It is not hard to find these facts about Nikki Haley's husband: "Haley is an officer with the South Carolina Army National Guard and specializes in security cooperation.[2]
In January 2012, Haley was deployed on a yearlong tour of duty in Afghanistan as a captain in the South Carolina Army National Guard.[3][4][5] The unit served in Helmand Province as an agribusiness development team helping Afghan farmers improve farming techniques and develop cash crops to replace opium poppies.[6] Haley served as a liaison between the military and civilian authorities.[7] He is thought to have been the first spouse of a governor to serve on active duty in a war zone." source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Haley_(soldier)
BTW, he was adopted at the age of four, so he didn't have the greatest start in life.
OK, why do so many Scots believe that “Scotland sends more to Westminster than it gets back in public spending”?
Have leaders of the SNP been making that claim, without being "fact-checked"? Or what?
Reckon that a majority of Washington State residents outside Seattle/King County think the same thing with respect to to their tax dollars with respect to the Emerald City and environs.
Even though it ain't so, as media reports from time to time.
In fact, the belief of country mice, that they are subsidizing they are subsidizing city rats, is hardly a new thing. Rather, a very old thing . . . and hardly limited to Caledonians . . .
Hmmm... I'm not sure the 'Scotland = country, England = city' analogy works at all. Both countries have an urbanisation rate of 83%.
I actually used word "peripheral" in my comment but edited it out.
In case of Scotland, it's not a case of rural versus urban (as you point out) but rather periphery versus center. With center = Westminster.
Believe this was factor in support for Brexit in Northern England and Wales? With center = Brussels.
Of course, on THIS issue, Scotland votes against Brexit. But the political psychology for Scots was different, and much more akin to that of the Irish, at least those in Republic of Ireland?
"Saxony-Anhalt, a state in Germany has done what many around the country are calling for: If you want to be a citizen of Germany, you need to pledge allegiance to Israel. The legality of this remains unclear."
OK, why do so many Scots believe that “Scotland sends more to Westminster than it gets back in public spending”?
Have leaders of the SNP been making that claim, without being "fact-checked"? Or what?
Reckon that a majority of Washington State residents outside Seattle/King County think the same thing with respect to to their tax dollars with respect to the Emerald City and environs.
Even though it ain't so, as media reports from time to time.
In fact, the belief of country mice, that they are subsidizing they are subsidizing city rats, is hardly a new thing. Rather, a very old thing . . . and hardly limited to Caledonians . . .
Hmmm... I'm not sure the 'Scotland = country, England = city' analogy works at all. Both countries have an urbanisation rate of 83%.
I actually used word "peripheral" in my comment but edited it out.
In case of Scotland, it's not a case of rural versus urban (as you point out) but rather periphery versus center. With center = Westminster.
Believe this was factor in support for Brexit in Northern England and Wales? With center = Brussels.
Of course, on THIS issue, Scotland votes against Brexit. But the political psychology for Scots was different, and much more akin to that of the Irish, at least those in Republic of Ireland?
What will the key election questions be in Scotland?
JUST IN: Vivek Ramaswamy holds up a ‘NIKKI IS CORRUPT’ sign during the Republican debate and shames Haley on stage for being willing to send Americans to die so she can “buy a bigger house.”
Brutal 🔥
“I don’t have a woman problem. You have a corruption problem and I think that that's what people need to know. Nikki is corrupt.”
“This is a woman who will send your kids to die so she can buy a bigger house.”
Who's kids has she sent (would she send) to die, where, and how did (would?) she do it?
How does this translate to corruption and a bigger house?
Is Ramaswamy performing the Indian "Enough Rope to Hang Myself" trick?
It was bullshit.
Basically when she quite as UN ambassador she was $1m in debt. In the next 7 years she went from that position to a Forbes estimate of $8m net assets.
From disclosure she spent a year on the board of Boeing ($300k), wrote two books (O’Reilly estimated $400k), made 11 paid speeches ($2.3m). She also bought a house for $2.4m but - according to O’Reilly - “there’s no way she could get that large a mortgage”
He then insinuated she was corrupt because she went straight from being Governor of South Carolina (and giving tax breaks to attract Boeing to the state) to become a director of Boeing. Ignoring the fact that there was a 2 year+ gap between the roles.
The “sending your kids to war” I guess is based on her being UN ambassador?
While I agree with your analysis, the Boeing connection IS interesting. Given significant (and strategic) shift in the corporation's operations from . . . wait for it . . . Washington State to South Carolina.
Which has had so far mixed results for Boeing, with quality-control issues curdling the bean-counters' cream) but mostly positives for the Palmetto State.
Certainly Boeing bigwings (and boneheads) are appreciative of Nikki Haley's past (non-corrupt) services and her continuing clout in SC politics.
And her stint as UN Ambassador further enhanced her value.
All this is FAR from a serious or even semi -serious impediment for a POTUS candidate. But as in case of Mitt Romney, this is kind of corporate-government connection that raises eyebrows (as opposed to watering them) and inspires attack ads.
The move to South Carolina wasn’t really about the tax breaks (nice though they were) - it was because it is a union free state. Boeing thought they could screw the workers but didn’t realise that aircraft manufacturing is harder than just regular assembly line stuff
(And given Boeing now has 10s of thousands of employees in SC having a senior SC politician on the board makes sense. And it helps that she is a woman and a minority as well. Plus I’m sure she made some interesting contacts in her time as UN ambassador - if anything that’s slightly more concerning that she could move straight from that role to a big defence company)
OK, why do so many Scots believe that “Scotland sends more to Westminster than it gets back in public spending”?
Have leaders of the SNP been making that claim, without being "fact-checked"? Or what?
Reckon that a majority of Washington State residents outside Seattle/King County think the same thing with respect to to their tax dollars with respect to the Emerald City and environs.
Even though it ain't so, as media reports from time to time.
In fact, the belief of country mice, that they are subsidizing they are subsidizing city rats, is hardly a new thing. Rather, a very old thing . . . and hardly limited to Caledonians . . .
Hmmm... I'm not sure the 'Scotland = country, England = city' analogy works at all. Both countries have an urbanisation rate of 83%.
I actually used word "peripheral" in my comment but edited it out.
In case of Scotland, it's not a case of rural versus urban (as you point out) but rather periphery versus center. With center = Westminster.
Believe this was factor in support for Brexit in Northern England and Wales? With center = Brussels.
Of course, on THIS issue, Scotland votes against Brexit. But the political psychology for Scots was different, and much more akin to that of the Irish, at least those in Republic of Ireland?
Periphery versus centre is definitely a thing. Also, rebel against the established order.
OK, why do so many Scots believe that “Scotland sends more to Westminster than it gets back in public spending”?
Have leaders of the SNP been making that claim, without being "fact-checked"? Or what?
Reckon that a majority of Washington State residents outside Seattle/King County think the same thing with respect to to their tax dollars with respect to the Emerald City and environs.
Even though it ain't so, as media reports from time to time.
In fact, the belief of country mice, that they are subsidizing they are subsidizing city rats, is hardly a new thing. Rather, a very old thing . . . and hardly limited to Caledonians . . .
Hmmm... I'm not sure the 'Scotland = country, England = city' analogy works at all. Both countries have an urbanisation rate of 83%.
I actually used word "peripheral" in my comment but edited it out.
In case of Scotland, it's not a case of rural versus urban (as you point out) but rather periphery versus center. With center = Westminster.
Believe this was factor in support for Brexit in Northern England and Wales? With center = Brussels.
Of course, on THIS issue, Scotland votes against Brexit. But the political psychology for Scots was different, and much more akin to that of the Irish, at least those in Republic of Ireland?
What will the key election questions be in Scotland?
Price of sheep innards & other fixings for Hogmanay?
Oh, and has someone fallen into the Bermuda Triangle?
??
Bermuda Triangle It makes people disappear Bermuda Triangle Don't go too near But she Doesn't see my angle And she thinks I'm being dumb So Bermuda Triangle Here we come!
JUST IN: Vivek Ramaswamy holds up a ‘NIKKI IS CORRUPT’ sign during the Republican debate and shames Haley on stage for being willing to send Americans to die so she can “buy a bigger house.”
Brutal 🔥
“I don’t have a woman problem. You have a corruption problem and I think that that's what people need to know. Nikki is corrupt.”
“This is a woman who will send your kids to die so she can buy a bigger house.”
Who's kids has she sent (would she send) to die, where, and how did (would?) she do it?
How does this translate to corruption and a bigger house?
Is Ramaswamy performing the Indian "Enough Rope to Hang Myself" trick?
It was bullshit.
Basically when she quite as UN ambassador she was $1m in debt. In the next 7 years she went from that position to a Forbes estimate of $8m net assets.
From disclosure she spent a year on the board of Boeing ($300k), wrote two books (O’Reilly estimated $400k), made 11 paid speeches ($2.3m). She also bought a house for $2.4m but - according to O’Reilly - “there’s no way she could get that large a mortgage”
He then insinuated she was corrupt because she went straight from being Governor of South Carolina (and giving tax breaks to attract Boeing to the state) to become a director of Boeing. Ignoring the fact that there was a 2 year+ gap between the roles.
The “sending your kids to war” I guess is based on her being UN ambassador?
While I agree with your analysis, the Boeing connection IS interesting. Given significant (and strategic) shift in the corporation's operations from . . . wait for it . . . Washington State to South Carolina.
Which has had so far mixed results for Boeing, with quality-control issues curdling the bean-counters' cream) but mostly positives for the Palmetto State.
Certainly Boeing bigwings (and boneheads) are appreciative of Nikki Haley's past (non-corrupt) services and her continuing clout in SC politics.
And her stint as UN Ambassador further enhanced her value.
All this is FAR from a serious or even semi -serious impediment for a POTUS candidate. But as in case of Mitt Romney, this is kind of corporate-government connection that raises eyebrows (as opposed to watering them) and inspires attack ads.
The move to South Carolina wasn’t really about the tax breaks (nice though they were) - it was because it is a union free state. Boeing thought they could screw the workers but didn’t realise that aircraft manufacturing is harder than just regular assembly line stuff
(And given Boeing now has 10s of thousands of employees in SC having a senior SC politician on the board makes sense. And it helps that she is a woman and a minority as well. Plus I’m sure she made some interesting contacts in her time as UN ambassador - if anything that’s slightly more concerning that she could move straight from that role to a big defence company)
"Boeing thought they could screw the workers but didn’t realise that aircraft manufacturing is harder than just regular assembly line stuff."
Indeed. And pretty freaking remarkable for an AEROSPACE TECHNOLOGY corporation!!!
Why??? Because Boeing let a pack of over-promoted bean-counters run the show . . . damn near into the ground.
Today the engineers are (mostly) back in the helm. Which is good news for Boeing AND for airline passengers.
Oh, and has someone fallen into the Bermuda Triangle?
??
Bermuda Triangle It makes people disappear Bermuda Triangle Don't go too near But she Doesn't see my angle And she thinks I'm being dumb So Bermuda Triangle Here we come!
Yes. I can't be arsed to work it out, but it must be hundred of pounds. But for some strange reason DougSeal doesn't want to pursue legal action against her elderly aunt. Takes all sorts I suppose.
Err I mean "His" elderly Aunt. I think my French lessons are affecting my subconscious.
Don't worry. We seals are far less hung up on the gender binary than you humans. Or at least Leon.
Oh, and has someone fallen into the Bermuda Triangle?
??
Bermuda Triangle It makes people disappear Bermuda Triangle Don't go too near But she Doesn't see my angle And she thinks I'm being dumb So Bermuda Triangle Here we come!
