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Upending assumptions – politicalbetting.com

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  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,365

    Nigelb said:

    Trump unanimously loses his appeal on presidential immunity in DC.

    Next stop the Supreme Court. Hard to see any different outcome there.

    Reading the opinion, it's a pretty comprehensive demolition of Trump's case.
    Trump has until Monday to seek review by the SC, but it's quite possible they turn him down. There is (IMO) almost no prospect of the court reversing the opinion, and for them to delay things by another three or four months by rehearing futile arguments, would further damage their credibility.
    The importance of their decision cannot be overstated.

    I have bets with both Ydoethur and SeanF.
    Not on that one, you haven't. Our bet is on the 14th Amendment.
  • RobDRobD Posts: 59,926

    Lee Anderson MP, former Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party: "I'm pretty sure that coal 100 million years ago was trees and plants.. it was, well I would argue that's sustainable."

    https://twitter.com/ShehabKhan/status/1754896431461052886

    Coal was formed because there was nothing to digest the remnants of dead trees. They just accumulated in massive piles which eventually became coal. That wouldn't happen again as we now have wood-eating bacteria etc.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,631

    All this bigging up of The Truss is just ridiculous.

    I was invited to today's Popular Conservatism event.

    They really must have been scraping the barrel to get attendees.
    Should have gone with your box of popcorn!
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 28,368

    All this bigging up of The Truss is just ridiculous.

    No, I think her performance was quite helpful. She explained how the country was on its knees because of woke Liberal socialism and high taxes leading to low growth, whereas all the rest of the country thought it was as a direct result her's and Kwarteng's disastrous budget.

    Grateful to have been corrected.
  • Foxy said:

    All this bigging up of The Truss is just ridiculous.

    I was invited to today's Popular Conservatism event.

    They really must have been scraping the barrel to get attendees.
    Should have gone with your box of popcorn!
    I am trying to keep my blood sugar level down.
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 57,129

    rcs1000 said:

    This is the first comment from an Apple Vision Pro

    Ask me anything

    I vowed to not get one, is it worth it?
    So... it's an absolute technical marvel. But it's also too heavy for extended use.

    And text input is an absolute nightmare. Hence, I'm currently typing this on my computer.
  • ydoethur said:

    Nigelb said:

    Trump unanimously loses his appeal on presidential immunity in DC.

    Next stop the Supreme Court. Hard to see any different outcome there.

    Reading the opinion, it's a pretty comprehensive demolition of Trump's case.
    Trump has until Monday to seek review by the SC, but it's quite possible they turn him down. There is (IMO) almost no prospect of the court reversing the opinion, and for them to delay things by another three or four months by rehearing futile arguments, would further damage their credibility.
    The importance of their decision cannot be overstated.

    I have bets with both Ydoethur and SeanF.
    Not on that one, you haven't. Our bet is on the 14th Amendment.
    Have you got a link to the post? I forgot to note it down.
  • GhedebravGhedebrav Posts: 3,860
    Nigelb said:

    viewcode said:

    Scott_xP said:

    @hzeffman
    EXCL: The govt is preparing to offer dentists cash incentives to take on NHS patients and send teams to schools to treat children's teeth, it has emerged

    Ministers will unveil the dental recovery plan tomorrow but details were inadvertently sent to MPs of all parties today

    Sounds like there is a molar in the team.
    Ain't that the tooth.
    It's the root canal.of the problem.
    That's hardly an incisive argument.
    You'd think they'd know the drill by now. Better brace themselves for the backlash.
  • GhedebravGhedebrav Posts: 3,860
    RobD said:

    Lee Anderson MP, former Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party: "I'm pretty sure that coal 100 million years ago was trees and plants.. it was, well I would argue that's sustainable."

    https://twitter.com/ShehabKhan/status/1754896431461052886

    Coal was formed because there was nothing to digest the remnants of dead trees. They just accumulated in massive piles which eventually became coal. That wouldn't happen again as we now have wood-eating bacteria etc.
    Isn't 30p an ex-miner?
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 51,605

    rcs1000 said:

    This is the first comment from an Apple Vision Pro

    Ask me anything

    I vowed to not get one, is it worth it?
    If you wear it in combination with Dyson headphones, you can look like this:

    https://twitter.com/HumansNoContext/status/1754243633925042450
  • OnlyLivingBoyOnlyLivingBoy Posts: 15,769
    FF43 said:

    isam said:

    Sir Keir comes second in all but one of the ‘Who would be better?’ questions in this YouGov…

    https://x.com/mattchorley/status/1754764182258360558?s=46&t=CW4pL-mMpTqsJXCdjW0Z6Q

    Neither is not running for election.
    Brings to mind the joke about whether you need to be able to outrun a bear or just the other guy the bear is chasing.
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,628
    edited February 6

    rcs1000 said:

    This is the first comment from an Apple Vision Pro

    Ask me anything

    I vowed to not get one, is it worth it?
    If you wear it in combination with Dyson headphones, you can look like this:

    https://twitter.com/HumansNoContext/status/1754243633925042450
    I am wary of wearing Apple accessories after my other half said me wearing my Airpods reminded her of this scene from There's Something About Mary



  • OnlyLivingBoyOnlyLivingBoy Posts: 15,769

    All this bigging up of The Truss is just ridiculous.

    I was invited to today's Popular Conservatism event.

    They really must have been scraping the barrel to get attendees.
    Are you saying it was actually Unpopular Conservatism?
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,582

    rcs1000 said:

    This is the first comment from an Apple Vision Pro

    Ask me anything

    I vowed to not get one, is it worth it?
    If you wear it in combination with Dyson headphones, you can look like this:

    https://twitter.com/HumansNoContext/status/1754243633925042450
    Has anyone here got the Dyson or Apple headphones? I refuse to believe they could possibly be worth double the price of my $450 Bose NC700s.
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 51,815

    rcs1000 said:

    This is the first comment from an Apple Vision Pro

    Ask me anything

    I vowed to not get one, is it worth it?
    If you wear it in combination with Dyson headphones, you can look like this:

    https://twitter.com/HumansNoContext/status/1754243633925042450
    I am wary of wearing Apple accessories after my other half said me wearing my Airpods reminded her of this scene from There's Something About Mary



    "He was masturbating! He was masturbating!"
  • RobD said:

    Lee Anderson MP, former Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party: "I'm pretty sure that coal 100 million years ago was trees and plants.. it was, well I would argue that's sustainable."

    https://twitter.com/ShehabKhan/status/1754896431461052886

    Coal was formed because there was nothing to digest the remnants of dead trees. They just accumulated in massive piles which eventually became coal. That wouldn't happen again as we now have wood-eating bacteria etc.
    Isn't that slightly arguable in that peat is still being formed, very slowly, in boggy areas? I mean, Anderson is clearly completely wrong to call that "sustainable" just in the sense that the rate of renewal is massively less than the rate of consumption.
  • OnlyLivingBoyOnlyLivingBoy Posts: 15,769
    isam said:

    An unexpected endorsement…

    'Everyone starts as a leftie and then wakes up and realises all the ideas are crap'

    Australian model and actress, Holly Valance, was at the launch of Liz Truss' new conservative movement 'PopCon'.



    https://x.com/gbnews/status/1754919130837483709?s=46&t=CW4pL-mMpTqsJXCdjW0Z6Q

    Who is Holly Valance?
  • Sandpit said:

    rcs1000 said:

