With respect (in some manner of speaking) to Dominic Cummings and his ilk, believe it is a cardinal error for an elected politico, to bring his/her political consultant/fixer/guru/manager into the inner circles of government as a key governing advisor.
Much better to keep them close at hand, but a role where they oversee/preside over patronage and personnel as opposed to policy.
An example is Franklin D. Roosevelts 1932/36 campaign manager Jim Farley, who FDR appointed to his cabinet, but as Postmaster General which was NOT a key policy role.
For one thing, even top-class political hacks rarely manage more than one or at best two first-class electoral victories, at the pinnacle of their career.
Thus Farley was a key player in FDR's winning the Democratic nomination and thus the presidency in 1932. But his role was FAR less important by 1936. (By 1940 he was in the anti-FDR camp, indeed was a candidate - sorta - against his old boss.)
Also note the rise and fall of James Carville. Famed for his important contribution to Bill Clinton's 1992 victory, by 1996 he was on the outside looking in, observing (through a glass darkly) what Dick Morris (remember him?) was up to.
Dr Henry Kissinger says 'Hi'.
Kissinger had zero to do with political organizing & strategy, which is what Cummings, Farley, Carville were all about.
As unconvincing lies go, that's up there with Jeremy Corbyn's claim he isn't an antisemite.
I genuinely think Corbyn isn't an antisemite, he's too thick to be one.
And I genuinely think Cummings believes his actions were reasonable, because he's so stupid he genuinely doesn't realise he's talking nonsense.
That's been a problem throughout his career, why would he change a winning formula?
I've said on here before, somebody who I know who knows Cummings say it is entirely believable that Cummings didn't have a single friend in London to help him.
Maybe. But Mary Wakefield is by all accounts charming and personable - she would have had friends
Also Cummings REALLY isn’t stupid. A tad neurodivergent, yes
If he isn't stupid, how come he understands nothing and gets every decision he makes wrong?
Because he gets big calls really right and he is deeply perceptive and obviously articulate. And intelligent. You know, that. Hence his constant victories
It is really fucking tiresome the way people are unable to acknowledge virtues - moral or intellectual - in people they politically resent
I mean, I despise almost everything Nicola Sturgeon stands for - from her Wokeness to her Scottish Nationalism - I think she is personally quite an unpleasant hypocrite
I also think she is seriously smart and a very able politician. I’m relieved she is gone because she WAS good - a threat to the Union
What big calls did you have in mind? I can't think of any.
I dunno. God. You’ve got me there. Stumped!
Oh, wait: winning the Brexit referendum with “take back control” and thereby changing British and world history
Yeah, that
On which every single statement he made was, in fact, wrong. Not merely wrong, but either so dishonest as to demonstrate he made Goebbels look honest, or so error-strewn as to think Oxford should be stripped of degree awarding powers.
Winning something doesn't make him right.
I'm asking for a time when his judgement has been vindicated.
His judgment was that the referendum could be won - was actually winnable - against the odds - if they let him devise the strategy and guide the campaign
And it was the best thing to happen to Britain in the last two decades. We won’t see the benefit for another decade at least
Funny that, this bloke suggested it would be coming good by 2026:
Not a bad gag, but it does make me wonder (since they do always get attention) why they are unable to become a bigger deal. They also think they are a more major force than they are as a result.
What the SWP does for any demo is make a lot of posters for marchers to carry. Most people do not make their own so pick up one of the SWP ones with a pithy slogan and SWP logo. The marchers carrying the posters are not SWP members and probably do not even know what SWP stands for, in either sense of the term.
Not a bad gag, but it does make me wonder (since they do always get attention) why they are unable to become a bigger deal. They also think they are a more major force than they are as a result.
The members of these fringe groups, particularly on the left, are *very* idealistic. Monty Python weren't too far off the mark with the 'Judean People's Popular Front'. They cannot see their ideals be compromised by compromising, and therefore split. And if your ideals are slightly different, and you let it be known, then you'll be Persona Non Grata. Hence the groups are smaller than they probably should be.
Someone I knew wrote a big diagram about how UK anarchists groups had split over the years. There were not many merges; and lots of splits...
But if you're not very politically active, and there's a cause you believe in that there's a protest about, it's easy to associate with one of these well-known groups for the march. It makes you feel a bit bigger, and a bit safer. So you'll see more on the marches.
With respect (in some manner of speaking) to Dominic Cummings and his ilk, believe it is a cardinal error for an elected politico, to bring his/her political consultant/fixer/guru/manager into the inner circles of government as a key governing advisor.
Much better to keep them close at hand, but a role where they oversee/preside over patronage and personnel as opposed to policy.
An example is Franklin D. Roosevelts 1932/36 campaign manager Jim Farley, who FDR appointed to his cabinet, but as Postmaster General which was NOT a key policy role.
For one thing, even top-class political hacks rarely manage more than one or at best two first-class electoral victories, at the pinnacle of their career.
Thus Farley was a key player in FDR's winning the Democratic nomination and thus the presidency in 1932. But his role was FAR less important by 1936. (By 1940 he was in the anti-FDR camp, indeed was a candidate - sorta - against his old boss.)
Also note the rise and fall of James Carville. Famed for his important contribution to Bill Clinton's 1992 victory, by 1996 he was on the outside looking in, observing (through a glass darkly) what Dick Morris (remember him?) was up to.
Dr Henry Kissinger says 'Hi'.
Kissinger had zero to do with political organizing & strategy, which is what Cummings, Farley, Carville were all about.
Not quite zero. … In 1968, Kissinger leaked information about the status of the peace talks in Paris to the Nixon campaign and was rewarded with being appointed National Security Adviser under Richard Nixon. As National Security Adviser, Kissinger sought initially to find a way to end the war on American terms...
As unconvincing lies go, that's up there with Jeremy Corbyn's claim he isn't an antisemite.
I genuinely think Corbyn isn't an antisemite, he's too thick to be one.
And I genuinely think Cummings believes his actions were reasonable, because he's so stupid he genuinely doesn't realise he's talking nonsense.
That's been a problem throughout his career, why would he change a winning formula?
I've said on here before, somebody who I know who knows Cummings say it is entirely believable that Cummings didn't have a single friend in London to help him.
Maybe. But Mary Wakefield is by all accounts charming and personable - she would have had friends
Also Cummings REALLY isn’t stupid. A tad neurodivergent, yes
If he isn't stupid, how come he understands nothing and gets every decision he makes wrong?
Because he gets big calls really right and he is deeply perceptive and obviously articulate. And intelligent. You know, that. Hence his constant victories
It is really fucking tiresome the way people are unable to acknowledge virtues - moral or intellectual - in people they politically resent
I mean, I despise almost everything Nicola Sturgeon stands for - from her Wokeness to her Scottish Nationalism - I think she is personally quite an unpleasant hypocrite
I also think she is seriously smart and a very able politician. I’m relieved she is gone because she WAS good - a threat to the Union
What big calls did you have in mind? I can't think of any.
I dunno. God. You’ve got me there. Stumped!
Oh, wait: winning the Brexit referendum with “take back control” and thereby changing British and world history
Yeah, that
Also - and unfortunately - the decision to hold all the Tory MPs to a "we will brexit even if no deal" pledge, and withdraw the whip from all those who did not, prior to the 2019 election. If that was on Cummings, it counts as another successful gambit.
Not a bad gag, but it does make me wonder (since they do always get attention) why they are unable to become a bigger deal. They also think they are a more major force than they are as a result.
The members of these fringe groups, particularly on the left, are *very* idealistic. Monty Python weren't too far off the mark with the 'Judean People's Popular Front'. They cannot see their ideals be compromised by compromising, and therefore split. And if your ideals are slightly different, and you let it be known, then you'll be Persona Non Grata. Hence the groups are smaller than they probably should be.
Someone I knew wrote a big diagram about how UK anarchists groups had split over the years. There were not many merges; and lots of splits...
But if you're not very politically active, and there's a cause you believe in that there's a protest about, it's easy to associate with one of these well-known groups for the march. It makes you feel a bit bigger, and a bit safer. So you'll see more on the marches.
I'm not sure I'd agree that they are particularly idealistic. I think sometimes that the differences in ideas are created to justify and sustain the splits that are borne as much by personal antipathy as anything else. Plus, also, having to find a scapegoat for why the latest strategy failed to bring about the revolution.
A lot of the people who have the spare time and energy to devote to these groups are simply pretty unpleasant. If you can justify the murder of a thousand civilians in the name of resistance, then being unpleasant to someone who disagrees with you, or who isn't in the in-group, is a lot easier to justify.
Bit disappointing for a group supposedly dedicated to creating a socialist utopia.
As unconvincing lies go, that's up there with Jeremy Corbyn's claim he isn't an antisemite.
I genuinely think Corbyn isn't an antisemite, he's too thick to be one.
And I genuinely think Cummings believes his actions were reasonable, because he's so stupid he genuinely doesn't realise he's talking nonsense.
That's been a problem throughout his career, why would he change a winning formula?
I've said on here before, somebody who I know who knows Cummings say it is entirely believable that Cummings didn't have a single friend in London to help him.
Maybe. But Mary Wakefield is by all accounts charming and personable - she would have had friends
Also Cummings REALLY isn’t stupid. A tad neurodivergent, yes
If he isn't stupid, how come he understands nothing and gets every decision he makes wrong?
Because he gets big calls really right and he is deeply perceptive and obviously articulate. And intelligent. You know, that. Hence his constant victories
It is really fucking tiresome the way people are unable to acknowledge virtues - moral or intellectual - in people they politically resent
I mean, I despise almost everything Nicola Sturgeon stands for - from her Wokeness to her Scottish Nationalism - I think she is personally quite an unpleasant hypocrite
I also think she is seriously smart and a very able politician. I’m relieved she is gone because she WAS good - a threat to the Union
What big calls did you have in mind? I can't think of any.
I dunno. God. You’ve got me there. Stumped!
Oh, wait: winning the Brexit referendum with “take back control” and thereby changing British and world history
Yeah, that
On which every single statement he made was, in fact, wrong. Not merely wrong, but either so dishonest as to demonstrate he made Goebbels look honest, or so error-strewn as to think Oxford should be stripped of degree awarding powers.
Winning something doesn't make him right.
I'm asking for a time when his judgement has been vindicated.
His judgment was that the referendum could be won - was actually winnable - against the odds - if they let him devise the strategy and guide the campaign
And it was the best thing to happen to Britain in the last two decades. We won’t see the benefit for another decade at least
Funny that, this bloke suggested it would be coming good by 2026:
As unconvincing lies go, that's up there with Jeremy Corbyn's claim he isn't an antisemite.
I genuinely think Corbyn isn't an antisemite, he's too thick to be one.
And I genuinely think Cummings believes his actions were reasonable, because he's so stupid he genuinely doesn't realise he's talking nonsense.
That's been a problem throughout his career, why would he change a winning formula?
I've said on here before, somebody who I know who knows Cummings say it is entirely believable that Cummings didn't have a single friend in London to help him.
Maybe. But Mary Wakefield is by all accounts charming and personable - she would have had friends
Also Cummings REALLY isn’t stupid. A tad neurodivergent, yes
If he isn't stupid, how come he understands nothing and gets every decision he makes wrong?
Because he gets big calls really right and he is deeply perceptive and obviously articulate. And intelligent. You know, that. Hence his constant victories
It is really fucking tiresome the way people are unable to acknowledge virtues - moral or intellectual - in people they politically resent
I mean, I despise almost everything Nicola Sturgeon stands for - from her Wokeness to her Scottish Nationalism - I think she is personally quite an unpleasant hypocrite
I also think she is seriously smart and a very able politician. I’m relieved she is gone because she WAS good - a threat to the Union
What big calls did you have in mind? I can't think of any.
I dunno. God. You’ve got me there. Stumped!
Oh, wait: winning the Brexit referendum with “take back control” and thereby changing British and world history
Yeah, that
On which every single statement he made was, in fact, wrong. Not merely wrong, but either so dishonest as to demonstrate he made Goebbels look honest, or so error-strewn as to think Oxford should be stripped of degree awarding powers.
Winning something doesn't make him right.
I'm asking for a time when his judgement has been vindicated.
As unconvincing lies go, that's up there with Jeremy Corbyn's claim he isn't an antisemite.
I genuinely think Corbyn isn't an antisemite, he's too thick to be one.
And I genuinely think Cummings believes his actions were reasonable, because he's so stupid he genuinely doesn't realise he's talking nonsense.
That's been a problem throughout his career, why would he change a winning formula?
I've said on here before, somebody who I know who knows Cummings say it is entirely believable that Cummings didn't have a single friend in London to help him.
Maybe. But Mary Wakefield is by all accounts charming and personable - she would have had friends
Also Cummings REALLY isn’t stupid. A tad neurodivergent, yes
If he isn't stupid, how come he understands nothing and gets every decision he makes wrong?
Because he gets big calls really right and he is deeply perceptive and obviously articulate. And intelligent. You know, that. Hence his constant victories
It is really fucking tiresome the way people are unable to acknowledge virtues - moral or intellectual - in people they politically resent
I mean, I despise almost everything Nicola Sturgeon stands for - from her Wokeness to her Scottish Nationalism - I think she is personally quite an unpleasant hypocrite
I also think she is seriously smart and a very able politician. I’m relieved she is gone because she WAS good - a threat to the Union
What big calls did you have in mind? I can't think of any.
I dunno. God. You’ve got me there. Stumped!
Oh, wait: winning the Brexit referendum with “take back control” and thereby changing British and world history
Yeah, that
56% of the electorate now disagree with you, versus 36% who would still agree.
Yeah, twat.
Suck it up, Remoaner. We won and we will always have won
As unconvincing lies go, that's up there with Jeremy Corbyn's claim he isn't an antisemite.
I genuinely think Corbyn isn't an antisemite, he's too thick to be one.
And I genuinely think Cummings believes his actions were reasonable, because he's so stupid he genuinely doesn't realise he's talking nonsense.
That's been a problem throughout his career, why would he change a winning formula?
I've said on here before, somebody who I know who knows Cummings say it is entirely believable that Cummings didn't have a single friend in London to help him.
Maybe. But Mary Wakefield is by all accounts charming and personable - she would have had friends
Also Cummings REALLY isn’t stupid. A tad neurodivergent, yes
If he isn't stupid, how come he understands nothing and gets every decision he makes wrong?
Because he gets big calls really right and he is deeply perceptive and obviously articulate. And intelligent. You know, that. Hence his constant victories
It is really fucking tiresome the way people are unable to acknowledge virtues - moral or intellectual - in people they politically resent
I mean, I despise almost everything Nicola Sturgeon stands for - from her Wokeness to her Scottish Nationalism - I think she is personally quite an unpleasant hypocrite
I also think she is seriously smart and a very able politician. I’m relieved she is gone because she WAS good - a threat to the Union
What big calls did you have in mind? I can't think of any.
I dunno. God. You’ve got me there. Stumped!
Oh, wait: winning the Brexit referendum with “take back control” and thereby changing British and world history
Yeah, that
On which every single statement he made was, in fact, wrong. Not merely wrong, but either so dishonest as to demonstrate he made Goebbels look honest, or so error-strewn as to think Oxford should be stripped of degree awarding powers.
Winning something doesn't make him right.
I'm asking for a time when his judgement has been vindicated.
Seriously. What a privilege to see it in this slanted light
Looks as if will be pretty impressive when they finish it. Looks like all the workers are having a siesta in that image.
