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SLAB can surely win this one back? – politicalbetting.com

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  • PeckPeck Posts: 517
    edited August 2023
    Carnyx said:

    Peck said:

    Carnyx said:

    Peck said:

    Peck said:

    Carnyx said:

    Foxy said:

    Foxy said:

    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.
    Where I lived on the Red Road estate I didn't encounter any sectarianism. Football colours were banned in the local (off-estate) pub, but that was about it. I vaguely recall Arthur Thompson who owned 3-4 houses all banged together in Blackhill (note for those who don't know Glasgow: Blackhill is probably the toughest area of Glasgow you haven't heard of, and may well be the toughest area of Glasgow all told) was Protestant while his lawyer Joseph Beltrami was Catholic.

    I've read that there was a lot of (Protestant) sectarianism in Springburn when there was still a rail industry there, but that was before my time. From memory the area used to produce a high proportion of the world's rolling stock.
  • nico679nico679 Posts: 6,273
    Nigelb said:

    .

    Omnium said:

    ydoethur said:

    Peck said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    HYUFD said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Foxy said:

    AlistairM said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    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
    This sort of thing?

    https://www.thebumgun.com/

    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
    HYUFD said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Leon said:

    Miklosvar said:

    Foxy said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Nigelb said:

    Mr Christopher Christie...

    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
    If he is not convicted next year then certainly.

    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
    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.
    Funny he didn’t moan about the one in Florida . I wish Trump would just FOAD for the good of the USA and the rest of the world. What an absolute stain on humanity he is.
  • mwadamsmwadams Posts: 3,583
    Leon said:

    mwadams said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Foxy said:

    AlistairM said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    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
    This sort of thing?

    https://www.thebumgun.com/

    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
    HYUFD said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Leon said:

    Miklosvar said:

    Foxy said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Nigelb said:

    Mr Christopher Christie...

    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.
    Fair enough. I didn’t see that. Is that true?

    Jeez. What a choice
    It's absolutely depressing.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,345
    mwadams said:

    Leon said:

    mwadams said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Foxy said:

    AlistairM said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    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
    This sort of thing?

    https://www.thebumgun.com/

    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
    HYUFD said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Leon said:

    Miklosvar said:

    Foxy said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Nigelb said:

    Mr Christopher Christie...

    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.
    Fair enough. I didn’t see that. Is that true?

    Jeez. What a choice
    It's absolutely depressing.
    That's not conclusive. Look at Weinstein pretending he'd lost his marbles to try and get off the charges against him.

    Or indeed in our own system Pinochet and Abdulbaset Al Megrahi.

    It could easily be setting up a second line of defence of unfit to be tried.

    But - that would mean kissing goodbye to any return to the Presidency.
  • ydoethur said:

    mwadams said:

    Leon said:

    mwadams said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Foxy said:

    AlistairM said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    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
    This sort of thing?

    https://www.thebumgun.com/

    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
    HYUFD said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Leon said:

    Miklosvar said:

    Foxy said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Nigelb said:

    Mr Christopher Christie...

    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.
    Fair enough. I didn’t see that. Is that true?

    Jeez. What a choice
    It's absolutely depressing.
    That's not conclusive. Look at Weinstein pretending he'd lost his marbles to try and get off the charges against him.

    Or indeed in our own system Pinochet and Abdulbaset Al Megrahi.

    It could easily be setting up a second line of defence of unfit to be tried.

    But - that would mean kissing goodbye to any return to the Presidency.
    Its pretty simple. The culture war in America has so divided everyone that the GOP think the libtards want to take away their country, and the dems know that Trump is John the Baptist for Gilead.

    Trump won't claim lunacy. He is the Last Sane Man. Everyone else is lunacy, he is sanity. So he thinks.
  • FairlieredFairliered Posts: 4,927
    edited August 2023
    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Foxy said:

    AlistairM said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    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
    This sort of thing?

    https://www.thebumgun.com/

    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!”
    was actually thinking *install heat pump and bum gun when we move house*.

    I'd say Mphm or 'Aye, right' if I wasn't.
    As the heat pump will only produce hot water to 40C, the bum gum should be quite comfortable.
  • PeckPeck Posts: 517
    edited August 2023

    ydoethur said:

    mwadams said:

    Leon said:

    mwadams said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Foxy said:

    AlistairM said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    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
    This sort of thing?

    https://www.thebumgun.com/

    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
    HYUFD said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Leon said:

    Miklosvar said:

    Foxy said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Nigelb said:

    Mr Christopher Christie...

    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.
    Fair enough. I didn’t see that. Is that true?

    Jeez. What a choice
    It's absolutely depressing.
    That's not conclusive. Look at Weinstein pretending he'd lost his marbles to try and get off the charges against him.

    Or indeed in our own system Pinochet and Abdulbaset Al Megrahi.

    It could easily be setting up a second line of defence of unfit to be tried.

    But - that would mean kissing goodbye to any return to the Presidency.
    Its pretty simple. The culture war in America has so divided everyone that the GOP think the libtards want to take away their country, and the dems know that Trump is John the Baptist for Gilead.

    Trump won't claim lunacy. He is the Last Sane Man. Everyone else is lunacy, he is sanity. So he thinks.
    There are no signs at all that Trump will plead mental incapacity,
    The name thing could happen to anyone who has a middle name and doesn't use it much.
    The "seven seven" thing for his age requires further research, but you can see from his post-court talk that he is NOT setting the stage for pleading that he's a doddery old man who doesn't know which way is up.
    The game is still on.

    As for the last sane man versus everyone else being crazy, it's not so much this but that he's he the great "I AM" - cosmically and just because. Trump does have an intellect but AFAIAA he's never focused it on issues of sanity and insanity. The person with the insight into this nutcase's mind is his niece Mary who has a PhD in psychology and specialises in schizophrenia.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,585
    edited August 2023

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Foxy said:

    AlistairM said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    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
    This sort of thing?

    https://www.thebumgun.com/

    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!”
    was actually thinking *install heat pump and bum gun when we move house*.

    I'd say Mphm or 'Aye, right' if I wasn't.
    As the heat pump will only produce hot water to 40C, the bum gum should be quite comfortable.
    I think bum gum is another niche interest.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,748
    ydoethur said:

    mwadams said:

    Leon said:

    mwadams said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Foxy said:

    AlistairM said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    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
    This sort of thing?

    https://www.thebumgun.com/

    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
    HYUFD said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Leon said:

    Miklosvar said:

    Foxy said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Nigelb said:

    Mr Christopher Christie...

    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.
    Fair enough. I didn’t see that. Is that true?

    Jeez. What a choice
    It's absolutely depressing.
    That's not conclusive. Look at Weinstein pretending he'd lost his marbles to try and get off the charges against him.

    Or indeed in our own system Pinochet and Abdulbaset Al Megrahi.

    It could easily be setting up a second line of defence of unfit to be tried.

    But - that would mean kissing goodbye to any return to the Presidency.
    Megrahi? Wasn't that *much* later than conviction, after he fell ill and came under the standard regulations?
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,345
    Carnyx said:

    ydoethur said:

    mwadams said:

    Leon said:

    mwadams said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Foxy said:

    AlistairM said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    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
    This sort of thing?

    https://www.thebumgun.com/

    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
    HYUFD said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Leon said:

    Miklosvar said:

    Foxy said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Nigelb said:

    Mr Christopher Christie...

    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.
    Fair enough. I didn’t see that. Is that true?

    Jeez. What a choice
    It's absolutely depressing.
    That's not conclusive. Look at Weinstein pretending he'd lost his marbles to try and get off the charges against him.

    Or indeed in our own system Pinochet and Abdulbaset Al Megrahi.

    It could easily be setting up a second line of defence of unfit to be tried.

    But - that would mean kissing goodbye to any return to the Presidency.
    Megrahi? Wasn't that *much* later than conviction, after he fell ill and came under the standard regulations?
    Well, yes, he wasn't the best example perhaps. He declared he was terminally ill and would die in three months to get remission of sentence - then mysteriously lived another three years, attending public events but being, oddly, in a coma every time a TV crew turned up at his house.

    I was thinking more of how medical conditions can be used to game the system.
  • ydoethur said:

    mwadams said:

    Leon said:

    mwadams said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Foxy said:

    AlistairM said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    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
    This sort of thing?

    https://www.thebumgun.com/

    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
    HYUFD said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Leon said:

    Miklosvar said:

    Foxy said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Nigelb said:

    Mr Christopher Christie...

    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.
    Fair enough. I didn’t see that. Is that true?

    Jeez. What a choice
    It's absolutely depressing.
    That's not conclusive. Look at Weinstein pretending he'd lost his marbles to try and get off the charges against him.

    Or indeed in our own system Pinochet and Abdulbaset Al Megrahi.

    It could easily be setting up a second line of defence of unfit to be tried.

    But - that would mean kissing goodbye to any return to the Presidency.
    Hang on! If Trump "won" a second term in 2020, can he run for a "third" term in 2024?
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,104
    Carnyx said:

    ydoethur said:

    mwadams said:

    Leon said:

    mwadams said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Foxy said:

    AlistairM said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    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
    This sort of thing?

    https://www.thebumgun.com/

    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
    HYUFD said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Leon said:

    Miklosvar said:

    Foxy said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Nigelb said:

    Mr Christopher Christie...

    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.
    Fair enough. I didn’t see that. Is that true?

    Jeez. What a choice
    It's absolutely depressing.
    That's not conclusive. Look at Weinstein pretending he'd lost his marbles to try and get off the charges against him.

    Or indeed in our own system Pinochet and Abdulbaset Al Megrahi.

    It could easily be setting up a second line of defence of unfit to be tried.

    But - that would mean kissing goodbye to any return to the Presidency.
    Megrahi? Wasn't that *much* later than conviction, after he fell ill and came under the standard regulations?
    Ernest Saunders is believed to be the only person ever diagnosed with Alzheimer's who subsequently recovered.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,345
    edited August 2023

    ydoethur said:

    mwadams said:

    Leon said:

    mwadams said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Foxy said:

    AlistairM said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    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
    This sort of thing?

    https://www.thebumgun.com/

    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
    HYUFD said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Leon said:

    Miklosvar said:

    Foxy said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Nigelb said:

    Mr Christopher Christie...

    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.
    Fair enough. I didn’t see that. Is that true?

    Jeez. What a choice
    It's absolutely depressing.
    That's not conclusive. Look at Weinstein pretending he'd lost his marbles to try and get off the charges against him.

    Or indeed in our own system Pinochet and Abdulbaset Al Megrahi.

    It could easily be setting up a second line of defence of unfit to be tried.

    But - that would mean kissing goodbye to any return to the Presidency.
    Hang on! If Trump "won" a second term in 2020, can he run for a "third" term in 2024?
    Edit - no, because he wasn't elected even if he claimed held won.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 95,999

    ydoethur said:

    HYUFD said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Foxy said:

    AlistairM said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    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
    This sort of thing?

    https://www.thebumgun.com/

    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
    HYUFD said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Leon said:

    Miklosvar said:

    Foxy said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Nigelb said:

    Mr Christopher Christie...

    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
    If he is not convicted next year then certainly.

    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
    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.
    The slam dunkness (technical term) is a different issue to speed - even without putting up with too much of it other courts have pushed things back a looong way. The there's appeals.

    Which is why the GOP stick with him - they wanted him to fade away, but were too afraid to make it happen. Now they don't even pretend they mind what he does.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,748
    ydoethur said:

    Carnyx said:

    ydoethur said:

    mwadams said:

    Leon said:

    mwadams said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Foxy said:

    AlistairM said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    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
    This sort of thing?

    https://www.thebumgun.com/

    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
    HYUFD said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Leon said:

    Miklosvar said:

    Foxy said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Nigelb said:

    Mr Christopher Christie...