    This is the first comment from an Apple Vision Pro

    Ask me anything

    I vowed to not get one, is it worth it?
    If you wear it in combination with Dyson headphones, you can look like this:

    https://twitter.com/HumansNoContext/status/1754243633925042450
    Has anyone here got the Dyson or Apple headphones? I refuse to believe they could possibly be worth double the price of my $450 Bose NC700s.
    I've got the Airpods Pro, they are awesome.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,582

    isam said:

    An unexpected endorsement…

    'Everyone starts as a leftie and then wakes up and realises all the ideas are crap'

    Australian model and actress, Holly Valance, was at the launch of Liz Truss' new conservative movement 'PopCon'.



    https://x.com/gbnews/status/1754919130837483709?s=46&t=CW4pL-mMpTqsJXCdjW0Z6Q

    Who is Holly Valance?
    I’d give her a kiss kiss
    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=o3wS2tdlZtE
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 57,129
    Sandpit said:

    rcs1000 said:

    This is the first comment from an Apple Vision Pro

    Ask me anything

    I vowed to not get one, is it worth it?
    If you wear it in combination with Dyson headphones, you can look like this:

    https://twitter.com/HumansNoContext/status/1754243633925042450
    Has anyone here got the Dyson or Apple headphones? I refuse to believe they could possibly be worth double the price of my $450 Bose NC700s.
    The Apple headphones (the AirPods Max) are fantastic. But they are also too heavy. You can't comfortably walk around in them. The Dyson headphones are a joke: extremely heavy, so so sound, and no-one wants to wear some kind of weird ass fask mask with LEDs.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,258

    Awks.




    Work is under way on a warehouse “monstrosity” at least 40ft high after a blundering Tory council consulted homeowners on the wrong street.

    Residents in Corby, Northamptonshire, awoke to find the large metal frame of the industrial units being erected just yards from their back doors.

    Many were blindsided and when they asked officials what had happened, it emerged that the council had got the road mixed up with another half a mile away.

    North Northamptonshire council’s building planning officers had mistakenly consulted people living on Hubble Road instead of Hooke Close to ask their opinions about the 160,800 sq ft development.

    The plans for the Earlstree 160 project, on the site of a former Weetabix factory, were approved by the council in November with construction works expected to be completed towards the end of this year.

    The height of the industrial unit will be a minimum 40ft when built, with a pitched roof which extends higher, which will be more than double the height of many two-storey surrounding houses.


    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/06/40ft-warehouse-monstrosity-council-consult-wrong-street/

    The industrial unit can’t be any uglier than those hideous little rabbit hutch new-builds next door. Look at them. I think I can see @BartholomewRoberts in the bathroom of the house on the left

    When did we decide as a nation that we want to feel trapped in tiny rooms with no windows? Windows are good. Britain is a shit-hole and we’ve done it to ourselves
  • Eight Metropolitan police officers are under investigation after a black 16-year-old was stopped six times in five months, on each occasion with nothing criminal found.

    The police watchdog is investigating after the case triggered claims of racial profiling and a friend of the boy’s family said he had been left traumatised.

    The Guardian has learned that one stop took place outside the boy’s mother’s house, another outside his grandmother’s house, one in a chicken shop and another by Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

    Officers need reasonable suspicion to carry out stop and search and the power is used disproportionately by police against black people, and especially against young black males.

    The complaint covers stops of the child between January and May 2023, five of them in Tottenham, north London, and one close to the Olympic Park in Stratford, east London.

    The Independent Office for Police Conduct said seven officers were being investigated for potential gross misconduct – meaning that if found guilty they could be sacked – and one for alleged misconduct.

    It said five of the stops had potential issues, and the complaint from the boy’s mother alleged insufficient grounds for the stops, racial bias, that force was unreasonably used, that officers failed to consider the boy’s welfare and that proper rules may not have been followed.

    The IOPC said the grounds given by officers for the stops included suspicion of having drugs or theft, and matching descriptions of people carrying out robberies and knife crime in the area.

    People who know the child say he has no criminal record.

    Ken Hinds, of the Haringey Independent Stop and Search Monitoring Group, which helped the boy and his mother make the complaint, said: “I’ve known him since the age of six. He’s a good kid, likes books and electronics. He’s been left traumatised. When he sees a police car he wants to run away.”


    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/feb/06/met-officers-investigated-after-black-boy-16-stopped-six-times-in-five-months?CMP=twt_b-gdnnews
  • StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 17,214
    Ghedebrav said:

    Nigelb said:

    viewcode said:

    Scott_xP said:

    @hzeffman
    EXCL: The govt is preparing to offer dentists cash incentives to take on NHS patients and send teams to schools to treat children's teeth, it has emerged

    Ministers will unveil the dental recovery plan tomorrow but details were inadvertently sent to MPs of all parties today

    Sounds like there is a molar in the team.
    Ain't that the tooth.
    It's the root canal.of the problem.
    That's hardly an incisive argument.
    You'd think they'd know the drill by now. Better brace themselves for the backlash.
    I mean, I like a punfest as much as the next man.

    But sometimes they gum up the conversation on matters of import.
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 51,605
    Sandpit said:

    rcs1000 said:

    This is the first comment from an Apple Vision Pro

    Ask me anything

    I vowed to not get one, is it worth it?
    If you wear it in combination with Dyson headphones, you can look like this:

    https://twitter.com/HumansNoContext/status/1754243633925042450
    Has anyone here got the Dyson or Apple headphones? I refuse to believe they could possibly be worth double the price of my $450 Bose NC700s.
    I wasn’t aware that Dyson made them until seeing that tweet. Presumably they have a vacuum function to clean your ear canal.
  • GhedebravGhedebrav Posts: 3,860
    rcs1000 said:

    rcs1000 said:

    This is the first comment from an Apple Vision Pro

    Ask me anything

    I vowed to not get one, is it worth it?
    So... it's an absolute technical marvel. But it's also too heavy for extended use.

    And text input is an absolute nightmare. Hence, I'm currently typing this on my computer.
    Just looked it up. It makes me want to go and live in a shack on a mountain somewhere, with nothing more high-tech than a pencil sharpener :neutral:
  • All this bigging up of The Truss is just ridiculous.

    I was invited to today's Popular Conservatism event.

    They really must have been scraping the barrel to get attendees.
    Are you saying it was actually Unpopular Conservatism?
    They are as popular as a handjob from Edward Scissorhands.
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 42,566

    @JosiasJessop FPT

    That's wonderful news, and a tribute to the power of financial incentives.

    There's quite a history of innovation arising from prizes. I take it you know the story of Longitude?

    Yeah, Harrison and his clocks/watches.

    Prizes are interesting: the DARPA Grand Challenge arguably set off the rush for autonomous cars; the X-Prize suborbital commercial spaceflight. But the Google Lunar X_Prize was a big failure, with no team making it to the Moon, even after it was extended. I don't think any team has still made it, five years after it ended.

    I doubt anyone contributed to the Herculaneum prize for the money; it was because it was cool. I doubt Harrison did it solely for the money - though he was rightly aggrieved when he did not get it. For the prizes that individuals can contribute valuable insight to - as Casey Hander did with the scrolls - it is more about the challenge, and the money helps a) publicise and b) concentrate minds.