The poignant thing is that originally it would have been painted in really garish - to our eyes - colours. Vivid reds and blues and whites. Like a fairground attraction
But now the colour and polish is all gone and you’re left with the naked golden limestone - which looks so much better (especially to contemporary tastes) - and absolutely gorgeous in slanted October sun
So it’s good it was ruined
It now turns out that Gobekli Tepe was painted. They’ve found scarlet pigment. It would have been multicoloured. It is inexplicable. A painted sequence of temple towns buried 10,000 years ago. An utterly confounding civilisation, 6000 years before “civilisation”
Graham Hancock may have been right then
I hardly think paint is proof that Graham Hancock is right! We have cave paintings going back 64,000 years. Paintings, i.e. uses of paint. Something being painted a mere 6,000 years ago is interesting, but hardly groundbreaking.
Gobekli Tepe's heyday was over 10,000 years ago.
You’re right. Forgive my error. But 6k or 10k or 12k doesn’t change the point!
You have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about and you’re talking to people that really really do. So shut the fuck up
As unconvincing lies go, that's up there with Jeremy Corbyn's claim he isn't an antisemite.
I genuinely think Corbyn isn't an antisemite, he's too thick to be one.
And I genuinely think Cummings believes his actions were reasonable, because he's so stupid he genuinely doesn't realise he's talking nonsense.
That's been a problem throughout his career, why would he change a winning formula?
I've said on here before, somebody who I know who knows Cummings say it is entirely believable that Cummings didn't have a single friend in London to help him.
Maybe. But Mary Wakefield is by all accounts charming and personable - she would have had friends
Also Cummings REALLY isn’t stupid. A tad neurodivergent, yes
If he isn't stupid, how come he understands nothing and gets every decision he makes wrong?
Because he gets big calls really right and he is deeply perceptive and obviously articulate. And intelligent. You know, that. Hence his constant victories
It is really fucking tiresome the way people are unable to acknowledge virtues - moral or intellectual - in people they politically resent
I mean, I despise almost everything Nicola Sturgeon stands for - from her Wokeness to her Scottish Nationalism - I think she is personally quite an unpleasant hypocrite
I also think she is seriously smart and a very able politician. I’m relieved she is gone because she WAS good - a threat to the Union
What big calls did you have in mind? I can't think of any.
I dunno. God. You’ve got me there. Stumped!
Oh, wait: winning the Brexit referendum with “take back control” and thereby changing British and world history
Yeah, that
On which every single statement he made was, in fact, wrong. Not merely wrong, but either so dishonest as to demonstrate he made Goebbels look honest, or so error-strewn as to think Oxford should be stripped of degree awarding powers.
Winning something doesn't make him right.
I'm asking for a time when his judgement has been vindicated.
As unconvincing lies go, that's up there with Jeremy Corbyn's claim he isn't an antisemite.
I genuinely think Corbyn isn't an antisemite, he's too thick to be one.
And I genuinely think Cummings believes his actions were reasonable, because he's so stupid he genuinely doesn't realise he's talking nonsense.
That's been a problem throughout his career, why would he change a winning formula?
I've said on here before, somebody who I know who knows Cummings say it is entirely believable that Cummings didn't have a single friend in London to help him.
Maybe. But Mary Wakefield is by all accounts charming and personable - she would have had friends
Also Cummings REALLY isn’t stupid. A tad neurodivergent, yes
If he isn't stupid, how come he understands nothing and gets every decision he makes wrong?
Because he gets big calls really right and he is deeply perceptive and obviously articulate. And intelligent. You know, that. Hence his constant victories
It is really fucking tiresome the way people are unable to acknowledge virtues - moral or intellectual - in people they politically resent
I mean, I despise almost everything Nicola Sturgeon stands for - from her Wokeness to her Scottish Nationalism - I think she is personally quite an unpleasant hypocrite
I also think she is seriously smart and a very able politician. I’m relieved she is gone because she WAS good - a threat to the Union
What big calls did you have in mind? I can't think of any.
I dunno. God. You’ve got me there. Stumped!
Oh, wait: winning the Brexit referendum with “take back control” and thereby changing British and world history
Yeah, that
56% of the electorate now disagree with you, versus 36% who would still agree.
Yeah, twat.
Suck it up, Remoaner. We won and we will always have won
A pyrrhic victory, or prick victory? Take your pick.
As unconvincing lies go, that's up there with Jeremy Corbyn's claim he isn't an antisemite.
I genuinely think Corbyn isn't an antisemite, he's too thick to be one.
And I genuinely think Cummings believes his actions were reasonable, because he's so stupid he genuinely doesn't realise he's talking nonsense.
That's been a problem throughout his career, why would he change a winning formula?
I've said on here before, somebody who I know who knows Cummings say it is entirely believable that Cummings didn't have a single friend in London to help him.
Maybe. But Mary Wakefield is by all accounts charming and personable - she would have had friends
Also Cummings REALLY isn’t stupid. A tad neurodivergent, yes
If he isn't stupid, how come he understands nothing and gets every decision he makes wrong?
Because he gets big calls really right and he is deeply perceptive and obviously articulate. And intelligent. You know, that. Hence his constant victories
It is really fucking tiresome the way people are unable to acknowledge virtues - moral or intellectual - in people they politically resent
I mean, I despise almost everything Nicola Sturgeon stands for - from her Wokeness to her Scottish Nationalism - I think she is personally quite an unpleasant hypocrite
I also think she is seriously smart and a very able politician. I’m relieved she is gone because she WAS good - a threat to the Union
What big calls did you have in mind? I can't think of any.
I dunno. God. You’ve got me there. Stumped!
Oh, wait: winning the Brexit referendum with “take back control” and thereby changing British and world history
Yeah, that
Also - and unfortunately - the decision to hold all the Tory MPs to a "we will brexit even if no deal" pledge, and withdraw the whip from all those who did not, prior to the 2019 election. If that was on Cummings, it counts as another successful gambit.
Yes, Cummings' 'aggressive timeline' for Brexit - whether the outcome was going to be good or not - did seem to be a burning obsession with him. As I recall his 'We're gonna be cool like the Fonzie' rallying cries were from this period. Why the rush though? Brexit would have gone through eventually. Was it just about securing Boris his election win? If so a peculiar motivation given what we now know.
Not a bad gag, but it does make me wonder (since they do always get attention) why they are unable to become a bigger deal. They also think they are a more major force than they are as a result.
What the SWP does for any demo is make a lot of posters for marchers to carry. Most people do not make their own so pick up one of the SWP ones with a pithy slogan and SWP logo. The marchers carrying the posters are not SWP members and probably do not even know what SWP stands for, in either sense of the term.
I wonder if the Israelis are going to drive all the Palestinians out of the West Bank
They must be thinking: we have no choice. End it now. Us or them
I hasten to add I reckon this would be a catastrophic escalation. I’m just trying to get inside Israeli heads as they look at this surge of Jew hatred around the world. They will be thinking: Israel is it. Our only safe place. We can defend the Jews with nukes. But we need secure borders
As unconvincing lies go, that's up there with Jeremy Corbyn's claim he isn't an antisemite.
I genuinely think Corbyn isn't an antisemite, he's too thick to be one.
For someone who isn't anti-semitic Corbyn certainly acts a lot like someone who is, and his reaction to the Labour anti-Semitism report demonstrated an unwillingness to reflect on his own actions to avoid being anti-Semitic unintentionally.
Corbyn is antisemitic in the sense of being anti-Israel but not in the sense of being anti-Jewish.
As uncovered by the UK’s Times newspaper, Corbyn in 2011 endorsed a new edition of the 1902 book “Imperialism: A Study,” by JA Hobson, a British economist who, according to historian William Rubinstein, is known for his “vocal anti-Semitism” both personally and in his writing.
In the book, Hobson describes the global and financial system as controlled by people “united by the strongest bonds of organisation, always in closest and quickest touch with one as other, situated in the very heart of the business capital of every state, controlled, so far as Europe is concerned, by men of a single and peculiar race, who have behind them many centuries of financial experience, they are in a unique position to control the policy of nations.”
I think that the thing that one has to understand about Corbyn is that he's much dafter than you at first imagine. (He does the wise man thing really very well without of course being even the slightest bit wise.)
As unconvincing lies go, that's up there with Jeremy Corbyn's claim he isn't an antisemite.
I genuinely think Corbyn isn't an antisemite, he's too thick to be one.
And I genuinely think Cummings believes his actions were reasonable, because he's so stupid he genuinely doesn't realise he's talking nonsense.
That's been a problem throughout his career, why would he change a winning formula?
I've said on here before, somebody who I know who knows Cummings say it is entirely believable that Cummings didn't have a single friend in London to help him.
Maybe. But Mary Wakefield is by all accounts charming and personable - she would have had friends
Also Cummings REALLY isn’t stupid. A tad neurodivergent, yes
If he isn't stupid, how come he understands nothing and gets every decision he makes wrong?
Because he gets big calls really right and he is deeply perceptive and obviously articulate. And intelligent. You know, that. Hence his constant victories
It is really fucking tiresome the way people are unable to acknowledge virtues - moral or intellectual - in people they politically resent
I mean, I despise almost everything Nicola Sturgeon stands for - from her Wokeness to her Scottish Nationalism - I think she is personally quite an unpleasant hypocrite
I also think she is seriously smart and a very able politician. I’m relieved she is gone because she WAS good - a threat to the Union
What big calls did you have in mind? I can't think of any.
I dunno. God. You’ve got me there. Stumped!
Oh, wait: winning the Brexit referendum with “take back control” and thereby changing British and world history
Yeah, that
On which every single statement he made was, in fact, wrong. Not merely wrong, but either so dishonest as to demonstrate he made Goebbels look honest, or so error-strewn as to think Oxford should be stripped of degree awarding powers.
Winning something doesn't make him right.
I'm asking for a time when his judgement has been vindicated.
His judgment was that the referendum could be won - was actually winnable - against the odds - if they let him devise the strategy and guide the campaign
And it was the best thing to happen to Britain in the last two decades. We won’t see the benefit for another decade at least
Funny that, this bloke suggested it would be coming good by 2026:
Maybe the benefits of Brexit will always be 10 years away?
If you had looked at Irish independence in 1926 i.e. four years after the Free State left the UK, you would have said that independence had been a disaster - Civil War, economic trade war with its main trading partner and loss of a major export market, weakened economy and fractured society.
I wonder if the Israelis are going to drive all the Palestinians out of the West Bank
They must be thinking: we have no choice. End it now. Us or them
I hasten to add I reckon this would be a catastrophic escalation. I’m just trying to get inside Israeli heads as they look at this surge of Jew hatred around the world. They will be thinking: Israel is it. Our only safe place. We can defend the Jews with nukes. But we need secure borders
Seriously. What a privilege to see it in this slanted light
Looks as if will be pretty impressive when they finish it. Looks like all the workers are having a siesta in that image.
The poignant thing is that originally it would have been painted in really garish - to our eyes - colours. Vivid reds and blues and whites. Like a fairground attraction
But now the colour and polish is all gone and you’re left with the naked golden limestone - which looks so much better (especially to contemporary tastes) - and absolutely gorgeous in slanted October sun
So it’s good it was ruined
It now turns out that Gobekli Tepe was painted. They’ve found scarlet pigment. It would have been multicoloured. It is inexplicable. A painted sequence of temple towns buried 10,000 years ago. An utterly confounding civilisation, 6000 years before “civilisation”
Graham Hancock may have been right then
I hardly think paint is proof that Graham Hancock is right! We have cave paintings going back 64,000 years. Paintings, i.e. uses of paint. Something being painted a mere 6,000 years ago is interesting, but hardly groundbreaking.
Er, 12,000 years ago. Idiot
Still not 60,000 years. Graham Hancock has never knowingly been right on anything he has ever written on archaeology and I don't expect him to start now.
Er, Gobekli Tepe's heyday wasn't 60,000 years ago.
I wonder if the Israelis are going to drive all the Palestinians out of the West Bank
They must be thinking: we have no choice. End it now. Us or them
I hasten to add I reckon this would be a catastrophic escalation. I’m just trying to get inside Israeli heads as they look at this surge of Jew hatred around the world. They will be thinking: Israel is it. Our only safe place. We can defend the Jews with nukes. But we need secure borders
= drive the Palestinians over the river
I doubt it, they can just about count on a narrow majority of at least western support to drive Hamas out of Gaza, they would lose almost all international support (except from the hardest right US Republicans) if they tried to drive Palestinians out of the West Bank and Jerusalem too
As unconvincing lies go, that's up there with Jeremy Corbyn's claim he isn't an antisemite.
I genuinely think Corbyn isn't an antisemite, he's too thick to be one.
And I genuinely think Cummings believes his actions were reasonable, because he's so stupid he genuinely doesn't realise he's talking nonsense.
That's been a problem throughout his career, why would he change a winning formula?
I've said on here before, somebody who I know who knows Cummings say it is entirely believable that Cummings didn't have a single friend in London to help him.
Maybe. But Mary Wakefield is by all accounts charming and personable - she would have had friends
Also Cummings REALLY isn’t stupid. A tad neurodivergent, yes
If he isn't stupid, how come he understands nothing and gets every decision he makes wrong?
Because he gets big calls really right and he is deeply perceptive and obviously articulate. And intelligent. You know, that. Hence his constant victories
It is really fucking tiresome the way people are unable to acknowledge virtues - moral or intellectual - in people they politically resent
I mean, I despise almost everything Nicola Sturgeon stands for - from her Wokeness to her Scottish Nationalism - I think she is personally quite an unpleasant hypocrite
I also think she is seriously smart and a very able politician. I’m relieved she is gone because she WAS good - a threat to the Union
What big calls did you have in mind? I can't think of any.
I dunno. God. You’ve got me there. Stumped!
Oh, wait: winning the Brexit referendum with “take back control” and thereby changing British and world history
Yeah, that
Also - and unfortunately - the decision to hold all the Tory MPs to a "we will brexit even if no deal" pledge, and withdraw the whip from all those who did not, prior to the 2019 election. If that was on Cummings, it counts as another successful gambit.
Yes, Cummings' 'aggressive timeline' for Brexit - whether the outcome was going to be good or not - did seem to be a burning obsession with him. As I recall his 'We're gonna be cool like the Fonzie' rallying cries were from this period. Why the rush though? Brexit would have gone through eventually. Was it just about securing Boris his election win? If so a peculiar motivation given what we now know.
That is rewriting history. With the way Parliament were behaving at the time there was absolutely no certainty that Brexit would have gone through.
Indeed I have mentioned before that I refused to vote for Johnson in 2019 even though I firmly believed it could mean the end of Brexit if he lost the election.
If I was asked to do this nonsense I would tell them to get stuffed.
And they wonder why they are losing many of their 2019 voters to DK and ReformUK? Those voters want a choice to contrast with Starmer Labour and the LDs not an echo of them!
Interesting that Sam Coates takeaway from today's evidence is exactly what Cummings had been saying for years. That the Civil Service were and are unfit for purpose. This now seems so blatently obvious that it is amazing people still try to deny it.
The King acknowledges the "abhorrent and unjustifiable acts of violence committed against Kenyans" during their independence struggle. Though of course plenty of atrocities were also committed by the Mau Mau against blacks as well as whites https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-67273676
Seriously. What a privilege to see it in this slanted light
Looks as if will be pretty impressive when they finish it. Looks like all the workers are having a siesta in that image.