    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.
    Fair enough. I didn’t see that. Is that true?

    Jeez. What a choice
    It's absolutely depressing.
    That's not conclusive. Look at Weinstein pretending he'd lost his marbles to try and get off the charges against him.

    Or indeed in our own system Pinochet and Abdulbaset Al Megrahi.

    It could easily be setting up a second line of defence of unfit to be tried.

    But - that would mean kissing goodbye to any return to the Presidency.
    Megrahi? Wasn't that *much* later than conviction, after he fell ill and came under the standard regulations?
    Well, yes, he wasn't the best example perhaps. He declared he was terminally ill and would die in three months to get remission of sentence - then mysteriously lived another three years, attending public events but being, oddly, in a coma every time a TV crew turned up at his house.

    I was thinking more of how medical conditions can be used to game the system.
    The system had to go on the medical reports (how else?), and such things are never very accurate. But he got new drugs from the USA that were not available in the UK oer the Scottish prison system (I forget which), though heaven knows whether that made any difference.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,345

    Carnyx said:

    ydoethur said:

    mwadams said:

    Leon said:

    mwadams said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Foxy said:

    AlistairM said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    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
    This sort of thing?

    https://www.thebumgun.com/

    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
    HYUFD said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Leon said:

    Miklosvar said:

    Foxy said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Nigelb said:

    Mr Christopher Christie...

    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.
    Fair enough. I didn’t see that. Is that true?

    Jeez. What a choice
    It's absolutely depressing.
    That's not conclusive. Look at Weinstein pretending he'd lost his marbles to try and get off the charges against him.

    Or indeed in our own system Pinochet and Abdulbaset Al Megrahi.

    It could easily be setting up a second line of defence of unfit to be tried.

    But - that would mean kissing goodbye to any return to the Presidency.
    Megrahi? Wasn't that *much* later than conviction, after he fell ill and came under the standard regulations?
    Ernest Saunders is believed to be the only person ever diagnosed with Alzheimer's who subsequently recovered.
    A company boss had a brain rather smaller than average for a man of his age?

    How many jokes could we make about that...
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 95,999
    nico679 said:

    Nigelb said:

    .

    Omnium said:

    ydoethur said:

    Peck said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    HYUFD said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Foxy said:

    AlistairM said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    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
    This sort of thing?

    https://www.thebumgun.com/

    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
    HYUFD said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Leon said:

    Miklosvar said:

    Foxy said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Nigelb said:

    Mr Christopher Christie...

    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
    If he is not convicted next year then certainly.

    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
    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.
    Funny he didn’t moan about the one in Florida . I wish Trump would just FOAD for the good of the USA and the rest of the world. What an absolute stain on humanity he is.
    He's also tried to get Clinton appointed judges removed from a case before arguing bias (it was an attempted suit against Hilary among others, but it was 20 years ago with no other contact with the family) but no issue with one's he's appointed.

    In theory - most of them do still rule against him, so he's probably soured on most as he genuinely appears to believe anyone he appoints should be personally loyal.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,748
    ydoethur said:

    Carnyx said:

    ydoethur said:

    mwadams said:

    Leon said:

    mwadams said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Foxy said:

    AlistairM said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    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
    This sort of thing?

    https://www.thebumgun.com/

    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
    HYUFD said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Leon said:

    Miklosvar said:

    Foxy said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Nigelb said:

    Mr Christopher Christie...

    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.
    Fair enough. I didn’t see that. Is that true?

    Jeez. What a choice
    It's absolutely depressing.
    That's not conclusive. Look at Weinstein pretending he'd lost his marbles to try and get off the charges against him.

    Or indeed in our own system Pinochet and Abdulbaset Al Megrahi.

    It could easily be setting up a second line of defence of unfit to be tried.

    But - that would mean kissing goodbye to any return to the Presidency.
    Megrahi? Wasn't that *much* later than conviction, after he fell ill and came under the standard regulations?
    Ernest Saunders is believed to be the only person ever diagnosed with Alzheimer's who subsequently recovered.
    A company boss had a brain rather smaller than average for a man of his age?

    How many jokes could we make about that...
    Female directors might not be amused, mind.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,345
    Carnyx said:

    ydoethur said:

    Carnyx said:

    ydoethur said:

    mwadams said:

    Leon said:

    mwadams said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Foxy said:

    AlistairM said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    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
    This sort of thing?

    https://www.thebumgun.com/

    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
    HYUFD said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Leon said:

    Miklosvar said:

    Foxy said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Nigelb said:

    Mr Christopher Christie...

    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.
    Fair enough. I didn’t see that. Is that true?

    Jeez. What a choice
    It's absolutely depressing.
    That's not conclusive. Look at Weinstein pretending he'd lost his marbles to try and get off the charges against him.

    Or indeed in our own system Pinochet and Abdulbaset Al Megrahi.

    It could easily be setting up a second line of defence of unfit to be tried.

    But - that would mean kissing goodbye to any return to the Presidency.
    Megrahi? Wasn't that *much* later than conviction, after he fell ill and came under the standard regulations?
    Well, yes, he wasn't the best example perhaps. He declared he was terminally ill and would die in three months to get remission of sentence - then mysteriously lived another three years, attending public events but being, oddly, in a coma every time a TV crew turned up at his house.

    I was thinking more of how medical conditions can be used to game the system.
    The system had to go on the medical reports (how else?), and such things are never very accurate. But he got new drugs from the USA that were not available in the UK oer the Scottish prison system (I forget which), though heaven knows whether that made any difference.
    As I remember, the medical reports said that there was no reason to think he was in imminent danger of dying and the Scottish minister concerned set them aside.

    But it was a while ago and I was rather busy so didn't pay much attention. I could be wrong.
  • PeckPeck Posts: 517
    edited August 2023

    Carnyx said:

    ydoethur said:

    mwadams said:

    Leon said:

    mwadams said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Foxy said:

    AlistairM said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    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
    This sort of thing?

    https://www.thebumgun.com/

    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
    HYUFD said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Leon said:

    Miklosvar said:

    Foxy said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Nigelb said:

    Mr Christopher Christie...

    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.
    Fair enough. I didn’t see that. Is that true?

    Jeez. What a choice
    It's absolutely depressing.
    That's not conclusive. Look at Weinstein pretending he'd lost his marbles to try and get off the charges against him.

    Or indeed in our own system Pinochet and Abdulbaset Al Megrahi.

    It could easily be setting up a second line of defence of unfit to be tried.

    But - that would mean kissing goodbye to any return to the Presidency.
    Megrahi? Wasn't that *much* later than conviction, after he fell ill and came under the standard regulations?
    Ernest Saunders is believed to be the only person ever diagnosed with Alzheimer's who subsequently recovered.
    But let's hear it for Tory superhero Augusto Pinochet too. "Bit by bit he recovered while he flew", having been released from custody on the orders of Jack Straw:

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/mar/05/pinochet.chile
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,345
    Peck said:

    Carnyx said:

    ydoethur said:

    mwadams said:

    Leon said:

    mwadams said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Foxy said:

    AlistairM said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    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
    This sort of thing?

    https://www.thebumgun.com/

    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
    HYUFD said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Leon said:

    Miklosvar said:

    Foxy said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Nigelb said:

    Mr Christopher Christie...

    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.
    Fair enough. I didn’t see that. Is that true?

    Jeez. What a choice
    It's absolutely depressing.
    That's not conclusive. Look at Weinstein pretending he'd lost his marbles to try and get off the charges against him.

    Or indeed in our own system Pinochet and Abdulbaset Al Megrahi.

    It could easily be setting up a second line of defence of unfit to be tried.

    But - that would mean kissing goodbye to any return to the Presidency.
    Megrahi? Wasn't that *much* later than conviction, after he fell ill and came under the standard regulations?
    Ernest Saunders is believed to be the only person ever diagnosed with Alzheimer's who subsequently recovered.
    But let's hear it for Tory superhero Augusto Pinochet too. "Bit by bit he recovered while he flew", having been released from custody on the orders of Jack Straw:

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/mar/05/pinochet.chile
    He couldn't walk in Britain, but the moment he got off the plane in Chile, he could!

    A miracle!
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,748
    ydoethur said:

    Carnyx said:

    ydoethur said:

    Carnyx said:

    ydoethur said:

    mwadams said:

    Leon said:

    mwadams said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Foxy said:

    AlistairM said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    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
    This sort of thing?

    https://www.thebumgun.com/

    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
    HYUFD said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Leon said:

    Miklosvar said:

    Foxy said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Nigelb said:

    Mr Christopher Christie...

    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.
    Fair enough. I didn’t see that. Is that true?

    Jeez. What a choice
    It's absolutely depressing.
    That's not conclusive. Look at Weinstein pretending he'd lost his marbles to try and get off the charges against him.

    Or indeed in our own system Pinochet and Abdulbaset Al Megrahi.

    It could easily be setting up a second line of defence of unfit to be tried.

    But - that would mean kissing goodbye to any return to the Presidency.
    Megrahi? Wasn't that *much* later than conviction, after he fell ill and came under the standard regulations?
    Well, yes, he wasn't the best example perhaps. He declared he was terminally ill and would die in three months to get remission of sentence - then mysteriously lived another three years, attending public events but being, oddly, in a coma every time a TV crew turned up at his house.

    I was thinking more of how medical conditions can be used to game the system.
    The system had to go on the medical reports (how else?), and such things are never very accurate. But he got new drugs from the USA that were not available in the UK oer the Scottish prison system (I forget which), though heaven knows whether that made any difference.
    As I remember, the medical reports said that there was no reason to think he was in imminent danger of dying and the Scottish minister concerned set them aside.

    But it was a while ago and I was rather busy so didn't pay much attention. I could be wrong.
    Other way round, really - the prison medical service said he was.
  • SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 22,007
    Leon said:

    Oh fuck off, Vanilla

    Poor selection of ice cream in Romania?
  • PeckPeck Posts: 517
    edited August 2023
    Carnyx said:

    ydoethur said:

    Carnyx said:

    ydoethur said:

    Carnyx said:

    ydoethur said:

    mwadams said:

    Leon said:

    mwadams said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Foxy said:

    AlistairM said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    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
    This sort of thing?

    https://www.thebumgun.com/

    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
    HYUFD said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Leon said:

    Miklosvar said:

    Foxy said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Nigelb said:

    Mr Christopher Christie...

    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.
    Fair enough. I didn’t see that. Is that true?

    Jeez. What a choice
    It's absolutely depressing.
    That's not conclusive. Look at Weinstein pretending he'd lost his marbles to try and get off the charges against him.

    Or indeed in our own system Pinochet and Abdulbaset Al Megrahi.

    It could easily be setting up a second line of defence of unfit to be tried.

    But - that would mean kissing goodbye to any return to the Presidency.
    Megrahi? Wasn't that *much* later than conviction, after he fell ill and came under the standard regulations?
    Well, yes, he wasn't the best example perhaps. He declared he was terminally ill and would die in three months to get remission of sentence - then mysteriously lived another three years, attending public events but being, oddly, in a coma every time a TV crew turned up at his house.

    I was thinking more of how medical conditions can be used to game the system.
    The system had to go on the medical reports (how else?), and such things are never very accurate. But he got new drugs from the USA that were not available in the UK oer the Scottish prison system (I forget which), though heaven knows whether that made any difference.
    As I remember, the medical reports said that there was no reason to think he was in imminent danger of dying and the Scottish minister concerned set them aside.