Speaking of signs of the times (whether on side of bus or not) NYT had story about Starbucks wanting to reopen negotiations with employee union. (Thus repudiating Seattle's favorite hate object = Howard Schultz.)
Story was illustrated with pic of workers picking a Seattle Starbucks store. With one holding this sign:
Speaking of signs of the times (whether on side of bus or not) NYT had story about Starbucks wanting to reopen negotiations with employee union. (Thus repudiating Seattle's favorite hate object = Howard Schultz.)
Story was illustrated with pic of workers picking a Seattle Starbucks store. With one holding this sign:
"Ruth Perry’s family has called on Ofsted’s chief inspector to resign immediately after it was revealed its lead inspectors will spend just 90 minutes on a briefing to address concerns raised by the headteacher’s suicide.
Julia Waters, Perry’s sister, said the “shocking” response showed that Amanda Spielman had “lost the plot” as chief inspector and should resign now ahead of her term finishing at the end of the year.
A coroner last week concluded that Ofsted’s inspection of Perry’s school contributed to her death. After the verdict Spielman announced a delay to inspections this week for training on “recognising and responding to visible signs of anxiety” during visits by the regulator.
However, an internal Ofsted memo, seen by the Guardian, shows that the “national briefing” planned for Monday will be a 90-minute online webinar and Q&A session, followed by a 30-minute regional “forum for follow-up” online meeting."
Oh, and has someone fallen into the Bermuda Triangle?
??
Bermuda Triangle It makes people disappear Bermuda Triangle Don't go too near But she Doesn't see my angle And she thinks I'm being dumb So Bermuda Triangle Here we come!
Speaking of signs of the times (whether on side of bus or not) NYT had story about Starbucks wanting to reopen negotiations with employee union. (Thus repudiating Seattle's favorite hate object = Howard Schultz.)
Story was illustrated with pic of workers picking a Seattle Starbucks store. With one holding this sign:
"Seize the Beans of Production!"
I can't abide Starbucks, but I'm willing to forgive somebody who can make a pun like that just about anything.
Oh, and has someone fallen into the Bermuda Triangle?
??
Bermuda Triangle It makes people disappear Bermuda Triangle Don't go too near But she Doesn't see my angle And she thinks I'm being dumb So Bermuda Triangle Here we come!
Oh, and has someone fallen into the Bermuda Triangle?
??
Bermuda Triangle It makes people disappear Bermuda Triangle Don't go too near But she Doesn't see my angle And she thinks I'm being dumb So Bermuda Triangle Here we come!
Oh, and has someone fallen into the Bermuda Triangle?
??
Bermuda Triangle It makes people disappear Bermuda Triangle Don't go too near But she Doesn't see my angle And she thinks I'm being dumb So Bermuda Triangle Here we come!
Four successive Tory prime ministers have been and gone, each arriving at Number 10 brandishing promises to deliver a better Britain, each departing a humiliated failure and leaving Britain in a worse place than they found it. Now, in another zoom around the Tory doom loop, a fifth prime minister is struggling to keep his head above water in a raging tempest of division and chaos self-generated by the Conservatives.
Research recently unveiled by Professor Jane Green, a political scientist at Oxford, suggests that the disintegration of support for the Tories is much less down to ideology than it is about a collapse of trust in their competence.
On Planet Tory, the struggle over the Rwanda legislation is being waged as if it is existential. Seen from Planet Earth, this is another and especially startling example of their incompetence. Their sole achievement has been to expel from the UK bagloads of taxpayers’ money without anything to show for it.
It is a rare government that does not commit any blunders and past ones have perpetrated some shockers as well. What marks this one out when you survey the 13-year span of Tory rule is the gobsmacking quantity of their fumbles, foul-ups, flops and fiascos. Every day makes it look more certain that Tory government is destined for the grave. It will be buried under the crushing weight of their sheer, blithering and boundless incompetence.
NEW: Donald Trump is seeking revenge against Joe Biden and political enemies, telling them to "be very careful" after they "opened up a Pandora's box" by indicting him. 2024: The revenge tour The comments came during the New York Young Republicans Gala. "They rigged and stole the election of 2020, and since Biden has gotten in he is weaponizing government against his political opponents like a raging third world tyrant." "He’s opened up a Pandora’s box that will never let our country be the same. I can only say to Joe, Be very careful what you wish for, but you have done is a terrible thing."
OK, why do so many Scots believe that “Scotland sends more to Westminster than it gets back in public spending”?
Have leaders of the SNP been making that claim, without being "fact-checked"? Or what?
Reckon that a majority of Washington State residents outside Seattle/King County think the same thing with respect to to their tax dollars with respect to the Emerald City and environs.
Even though it ain't so, as media reports from time to time.
In fact, the belief of country mice, that they are subsidizing they are subsidizing city rats, is hardly a new thing. Rather, a very old thing . . . and hardly limited to Caledonians . . .
Hmmm... I'm not sure the 'Scotland = country, England = city' analogy works at all. Both countries have an urbanisation rate of 83%.
Oh, and has someone fallen into the Bermuda Triangle?
??
Bermuda Triangle It makes people disappear Bermuda Triangle Don't go too near But she Doesn't see my angle And she thinks I'm being dumb So Bermuda Triangle Here we come!
The @guardian has learned a major anti-Ukraine conference will be held in Washington, DC tomorrow.
@Heritage Foundation will bring together Hungarian President Viktor Orbán’s team & Republican congressmen to strategize how to end US support for Ukraine.
Hungary should be out of the EU. Sadly with Slovakia now run by another nutjob it won’t be possible to at least suspend them as that needs unanimous support from the remaining members . Thankfully Poland has been saved from disaster . Another term of PiS would have been the end for democracy there .
"Saxony-Anhalt, a state in Germany has done what many around the country are calling for: If you want to be a citizen of Germany, you need to pledge allegiance to Israel. The legality of this remains unclear."
It's not quite allegiance, just recognition of right to exist. All the same, it seems dangerous to start making citizenship dependent on opinion, however widely it's shared.
Yesterday Nick Palmer mention that, back in the day, he worked as Euro coordinator for Eugene McCarthy's independent, third-party campaign for POTUS in 1976, after he left the Democratic Party.
Here is what EMcC's wiki page says about that campaign:
1976 presidential campaign
After his 1972 campaign, McCarthy left the Democratic Party, and ran as an Independent candidate for president in 1976. During that campaign, he took a libertarian stance on civil liberties, promised to create full employment by shortening the work week, came out in favor of nuclear disarmament, attacked the Internal Revenue Service, and said whom he would nominate to various Cabinet posts if elected. Mainly, however, he battled ballot access laws he deemed too restrictive and encouraged voters to reject the two-party system.
His numerous legal battles during the election, along with a strong grassroots effort in friendly states, allowed him to appear on the ballot in 30 states and eased ballot access for later third-party candidates. His party affiliation was variously listed on ballots as "Independent," "McCarthy '76," "Non-Partisan," "Nom. Petition," "Nomination," "Not Designated," and "Court Order". Although he was not on the California and Wyoming ballots, he was recognized as a write-in candidate in those states. In many states, he did not run with a vice-presidential nominee, but he came to have a total of 15 running mates in states where he was required to have one. At least eight of his running mates were women.
Nationally, McCarthy received 740,460 votes, 0.91% of the total, finishing third in the election. His best showing came in Oregon, where he received 40,207 votes, 3.90% of the vote.
SSI - Worth noting that Gene McCarthy's 1976 race as an Independent had the potential for affecting the outcome, given the narrow margin of Jimmy Carter's victory over Gerald Ford. By taking votes (mostly) from the Democrats (though many EMcC voters likely would have just skipped voting).
Indeed, based on numbers below (source Congressional Quarterly) believe it highly likely that McCarthy contributed to Ford winning three states (excluding OK) with total of 18 electoral votes
> Iowa (8 EV) Ford margin over Carter +12,932; McCarthy = 20,051 (1.6%) > Maine (4 EV) Ford margin +4,041; McCarthy = 10,874 (2.3%) > Oklahoma (8 EV) Ford margin +13,266; McCarthy = 14,101 (1.3%) > Oregon (6 EV) Ford margin +1,713; McCarthy = 40,207 (3.9%)
McCarty's highest vote total was recorded in Massachusetts = 65,603 (2.3%)
No idea how many votes that NPxMP won for EMcM via absentees!
Oh, and has someone fallen into the Bermuda Triangle?
??
Bermuda Triangle It makes people disappear Bermuda Triangle Don't go too near But she Doesn't see my angle And she thinks I'm being dumb So Bermuda Triangle Here we come!
Oh, and has someone fallen into the Bermuda Triangle?
??
Bermuda Triangle It makes people disappear Bermuda Triangle Don't go too near But she Doesn't see my angle And she thinks I'm being dumb So Bermuda Triangle Here we come!
Yes. I can't be arsed to work it out, but it must be hundred of pounds. But for some strange reason DougSeal doesn't want to pursue legal action against her elderly aunt. Takes all sorts I suppose.
Err I mean "His" elderly Aunt. I think my French lessons are affecting my subconscious.
Don't worry. We seals are far less hung up on the gender binary than you humans. Or at least Leon.
If I make a joke about seals being flippers, do I get accused of bad taste?
and the figure now dominating the government’s top table discussions is David Cameron — Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton — whose clear eye for political strategy and messaging has impressed colleagues since his return as foreign secretary last month....
...Cameron’s deployment comes after ministers said the former prime minister dominates cabinet. “He asks the right questions and what the strategy is and the messaging and some ministers seem not to have thought about these things,” said one. “Then offers his views. He is already the class act in cabinet.”
NEW: Donald Trump is seeking revenge against Joe Biden and political enemies, telling them to "be very careful" after they "opened up a Pandora's box" by indicting him. 2024: The revenge tour The comments came during the New York Young Republicans Gala. "They rigged and stole the election of 2020, and since Biden has gotten in he is weaponizing government against his political opponents like a raging third world tyrant." "He’s opened up a Pandora’s box that will never let our country be the same. I can only say to Joe, Be very careful what you wish for, but you have done is a terrible thing."
Speaking of Cfox's trusted media source, Collin Rugg, check out THIS gem:
JUST IN: After blasting the media for their coordinated smear campaign, Alex Jones tells Elon Musk that he'd like to use X to raise millions of dollars for gun safety awareness for Sandy Hook families.
This is the side of Alex Jones the media will never show you.
"The media ran a year of articles attacking [Sandy Hook victims] in my name, saying things I never said as a straw man, enraging them against me."
"They've been victimized, they've been manipulated by a PR operation and so I would love to come on X with the families."
"I'd love to raise money on this show or your show, Elon, or any of them. I'd love to come on here and raise them $10 million for gun safety awareness next week."
and the figure now dominating the government’s top table discussions is David Cameron — Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton — whose clear eye for political strategy and messaging has impressed colleagues since his return as foreign secretary last month....
...Cameron’s deployment comes after ministers said the former prime minister dominates cabinet. “He asks the right questions and what the strategy is and the messaging and some ministers seem not to have thought about these things,” said one. “Then offers his views. He is already the class act in cabinet.”
Without going through the whole Cabinet to check, there cannot be many besides Cameron with experience of half-way normal government, given that the past half dozen years were spent dealing first with Brexit and then Covid, and Jeremy Corbyn's Boris Johnson's purge of the relatively sane.
They send Christmas cards, not with pictures of robins, snowmen or Santa, but with photos of themselves.
Mine are of a snowy mountain landscape.
With dog for scale.
The big question is: does anyone here send out those comedy Christmas circulars, about how wonderfully clever and successful their children are?
A declining phenomenon it seems. We only now receive one of those each year.
