonsense. These things are freely available in the UK. My builder/plumber did it without demur. He was used to the request
A simple non-return valve is apparently not enough:
"Some installers believe they can comply with the Water Fittings Regulations by placing a double check valve in the hose feed to prevent water travelling in the reverse direction. However, the Water Fittings Regulations state that a double check valve only provides protection against backflow to fluid category 3, so must not be used to provide backflow protection from ablutionary showers."
However, this in turn was repealed by the EU in 2011. So, it's not clear to what extent it is EU derived.
The EU directive refers to "The construction works must be designed and built in such a way that they will, throughout their life cycle, not be a threat to the hygiene or health and safety of workers, occupants or neighbours, nor have an exceedingly high impact, over their entire life cycle, on the environmental quality or on the climate during their construction, use and demolition, in particular as a result of any of the following:
(a)the giving-off of toxic gas; (b)the emissions of dangerous substances, volatile organic compounds (VOC), greenhouse gases or dangerous particles into indoor or outdoor air; (c)the emission of dangerous radiation; (d)the release of dangerous substances into ground water, marine waters, surface waters or soil; (e)the release of dangerous substances into drinking water or substances which have an otherwise negative impact on drinking water; (f)faulty discharge of waste water, emission of flue gases or faulty disposal of solid or liquid waste; (g)dampness in parts of the construction works or on surfaces within the construction works."
So, the answer probably lies in how we implemented the EU regulation.
Suceava Romania (which isn’t in a war) looks much uglier, scruffier and more desperate than Chernivtsi, Ukraine (which IS)
I thought Romania was a beautiful country scarred by ugly towns and uglier cities. Bucharesti is horrible, Cluj Napoca has pockets of pretty inside otherwise horrible, Alba Iulia has that amazing citadel but the rest is similar. I think its the endless brutalist architecture and festoons of wires.
Which is a pity as I found Romanian people to be warm, welcoming and funny. And even they thought their towns were awful.
Yeah, this is one fucking toilet of a town. West Ukraine is exquisite in comparison. Ceaucescu really did a job on his own country
Talking of toilets this bar I am in (3 hour wait for the train to Bacau) has a squatter toilet. Surely one of the last in Europe? Has anyone else seen one recently?
Still in quite a few of the small rest stops (Aire de ...) on the French autoroutes.
Big fan of squat toilets, much more physiological a position.
Tokyo airport has lovely new shiny technologically-advanced toilets, with a choice of sit or squat options.
And people say Japan is in decline. Nonsense, I say - what is the hallmark of civilization if not plumbing arrangements?
I once wrote a whole article on this. Because it is true
We know Rome was advanced because they had decent toilets and central heating and good sanitation in general
You CAN measure a civilisation by its bogs
And by the measure the west is falling behind. We still use paper - or at best wet-wipes (which clog sewers) - it is ridiculously unhygienic
East Asians have had integral bidets/washlets/bum guns for years. They find out standard loos as yuk just as we used to abhor squatters
I’ve noticed that luxe hotels in the west are now installing bum guns as standard, to cater for this higher international norm
https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1687469428584144896 I had a meeting with a member of the Republican Party, former Governor of New Jersey, Christopher Christie. And it is very important that Mr. Christie began his visit to Ukraine with a visit to Bucha to see with his own eyes the threat to freedom and to everyone in the world posed by Russian aggression.
I thanked all Americans, each and every one, for their vital support.
We are confident that we will end this Russian war against freedom with our victory – the victory of the free world, the victory of democracy, the victory of freedom.
Chris Christie: sound on Ukraine.
I know I sound like a broken record, and I know Christie's time in New Jersey ended poorly, but I think he could be a very well organized candidate. And that matters in Iowa where the caucuses mean that second choices and organization matter.
He is 140 on Betfair to be next US President. That is an absolute steal.
Indeed,I have a few quid on, but America is a crazy place and will go for Trum vs Biden.
American politics has jumped the shark.
I'm on.
The tv in my hideous Romanian bar just played a clip of trump after his court case
He made a - for him - quite articulate speech to camera about the state of DC that he’d personally witnessed being driven to the court. The broken roads, the homeless, the degradation
I can see tens of millions of Americans nodding along eagerly. Because he’s right
He has a real chance. Because of this
Biden looks like he doesn’t give a shit about American cities. Or, it is easy to paint him and the democrats that way
Don't the cities vote for the Democrats? DC certainly does.
He obviously has a chance, unfortunately, but will Democrat leaning cities being shit really make the difference in the key states like Arizona and Georgia, where Biden won by a whisker last time? I'd have thought they already thought that, which is why they don't live in those places.