The poignant thing is that originally it would have been painted in really garish - to our eyes - colours. Vivid reds and blues and whites. Like a fairground attraction
But now the colour and polish is all gone and you’re left with the naked golden limestone - which looks so much better (especially to contemporary tastes) - and absolutely gorgeous in slanted October sun
So it’s good it was ruined
It now turns out that Gobekli Tepe was painted. They’ve found scarlet pigment. It would have been multicoloured. It is inexplicable. A painted sequence of temple towns buried 10,000 years ago. An utterly confounding civilisation, 6000 years before “civilisation”
Graham Hancock may have been right then
I hardly think paint is proof that Graham Hancock is right! We have cave paintings going back 64,000 years. Paintings, i.e. uses of paint. Something being painted a mere 6,000 years ago is interesting, but hardly groundbreaking.
Er, 12,000 years ago. Idiot
Still not 60,000 years. Graham Hancock has never knowingly been right on anything he has ever written on archaeology and I don't expect him to start now.
Er, Gobekli Tepe's heyday wasn't 60,000 years ago.
No, it wasn’t. But cave paintings go back to >60k was the point Richard T was making.
How about painted temples?
If you’ve been painting cave walls for tens of millennia and you start constructing your first buildings, be that Dolní Věstonice, Natufian Jericho or Goblekli Tepe, you don’t need Atlanteans or aliens to suggest maybe you could also paint on your buildings’ walls.
Interesting that Sam Coates takeaway from today's evidence is exactly what Cummings had been saying for years. That the Civil Service were and are unfit for purpose. This now seems so blatently obvious that it is amazing people still try to deny it.
I think it is more that people are reluctant to give Cummings something credit for something that is and always has been blatantly obvious, when he was also a big part of the peak dysfunctionality himself, unable to solve it and resorted to toxic abuse of everyone around him.
I think he is clearly bright, was more on point on covid than those around him, and it was probably better he was there than not given Boris as PM and a weak cabinet. But credit for it? Partial only.
The King King Charles acknowledges the "abhorrent and unjustifiable acts of violence committed against Kenyans" during their independence struggle. Though of course plenty of atrocities were also committed by the Mau Mau against blacks as well as whites https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-67273676
The curious thing is that the King's words would have been carefully crafted by the British government, who rightly believe that building bridges with Kenya and elsewhere is a beneficial thing, yet none of the government would actually say it themselves for fear of looking weedy and woke.
I wonder if the Israelis are going to drive all the Palestinians out of the West Bank
They must be thinking: we have no choice. End it now. Us or them
I hasten to add I reckon this would be a catastrophic escalation. I’m just trying to get inside Israeli heads as they look at this surge of Jew hatred around the world. They will be thinking: Israel is it. Our only safe place. We can defend the Jews with nukes. But we need secure borders
= drive the Palestinians over the river
I doubt it, they can just about count on a narrow majority of at least western support to drive Hamas out of Gaza, they would lose almost all international support (except from the hardest right US Republicans) if they tried to drive Palestinians out of the West Bank and Jerusalem too
A war of territorial conquest, which is what that would be, would completely separate supporters of Ukraine from supporters of Israel. Almost certainly not to the latter’s advantage.
A few months back I noticed that a friendly old chap on my route had let his mail pile up for a few days. I knocked on his neighbour’s door and asked if she knew whether he was away as I was a little worried
She confirmed that he was away and due back the next day. She then must have told him that I’d asked; when I saw him on his return he warmly thanked me for my concern
I haven’t seen him for a few weeks and he came to the door when he saw me approaching today. He gave me a book he’d bought for me at the Literary Festival a month ago
It’s called Walking The Bones Of Britain by Christopher Somerville: “A 3 Billion Year Journey From the Outer Hebrides to the Thames Estuary”
He had it signed by the author “For The Perambulating Postie”
Seriously. What a privilege to see it in this slanted light
Looks as if will be pretty impressive when they finish it. Looks like all the workers are having a siesta in that image.
The poignant thing is that originally it would have been painted in really garish - to our eyes - colours. Vivid reds and blues and whites. Like a fairground attraction
But now the colour and polish is all gone and you’re left with the naked golden limestone - which looks so much better (especially to contemporary tastes) - and absolutely gorgeous in slanted October sun
So it’s good it was ruined
It now turns out that Gobekli Tepe was painted. They’ve found scarlet pigment. It would have been multicoloured. It is inexplicable. A painted sequence of temple towns buried 10,000 years ago. An utterly confounding civilisation, 6000 years before “civilisation”
Graham Hancock may have been right then
I hardly think paint is proof that Graham Hancock is right! We have cave paintings going back 64,000 years. Paintings, i.e. uses of paint. Something being painted a mere 6,000 years ago is interesting, but hardly groundbreaking.
Er, 12,000 years ago. Idiot
Still not 60,000 years. Graham Hancock has never knowingly been right on anything he has ever written on archaeology and I don't expect him to start now.
Er, Gobekli Tepe's heyday wasn't 60,000 years ago.
Nor did I say it was. But cave paintings were.
But the first serious cave paintings are Chauvet. 30,000BC (still astonishing)
It now looks like the builders of the Tas Tepeler were constructing highly complex, ritualized, multi-colored painted temple towns with dedicated water systems, auditoriums, shrine buildings, and much else BEFORE AGRICULTURE and with shared religious and artistic motifs, phallocratic rites, maybe even a particular style of chevronned clothing (or special forms of human sacrifice) and all BEFORE AGRICULTURE and these towns were spreads over hundreds of square km
That’s a civilisation. Buried and lost for 10,000 years. It just is
You know this as soon as you go to Gobekli Tepe, Karahan Tepe, and Sayburc and the other emerging Tas Tepeler, but of course none of you have, have you?
I have. The argument ends here. It was stupid anyway because it breaks the Law of Leon
If you find that you disagree with me, and you’re about to make a comment to that effect, have a word with yourself - and don’t write it
I wonder if the Israelis are going to drive all the Palestinians out of the West Bank
They must be thinking: we have no choice. End it now. Us or them
I hasten to add I reckon this would be a catastrophic escalation. I’m just trying to get inside Israeli heads as they look at this surge of Jew hatred around the world. They will be thinking: Israel is it. Our only safe place. We can defend the Jews with nukes. But we need secure borders
= drive the Palestinians over the river
I suspect that's exactly it.
A lot (but not all) Jewish people believe there is no permanent safety except within a Jewish state. Even some of the American Jews I know, think, well, if things ever go south, there's always Israel. And I think that is what is key - Given historical events, Jews need a place where they can feel safe.
The Hamas incursion this month made them feel deeply unsafe again. Much like hitting the school bully on the nose so he doesn't ask you for your lunch money again, they are going to overcompensate and flex their muscle to prove a point. Because, if half your family tree had been sent to extermination camps, you might feel the same way too.
What will happen in the next few weeks and months is Israel saying, punch me again, and I will punch back even harder. Politics of the playground perhaps, but it is also the politics of 6 million led to their deaths, who couldn't defend themselves.
Interesting that Sam Coates takeaway from today's evidence is exactly what Cummings had been saying for years. That the Civil Service were and are unfit for purpose. This now seems so blatently obvious that it is amazing people still try to deny it.
The problem is that Big Dom solution is always shut it all down, sack everybody, put me in charge of it all and I will hire a small crack team of data scientists and ML engineers from industry and it will run itself in a few years...job done.....
I wonder if the Israelis are going to drive all the Palestinians out of the West Bank
They must be thinking: we have no choice. End it now. Us or them
I hasten to add I reckon this would be a catastrophic escalation. I’m just trying to get inside Israeli heads as they look at this surge of Jew hatred around the world. They will be thinking: Israel is it. Our only safe place. We can defend the Jews with nukes. But we need secure borders
= drive the Palestinians over the river
I doubt it, they can just about count on a narrow majority of at least western support to drive Hamas out of Gaza, they would lose almost all international support (except from the hardest right US Republicans) if they tried to drive Palestinians out of the West Bank and Jerusalem too
A war of territorial conquest, which is what that would be, would completely separate supporters of Ukraine from supporters of Israel. Almost certainly not to the latter’s advantage.
It would be that, but on the other hand Gaza is just an ongoing thorn. Egypt could offer some sort of solution here.
The King acknowledges the "abhorrent and unjustifiable acts of violence committed against Kenyans" during their independence struggle. Though of course plenty of atrocities were also committed by the Mau Mau against blacks as well as whites https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-67273676
Almost all Mau Mau victims were black. Christian Kenyans detested the organisation.
Seriously. What a privilege to see it in this slanted light
Looks as if will be pretty impressive when they finish it. Looks like all the workers are having a siesta in that image.
The poignant thing is that originally it would have been painted in really garish - to our eyes - colours. Vivid reds and blues and whites. Like a fairground attraction
But now the colour and polish is all gone and you’re left with the naked golden limestone - which looks so much better (especially to contemporary tastes) - and absolutely gorgeous in slanted October sun
So it’s good it was ruined
It now turns out that Gobekli Tepe was painted. They’ve found scarlet pigment. It would have been multicoloured. It is inexplicable. A painted sequence of temple towns buried 10,000 years ago. An utterly confounding civilisation, 6000 years before “civilisation”
Graham Hancock may have been right then
I hardly think paint is proof that Graham Hancock is right! We have cave paintings going back 64,000 years. Paintings, i.e. uses of paint. Something being painted a mere 6,000 years ago is interesting, but hardly groundbreaking.
Er, 12,000 years ago. Idiot
Still not 60,000 years. Graham Hancock has never knowingly been right on anything he has ever written on archaeology and I don't expect him to start now.
Er, Gobekli Tepe's heyday wasn't 60,000 years ago.
Nor did I say it was. But cave paintings were.
But the first serious cave paintings are Chauvet. 30,000BC (still astonishing)
It now looks like the builders of the Tas Tepeler were constructing highly complex, ritualized, multi-colored painted temple towns with dedicated water systems, auditoriums, shrine buildings, and much else BEFORE AGRICULTURE and with shared religious and artistic motifs, phallocratic rites, maybe even a particular style of chevronned clothing (or special forms of human sacrifice) and all BEFORE AGRICULTURE and these towns were spreads over hundreds of square km
That’s a civilisation. Buried and lost for 10,000 years. It just is
You know this as soon as you go to Gobekli Tepe, Karahan Tepe, and Sayburc and the other emerging Tas Tepeler, but of course none of you have, have you?
I have. The argument ends here. It was stupid anyway because it breaks the Law of Leon
If you find that you disagree with me, and you’re about to make a comment to that effect, have a word with yourself - and don’t write it
I wonder if the Israelis are going to drive all the Palestinians out of the West Bank
They must be thinking: we have no choice. End it now. Us or them
I hasten to add I reckon this would be a catastrophic escalation. I’m just trying to get inside Israeli heads as they look at this surge of Jew hatred around the world. They will be thinking: Israel is it. Our only safe place. We can defend the Jews with nukes. But we need secure borders
= drive the Palestinians over the river
I doubt it, they can just about count on a narrow majority of at least western support to drive Hamas out of Gaza, they would lose almost all international support (except from the hardest right US Republicans) if they tried to drive Palestinians out of the West Bank and Jerusalem too
Do they care, at this point?
Moreover if they turn it into a war between Israel and Arabia/Islam then most western countries will side with Israel
Israel admits to deliberately targeting the refugee camp.
I sense the thousands of dead Gazans can’t be verified guys will shortly be pivoting to what did the Gazans expect guys.
What is happening, and what is likely to continue unfolding over the next few months is a human tragedy. It should not be celebrated. Perhaps, even, it can't be justified.
I was not an unequivocal supporter of US foreign policy pre 9/11, nor did I support their actions after it. That doesn't lessen the fact that 9/11 was an atrocity, either.
I don't believe anyone thinks the people of Gaza were "asking for it" to use the common phrase, but Jews around the world currently feel as if they are locked in an existential battle with people who want them all exterminated - see the scenes in Dagestan for how it goes if Jews are not allowed to defend themselves. Remember, the Holocaust happened within living memory.
I have no doubt that the Israelis are going to do lots of stupid stuff and innocent civilians are going to be killed as a result of what Hamas began 25 days ago. Neither side should be applauded. But you must also understand the current climate among the Jewish community, which is a mix of rage, anger, horror and, most importantly, fear.
I don't think there are many Jews who want to kill Palestinians simply for being Palestinian. There are many around the world who would kill Jews, simply for being Jews.
That’s all understandable, but so one-sided as to simply be useless for any sane decision making.
It is this blindness to the impacts of Israeli actions, both on innocent Palestinian civilians (half of whom are children) and on the future hatred of Israel by the orphans of this war, that makes me find myself more and more sympathetic to the Palestinian side and less and less towards the Israeli.
And as for your last paragraph, the evidence of the current actions in Gaza seem to suggest otherwise.
Interesting that Sam Coates takeaway from today's evidence is exactly what Cummings had been saying for years. That the Civil Service were and are unfit for purpose. This now seems so blatently obvious that it is amazing people still try to deny it.
The problem is that Big Dom solution is always shut it all down, sack everybody, put me in charge of it all and I will hire a small crack team of data scientists and ML engineers from industry and it will run itself in a few years...job done.....
Clearly not true given the praise he has continually heaped on a lot of those working at a lower level within the Civil Service. But of course you only hear the bits you want to hear.
Seriously. What a privilege to see it in this slanted light
Looks as if will be pretty impressive when they finish it. Looks like all the workers are having a siesta in that image.
The poignant thing is that originally it would have been painted in really garish - to our eyes - colours. Vivid reds and blues and whites. Like a fairground attraction
But now the colour and polish is all gone and you’re left with the naked golden limestone - which looks so much better (especially to contemporary tastes) - and absolutely gorgeous in slanted October sun
So it’s good it was ruined
It now turns out that Gobekli Tepe was painted. They’ve found scarlet pigment. It would have been multicoloured. It is inexplicable. A painted sequence of temple towns buried 10,000 years ago. An utterly confounding civilisation, 6000 years before “civilisation”
Graham Hancock may have been right then
I hardly think paint is proof that Graham Hancock is right! We have cave paintings going back 64,000 years. Paintings, i.e. uses of paint. Something being painted a mere 6,000 years ago is interesting, but hardly groundbreaking.
Er, 12,000 years ago. Idiot
Still not 60,000 years. Graham Hancock has never knowingly been right on anything he has ever written on archaeology and I don't expect him to start now.
Er, Gobekli Tepe's heyday wasn't 60,000 years ago.
Nor did I say it was. But cave paintings were.
But the first serious cave paintings are Chauvet. 30,000BC (still astonishing)
It now looks like the builders of the Tas Tepeler were constructing highly complex, ritualized, multi-colored painted temple towns with dedicated water systems, auditoriums, shrine buildings, and much else BEFORE AGRICULTURE and with shared religious and artistic motifs, phallocratic rites, maybe even a particular style of chevronned clothing (or special forms of human sacrifice) and all BEFORE AGRICULTURE and these towns were spreads over hundreds of square km
That’s a civilisation. Buried and lost for 10,000 years. It just is
You know this as soon as you go to Gobekli Tepe, Karahan Tepe, and Sayburc and the other emerging Tas Tepeler, but of course none of you have, have you?