    But it was a while ago and I was rather busy so didn't pay much attention. I could be wrong.
    Other way round, really - the prison medical service said he was.
    The prior thing was that they'd waited past the statutory threshold by which the crown should have been able to proceed, but the crown managed to assert some absurd grounds on which special considerations applied. Which would have been funny except not at all for the defendants. Pursuing people for many years until eventually you manage to get them handed over when a big weapons deal has just been signed and then saying oh dear, you need more time to prepare the prosecution case, is utterly taking the piss.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,748
    Peck said:

    Carnyx said:

    ydoethur said:

    Carnyx said:

    ydoethur said:

    Carnyx said:

    ydoethur said:

    mwadams said:

    Leon said:

    mwadams said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Foxy said:

    AlistairM said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    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
    This sort of thing?

    https://www.thebumgun.com/

    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
    HYUFD said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Leon said:

    Miklosvar said:

    Foxy said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Nigelb said:

    Mr Christopher Christie...

    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.
    Fair enough. I didn’t see that. Is that true?

    Jeez. What a choice
    It's absolutely depressing.
    That's not conclusive. Look at Weinstein pretending he'd lost his marbles to try and get off the charges against him.

    Or indeed in our own system Pinochet and Abdulbaset Al Megrahi.

    It could easily be setting up a second line of defence of unfit to be tried.

    But - that would mean kissing goodbye to any return to the Presidency.
    Megrahi? Wasn't that *much* later than conviction, after he fell ill and came under the standard regulations?
    Well, yes, he wasn't the best example perhaps. He declared he was terminally ill and would die in three months to get remission of sentence - then mysteriously lived another three years, attending public events but being, oddly, in a coma every time a TV crew turned up at his house.

    I was thinking more of how medical conditions can be used to game the system.
    The system had to go on the medical reports (how else?), and such things are never very accurate. But he got new drugs from the USA that were not available in the UK oer the Scottish prison system (I forget which), though heaven knows whether that made any difference.
    As I remember, the medical reports said that there was no reason to think he was in imminent danger of dying and the Scottish minister concerned set them aside.

    But it was a while ago and I was rather busy so didn't pay much attention. I could be wrong.
    Other way round, really - the prison medical service said he was.
    The prior thing was that they'd waited past the statutory threshold by which the crown should have been able to proceed, but the crown managed to assert some absurd grounds on which special considerations applied. Which would have been funny except not at all for the defendants. Pursuing people for many years until eventually you manage to get them handed over when a big weapons deal has just been signed and then saying oh dear, you need more time to prepare the prosecution case, is utterly taking the piss.
    Er, are we talking about Megrahi?
  • PeckPeck Posts: 517

    Leon said:

    Oh fuck off, Vanilla

    Poor selection of ice cream in Romania?
    Spare me from literal interpretation jokes! Argh!
  • SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 22,007
    Omnium said:

    Have we become POO-litical Betting? :lol:

    On your train!
    DMUs are known as "bog carts" within the enthusiast community.
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 34,650
    Foxy said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Foxy said:

    AlistairM said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    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
    This sort of thing?

    https://www.thebumgun.com/

    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!”
    was actually thinking *install heat pump and bum gun when we move house*.

    I'd say Mphm or 'Aye, right' if I wasn't.
    As the heat pump will only produce hot water to 40C, the bum gum should be quite comfortable.
    I think bum gum is another niche interest.
    Somebody had to crack that one I guess.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,748

    Omnium said:

    Have we become POO-litical Betting? :lol:

    On your train!
    DMUs are known as "bog carts" within the enthusiast community.
    Because they go boggler boggler?
  • Good evening

    The opening championship match, Sheffield Wednesday v Southampton, tonight saw bookings for kicking the ball away, more than one coaching staff in the coaching area, and other strange bookings

    However, the striking difference to previous seasons was the time added on

    First half - 6 mins and played 7

    Second half - 9 mins and played 9

    Total added time of 16 mins and the clock actually displayed the real time and did not stop at 90 mins

    Southampton won 2 - 1 by the way
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 22,022

    Good evening

    Good evening

  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,515
    edited August 2023
    Comments by former LibDem MP John Hemming on the VoteUK forum.

    John Hemming: "Not that anyone is changing their minds on lockdown, but it does appear the vaccination is harmful for younger people (to the extent that they should not be vaccinated)."

    Someone else called Slon wrote: "I think that was known a couple of years ago. The chance of a young person ending up in hospital due to an adverse reaction to the vaccine was greater than the chance of them ending up in hospital due to covid (very small chance in either case). There is the other aspect to consider .... a child with covid can pass the disease on to others, an adverse vaccine reaction is not contagious"

    John Hemming replied: "I think this may be an understatement. It is not just children, but also people in their 20s and is the myocarditis issue."

    https://vote-2012.proboards.com/post/1396523/thread
  • SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 22,007
    On bottom washing, all of my Punjabi in-laws have plastic jugs by the toilet, to use for this purpose.

    We had our bathroom refitted in our current house and included a bidet, as there was sufficient space. They are also good for washing your feet, especially when on holiday and you have sand between your toes.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,585

    Good evening

    The opening championship match, Sheffield Wednesday v Southampton, tonight saw bookings for kicking the ball away, more than one coaching staff in the coaching area, and other strange bookings

    However, the striking difference to previous seasons was the time added on

    First half - 6 mins and played 7

    Second half - 9 mins and played 9

    Total added time of 16 mins and the clock actually displayed the real time and did not stop at 90 mins

    Southampton won 2 - 1 by the way

    Betting tip.

    Coventry to win away against Leicester on Sunday.

    Cov are a good side that reached the playoff final and were unlucky to not go up as they outplayed Luton for most of the match. Leicester have lost their best players and the new signings are few and very green. It could go either way but the bookies have Leicester as strong favourite and I cannot see why.

    The Sky Blues are value at 6.2 to win on Betfair at present.

    I think Southampton most likely of the relegated teams to bounce back. They have kept the best of their squad.
  • Foxy said:

    Good evening

    The opening championship match, Sheffield Wednesday v Southampton, tonight saw bookings for kicking the ball away, more than one coaching staff in the coaching area, and other strange bookings

    However, the striking difference to previous seasons was the time added on

    First half - 6 mins and played 7

    Second half - 9 mins and played 9

    Total added time of 16 mins and the clock actually displayed the real time and did not stop at 90 mins

    Southampton won 2 - 1 by the way

    Betting tip.

    Coventry to win away against Leicester on Sunday.

    Cov are a good side that reached the playoff final and were unlucky to not go up as they outplayed Luton for most of the match. Leicester have lost their best players and the new signings are few and very green. It could go either way but the bookies have Leicester as strong favourite and I cannot see why.

    The Sky Blues are value at 6.2 to win on Betfair at present.

    I think Southampton most likely of the relegated teams to bounce back. They have kept the best of their squad.
    Southampton were all over Wednesday in the first half but not quite as much in the second but on tonight's showing I would agree they look likely to bounce back
  • AlistairMAlistairM Posts: 2,005
    Looks like Ukraine may have targeted the Kerch Bridge again.

    ⚡️⚡️It is reported that there are explosions in the area of the Crimean Bridge

    It is also reported that traffic has been blocked there. We are waiting for details.

    https://twitter.com/front_ukrainian/status/1687568201498992641?s=20

    "Traffic on the Crimean Bridge is blocked and lights are turned off in connection with security measures due to the attack of Ukrainian drones."

    An attack by Ukrainian sea and air kamikaze drones has been reported in the Kerch Strait

    https://twitter.com/front_ukrainian/status/1687570611579527168?s=20
  • RazedabodeRazedabode Posts: 3,027
    AlistairM said:

    Looks like Ukraine may have targeted the Kerch Bridge again.

    ⚡️⚡️It is reported that there are explosions in the area of the Crimean Bridge

    It is also reported that traffic has been blocked there. We are waiting for details.

    https://twitter.com/front_ukrainian/status/1687568201498992641?s=20

    "Traffic on the Crimean Bridge is blocked and lights are turned off in connection with security measures due to the attack of Ukrainian drones."

    An attack by Ukrainian sea and air kamikaze drones has been reported in the Kerch Strait

    https://twitter.com/front_ukrainian/status/1687570611579527168?s=20

    Quite an active 24 hours with Russian navy targeted and now the bridge for the 3rd time

    Ukrainians making good progress? Must be a despairing position for the Russians (deservedly so)
  • LostPasswordLostPassword Posts: 18,291

    AlistairM said:

    Looks like Ukraine may have targeted the Kerch Bridge again.

    ⚡️⚡️It is reported that there are explosions in the area of the Crimean Bridge

    It is also reported that traffic has been blocked there. We are waiting for details.

    https://twitter.com/front_ukrainian/status/1687568201498992641?s=20

    "Traffic on the Crimean Bridge is blocked and lights are turned off in connection with security measures due to the attack of Ukrainian drones."

    An attack by Ukrainian sea and air kamikaze drones has been reported in the Kerch Strait

    https://twitter.com/front_ukrainian/status/1687570611579527168?s=20

    Quite an active 24 hours with Russian navy targeted and now the bridge for the 3rd time

    Ukrainians making good progress? Must be a despairing position for the Russians (deservedly so)
    Becoming increasingly obvious how much Ukraine's domestic war drone capability has improved over the course of the war. People talking about the Americans turning off support and forcing the Ukrainians to negotiate underestimate Ukraine's capabilities.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,104

    AlistairM said:

    Looks like Ukraine may have targeted the Kerch Bridge again.

    ⚡️⚡️It is reported that there are explosions in the area of the Crimean Bridge

    It is also reported that traffic has been blocked there. We are waiting for details.

    https://twitter.com/front_ukrainian/status/1687568201498992641?s=20

    "Traffic on the Crimean Bridge is blocked and lights are turned off in connection with security measures due to the attack of Ukrainian drones."

    An attack by Ukrainian sea and air kamikaze drones has been reported in the Kerch Strait

    https://twitter.com/front_ukrainian/status/1687570611579527168?s=20

    Quite an active 24 hours with Russian navy targeted and now the bridge for the 3rd time

    Ukrainians making good progress? Must be a despairing position for the Russians (deservedly so)
    Becoming increasingly obvious how much Ukraine's domestic war drone capability has improved over the course of the war. People talking about the Americans turning off support and forcing the Ukrainians to negotiate underestimate Ukraine's capabilities.
    It's worth considering America's role. The drone attacks used Starlink links. The whole whoopla about who can access what, where with Starlink, for military purposes, is really at the door of the Pentagon.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 70,955
    .
    Foxy said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Comments by former LibDem MP John Hemming on the VoteUK forum.

    John Hemming: "Not that anyone is changing their minds on lockdown, but it does appear the vaccination is harmful for younger people (to the extent that they should not be vaccinated)."

    Someone else called Slon wrote: "I think that was known a couple of years ago. The chance of a young person ending up in hospital due to an adverse reaction to the vaccine was greater than the chance of them ending up in hospital due to covid (very small chance in either case). There is the other aspect to consider .... a child with covid can pass the disease on to others, an adverse vaccine reaction is not contagious"

    John Hemming replied: "I think this may be an understatement. It is not just children, but also people in their 20s and is the myocarditis issue."

    https://vote-2012.proboards.com/post/1396523/thread

    There have been 3.2 million covid infections in the UK in children, with 29 000+ admissions, 710 admissions to intensive care and 70 deaths.

    https://www.bmj.com/content/382/bmj-2022-073639

    I wouldn't state a 1% admission rate as very few.

    Covid causes myocarditis in the young at 6 times the rate of the vaccine, and generally more severe.

    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34341797/#:~:text=Conclusions: Myocarditis (or pericarditis or,who have received the vaccine.

    I don't know why you are so keen on this anti-vax stuff. I thought you were statistically literate.

    There are valid reasons to argue against lockdown on social grounds etc, but to mislead over risks is not one of them.
    He sounds a right prat.
  • LostPasswordLostPassword Posts: 18,291

    AlistairM said:

    Looks like Ukraine may have targeted the Kerch Bridge again.