"We are so proud of our lovely, fantastic children! Our oldest, Beelzebub, will be eligible for work release in six months thanks to time off for so-so behavior. And the baby of the family, Jezebel, has just received a very prestigious scholarship in modern media production from OnlyFans University!"
Oh, and has someone fallen into the Bermuda Triangle?
??
Bermuda Triangle It makes people disappear Bermuda Triangle Don't go too near But she Doesn't see my angle And she thinks I'm being dumb So Bermuda Triangle Here we come!
Four successive Tory prime ministers have been and gone, each arriving at Number 10 brandishing promises to deliver a better Britain, each departing a humiliated failure and leaving Britain in a worse place than they found it. Now, in another zoom around the Tory doom loop, a fifth prime minister is struggling to keep his head above water in a raging tempest of division and chaos self-generated by the Conservatives.
Research recently unveiled by Professor Jane Green, a political scientist at Oxford, suggests that the disintegration of support for the Tories is much less down to ideology than it is about a collapse of trust in their competence.
On Planet Tory, the struggle over the Rwanda legislation is being waged as if it is existential. Seen from Planet Earth, this is another and especially startling example of their incompetence. Their sole achievement has been to expel from the UK bagloads of taxpayers’ money without anything to show for it.
It is a rare government that does not commit any blunders and past ones have perpetrated some shockers as well. What marks this one out when you survey the 13-year span of Tory rule is the gobsmacking quantity of their fumbles, foul-ups, flops and fiascos. Every day makes it look more certain that Tory government is destined for the grave. It will be buried under the crushing weight of their sheer, blithering and boundless incompetence.
I don't think it takes a lot of research to work out that competence is a bigger issue than policy.
The only people apparently unaware of this is the Tories, as they continue to pursue an utterly fruitless policy of sending Paddington Bear to Rwanda while about 30 million people are worried about getting a appointment to see a GP and the other 30 million are working out how to pay the rent/mortgage.
They send Christmas cards, not with pictures of robins, snowmen or Santa, but with photos of themselves.
They always have, if you get a card from the Royals you want a festive picture of them on.
Former PMs like the Blairs also send such personalised cards
If I get a card from the royals I want a cheque on it.
If you get a card and a cheque from the royals we've all paid for it.
My wife and I should get a personal card from the King next May for 60 years of marriage, but would have preferred it from the late Queen
IIRC one of your family has to request it... you may like to tip them the wink to avoid disappointment.
Many congrats though! Like me, you must have been only 20 when you married?
Our daughter has it in hand and I was 20 and my wife 24
Mazel tov!
Speaking of getting personal card for Head of State upon personal landmarks such as advanced age and long marriage, when I first moved to Seattle, rented a room from a gentleman (truly) in his 90s.
I mentioned to him that he was old enough to receive a personal note from the President.
"I used to get one of those," he replied.
Turned out he was referring to the card(s) that he and his (late) wife just to received after they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.
Four successive Tory prime ministers have been and gone, each arriving at Number 10 brandishing promises to deliver a better Britain, each departing a humiliated failure and leaving Britain in a worse place than they found it. Now, in another zoom around the Tory doom loop, a fifth prime minister is struggling to keep his head above water in a raging tempest of division and chaos self-generated by the Conservatives.
Research recently unveiled by Professor Jane Green, a political scientist at Oxford, suggests that the disintegration of support for the Tories is much less down to ideology than it is about a collapse of trust in their competence.
On Planet Tory, the struggle over the Rwanda legislation is being waged as if it is existential. Seen from Planet Earth, this is another and especially startling example of their incompetence. Their sole achievement has been to expel from the UK bagloads of taxpayers’ money without anything to show for it.
It is a rare government that does not commit any blunders and past ones have perpetrated some shockers as well. What marks this one out when you survey the 13-year span of Tory rule is the gobsmacking quantity of their fumbles, foul-ups, flops and fiascos. Every day makes it look more certain that Tory government is destined for the grave. It will be buried under the crushing weight of their sheer, blithering and boundless incompetence.
I don't think it takes a lot of research to work out that competence is a bigger issue than policy.
The only people apparently unaware of this is the Tories, as they continue to pursue an utterly fruitless policy of sending Paddington Bear to Rwanda while about 30 million people are worried about getting a appointment to see a GP and the other 30 million are working out how to pay the rent/mortgage.
Yebbut if they send a few hapless refugees to Rwanda all that will be fixed, shirley?
JUST IN: Vivek Ramaswamy holds up a ‘NIKKI IS CORRUPT’ sign during the Republican debate and shames Haley on stage for being willing to send Americans to die so she can “buy a bigger house.”
Brutal 🔥
“I don’t have a woman problem. You have a corruption problem and I think that that's what people need to know. Nikki is corrupt.”
“This is a woman who will send your kids to die so she can buy a bigger house.”
Who's kids has she sent (would she send) to die, where, and how did (would?) she do it?
How does this translate to corruption and a bigger house?
Is Ramaswamy performing the Indian "Enough Rope to Hang Myself" trick?
It was bullshit.
Basically when she quite as UN ambassador she was $1m in debt. In the next 7 years she went from that position to a Forbes estimate of $8m net assets.
From disclosure she spent a year on the board of Boeing ($300k), wrote two books (O’Reilly estimated $400k), made 11 paid speeches ($2.3m). She also bought a house for $2.4m but - according to O’Reilly - “there’s no way she could get that large a mortgage”
He then insinuated she was corrupt because she went straight from being Governor of South Carolina (and giving tax breaks to attract Boeing to the state) to become a director of Boeing. Ignoring the fact that there was a 2 year+ gap between the roles.
The “sending your kids to war” I guess is based on her being UN ambassador?
While I agree with your analysis, the Boeing connection IS interesting. Given significant (and strategic) shift in the corporation's operations from . . . wait for it . . . Washington State to South Carolina.
Which has had so far mixed results for Boeing, with quality-control issues curdling the bean-counters' cream) but mostly positives for the Palmetto State.
Certainly Boeing bigwings (and boneheads) are appreciative of Nikki Haley's past (non-corrupt) services and her continuing clout in SC politics.
And her stint as UN Ambassador further enhanced her value.
All this is FAR from a serious or even semi -serious impediment for a POTUS candidate. But as in case of Mitt Romney, this is kind of corporate-government connection that raises eyebrows (as opposed to watering them) and inspires attack ads.
The move to South Carolina wasn’t really about the tax breaks (nice though they were) - it was because it is a union free state. Boeing thought they could screw the workers but didn’t realise that aircraft manufacturing is harder than just regular assembly line stuff
(And given Boeing now has 10s of thousands of employees in SC having a senior SC politician on the board makes sense. And it helps that she is a woman and a minority as well. Plus I’m sure she made some interesting contacts in her time as UN ambassador - if anything that’s slightly more concerning that she could move straight from that role to a big defence company)
"Boeing thought they could screw the workers but didn’t realise that aircraft manufacturing is harder than just regular assembly line stuff."
Indeed. And pretty freaking remarkable for an AEROSPACE TECHNOLOGY corporation!!!
Why??? Because Boeing let a pack of over-promoted bean-counters run the show . . . damn near into the ground.
Today the engineers are (mostly) back in the helm. Which is good news for Boeing AND for airline passengers.
They send Christmas cards, not with pictures of robins, snowmen or Santa, but with photos of themselves.
They always have, if you get a card from the Royals you want a festive picture of them on.
Former PMs like the Blairs also send such personalised cards
If I get a card from the royals I want a cheque on it.
If you get a card and a cheque from the royals we've all paid for it.
My wife and I should get a personal card from the King next May for 60 years of marriage, but would have preferred it from the late Queen
IIRC one of your family has to request it... you may like to tip them the wink to avoid disappointment.
Many congrats though! Like me, you must have been only 20 when you married?
Our daughter has it in hand and I was 20 and my wife 24
Mazel tov!
Speaking of getting personal card for Head of State upon personal landmarks such as advanced age and long marriage, when I first moved to Seattle, rented a room from a gentleman (truly) in his 90s.
I mentioned to him that he was old enough to receive a personal note from the President.
"I used to get one of those," he replied.
Turned out he was referring to the card(s) that he and his (late) wife just to received after they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.
The bar is higher in the UK - 100th birthday or 60th wedding anniversary. And only one card for each mind, don't expect another card on your 101st!
"Saxony-Anhalt, a state in Germany has done what many around the country are calling for: If you want to be a citizen of Germany, you need to pledge allegiance to Israel. The legality of this remains unclear."
It's not quite allegiance, just recognition of right to exist. All the same, it seems dangerous to start making citizenship dependent on opinion, however widely it's shared.
'Under the new guidelines, applicants would have to sign a declaration that they "recognize Israel's right to exist and condemn any efforts directed against the existence of the state of Israel."'
It seems a bit pointless, and possibly counter-productive. And probably unique for a citizenship process to explicitly require approval of another country?
NEW: Donald Trump is seeking revenge against Joe Biden and political enemies, telling them to "be very careful" after they "opened up a Pandora's box" by indicting him. 2024: The revenge tour The comments came during the New York Young Republicans Gala. "They rigged and stole the election of 2020, and since Biden has gotten in he is weaponizing government against his political opponents like a raging third world tyrant." "He’s opened up a Pandora’s box that will never let our country be the same. I can only say to Joe, Be very careful what you wish for, but you have done is a terrible thing."
Speaking of Cfox's trusted media source, Collin Rugg, check out THIS gem:
JUST IN: After blasting the media for their coordinated smear campaign, Alex Jones tells Elon Musk that he'd like to use X to raise millions of dollars for gun safety awareness for Sandy Hook families.
This is the side of Alex Jones the media will never show you.
"The media ran a year of articles attacking [Sandy Hook victims] in my name, saying things I never said as a straw man, enraging them against me."
"They've been victimized, they've been manipulated by a PR operation and so I would love to come on X with the families."
"I'd love to raise money on this show or your show, Elon, or any of them. I'd love to come on here and raise them $10 million for gun safety awareness next week."
The gun safety awareness message presumably being don't send your 6- or 7-year-olds to school on the day the town psycho turns up with semi-automatic assault weapons, even if it is a hoax.
JUST IN: Vivek Ramaswamy holds up a ‘NIKKI IS CORRUPT’ sign during the Republican debate and shames Haley on stage for being willing to send Americans to die so she can “buy a bigger house.”
Brutal 🔥
“I don’t have a woman problem. You have a corruption problem and I think that that's what people need to know. Nikki is corrupt.”
“This is a woman who will send your kids to die so she can buy a bigger house.”
Who's kids has she sent (would she send) to die, where, and how did (would?) she do it?
How does this translate to corruption and a bigger house?
Is Ramaswamy performing the Indian "Enough Rope to Hang Myself" trick?
It was bullshit.
Basically when she quite as UN ambassador she was $1m in debt. In the next 7 years she went from that position to a Forbes estimate of $8m net assets.
From disclosure she spent a year on the board of Boeing ($300k), wrote two books (O’Reilly estimated $400k), made 11 paid speeches ($2.3m). She also bought a house for $2.4m but - according to O’Reilly - “there’s no way she could get that large a mortgage”
He then insinuated she was corrupt because she went straight from being Governor of South Carolina (and giving tax breaks to attract Boeing to the state) to become a director of Boeing. Ignoring the fact that there was a 2 year+ gap between the roles.
The “sending your kids to war” I guess is based on her being UN ambassador?
While I agree with your analysis, the Boeing connection IS interesting. Given significant (and strategic) shift in the corporation's operations from . . . wait for it . . . Washington State to South Carolina.