I have. The argument ends here. It was stupid anyway because it breaks the Law of Leon
If you find that you disagree with me, and you’re about to make a comment to that effect, have a word with yourself - and don’t write it
Interesting that Sam Coates takeaway from today's evidence is exactly what Cummings had been saying for years. That the Civil Service were and are unfit for purpose. This now seems so blatently obvious that it is amazing people still try to deny it.
The problem is that Big Dom solution is always shut it all down, sack everybody, put me in charge of it all and I will hire a small crack team of data scientists and ML engineers from industry and it will run itself in a few years...job done.....
Clearly not true given the praise he has continually heaped on a lot of those working at a lower level within the Civil Service. But of course you only hear the bits you want to hear.
I was being a bit hyperbolic, but it isn't a million miles away from what he advocated for. Remember the infamous call to hire the super talented weirdos to replace the broken civil service, particularly in Downing Street, which he end run.
That Bristol BLM leader might want to move to the United States: "Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors has admitted to throwing two parties at the organization’s swanky $6 million Los Angeles mansion — despite previously suggesting she’d never used the property for personal gain.
The 38-year-old told the Associated Press on Monday that she hosted her son’s birthday party and a gathering to celebrate President Biden’s inauguration at the six-bedroom property early last year.
That Bristol BLM leader might want to move to the United States: "Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors has admitted to throwing two parties at the organization’s swanky $6 million Los Angeles mansion — despite previously suggesting she’d never used the property for personal gain.
The 38-year-old told the Associated Press on Monday that she hosted her son’s birthday party and a gathering to celebrate President Biden’s inauguration at the six-bedroom property early last year.
I wonder if the Israelis are going to drive all the Palestinians out of the West Bank
They must be thinking: we have no choice. End it now. Us or them
I hasten to add I reckon this would be a catastrophic escalation. I’m just trying to get inside Israeli heads as they look at this surge of Jew hatred around the world. They will be thinking: Israel is it. Our only safe place. We can defend the Jews with nukes. But we need secure borders
= drive the Palestinians over the river
I doubt it, they can just about count on a narrow majority of at least western support to drive Hamas out of Gaza, they would lose almost all international support (except from the hardest right US Republicans) if they tried to drive Palestinians out of the West Bank and Jerusalem too
Do they care, at this point?
Moreover if they turn it into a war between Israel and Arabia/Islam then most western countries will side with Israel
Most would stay neutral, maybe even the Biden led US, if Israel invades Bethlehem, Ramallah etc.
Defeating Hamas in Gaza is one thing (and most westerners except the hard left back that), trying to occupy the entire West Bank and Palestinian Authority and all Palestinians land is quite another
Germany is blocking the sale of Typhoon fighters to Saudi Arabia, which will likely buy French Rafales instead.
The only reason why we enjoy such a close relationship with the Saudis (apart from the oil) is that they are the only ones who can be persuaded to buy our military stuff even if it's kak. If we can't sell them a non-stealth aircraft, what's the use?
Interesting that Sam Coates takeaway from today's evidence is exactly what Cummings had been saying for years. That the Civil Service were and are unfit for purpose. This now seems so blatently obvious that it is amazing people still try to deny it.
The problem is that Big Dom solution is always shut it all down, sack everybody, put me in charge of it all and I will hire a small crack team of data scientists and ML engineers from industry and it will run itself in a few years...job done.....
Clearly not true given the praise he has continually heaped on a lot of those working at a lower level within the Civil Service. But of course you only hear the bits you want to hear.
I was being a bit hyperbolic, but it isn't a million miles away from what he advocated for. Remember the infamous call to hire the super talented weirdos to replace the broken civil service, particularly in Downing Street.
The irony is that Cummings was certainly right, but about 5 years premature
We could now replace 90% of the Civil Service (and quite soon we surely will) with AI, and the machines will do a much better job. How could they not? Who doubts that GPT4.5 would have made a better fist of HS2?
It’s very sad for the pathetic midwit quasi-Woke pen-pushing cretins that constitute much of the Civil Service, who have never had an original idea between them, but oh well. Them’s the breaks. Bye
That Bristol BLM leader might want to move to the United States: "Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors has admitted to throwing two parties at the organization’s swanky $6 million Los Angeles mansion — despite previously suggesting she’d never used the property for personal gain.
The 38-year-old told the Associated Press on Monday that she hosted her son’s birthday party and a gathering to celebrate President Biden’s inauguration at the six-bedroom property early last year.
I wonder if the Israelis are going to drive all the Palestinians out of the West Bank
They must be thinking: we have no choice. End it now. Us or them
I hasten to add I reckon this would be a catastrophic escalation. I’m just trying to get inside Israeli heads as they look at this surge of Jew hatred around the world. They will be thinking: Israel is it. Our only safe place. We can defend the Jews with nukes. But we need secure borders
= drive the Palestinians over the river
I doubt it, they can just about count on a narrow majority of at least western support to drive Hamas out of Gaza, they would lose almost all international support (except from the hardest right US Republicans) if they tried to drive Palestinians out of the West Bank and Jerusalem too
Do they care, at this point?
Moreover if they turn it into a war between Israel and Arabia/Islam then most western countries will side with Israel
Most would stay neutral, maybe even the Biden led US, if Israel invades Bethlehem, Ramallah etc.
Defeating Hamas in Gaza is one thing (and most westerners except the hard left back that), trying to occupy the entire West Bank and Palestinian Authority and all Palestinians land is quite another
Oh Jeez this is like wading through low IQ treacle
Interesting that Sam Coates takeaway from today's evidence is exactly what Cummings had been saying for years. That the Civil Service were and are unfit for purpose. This now seems so blatently obvious that it is amazing people still try to deny it.
The problem is that Big Dom solution is always shut it all down, sack everybody, put me in charge of it all and I will hire a small crack team of data scientists and ML engineers from industry and it will run itself in a few years...job done.....
Clearly not true given the praise he has continually heaped on a lot of those working at a lower level within the Civil Service. But of course you only hear the bits you want to hear.
I was being a bit hyperbolic, but it isn't a million miles away from what he advocated for. Remember the infamous call to hire the super talented weirdos to replace the broken civil service, particularly in Downing Street.
The irony is that Cummings was certainly right, but about 5 years premature
We could now replace 90% of the Civil Service (and quite soon we surely will) with AI, and the machines will do a much better job. How could they not? Who doubts that GPT4.5 would have made a better fist of HS2?
It’s very sad for the pathetic midwit quasi-Woke pen-pushing cretins that constitute much of the Civil Service, who have never had an original idea between them, but oh well. Them’s the breaks. Bye
They can always retrain as strippers or vicars
If AI produced a humanoid, would it be Dominic Cummings?
That Bristol BLM leader might want to move to the United States: "Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors has admitted to throwing two parties at the organization’s swanky $6 million Los Angeles mansion — despite previously suggesting she’d never used the property for personal gain.
The 38-year-old told the Associated Press on Monday that she hosted her son’s birthday party and a gathering to celebrate President Biden’s inauguration at the six-bedroom property early last year.
A few months back I noticed that a friendly old chap on my route had let his mail pile up for a few days. I knocked on his neighbour’s door and asked if she knew whether he was away as I was a little worried
She confirmed that he was away and due back the next day. She then must have told him that I’d asked; when I saw him on his return he warmly thanked me for my concern
I haven’t seen him for a few weeks and he came to the door when he saw me approaching today. He gave me a book he’d bought for me at the Literary Festival a month ago
It’s called Walking The Bones Of Britain by Christopher Somerville: “A 3 Billion Year Journey From the Outer Hebrides to the Thames Estuary”
He had it signed by the author “For The Perambulating Postie”
Seriously. What a privilege to see it in this slanted light
Looks as if will be pretty impressive when they finish it. Looks like all the workers are having a siesta in that image.
The poignant thing is that originally it would have been painted in really garish - to our eyes - colours. Vivid reds and blues and whites. Like a fairground attraction
But now the colour and polish is all gone and you’re left with the naked golden limestone - which looks so much better (especially to contemporary tastes) - and absolutely gorgeous in slanted October sun
So it’s good it was ruined
It now turns out that Gobekli Tepe was painted. They’ve found scarlet pigment. It would have been multicoloured. It is inexplicable. A painted sequence of temple towns buried 10,000 years ago. An utterly confounding civilisation, 6000 years before “civilisation”
Graham Hancock may have been right then
I hardly think paint is proof that Graham Hancock is right! We have cave paintings going back 64,000 years. Paintings, i.e. uses of paint. Something being painted a mere 6,000 years ago is interesting, but hardly groundbreaking.
Er, 12,000 years ago. Idiot
Still not 60,000 years. Graham Hancock has never knowingly been right on anything he has ever written on archaeology and I don't expect him to start now.
Er, Gobekli Tepe's heyday wasn't 60,000 years ago.
Nor did I say it was. But cave paintings were.
But the first serious cave paintings are Chauvet. 30,000BC (still astonishing)
It now looks like the builders of the Tas Tepeler were constructing highly complex, ritualized, multi-colored painted temple towns with dedicated water systems, auditoriums, shrine buildings, and much else BEFORE AGRICULTURE and with shared religious and artistic motifs, phallocratic rites, maybe even a particular style of chevronned clothing (or special forms of human sacrifice) and all BEFORE AGRICULTURE and these towns were spreads over hundreds of square km
That’s a civilisation. Buried and lost for 10,000 years. It just is
You know this as soon as you go to Gobekli Tepe, Karahan Tepe, and Sayburc and the other emerging Tas Tepeler, but of course none of you have, have you?
I have. The argument ends here. It was stupid anyway because it breaks the Law of Leon
If you find that you disagree with me, and you’re about to make a comment to that effect, have a word with yourself - and don’t write it
And yet I am continually talking to serious archaeologists working in Northern Syria and Turkey who completely disagree with you and think Hancock is a mendacious prick. You have visited and had drinks with people there. That doesn't make you an expert - as is shown by some of your comments on here about it.
So, for example, it is now thought that all GT shows is that the agricurltiral revolution and the start of the pre-ceramic Neolithic were not a uniform event in time across the region. No archaeologist seriously thinks either GT or any of the other sites are evidence of an advanced civilisation lost to knowledge. Nor do they now buy into the impact theory for the Younger Dryas cooling that Hancock and others keep talking about as 'evidence' of the lost civilisation. Why? because the Younger Dryas cooling is only the last of 26 similar events over a 120,000 year period and none of them need Hancock's cometary impact as a cause.
Hancock is a journalist who pretends there is some great archaeological conspiracy theory that we are all in on to hide evidence of a lost civilisation. He is a nutter and is as wrong on this as he has been on everything else he has ever written.
That Bristol BLM leader might want to move to the United States: "Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors has admitted to throwing two parties at the organization’s swanky $6 million Los Angeles mansion — despite previously suggesting she’d never used the property for personal gain.
The 38-year-old told the Associated Press on Monday that she hosted her son’s birthday party and a gathering to celebrate President Biden’s inauguration at the six-bedroom property early last year.
Interesting that Sam Coates takeaway from today's evidence is exactly what Cummings had been saying for years. That the Civil Service were and are unfit for purpose. This now seems so blatently obvious that it is amazing people still try to deny it.
The problem is that Big Dom solution is always shut it all down, sack everybody, put me in charge of it all and I will hire a small crack team of data scientists and ML engineers from industry and it will run itself in a few years...job done.....
Clearly not true given the praise he has continually heaped on a lot of those working at a lower level within the Civil Service. But of course you only hear the bits you want to hear.
I was being a bit hyperbolic, but it isn't a million miles away from what he advocated for. Remember the infamous call to hire the super talented weirdos to replace the broken civil service, particularly in Downing Street.
The irony is that Cummings was certainly right, but about 5 years premature
We could now replace 90% of the Civil Service (and quite soon we surely will) with AI, and the machines will do a much better job. How could they not? Who doubts that GPT4.5 would have made a better fist of HS2?
It’s very sad for the pathetic midwit quasi-Woke pen-pushing cretins that constitute much of the Civil Service, who have never had an original idea between them, but oh well. Them’s the breaks. Bye
They can always retrain as strippers or vicars
If AI produced a humanoid, would it be Dominic Cummings?
I wonder if the Israelis are going to drive all the Palestinians out of the West Bank
They must be thinking: we have no choice. End it now. Us or them
I hasten to add I reckon this would be a catastrophic escalation. I’m just trying to get inside Israeli heads as they look at this surge of Jew hatred around the world. They will be thinking: Israel is it. Our only safe place. We can defend the Jews with nukes. But we need secure borders
= drive the Palestinians over the river
I doubt it, they can just about count on a narrow majority of at least western support to drive Hamas out of Gaza, they would lose almost all international support (except from the hardest right US Republicans) if they tried to drive Palestinians out of the West Bank and Jerusalem too
Do they care, at this point?
Moreover if they turn it into a war between Israel and Arabia/Islam then most western countries will side with Israel
Most would stay neutral, maybe even the Biden led US, if Israel invades Bethlehem, Ramallah etc.
Defeating Hamas in Gaza is one thing (and most westerners except the hard left back that), trying to occupy the entire West Bank and Palestinian Authority and all Palestinians land is quite another
Oh Jeez this is like wading through low IQ treacle
I give up
You don't need to be Einstein to know that Netanyahu going beyond avenging the terrorist attacks to try and turn the 2 state solution for the area into a 1 state Israeli occupation would have virtually no support internationally.
Even most of the US would not go that far, only evangelicals and the hardest right Republicans would back it. Most of Europe, including the UK, Canada, Australia, Japan etc would oppose
Interesting that Sam Coates takeaway from today's evidence is exactly what Cummings had been saying for years. That the Civil Service were and are unfit for purpose. This now seems so blatently obvious that it is amazing people still try to deny it.
The problem is that Big Dom solution is always shut it all down, sack everybody, put me in charge of it all and I will hire a small crack team of data scientists and ML engineers from industry and it will run itself in a few years...job done.....
Clearly not true given the praise he has continually heaped on a lot of those working at a lower level within the Civil Service. But of course you only hear the bits you want to hear.
I was being a bit hyperbolic, but it isn't a million miles away from what he advocated for. Remember the infamous call to hire the super talented weirdos to replace the broken civil service, particularly in Downing Street.
The irony is that Cummings was certainly right, but about 5 years premature
We could now replace 90% of the Civil Service (and quite soon we surely will) with AI, and the machines will do a much better job. How could they not? Who doubts that GPT4.5 would have made a better fist of HS2?
It’s very sad for the pathetic midwit quasi-Woke pen-pushing cretins that constitute much of the Civil Service, who have never had an original idea between them, but oh well. Them’s the breaks. Bye
They can always retrain as strippers or vicars
If AI produced a humanoid, would it be Dominic Cummings?
Seriously. What a privilege to see it in this slanted light
Looks as if will be pretty impressive when they finish it. Looks like all the workers are having a siesta in that image.
The poignant thing is that originally it would have been painted in really garish - to our eyes - colours. Vivid reds and blues and whites. Like a fairground attraction
But now the colour and polish is all gone and you’re left with the naked golden limestone - which looks so much better (especially to contemporary tastes) - and absolutely gorgeous in slanted October sun
So it’s good it was ruined
It now turns out that Gobekli Tepe was painted. They’ve found scarlet pigment. It would have been multicoloured. It is inexplicable. A painted sequence of temple towns buried 10,000 years ago. An utterly confounding civilisation, 6000 years before “civilisation”
Graham Hancock may have been right then
I hardly think paint is proof that Graham Hancock is right! We have cave paintings going back 64,000 years. Paintings, i.e. uses of paint. Something being painted a mere 6,000 years ago is interesting, but hardly groundbreaking.