    I am still in awe of this. I daresay some on here wonder why I'm often so upbeat, given everything that's going on in the UK and the world. It's partly because there are still people who do this sort of thing.
  • OnlyLivingBoyOnlyLivingBoy Posts: 15,769

    All this bigging up of The Truss is just ridiculous.

    I was invited to today's Popular Conservatism event.

    They really must have been scraping the barrel to get attendees.
    Are you saying it was actually Unpopular Conservatism?
    They are as popular as a handjob from Edward Scissorhands.
    Ouch, that's cutting!
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,365

    ydoethur said:

    Nigelb said:

    Trump unanimously loses his appeal on presidential immunity in DC.

    Next stop the Supreme Court. Hard to see any different outcome there.

    Reading the opinion, it's a pretty comprehensive demolition of Trump's case.
    Trump has until Monday to seek review by the SC, but it's quite possible they turn him down. There is (IMO) almost no prospect of the court reversing the opinion, and for them to delay things by another three or four months by rehearing futile arguments, would further damage their credibility.
    The importance of their decision cannot be overstated.

    I have bets with both Ydoethur and SeanF.
    Not on that one, you haven't. Our bet is on the 14th Amendment.
    Have you got a link to the post? I forgot to note it down.
    https://vf.politicalbetting.com/discussion/comment/4642574#Comment_4642574
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 57,129

    RobD said:

    Lee Anderson MP, former Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party: "I'm pretty sure that coal 100 million years ago was trees and plants.. it was, well I would argue that's sustainable."

    https://twitter.com/ShehabKhan/status/1754896431461052886

    Coal was formed because there was nothing to digest the remnants of dead trees. They just accumulated in massive piles which eventually became coal. That wouldn't happen again as we now have wood-eating bacteria etc.
    Isn't that slightly arguable in that peat is still being formed, very slowly, in boggy areas? I mean, Anderson is clearly completely wrong to call that "sustainable" just in the sense that the rate of renewal is massively less than the rate of consumption.
    The rate of coal "production" is going to be much lower due to bacteria and funghi having evolved that "eat" dead trees. However, there will still be some, because most of those microorganisms need oxygen.
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 51,815

    isam said:

    An unexpected endorsement…

    'Everyone starts as a leftie and then wakes up and realises all the ideas are crap'

    Australian model and actress, Holly Valance, was at the launch of Liz Truss' new conservative movement 'PopCon'.



    https://x.com/gbnews/status/1754919130837483709?s=46&t=CW4pL-mMpTqsJXCdjW0Z6Q

    Who is Holly Valance?
    She had a bit part in Liam Neeson's "Taken".
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,365

    All this bigging up of The Truss is just ridiculous.

    I was invited to today's Popular Conservatism event.

    They really must have been scraping the barrel to get attendees.
    Are you saying it was actually Unpopular Conservatism?
    They are as popular as a handjob from Edward Scissorhands.
    Ouch, that's cutting!
    Yes. I think anyone getting a handjob from Edward Scissorhands would find their insurance company wanted to add a Ryder.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,582

    Sandpit said:

    rcs1000 said:

    This is the first comment from an Apple Vision Pro

    Ask me anything

    I vowed to not get one, is it worth it?
    If you wear it in combination with Dyson headphones, you can look like this:

    https://twitter.com/HumansNoContext/status/1754243633925042450
    Has anyone here got the Dyson or Apple headphones? I refuse to believe they could possibly be worth double the price of my $450 Bose NC700s.
    I wasn’t aware that Dyson made them until seeing that tweet. Presumably they have a vacuum function to clean your ear canal.
    If I’m paying $900 for them, they’d better be good at sucking something.
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 57,129

    Sandpit said:

    rcs1000 said:

    This is the first comment from an Apple Vision Pro

    Ask me anything

    I vowed to not get one, is it worth it?
    If you wear it in combination with Dyson headphones, you can look like this:

    https://twitter.com/HumansNoContext/status/1754243633925042450
    Has anyone here got the Dyson or Apple headphones? I refuse to believe they could possibly be worth double the price of my $450 Bose NC700s.
    I've got the Airpods Pro, they are awesome.
    They're also too heavy. You don't want to rush around an airport wearing them, because you'll get a sore neck.

    The Bose or the Sony are much, much better travel headphones.
  • OnlyLivingBoyOnlyLivingBoy Posts: 15,769

    isam said:

    An unexpected endorsement…

    'Everyone starts as a leftie and then wakes up and realises all the ideas are crap'

    Australian model and actress, Holly Valance, was at the launch of Liz Truss' new conservative movement 'PopCon'.



    https://x.com/gbnews/status/1754919130837483709?s=46&t=CW4pL-mMpTqsJXCdjW0Z6Q

    Who is Holly Valance?
    She had a bit part in Liam Neeson's "Taken".
    Did she play a nice white girl kidnapped by swarthy types of various descriptions? That film read like an extended Leon post.
  • isamisam Posts: 41,118
    DougSeal said:

    isam said:

    Sir Keir comes second in all but one of the ‘Who would be better?’ questions in this YouGov…

    https://x.com/mattchorley/status/1754764182258360558?s=46&t=CW4pL-mMpTqsJXCdjW0Z6Q

    Funny you should highlight Starmer coming second instead of Sunak coming third. Weird. One might think you were not an SKS Fan (TM).
    Dear Lord
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 57,129
    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    rcs1000 said:

    This is the first comment from an Apple Vision Pro

    Ask me anything

    I vowed to not get one, is it worth it?
    If you wear it in combination with Dyson headphones, you can look like this:

    https://twitter.com/HumansNoContext/status/1754243633925042450
    Has anyone here got the Dyson or Apple headphones? I refuse to believe they could possibly be worth double the price of my $450 Bose NC700s.
    I wasn’t aware that Dyson made them until seeing that tweet. Presumably they have a vacuum function to clean your ear canal.
    If I’m paying $900 for them, they’d better be good at sucking something.
    They are a rare commercial dud from Dyson.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,258
    I mean, how dark is it in there? That is presumably the ‘living room’. More like the ‘dying in darkness room’. The window is about the size of a fucking Christmas card


  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 28,412
    edited February 6
    Liz Truss's speech was the best she's given - none of the awkward pauses we've come to expect. She seems to have been working on her presentation a lot.

    https://www.youtube.com/live/whHTrykY5X8?si=nqIvU2FDCiFxG6xD
  • HarperHarper Posts: 197
    kinabalu said:

    If I (for a change) look for reasons why Donald Trump will win rather than lose, one which comes to mind is the ratio of in-person to postal votes. Isn't it accepted that in 2020 he was disadvantaged by the relative weight of postal voting due to Covid? In which case doesn't it follow that if this is not so prevalent this time he will probably benefit?

    A lot will come down to events over the next nine months. These could break either way of course.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,631
    Scott_xP said:

    @hzeffman
    EXCL: The govt is preparing to offer dentists cash incentives to take on NHS patients and send teams to schools to treat children's teeth, it has emerged

    Ministers will unveil the dental recovery plan tomorrow but details were inadvertently sent to MPs of all parties today

    I found out the other day that the English have on average more teeth than Americans.

    https://dentistry.co.uk/2016/01/06/english-have-better-teeth-than-americans/

    Of course that was before Brexit...