    ⚡️⚡️It is reported that there are explosions in the area of the Crimean Bridge

    It is also reported that traffic has been blocked there. We are waiting for details.

    https://twitter.com/front_ukrainian/status/1687568201498992641?s=20

    "Traffic on the Crimean Bridge is blocked and lights are turned off in connection with security measures due to the attack of Ukrainian drones."

    An attack by Ukrainian sea and air kamikaze drones has been reported in the Kerch Strait

    https://twitter.com/front_ukrainian/status/1687570611579527168?s=20

    Quite an active 24 hours with Russian navy targeted and now the bridge for the 3rd time

    Ukrainians making good progress? Must be a despairing position for the Russians (deservedly so)
    Becoming increasingly obvious how much Ukraine's domestic war drone capability has improved over the course of the war. People talking about the Americans turning off support and forcing the Ukrainians to negotiate underestimate Ukraine's capabilities.
    It's worth considering America's role. The drone attacks used Starlink links. The whole whoopla about who can access what, where with Starlink, for military purposes, is really at the door of the Pentagon.
    That's true. And it's often been obvious how important the targeting information from the US has been.
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 57,052
    Andy_JS said:

    Comments by former LibDem MP John Hemming on the VoteUK forum.

    John Hemming: "Not that anyone is changing their minds on lockdown, but it does appear the vaccination is harmful for younger people (to the extent that they should not be vaccinated)."

    Someone else called Slon wrote: "I think that was known a couple of years ago. The chance of a young person ending up in hospital due to an adverse reaction to the vaccine was greater than the chance of them ending up in hospital due to covid (very small chance in either case). There is the other aspect to consider .... a child with covid can pass the disease on to others, an adverse vaccine reaction is not contagious"

    John Hemming replied: "I think this may be an understatement. It is not just children, but also people in their 20s and is the myocarditis issue."

    https://vote-2012.proboards.com/post/1396523/thread

    This John Hemming:

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2051320/MP-John-Hemming-admits-having-wife-mistress-challenge.html
  • PeckPeck Posts: 517
    Carnyx said:

    Peck said:

    Carnyx said:

    ydoethur said:

    Carnyx said:

    ydoethur said:

    Carnyx said:

    ydoethur said:

    mwadams said:

    Leon said:

    mwadams said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Foxy said:

    AlistairM said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    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
    This sort of thing?

    https://www.thebumgun.com/

    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
    HYUFD said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Leon said:

    Miklosvar said:

    Foxy said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Nigelb said:

    Mr Christopher Christie...

    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.
    Fair enough. I didn’t see that. Is that true?

    Jeez. What a choice
    It's absolutely depressing.
    That's not conclusive. Look at Weinstein pretending he'd lost his marbles to try and get off the charges against him.

    Or indeed in our own system Pinochet and Abdulbaset Al Megrahi.

    It could easily be setting up a second line of defence of unfit to be tried.

    But - that would mean kissing goodbye to any return to the Presidency.
    Megrahi? Wasn't that *much* later than conviction, after he fell ill and came under the standard regulations?
    Well, yes, he wasn't the best example perhaps. He declared he was terminally ill and would die in three months to get remission of sentence - then mysteriously lived another three years, attending public events but being, oddly, in a coma every time a TV crew turned up at his house.

    I was thinking more of how medical conditions can be used to game the system.
    The system had to go on the medical reports (how else?), and such things are never very accurate. But he got new drugs from the USA that were not available in the UK oer the Scottish prison system (I forget which), though heaven knows whether that made any difference.
    As I remember, the medical reports said that there was no reason to think he was in imminent danger of dying and the Scottish minister concerned set them aside.

    But it was a while ago and I was rather busy so didn't pay much attention. I could be wrong.
    Other way round, really - the prison medical service said he was.
    The prior thing was that they'd waited past the statutory threshold by which the crown should have been able to proceed, but the crown managed to assert some absurd grounds on which special considerations applied. Which would have been funny except not at all for the defendants. Pursuing people for many years until eventually you manage to get them handed over when a big weapons deal has just been signed and then saying oh dear, you need more time to prepare the prosecution case, is utterly taking the piss.
    Er, are we talking about Megrahi?
    Yes - sorry, my memory is vague, but I thought there was a maximum period for delaying bringing a defendant to trial in Scotland while holding them on remand unless special circumstances are shown, and this was what had to be shown in the Megrahi case despite the fact that he'd been pursued for several years and therefore one should have been able to assume there was a case against him that was reasonably ready to go. But I can't actually remember the details. Could have sworn it was smth like this, though.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,585
    edited August 2023

    Foxy said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Comments by former LibDem MP John Hemming on the VoteUK forum.

    John Hemming: "Not that anyone is changing their minds on lockdown, but it does appear the vaccination is harmful for younger people (to the extent that they should not be vaccinated)."

    Someone else called Slon wrote: "I think that was known a couple of years ago. The chance of a young person ending up in hospital due to an adverse reaction to the vaccine was greater than the chance of them ending up in hospital due to covid (very small chance in either case). There is the other aspect to consider .... a child with covid can pass the disease on to others, an adverse vaccine reaction is not contagious"

    John Hemming replied: "I think this may be an understatement. It is not just children, but also people in their 20s and is the myocarditis issue."

    https://vote-2012.proboards.com/post/1396523/thread

    There have been 3.2 million covid infections in the UK in children, with 29 000+ admissions, 710 admissions to intensive care and 70 deaths.

    https://www.bmj.com/content/382/bmj-2022-073639

    I wouldn't state a 1% admission rate as very few.

    Covid causes myocarditis in the young at 6 times the rate of the vaccine, and generally more severe.

    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34341797/#:~:text=Conclusions: Myocarditis (or pericarditis or,who have received the vaccine.

    I don't know why you are so keen on this anti-vax stuff. I thought you were statistically literate.

    There are valid reasons to argue against lockdown on social grounds etc, but to mislead over risks is not one of them.
    Could you please stop quoting accurate scientific facts here? Some of us are trying to keep our personal prejudices & stupidities intact.
    Sadly the British right seems to be following the
    American right into an anti-science rabbit hole. It doesn't bode well for our politics, or stability as a society.



    https://twitter.com/jburnmurdoch/status/1686813844469858319?t=7RbjEfeH0MG1wXZvefgFPg&s=19

    And it leads to this:



    What a waste of lives!
  • jamesdoylejamesdoyle Posts: 790
    Barbie. Brilliant.
    Funny, moving, furious, lovely.

    The bar for me is Enchanted, when Amy Adams has a similar role as a Disney princess: I think Barbie's narrative doesn't hang together quite as well, and I will be a little annoyed if Margot Robbie wins an Oscar, because Amy should have won one for that, but overall this is a great film.

    It had the added joy for me of making me realise that Rhea Perlman is still alive, which is definitely a good thing.
    And Ncuti Gatwa's half yellow half blue 70s shorts will not be forgotten quickly.

    Now all I want is a 'I am Kenough' top.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,104
    Foxy said:

    Foxy said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Comments by former LibDem MP John Hemming on the VoteUK forum.

    John Hemming: "Not that anyone is changing their minds on lockdown, but it does appear the vaccination is harmful for younger people (to the extent that they should not be vaccinated)."

    Someone else called Slon wrote: "I think that was known a couple of years ago. The chance of a young person ending up in hospital due to an adverse reaction to the vaccine was greater than the chance of them ending up in hospital due to covid (very small chance in either case). There is the other aspect to consider .... a child with covid can pass the disease on to others, an adverse vaccine reaction is not contagious"

    John Hemming replied: "I think this may be an understatement. It is not just children, but also people in their 20s and is the myocarditis issue."

    https://vote-2012.proboards.com/post/1396523/thread

    There have been 3.2 million covid infections in the UK in children, with 29 000+ admissions, 710 admissions to intensive care and 70 deaths.

    https://www.bmj.com/content/382/bmj-2022-073639

    I wouldn't state a 1% admission rate as very few.

    Covid causes myocarditis in the young at 6 times the rate of the vaccine, and generally more severe.

    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34341797/#:~:text=Conclusions: Myocarditis (or pericarditis or,who have received the vaccine.

    I don't know why you are so keen on this anti-vax stuff. I thought you were statistically literate.

    There are valid reasons to argue against lockdown on social grounds etc, but to mislead over risks is not one of them.
    Could you please stop quoting accurate scientific facts here? Some of us are trying to keep our personal prejudices & stupidities intact.
    Sadly the British right seems to be following the
    American right into an anti-science rabbit hole. It doesn't bode well for our politics, or stability as a society.



    https://twitter.com/jburnmurdoch/status/1686813844469858319?t=7RbjEfeH0MG1wXZvefgFPg&s=19

    And it leads to this:



    What a waste of lives!
    The anti-vax lot in the UK seem to be as much alt-left as alt-right. Though sometimes it is hard to tell them apart. Especially when they get to the old favourite. The Socialism of Fools.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,748
    Peck said:

    Carnyx said:

    Peck said:

    Carnyx said:

    ydoethur said:

    Carnyx said:

    ydoethur said:

    Carnyx said:

    ydoethur said:

    mwadams said:

    Leon said:

    mwadams said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    Carnyx said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Foxy said:

    AlistairM said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    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
    This sort of thing?

    https://www.thebumgun.com/

    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
    HYUFD said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Leon said:

    Miklosvar said:

    Foxy said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Nigelb said:

    Mr Christopher Christie...

    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.
    Fair enough. I didn’t see that. Is that true?

    Jeez. What a choice
    It's absolutely depressing.
    That's not conclusive. Look at Weinstein pretending he'd lost his marbles to try and get off the charges against him.

    Or indeed in our own system Pinochet and Abdulbaset Al Megrahi.

    It could easily be setting up a second line of defence of unfit to be tried.

    But - that would mean kissing goodbye to any return to the Presidency.
    Megrahi? Wasn't that *much* later than conviction, after he fell ill and came under the standard regulations?
    Well, yes, he wasn't the best example perhaps. He declared he was terminally ill and would die in three months to get remission of sentence - then mysteriously lived another three years, attending public events but being, oddly, in a coma every time a TV crew turned up at his house.

    I was thinking more of how medical conditions can be used to game the system.
    The system had to go on the medical reports (how else?), and such things are never very accurate. But he got new drugs from the USA that were not available in the UK oer the Scottish prison system (I forget which), though heaven knows whether that made any difference.
    As I remember, the medical reports said that there was no reason to think he was in imminent danger of dying and the Scottish minister concerned set them aside.

    But it was a while ago and I was rather busy so didn't pay much attention. I could be wrong.
    Other way round, really - the prison medical service said he was.
    The prior thing was that they'd waited past the statutory threshold by which the crown should have been able to proceed, but the crown managed to assert some absurd grounds on which special considerations applied. Which would have been funny except not at all for the defendants. Pursuing people for many years until eventually you manage to get them handed over when a big weapons deal has just been signed and then saying oh dear, you need more time to prepare the prosecution case, is utterly taking the piss.
    Er, are we talking about Megrahi?
    Yes - sorry, my memory is vague, but I thought there was a maximum period for delaying bringing a defendant to trial in Scotland while holding them on remand unless special circumstances are shown, and this was what had to be shown in the Megrahi case despite the fact that he'd been pursued for several years and therefore one should have been able to assume there was a case against him that was reasonably ready to go. But I can't actually remember the details. Could have sworn it was smth like this, though.
    Can't remember that, but it would obviously have been something quite separate (ie before conviction). As your 'prior' indeed stresses.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,585

    Foxy said:

    Foxy said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Comments by former LibDem MP John Hemming on the VoteUK forum.