Which has had so far mixed results for Boeing, with quality-control issues curdling the bean-counters' cream) but mostly positives for the Palmetto State.
Certainly Boeing bigwings (and boneheads) are appreciative of Nikki Haley's past (non-corrupt) services and her continuing clout in SC politics.
And her stint as UN Ambassador further enhanced her value.
All this is FAR from a serious or even semi -serious impediment for a POTUS candidate. But as in case of Mitt Romney, this is kind of corporate-government connection that raises eyebrows (as opposed to watering them) and inspires attack ads.
The move to South Carolina wasn’t really about the tax breaks (nice though they were) - it was because it is a union free state. Boeing thought they could screw the workers but didn’t realise that aircraft manufacturing is harder than just regular assembly line stuff
(And given Boeing now has 10s of thousands of employees in SC having a senior SC politician on the board makes sense. And it helps that she is a woman and a minority as well. Plus I’m sure she made some interesting contacts in her time as UN ambassador - if anything that’s slightly more concerning that she could move straight from that role to a big defence company)
"Boeing thought they could screw the workers but didn’t realise that aircraft manufacturing is harder than just regular assembly line stuff."
Indeed. And pretty freaking remarkable for an AEROSPACE TECHNOLOGY corporation!!!
Why??? Because Boeing let a pack of over-promoted bean-counters run the show . . . damn near into the ground.
Today the engineers are (mostly) back in the helm. Which is good news for Boeing AND for airline passengers.
Despite being an avowed Trainist, I'm worried I might be developing an unhealthy obsession with the new 777-9 (due in service in 2025). I even got the 1:400model already.
"Saxony-Anhalt, a state in Germany has done what many around the country are calling for: If you want to be a citizen of Germany, you need to pledge allegiance to Israel. The legality of this remains unclear."
It's not quite allegiance, just recognition of right to exist. All the same, it seems dangerous to start making citizenship dependent on opinion, however widely it's shared.
'Under the new guidelines, applicants would have to sign a declaration that they "recognize Israel's right to exist and condemn any efforts directed against the existence of the state of Israel."'
It seems a bit pointless, and possibly counter-productive. And probably unique for a citizenship process to explicitly require approval of another country?
Is that those damn wokists the Saxony-Anhalt CDU at work again?
Oh, and has someone fallen into the Bermuda Triangle?
??
Bermuda Triangle It makes people disappear Bermuda Triangle Don't go too near But she Doesn't see my angle And she thinks I'm being dumb So Bermuda Triangle Here we come!
JUST IN: Vivek Ramaswamy holds up a ‘NIKKI IS CORRUPT’ sign during the Republican debate and shames Haley on stage for being willing to send Americans to die so she can “buy a bigger house.”
Brutal 🔥
“I don’t have a woman problem. You have a corruption problem and I think that that's what people need to know. Nikki is corrupt.”
“This is a woman who will send your kids to die so she can buy a bigger house.”
Who's kids has she sent (would she send) to die, where, and how did (would?) she do it?
How does this translate to corruption and a bigger house?
Is Ramaswamy performing the Indian "Enough Rope to Hang Myself" trick?
It was bullshit.
Basically when she quite as UN ambassador she was $1m in debt. In the next 7 years she went from that position to a Forbes estimate of $8m net assets.
From disclosure she spent a year on the board of Boeing ($300k), wrote two books (O’Reilly estimated $400k), made 11 paid speeches ($2.3m). She also bought a house for $2.4m but - according to O’Reilly - “there’s no way she could get that large a mortgage”
He then insinuated she was corrupt because she went straight from being Governor of South Carolina (and giving tax breaks to attract Boeing to the state) to become a director of Boeing. Ignoring the fact that there was a 2 year+ gap between the roles.
The “sending your kids to war” I guess is based on her being UN ambassador?
While I agree with your analysis, the Boeing connection IS interesting. Given significant (and strategic) shift in the corporation's operations from . . . wait for it . . . Washington State to South Carolina.
Which has had so far mixed results for Boeing, with quality-control issues curdling the bean-counters' cream) but mostly positives for the Palmetto State.
Certainly Boeing bigwings (and boneheads) are appreciative of Nikki Haley's past (non-corrupt) services and her continuing clout in SC politics.
And her stint as UN Ambassador further enhanced her value.
All this is FAR from a serious or even semi -serious impediment for a POTUS candidate. But as in case of Mitt Romney, this is kind of corporate-government connection that raises eyebrows (as opposed to watering them) and inspires attack ads.
The move to South Carolina wasn’t really about the tax breaks (nice though they were) - it was because it is a union free state. Boeing thought they could screw the workers but didn’t realise that aircraft manufacturing is harder than just regular assembly line stuff
(And given Boeing now has 10s of thousands of employees in SC having a senior SC politician on the board makes sense. And it helps that she is a woman and a minority as well. Plus I’m sure she made some interesting contacts in her time as UN ambassador - if anything that’s slightly more concerning that she could move straight from that role to a big defence company)
"Boeing thought they could screw the workers but didn’t realise that aircraft manufacturing is harder than just regular assembly line stuff."
Indeed. And pretty freaking remarkable for an AEROSPACE TECHNOLOGY corporation!!!
Why??? Because Boeing let a pack of over-promoted bean-counters run the show . . . damn near into the ground.
Today the engineers are (mostly) back in the helm. Which is good news for Boeing AND for airline passengers.
Despite being an avowed Trainist, I'm worried I might be developing an unhealthy obsession with the new 777-9 (due in service in 2025). I even got the 1:400model already.
Here's a story to get you back on the (nearly) straight and narrow:
They send Christmas cards, not with pictures of robins, snowmen or Santa, but with photos of themselves.
They always have, if you get a card from the Royals you want a festive picture of them on.
Former PMs like the Blairs also send such personalised cards
If I get a card from the royals I want a cheque on it.
If you get a card and a cheque from the royals we've all paid for it.
My wife and I should get a personal card from the King next May for 60 years of marriage, but would have preferred it from the late Queen
IIRC one of your family has to request it... you may like to tip them the wink to avoid disappointment.
Many congrats though! Like me, you must have been only 20 when you married?
Our daughter has it in hand and I was 20 and my wife 24
Mazel tov!
Speaking of getting personal card for Head of State upon personal landmarks such as advanced age and long marriage, when I first moved to Seattle, rented a room from a gentleman (truly) in his 90s.
I mentioned to him that he was old enough to receive a personal note from the President.
"I used to get one of those," he replied.
Turned out he was referring to the card(s) that he and his (late) wife just to received after they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.
The bar is higher in the UK - 100th birthday or 60th wedding anniversary. And only one card for each mind, don't expect another card on your 101st!
> The White House will send greetings only to United States citizens for special occasions as outlined below. > Whenever possible, all greetings will be mailed from the White House approximately 14 days prior to the event. All baby's birth greetings will be sent after the event.
The guidelines for some of the most commonly requested greetings are as follows: > Baby’s Birth Greeting: available for babies within a year of the birth date. Please make your request after the baby is born. > Birthday Greeting: available for civilians celebrating their 80th (or greater) birthday and veterans celebrating their 70th (or greater) birthday. Please make your request at least 6 weeks in advance of the birthday. > Retirement Greeting: available for 20 years of service or longer. > Wedding Greeting: If you would like to receive your wedding greeting before the event, please make your request at least 6 weeks in advance of the date and submit using maiden names. > Wedding Anniversary Greeting: available to couples who are celebrating their 50th (or greater) wedding anniversary. Please make your request at least 6 weeks in advance of the anniversary.
Perhaps worth noting, that when Abe Lincoln was President, it was customary and traditional (and visa versa) on occasion for any reasonably-respectable citizen (interpreted liberally for semi-sober White people) to gain entry to the White House and meet the President.
For example, on New Year's Day. An ordeal for POTUS to be sure, but also a privilege. AND sterling opportunity for any politico worth his salt and other byproducts.
During one of these occasions during Lincoln's presidency, Fredrick Douglass turned up but was initially denied entrance by gatekeepers. On grounds that, respectable and renowned though he was, he was NOT White. However, one of the President's personal secretaries intervened, Douglass joined the presentation line, and ended up having a short but significant conversation with Lincoln.
Four successive Tory prime ministers have been and gone, each arriving at Number 10 brandishing promises to deliver a better Britain, each departing a humiliated failure and leaving Britain in a worse place than they found it. Now, in another zoom around the Tory doom loop, a fifth prime minister is struggling to keep his head above water in a raging tempest of division and chaos self-generated by the Conservatives.
Research recently unveiled by Professor Jane Green, a political scientist at Oxford, suggests that the disintegration of support for the Tories is much less down to ideology than it is about a collapse of trust in their competence.
On Planet Tory, the struggle over the Rwanda legislation is being waged as if it is existential. Seen from Planet Earth, this is another and especially startling example of their incompetence. Their sole achievement has been to expel from the UK bagloads of taxpayers’ money without anything to show for it.
It is a rare government that does not commit any blunders and past ones have perpetrated some shockers as well. What marks this one out when you survey the 13-year span of Tory rule is the gobsmacking quantity of their fumbles, foul-ups, flops and fiascos. Every day makes it look more certain that Tory government is destined for the grave. It will be buried under the crushing weight of their sheer, blithering and boundless incompetence.
I don't think it takes a lot of research to work out that competence is a bigger issue than policy.
The only people apparently unaware of this is the Tories, as they continue to pursue an utterly fruitless policy of sending Paddington Bear to Rwanda while about 30 million people are worried about getting a appointment to see a GP and the other 30 million are working out how to pay the rent/mortgage.
I know its fashionable to regard yourself as a victim of something or everything these days but do you really think the entire population is worried about either their housing costs or their access to public services ?
Believe that Vivek Ramaswamy's strategy is to be even more of a shithead than Donald Trump.
Somewhat similar to Ron DeSantis strategy of trying to out-wing-nut DJT ideologically, but with bonus for VR, that he hopes it just might get him a spot on Trump 2024 ticket, or at least a cabinet position in 2025.
On the theory that #45 will like the cut of his jib, and pick an multi-cultural mini-me.
VR has certainly been as nasty as his role model, and thus earned massive dislike.
Problem is that, while Trump is mostly disliked/despised by non-GOPers, Ramaswamy on the other hand has made himself heartily disliked by most Republicans.
Note that Ted Cruz also attempted same tactic in 2016. And got his foul head handed to him.
He is also, of course, among the long list of shitheads being funded by billionaire Thiel (who risibly claims to have retired from politics).
It is not hard to find these facts about Nikki Haley's husband: "Haley is an officer with the South Carolina Army National Guard and specializes in security cooperation.[2]
In January 2012, Haley was deployed on a yearlong tour of duty in Afghanistan as a captain in the South Carolina Army National Guard.[3][4][5] The unit served in Helmand Province as an agribusiness development team helping Afghan farmers improve farming techniques and develop cash crops to replace opium poppies.[6] Haley served as a liaison between the military and civilian authorities.[7] He is thought to have been the first spouse of a governor to serve on active duty in a war zone." source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Haley_(soldier)
BTW, he was adopted at the age of four, so he didn't have the greatest start in life.
The Trumpites have moved house to living down the rabbit hole.
How will it end? If / when Trump is locked up for a couple of decades, a kind of Usonian Noriega, what will happen to the Republican Party?
They’ll manage.
In case it hasn't sunk in: Republican members of Congress are going to have private, closed-door meetings with reps of Putin's closed ally in Europe, to plan how to end aid to our ally Ukraine, all hosted by a foundation working to end US democracy. https://twitter.com/capitolhunters/status/1733940161522881023
They send Christmas cards, not with pictures of robins, snowmen or Santa, but with photos of themselves.