Trump might have an even better chance if he spent more time complaining about mismanagement of Democratic authorities and less time bemoaning his personal legal woes - I know it plays well with his base, but they'd vote for him anyway, and even the small number of GOPers put off by his behaviour would find it easier to back him.
The point is that the shit homeless drugs urban nightmare is now spreading from coastal Democrat cities - inland
I saw it with my own eyes in Lexington Kentucky
If US cities elected more Republican Mayors that would likely make more of a difference to them than who is next President as the Federal government doesn't have a great deal of influence over city government.
By definition to win Democrat leaning cities Republican candidates need to be moderate and pragmatic and often with business experience at a high level of management too.
Sure. Whatever. I’m just saying it’s clever politics by Trump
I reckon he could easily win against doddery old Biden. Trump looks up for the fight and about ten years younger and sharper
The 2024 US Presidential election may well be decided in the courtroom more than the ballot box
The odds of the American judicial system moving that fast are the same as the odds of Johnson telling the truth or of Amanda Spielman speaking sense on safeguarding.
The issue is not whether they lock the orange haired loon up, but whether the penny drops with enough Americans that he's a card-carrying fascist who poses a threat to their beloved Constitution for him to lose either the primaries or the real thing.
Current signs are less than brilliantly encouraging.
I’m less pessimistic. The indictment looks to be a slam dunk, and I can’t see Trump freeing himself from the noose that is gradually tightening around his neck - prevaricating is the only tactic his lawyers have left and I can’t see the court standing for too much more of it.
So Trump is going down for the rest of his natural, and the choice for the GOP is whether they return to their senses and back a candidate such as Hayley or Christie, or they continue to tie themselves to the doomed Trump.
I agree the case is a slam dunk. The only reason we've got a few people on here who doubt it is because there are mad Trumpers wherever you look.
I just can also see it taking three years to come to trial. Which would be a leetle too late.
He might cut a deal of course, but since that would be damaging to him it seems unlikely.
The big deal would be he gets pardoned and doesn't run for the presidency, but we're not anywhere near that yet.
I don't reckon it's a slam dunk. Look at OJ Simpson.
Financial scam allegations against Trump University and other state-level stuff may be a slam dunk.
A trial in Washington and he's toast, which is why his attorneys want it moved to West Virginia.
But - that presupposes a 'speedy' trial and also that he isn't President at the time.
Legitimately he's saying a Washington trial might be unfair. I think he's a clown, but clowns have rights as everyone does.
Legitimately ?
He has a right to a fair trial; saying that he cannot get one in Washington is wrong.
Comments
Given the relative low barrier of entry in terms of polling support needed for debates (there are other requirements), it's hard to see aat what point those with very little chance decide they have no chance and swing in behind another candidate, before Iowa and NH.
I mean, there are at least 3 anti-Trump candidates on top of the half dozen or so pro-Trump but wanting to pick up the Trump vote candidates.
There's already a market. Probably some value bets there somewhere.
https://www.betfair.com/exchange/plus/en/politics/usa-presidential-election-2024/republican-vice-president-nominee-betting-1.190717853
. . .
But when Lauro represented Tim Donaghy — the disgraced NBA referee who admitted to betting on games he officiated and taking payoffs from bookies — the high-profile case marked a departure from the attorney’s quick-and-quiet approach. He became more publicly combative against the NBA and prosecutors who accused him of overstating his claims in defense of Donaghy."
source$: https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2023/08/04/trump-indictment-john-lauro-tim-donaghy/
Donaghy got a sentence of 15 months, and was out to a half-way house after 11. He thinks Trump picked the right lawyer.
(Big unresolved question: Will the trial be held within 70 days, as provided for in the Speedy Trial Act? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speedy_Trial_Act
I am not a lawyer, so I will not give you an opinion on that question.)
http://cynicalbastards.com/ubs/courses.html
Personally think Trump should just pin everything on Giuliani and Eastman doing the actual actions, he was just talking etc. He could make it up to them after re-election.
I saw it with my own eyes in Lexington Kentucky
That's traditionally how it was done on the docks. And in many hotels too.
The "reserve army of labour". "Casual" labour. See also "zero hours" contracts.
1) Digging bird shit
2) Pay less than that required to keep your family alive
3) Dangerous working conditions
4) Did I mention bird shit?
Shooting the workers caused problems. It turns out to be quite hard to flog more work out of dead people.
And there is quite a bit of empty stuff in Peru. So people left the guano diggings and didn't come back.
So they imported Japanese workers. This was a bit like importing North Koreans at the time - they would work for nothing, in appalling conditions, because that was what they were used to.
The hacienda types were quite angry with the "xenophobic" and "racist" locals who thought this was all a bit much.