    The NHS dental contract is such a mess that it barely pays for the cost of materials. It badly needed sorting for decades.
  • HarperHarper Posts: 197
    boulay said:

    isam said:

    An unexpected endorsement…

    'Everyone starts as a leftie and then wakes up and realises all the ideas are crap'

    Australian model and actress, Holly Valance, was at the launch of Liz Truss' new conservative movement 'PopCon'.



    https://x.com/gbnews/status/1754919130837483709?s=46&t=CW4pL-mMpTqsJXCdjW0Z6Q

    Who is Holly Valance?
    She is the inventor of the bed linen people used to decorate the lower half of beds. Married to Nick Candy, the inventor of sweets.
    She was the super fit Flick on Neighbours
  • Liz Truss's speech was the best she's given - none of the awkward pauses we've come to expect. She seems to have been working on her presentation a lot.

    That. Is. A. Disgrace.
  • DougSealDougSeal Posts: 12,541
    isam said:

    DougSeal said:

    isam said:

    Sir Keir comes second in all but one of the ‘Who would be better?’ questions in this YouGov…

    https://x.com/mattchorley/status/1754764182258360558?s=46&t=CW4pL-mMpTqsJXCdjW0Z6Q

    Funny you should highlight Starmer coming second instead of Sunak coming third. Weird. One might think you were not an SKS Fan (TM).
    Dear Lord
    Not yet I’m not
  • TimSTimS Posts: 12,984
    boulay said:

    isam said:

    An unexpected endorsement…

    'Everyone starts as a leftie and then wakes up and realises all the ideas are crap'

    Australian model and actress, Holly Valance, was at the launch of Liz Truss' new conservative movement 'PopCon'.



    https://x.com/gbnews/status/1754919130837483709?s=46&t=CW4pL-mMpTqsJXCdjW0Z6Q

    Who is Holly Valance?
    She is the inventor of the bed linen people used to decorate the lower half of beds. Married to Nick Candy, the inventor of sweets.
    Oh, not married to Sir Patrick then?
  • stodgestodge Posts: 13,871
    Evening all :)

    A sad day....

    "I ain't as good as I once was
    That's just the cold hard truth
    I still throw a few back, talk a little smack
    When I'm feelin' bullet proof"


    RIP Toby.
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 51,815
    edited February 6

    isam said:

    An unexpected endorsement…

    'Everyone starts as a leftie and then wakes up and realises all the ideas are crap'

    Australian model and actress, Holly Valance, was at the launch of Liz Truss' new conservative movement 'PopCon'.



    https://x.com/gbnews/status/1754919130837483709?s=46&t=CW4pL-mMpTqsJXCdjW0Z6Q

    Who is Holly Valance?
    She had a bit part in Liam Neeson's "Taken".
    Did she play a nice white girl kidnapped by swarthy types of various descriptions? That film read like an extended Leon post.
    Nah, it was implied at the end of the movie she would give singing lessons to the girl who actually was kidnapped. Even though the latter was following U2 on tour in Europe, and not Holly Valance!
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 28,412

    Liz Truss's speech was the best she's given - none of the awkward pauses we've come to expect. She seems to have been working on her presentation a lot.

    That. Is. A. Disgrace.
    I know, it's almost a pity.
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 28,368

    tlg86 said:
    They can get fucked, we're not America.
    Sir Jim could put one of his 4x4 factories on the Bobby Charlton stand and Rishi would throw buckets of cash at him.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,582
    rcs1000 said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    rcs1000 said:

    This is the first comment from an Apple Vision Pro

    Ask me anything

    I vowed to not get one, is it worth it?
    If you wear it in combination with Dyson headphones, you can look like this:

    https://twitter.com/HumansNoContext/status/1754243633925042450
    Has anyone here got the Dyson or Apple headphones? I refuse to believe they could possibly be worth double the price of my $450 Bose NC700s.
    I wasn’t aware that Dyson made them until seeing that tweet. Presumably they have a vacuum function to clean your ear canal.
    If I’m paying $900 for them, they’d better be good at sucking something.
    They are a rare commercial dud from Dyson.
    If you’re going up against Bose, Sony, and Apple, not to mention the off-brand noice-cancellers which are getting a lot better, you sure as hell want to make sure you have clearly the best product if you’re looking for such a massive premium. What were they thinking?
  • tlg86tlg86 Posts: 26,174

    isam said:

    An unexpected endorsement…

    'Everyone starts as a leftie and then wakes up and realises all the ideas are crap'

    Australian model and actress, Holly Valance, was at the launch of Liz Truss' new conservative movement 'PopCon'.



    https://x.com/gbnews/status/1754919130837483709?s=46&t=CW4pL-mMpTqsJXCdjW0Z6Q

    Who is Holly Valance?
    R*E*V*E*R*S*E

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CKR-JgL338
  • Leon said:

    I mean, how dark is it in there? That is presumably the ‘living room’. More like the ‘dying in darkness room’. The window is about the size of a fucking Christmas card


    Why do you presume that's a living room? I mean it could be, but it could also be the downstairs bog. It's road side of the house, so it wouldn't be a surprise to me if the living room was garden side.

    Not saying it's great architecture - it isn't. Just querying the presumption about what the room is.
  • ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    Nigelb said:

    Trump unanimously loses his appeal on presidential immunity in DC.

    Next stop the Supreme Court. Hard to see any different outcome there.

    Reading the opinion, it's a pretty comprehensive demolition of Trump's case.
    Trump has until Monday to seek review by the SC, but it's quite possible they turn him down. There is (IMO) almost no prospect of the court reversing the opinion, and for them to delay things by another three or four months by rehearing futile arguments, would further damage their credibility.
    The importance of their decision cannot be overstated.

    I have bets with both Ydoethur and SeanF.
    Not on that one, you haven't. Our bet is on the 14th Amendment.
    Have you got a link to the post? I forgot to note it down.
    https://vf.politicalbetting.com/discussion/comment/4642574#Comment_4642574
    Thanks Doc. I'm usually meticulous about these things but forgot this time and I don't know how to look up that kind of thing. Must ask someone to teach me.
  • stodgestodge Posts: 13,871
    I have to say the "Popular Conservatism" event looks and sounds a bit like a meeting of Jacobites in Paris in the 1770s.

    Thinking they are important, thinking they still have something to say in which people will be interested and about as important to British politics as a Liberal Democrat Conference.

    Time for them to all shuffle quietly into the night or right if you prefer.
  • Harper said:

    boulay said:

    isam said:

    An unexpected endorsement…

    'Everyone starts as a leftie and then wakes up and realises all the ideas are crap'

    Australian model and actress, Holly Valance, was at the launch of Liz Truss' new conservative movement 'PopCon'.



    https://x.com/gbnews/status/1754919130837483709?s=46&t=CW4pL-mMpTqsJXCdjW0Z6Q

    Who is Holly Valance?
    She is the inventor of the bed linen people used to decorate the lower half of beds. Married to Nick Candy, the inventor of sweets.
    She was the super fit Flick on Neighbours
    Apparently, she was called that because she was somewhere to the right of Herr Flick on Allo Allo.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 23,132

    Nigelb said:

    Trump unanimously loses his appeal on presidential immunity in DC.

    Next stop the Supreme Court. Hard to see any different outcome there.