Mine are of a snowy mountain landscape.
With dog for scale.
The big question is: does anyone here send out those comedy Christmas circulars, about how wonderfully clever and successful their children are?
A declining phenomenon it seems. We only now receive one of those each year.
Replaced by the folk who phone in to Classic FM on Christmas morning to boast about how many people they are catering for with their Christmas Dinner. I'm sure that some are just taking the piss.
JUST IN: Vivek Ramaswamy holds up a ‘NIKKI IS CORRUPT’ sign during the Republican debate and shames Haley on stage for being willing to send Americans to die so she can “buy a bigger house.”
Brutal 🔥
“I don’t have a woman problem. You have a corruption problem and I think that that's what people need to know. Nikki is corrupt.”
“This is a woman who will send your kids to die so she can buy a bigger house.”
Who's kids has she sent (would she send) to die, where, and how did (would?) she do it?
How does this translate to corruption and a bigger house?
Is Ramaswamy performing the Indian "Enough Rope to Hang Myself" trick?
It was bullshit.
Basically when she quite as UN ambassador she was $1m in debt. In the next 7 years she went from that position to a Forbes estimate of $8m net assets.
From disclosure she spent a year on the board of Boeing ($300k), wrote two books (O’Reilly estimated $400k), made 11 paid speeches ($2.3m). She also bought a house for $2.4m but - according to O’Reilly - “there’s no way she could get that large a mortgage”
He then insinuated she was corrupt because she went straight from being Governor of South Carolina (and giving tax breaks to attract Boeing to the state) to become a director of Boeing. Ignoring the fact that there was a 2 year+ gap between the roles.
The “sending your kids to war” I guess is based on her being UN ambassador?
While I agree with your analysis, the Boeing connection IS interesting. Given significant (and strategic) shift in the corporation's operations from . . . wait for it . . . Washington State to South Carolina.
Which has had so far mixed results for Boeing, with quality-control issues curdling the bean-counters' cream) but mostly positives for the Palmetto State.
Certainly Boeing bigwings (and boneheads) are appreciative of Nikki Haley's past (non-corrupt) services and her continuing clout in SC politics.
And her stint as UN Ambassador further enhanced her value.
All this is FAR from a serious or even semi -serious impediment for a POTUS candidate. But as in case of Mitt Romney, this is kind of corporate-government connection that raises eyebrows (as opposed to watering them) and inspires attack ads.
The move to South Carolina wasn’t really about the tax breaks (nice though they were) - it was because it is a union free state. Boeing thought they could screw the workers but didn’t realise that aircraft manufacturing is harder than just regular assembly line stuff
(And given Boeing now has 10s of thousands of employees in SC having a senior SC politician on the board makes sense. And it helps that she is a woman and a minority as well. Plus I’m sure she made some interesting contacts in her time as UN ambassador - if anything that’s slightly more concerning that she could move straight from that role to a big defence company)
"Boeing thought they could screw the workers but didn’t realise that aircraft manufacturing is harder than just regular assembly line stuff."
Indeed. And pretty freaking remarkable for an AEROSPACE TECHNOLOGY corporation!!!
Why??? Because Boeing let a pack of over-promoted bean-counters run the show . . . damn near into the ground.
Today the engineers are (mostly) back in the helm. Which is good news for Boeing AND for airline passengers.
Despite being an avowed Trainist, I'm worried I might be developing an unhealthy obsession with the new 777-9 (due in service in 2025). I even got the 1:400model already.
Here's a story to get you back on the (nearly) straight and narrow:
They are absolutely right about the joy of the journey, and the importance of these sorts of long overnight services. There are few opportunities to travel slowly but in comfort in Europe anymore. There’s what? The Santander or Bilbao ferry. A couple of sleeper trains including the Caledonian sleeper. One or two long Mediterranean ferry journeys, the best being those run by Greek companies. But that’s pretty much it.
The trans-Siberian is now out of reach of course (though people who’ve gone on it told me it got a bit boring), the overnight Ankara-Tehran train - with the ferry over Lake Van midway through - that I’d planned for a special occasion is now also out of reach for similar geopolitical reasons. There’s a long train through Morocco but I don’t think it’s overnight. And the overnight Dakar to Ziguinchor ferry which I was planning to take next Autumn as part of a Senegal trip has been mothballed since July.
Four successive Tory prime ministers have been and gone, each arriving at Number 10 brandishing promises to deliver a better Britain, each departing a humiliated failure and leaving Britain in a worse place than they found it. Now, in another zoom around the Tory doom loop, a fifth prime minister is struggling to keep his head above water in a raging tempest of division and chaos self-generated by the Conservatives.
Research recently unveiled by Professor Jane Green, a political scientist at Oxford, suggests that the disintegration of support for the Tories is much less down to ideology than it is about a collapse of trust in their competence.
On Planet Tory, the struggle over the Rwanda legislation is being waged as if it is existential. Seen from Planet Earth, this is another and especially startling example of their incompetence. Their sole achievement has been to expel from the UK bagloads of taxpayers’ money without anything to show for it.
It is a rare government that does not commit any blunders and past ones have perpetrated some shockers as well. What marks this one out when you survey the 13-year span of Tory rule is the gobsmacking quantity of their fumbles, foul-ups, flops and fiascos. Every day makes it look more certain that Tory government is destined for the grave. It will be buried under the crushing weight of their sheer, blithering and boundless incompetence.
I don't think it takes a lot of research to work out that competence is a bigger issue than policy.
The only people apparently unaware of this is the Tories, as they continue to pursue an utterly fruitless policy of sending Paddington Bear to Rwanda while about 30 million people are worried about getting a appointment to see a GP and the other 30 million are working out how to pay the rent/mortgage.
I know its fashionable to regard yourself as a victim of something or everything these days but do you really think the entire population is worried about either their housing costs or their access to public services ?
Non sequitur. People are perfectly capable of working out when their government is persistently incompetent. They don’t have the regard themselves as victims to seek a better alternative.
Re: Greetings from POTUS, am wondering IF Donald Trump is still sending them out?
Almost certainly yes . . . as come-on's for fundraising letters . . .
"Sign up for monthly donation of $25 and receive your very own personalized greeting from Our 45th President, on durable paper made from recycled MAGA hats, suitable for framing . . . which is what that SOB Joe Biden is trying to do to President Trump!"
JUST IN: Vivek Ramaswamy holds up a ‘NIKKI IS CORRUPT’ sign during the Republican debate and shames Haley on stage for being willing to send Americans to die so she can “buy a bigger house.”
Brutal 🔥
“I don’t have a woman problem. You have a corruption problem and I think that that's what people need to know. Nikki is corrupt.”
“This is a woman who will send your kids to die so she can buy a bigger house.”
Who's kids has she sent (would she send) to die, where, and how did (would?) she do it?
How does this translate to corruption and a bigger house?
Is Ramaswamy performing the Indian "Enough Rope to Hang Myself" trick?
It was bullshit.
Basically when she quite as UN ambassador she was $1m in debt. In the next 7 years she went from that position to a Forbes estimate of $8m net assets.
From disclosure she spent a year on the board of Boeing ($300k), wrote two books (O’Reilly estimated $400k), made 11 paid speeches ($2.3m). She also bought a house for $2.4m but - according to O’Reilly - “there’s no way she could get that large a mortgage”
He then insinuated she was corrupt because she went straight from being Governor of South Carolina (and giving tax breaks to attract Boeing to the state) to become a director of Boeing. Ignoring the fact that there was a 2 year+ gap between the roles.
The “sending your kids to war” I guess is based on her being UN ambassador?
While I agree with your analysis, the Boeing connection IS interesting. Given significant (and strategic) shift in the corporation's operations from . . . wait for it . . . Washington State to South Carolina.
Which has had so far mixed results for Boeing, with quality-control issues curdling the bean-counters' cream) but mostly positives for the Palmetto State.
Certainly Boeing bigwings (and boneheads) are appreciative of Nikki Haley's past (non-corrupt) services and her continuing clout in SC politics.
And her stint as UN Ambassador further enhanced her value.
All this is FAR from a serious or even semi -serious impediment for a POTUS candidate. But as in case of Mitt Romney, this is kind of corporate-government connection that raises eyebrows (as opposed to watering them) and inspires attack ads.
The move to South Carolina wasn’t really about the tax breaks (nice though they were) - it was because it is a union free state. Boeing thought they could screw the workers but didn’t realise that aircraft manufacturing is harder than just regular assembly line stuff
(And given Boeing now has 10s of thousands of employees in SC having a senior SC politician on the board makes sense. And it helps that she is a woman and a minority as well. Plus I’m sure she made some interesting contacts in her time as UN ambassador - if anything that’s slightly more concerning that she could move straight from that role to a big defence company)
"Boeing thought they could screw the workers but didn’t realise that aircraft manufacturing is harder than just regular assembly line stuff."
Indeed. And pretty freaking remarkable for an AEROSPACE TECHNOLOGY corporation!!!
Why??? Because Boeing let a pack of over-promoted bean-counters run the show . . . damn near into the ground.
Today the engineers are (mostly) back in the helm. Which is good news for Boeing AND for airline passengers.
Despite being an avowed Trainist, I'm worried I might be developing an unhealthy obsession with the new 777-9 (due in service in 2025). I even got the 1:400model already.
Here's a story to get you back on the (nearly) straight and narrow:
Curious lack of french connections here. France - Italy night trains, for example. The link to Spain presumably difficult because of guages.
And, of course the nightstar link to the UK was aborted before the tunnel even opened. The nightstar stock was built, though. It's now in use in Canada.
Four successive Tory prime ministers have been and gone, each arriving at Number 10 brandishing promises to deliver a better Britain, each departing a humiliated failure and leaving Britain in a worse place than they found it. Now, in another zoom around the Tory doom loop, a fifth prime minister is struggling to keep his head above water in a raging tempest of division and chaos self-generated by the Conservatives.
Research recently unveiled by Professor Jane Green, a political scientist at Oxford, suggests that the disintegration of support for the Tories is much less down to ideology than it is about a collapse of trust in their competence.
On Planet Tory, the struggle over the Rwanda legislation is being waged as if it is existential. Seen from Planet Earth, this is another and especially startling example of their incompetence. Their sole achievement has been to expel from the UK bagloads of taxpayers’ money without anything to show for it.
It is a rare government that does not commit any blunders and past ones have perpetrated some shockers as well. What marks this one out when you survey the 13-year span of Tory rule is the gobsmacking quantity of their fumbles, foul-ups, flops and fiascos. Every day makes it look more certain that Tory government is destined for the grave. It will be buried under the crushing weight of their sheer, blithering and boundless incompetence.
I don't think it takes a lot of research to work out that competence is a bigger issue than policy.
The only people apparently unaware of this is the Tories, as they continue to pursue an utterly fruitless policy of sending Paddington Bear to Rwanda while about 30 million people are worried about getting a appointment to see a GP and the other 30 million are working out how to pay the rent/mortgage.
I know its fashionable to regard yourself as a victim of something or everything these days but do you really think the entire population is worried about either their housing costs or their access to public services ?
Non sequitur. People are perfectly capable of working out when their government is persistently incompetent. They don’t have the regard themselves as victims to seek a better alternative.
Since forever surveys have shown people consistently rating their own financial position more positively than that of the country. At the moment most people think the country is fucked but they themselves are only struggling a bit.
However, for years people weren’t even assessing themselves as struggling. Whereas now they are. They may think the country is even more shafted but they’re not exactly raking it in themselves.
Though, as someone commented yesterday, the recent fall in petrol pump prices probably does have an effect.