Nothing ever changes.
EDIT: Around the time of BREXIT, some graffiti got scrawled on a wall. Everyone was going "What caused this evil, racist attack?". The graffiti was scrawled on the wall where the queue would form.
http://cynicalbastards.com/ubs/life.html
We know Rome was advanced because they had decent toilets and central heating and good sanitation in general
You CAN measure a civilisation by its bogs
And by the measure the west is falling behind. We still use paper - or at best wet-wipes (which clog sewers) - it is ridiculously unhygienic
East Asians have had integral bidets/washlets/bum guns for years. They find out standard loos as yuk just as we used to abhor squatters
I’ve noticed that luxe hotels in the west are now installing bum guns as standard, to cater for this higher international norm
https://www.thebumgun.com/
I've seen the same kind of queuing for the chance of casual labour in Glasgow too, without an ethnic angle. It's all about supply and demand. Dunno why it surprises some people.
I am genuinely surprised these aren’t universal. Once you’ve got one you never want to go back
I can only conclude most westerners don’t go to east Asia much (or other places where they are increasingly common: like 5 star hotels or the UAE etc)
By definition to win Democrat leaning cities Republican candidates need to be moderate and pragmatic and often with business experience at a high level of management too.
Ideally you’d get one of those £10k Japanese khazis which do it all with electronics and have an integral dryer. But that’s quite a lot of cash
For £300 you can have a decent warm-or-cold bum gun
In fact this is such an obvious marketing opportunity I might start smuggling them into the UK
“What do you do?”
“Gun running.”
“What??”
“Yep. Bum gun running. Sploosh!”
I reckon he could easily win against doddery old Biden. Trump looks up for the fight and about ten years younger and sharper
A decade or so back, my dad put a nail from a nailgun through his hand whilst working on a roof. Whilst in his seventies. My brother took him to hospital, who X-rayed my dad's hand to look for bone damage. They noticed several fingers that had been broken in the past and healed. "Oh," my dad said. "I smashed my hand in the 1960s, and just taped the fingers together. I didn't realise anything was broken."
Whereas when I fractured my elbow in northern Scotland, it required full family medevac and two 12-hour drives...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-66250800
If he is convicted in one of his 3 cases and certainly if he is jailed however it is likely over for him, even half of Republican voters will desert him then. If he is convicted 45% of Republican voters say they would no longer vote for Trump again in the general election and 52% would not vote for him if jailed.
https://www.reuters.com/legal/about-half-us-republicans-could-spurn-trump-if-he-is-convicted-reutersipsos-poll-2023-08-03/
The 2024 US Presidential election may well be decided in the courtroom more than the ballot box
Not much change from either Omnisis or Techne tonight with Labour still 20-22 points ahead.
We're due an Opinium on Sunday which has had one of the lowest Labour shares (42%) last time but still kept a 17-point advantage.
...don't set too much stock by how people say they'd act in circumstances they've never experienced before.
Trump's message if he runs will be messianic.
I bet that’s an owner who had travelled in the Far East
I think people see what they want to see in both candidates, regardless of the actualities.
No shower-type object attached to the mains (including to toilet cisterns) is allowed to reach a toilet bowl. Which is also why very small hotel rooms have inadequate length shower hoses - they mustn't reach the toilet bowl.
Edit: I see that site, sort of, claims their model is legal. In weasel words.
The issue is not whether they lock the orange haired loon up, but whether the penny drops with enough Americans that he's a card-carrying fascist who poses a threat to their beloved Constitution for him to lose either the primaries or the real thing.
Current signs are less than brilliantly encouraging.
He seemed in quite good (for him) psychological shape.
@HY: I'm not so keen on using percentages to appraise his chances. Let's say he may well find fertile ground for the extreme polarisation that he needs. The way he needs the meme of social collapse to work is that he needs to associate it with his opponent...so that a slice of the formerly Democratic voterbase says f*ck it, we don't give a sh*t, we've got f*ck all to lose, and they either stay at home or vote Trump. And then they may find out that actually they do have something to lose.
If he doesn't meet a similar end to Sindona and Epstein, perhaps we'll all need to bend down and kiss our bottoms goodbye, well-washed with bumgun tech or otherwise.
On the other side of the aisle, the Dems need to ditch Biden.
My only wagers so far are on Kamala Harris for the presidency and Tom Cotton for the Rep VP nom.
So Trump is going down for the rest of his natural, and the choice for the GOP is whether they return to their senses and back a candidate such as Hayley or Christie, or they continue to tie themselves to the doomed Trump.
Jeez. What a choice
I just can also see it taking three years to come to trial. Which would be a leetle too late.