    Reading the opinion, it's a pretty comprehensive demolition of Trump's case.
    Trump has until Monday to seek review by the SC, but it's quite possible they turn him down. There is (IMO) almost no prospect of the court reversing the opinion, and for them to delay things by another three or four months by rehearing futile arguments, would further damage their credibility.
    I don't see how the SC can run away from ruling on this matter. It is so fundamental to the role of the President under the Constitution that they HAVE to say the President is not a Monarch. They HAVE to say that the President cannot use Seal Team 6 to take out opponents. This is not about Trump; it is about the rule of law.
    They could actually run away from ruling on this one, couldn't they? They have absolute discretion not to hear cases without any explanation, in which case the appealed ruling stands.

    On the Colorado one, they couldn't really dodge it as Colorado were saying Trump was not constiutionally eligible to be President, but other states were saying he was. That has to be resolved in practical terms because Trump simply can't be eligible to be President in some states but not in others if the United States is to remain united.

    In this case, though, there's no conflict that really needs resolving. It's not the case that Trump is immune from criminal prosecution on federal charges in some parts of the US but not in others - maybe if there was a prosecution in Idaho, they'd rule immunity applied, but there isn't so that's pure conjecture.

    I think the Supreme Court will probably rule on this just on the importance of it, and because the justices are predominantly conservative and it buys Trump time (although they won't find for him as it is baseless). But I certainly don't rule out that they'd simply decline to take the case.
    How many days is it before silence is taken to imply that they decline?

    Or do they have to specifically say no?
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,258

    Leon said:

    I mean, how dark is it in there? That is presumably the ‘living room’. More like the ‘dying in darkness room’. The window is about the size of a fucking Christmas card


    Why do you presume that's a living room? I mean it could be, but it could also be the downstairs bog. It's road side of the house, so it wouldn't be a surprise to me if the living room was garden side.

    Not saying it's great architecture - it isn't. Just querying the presumption about what the room is.
    It’s clearly a significant ground floor room, and it’s got a disgusting little window designed for a second loo

    Look at the wall of the house on the left. You see this desolate shit everywhere in the UK




  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 57,129
    Leon said:

    I mean, how dark is it in there? That is presumably the ‘living room’. More like the ‘dying in darkness room’. The window is about the size of a fucking Christmas card


    If you've got your Apple Vision Pro's on, you don't even notice if the room even has windows.
  • HarperHarper Posts: 197
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    I mean, how dark is it in there? That is presumably the ‘living room’. More like the ‘dying in darkness room’. The window is about the size of a fucking Christmas card


    Why do you presume that's a living room? I mean it could be, but it could also be the downstairs bog. It's road side of the house, so it wouldn't be a surprise to me if the living room was garden side.

    Not saying it's great architecture - it isn't. Just querying the presumption about what the room is.
    It’s clearly a significant ground floor room, and it’s got a disgusting little window designed for a second loo

    Look at the wall of the house on the left. You see this desolate shit everywhere in the UK




    Absolutely. Depressing and demoralising. Give me georgian architecture any day.
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 57,129
    edited February 6
    Sandpit said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    rcs1000 said:

    This is the first comment from an Apple Vision Pro

    Ask me anything

    I vowed to not get one, is it worth it?
    If you wear it in combination with Dyson headphones, you can look like this:

    https://twitter.com/HumansNoContext/status/1754243633925042450
    Has anyone here got the Dyson or Apple headphones? I refuse to believe they could possibly be worth double the price of my $450 Bose NC700s.
    I wasn’t aware that Dyson made them until seeing that tweet. Presumably they have a vacuum function to clean your ear canal.
    If I’m paying $900 for them, they’d better be good at sucking something.
    They are a rare commercial dud from Dyson.
    If you’re going up against Bose, Sony, and Apple, not to mention the off-brand noice-cancellers which are getting a lot better, you sure as hell want to make sure you have clearly the best product if you’re looking for such a massive premium. What were they thinking?
    I really don't know.

    It seems like they thought "well, we're all going to be wearing masks for ever due to Covid, so let's be the first to integrate one into a pair of headphones."

    Also, they forgot that there's a reason why Sony and Bose make their headphones as light as possible: it's because it's uncomfortable wandering around wearing headphones that weight the best part of a kilo.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 23,132
    edited February 6

    Awks.




    Work is under way on a warehouse “monstrosity” at least 40ft high after a blundering Tory council consulted homeowners on the wrong street.

    Residents in Corby, Northamptonshire, awoke to find the large metal frame of the industrial units being erected just yards from their back doors.

    Many were blindsided and when they asked officials what had happened, it emerged that the council had got the road mixed up with another half a mile away.

    North Northamptonshire council’s building planning officers had mistakenly consulted people living on Hubble Road instead of Hooke Close to ask their opinions about the 160,800 sq ft development.

    The plans for the Earlstree 160 project, on the site of a former Weetabix factory, were approved by the council in November with construction works expected to be completed towards the end of this year.

    The height of the industrial unit will be a minimum 40ft when built, with a pitched roof which extends higher, which will be more than double the height of many two-storey surrounding houses.


    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/06/40ft-warehouse-monstrosity-council-consult-wrong-street/

    That could be stopped, as without proper consultation it is unlikely to be a lawful Planning Permission.

    It would require an injunction or a stop notice.

    The Council are going to end up paying substantial compensation to one side or the other. At least they can put a 75ft Leylandii hedge round it.

    It's already a little bit surrounded.

  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 51,605
    rcs1000 said:

    Sandpit said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    rcs1000 said:

    This is the first comment from an Apple Vision Pro

    Ask me anything

    I vowed to not get one, is it worth it?
    If you wear it in combination with Dyson headphones, you can look like this:

    https://twitter.com/HumansNoContext/status/1754243633925042450
    Has anyone here got the Dyson or Apple headphones? I refuse to believe they could possibly be worth double the price of my $450 Bose NC700s.
    I wasn’t aware that Dyson made them until seeing that tweet. Presumably they have a vacuum function to clean your ear canal.
    If I’m paying $900 for them, they’d better be good at sucking something.
    They are a rare commercial dud from Dyson.
    If you’re going up against Bose, Sony, and Apple, not to mention the off-brand noice-cancellers which are getting a lot better, you sure as hell want to make sure you have clearly the best product if you’re looking for such a massive premium. What were they thinking?
    I really don't know.

    It seems like they thought "well, we're all going to be wearing masks for ever due to Covid, so let's be the first to integrate one into a pair of headphones."

    Also, they forgot that there's a reason why Sony and Bose make their headphones as light as possible: it's because it's uncomfortable wandering around wearing headphones that weight the best part of a kilo.
    It sounds like Apple have also forgotten that lesson based on your comments about their goggles.
  • theProletheProle Posts: 1,206
    Leon said:

    Awks.




    Work is under way on a warehouse “monstrosity” at least 40ft high after a blundering Tory council consulted homeowners on the wrong street.

    Residents in Corby, Northamptonshire, awoke to find the large metal frame of the industrial units being erected just yards from their back doors.

    Many were blindsided and when they asked officials what had happened, it emerged that the council had got the road mixed up with another half a mile away.

    North Northamptonshire council’s building planning officers had mistakenly consulted people living on Hubble Road instead of Hooke Close to ask their opinions about the 160,800 sq ft development.

    The plans for the Earlstree 160 project, on the site of a former Weetabix factory, were approved by the council in November with construction works expected to be completed towards the end of this year.

    The height of the industrial unit will be a minimum 40ft when built, with a pitched roof which extends higher, which will be more than double the height of many two-storey surrounding houses.