    John Hemming: "Not that anyone is changing their minds on lockdown, but it does appear the vaccination is harmful for younger people (to the extent that they should not be vaccinated)."

    Someone else called Slon wrote: "I think that was known a couple of years ago. The chance of a young person ending up in hospital due to an adverse reaction to the vaccine was greater than the chance of them ending up in hospital due to covid (very small chance in either case). There is the other aspect to consider .... a child with covid can pass the disease on to others, an adverse vaccine reaction is not contagious"

    John Hemming replied: "I think this may be an understatement. It is not just children, but also people in their 20s and is the myocarditis issue."

    https://vote-2012.proboards.com/post/1396523/thread

    There have been 3.2 million covid infections in the UK in children, with 29 000+ admissions, 710 admissions to intensive care and 70 deaths.

    https://www.bmj.com/content/382/bmj-2022-073639

    I wouldn't state a 1% admission rate as very few.

    Covid causes myocarditis in the young at 6 times the rate of the vaccine, and generally more severe.

    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34341797/#:~:text=Conclusions: Myocarditis (or pericarditis or,who have received the vaccine.

    I don't know why you are so keen on this anti-vax stuff. I thought you were statistically literate.

    There are valid reasons to argue against lockdown on social grounds etc, but to mislead over risks is not one of them.
    Could you please stop quoting accurate scientific facts here? Some of us are trying to keep our personal prejudices & stupidities intact.
    Sadly the British right seems to be following the
    American right into an anti-science rabbit hole. It doesn't bode well for our politics, or stability as a society.



    https://twitter.com/jburnmurdoch/status/1686813844469858319?t=7RbjEfeH0MG1wXZvefgFPg&s=19

    And it leads to this:



    What a waste of lives!
    The anti-vax lot in the UK seem to be as much alt-left as alt-right. Though sometimes it is hard to tell them apart. Especially when they get to the old favourite. The Socialism of Fools.
    Anti-science goes wider than anti-vax. See the header earlier this week:

    https://www2.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2023/08/03/two-thirds-of-con-members-dont-think-theres-a-climate-emergency/#vanilla-comments
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,104

    AlistairM said:

    Looks like Ukraine may have targeted the Kerch Bridge again.

    ⚡️⚡️It is reported that there are explosions in the area of the Crimean Bridge

    It is also reported that traffic has been blocked there. We are waiting for details.

    https://twitter.com/front_ukrainian/status/1687568201498992641?s=20

    "Traffic on the Crimean Bridge is blocked and lights are turned off in connection with security measures due to the attack of Ukrainian drones."

    An attack by Ukrainian sea and air kamikaze drones has been reported in the Kerch Strait

    https://twitter.com/front_ukrainian/status/1687570611579527168?s=20

    Quite an active 24 hours with Russian navy targeted and now the bridge for the 3rd time

    Ukrainians making good progress? Must be a despairing position for the Russians (deservedly so)
    Becoming increasingly obvious how much Ukraine's domestic war drone capability has improved over the course of the war. People talking about the Americans turning off support and forcing the Ukrainians to negotiate underestimate Ukraine's capabilities.
    It's worth considering America's role. The drone attacks used Starlink links. The whole whoopla about who can access what, where with Starlink, for military purposes, is really at the door of the Pentagon.
    That's true. And it's often been obvious how important the targeting information from the US has been.
    Red Storm Rising is still predicting the present. Clancy had JSTARs staring radar surveillance of the battlefield showing the Russian movements down to the level of individual trucks. In the book, transmit radio orders and you get hit within minutes.
  • PeckPeck Posts: 517

    Foxy said:

    Foxy said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Comments by former LibDem MP John Hemming on the VoteUK forum.

    John Hemming: "Not that anyone is changing their minds on lockdown, but it does appear the vaccination is harmful for younger people (to the extent that they should not be vaccinated)."

    Someone else called Slon wrote: "I think that was known a couple of years ago. The chance of a young person ending up in hospital due to an adverse reaction to the vaccine was greater than the chance of them ending up in hospital due to covid (very small chance in either case). There is the other aspect to consider .... a child with covid can pass the disease on to others, an adverse vaccine reaction is not contagious"

    John Hemming replied: "I think this may be an understatement. It is not just children, but also people in their 20s and is the myocarditis issue."

    https://vote-2012.proboards.com/post/1396523/thread

    There have been 3.2 million covid infections in the UK in children, with 29 000+ admissions, 710 admissions to intensive care and 70 deaths.

    https://www.bmj.com/content/382/bmj-2022-073639

    I wouldn't state a 1% admission rate as very few.

    Covid causes myocarditis in the young at 6 times the rate of the vaccine, and generally more severe.

    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34341797/#:~:text=Conclusions: Myocarditis (or pericarditis or,who have received the vaccine.

    I don't know why you are so keen on this anti-vax stuff. I thought you were statistically literate.

    There are valid reasons to argue against lockdown on social grounds etc, but to mislead over risks is not one of them.
    Could you please stop quoting accurate scientific facts here? Some of us are trying to keep our personal prejudices & stupidities intact.
    Sadly the British right seems to be following the
    American right into an anti-science rabbit hole. It doesn't bode well for our politics, or stability as a society.



    https://twitter.com/jburnmurdoch/status/1686813844469858319?t=7RbjEfeH0MG1wXZvefgFPg&s=19

    And it leads to this:



    What a waste of lives!
    The anti-vax lot in the UK seem to be as much alt-left as alt-right. Though sometimes it is hard to tell them apart. Especially when they get to the old favourite. The Socialism of Fools.
    You may well have studied the spectrum of SARSCoV2 vaccine scepticism more than I have. Have you not come across any leftwing sceptics who aren't anti-Semitic? If so, perhaps I can be your first specimen.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,104
    Peck said:

    Foxy said:

    Foxy said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Comments by former LibDem MP John Hemming on the VoteUK forum.

    John Hemming: "Not that anyone is changing their minds on lockdown, but it does appear the vaccination is harmful for younger people (to the extent that they should not be vaccinated)."

    Someone else called Slon wrote: "I think that was known a couple of years ago. The chance of a young person ending up in hospital due to an adverse reaction to the vaccine was greater than the chance of them ending up in hospital due to covid (very small chance in either case). There is the other aspect to consider .... a child with covid can pass the disease on to others, an adverse vaccine reaction is not contagious"

    John Hemming replied: "I think this may be an understatement. It is not just children, but also people in their 20s and is the myocarditis issue."

    https://vote-2012.proboards.com/post/1396523/thread

    There have been 3.2 million covid infections in the UK in children, with 29 000+ admissions, 710 admissions to intensive care and 70 deaths.

    https://www.bmj.com/content/382/bmj-2022-073639

    I wouldn't state a 1% admission rate as very few.

    Covid causes myocarditis in the young at 6 times the rate of the vaccine, and generally more severe.

    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34341797/#:~:text=Conclusions: Myocarditis (or pericarditis or,who have received the vaccine.

    I don't know why you are so keen on this anti-vax stuff. I thought you were statistically literate.

    There are valid reasons to argue against lockdown on social grounds etc, but to mislead over risks is not one of them.
    Could you please stop quoting accurate scientific facts here? Some of us are trying to keep our personal prejudices & stupidities intact.
    Sadly the British right seems to be following the
    American right into an anti-science rabbit hole. It doesn't bode well for our politics, or stability as a society.



    https://twitter.com/jburnmurdoch/status/1686813844469858319?t=7RbjEfeH0MG1wXZvefgFPg&s=19

    And it leads to this:



    What a waste of lives!
    The anti-vax lot in the UK seem to be as much alt-left as alt-right. Though sometimes it is hard to tell them apart. Especially when they get to the old favourite. The Socialism of Fools.
    You may well have studied the spectrum of SARSCoV2 vaccine scepticism more than I have. Have you not come across any leftwing sceptics who aren't anti-Semitic? If so, perhaps I can be your first specimen.
    Well, they seem to resemble (left and right versions) that nice Lisa Kudrow in Death To 2020.

    They start off (usually) sounding kind of reasonable. Then start howling at the moon. Come to think of it, we are just off the full moon...
  • PeckPeck Posts: 517
    Foxy said:

    Foxy said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Comments by former LibDem MP John Hemming on the VoteUK forum.

    John Hemming: "Not that anyone is changing their minds on lockdown, but it does appear the vaccination is harmful for younger people (to the extent that they should not be vaccinated)."

    Someone else called Slon wrote: "I think that was known a couple of years ago. The chance of a young person ending up in hospital due to an adverse reaction to the vaccine was greater than the chance of them ending up in hospital due to covid (very small chance in either case). There is the other aspect to consider .... a child with covid can pass the disease on to others, an adverse vaccine reaction is not contagious"

    John Hemming replied: "I think this may be an understatement. It is not just children, but also people in their 20s and is the myocarditis issue."

    https://vote-2012.proboards.com/post/1396523/thread

    There have been 3.2 million covid infections in the UK in children, with 29 000+ admissions, 710 admissions to intensive care and 70 deaths.

    https://www.bmj.com/content/382/bmj-2022-073639

    I wouldn't state a 1% admission rate as very few.

    Covid causes myocarditis in the young at 6 times the rate of the vaccine, and generally more severe.

    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34341797/#:~:text=Conclusions: Myocarditis (or pericarditis or,who have received the vaccine.

    I don't know why you are so keen on this anti-vax stuff. I thought you were statistically literate.

    There are valid reasons to argue against lockdown on social grounds etc, but to mislead over risks is not one of them.
    Could you please stop quoting accurate scientific facts here? Some of us are trying to keep our personal prejudices & stupidities intact.
    Sadly the British right seems to be following the
    American right into an anti-science rabbit hole. It doesn't bode well for our politics, or stability as a society.



    https://twitter.com/jburnmurdoch/status/1686813844469858319?t=7RbjEfeH0MG1wXZvefgFPg&s=19

    And it leads to this:



    What a waste of lives!
    "Have you got a great deal of confidence in the scientific community? YES/NO".
    You really don't see what a f***ing stupid question that is, and how the only non-cretinous answer is "NO"?

  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 70,955
    Peck said:

    Foxy said:

    Foxy said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Comments by former LibDem MP John Hemming on the VoteUK forum.

    John Hemming: "Not that anyone is changing their minds on lockdown, but it does appear the vaccination is harmful for younger people (to the extent that they should not be vaccinated)."

    Someone else called Slon wrote: "I think that was known a couple of years ago. The chance of a young person ending up in hospital due to an adverse reaction to the vaccine was greater than the chance of them ending up in hospital due to covid (very small chance in either case). There is the other aspect to consider .... a child with covid can pass the disease on to others, an adverse vaccine reaction is not contagious"

    John Hemming replied: "I think this may be an understatement. It is not just children, but also people in their 20s and is the myocarditis issue."

    https://vote-2012.proboards.com/post/1396523/thread

    There have been 3.2 million covid infections in the UK in children, with 29 000+ admissions, 710 admissions to intensive care and 70 deaths.

    https://www.bmj.com/content/382/bmj-2022-073639

    I wouldn't state a 1% admission rate as very few.

    Covid causes myocarditis in the young at 6 times the rate of the vaccine, and generally more severe.

    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34341797/#:~:text=Conclusions: Myocarditis (or pericarditis or,who have received the vaccine.

    I don't know why you are so keen on this anti-vax stuff. I thought you were statistically literate.

    There are valid reasons to argue against lockdown on social grounds etc, but to mislead over risks is not one of them.
    Could you please stop quoting accurate scientific facts here? Some of us are trying to keep our personal prejudices & stupidities intact.
    Sadly the British right seems to be following the
    American right into an anti-science rabbit hole. It doesn't bode well for our politics, or stability as a society.



    https://twitter.com/jburnmurdoch/status/1686813844469858319?t=7RbjEfeH0MG1wXZvefgFPg&s=19

    And it leads to this:



    What a waste of lives!
    "Have you got a great deal of confidence in the scientific community? YES/NO".
    You really don't see what a f***ing stupid question that is, and how the only non-cretinous answer is "NO"?