He might cut a deal of course, but since that would be damaging to him it seems unlikely.
What kind of country wants to control how you clean your bum?
Answer: China!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoLHPfeTu1o
The hygiene issues of not cleaning yourself
properly PLUS the sewer blocking issues of paper washlets (as people slowly realise that using dry paper to clean yourself is not an ideal solution) render the tiny possibility of “bum gun poop blowback” an utter irrelevance
POLITICALBETTING: dealing with today’s issues, today
"Some installers believe they can comply with the Water Fittings Regulations by placing a double check valve in the hose feed to prevent water travelling in the reverse direction. However, the Water Fittings Regulations state that a double check valve only provides protection against backflow to fluid category 3, so must not be used to provide backflow protection from ablutionary showers."
https://www.waterregsuk.co.uk/news/newsletter/categories/installer_news/dont_be_a_douche_about_hand_showers/
I don't reckon it's a slam dunk. Look at OJ Simpson.
Financial scam allegations against Trump University and other state-level stuff may be a slam dunk.
But - that presupposes a 'speedy' trial and also that he isn't President at the time.
This in itself is one reason I suspect the trial will be delayed. How to solve the jury issue is a knotty conundrum.
Then at University was living on Prince of Wales Drive in Battersea and there was some crazy big slide made out of metal sheets for kids to go down in sacks across the road in Battersea Park. We used to go over the fence whilst pissed in the early hours of the morning and race down drunk but at night they put a chain across with tires along it to stop people like us doing what we did. Anyway, had a bit of a wipeout and next day, when I remembered I didn’t get hangovers but my head felt like it was about to fall off I went to the Chelsea and Westminster where the docs made me draw a cartoon strip of what happened and pissed themselves, long story, whilst they told me I had fractured my skull and sent me home with painkillers.
Harris the presidential candidate would be different from Harris as she has been framed so far.
A comparison here would be with Biden himself as VP and then presidential candidate although in his case there was a gap.
Trump would find places he could bite into with both Biden and Harris...but the Dems have got to have somebody as their candidate.
I bought Harris about 50 anyway. Value. She's still value now at 44. Quite some supposition.
Personally I bit the carpet when so many Republican senators didn't vote guilty at the second impeachment trial.
We have scotch'd the snake, not kill'd it:
She'll close and be herself, whilst our poor malice
Remains in danger of her former tooth.
But let the frame of things disjoint, both the worlds suffer,
Ere we will eat our meal in fear and sleep
In the affliction of these terrible dreams
That shake us nightly: better be with the dead,
Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace,
Than on the torture of the mind to lie
In restless ecstasy.
Whilst he's at it he can make bits of Scotland better too.
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1999/1148/part/I/made
https://www.thelocal.es/20230626/why-do-many-spanish-homes-have-bidets
According to this article, they became fashionable under Franco ("Look peasants, you must be rich because you can wash your bottoms. Vote for me, except you can't because we have an organic democracy.") and became less common as bathrooms became smaller.
Maybe to go with YIMBY, we need BIMBY.
Perhaps the average euro-undercarriage is cleaner that the average British one though. I'm not going to do the survey.
I am getting used to the software - a few "why does it work like that" moments. Of which the most annoying are that for Control on Windows I need Command - which is next to space rather than away from it - and that @ and " are swapped. And no touch screen.
Ok I spent £dollar and bought a specced one, but having done my first video editing session on thing thing I was impressed by how non-plussed it was.
So, all hail Apple. And there goes my soul...
Is trying to get through Northamptonshire as quickly as possible a legitimate defence?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/football/66023084
However, this in turn was repealed by the EU in 2011. So, it's not clear to what extent it is EU derived.
It's too late now to spark the T20 flame in the UK. I think we're well behind the US (astonishingly) in this. Perhaps though the best cricket that's ever been played just recently being here and the Ashes just might salvage something.
Not entirely sure if it's a ethnic thing or just a more general 'treat them mean, keep them keen' thing.
(a)the giving-off of toxic gas;
(b)the emissions of dangerous substances, volatile organic compounds (VOC), greenhouse gases or dangerous particles into indoor or outdoor air;
(c)the emission of dangerous radiation;
(d)the release of dangerous substances into ground water, marine waters, surface waters or soil;
(e)the release of dangerous substances into drinking water or substances which have an otherwise negative impact on drinking water;
(f)faulty discharge of waste water, emission of flue gases or faulty disposal of solid or liquid waste;
(g)dampness in parts of the construction works or on surfaces within the construction works."
So, the answer probably lies in how we implemented the EU regulation.
I'd say Mphm or 'Aye, right' if I wasn't.
He has a right to a fair trial; saying that he cannot get one in Washington is wrong.