    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/06/40ft-warehouse-monstrosity-council-consult-wrong-street/

    The industrial unit can’t be any uglier than those hideous little rabbit hutch new-builds next door. Look at them. I think I can see @BartholomewRoberts in the bathroom of the house on the left

    When did we decide as a nation that we want to feel trapped in tiny rooms with no windows? Windows are good. Britain is a shit-hole and we’ve done it to ourselves
    Tiny windows is another bonus from the bonkers energy efficiency regs for new builds. Going for tiny windows is almost certainly one of the easier ways to get the thermal loss values down to the required threshold.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,258
    Harper said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    I mean, how dark is it in there? That is presumably the ‘living room’. More like the ‘dying in darkness room’. The window is about the size of a fucking Christmas card


    Why do you presume that's a living room? I mean it could be, but it could also be the downstairs bog. It's road side of the house, so it wouldn't be a surprise to me if the living room was garden side.

    Not saying it's great architecture - it isn't. Just querying the presumption about what the room is.
    It’s clearly a significant ground floor room, and it’s got a disgusting little window designed for a second loo

    Look at the wall of the house on the left. You see this desolate shit everywhere in the UK




    Absolutely. Depressing and demoralising. Give me georgian architecture any day.
    Everything in Britain is shit. An entire country has been enshittified, and modern British housing is right at the cutting edge of that. We say to young people, ‘housing is so expensive you will have to wait two decades as an adult before you can buy, and even when you do manage to buy your windows will be smaller than a shrew’s arsehole so you will live in permanent darkness hahahaha’
  • Leon said:

    I mean, how dark is it in there? That is presumably the ‘living room’. More like the ‘dying in darkness room’. The window is about the size of a fucking Christmas card


    Why do you presume that's a living room? I mean it could be, but it could also be the downstairs bog. It's road side of the house, so it wouldn't be a surprise to me if the living room was garden side.

    Not saying it's great architecture - it isn't. Just querying the presumption about what the room is.
    Quite. It may be the interrogation chamber.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,071
    Leon said:

    Harper said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    I mean, how dark is it in there? That is presumably the ‘living room’. More like the ‘dying in darkness room’. The window is about the size of a fucking Christmas card


    Why do you presume that's a living room? I mean it could be, but it could also be the downstairs bog. It's road side of the house, so it wouldn't be a surprise to me if the living room was garden side.

    Not saying it's great architecture - it isn't. Just querying the presumption about what the room is.
    It’s clearly a significant ground floor room, and it’s got a disgusting little window designed for a second loo

    Look at the wall of the house on the left. You see this desolate shit everywhere in the UK




    Absolutely. Depressing and demoralising. Give me georgian architecture any day.
    Everything in Britain is shit. An entire country has been enshittified, and modern British housing is right at the cutting edge of that. We say to young people, ‘housing is so expensive you will have to wait two decades as an adult before you can buy, and even when you do manage to buy your windows will be smaller than a shrew’s arsehole so you will live in permanent darkness hahahaha’
    We are some way off from reversing that as well. It feels like it is only in the last year that voices have really broken through challenging the power of the Nimby vote, even if complaints about design or scale have been raised before (but often by the same people who don't want anything to be built anyway).
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,258
    theProle said:

    Leon said:

    Awks.




    Work is under way on a warehouse “monstrosity” at least 40ft high after a blundering Tory council consulted homeowners on the wrong street.

    Residents in Corby, Northamptonshire, awoke to find the large metal frame of the industrial units being erected just yards from their back doors.

    Many were blindsided and when they asked officials what had happened, it emerged that the council had got the road mixed up with another half a mile away.

    North Northamptonshire council’s building planning officers had mistakenly consulted people living on Hubble Road instead of Hooke Close to ask their opinions about the 160,800 sq ft development.

    The plans for the Earlstree 160 project, on the site of a former Weetabix factory, were approved by the council in November with construction works expected to be completed towards the end of this year.

    The height of the industrial unit will be a minimum 40ft when built, with a pitched roof which extends higher, which will be more than double the height of many two-storey surrounding houses.


    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/06/40ft-warehouse-monstrosity-council-consult-wrong-street/

    The industrial unit can’t be any uglier than those hideous little rabbit hutch new-builds next door. Look at them. I think I can see @BartholomewRoberts in the bathroom of the house on the left

    When did we decide as a nation that we want to feel trapped in tiny rooms with no windows? Windows are good. Britain is a shit-hole and we’ve done it to ourselves
    Tiny windows is another bonus from the bonkers energy efficiency regs for new builds. Going for tiny windows is almost certainly one of the easier ways to get the thermal loss values down to the required threshold.
    But I don’t see new builds in other countries which are as hideous, cramped and windowless as in Britain. Even the worst American new housing - which can be really really bad - understands that humans like and require natural light

    Why is it always just us? Why are we like this?
  • HarperHarper Posts: 197
    Leon said:

    Harper said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    I mean, how dark is it in there? That is presumably the ‘living room’. More like the ‘dying in darkness room’. The window is about the size of a fucking Christmas card


    Why do you presume that's a living room? I mean it could be, but it could also be the downstairs bog. It's road side of the house, so it wouldn't be a surprise to me if the living room was garden side.

    Not saying it's great architecture - it isn't. Just querying the presumption about what the room is.
    It’s clearly a significant ground floor room, and it’s got a disgusting little window designed for a second loo

    Look at the wall of the house on the left. You see this desolate shit everywhere in the UK




    Absolutely. Depressing and demoralising. Give me georgian architecture any day.
    Everything in Britain is shit. An entire country has been enshittified, and modern British housing is right at the cutting edge of that. We say to young people, ‘housing is so expensive you will have to wait two decades as an adult before you can buy, and even when you do manage to buy your windows will be smaller than a shrew’s arsehole so you will live in permanent darkness hahahaha’
    Correct. I often think britain needs a spiritual revolution. People want to be uplifted not demoralised.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,071
    theProle said:

    Leon said:

    Awks.




    Work is under way on a warehouse “monstrosity” at least 40ft high after a blundering Tory council consulted homeowners on the wrong street.

    Residents in Corby, Northamptonshire, awoke to find the large metal frame of the industrial units being erected just yards from their back doors.

    Many were blindsided and when they asked officials what had happened, it emerged that the council had got the road mixed up with another half a mile away.

    North Northamptonshire council’s building planning officers had mistakenly consulted people living on Hubble Road instead of Hooke Close to ask their opinions about the 160,800 sq ft development.

    The plans for the Earlstree 160 project, on the site of a former Weetabix factory, were approved by the council in November with construction works expected to be completed towards the end of this year.

    The height of the industrial unit will be a minimum 40ft when built, with a pitched roof which extends higher, which will be more than double the height of many two-storey surrounding houses.


    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/06/40ft-warehouse-monstrosity-council-consult-wrong-street/

    The industrial unit can’t be any uglier than those hideous little rabbit hutch new-builds next door. Look at them. I think I can see @BartholomewRoberts in the bathroom of the house on the left

    When did we decide as a nation that we want to feel trapped in tiny rooms with no windows? Windows are good. Britain is a shit-hole and we’ve done it to ourselves
    Tiny windows is another bonus from the bonkers energy efficiency regs for new builds. Going for tiny windows is almost certainly one of the easier ways to get the thermal loss values down to the required threshold.
    I'm generally not one of those 'deregulate everything and things will be awesome!' people, but I can see the appeal when I see the thousands of pages submitted to build a sizable chicken coop or whatever.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 23,132

    Foxy said:

    All this bigging up of The Truss is just ridiculous.