Four successive Tory prime ministers have been and gone, each arriving at Number 10 brandishing promises to deliver a better Britain, each departing a humiliated failure and leaving Britain in a worse place than they found it. Now, in another zoom around the Tory doom loop, a fifth prime minister is struggling to keep his head above water in a raging tempest of division and chaos self-generated by the Conservatives.
Research recently unveiled by Professor Jane Green, a political scientist at Oxford, suggests that the disintegration of support for the Tories is much less down to ideology than it is about a collapse of trust in their competence.
On Planet Tory, the struggle over the Rwanda legislation is being waged as if it is existential. Seen from Planet Earth, this is another and especially startling example of their incompetence. Their sole achievement has been to expel from the UK bagloads of taxpayers’ money without anything to show for it.
It is a rare government that does not commit any blunders and past ones have perpetrated some shockers as well. What marks this one out when you survey the 13-year span of Tory rule is the gobsmacking quantity of their fumbles, foul-ups, flops and fiascos. Every day makes it look more certain that Tory government is destined for the grave. It will be buried under the crushing weight of their sheer, blithering and boundless incompetence.
I don't think it takes a lot of research to work out that competence is a bigger issue than policy.
The only people apparently unaware of this is the Tories, as they continue to pursue an utterly fruitless policy of sending Paddington Bear to Rwanda while about 30 million people are worried about getting a appointment to see a GP and the other 30 million are working out how to pay the rent/mortgage.
Yebbut if they send a few hapless refugees to Rwanda all that will be fixed, shirley?
If that actually happens, a Tory victory is then conditional on:
1) a few deportations then "Stopping the Boats"
2) that then overriding all other considerations in voters mins.
I would price that as:
Evens on deportations actually happening. 10/1 on stopping the boats 10/1 on that being the primary factor in voters minds.
So Sunak has bet the house on a 200/1 shot, with no back up plan.
JUST IN: Vivek Ramaswamy holds up a ‘NIKKI IS CORRUPT’ sign during the Republican debate and shames Haley on stage for being willing to send Americans to die so she can “buy a bigger house.”
Brutal 🔥
“I don’t have a woman problem. You have a corruption problem and I think that that's what people need to know. Nikki is corrupt.”
“This is a woman who will send your kids to die so she can buy a bigger house.”
Who's kids has she sent (would she send) to die, where, and how did (would?) she do it?
How does this translate to corruption and a bigger house?
Is Ramaswamy performing the Indian "Enough Rope to Hang Myself" trick?
It was bullshit.
Basically when she quite as UN ambassador she was $1m in debt. In the next 7 years she went from that position to a Forbes estimate of $8m net assets.
From disclosure she spent a year on the board of Boeing ($300k), wrote two books (O’Reilly estimated $400k), made 11 paid speeches ($2.3m). She also bought a house for $2.4m but - according to O’Reilly - “there’s no way she could get that large a mortgage”
He then insinuated she was corrupt because she went straight from being Governor of South Carolina (and giving tax breaks to attract Boeing to the state) to become a director of Boeing. Ignoring the fact that there was a 2 year+ gap between the roles.
The “sending your kids to war” I guess is based on her being UN ambassador?
While I agree with your analysis, the Boeing connection IS interesting. Given significant (and strategic) shift in the corporation's operations from . . . wait for it . . . Washington State to South Carolina.
Which has had so far mixed results for Boeing, with quality-control issues curdling the bean-counters' cream) but mostly positives for the Palmetto State.
Certainly Boeing bigwings (and boneheads) are appreciative of Nikki Haley's past (non-corrupt) services and her continuing clout in SC politics.
And her stint as UN Ambassador further enhanced her value.
All this is FAR from a serious or even semi -serious impediment for a POTUS candidate. But as in case of Mitt Romney, this is kind of corporate-government connection that raises eyebrows (as opposed to watering them) and inspires attack ads.
The move to South Carolina wasn’t really about the tax breaks (nice though they were) - it was because it is a union free state. Boeing thought they could screw the workers but didn’t realise that aircraft manufacturing is harder than just regular assembly line stuff
(And given Boeing now has 10s of thousands of employees in SC having a senior SC politician on the board makes sense. And it helps that she is a woman and a minority as well. Plus I’m sure she made some interesting contacts in her time as UN ambassador - if anything that’s slightly more concerning that she could move straight from that role to a big defence company)
"Boeing thought they could screw the workers but didn’t realise that aircraft manufacturing is harder than just regular assembly line stuff."
Indeed. And pretty freaking remarkable for an AEROSPACE TECHNOLOGY corporation!!!
Why??? Because Boeing let a pack of over-promoted bean-counters run the show . . . damn near into the ground.
Today the engineers are (mostly) back in the helm. Which is good news for Boeing AND for airline passengers.
Despite being an avowed Trainist, I'm worried I might be developing an unhealthy obsession with the new 777-9 (due in service in 2025). I even got the 1:400model already.
Here's a story to get you back on the (nearly) straight and narrow:
Curious lack of french connections here. France - Italy night trains, for example. The link to Spain presumably difficult because of guages.
And, of course the nightstar link to the UK was aborted before the tunnel even opened. The nightstar stock was built, though. It's now in use in Canada.
I had my first proper holiday with my now wife in 1996 in a month of train travel through Italy (she was an art student, I just came along and enjoyed the scenery) and we got there on the night sleeper from Paris gare de Lyon to Florence. Wonderful experience including the halt in the middle of the night at the border.
That map does make me think about planning a night train through Sweden to the far North.
Oh, and has someone fallen into the Bermuda Triangle?
??
Bermuda Triangle It makes people disappear Bermuda Triangle Don't go too near But she Doesn't see my angle And she thinks I'm being dumb So Bermuda Triangle Here we come!
JUST IN: Vivek Ramaswamy holds up a ‘NIKKI IS CORRUPT’ sign during the Republican debate and shames Haley on stage for being willing to send Americans to die so she can “buy a bigger house.”
Brutal 🔥
“I don’t have a woman problem. You have a corruption problem and I think that that's what people need to know. Nikki is corrupt.”
“This is a woman who will send your kids to die so she can buy a bigger house.”
Who's kids has she sent (would she send) to die, where, and how did (would?) she do it?
How does this translate to corruption and a bigger house?
Is Ramaswamy performing the Indian "Enough Rope to Hang Myself" trick?
It was bullshit.
Basically when she quite as UN ambassador she was $1m in debt. In the next 7 years she went from that position to a Forbes estimate of $8m net assets.
From disclosure she spent a year on the board of Boeing ($300k), wrote two books (O’Reilly estimated $400k), made 11 paid speeches ($2.3m). She also bought a house for $2.4m but - according to O’Reilly - “there’s no way she could get that large a mortgage”
He then insinuated she was corrupt because she went straight from being Governor of South Carolina (and giving tax breaks to attract Boeing to the state) to become a director of Boeing. Ignoring the fact that there was a 2 year+ gap between the roles.
The “sending your kids to war” I guess is based on her being UN ambassador?
While I agree with your analysis, the Boeing connection IS interesting. Given significant (and strategic) shift in the corporation's operations from . . . wait for it . . . Washington State to South Carolina.
Which has had so far mixed results for Boeing, with quality-control issues curdling the bean-counters' cream) but mostly positives for the Palmetto State.
Certainly Boeing bigwings (and boneheads) are appreciative of Nikki Haley's past (non-corrupt) services and her continuing clout in SC politics.
And her stint as UN Ambassador further enhanced her value.
All this is FAR from a serious or even semi -serious impediment for a POTUS candidate. But as in case of Mitt Romney, this is kind of corporate-government connection that raises eyebrows (as opposed to watering them) and inspires attack ads.
The move to South Carolina wasn’t really about the tax breaks (nice though they were) - it was because it is a union free state. Boeing thought they could screw the workers but didn’t realise that aircraft manufacturing is harder than just regular assembly line stuff
(And given Boeing now has 10s of thousands of employees in SC having a senior SC politician on the board makes sense. And it helps that she is a woman and a minority as well. Plus I’m sure she made some interesting contacts in her time as UN ambassador - if anything that’s slightly more concerning that she could move straight from that role to a big defence company)
"Boeing thought they could screw the workers but didn’t realise that aircraft manufacturing is harder than just regular assembly line stuff."
Indeed. And pretty freaking remarkable for an AEROSPACE TECHNOLOGY corporation!!!
Why??? Because Boeing let a pack of over-promoted bean-counters run the show . . . damn near into the ground.
Today the engineers are (mostly) back in the helm. Which is good news for Boeing AND for airline passengers.
Despite being an avowed Trainist, I'm worried I might be developing an unhealthy obsession with the new 777-9 (due in service in 2025). I even got the 1:400model already.
Here's a story to get you back on the (nearly) straight and narrow:
Curious lack of french connections here. France - Italy night trains, for example. The link to Spain presumably difficult because of guages.
And, of course the nightstar link to the UK was aborted before the tunnel even opened. The nightstar stock was built, though. It's now in use in Canada.
I had my first proper holiday with my now wife in 1996 in a month of train travel through Italy (she was an art student, I just came along and enjoyed the scenery) and we got there on the night sleeper from Paris gare de Lyon to Florence. Wonderful experience including the halt in the middle of the night at the border.
That map does make me think about planning a night train through Sweden to the far North.
I've never been able to get a moment's sleep on night trains but I can't shake the romance of the idea.
JUST IN: Vivek Ramaswamy holds up a ‘NIKKI IS CORRUPT’ sign during the Republican debate and shames Haley on stage for being willing to send Americans to die so she can “buy a bigger house.”
Brutal 🔥
“I don’t have a woman problem. You have a corruption problem and I think that that's what people need to know. Nikki is corrupt.”
“This is a woman who will send your kids to die so she can buy a bigger house.”
Who's kids has she sent (would she send) to die, where, and how did (would?) she do it?
How does this translate to corruption and a bigger house?
Is Ramaswamy performing the Indian "Enough Rope to Hang Myself" trick?
It was bullshit.
Basically when she quite as UN ambassador she was $1m in debt. In the next 7 years she went from that position to a Forbes estimate of $8m net assets.
From disclosure she spent a year on the board of Boeing ($300k), wrote two books (O’Reilly estimated $400k), made 11 paid speeches ($2.3m). She also bought a house for $2.4m but - according to O’Reilly - “there’s no way she could get that large a mortgage”
He then insinuated she was corrupt because she went straight from being Governor of South Carolina (and giving tax breaks to attract Boeing to the state) to become a director of Boeing. Ignoring the fact that there was a 2 year+ gap between the roles.
The “sending your kids to war” I guess is based on her being UN ambassador?
While I agree with your analysis, the Boeing connection IS interesting. Given significant (and strategic) shift in the corporation's operations from . . . wait for it . . . Washington State to South Carolina.
Which has had so far mixed results for Boeing, with quality-control issues curdling the bean-counters' cream) but mostly positives for the Palmetto State.
Certainly Boeing bigwings (and boneheads) are appreciative of Nikki Haley's past (non-corrupt) services and her continuing clout in SC politics.
And her stint as UN Ambassador further enhanced her value.
All this is FAR from a serious or even semi -serious impediment for a POTUS candidate. But as in case of Mitt Romney, this is kind of corporate-government connection that raises eyebrows (as opposed to watering them) and inspires attack ads.
The move to South Carolina wasn’t really about the tax breaks (nice though they were) - it was because it is a union free state. Boeing thought they could screw the workers but didn’t realise that aircraft manufacturing is harder than just regular assembly line stuff
(And given Boeing now has 10s of thousands of employees in SC having a senior SC politician on the board makes sense. And it helps that she is a woman and a minority as well. Plus I’m sure she made some interesting contacts in her time as UN ambassador - if anything that’s slightly more concerning that she could move straight from that role to a big defence company)
"Boeing thought they could screw the workers but didn’t realise that aircraft manufacturing is harder than just regular assembly line stuff."