Er, 12,000 years ago. Idiot
Still not 60,000 years. Graham Hancock has never knowingly been right on anything he has ever written on archaeology and I don't expect him to start now.
Er, Gobekli Tepe's heyday wasn't 60,000 years ago.
Nor did I say it was. But cave paintings were.
But the first serious cave paintings are Chauvet. 30,000BC (still astonishing)
It now looks like the builders of the Tas Tepeler were constructing highly complex, ritualized, multi-colored painted temple towns with dedicated water systems, auditoriums, shrine buildings, and much else BEFORE AGRICULTURE and with shared religious and artistic motifs, phallocratic rites, maybe even a particular style of chevronned clothing (or special forms of human sacrifice) and all BEFORE AGRICULTURE and these towns were spreads over hundreds of square km
That’s a civilisation. Buried and lost for 10,000 years. It just is
You know this as soon as you go to Gobekli Tepe, Karahan Tepe, and Sayburc and the other emerging Tas Tepeler, but of course none of you have, have you?
I have. The argument ends here. It was stupid anyway because it breaks the Law of Leon
If you find that you disagree with me, and you’re about to make a comment to that effect, have a word with yourself - and don’t write it
And yet I am continually talking to serious archaeologists working in Northern Syria and Turkey who completely disagree with you and think Hancock is a mendacious prick. You have visited and had drinks with people there. That doesn't make you an expert - as is shown by some of your comments on here about it.
So, for example, it is now thought that all GT shows is that the agricurltiral revolution and the start of the pre-ceramic Neolithic were not a uniform event in time across the region. No archaeologist seriously thinks either GT or any of the other sites are evidence of an advanced civilisation lost to knowledge. Nor do they now buy into the impact theory for the Younger Dryas cooling that Hancock and others keep talking about as 'evidence' of the lost civilisation. Why? because the Younger Dryas cooling is only the last of 26 similar events over a 120,000 year period and none of them need Hancock's cometary impact as a cause.
Hancock is a journalist who pretends there is some great archaeological conspiracy theory that we are all in on to hide evidence of a lost civilisation. He is a nutter and is as wrong on this as he has been on everything else he has ever written.
I’ve been there and seen it all. You haven’t. That’s all there is to it
Go there, go to Karahan Tepe, Sayburc and Gobekli Tepe, and maybe three others, and then get back to me
Until then, as I have said several times now, with underserved politesse, shut the fuck up you don’t know what you’re talking about
That Bristol BLM leader might want to move to the United States: "Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors has admitted to throwing two parties at the organization’s swanky $6 million Los Angeles mansion — despite previously suggesting she’d never used the property for personal gain.
The 38-year-old told the Associated Press on Monday that she hosted her son’s birthday party and a gathering to celebrate President Biden’s inauguration at the six-bedroom property early last year.
I'm only broadly familiar with southern California, but I can say those pictures don't look much like Compton.
Why it is the Marxists always seem to end up buying expensive property?
It’s one of the advantages of being a Marxist leader.
I was reading the other day that Hamas have extensive property developments / holdings in Turkey. Some of the crazies on the left like to talk about Hamas being part of the "Global Left / Progressive" movement, but I don't think for those reasons.
Interesting that Sam Coates takeaway from today's evidence is exactly what Cummings had been saying for years. That the Civil Service were and are unfit for purpose. This now seems so blatently obvious that it is amazing people still try to deny it.
The problem is that Big Dom solution is always shut it all down, sack everybody, put me in charge of it all and I will hire a small crack team of data scientists and ML engineers from industry and it will run itself in a few years...job done.....
Clearly not true given the praise he has continually heaped on a lot of those working at a lower level within the Civil Service. But of course you only hear the bits you want to hear.
I was being a bit hyperbolic, but it isn't a million miles away from what he advocated for. Remember the infamous call to hire the super talented weirdos to replace the broken civil service, particularly in Downing Street.
The irony is that Cummings was certainly right, but about 5 years premature
We could now replace 90% of the Civil Service (and quite soon we surely will) with AI, and the machines will do a much better job. How could they not? Who doubts that GPT4.5 would have made a better fist of HS2?
It’s very sad for the pathetic midwit quasi-Woke pen-pushing cretins that constitute much of the Civil Service, who have never had an original idea between them, but oh well. Them’s the breaks. Bye
They can always retrain as strippers or vicars
If AI produced a humanoid, would it be Dominic Cummings?
He does actually sound like a particularly arrogant version of GPT4
Interesting that Sam Coates takeaway from today's evidence is exactly what Cummings had been saying for years. That the Civil Service were and are unfit for purpose. This now seems so blatently obvious that it is amazing people still try to deny it.
The problem is that Big Dom solution is always shut it all down, sack everybody, put me in charge of it all and I will hire a small crack team of data scientists and ML engineers from industry and it will run itself in a few years...job done.....
Clearly not true given the praise he has continually heaped on a lot of those working at a lower level within the Civil Service. But of course you only hear the bits you want to hear.
I was being a bit hyperbolic, but it isn't a million miles away from what he advocated for. Remember the infamous call to hire the super talented weirdos to replace the broken civil service, particularly in Downing Street.
The irony is that Cummings was certainly right, but about 5 years premature
We could now replace 90% of the Civil Service (and quite soon we surely will) with AI, and the machines will do a much better job. How could they not? Who doubts that GPT4.5 would have made a better fist of HS2?
It’s very sad for the pathetic midwit quasi-Woke pen-pushing cretins that constitute much of the Civil Service, who have never had an original idea between them, but oh well. Them’s the breaks. Bye
They can always retrain as strippers or vicars
If AI produced a humanoid, would it be Dominic Cummings?
He does actually sound like a particularly arrogant version of GPT4
The difference is GPT4 apologises when it makes a mistake...
Seriously. What a privilege to see it in this slanted light
Looks as if will be pretty impressive when they finish it. Looks like all the workers are having a siesta in that image.
The poignant thing is that originally it would have been painted in really garish - to our eyes - colours. Vivid reds and blues and whites. Like a fairground attraction
But now the colour and polish is all gone and you’re left with the naked golden limestone - which looks so much better (especially to contemporary tastes) - and absolutely gorgeous in slanted October sun
So it’s good it was ruined
It now turns out that Gobekli Tepe was painted. They’ve found scarlet pigment. It would have been multicoloured. It is inexplicable. A painted sequence of temple towns buried 10,000 years ago. An utterly confounding civilisation, 6000 years before “civilisation”
Graham Hancock may have been right then
I hardly think paint is proof that Graham Hancock is right! We have cave paintings going back 64,000 years. Paintings, i.e. uses of paint. Something being painted a mere 6,000 years ago is interesting, but hardly groundbreaking.
Er, 12,000 years ago. Idiot
Still not 60,000 years. Graham Hancock has never knowingly been right on anything he has ever written on archaeology and I don't expect him to start now.
Er, Gobekli Tepe's heyday wasn't 60,000 years ago.
Nor did I say it was. But cave paintings were.
But the first serious cave paintings are Chauvet. 30,000BC (still astonishing)
It now looks like the builders of the Tas Tepeler were constructing highly complex, ritualized, multi-colored painted temple towns with dedicated water systems, auditoriums, shrine buildings, and much else BEFORE AGRICULTURE and with shared religious and artistic motifs, phallocratic rites, maybe even a particular style of chevronned clothing (or special forms of human sacrifice) and all BEFORE AGRICULTURE and these towns were spreads over hundreds of square km
That’s a civilisation. Buried and lost for 10,000 years. It just is
You know this as soon as you go to Gobekli Tepe, Karahan Tepe, and Sayburc and the other emerging Tas Tepeler, but of course none of you have, have you?
I have. The argument ends here. It was stupid anyway because it breaks the Law of Leon
If you find that you disagree with me, and you’re about to make a comment to that effect, have a word with yourself - and don’t write it
And yet I am continually talking to serious archaeologists working in Northern Syria and Turkey who completely disagree with you and think Hancock is a mendacious prick. You have visited and had drinks with people there. That doesn't make you an expert - as is shown by some of your comments on here about it.
So, for example, it is now thought that all GT shows is that the agricurltiral revolution and the start of the pre-ceramic Neolithic were not a uniform event in time across the region. No archaeologist seriously thinks either GT or any of the other sites are evidence of an advanced civilisation lost to knowledge. Nor do they now buy into the impact theory for the Younger Dryas cooling that Hancock and others keep talking about as 'evidence' of the lost civilisation. Why? because the Younger Dryas cooling is only the last of 26 similar events over a 120,000 year period and none of them need Hancock's cometary impact as a cause.
Hancock is a journalist who pretends there is some great archaeological conspiracy theory that we are all in on to hide evidence of a lost civilisation. He is a nutter and is as wrong on this as he has been on everything else he has ever written.
I wouldn't say Hancock's a nutter. He's made an absolute fortune out of his pop revisionist histories. A cynically fraud quite possibly.
That announcement from Yemen reminds me of something I read years ago. Before Israel was founded there were Jews in Yemen -- and each Jewish tribe was owned by a Muslim tribe.
Seems plausible to me, but I have never tried to check it out.
TiL. The term "derby" for a game between two local teams comes from the Earl of Derby's estate between Wigan and St.Helens. Therefore Wigan v Saints was the original derby game and all others copied that. I've been to dozens and dozens of Wigan Saints games and never knew that fact.
I wonder if the Israelis are going to drive all the Palestinians out of the West Bank
They must be thinking: we have no choice. End it now. Us or them
I hasten to add I reckon this would be a catastrophic escalation. I’m just trying to get inside Israeli heads as they look at this surge of Jew hatred around the world. They will be thinking: Israel is it. Our only safe place. We can defend the Jews with nukes. But we need secure borders
= drive the Palestinians over the river
I doubt it, they can just about count on a narrow majority of at least western support to drive Hamas out of Gaza, they would lose almost all international support (except from the hardest right US Republicans) if they tried to drive Palestinians out of the West Bank and Jerusalem too
Do they care, at this point?
Moreover if they turn it into a war between Israel and Arabia/Islam then most western countries will side with Israel
Most would stay neutral, maybe even the Biden led US, if Israel invades Bethlehem, Ramallah etc.
Defeating Hamas in Gaza is one thing (and most westerners except the hard left back that), trying to occupy the entire West Bank and Palestinian Authority and all Palestinians land is quite another
Oh Jeez this is like wading through low IQ treacle
I give up
You don't need to be Einstein to know that Netanyahu going beyond avenging the terrorist attacks to try and turn the 2 state solution for the area into a 1 state Israeli occupation would have virtually no support internationally.
Even most of the US would not go that far, only evangelicals and the hardest right Republicans would back it. Most of Europe, including the UK, Canada, Australia, Japan etc would oppose
No. Israel will subtly or overtly provoke a war with the entire Islamic world (esp Shia Iran, Hezbollah, etc) knowing it has
1. Nukes
And
2. America
To back it up
When it comes down to that stand-off, most of the west will side with Israel, probably even Trump
If I was an intelligent Jew in Israel, or indeed in the diaspora. I would now realise that this is the best course of action, There are no good choices. None. They are all appalling. But an all out war NOW that Israel is highly likely to win - ending the Palestinian issue forever - is much better than an all-out war in 10 years when Iran has the bomb
I wonder if the Israelis are going to drive all the Palestinians out of the West Bank
They must be thinking: we have no choice. End it now. Us or them
I hasten to add I reckon this would be a catastrophic escalation. I’m just trying to get inside Israeli heads as they look at this surge of Jew hatred around the world. They will be thinking: Israel is it. Our only safe place. We can defend the Jews with nukes. But we need secure borders
= drive the Palestinians over the river
I doubt it, they can just about count on a narrow majority of at least western support to drive Hamas out of Gaza, they would lose almost all international support (except from the hardest right US Republicans) if they tried to drive Palestinians out of the West Bank and Jerusalem too
Do they care, at this point?
Moreover if they turn it into a war between Israel and Arabia/Islam then most western countries will side with Israel
Most would stay neutral, maybe even the Biden led US, if Israel invades Bethlehem, Ramallah etc.
Defeating Hamas in Gaza is one thing (and most westerners except the hard left back that), trying to occupy the entire West Bank and Palestinian Authority and all Palestinians land is quite another
Oh Jeez this is like wading through low IQ treacle
I give up
You don't need to be Einstein to know that Netanyahu going beyond avenging the terrorist attacks to try and turn the 2 state solution for the area into a 1 state Israeli occupation would have virtually no support internationally.
Even most of the US would not go that far, only evangelicals and the hardest right Republicans would back it. Most of Europe, including the UK, Canada, Australia, Japan etc would oppose
No. Israel will subtly or overtly provoke a war with the entire Islamic world (esp Shia Iran, Hezbollah, etc) knowing it has
1. Nukes
And
2. America
To back it up
When it comes down to that stand-off, most of the west will side with Israel, probably even Trump
If I was an intelligent Jew in Israel, or indeed in the diaspora. I would now realise that this is the best course of action, There are no good choices. None. They are all appalling. But an all out war NOW that Israel is highly likely to win - ending the Palestinian issue forever - is much better than an all-out war in 10 years when Iran has the bomb
I wonder if the Israelis are going to drive all the Palestinians out of the West Bank
They must be thinking: we have no choice. End it now. Us or them
I hasten to add I reckon this would be a catastrophic escalation. I’m just trying to get inside Israeli heads as they look at this surge of Jew hatred around the world. They will be thinking: Israel is it. Our only safe place. We can defend the Jews with nukes. But we need secure borders
= drive the Palestinians over the river
I doubt it, they can just about count on a narrow majority of at least western support to drive Hamas out of Gaza, they would lose almost all international support (except from the hardest right US Republicans) if they tried to drive Palestinians out of the West Bank and Jerusalem too
Do they care, at this point?
Moreover if they turn it into a war between Israel and Arabia/Islam then most western countries will side with Israel
Most would stay neutral, maybe even the Biden led US, if Israel invades Bethlehem, Ramallah etc.
Defeating Hamas in Gaza is one thing (and most westerners except the hard left back that), trying to occupy the entire West Bank and Palestinian Authority and all Palestinians land is quite another
Oh Jeez this is like wading through low IQ treacle
I give up
You don't need to be Einstein to know that Netanyahu going beyond avenging the terrorist attacks to try and turn the 2 state solution for the area into a 1 state Israeli occupation would have virtually no support internationally.
Even most of the US would not go that far, only evangelicals and the hardest right Republicans would back it. Most of Europe, including the UK, Canada, Australia, Japan etc would oppose
Yup. Israel has got a reasonable case- from history and geography- to go one step further than other nations in forcefully defending itself. And that is, in the eyes of the world, OK.
But only one step. So aggressive Israeli defence in Gaza can be just about justified as grim necessity. But if the Israeli government succumbs to the temptation to go after the West Bank as well, that's a different matter. My understanding is that WB Palestinians have done a much clearer job of playing by the coexistence rules, and are still being treated pretty shittily.
With respect (in some manner of speaking) to Dominic Cummings and his ilk, believe it is a cardinal error for an elected politico, to bring his/her political consultant/fixer/guru/manager into the inner circles of government as a key governing advisor.
Much better to keep them close at hand, but a role where they oversee/preside over patronage and personnel as opposed to policy.