    Rather more than in your pronouncements.
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 22,022

    ...I don't know why you are so keen on this anti-vax stuff. I thought you were statistically literate...

    People spend too much time on the internet and believe that the things they read represent objective facts, instead of pixels on a screen. We live in a country with about 68 million people, in a world with about 8 billion people, with 500 million tweets per day and 350 million photos uploaded on Facebook every day and I'm not even going to look up WhatsApp and Messenger, as part of the 3.5 billion searches per day made on Google. If you are interested in a thing, you can find things that might well be real facts to support your hypotheses, mix with people who believe that, and reproduce it here. We all do it[1]

    Our little mammal brains aren't good at coping with an infosphere that big.

    Notes
    • [1] Except me of course: I'm perfect[2]... :)
    • [2] Except from the fact that I just threw a bunch of numbers from you that I got from Google, which makes me just as culpable :(
  • CarlottaVanceCarlottaVance Posts: 60,216
    Prediction: @eddieizzard will not be selected for Labour to fight Brighton Pavilion.

    (If I'm wrong, all hell will break loose in the local party, but this is one reason why I'm not wrong).

    https://twitter.com/runthinkwrite/status/1687525875133140998
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,104
    A
    Peck said:

    Foxy said:

    Foxy said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Comments by former LibDem MP John Hemming on the VoteUK forum.

    John Hemming: "Not that anyone is changing their minds on lockdown, but it does appear the vaccination is harmful for younger people (to the extent that they should not be vaccinated)."

    Someone else called Slon wrote: "I think that was known a couple of years ago. The chance of a young person ending up in hospital due to an adverse reaction to the vaccine was greater than the chance of them ending up in hospital due to covid (very small chance in either case). There is the other aspect to consider .... a child with covid can pass the disease on to others, an adverse vaccine reaction is not contagious"

    John Hemming replied: "I think this may be an understatement. It is not just children, but also people in their 20s and is the myocarditis issue."

    https://vote-2012.proboards.com/post/1396523/thread

    There have been 3.2 million covid infections in the UK in children, with 29 000+ admissions, 710 admissions to intensive care and 70 deaths.

    https://www.bmj.com/content/382/bmj-2022-073639

    I wouldn't state a 1% admission rate as very few.

    Covid causes myocarditis in the young at 6 times the rate of the vaccine, and generally more severe.

    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34341797/#:~:text=Conclusions: Myocarditis (or pericarditis or,who have received the vaccine.

    I don't know why you are so keen on this anti-vax stuff. I thought you were statistically literate.

    There are valid reasons to argue against lockdown on social grounds etc, but to mislead over risks is not one of them.
    Could you please stop quoting accurate scientific facts here? Some of us are trying to keep our personal prejudices & stupidities intact.
    Sadly the British right seems to be following the
    American right into an anti-science rabbit hole. It doesn't bode well for our politics, or stability as a society.



    https://twitter.com/jburnmurdoch/status/1686813844469858319?t=7RbjEfeH0MG1wXZvefgFPg&s=19

    And it leads to this:



    What a waste of lives!
    "Have you got a great deal of confidence in the scientific community? YES/NO".
    You really don't see what a f***ing stupid question that is, and how the only non-cretinous answer is "NO"?

    While scientists have done bad stuff... In aggregate, they are as a community several million times more reliable, trustworthy and evidence based than

    1) People with tin foil on their heads
    2) People who think they've found the truth
    3) People with too many guns and too much bleach
    4) Robert Peston
    5) People who think that Karl Marx was anything other than the stupidest Marx Brother.
    6) Anyone called Piers
    7) Anyone called Corbyn
    8) Anyone called Piers Corbyn
  • Jim_MillerJim_Miller Posts: 2,998
    Those opposed to capital punishment may be amused by this solution to the Trump problem:

    1. Donald releases Melania. (Whatever crimes she may have comitted to get into the US, she has surely paid for them by now.) She can go home to Slovenia and take her parents with her.

    2. Donald turns over whatever money he may have to a trustee who will dole it out to his many victims.

    3. Donald joins one of those monastic orders that require the monks to take vows of obedience, poverty, chastity -- and silence. (Yes, there are still a few such orders around.)

    Yes, I realize that the chances of all this happening are far less than 1 in a billion -- but it's fun to think about.

    (While I am mentioning odds, I will say that there is more than a 1 in a billion chance of a speedy trial for Trump on the January 6th charges. But I will agree that the odds are less than even. Those who know the US laws and the judge in the case may be able to narrow that range.

    Naturally, I look forward to ydoethur's numbers -- especially if he disagrees with me.)
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,104
    A
    viewcode said:

    ...I don't know why you are so keen on this anti-vax stuff. I thought you were statistically literate...

    People spend too much time on the internet and believe that the things they read represent objective facts, instead of pixels on a screen. We live in a country with about 68 million people, in a world with about 8 billion people, with 500 million tweets per day and 350 million photos uploaded on Facebook every day and I'm not even going to look up WhatsApp and Messenger, as part of the 3.5 billion searches per day made on Google. If you are interested in a thing, you can find things that might well be real facts to support your hypotheses, mix with people who believe that, and reproduce it here. We all do it[1]

    Our little mammal brains aren't good at coping with an infosphere that big.

    Notes
    • [1] Except me of course: I'm perfect[2]... :)
    • [2] Except from the fact that I just threw a bunch of numbers from you that I got from Google, which makes me just as culpable :(
    I remember one person who was appalled by the fact that I'd read Mein Kampf. He genuinely couldn't understand the idea that you don't necessarily believe in what you read.

    That was quite scary for me. What he seemed to be saying is that he was only one copy of the Daily Mail away from turning into... something.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,104

    Those opposed to capital punishment may be amused by this solution to the Trump problem:

    1. Donald releases Melania. (Whatever crimes she may have comitted to get into the US, she has surely paid for them by now.) She can go home to Slovenia and take her parents with her.

    2. Donald turns over whatever money he may have to a trustee who will dole it out to his many victims.

    3. Donald joins one of those monastic orders that require the monks to take vows of obedience, poverty, chastity -- and silence. (Yes, there are still a few such orders around.)

    Yes, I realize that the chances of all this happening are far less than 1 in a billion -- but it's fun to think about.

    (While I am mentioning odds, I will say that there is more than a 1 in a billion chance of a speedy trial for Trump on the January 6th charges. But I will agree that the odds are less than even. Those who know the US laws and the judge in the case may be able to narrow that range.

    Naturally, I look forward to ydoethur's numbers -- especially if he disagrees with me.)

    Ah. A variation on what happened to Top People in the Roman Republic for getting it wrong - exile, usually comfortable.

    It was only when Marius and Sulla started making the game a lot... sharper, that thing really went downhill.
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 22,022

    Prediction: @eddieizzard will not be selected for Labour to fight Brighton Pavilion.

    (If I'm wrong, all hell will break loose in the local party, but this is one reason why I'm not wrong).

    https://twitter.com/runthinkwrite/status/1687525875133140998

    Non-paywall: https://nitter.net/runthinkwrite/status/1687525875133140998
  • CarlottaVanceCarlottaVance Posts: 60,216
    A majority of us believes that trans people should not be discriminated against in terms of access to jobs, renting/buying living accommodations, education, and elsewhere, etc. This makes perfect moral sense. The fact that someone is a trans person is completely irrelevant to their access to employment, housing, education, etc.

    The problem is that some trans-rights activists (TRAs) maintain that it is “transphobic” (among other bad things) to not accept as factually or literally true the claims that biological males who identify as women are women and that biological females who identify as men are men. They also claim that, in light of the literal truth of these claims, it is transphobic to maintain single-sex spaces. They demand that we eliminate all single-sex spaces, such as toilets, changing rooms, shower facilities, prisons, rape crisis centers, domestic violence shelters, etc., as well as eliminate single-sex sports, and make other changes that are intended to eradicate the concept of biological sex from society.


    https://www.abolitionistapproach.com/the-trans-rights-issue-equality-claims-and-belief-claims/
  • ohnotnowohnotnow Posts: 3,763
    Has the LK99 stuff been getting much attention? https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/2308/2308.01516.pdf

    "The article discusses the successful growth and levitation of LK-99, a modified lead apatite crystal, at room temperature and ambient pressure. The authors verify and synthesize LK-99 crystals that can be magnetically levitated with a larger angle than previous samples. This discovery has the potential to lead to the development of room temperature, non-contact superconducting magnetic levitation in the future. The article highlights the importance of crystallinity and proper doping in achieving these results and suggests that further tests will reveal the potential of such phosphate oxides as superconducting materials."

    > what are the real-world applications of a room temperature superconductor?

    "Room temperature superconductors have the potential to revolutionize various industries due to their unique properties. Here are a few potential real-world applications:

    Energy transmission: Superconducting materials with high critical temperatures can be used in power transmission cables, enabling highly efficient and lossless electricity transmission over long distances.


    Electrical devices: Room temperature superconductors could lead to the development of ultra-fast and energy-efficient electronic devices, including high-speed computers and superconducting quantum processors.


    Magnetic levitation: Superconducting magnets can generate extremely strong magnetic fields, allowing for efficient and frictionless magnetic levitation systems. This technology could be applied in high-speed trains, magnetic bearing systems, and advanced transportation systems.


    Medical imaging: Superconducting magnets are already used in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines. Room temperature superconductors may allow for more compact and lower-cost MRI systems, expanding accessibility to healthcare.


    Energy storage: Superconductors can store electric currents indefinitely without any energy loss. Room temperature superconductors could enable efficient energy storage systems, offering a viable solution for large-scale renewable energy integration and grid stability."
  • ohnotnowohnotnow Posts: 3,763
    viewcode said:

    ...I don't know why you are so keen on this anti-vax stuff. I thought you were statistically literate...

    People spend too much time on the internet and believe that the things they read represent objective facts, instead of pixels on a screen. We live in a country with about 68 million people, in a world with about 8 billion people, with 500 million tweets per day and 350 million photos uploaded on Facebook every day and I'm not even going to look up WhatsApp and Messenger, as part of the 3.5 billion searches per day made on Google. If you are interested in a thing, you can find things that might well be real facts to support your hypotheses, mix with people who believe that, and reproduce it here. We all do it[1]

    Our little mammal brains aren't good at coping with an infosphere that big.

    Notes
    • [1] Except me of course: I'm perfect[2]... :)
    • [2] Except from the fact that I just threw a bunch of numbers from you that I got from Google, which makes me just as culpable :(
    Look at you, old man. Still using google when you have GPT-alikes available.
  • OnlyLivingBoyOnlyLivingBoy Posts: 15,755

    On bottom washing, all of my Punjabi in-laws have plastic jugs by the toilet, to use for this purpose.

    We had our bathroom refitted in our current house and included a bidet, as there was sufficient space. They are also good for washing your feet, especially when on holiday and you have sand between your toes.

    I got quite into this when we went to Crete and the alternative was putting used toilet paper in the bin, but reverted to paper once we got home. I tend to share the view that paper is a bit of an uncivilised western habit though and generally organise things so the toilet visit is directly before a shower.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 122,749
    Nigeria's president has asked the country's senate to support a military intervention in Niger
    https://twitter.com/spectatorindex/status/1687512418145189888?s=20
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 22,022
    edited August 2023
    ohnotnow said:

    viewcode said:

    ...I don't know why you are so keen on this anti-vax stuff. I thought you were statistically literate...