Indeed. And pretty freaking remarkable for an AEROSPACE TECHNOLOGY corporation!!!
Why??? Because Boeing let a pack of over-promoted bean-counters run the show . . . damn near into the ground.
Today the engineers are (mostly) back in the helm. Which is good news for Boeing AND for airline passengers.
Despite being an avowed Trainist, I'm worried I might be developing an unhealthy obsession with the new 777-9 (due in service in 2025). I even got the 1:400model already.
Here's a story to get you back on the (nearly) straight and narrow:
Four successive Tory prime ministers have been and gone, each arriving at Number 10 brandishing promises to deliver a better Britain, each departing a humiliated failure and leaving Britain in a worse place than they found it. Now, in another zoom around the Tory doom loop, a fifth prime minister is struggling to keep his head above water in a raging tempest of division and chaos self-generated by the Conservatives.
Research recently unveiled by Professor Jane Green, a political scientist at Oxford, suggests that the disintegration of support for the Tories is much less down to ideology than it is about a collapse of trust in their competence.
On Planet Tory, the struggle over the Rwanda legislation is being waged as if it is existential. Seen from Planet Earth, this is another and especially startling example of their incompetence. Their sole achievement has been to expel from the UK bagloads of taxpayers’ money without anything to show for it.
It is a rare government that does not commit any blunders and past ones have perpetrated some shockers as well. What marks this one out when you survey the 13-year span of Tory rule is the gobsmacking quantity of their fumbles, foul-ups, flops and fiascos. Every day makes it look more certain that Tory government is destined for the grave. It will be buried under the crushing weight of their sheer, blithering and boundless incompetence.
I don't think it takes a lot of research to work out that competence is a bigger issue than policy.
The only people apparently unaware of this is the Tories, as they continue to pursue an utterly fruitless policy of sending Paddington Bear to Rwanda while about 30 million people are worried about getting a appointment to see a GP and the other 30 million are working out how to pay the rent/mortgage.
Yebbut if they send a few hapless refugees to Rwanda all that will be fixed, shirley?
If that actually happens, a Tory victory is then conditional on:
1) a few deportations then "Stopping the Boats"
2) that then overriding all other considerations in voters mins.
I would price that as:
Evens on deportations actually happening. 10/1 on stopping the boats 10/1 on that being the primary factor in voters minds.
So Sunak has bet the house on a 200/1 shot, with no back up plan.
It doesn't seem wise to me.
Their only chance, I think, is in frightening people about how Labour will be even worse. They aren’t going to run on Tory success so expect some very very negative campaigning in the next year.
Twice as many people now think Rishi Sunak handled the pandemic badly than well, a new poll has revealed ahead of the prime minister’s crucial day of evidence to the Covid inquiry.
More than half — 52 per cent — of those asked in a YouGov survey for the Times said Sunak’s flagship Eat Out to Help Out scheme was a “bad idea,” with just a third — 32 per cent — saying it was a good idea....
...Sunak is also expected to face a tough line of questioning from Hugo Keith, the lead counsel of the inquiry, over the his failure to produce any of his WhatsApp messages from his time as chancellor.
He has told the inquiry that he has changed his phone several times over the last three years and does not have access to his messages as they were not backed up.
A source who worked closely with Sunak during the Covid pandemic said: “He’s going to get absolutely slaughtered over his failure to provide WhatsApps.”
A separate poll by Focaldata has revealed that 59 per cent of voters believe Sunak intentionally hid his WhatsApp messages from the Covid inquiry. Even among Conservative voters, 48 per cent believe he deliberately kept his the messages hidden.
The YouGov polling delivered better news for the prime minister on his estimated £400 billion of financial support handed to households and businesses during the pandemic.
More than a third — 35 per cent — said Sunak had given the “about the right level” of financial support, with 23 per cent saying it was too costly and 24 per cent saying he did not go far enough and more support should have been given. A majority — 52 per cent — of Conservative voters backed Sunak’s handling of financial support, while even a third of Labour supporters said he had got the right balance.
JUST IN: Vivek Ramaswamy holds up a ‘NIKKI IS CORRUPT’ sign during the Republican debate and shames Haley on stage for being willing to send Americans to die so she can “buy a bigger house.”
Brutal 🔥
“I don’t have a woman problem. You have a corruption problem and I think that that's what people need to know. Nikki is corrupt.”
“This is a woman who will send your kids to die so she can buy a bigger house.”
Who's kids has she sent (would she send) to die, where, and how did (would?) she do it?
How does this translate to corruption and a bigger house?
Is Ramaswamy performing the Indian "Enough Rope to Hang Myself" trick?
It was bullshit.
Basically when she quite as UN ambassador she was $1m in debt. In the next 7 years she went from that position to a Forbes estimate of $8m net assets.
From disclosure she spent a year on the board of Boeing ($300k), wrote two books (O’Reilly estimated $400k), made 11 paid speeches ($2.3m). She also bought a house for $2.4m but - according to O’Reilly - “there’s no way she could get that large a mortgage”
He then insinuated she was corrupt because she went straight from being Governor of South Carolina (and giving tax breaks to attract Boeing to the state) to become a director of Boeing. Ignoring the fact that there was a 2 year+ gap between the roles.
The “sending your kids to war” I guess is based on her being UN ambassador?
While I agree with your analysis, the Boeing connection IS interesting. Given significant (and strategic) shift in the corporation's operations from . . . wait for it . . . Washington State to South Carolina.
Which has had so far mixed results for Boeing, with quality-control issues curdling the bean-counters' cream) but mostly positives for the Palmetto State.
Certainly Boeing bigwings (and boneheads) are appreciative of Nikki Haley's past (non-corrupt) services and her continuing clout in SC politics.
And her stint as UN Ambassador further enhanced her value.
All this is FAR from a serious or even semi -serious impediment for a POTUS candidate. But as in case of Mitt Romney, this is kind of corporate-government connection that raises eyebrows (as opposed to watering them) and inspires attack ads.
The move to South Carolina wasn’t really about the tax breaks (nice though they were) - it was because it is a union free state. Boeing thought they could screw the workers but didn’t realise that aircraft manufacturing is harder than just regular assembly line stuff
(And given Boeing now has 10s of thousands of employees in SC having a senior SC politician on the board makes sense. And it helps that she is a woman and a minority as well. Plus I’m sure she made some interesting contacts in her time as UN ambassador - if anything that’s slightly more concerning that she could move straight from that role to a big defence company)
"Boeing thought they could screw the workers but didn’t realise that aircraft manufacturing is harder than just regular assembly line stuff."
Indeed. And pretty freaking remarkable for an AEROSPACE TECHNOLOGY corporation!!!
Why??? Because Boeing let a pack of over-promoted bean-counters run the show . . . damn near into the ground.
Today the engineers are (mostly) back in the helm. Which is good news for Boeing AND for airline passengers.
Despite being an avowed Trainist, I'm worried I might be developing an unhealthy obsession with the new 777-9 (due in service in 2025). I even got the 1:400model already.
Here's a story to get you back on the (nearly) straight and narrow:
JUST IN: Vivek Ramaswamy holds up a ‘NIKKI IS CORRUPT’ sign during the Republican debate and shames Haley on stage for being willing to send Americans to die so she can “buy a bigger house.”
Brutal 🔥
“I don’t have a woman problem. You have a corruption problem and I think that that's what people need to know. Nikki is corrupt.”
“This is a woman who will send your kids to die so she can buy a bigger house.”
Who's kids has she sent (would she send) to die, where, and how did (would?) she do it?
How does this translate to corruption and a bigger house?
Is Ramaswamy performing the Indian "Enough Rope to Hang Myself" trick?
It was bullshit.
Basically when she quite as UN ambassador she was $1m in debt. In the next 7 years she went from that position to a Forbes estimate of $8m net assets.
From disclosure she spent a year on the board of Boeing ($300k), wrote two books (O’Reilly estimated $400k), made 11 paid speeches ($2.3m). She also bought a house for $2.4m but - according to O’Reilly - “there’s no way she could get that large a mortgage”
He then insinuated she was corrupt because she went straight from being Governor of South Carolina (and giving tax breaks to attract Boeing to the state) to become a director of Boeing. Ignoring the fact that there was a 2 year+ gap between the roles.
The “sending your kids to war” I guess is based on her being UN ambassador?
While I agree with your analysis, the Boeing connection IS interesting. Given significant (and strategic) shift in the corporation's operations from . . . wait for it . . . Washington State to South Carolina.
Which has had so far mixed results for Boeing, with quality-control issues curdling the bean-counters' cream) but mostly positives for the Palmetto State.
Certainly Boeing bigwings (and boneheads) are appreciative of Nikki Haley's past (non-corrupt) services and her continuing clout in SC politics.
And her stint as UN Ambassador further enhanced her value.
All this is FAR from a serious or even semi -serious impediment for a POTUS candidate. But as in case of Mitt Romney, this is kind of corporate-government connection that raises eyebrows (as opposed to watering them) and inspires attack ads.
The move to South Carolina wasn’t really about the tax breaks (nice though they were) - it was because it is a union free state. Boeing thought they could screw the workers but didn’t realise that aircraft manufacturing is harder than just regular assembly line stuff
(And given Boeing now has 10s of thousands of employees in SC having a senior SC politician on the board makes sense. And it helps that she is a woman and a minority as well. Plus I’m sure she made some interesting contacts in her time as UN ambassador - if anything that’s slightly more concerning that she could move straight from that role to a big defence company)
"Boeing thought they could screw the workers but didn’t realise that aircraft manufacturing is harder than just regular assembly line stuff."
Indeed. And pretty freaking remarkable for an AEROSPACE TECHNOLOGY corporation!!!
Why??? Because Boeing let a pack of over-promoted bean-counters run the show . . . damn near into the ground.
Today the engineers are (mostly) back in the helm. Which is good news for Boeing AND for airline passengers.
Despite being an avowed Trainist, I'm worried I might be developing an unhealthy obsession with the new 777-9 (due in service in 2025). I even got the 1:400model already.
Here's a story to get you back on the (nearly) straight and narrow:
Bah! What's the point of a night train? How can you see the scenery??
Who cares about the scenery? It's what is on the front that matters!
Or on the back in the case of the Bristol - Glasgow overnight, that used to be banked up the Lickey Incline. A Hoover on the front and a pair of Syphons on the back - happy days!
Comments
The Trumpites have moved house to living down the rabbit hole.
How will it end? If / when Trump is locked up for a couple of decades, a kind of Usonian Noriega, what will happen to the Republican Party?
Nobody would believe it.
In case of Scotland, it's not a case of rural versus urban (as you point out) but rather periphery versus center. With center = Westminster.
Believe this was factor in support for Brexit in Northern England and Wales? With center = Brussels.
Of course, on THIS issue, Scotland votes against Brexit. But the political psychology for Scots was different, and much more akin to that of the Irish, at least those in Republic of Ireland?
https://www.dw.com/en/germany-debates-tying-citizenship-to-israel-loyalty/a-67673872
(And given Boeing now has 10s of thousands of employees in SC having a senior SC politician on the board makes sense. And it helps that she is a woman and a minority as well. Plus I’m sure she made some interesting contacts in her time as UN ambassador - if anything that’s slightly more concerning that she could move straight from that role to a big defence company)
But I smelled a rat from the get-go, as did others.