    I was invited to today's Popular Conservatism event.

    They really must have been scraping the barrel to get attendees.
    Should have gone with your box of popcorn!
    I am trying to keep my blood sugar level down.
    Recommend salty popcorn - quite low in carbs.

    Especially the self-popping kind.
  • SirNorfolkPassmoreSirNorfolkPassmore Posts: 7,149
    edited February 6
    MattW said:

    Nigelb said:

    Trump unanimously loses his appeal on presidential immunity in DC.

    Next stop the Supreme Court. Hard to see any different outcome there.

    Reading the opinion, it's a pretty comprehensive demolition of Trump's case.
    Trump has until Monday to seek review by the SC, but it's quite possible they turn him down. There is (IMO) almost no prospect of the court reversing the opinion, and for them to delay things by another three or four months by rehearing futile arguments, would further damage their credibility.
    I don't see how the SC can run away from ruling on this matter. It is so fundamental to the role of the President under the Constitution that they HAVE to say the President is not a Monarch. They HAVE to say that the President cannot use Seal Team 6 to take out opponents. This is not about Trump; it is about the rule of law.
    They could actually run away from ruling on this one, couldn't they? They have absolute discretion not to hear cases without any explanation, in which case the appealed ruling stands.

    On the Colorado one, they couldn't really dodge it as Colorado were saying Trump was not constiutionally eligible to be President, but other states were saying he was. That has to be resolved in practical terms because Trump simply can't be eligible to be President in some states but not in others if the United States is to remain united.

    In this case, though, there's no conflict that really needs resolving. It's not the case that Trump is immune from criminal prosecution on federal charges in some parts of the US but not in others - maybe if there was a prosecution in Idaho, they'd rule immunity applied, but there isn't so that's pure conjecture.

    I think the Supreme Court will probably rule on this just on the importance of it, and because the justices are predominantly conservative and it buys Trump time (although they won't find for him as it is baseless). But I certainly don't rule out that they'd simply decline to take the case.
    How many days is it before silence is taken to imply that they decline?

    Or do they have to specifically say no?
    I don't think there is a formal deadline, but declining to take a case is an active decision in the sense that they'd simply publish a denial of the writ of certiorari.

    So what happens is the lower court has given the loser (Trump) has six days to file submit a petition for certiorari to the Supreme Court. The respondent (the prosecutor) has a month to respond but would be much quicker as this is basically just re-filing arguments already made. The Supreme Court meets regularly when it's in session to decide which cases to hear and which not to bother with (this would be entirely behind closed doors - it's purely administrative as they don't have to take any cases and indeed don't with 95%+ of them). The convention - and Roberts as Chief Justice isn't going to change it now - is that if four or more justices want to hear it, it's heard. Otherwise, they'd simply announce a denial with no reasoning.

    Normally, it takes the Supreme Court up to a month to go through that process. But they'll probably do it sooner - they won't want to be in a "will they, won't they" game.
  • MoonRabbitMoonRabbit Posts: 13,494
    edited February 6

    Harper said:

    boulay said:

    isam said:

    An unexpected endorsement…

    'Everyone starts as a leftie and then wakes up and realises all the ideas are crap'

    Australian model and actress, Holly Valance, was at the launch of Liz Truss' new conservative movement 'PopCon'.



    https://x.com/gbnews/status/1754919130837483709?s=46&t=CW4pL-mMpTqsJXCdjW0Z6Q

    Who is Holly Valance?
    She is the inventor of the bed linen people used to decorate the lower half of beds. Married to Nick Candy, the inventor of sweets.
    She was the super fit Flick on Neighbours
    Apparently, she was called that because she was somewhere to the right of Herr Flick on Allo Allo.
    Short for Felicity. Though I don’t know who she is.

    Edit. Quick google, and now I understand the PB interest… she was bare as a jay bird in a pop video except for strategically placed spot lights. Married rich rightwing US business man.
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 51,815
    Leon said:

    Harper said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    I mean, how dark is it in there? That is presumably the ‘living room’. More like the ‘dying in darkness room’. The window is about the size of a fucking Christmas card


    Why do you presume that's a living room? I mean it could be, but it could also be the downstairs bog. It's road side of the house, so it wouldn't be a surprise to me if the living room was garden side.

    Not saying it's great architecture - it isn't. Just querying the presumption about what the room is.
    It’s clearly a significant ground floor room, and it’s got a disgusting little window designed for a second loo

    Look at the wall of the house on the left. You see this desolate shit everywhere in the UK




    Absolutely. Depressing and demoralising. Give me georgian architecture any day.
    Everything in Britain is shit. An entire country has been enshittified, and modern British housing is right at the cutting edge of that. We say to young people, ‘housing is so expensive you will have to wait two decades as an adult before you can buy, and even when you do manage to buy your windows will be smaller than a shrew’s arsehole so you will live in permanent darkness hahahaha’
    14 years of Tory mis-rule!
  • FlatlanderFlatlander Posts: 4,664
    edited February 6
    rcs1000 said:

    RobD said:

    Lee Anderson MP, former Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party: "I'm pretty sure that coal 100 million years ago was trees and plants.. it was, well I would argue that's sustainable."

    https://twitter.com/ShehabKhan/status/1754896431461052886

    Coal was formed because there was nothing to digest the remnants of dead trees. They just accumulated in massive piles which eventually became coal. That wouldn't happen again as we now have wood-eating bacteria etc.
    Isn't that slightly arguable in that peat is still being formed, very slowly, in boggy areas? I mean, Anderson is clearly completely wrong to call that "sustainable" just in the sense that the rate of renewal is massively less than the rate of consumption.
    The rate of coal "production" is going to be much lower due to bacteria and funghi having evolved that "eat" dead trees. However, there will still be some, because most of those microorganisms need oxygen.
    The other problem is that we've been digging up a lot of the recent (post ice age) peat to put in grow bags and plant pots.

    Mostly this happens in Estonia & Ireland now rather than the UK as the damage has already been done here.

    Restoring peat bogs is difficult (but some of us are trying).
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,071

    MattW said:

    Nigelb said:

    Trump unanimously loses his appeal on presidential immunity in DC.

    Next stop the Supreme Court. Hard to see any different outcome there.

    Reading the opinion, it's a pretty comprehensive demolition of Trump's case.
    Trump has until Monday to seek review by the SC, but it's quite possible they turn him down. There is (IMO) almost no prospect of the court reversing the opinion, and for them to delay things by another three or four months by rehearing futile arguments, would further damage their credibility.
    I don't see how the SC can run away from ruling on this matter. It is so fundamental to the role of the President under the Constitution that they HAVE to say the President is not a Monarch. They HAVE to say that the President cannot use Seal Team 6 to take out opponents. This is not about Trump; it is about the rule of law.
    They could actually run away from ruling on this one, couldn't they? They have absolute discretion not to hear cases without any explanation, in which case the appealed ruling stands.

    On the Colorado one, they couldn't really dodge it as Colorado were saying Trump was not constiutionally eligible to be President, but other states were saying he was. That has to be resolved in practical terms because Trump simply can't be eligible to be President in some states but not in others if the United States is to remain united.