    People spend too much time on the internet and believe that the things they read represent objective facts, instead of pixels on a screen. We live in a country with about 68 million people, in a world with about 8 billion people, with 500 million tweets per day and 350 million photos uploaded on Facebook every day and I'm not even going to look up WhatsApp and Messenger, as part of the 3.5 billion searches per day made on Google. If you are interested in a thing, you can find things that might well be real facts to support your hypotheses, mix with people who believe that, and reproduce it here. We all do it[1]

    Our little mammal brains aren't good at coping with an infosphere that big.

    Notes
    • [1] Except me of course: I'm perfect[2]... :)
    • [2] Except from the fact that I just threw a bunch of numbers from you that I got from Google, which makes me just as culpable :(
    Look at you, old man. Still using google when you have GPT-alikes available.
    GPT searches require me to create an account and sign in. The minute I have the option to do so without that I will do it. As you may have noticed I am on a bit of a crusade to make people use non-paywall/account versions. It's bad enough I am monitored by virtue of sending you this message via a publically available (and hence no doubt captured) post, but I'm damned if I'll go further than I have to

    And now you will forgive me if I return to my tinfoil hat and Faraday cage. :):)
  • PeckPeck Posts: 517
    edited August 2023

    Foxy said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Comments by former LibDem MP John Hemming on the VoteUK forum.

    John Hemming: "Not that anyone is changing their minds on lockdown, but it does appear the vaccination is harmful for younger people (to the extent that they should not be vaccinated)."

    Someone else called Slon wrote: "I think that was known a couple of years ago. The chance of a young person ending up in hospital due to an adverse reaction to the vaccine was greater than the chance of them ending up in hospital due to covid (very small chance in either case). There is the other aspect to consider .... a child with covid can pass the disease on to others, an adverse vaccine reaction is not contagious"

    John Hemming replied: "I think this may be an understatement. It is not just children, but also people in their 20s and is the myocarditis issue."

    https://vote-2012.proboards.com/post/1396523/thread

    There have been 3.2 million covid infections in the UK in children, with 29 000+ admissions, 710 admissions to intensive care and 70 deaths.

    https://www.bmj.com/content/382/bmj-2022-073639

    I wouldn't state a 1% admission rate as very few.

    Covid causes myocarditis in the young at 6 times the rate of the vaccine, and generally more severe.

    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34341797/#:~:text=Conclusions: Myocarditis (or pericarditis or,who have received the vaccine.

    I don't know why you are so keen on this anti-vax stuff. I thought you were statistically literate.

    There are valid reasons to argue against lockdown on social grounds etc, but to mislead over risks is not one of them.
    Could you please stop quoting accurate scientific facts here? Some of us are trying to keep our personal prejudices & stupidities intact.
    What kinds of facts other than scientific ones have you got?

    It should be possible to answer that without any nastiness because it is a genuine question.
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 57,052
    viewcode said:

    ...I don't know why you are so keen on this anti-vax stuff. I thought you were statistically literate...

    People spend too much time on the internet and believe that the things they read represent objective facts, instead of pixels on a screen. We live in a country with about 68 million people, in a world with about 8 billion people, with 500 million tweets per day and 350 million photos uploaded on Facebook every day and I'm not even going to look up WhatsApp and Messenger, as part of the 3.5 billion searches per day made on Google. If you are interested in a thing, you can find things that might well be real facts to support your hypotheses, mix with people who believe that, and reproduce it here. We all do it[1]

    Our little mammal brains aren't good at coping with an infosphere that big.

    Notes
    • [1] Except me of course: I'm perfect[2]... :)
    • [2] Except from the fact that I just threw a bunch of numbers from you that I got from Google, which makes me just as culpable :(
    And where did you learn these "facts"? From the very sources you decry.

    Admit it @viewcode, you too have been captured by the system.
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 22,022
    edited August 2023

    A majority of us believes that trans people should not be discriminated against in terms of access to jobs, renting/buying living accommodations, education, and elsewhere, etc. This makes perfect moral sense. The fact that someone is a trans person is completely irrelevant to their access to employment, housing, education, etc.

    The problem is that some trans-rights activists (TRAs) maintain that it is “transphobic” (among other bad things) to not accept as factually or literally true the claims that biological males who identify as women are women and that biological females who identify as men are men. They also claim that, in light of the literal truth of these claims, it is transphobic to maintain single-sex spaces. They demand that we eliminate all single-sex spaces, such as toilets, changing rooms, shower facilities, prisons, rape crisis centers, domestic violence shelters, etc., as well as eliminate single-sex sports, and make other changes that are intended to eradicate the concept of biological sex from society.


    https://www.abolitionistapproach.com/the-trans-rights-issue-equality-claims-and-belief-claims/

    I think you got that from a retweet of this[1] by the person[2] you retweeted here[3] earlier. An earlier retweet[4] of a tweet[5] by the same person of the same person gives us this:

    "...Penny merely assumes it is "transphobic" to not accept certain metaphysical claims on offer. But that is like saying that we are "Christianphobic" if we don't accept Christian spiritual views as literally true and force everyone to live as though they were true. Nonsense..."

    I remind you of my conviction that the Trans-TERF War either is, or can be analysed as, a religious war and it is only our secular times that prevents us from realising this.

    Notes
    [1] https://nitter.net/garylfrancione/status/1687570763631452160
    [2] https://nitter.net/runthinkwrite
    [3] https://vf.politicalbetting.com/discussion/comment/4496821/#Comment_4496821
    [4] https://nitter.net/runthinkwrite/status/1687530045034659850#m
    [5] https://nitter.net/garylfrancione/status/1687517306732388352
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 22,022

    I'm attending a SLAB-heavy wedding tomorrow and will report any Rutherglen intel.

    I look forward to it, thank you
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 22,022
    rcs1000 said:

    viewcode said:

    ...I don't know why you are so keen on this anti-vax stuff. I thought you were statistically literate...

    People spend too much time on the internet and believe that the things they read represent objective facts, instead of pixels on a screen. We live in a country with about 68 million people, in a world with about 8 billion people, with 500 million tweets per day and 350 million photos uploaded on Facebook every day and I'm not even going to look up WhatsApp and Messenger, as part of the 3.5 billion searches per day made on Google. If you are interested in a thing, you can find things that might well be real facts to support your hypotheses, mix with people who believe that, and reproduce it here. We all do it[1]

    Our little mammal brains aren't good at coping with an infosphere that big.

    Notes
    • [1] Except me of course: I'm perfect[2]... :)
    • [2] Except from the fact that I just threw a bunch of numbers from you that I got from Google, which makes me just as culpable :(
    And where did you learn these "facts"? From the very sources you decry.

    Admit it @viewcode, you too have been captured by the system.
    I pointed that out on my second note[2]. Which you would have noticed if you read what I wrote. o:)
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 95,999
    AlistairM said:

    Looks like Ukraine may have targeted the Kerch Bridge again.

    ⚡️⚡️It is reported that there are explosions in the area of the Crimean Bridge

    It is also reported that traffic has been blocked there. We are waiting for details.

    https://twitter.com/front_ukrainian/status/1687568201498992641?s=20

    "Traffic on the Crimean Bridge is blocked and lights are turned off in connection with security measures due to the attack of Ukrainian drones."

    An attack by Ukrainian sea and air kamikaze drones has been reported in the Kerch Strait

    https://twitter.com/front_ukrainian/status/1687570611579527168?s=20

    One thing I had not appreciated prior to this particular war is just how tough a lot of infrastructure is, when built right. Turns out it is really hard to make things totally collapse. Action movies have lied to us for decades!
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 95,999
    viewcode said:

    rcs1000 said:

    viewcode said:

    ...I don't know why you are so keen on this anti-vax stuff. I thought you were statistically literate...

    People spend too much time on the internet and believe that the things they read represent objective facts, instead of pixels on a screen. We live in a country with about 68 million people, in a world with about 8 billion people, with 500 million tweets per day and 350 million photos uploaded on Facebook every day and I'm not even going to look up WhatsApp and Messenger, as part of the 3.5 billion searches per day made on Google. If you are interested in a thing, you can find things that might well be real facts to support your hypotheses, mix with people who believe that, and reproduce it here. We all do it[1]

    Our little mammal brains aren't good at coping with an infosphere that big.

    Notes
    • [1] Except me of course: I'm perfect[2]... :)
    • [2] Except from the fact that I just threw a bunch of numbers from you that I got from Google, which makes me just as culpable :(
    And where did you learn these "facts"? From the very sources you decry.

    Admit it @viewcode, you too have been captured by the system.
    I pointed that out on my second note[2]. Which you would have noticed if you read what I wrote. o:)
    Ever since someone attempted a gotcha on me by highlighting a quote of mine, seemingly unable to see the rest of the same sentence which disproved their assertion, even though they'd included it in the quote, nothing surprises me.
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 22,022
    You may be interested in this week's TrekCulture recap of this week's SNW episode. It is notable for Star Trek's first musical episode and for Sean Ferrick's misjudged facial hair #forfuckssakeSean

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFsNu8ZWYlE
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 9,865
    viewcode said:

    ohnotnow said:

    viewcode said:

    ...I don't know why you are so keen on this anti-vax stuff. I thought you were statistically literate...

    People spend too much time on the internet and believe that the things they read represent objective facts, instead of pixels on a screen. We live in a country with about 68 million people, in a world with about 8 billion people, with 500 million tweets per day and 350 million photos uploaded on Facebook every day and I'm not even going to look up WhatsApp and Messenger, as part of the 3.5 billion searches per day made on Google. If you are interested in a thing, you can find things that might well be real facts to support your hypotheses, mix with people who believe that, and reproduce it here. We all do it[1]

    Our little mammal brains aren't good at coping with an infosphere that big.

    Notes
    • [1] Except me of course: I'm perfect[2]... :)
    • [2] Except from the fact that I just threw a bunch of numbers from you that I got from Google, which makes me just as culpable :(
    Look at you, old man. Still using google when you have GPT-alikes available.
    GPT searches require me to create an account and sign in. The minute I have the option to do so without that I will do it. As you may have noticed I am on a bit of a crusade to make people use non-paywall/account versions. It's bad enough I am monitored by virtue of sending you this message via a publically available (and hence no doubt captured) post, but I'm damned if I'll go further than I have to

    And now you will forgive me if I return to my tinfoil hat and Faraday cage. :):)
    If you believe that tinfoil as a head covering works out of curiousity why do you believe the cia/nsa/mi6 or whoever hasnt forced manufacturers of tinfoil to put microholes in it to let the mind control rays through?
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 95,999
    viewcode said:

    You may be interested in this week's TrekCulture recap of this week's SNW episode. It is notable for Star Trek's first musical episode and for Sean Ferrick's misjudged facial hair #forfuckssakeSean

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFsNu8ZWYlE

    A musical episode so soon after an animated crossover episode? The fools, showrunners need to space out these things.
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 22,022
    Pagan2 said:

    viewcode said:

    ohnotnow said:

    viewcode said:

    ...I don't know why you are so keen on this anti-vax stuff. I thought you were statistically literate...

    People spend too much time on the internet and believe that the things they read represent objective facts, instead of pixels on a screen. We live in a country with about 68 million people, in a world with about 8 billion people, with 500 million tweets per day and 350 million photos uploaded on Facebook every day and I'm not even going to look up WhatsApp and Messenger, as part of the 3.5 billion searches per day made on Google. If you are interested in a thing, you can find things that might well be real facts to support your hypotheses, mix with people who believe that, and reproduce it here. We all do it[1]

    Our little mammal brains aren't good at coping with an infosphere that big.