An example is Franklin D. Roosevelts 1932/36 campaign manager Jim Farley, who FDR appointed to his cabinet, but as Postmaster General which was NOT a key policy role.
For one thing, even top-class political hacks rarely manage more than one or at best two first-class electoral victories, at the pinnacle of their career.
Thus Farley was a key player in FDR's winning the Democratic nomination and thus the presidency in 1932. But his role was FAR less important by 1936. (By 1940 he was in the anti-FDR camp, indeed was a candidate - sorta - against his old boss.)
Also note the rise and fall of James Carville. Famed for his important contribution to Bill Clinton's 1992 victory, by 1996 he was on the outside looking in, observing (through a glass darkly) what Dick Morris (remember him?) was up to.
Dr Henry Kissinger says 'Hi'.
Kissinger had zero to do with political organizing & strategy, which is what Cummings, Farley, Carville were all about.
Not quite zero. … In 1968, Kissinger leaked information about the status of the peace talks in Paris to the Nixon campaign and was rewarded with being appointed National Security Adviser under Richard Nixon. As National Security Adviser, Kissinger sought initially to find a way to end the war on American terms...
That being, of course, the key campaign issue.
K's expertise being ONLY with reference to foreign policy.
Again, beyond being a POLICY resource/fink, Dr. Strangelove had diddly-squat to do with developing/managing/overseeing POLITICAL organization, tactics and strategy. Either during the primaries (when K backed Nelson Rockefeller) or during the fall campaign.
BTW, Nixon's position on Paris peace talks, while of absorbing interest to him, was NOT as significant electorally, as RN's Southern Strategy. No K fingerprints there.
I wonder if the Israelis are going to drive all the Palestinians out of the West Bank
They must be thinking: we have no choice. End it now. Us or them
I hasten to add I reckon this would be a catastrophic escalation. I’m just trying to get inside Israeli heads as they look at this surge of Jew hatred around the world. They will be thinking: Israel is it. Our only safe place. We can defend the Jews with nukes. But we need secure borders
= drive the Palestinians over the river
I doubt it, they can just about count on a narrow majority of at least western support to drive Hamas out of Gaza, they would lose almost all international support (except from the hardest right US Republicans) if they tried to drive Palestinians out of the West Bank and Jerusalem too
Do they care, at this point?
Moreover if they turn it into a war between Israel and Arabia/Islam then most western countries will side with Israel
Most would stay neutral, maybe even the Biden led US, if Israel invades Bethlehem, Ramallah etc.
Defeating Hamas in Gaza is one thing (and most westerners except the hard left back that), trying to occupy the entire West Bank and Palestinian Authority and all Palestinians land is quite another
Oh Jeez this is like wading through low IQ treacle
I give up
You don't need to be Einstein to know that Netanyahu going beyond avenging the terrorist attacks to try and turn the 2 state solution for the area into a 1 state Israeli occupation would have virtually no support internationally.
Even most of the US would not go that far, only evangelicals and the hardest right Republicans would back it. Most of Europe, including the UK, Canada, Australia, Japan etc would oppose
No. Israel will subtly or overtly provoke a war with the entire Islamic world (esp Shia Iran, Hezbollah, etc) knowing it has
1. Nukes
And
2. America
To back it up
When it comes down to that stand-off, most of the west will side with Israel, probably even Trump
If I was an intelligent Jew in Israel, or indeed in the diaspora. I would now realise that this is the best course of action, There are no good choices. None. They are all appalling. But an all out war NOW that Israel is highly likely to win - ending the Palestinian issue forever - is much better than an all-out war in 10 years when Iran has the bomb
The Biden led US would not back Israel if it invaded the West Bank, nor would the UK, France, Canada, China, Russia, India, South Africa, Turkey, Japan, Brazil, Italy, Germany etc. It would be on its own.
Trump's US might but that is a big gamble hoping he returns to power by 2025. Plus Iran may have nukes too now
I wonder if the Israelis are going to drive all the Palestinians out of the West Bank
They must be thinking: we have no choice. End it now. Us or them
I hasten to add I reckon this would be a catastrophic escalation. I’m just trying to get inside Israeli heads as they look at this surge of Jew hatred around the world. They will be thinking: Israel is it. Our only safe place. We can defend the Jews with nukes. But we need secure borders
= drive the Palestinians over the river
I doubt it, they can just about count on a narrow majority of at least western support to drive Hamas out of Gaza, they would lose almost all international support (except from the hardest right US Republicans) if they tried to drive Palestinians out of the West Bank and Jerusalem too
Do they care, at this point?
Moreover if they turn it into a war between Israel and Arabia/Islam then most western countries will side with Israel
Most would stay neutral, maybe even the Biden led US, if Israel invades Bethlehem, Ramallah etc.
Defeating Hamas in Gaza is one thing (and most westerners except the hard left back that), trying to occupy the entire West Bank and Palestinian Authority and all Palestinians land is quite another
Oh Jeez this is like wading through low IQ treacle
I give up
You don't need to be Einstein to know that Netanyahu going beyond avenging the terrorist attacks to try and turn the 2 state solution for the area into a 1 state Israeli occupation would have virtually no support internationally.
Even most of the US would not go that far, only evangelicals and the hardest right Republicans would back it. Most of Europe, including the UK, Canada, Australia, Japan etc would oppose
No. Israel will subtly or overtly provoke a war with the entire Islamic world (esp Shia Iran, Hezbollah, etc) knowing it has
1. Nukes
And
2. America
To back it up
When it comes down to that stand-off, most of the west will side with Israel, probably even Trump
If I was an intelligent Jew in Israel, or indeed in the diaspora. I would now realise that this is the best course of action, There are no good choices. None. They are all appalling. But an all out war NOW that Israel is highly likely to win - ending the Palestinian issue forever - is much better than an all-out war in 10 years when Iran has the bomb
Israel will never provoke a big war. Their territory is small, and any conflict risks their existence forever.
As unconvincing lies go, that's up there with Jeremy Corbyn's claim he isn't an antisemite.
I genuinely think Corbyn isn't an antisemite, he's too thick to be one.
And I genuinely think Cummings believes his actions were reasonable, because he's so stupid he genuinely doesn't realise he's talking nonsense.
That's been a problem throughout his career, why would he change a winning formula?
I've said on here before, somebody who I know who knows Cummings say it is entirely believable that Cummings didn't have a single friend in London to help him.
Maybe. But Mary Wakefield is by all accounts charming and personable - she would have had friends
Also Cummings REALLY isn’t stupid. A tad neurodivergent, yes
If he isn't stupid, how come he understands nothing and gets every decision he makes wrong?
Because he gets big calls really right and he is deeply perceptive and obviously articulate. And intelligent. You know, that. Hence his constant victories
It is really fucking tiresome the way people are unable to acknowledge virtues - moral or intellectual - in people they politically resent
I mean, I despise almost everything Nicola Sturgeon stands for - from her Wokeness to her Scottish Nationalism - I think she is personally quite an unpleasant hypocrite
I also think she is seriously smart and a very able politician. I’m relieved she is gone because she WAS good - a threat to the Union
What big calls did you have in mind? I can't think of any.
I dunno. God. You’ve got me there. Stumped!
Oh, wait: winning the Brexit referendum with “take back control” and thereby changing British and world history
Yeah, that
On which every single statement he made was, in fact, wrong. Not merely wrong, but either so dishonest as to demonstrate he made Goebbels look honest, or so error-strewn as to think Oxford should be stripped of degree awarding powers.
Winning something doesn't make him right.
I'm asking for a time when his judgement has been vindicated.
Seriously. What a privilege to see it in this slanted light
Looks as if will be pretty impressive when they finish it. Looks like all the workers are having a siesta in that image.
The poignant thing is that originally it would have been painted in really garish - to our eyes - colours. Vivid reds and blues and whites. Like a fairground attraction
But now the colour and polish is all gone and you’re left with the naked golden limestone - which looks so much better (especially to contemporary tastes) - and absolutely gorgeous in slanted October sun
So it’s good it was ruined
It now turns out that Gobekli Tepe was painted. They’ve found scarlet pigment. It would have been multicoloured. It is inexplicable. A painted sequence of temple towns buried 10,000 years ago. An utterly confounding civilisation, 6000 years before “civilisation”
Graham Hancock may have been right then
I hardly think paint is proof that Graham Hancock is right! We have cave paintings going back 64,000 years. Paintings, i.e. uses of paint. Something being painted a mere 6,000 years ago is interesting, but hardly groundbreaking.
Gobekli Tepe's heyday was over 10,000 years ago.
You’re right. Forgive my error. But 6k or 10k or 12k doesn’t change the point!
You have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about and you’re talking to people that really really do. So shut the fuck up
That Bristol BLM leader might want to move to the United States: "Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors has admitted to throwing two parties at the organization’s swanky $6 million Los Angeles mansion — despite previously suggesting she’d never used the property for personal gain.
The 38-year-old told the Associated Press on Monday that she hosted her son’s birthday party and a gathering to celebrate President Biden’s inauguration at the six-bedroom property early last year.
I'm only broadly familiar with southern California, but I can say those pictures don't look much like Compton.
Much of the nonprofit sector seems to be just a more sophisticated version of what the Bristol BLM leader did.
It may not be most of it or even much of, but it is common enough that the reputation of charity or lobbying groups is, to me, shot, and my starting position is to assume they might be grifters or hypocrites.
I wonder if the Israelis are going to drive all the Palestinians out of the West Bank
They must be thinking: we have no choice. End it now. Us or them
I hasten to add I reckon this would be a catastrophic escalation. I’m just trying to get inside Israeli heads as they look at this surge of Jew hatred around the world. They will be thinking: Israel is it. Our only safe place. We can defend the Jews with nukes. But we need secure borders
= drive the Palestinians over the river
I doubt it, they can just about count on a narrow majority of at least western support to drive Hamas out of Gaza, they would lose almost all international support (except from the hardest right US Republicans) if they tried to drive Palestinians out of the West Bank and Jerusalem too
Do they care, at this point?
Moreover if they turn it into a war between Israel and Arabia/Islam then most western countries will side with Israel
Most would stay neutral, maybe even the Biden led US, if Israel invades Bethlehem, Ramallah etc.
Defeating Hamas in Gaza is one thing (and most westerners except the hard left back that), trying to occupy the entire West Bank and Palestinian Authority and all Palestinians land is quite another
Oh Jeez this is like wading through low IQ treacle
I give up
You don't need to be Einstein to know that Netanyahu going beyond avenging the terrorist attacks to try and turn the 2 state solution for the area into a 1 state Israeli occupation would have virtually no support internationally.
Even most of the US would not go that far, only evangelicals and the hardest right Republicans would back it. Most of Europe, including the UK, Canada, Australia, Japan etc would oppose
No. Israel will subtly or overtly provoke a war with the entire Islamic world (esp Shia Iran, Hezbollah, etc) knowing it has
1. Nukes
And
2. America
To back it up
When it comes down to that stand-off, most of the west will side with Israel, probably even Trump
If I was an intelligent Jew in Israel, or indeed in the diaspora. I would now realise that this is the best course of action, There are no good choices. None. They are all appalling. But an all out war NOW that Israel is highly likely to win - ending the Palestinian issue forever - is much better than an all-out war in 10 years when Iran has the bomb
History tells you that you are wrong I am afraid.
I’m not saying that I am right or wrong. Especially not morally. I am trying to predict the future, which is what we do on here
If you apply game theory to Israel’s terrible predicament, I reckon this is what you come up with as the only plausible long term “solution” that gives Israel long term security
Drive the Palestinians into Arab lands. Secure defensible borders, and a perpetually Jewish state. I am pretty sure Israel has been stealthily doing this since the Oslo accords broke down, but now everything is accelerated by a million. Israel needs to do this soon before Iran gets nukes, and now is the moment to strike
To make sure Israel does not lose western backing it needs to provoke Tehran and its underlings in a subtle and deniable way in a way that makes it look like Israel is being attacked first. Should not be impossible, Iran is itching to have a go anyway
Once Israel is seriously under siege Daddy America will come to the rescue and Naqba 2 will be enacted
That’s what I would do, if I was Israeli PM with a drink problem but a good mind
As unconvincing lies go, that's up there with Jeremy Corbyn's claim he isn't an antisemite.
I genuinely think Corbyn isn't an antisemite, he's too thick to be one.
And I genuinely think Cummings believes his actions were reasonable, because he's so stupid he genuinely doesn't realise he's talking nonsense.
That's been a problem throughout his career, why would he change a winning formula?
I've said on here before, somebody who I know who knows Cummings say it is entirely believable that Cummings didn't have a single friend in London to help him.
Maybe. But Mary Wakefield is by all accounts charming and personable - she would have had friends
Also Cummings REALLY isn’t stupid. A tad neurodivergent, yes
If he isn't stupid, how come he understands nothing and gets every decision he makes wrong?
Because he gets big calls really right and he is deeply perceptive and obviously articulate. And intelligent. You know, that. Hence his constant victories
It is really fucking tiresome the way people are unable to acknowledge virtues - moral or intellectual - in people they politically resent
I mean, I despise almost everything Nicola Sturgeon stands for - from her Wokeness to her Scottish Nationalism - I think she is personally quite an unpleasant hypocrite
I also think she is seriously smart and a very able politician. I’m relieved she is gone because she WAS good - a threat to the Union
What big calls did you have in mind? I can't think of any.
I dunno. God. You’ve got me there. Stumped!
Oh, wait: winning the Brexit referendum with “take back control” and thereby changing British and world history
Yeah, that
On which every single statement he made was, in fact, wrong. Not merely wrong, but either so dishonest as to demonstrate he made Goebbels look honest, or so error-strewn as to think Oxford should be stripped of degree awarding powers.
Winning something doesn't make him right.
I'm asking for a time when his judgement has been vindicated.
His judgment was that the referendum could be won - was actually winnable - against the odds - if they let him devise the strategy and guide the campaign
And it was the best thing to happen to Britain in the last two decades. We won’t see the benefit for another decade at least
Funny that, this bloke suggested it would be coming good by 2026:
Maybe the benefits of Brexit will always be 10 years away?
If you had looked at Irish independence in 1926 i.e. four years after the Free State left the UK, you would have said that independence had been a disaster - Civil War, economic trade war with its main trading partner and loss of a major export market, weakened economy and fractured society.
Things take time. The question is how long.
Eeek: Ireland took something like 60 years to reach the same relative GDP per capita, and had massive population outflows.
I'm hoping we don't see similar. (Bites nails nervously)
I wonder if the Israelis are going to drive all the Palestinians out of the West Bank
They must be thinking: we have no choice. End it now. Us or them
I hasten to add I reckon this would be a catastrophic escalation. I’m just trying to get inside Israeli heads as they look at this surge of Jew hatred around the world. They will be thinking: Israel is it. Our only safe place. We can defend the Jews with nukes. But we need secure borders
= drive the Palestinians over the river
I doubt it, they can just about count on a narrow majority of at least western support to drive Hamas out of Gaza, they would lose almost all international support (except from the hardest right US Republicans) if they tried to drive Palestinians out of the West Bank and Jerusalem too
Do they care, at this point?
Moreover if they turn it into a war between Israel and Arabia/Islam then most western countries will side with Israel
Most would stay neutral, maybe even the Biden led US, if Israel invades Bethlehem, Ramallah etc.