Bermuda Triangle Don't go too near
But she Doesn't see my angle
And she thinks I'm being dumb
So Bermuda Triangle
Here we come!
https://youtu.be/Ibpu0mTFXuo
Indeed. And pretty freaking remarkable for an AEROSPACE TECHNOLOGY corporation!!!
Why??? Because Boeing let a pack of over-promoted bean-counters run the show . . . damn near into the ground.
Today the engineers are (mostly) back in the helm. Which is good news for Boeing AND for airline passengers.
Almost Radiohead levels
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eld9wMh7c1g
Story was illustrated with pic of workers picking a Seattle Starbucks store. With one holding this sign:
"Seize the Beans of Production!"
As if Amanda Spielman ever had a plot.
Well, not working for OFSTED, maybe.
Our new friend Bermuda, who presumably wasn't from Bermuda, but somewhere colder.
Former PMs like the Blairs also send such personalised cards
Four successive Tory prime ministers have been and gone, each arriving at Number 10 brandishing promises to deliver a better Britain, each departing a humiliated failure and leaving Britain in a worse place than they found it. Now, in another zoom around the Tory doom loop, a fifth prime minister is struggling to keep his head above water in a raging tempest of division and chaos self-generated by the Conservatives.
Research recently unveiled by Professor Jane Green, a political scientist at Oxford, suggests that the disintegration of support for the Tories is much less down to ideology than it is about a collapse of trust in their competence.
On Planet Tory, the struggle over the Rwanda legislation is being waged as if it is existential. Seen from Planet Earth, this is another and especially startling example of their incompetence. Their sole achievement has been to expel from the UK bagloads of taxpayers’ money without anything to show for it.
It is a rare government that does not commit any blunders and past ones have perpetrated some shockers as well. What marks this one out when you survey the 13-year span of Tory rule is the gobsmacking quantity of their fumbles, foul-ups, flops and fiascos. Every day makes it look more certain that Tory government is destined for the grave. It will be buried under the crushing weight of their sheer, blithering and boundless incompetence.
Mine are of a snowy mountain landscape.
With dog for scale.
I saw @Budlite take flight. He didn't land - he was banned.
I missed @Bermuda, were his posts short?
A declining phenomenon it seems. We only now receive one of those each year.
Here is what EMcC's wiki page says about that campaign:
1976 presidential campaign
After his 1972 campaign, McCarthy left the Democratic Party, and ran as an Independent candidate for president in 1976. During that campaign, he took a libertarian stance on civil liberties, promised to create full employment by shortening the work week, came out in favor of nuclear disarmament, attacked the Internal Revenue Service, and said whom he would nominate to various Cabinet posts if elected. Mainly, however, he battled ballot access laws he deemed too restrictive and encouraged voters to reject the two-party system.
His numerous legal battles during the election, along with a strong grassroots effort in friendly states, allowed him to appear on the ballot in 30 states and eased ballot access for later third-party candidates. His party affiliation was variously listed on ballots as "Independent," "McCarthy '76," "Non-Partisan," "Nom. Petition," "Nomination," "Not Designated," and "Court Order". Although he was not on the California and Wyoming ballots, he was recognized as a write-in candidate in those states. In many states, he did not run with a vice-presidential nominee, but he came to have a total of 15 running mates in states where he was required to have one. At least eight of his running mates were women.
Nationally, McCarthy received 740,460 votes, 0.91% of the total, finishing third in the election. His best showing came in Oregon, where he received 40,207 votes, 3.90% of the vote.
SSI - Worth noting that Gene McCarthy's 1976 race as an Independent had the potential for affecting the outcome, given the narrow margin of Jimmy Carter's victory over Gerald Ford. By taking votes (mostly) from the Democrats (though many EMcC voters likely would have just skipped voting).
Indeed, based on numbers below (source Congressional Quarterly) believe it highly likely that McCarthy contributed to Ford winning three states (excluding OK) with total of 18 electoral votes
> Iowa (8 EV) Ford margin over Carter +12,932; McCarthy = 20,051 (1.6%)
> Maine (4 EV) Ford margin +4,041; McCarthy = 10,874 (2.3%)
> Oklahoma (8 EV) Ford margin +13,266; McCarthy = 14,101 (1.3%)
> Oregon (6 EV) Ford margin +1,713; McCarthy = 40,207 (3.9%)
McCarty's highest vote total was recorded in Massachusetts = 65,603 (2.3%)
No idea how many votes that NPxMP won for EMcM via absentees!
With human for scale.
Fulham 21 points
But in fairness we look forward to hearing how you are getting along each year.
JUST IN: After blasting the media for their coordinated smear campaign, Alex Jones tells Elon Musk that he'd like to use X to raise millions of dollars for gun safety awareness for Sandy Hook families.
This is the side of Alex Jones the media will never show you.
"The media ran a year of articles attacking [Sandy Hook victims] in my name, saying things I never said as a straw man, enraging them against me."
"They've been victimized, they've been manipulated by a PR operation and so I would love to come on X with the families."
"I'd love to raise money on this show or your show, Elon, or any of them. I'd love to come on here and raise them $10 million for gun safety awareness next week."
https://twitter.com/CollinRugg/status/1733935206942539989?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^tweet
Jeremy Corbyn'sBoris Johnson's purge of the relatively sane.The key to Cameron might be found in this video from the end of his first term.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9hqE5HVVQk
Many congrats though! Like me, you must have been only 20 when you married?
https://youtu.be/OokDhevymOI?si=d8WGWMRO59jUlIXV
The only people apparently unaware of this is the Tories, as they continue to pursue an utterly fruitless policy of sending Paddington Bear to Rwanda while about 30 million people are worried about getting a appointment to see a GP and the other 30 million are working out how to pay the rent/mortgage.
Speaking of getting personal card for Head of State upon personal landmarks such as advanced age and long marriage, when I first moved to Seattle, rented a room from a gentleman (truly) in his 90s.
I mentioned to him that he was old enough to receive a personal note from the President.
"I used to get one of those," he replied.
Turned out he was referring to the card(s) that he and his (late) wife just to received after they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_Starliner
Still not in service.
Was anyone at the opening of the new Brent Cross West station today? Geoff Marshall video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdybq0_R_g4
It seems a bit pointless, and possibly counter-productive. And probably unique for a citizenship process to explicitly require approval of another country?
Serious question: it's a new station, why can't they set the platform height to give step-free access?
https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2023/dec/09/europes-geography-kind-of-reshaped-as-paris-berlin-night-train-returns
> The White House will send greetings only to United States citizens for special occasions as outlined below.
> Whenever possible, all greetings will be mailed from the White House approximately 14 days prior to the event. All baby's birth greetings will be sent after the event.
The guidelines for some of the most commonly requested greetings are as follows:
> Baby’s Birth Greeting: available for babies within a year of the birth date. Please make your request after the baby is born.
> Birthday Greeting: available for civilians celebrating their 80th (or greater) birthday and veterans celebrating their 70th (or greater) birthday. Please make your request at least 6 weeks in advance of the birthday.
> Retirement Greeting: available for 20 years of service or longer.
> Wedding Greeting: If you would like to receive your wedding greeting before the event, please make your request at least 6 weeks in advance of the date and submit using maiden names.
> Wedding Anniversary Greeting: available to couples who are celebrating their 50th (or greater) wedding anniversary. Please make your request at least 6 weeks in advance of the anniversary.
https://raskin.house.gov/presidential-greetings-congressional-commendations
Perhaps worth noting, that when Abe Lincoln was President, it was customary and traditional (and visa versa) on occasion for any reasonably-respectable citizen (interpreted liberally for semi-sober White people) to gain entry to the White House and meet the President.
For example, on New Year's Day. An ordeal for POTUS to be sure, but also a privilege. AND sterling opportunity for any politico worth his salt and other byproducts.
During one of these occasions during Lincoln's presidency, Fredrick Douglass turned up but was initially denied entrance by gatekeepers. On grounds that, respectable and renowned though he was, he was NOT White. However, one of the President's personal secretaries intervened, Douglass joined the presentation line, and ended up having a short but significant conversation with Lincoln.
In case it hasn't sunk in: Republican members of Congress are going to have private, closed-door meetings with reps of Putin's closed ally in Europe, to plan how to end aid to our ally Ukraine, all hosted by a foundation working to end US democracy.
https://twitter.com/capitolhunters/status/1733940161522881023
The trans-Siberian is now out of reach of course (though people who’ve gone on it told me it got a bit boring), the overnight Ankara-Tehran train - with the ferry over Lake Van midway through - that I’d planned for a special occasion is now also out of reach for similar
geopolitical reasons. There’s a long train through Morocco but I don’t think it’s overnight. And the overnight Dakar to Ziguinchor ferry which I was planning to take next Autumn as part of a Senegal trip has been mothballed since July.
People are perfectly capable of working out when their government is persistently incompetent. They don’t have the regard themselves as victims to seek a better alternative.
Almost certainly yes . . . as come-on's for fundraising letters . . .
"Sign up for monthly donation of $25 and receive your very own personalized greeting from Our 45th President, on durable paper made from recycled MAGA hats, suitable for framing . . . which is what that SOB Joe Biden is trying to do to President Trump!"
Curious lack of french connections here. France - Italy night trains, for example. The link to Spain presumably difficult because of guages.
And, of course the nightstar link to the UK was aborted before the tunnel even opened. The nightstar stock was built, though. It's now in use in Canada.
However, for years people weren’t even assessing themselves as struggling. Whereas now they are. They may think the country is even more shafted but they’re not exactly raking it in themselves.
Though, as someone commented yesterday, the recent fall in petrol pump prices probably does have an effect.
She’s 11.
1) a few deportations then "Stopping the Boats"
2) that then overriding all other considerations in voters mins.
I would price that as:
Evens on deportations actually happening.
10/1 on stopping the boats
10/1 on that being the primary factor in voters minds.
So Sunak has bet the house on a 200/1 shot, with no back up plan.
It doesn't seem wise to me.
That map does make me think about planning a night train through Sweden to the far North.
But no, just a boring picture of the whole family dressed for Sunday lunch at a Toby Carvery.
More than half — 52 per cent — of those asked in a YouGov survey for the Times said Sunak’s flagship Eat Out to Help Out scheme was a “bad idea,” with just a third — 32 per cent — saying it was a good idea....
...Sunak is also expected to face a tough line of questioning from Hugo Keith, the lead counsel of the inquiry, over the his failure to produce any of his WhatsApp messages from his time as chancellor.
He has told the inquiry that he has changed his phone several times over the last three years and does not have access to his messages as they were not backed up.
A source who worked closely with Sunak during the Covid pandemic said: “He’s going to get absolutely slaughtered over his failure to provide WhatsApps.”
A separate poll by Focaldata has revealed that 59 per cent of voters believe Sunak intentionally hid his WhatsApp messages from the Covid inquiry. Even among Conservative voters, 48 per cent believe he deliberately kept his the messages hidden.
The YouGov polling delivered better news for the prime minister on his estimated £400 billion of financial support handed to households and businesses during the pandemic.
More than a third — 35 per cent — said Sunak had given the “about the right level” of financial support, with 23 per cent saying it was too costly and 24 per cent saying he did not go far enough and more support should have been given. A majority — 52 per cent — of Conservative voters backed Sunak’s handling of financial support, while even a third of Labour supporters said he had got the right balance.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/sunak-covid-inquiry-evidence-xz29jj6rd
The night train from Krakow to Budapest was pretty grim though. Very hot, rattly and brakes squealed every few minutes.
Or on the back in the case of the Bristol - Glasgow overnight, that used to be banked up the Lickey Incline. A Hoover on the front and a pair of Syphons on the back - happy days!