    Notes
    • [1] Except me of course: I'm perfect[2]... :)
    • [2] Except from the fact that I just threw a bunch of numbers from you that I got from Google, which makes me just as culpable :(
    Look at you, old man. Still using google when you have GPT-alikes available.
    GPT searches require me to create an account and sign in. The minute I have the option to do so without that I will do it. As you may have noticed I am on a bit of a crusade to make people use non-paywall/account versions. It's bad enough I am monitored by virtue of sending you this message via a publically available (and hence no doubt captured) post, but I'm damned if I'll go further than I have to

    And now you will forgive me if I return to my tinfoil hat and Faraday cage. :):)
    If you believe that tinfoil as a head covering works out of curiousity why do you believe the cia/nsa/mi6 or whoever hasnt forced manufacturers of tinfoil to put microholes in it to let the mind control rays through?
    Pause.

    Hence the Faraday cage.

    Silly person. :):):)
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,104
    kle4 said:

    AlistairM said:

    Looks like Ukraine may have targeted the Kerch Bridge again.

    ⚡️⚡️It is reported that there are explosions in the area of the Crimean Bridge

    It is also reported that traffic has been blocked there. We are waiting for details.

    https://twitter.com/front_ukrainian/status/1687568201498992641?s=20

    "Traffic on the Crimean Bridge is blocked and lights are turned off in connection with security measures due to the attack of Ukrainian drones."

    An attack by Ukrainian sea and air kamikaze drones has been reported in the Kerch Strait

    https://twitter.com/front_ukrainian/status/1687570611579527168?s=20

    One thing I had not appreciated prior to this particular war is just how tough a lot of infrastructure is, when built right. Turns out it is really hard to make things totally collapse. Action movies have lied to us for decades!
    During the Cold War, there was considerable worry about Notth Sea rigs.

    I got to read a report on vulnerabilities. A Soviet 24” (extra heavy) conventional torpedo wouldn’t even dent Troll B, apparently. A nuke warhead would (5Kt) would destroy one leg and contaminate the platform - but wouldn’t completely destroy it.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,104
    Pagan2 said:

    viewcode said:

    ohnotnow said:

    viewcode said:

    ...I don't know why you are so keen on this anti-vax stuff. I thought you were statistically literate...

    People spend too much time on the internet and believe that the things they read represent objective facts, instead of pixels on a screen. We live in a country with about 68 million people, in a world with about 8 billion people, with 500 million tweets per day and 350 million photos uploaded on Facebook every day and I'm not even going to look up WhatsApp and Messenger, as part of the 3.5 billion searches per day made on Google. If you are interested in a thing, you can find things that might well be real facts to support your hypotheses, mix with people who believe that, and reproduce it here. We all do it[1]

    Our little mammal brains aren't good at coping with an infosphere that big.

    Notes
    • [1] Except me of course: I'm perfect[2]... :)
    • [2] Except from the fact that I just threw a bunch of numbers from you that I got from Google, which makes me just as culpable :(
    Look at you, old man. Still using google when you have GPT-alikes available.
    GPT searches require me to create an account and sign in. The minute I have the option to do so without that I will do it. As you may have noticed I am on a bit of a crusade to make people use non-paywall/account versions. It's bad enough I am monitored by virtue of sending you this message via a publically available (and hence no doubt captured) post, but I'm damned if I'll go further than I have to

    And now you will forgive me if I return to my tinfoil hat and Faraday cage. :):)
    If you believe that tinfoil as a head covering works out of curiousity why do you believe the cia/nsa/mi6 or whoever hasnt forced manufacturers of tinfoil to put microholes in it to let the mind control rays through?
    Didn’t MIT show that badly designed tin foil head gear would actually focus radio waves into the brain?
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 9,865
    viewcode said:

    Pagan2 said:

    viewcode said:

    ohnotnow said:

    viewcode said:

    ...I don't know why you are so keen on this anti-vax stuff. I thought you were statistically literate...

    People spend too much time on the internet and believe that the things they read represent objective facts, instead of pixels on a screen. We live in a country with about 68 million people, in a world with about 8 billion people, with 500 million tweets per day and 350 million photos uploaded on Facebook every day and I'm not even going to look up WhatsApp and Messenger, as part of the 3.5 billion searches per day made on Google. If you are interested in a thing, you can find things that might well be real facts to support your hypotheses, mix with people who believe that, and reproduce it here. We all do it[1]

    Our little mammal brains aren't good at coping with an infosphere that big.

    Notes
    • [1] Except me of course: I'm perfect[2]... :)
    • [2] Except from the fact that I just threw a bunch of numbers from you that I got from Google, which makes me just as culpable :(
    Look at you, old man. Still using google when you have GPT-alikes available.
    GPT searches require me to create an account and sign in. The minute I have the option to do so without that I will do it. As you may have noticed I am on a bit of a crusade to make people use non-paywall/account versions. It's bad enough I am monitored by virtue of sending you this message via a publically available (and hence no doubt captured) post, but I'm damned if I'll go further than I have to

    And now you will forgive me if I return to my tinfoil hat and Faraday cage. :):)
    If you believe that tinfoil as a head covering works out of curiousity why do you believe the cia/nsa/mi6 or whoever hasnt forced manufacturers of tinfoil to put microholes in it to let the mind control rays through?
    Pause.

    Hence the Faraday cage.

    Silly person. :):):)
    A faraday cage only works if you stay inside it, I assumed the tinfoil hat was when you had to go out and shop. After all can't have any connected electronics with in the cage as they would be a potential attack vector
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 22,022
    kle4 said:

    viewcode said:

    You may be interested in this week's TrekCulture recap of this week's SNW episode. It is notable for Star Trek's first musical episode and for Sean Ferrick's misjudged facial hair #forfuckssakeSean

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFsNu8ZWYlE

    A musical episode so soon after an animated crossover episode? The fools, showrunners need to space out these things.
    I know people disdain ST:SNW for its current informal/humorous stance, but I quite like it. I know they'll run out of ideas at some point, but right now it's growing the beard and I quite like it.
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 9,865

    Pagan2 said:

    viewcode said:

    ohnotnow said:

    viewcode said:

    ...I don't know why you are so keen on this anti-vax stuff. I thought you were statistically literate...

    People spend too much time on the internet and believe that the things they read represent objective facts, instead of pixels on a screen. We live in a country with about 68 million people, in a world with about 8 billion people, with 500 million tweets per day and 350 million photos uploaded on Facebook every day and I'm not even going to look up WhatsApp and Messenger, as part of the 3.5 billion searches per day made on Google. If you are interested in a thing, you can find things that might well be real facts to support your hypotheses, mix with people who believe that, and reproduce it here. We all do it[1]

    Our little mammal brains aren't good at coping with an infosphere that big.

    Notes
    • [1] Except me of course: I'm perfect[2]... :)
    • [2] Except from the fact that I just threw a bunch of numbers from you that I got from Google, which makes me just as culpable :(
    Look at you, old man. Still using google when you have GPT-alikes available.
    GPT searches require me to create an account and sign in. The minute I have the option to do so without that I will do it. As you may have noticed I am on a bit of a crusade to make people use non-paywall/account versions. It's bad enough I am monitored by virtue of sending you this message via a publically available (and hence no doubt captured) post, but I'm damned if I'll go further than I have to

    And now you will forgive me if I return to my tinfoil hat and Faraday cage. :):)
    If you believe that tinfoil as a head covering works out of curiousity why do you believe the cia/nsa/mi6 or whoever hasnt forced manufacturers of tinfoil to put microholes in it to let the mind control rays through?
    Didn’t MIT show that badly designed tin foil head gear would actually focus radio waves into the brain?
    No idea but I can well believe mit students thought it worthy of study
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 22,022
    Pagan2 said:

    viewcode said:

    Pagan2 said:

    viewcode said:

    ohnotnow said:

    viewcode said:

    ...I don't know why you are so keen on this anti-vax stuff. I thought you were statistically literate...

    People spend too much time on the internet and believe that the things they read represent objective facts, instead of pixels on a screen. We live in a country with about 68 million people, in a world with about 8 billion people, with 500 million tweets per day and 350 million photos uploaded on Facebook every day and I'm not even going to look up WhatsApp and Messenger, as part of the 3.5 billion searches per day made on Google. If you are interested in a thing, you can find things that might well be real facts to support your hypotheses, mix with people who believe that, and reproduce it here. We all do it[1]

    Our little mammal brains aren't good at coping with an infosphere that big.

    Notes
    • [1] Except me of course: I'm perfect[2]... :)
    • [2] Except from the fact that I just threw a bunch of numbers from you that I got from Google, which makes me just as culpable :(
    Look at you, old man. Still using google when you have GPT-alikes available.
    GPT searches require me to create an account and sign in. The minute I have the option to do so without that I will do it. As you may have noticed I am on a bit of a crusade to make people use non-paywall/account versions. It's bad enough I am monitored by virtue of sending you this message via a publically available (and hence no doubt captured) post, but I'm damned if I'll go further than I have to

    And now you will forgive me if I return to my tinfoil hat and Faraday cage. :):)
    If you believe that tinfoil as a head covering works out of curiousity why do you believe the cia/nsa/mi6 or whoever hasnt forced manufacturers of tinfoil to put microholes in it to let the mind control rays through?
    Pause.

    Hence the Faraday cage.

    Silly person. :):):)
    A faraday cage only works if you stay inside it, I assumed the tinfoil hat was when you had to go out and shop. After all can't have any connected electronics with in the cage as they would be a potential attack vector
    I think one can insert a laser interconnector to bridge the gap. Or many small gnomes with semaphore flags working really quickly. That would make more sense. Obvs.
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 22,022
    edited August 2023
    viewcode said:

    kle4 said:

    viewcode said:

    You may be interested in this week's TrekCulture recap of this week's SNW episode. It is notable for Star Trek's first musical episode and for Sean Ferrick's misjudged facial hair #forfuckssakeSean

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFsNu8ZWYlE

    A musical episode so soon after an animated crossover episode? The fools, showrunners need to space out these things.
    I know people disdain ST:SNW for its current informal/humorous stance, but I quite like it. I know they'll run out of ideas at some point, but right now it's growing the beard and I quite like it.
    I said "I quite like it" twice. Apologies. I am a bad writer. :(
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 22,022
    ohnotnow said:

    Has the LK99 stuff been getting much attention? https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/2308/2308.01516.pdf

    "The article discusses the successful growth and levitation of LK-99, a modified lead apatite crystal, at room temperature and ambient pressure. The authors verify and synthesize LK-99 crystals that can be magnetically levitated with a larger angle than previous samples. This discovery has the potential to lead to the development of room temperature, non-contact superconducting magnetic levitation in the future. The article highlights the importance of crystallinity and proper doping in achieving these results and suggests that further tests will reveal the potential of such phosphate oxides as superconducting materials."

    > what are the real-world applications of a room temperature superconductor?

    "Room temperature superconductors have the potential to revolutionize various industries due to their unique properties. Here are a few potential real-world applications:

    Energy transmission: Superconducting materials with high critical temperatures can be used in power transmission cables, enabling highly efficient and lossless electricity transmission over long distances.


    Electrical devices: Room temperature superconductors could lead to the development of ultra-fast and energy-efficient electronic devices, including high-speed computers and superconducting quantum processors.


    Magnetic levitation: Superconducting magnets can generate extremely strong magnetic fields, allowing for efficient and frictionless magnetic levitation systems. This technology could be applied in high-speed trains, magnetic bearing systems, and advanced transportation systems.


    Medical imaging: Superconducting magnets are already used in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines. Room temperature superconductors may allow for more compact and lower-cost MRI systems, expanding accessibility to healthcare.


    Energy storage: Superconductors can store electric currents indefinitely without any energy loss. Room temperature superconductors could enable efficient energy storage systems, offering a viable solution for large-scale renewable energy integration and grid stability."

    You wrote all that and you didn't get many likes. Day-um, PB be harsh.
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