Defeating Hamas in Gaza is one thing (and most westerners except the hard left back that), trying to occupy the entire West Bank and Palestinian Authority and all Palestinians land is quite another
Oh Jeez this is like wading through low IQ treacle
I give up
You don't need to be Einstein to know that Netanyahu going beyond avenging the terrorist attacks to try and turn the 2 state solution for the area into a 1 state Israeli occupation would have virtually no support internationally.
Even most of the US would not go that far, only evangelicals and the hardest right Republicans would back it. Most of Europe, including the UK, Canada, Australia, Japan etc would oppose
No. Israel will subtly or overtly provoke a war with the entire Islamic world (esp Shia Iran, Hezbollah, etc) knowing it has
1. Nukes
And
2. America
To back it up
When it comes down to that stand-off, most of the west will side with Israel, probably even Trump
If I was an intelligent Jew in Israel, or indeed in the diaspora. I would now realise that this is the best course of action, There are no good choices. None. They are all appalling. But an all out war NOW that Israel is highly likely to win - ending the Palestinian issue forever - is much better than an all-out war in 10 years when Iran has the bomb
I think they're going to annex the northern half, settlers, big wall etc but unless they can push enough Gazan's onto Egypt they can't grab everything. Of course this means razing the north and terrorising the locals, just what's happening now.
As unconvincing lies go, that's up there with Jeremy Corbyn's claim he isn't an antisemite.
I genuinely think Corbyn isn't an antisemite, he's too thick to be one.
And I genuinely think Cummings believes his actions were reasonable, because he's so stupid he genuinely doesn't realise he's talking nonsense.
That's been a problem throughout his career, why would he change a winning formula?
I've said on here before, somebody who I know who knows Cummings say it is entirely believable that Cummings didn't have a single friend in London to help him.
Maybe. But Mary Wakefield is by all accounts charming and personable - she would have had friends
Also Cummings REALLY isn’t stupid. A tad neurodivergent, yes
If he isn't stupid, how come he understands nothing and gets every decision he makes wrong?
Because he gets big calls really right and he is deeply perceptive and obviously articulate. And intelligent. You know, that. Hence his constant victories
It is really fucking tiresome the way people are unable to acknowledge virtues - moral or intellectual - in people they politically resent
I mean, I despise almost everything Nicola Sturgeon stands for - from her Wokeness to her Scottish Nationalism - I think she is personally quite an unpleasant hypocrite
I also think she is seriously smart and a very able politician. I’m relieved she is gone because she WAS good - a threat to the Union
What big calls did you have in mind? I can't think of any.
I dunno. God. You’ve got me there. Stumped!
Oh, wait: winning the Brexit referendum with “take back control” and thereby changing British and world history
Yeah, that
On which every single statement he made was, in fact, wrong. Not merely wrong, but either so dishonest as to demonstrate he made Goebbels look honest, or so error-strewn as to think Oxford should be stripped of degree awarding powers.
Winning something doesn't make him right.
I'm asking for a time when his judgement has been vindicated.
Seriously. What a privilege to see it in this slanted light
Looks as if will be pretty impressive when they finish it. Looks like all the workers are having a siesta in that image.
The poignant thing is that originally it would have been painted in really garish - to our eyes - colours. Vivid reds and blues and whites. Like a fairground attraction
But now the colour and polish is all gone and you’re left with the naked golden limestone - which looks so much better (especially to contemporary tastes) - and absolutely gorgeous in slanted October sun
So it’s good it was ruined
It now turns out that Gobekli Tepe was painted. They’ve found scarlet pigment. It would have been multicoloured. It is inexplicable. A painted sequence of temple towns buried 10,000 years ago. An utterly confounding civilisation, 6000 years before “civilisation”
Graham Hancock may have been right then
I hardly think paint is proof that Graham Hancock is right! We have cave paintings going back 64,000 years. Paintings, i.e. uses of paint. Something being painted a mere 6,000 years ago is interesting, but hardly groundbreaking.
Gobekli Tepe's heyday was over 10,000 years ago.
You’re right. Forgive my error. But 6k or 10k or 12k doesn’t change the point!
You have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about and you’re talking to people that really really do. So shut the fuck up
Oi. Temper temper.
Fair enough. I am feeling quite exuberant
i will stop swearing at people, EVEN THO I AM RIGHT and people who have not seen what I have seen should stay shtooom
I have had a marvelous day - Agrigento is phenomenal. One of the great classical sites of the world - way way more than I expected. Especially in a late autumn twilight. OMG
As unconvincing lies go, that's up there with Jeremy Corbyn's claim he isn't an antisemite.
I genuinely think Corbyn isn't an antisemite, he's too thick to be one.
And I genuinely think Cummings believes his actions were reasonable, because he's so stupid he genuinely doesn't realise he's talking nonsense.
That's been a problem throughout his career, why would he change a winning formula?
I've said on here before, somebody who I know who knows Cummings say it is entirely believable that Cummings didn't have a single friend in London to help him.
Maybe. But Mary Wakefield is by all accounts charming and personable - she would have had friends
Also Cummings REALLY isn’t stupid. A tad neurodivergent, yes
If he isn't stupid, how come he understands nothing and gets every decision he makes wrong?
Because he gets big calls really right and he is deeply perceptive and obviously articulate. And intelligent. You know, that. Hence his constant victories
It is really fucking tiresome the way people are unable to acknowledge virtues - moral or intellectual - in people they politically resent
I mean, I despise almost everything Nicola Sturgeon stands for - from her Wokeness to her Scottish Nationalism - I think she is personally quite an unpleasant hypocrite
I also think she is seriously smart and a very able politician. I’m relieved she is gone because she WAS good - a threat to the Union
What big calls did you have in mind? I can't think of any.
I dunno. God. You’ve got me there. Stumped!
Oh, wait: winning the Brexit referendum with “take back control” and thereby changing British and world history
Yeah, that
On which every single statement he made was, in fact, wrong. Not merely wrong, but either so dishonest as to demonstrate he made Goebbels look honest, or so error-strewn as to think Oxford should be stripped of degree awarding powers.
Winning something doesn't make him right.
I'm asking for a time when his judgement has been vindicated.
His judgment was that the referendum could be won - was actually winnable - against the odds - if they let him devise the strategy and guide the campaign
And it was the best thing to happen to Britain in the last two decades. We won’t see the benefit for another decade at least
Funny that, this bloke suggested it would be coming good by 2026:
Maybe the benefits of Brexit will always be 10 years away?
If you had looked at Irish independence in 1926 i.e. four years after the Free State left the UK, you would have said that independence had been a disaster - Civil War, economic trade war with its main trading partner and loss of a major export market, weakened economy and fractured society.
Things take time. The question is how long.
Eeek: Ireland took something like 60 years to reach the same relative GDP per capita, and had massive population outflows.
I'm hoping we don't see similar. (Bites nails nervously)
In the interval, more Morris Dancing at more English crossroads? (Dev WOULD be pleased!)
I wonder if the Israelis are going to drive all the Palestinians out of the West Bank
They must be thinking: we have no choice. End it now. Us or them
I hasten to add I reckon this would be a catastrophic escalation. I’m just trying to get inside Israeli heads as they look at this surge of Jew hatred around the world. They will be thinking: Israel is it. Our only safe place. We can defend the Jews with nukes. But we need secure borders
= drive the Palestinians over the river
I doubt it, they can just about count on a narrow majority of at least western support to drive Hamas out of Gaza, they would lose almost all international support (except from the hardest right US Republicans) if they tried to drive Palestinians out of the West Bank and Jerusalem too
Do they care, at this point?
Moreover if they turn it into a war between Israel and Arabia/Islam then most western countries will side with Israel
Most would stay neutral, maybe even the Biden led US, if Israel invades Bethlehem, Ramallah etc.
Defeating Hamas in Gaza is one thing (and most westerners except the hard left back that), trying to occupy the entire West Bank and Palestinian Authority and all Palestinians land is quite another
Oh Jeez this is like wading through low IQ treacle
I give up
You don't need to be Einstein to know that Netanyahu going beyond avenging the terrorist attacks to try and turn the 2 state solution for the area into a 1 state Israeli occupation would have virtually no support internationally.
Even most of the US would not go that far, only evangelicals and the hardest right Republicans would back it. Most of Europe, including the UK, Canada, Australia, Japan etc would oppose
People pay lip-service to a two-state solution but opponents of Israel have talked themselves into a position where only a one-state solution "from the river to the sea" is conceivable. It makes sense from Israel's perspective to take the initiative.
I wonder if the Israelis are going to drive all the Palestinians out of the West Bank
They must be thinking: we have no choice. End it now. Us or them
I hasten to add I reckon this would be a catastrophic escalation. I’m just trying to get inside Israeli heads as they look at this surge of Jew hatred around the world. They will be thinking: Israel is it. Our only safe place. We can defend the Jews with nukes. But we need secure borders
= drive the Palestinians over the river
I doubt it, they can just about count on a narrow majority of at least western support to drive Hamas out of Gaza, they would lose almost all international support (except from the hardest right US Republicans) if they tried to drive Palestinians out of the West Bank and Jerusalem too
Do they care, at this point?
Moreover if they turn it into a war between Israel and Arabia/Islam then most western countries will side with Israel
Most would stay neutral, maybe even the Biden led US, if Israel invades Bethlehem, Ramallah etc.
Defeating Hamas in Gaza is one thing (and most westerners except the hard left back that), trying to occupy the entire West Bank and Palestinian Authority and all Palestinians land is quite another
Oh Jeez this is like wading through low IQ treacle
I give up
You don't need to be Einstein to know that Netanyahu going beyond avenging the terrorist attacks to try and turn the 2 state solution for the area into a 1 state Israeli occupation would have virtually no support internationally.
Even most of the US would not go that far, only evangelicals and the hardest right Republicans would back it. Most of Europe, including the UK, Canada, Australia, Japan etc would oppose
No. Israel will subtly or overtly provoke a war with the entire Islamic world (esp Shia Iran, Hezbollah, etc) knowing it has
1. Nukes
And
2. America
To back it up
When it comes down to that stand-off, most of the west will side with Israel, probably even Trump
If I was an intelligent Jew in Israel, or indeed in the diaspora. I would now realise that this is the best course of action, There are no good choices. None. They are all appalling. But an all out war NOW that Israel is highly likely to win - ending the Palestinian issue forever - is much better than an all-out war in 10 years when Iran has the bomb
I think they're going to annex the northern half, settlers, big wall etc but unless they can push enough Gazan's onto Egypt they can't grab everything. Of course this means razing the north and terrorising the locals, just what's happening now.
Bear in mind, too, that Egypt and Israel have pretty good relations. I don't think Israel will want to jeopardize that.
As unconvincing lies go, that's up there with Jeremy Corbyn's claim he isn't an antisemite.
I genuinely think Corbyn isn't an antisemite, he's too thick to be one.
And I genuinely think Cummings believes his actions were reasonable, because he's so stupid he genuinely doesn't realise he's talking nonsense.
That's been a problem throughout his career, why would he change a winning formula?
I've said on here before, somebody who I know who knows Cummings say it is entirely believable that Cummings didn't have a single friend in London to help him.
Maybe. But Mary Wakefield is by all accounts charming and personable - she would have had friends
Also Cummings REALLY isn’t stupid. A tad neurodivergent, yes
If he isn't stupid, how come he understands nothing and gets every decision he makes wrong?
Because he gets big calls really right and he is deeply perceptive and obviously articulate. And intelligent. You know, that. Hence his constant victories
It is really fucking tiresome the way people are unable to acknowledge virtues - moral or intellectual - in people they politically resent
I mean, I despise almost everything Nicola Sturgeon stands for - from her Wokeness to her Scottish Nationalism - I think she is personally quite an unpleasant hypocrite
I also think she is seriously smart and a very able politician. I’m relieved she is gone because she WAS good - a threat to the Union
What big calls did you have in mind? I can't think of any.
I dunno. God. You’ve got me there. Stumped!
Oh, wait: winning the Brexit referendum with “take back control” and thereby changing British and world history
Yeah, that
On which every single statement he made was, in fact, wrong. Not merely wrong, but either so dishonest as to demonstrate he made Goebbels look honest, or so error-strewn as to think Oxford should be stripped of degree awarding powers.
Winning something doesn't make him right.
I'm asking for a time when his judgement has been vindicated.
Seriously. What a privilege to see it in this slanted light
Looks as if will be pretty impressive when they finish it. Looks like all the workers are having a siesta in that image.
The poignant thing is that originally it would have been painted in really garish - to our eyes - colours. Vivid reds and blues and whites. Like a fairground attraction
But now the colour and polish is all gone and you’re left with the naked golden limestone - which looks so much better (especially to contemporary tastes) - and absolutely gorgeous in slanted October sun
So it’s good it was ruined
It now turns out that Gobekli Tepe was painted. They’ve found scarlet pigment. It would have been multicoloured. It is inexplicable. A painted sequence of temple towns buried 10,000 years ago. An utterly confounding civilisation, 6000 years before “civilisation”
Graham Hancock may have been right then
I hardly think paint is proof that Graham Hancock is right! We have cave paintings going back 64,000 years. Paintings, i.e. uses of paint. Something being painted a mere 6,000 years ago is interesting, but hardly groundbreaking.
Gobekli Tepe's heyday was over 10,000 years ago.
You’re right. Forgive my error. But 6k or 10k or 12k doesn’t change the point!
You have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about and you’re talking to people that really really do. So shut the fuck up
Oi. Temper temper.
Fair enough. I am feeling quite exuberant
i will stop swearing at people, EVEN THO I AM RIGHT and people who have not seen what I have seen should stay shtooom
I have had a marvelous day - Agrigento is phenomenal. One of the great classical sites of the world - way way more than I expected. Especially in a late autumn twilight. OMG
The sudden insertion of all caps about how right someone is in the middle of a sentence is giving me Trump flashbacks, but I certainly cannot imagine him waxing lyrical about classical architecture in the autumn twilight in the next sentence, which gives reassurance.
I wonder if the Israelis are going to drive all the Palestinians out of the West Bank
They must be thinking: we have no choice. End it now. Us or them
I hasten to add I reckon this would be a catastrophic escalation. I’m just trying to get inside Israeli heads as they look at this surge of Jew hatred around the world. They will be thinking: Israel is it. Our only safe place. We can defend the Jews with nukes. But we need secure borders
= drive the Palestinians over the river
I doubt it, they can just about count on a narrow majority of at least western support to drive Hamas out of Gaza, they would lose almost all international support (except from the hardest right US Republicans) if they tried to drive Palestinians out of the West Bank and Jerusalem too
Do they care, at this point?
Moreover if they turn it into a war between Israel and Arabia/Islam then most western countries will side with Israel
Most would stay neutral, maybe even the Biden led US, if Israel invades Bethlehem, Ramallah etc.
Defeating Hamas in Gaza is one thing (and most westerners except the hard left back that), trying to occupy the entire West Bank and Palestinian Authority and all Palestinians land is quite another
Oh Jeez this is like wading through low IQ treacle
I give up
You don't need to be Einstein to know that Netanyahu going beyond avenging the terrorist attacks to try and turn the 2 state solution for the area into a 1 state Israeli occupation would have virtually no support internationally.
Even most of the US would not go that far, only evangelicals and the hardest right Republicans would back it. Most of Europe, including the UK, Canada, Australia, Japan etc would oppose
No. Israel will subtly or overtly provoke a war with the entire Islamic world (esp Shia Iran, Hezbollah, etc) knowing it has
1. Nukes
And
2. America
To back it up
When it comes down to that stand-off, most of the west will side with Israel, probably even Trump
If I was an intelligent Jew in Israel, or indeed in the diaspora. I would now realise that this is the best course of action, There are no good choices. None. They are all appalling. But an all out war NOW that Israel is highly likely to win - ending the Palestinian issue forever - is much better than an all-out war in 10 years when Iran has the bomb
No, you just have a strong tendency to taking everything to the extreme. Most normal folk realise that talking about resorting to nukes, as a matter of realpolitik, is not so mildly insane. You’re like a more twisted version of Barty.
Interesting that Sam Coates takeaway from today's evidence is exactly what Cummings had been saying for years. That the Civil Service were and are unfit for purpose. This now seems so blatently obvious that it is amazing people still try to deny it.
The problem is that Big Dom solution is always shut it all down, sack everybody, put me in charge of it all and I will hire a small crack team of data scientists and ML engineers from industry and it will run itself in a few years...job done.....
Clearly not true given the praise he has continually heaped on a lot of those working at a lower level within the Civil Service. But of course you only hear the bits you want to hear.
I was being a bit hyperbolic, but it isn't a million miles away from what he advocated for. Remember the infamous call to hire the super talented weirdos to replace the broken civil service, particularly in Downing Street.
The irony is that Cummings was certainly right, but about 5 years premature
We could now replace 90% of the Civil Service (and quite soon we surely will) with AI, and the machines will do a much better job. How could they not? Who doubts that GPT4.5 would have made a better fist of HS2?
It’s very sad for the pathetic midwit quasi-Woke pen-pushing cretins that constitute much of the Civil Service, who have never had an original idea between them, but oh well. Them’s the breaks. Bye
They can always retrain as strippers or vicars
If AI produced a humanoid, would it be Dominic Cummings?
Depends on its eyesight.
I gave gpt4 a screenshot of Dominic's whiteboard sketching out the initial plans for lockdown - no context. It did a really remarkable job of figuring out what it was and what the various hand-drawn charts would mean.
As unconvincing lies go, that's up there with Jeremy Corbyn's claim he isn't an antisemite.
I genuinely think Corbyn isn't an antisemite, he's too thick to be one.
And I genuinely think Cummings believes his actions were reasonable, because he's so stupid he genuinely doesn't realise he's talking nonsense.
That's been a problem throughout his career, why would he change a winning formula?
I've said on here before, somebody who I know who knows Cummings say it is entirely believable that Cummings didn't have a single friend in London to help him.
Maybe. But Mary Wakefield is by all accounts charming and personable - she would have had friends
Also Cummings REALLY isn’t stupid. A tad neurodivergent, yes
If he isn't stupid, how come he understands nothing and gets every decision he makes wrong?
Because he gets big calls really right and he is deeply perceptive and obviously articulate. And intelligent. You know, that. Hence his constant victories
It is really fucking tiresome the way people are unable to acknowledge virtues - moral or intellectual - in people they politically resent
I mean, I despise almost everything Nicola Sturgeon stands for - from her Wokeness to her Scottish Nationalism - I think she is personally quite an unpleasant hypocrite
I also think she is seriously smart and a very able politician. I’m relieved she is gone because she WAS good - a threat to the Union
What big calls did you have in mind? I can't think of any.
I dunno. God. You’ve got me there. Stumped!
Oh, wait: winning the Brexit referendum with “take back control” and thereby changing British and world history
Yeah, that
On which every single statement he made was, in fact, wrong. Not merely wrong, but either so dishonest as to demonstrate he made Goebbels look honest, or so error-strewn as to think Oxford should be stripped of degree awarding powers.
Winning something doesn't make him right.
I'm asking for a time when his judgement has been vindicated.
His judgment was that the referendum could be won - was actually winnable - against the odds - if they let him devise the strategy and guide the campaign
And it was the best thing to happen to Britain in the last two decades. We won’t see the benefit for another decade at least
Funny that, this bloke suggested it would be coming good by 2026:
Maybe the benefits of Brexit will always be 10 years away?
If you had looked at Irish independence in 1926 i.e. four years after the Free State left the UK, you would have said that independence had been a disaster - Civil War, economic trade war with its main trading partner and loss of a major export market, weakened economy and fractured society.
Things take time. The question is how long.
Eeek: Ireland took something like 60 years to reach the same relative GDP per capita, and had massive population outflows.
I'm hoping we don't see similar. (Bites nails nervously)
What are you worrying about ?
You’re more insulated from our economic vicissitudes than is Leon.
Comments
How about if we pay for it to spend the vacations there? I think that will be... better.
Someone I knew wrote a big diagram about how UK anarchists groups had split over the years. There were not many merges; and lots of splits...
But if you're not very politically active, and there's a cause you believe in that there's a protest about, it's easy to associate with one of these well-known groups for the march. It makes you feel a bit bigger, and a bit safer. So you'll see more on the marches.
… In 1968, Kissinger leaked information about the status of the peace talks in Paris to the Nixon campaign and was rewarded with being appointed National Security Adviser under Richard Nixon. As National Security Adviser, Kissinger sought initially to find a way to end the war on American terms...
That being, of course, the key campaign issue.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/10/31/conservative-interns-privilege-test-patchwork-foundation/#comment
BBC 1 9pm :: Documentary series about the Met police.
BBC 2 9pm :: Documentary/reality tv about Manchester coppers trying to shut down an OCG in Rochdale.*
BBC 2 10pm :: Inside a prison in NI with Steven Nolan (documentary)
* This was on last night as well and is exceptionally good but also deeply chilling. These coppers are very very brave people.
A lot of the people who have the spare time and energy to devote to these groups are simply pretty unpleasant. If you can justify the murder of a thousand civilians in the name of resistance, then being unpleasant to someone who disagrees with you, or who isn't in the in-group, is a lot easier to justify.
Bit disappointing for a group supposedly dedicated to creating a socialist utopia.
VANILLA PURGE
They must be thinking: we have no choice. End it now. Us or them
I hasten to add I reckon this would be a catastrophic escalation. I’m just trying to get inside Israeli heads as they look at this surge of Jew hatred around the world. They will be thinking: Israel is it. Our only safe place. We can defend the Jews with nukes. But we need secure borders
= drive the Palestinians over the river
Things take time. The question is how long.
Might be some kind of response there.
Indeed I have mentioned before that I refused to vote for Johnson in 2019 even though I firmly believed it could mean the end of Brexit if he lost the election.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-67273676
I think he is clearly bright, was more on point on covid than those around him, and it was probably better he was there than not given Boris as PM and a weak cabinet. But credit for it? Partial only.
A few months back I noticed that a friendly old chap on my route had let his mail pile up for a few days. I knocked on his neighbour’s door and asked if she knew whether he was away as I was a little worried
She confirmed that he was away and due back the next day. She then must have told him that I’d asked; when I saw him on his return he warmly thanked me for my concern
I haven’t seen him for a few weeks and he came to the door when he saw me approaching today. He gave me a book he’d bought for me at the Literary Festival a month ago
It’s called Walking The Bones Of Britain by Christopher Somerville: “A 3 Billion Year Journey From the Outer Hebrides to the Thames Estuary”
He had it signed by the author “For The Perambulating Postie”
The book looks fascinating
https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/441282/walking-the-bones-of-britain-by-somerville-christopher/9780857527110
It now looks like the builders of the Tas Tepeler were constructing highly complex, ritualized, multi-colored painted temple towns with dedicated water systems, auditoriums, shrine buildings, and much else BEFORE AGRICULTURE and with shared religious and artistic motifs, phallocratic rites, maybe even a particular style of chevronned clothing (or special forms of human sacrifice) and all BEFORE AGRICULTURE and these towns were spreads over hundreds of square km
That’s a civilisation. Buried and lost for 10,000 years. It just is
You know this as soon as you go to Gobekli Tepe, Karahan Tepe, and Sayburc and the other emerging Tas Tepeler, but of course none of you have, have you?
I have. The argument ends here. It was stupid anyway because it breaks the Law of Leon
If you find that you disagree with me, and you’re about to make a comment to that effect, have a word with yourself - and don’t write it
A lot (but not all) Jewish people believe there is no permanent safety except within a Jewish state. Even some of the American Jews I know, think, well, if things ever go south, there's always Israel. And I think that is what is key - Given historical events, Jews need a place where they can feel safe.
The Hamas incursion this month made them feel deeply unsafe again. Much like hitting the school bully on the nose so he doesn't ask you for your lunch money again, they are going to overcompensate and flex their muscle to prove a point. Because, if half your family tree had been sent to extermination camps, you might feel the same way too.
What will happen in the next few weeks and months is Israel saying, punch me again, and I will punch back even harder. Politics of the playground perhaps, but it is also the politics of 6 million led to their deaths, who couldn't defend themselves.
Moreover if they turn it into a war between Israel and Arabia/Islam then most western countries will side with Israel
It is this blindness to the impacts of Israeli actions, both on innocent Palestinian civilians (half of whom are children) and on the future hatred of Israel by the orphans of this war, that makes me find myself more and more sympathetic to the Palestinian side and less and less towards the Israeli.
And as for your last paragraph, the evidence of the current actions in Gaza seem to suggest otherwise.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/politics/24576681/row-with-germans-cost-defence-jobs/
Germany is blocking the sale of Typhoon fighters to Saudi Arabia, which will likely buy French Rafales instead.
"Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors has admitted to throwing two parties at the organization’s swanky $6 million Los Angeles mansion — despite previously suggesting she’d never used the property for personal gain.
The 38-year-old told the Associated Press on Monday that she hosted her son’s birthday party and a gathering to celebrate President Biden’s inauguration at the six-bedroom property early last year.
BLM faced a torrent of criticism and backlash last month when it publicly emerged that the organization had “secretly” purchased the LA mansion — which boasts a home with six bedrooms and bathrooms, a swimming pool, a soundstage and office space — back in 2020."
https://www2.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2023/10/31/anything-you-can-do-we-can-do-worse/
https://www.npr.org/2022/04/07/1091487910/blm-leaders-face-questions-after-allegedly-buying-a-mansion-with-donation-money
I'm only broadly familiar with southern California, but I can say those pictures don't look much like Compton.
Defeating Hamas in Gaza is one thing (and most westerners except the hard left back that), trying to occupy the entire West Bank and Palestinian Authority and all Palestinians land is quite another
We could now replace 90% of the Civil Service (and quite soon we surely will) with AI, and the machines will do a much better job. How could they not? Who doubts that GPT4.5 would have made a better fist of HS2?
It’s very sad for the pathetic midwit quasi-Woke pen-pushing cretins that constitute much of the Civil Service, who have never had an original idea between them, but oh well. Them’s the breaks. Bye
They can always retrain as strippers or vicars
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Smart-Mobs-Next-Social-Revolution/dp/0738208612
I give up
So, for example, it is now thought that all GT shows is that the agricurltiral revolution and the start of the pre-ceramic Neolithic were not a uniform event in time across the region. No archaeologist seriously thinks either GT or any of the other sites are evidence of an advanced civilisation lost to knowledge. Nor do they now buy into the impact theory for the Younger Dryas cooling that Hancock and others keep talking about as 'evidence' of the lost civilisation. Why? because the Younger Dryas cooling is only the last of 26 similar events over a 120,000 year period and none of them need Hancock's cometary impact as a cause.
Hancock is a journalist who pretends there is some great archaeological conspiracy theory that we are all in on to hide evidence of a lost civilisation. He is a nutter and is as wrong on this as he has been on everything else he has ever written.
Korea urged to bolster ties with Saudi Arabia in construction, infrastructure, ICT and clean energy
https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2023/11/120_362142.html
Korea is developing a 4.5 generation fighter in the KF21, due to go into production in a year or so’s time, and would certainly welcome some funding.
(MY apologies for the mistake. I tried to fix it, but couldn't get Vanilla to accept my changes.)
Even most of the US would not go that far, only evangelicals and the hardest right Republicans would back it. Most of Europe, including the UK, Canada, Australia, Japan etc would oppose
Go there, go to Karahan Tepe, Sayburc and Gobekli Tepe, and maybe three others, and then get back to me
Until then, as I have said several times now, with underserved politesse, shut the fuck up you don’t know what you’re talking about
Seems plausible to me, but I have never tried to check it out.
The term "derby" for a game between two local teams comes from the Earl of Derby's estate between Wigan and St.Helens.
Therefore Wigan v Saints was the original derby game and all others copied that.
I've been to dozens and dozens of Wigan Saints games and never knew that fact.
1. Nukes
And
2. America
To back it up
When it comes down to that stand-off, most of the west will side with Israel, probably even Trump
If I was an intelligent Jew in Israel, or indeed in the diaspora. I would now realise that this is the best course of action, There are no good choices. None. They are all appalling. But an all out war NOW that Israel is highly likely to win - ending the Palestinian issue forever - is much better than an all-out war in 10 years when Iran has the bomb
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/10/31/ron-desantis-wearing-height-boosting-shoes-experts-claim/
But only one step. So aggressive Israeli defence in Gaza can be just about justified as grim necessity. But if the Israeli government succumbs to the temptation to go after the West Bank as well, that's a different matter. My understanding is that WB Palestinians have done a much clearer job of playing by the coexistence rules, and are still being treated pretty shittily.
"River to the sea" is a bad thing, right?
Again, beyond being a POLICY resource/fink, Dr. Strangelove had diddly-squat to do with developing/managing/overseeing POLITICAL organization, tactics and strategy. Either during the primaries (when K backed Nelson Rockefeller) or during the fall campaign.
BTW, Nixon's position on Paris peace talks, while of absorbing interest to him, was NOT as significant electorally, as RN's Southern Strategy. No K fingerprints there.
Trump's US might but that is a big gamble hoping he returns to power by 2025. Plus Iran may have nukes too now
That's what you call an *interesting* election strategy... 😉
Some 60 Stars of David were painted on walls in the 14th arrondissement of Paris on Monday night.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-67274777
If you apply game theory to Israel’s terrible predicament, I reckon this is what you come up with as the only plausible long term “solution” that gives Israel long term security
Drive the Palestinians into Arab lands. Secure defensible borders, and a perpetually Jewish state. I am pretty sure Israel has been stealthily doing this since the Oslo accords broke down, but now everything is accelerated by a million. Israel needs to do this soon before Iran gets nukes, and now is the moment to strike
To make sure Israel does not lose western backing it needs to provoke Tehran and its underlings in a subtle and deniable way in a way that makes it look like Israel is being attacked first. Should not be impossible, Iran is itching to have a go anyway
Once Israel is seriously under siege Daddy America will come to the rescue and Naqba 2 will be enacted
That’s what I would do, if I was Israeli PM with a drink problem but a good mind
I'm hoping we don't see similar. (Bites nails nervously)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-67266475
i will stop swearing at people, EVEN THO I AM RIGHT and people who have not seen what I have seen should stay shtooom
I have had a marvelous day - Agrigento is phenomenal. One of the great classical sites of the world - way way more than I expected. Especially in a late autumn twilight. OMG
Most normal folk realise that talking about resorting to nukes, as a matter of realpolitik, is not so mildly insane.
You’re like a more twisted version of Barty.
"Trolleyed"
The 'Britain Trump' label seems to be more accurate this evening.
https://x.com/benmfreeman/status/1719443005579436373
NEW THREAD
You’re more insulated from our economic vicissitudes than is Leon.