    In this case, though, there's no conflict that really needs resolving. It's not the case that Trump is immune from criminal prosecution on federal charges in some parts of the US but not in others - maybe if there was a prosecution in Idaho, they'd rule immunity applied, but there isn't so that's pure conjecture.

    I think the Supreme Court will probably rule on this just on the importance of it, and because the justices are predominantly conservative and it buys Trump time (although they won't find for him as it is baseless). But I certainly don't rule out that they'd simply decline to take the case.
    How many days is it before silence is taken to imply that they decline?

    Or do they have to specifically say no?
    I don't think there is a formal deadline, but declining to take a case is an active decision in the sense that they'd simply publish a denial of the writ of certiorari.

    So what happens is the lower court has given the loser (Trump) has six days to file submit a petition for certiorari to the Supreme Court. The respondent (the prosecutor) has a month to respond but would be much quicker as this is basically just re-filing arguments already made. The Supreme Court meets regularly when it's in session to decide which cases to hear and which not to bother with (this would be entirely behind closed doors - it's purely administrative as they don't have to take any cases and indeed don't with 95%+ of them). The convention - and Roberts as Chief Justice isn't going to change it now - is that if four or more justices want to hear it, it's heard. Otherwise, they'd simply announce a denial with no reasoning.

    Normally, it takes the Supreme Court up to a month to go through that process. But they'll probably do it sooner - they won't want to be in a "will they, won't they" game.
    Don't they? I can think quite a few of them would be much happier to drag things out as much as possible, but if convention is if four want to hear it it goes then that does sound like it should be enough to overcome the draggers.
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 42,566

    rcs1000 said:

    RobD said:

    Lee Anderson MP, former Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party: "I'm pretty sure that coal 100 million years ago was trees and plants.. it was, well I would argue that's sustainable."

    https://twitter.com/ShehabKhan/status/1754896431461052886

    Coal was formed because there was nothing to digest the remnants of dead trees. They just accumulated in massive piles which eventually became coal. That wouldn't happen again as we now have wood-eating bacteria etc.
    Isn't that slightly arguable in that peat is still being formed, very slowly, in boggy areas? I mean, Anderson is clearly completely wrong to call that "sustainable" just in the sense that the rate of renewal is massively less than the rate of consumption.
    The rate of coal "production" is going to be much lower due to bacteria and funghi having evolved that "eat" dead trees. However, there will still be some, because most of those microorganisms need oxygen.
    The other problem is that we've been digging up a lot of the recent (post ice age) peat to put in grow bags and plant pots.

    Mostly this happens in Estonia & Ireland now rather than the UK as the damage has been done here.

    Restoring peat bogs is difficult (but some of us are trying).
    It's quite amazing to be up on the Peak District's tops and see helicopters with large bags slug underneath them, carrying materials to try to revegetate the eroded peat.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,071

    Leon said:

    Harper said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    I mean, how dark is it in there? That is presumably the ‘living room’. More like the ‘dying in darkness room’. The window is about the size of a fucking Christmas card


    Why do you presume that's a living room? I mean it could be, but it could also be the downstairs bog. It's road side of the house, so it wouldn't be a surprise to me if the living room was garden side.

    Not saying it's great architecture - it isn't. Just querying the presumption about what the room is.
    It’s clearly a significant ground floor room, and it’s got a disgusting little window designed for a second loo

    Look at the wall of the house on the left. You see this desolate shit everywhere in the UK




    Absolutely. Depressing and demoralising. Give me georgian architecture any day.
    Everything in Britain is shit. An entire country has been enshittified, and modern British housing is right at the cutting edge of that. We say to young people, ‘housing is so expensive you will have to wait two decades as an adult before you can buy, and even when you do manage to buy your windows will be smaller than a shrew’s arsehole so you will live in permanent darkness hahahaha’
    14 years of Tory mis-rule!
    Now be fair, there's probably only about 8-12 years of misrule total in that period of 14 years, depending on personal opinion.
  • bondegezoubondegezou Posts: 11,047

    Nigelb said:

    Trump unanimously loses his appeal on presidential immunity in DC.

    Next stop the Supreme Court. Hard to see any different outcome there.

    Reading the opinion, it's a pretty comprehensive demolition of Trump's case.
    Trump has until Monday to seek review by the SC, but it's quite possible they turn him down. There is (IMO) almost no prospect of the court reversing the opinion, and for them to delay things by another three or four months by rehearing futile arguments, would further damage their credibility.
    I don't see how the SC can run away from ruling on this matter. It is so fundamental to the role of the President under the Constitution that they HAVE to say the President is not a Monarch. They HAVE to say that the President cannot use Seal Team 6 to take out opponents. This is not about Trump; it is about the rule of law.
    But it’s not just about the actual answer to the legal point. It’s also about delaying the court case until after the election. It’s about sowing doubt. Any argument that does that works for Trump.
  • pm215pm215 Posts: 1,129
    theProle said:

    Leon said:

    Awks.




    Work is under way on a warehouse “monstrosity” at least 40ft high after a blundering Tory council consulted homeowners on the wrong street.

    Residents in Corby, Northamptonshire, awoke to find the large metal frame of the industrial units being erected just yards from their back doors.

    Many were blindsided and when they asked officials what had happened, it emerged that the council had got the road mixed up with another half a mile away.

    North Northamptonshire council’s building planning officers had mistakenly consulted people living on Hubble Road instead of Hooke Close to ask their opinions about the 160,800 sq ft development.

    The plans for the Earlstree 160 project, on the site of a former Weetabix factory, were approved by the council in November with construction works expected to be completed towards the end of this year.

    The height of the industrial unit will be a minimum 40ft when built, with a pitched roof which extends higher, which will be more than double the height of many two-storey surrounding houses.


    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/06/40ft-warehouse-monstrosity-council-consult-wrong-street/

    The industrial unit can’t be any uglier than those hideous little rabbit hutch new-builds next door. Look at them. I think I can see @BartholomewRoberts in the bathroom of the house on the left

    When did we decide as a nation that we want to feel trapped in tiny rooms with no windows? Windows are good. Britain is a shit-hole and we’ve done it to ourselves
    Tiny windows is another bonus from the bonkers energy efficiency regs for new builds. Going for tiny windows is almost certainly one of the easier ways to get the thermal loss values down to the required threshold.
    The problem is not "houses should be energy efficient", though -- the problem is we let builders get away with satisfying the regs with the absolute cheapest and nastiest possible design. You could have bigger windows which met the regs, but they'd cost the builders more. And people will bid the terrible housing up to "as much as we can afford a mortgage for" because we aren't building enough.
  • FlatlanderFlatlander Posts: 4,664
    edited February 6

    rcs1000 said:

    RobD said:

    Lee Anderson MP, former Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party: "I'm pretty sure that coal 100 million years ago was trees and plants.. it was, well I would argue that's sustainable."

    https://twitter.com/ShehabKhan/status/1754896431461052886

    Coal was formed because there was nothing to digest the remnants of dead trees. They just accumulated in massive piles which eventually became coal. That wouldn't happen again as we now have wood-eating bacteria etc.
    Isn't that slightly arguable in that peat is still being formed, very slowly, in boggy areas? I mean, Anderson is clearly completely wrong to call that "sustainable" just in the sense that the rate of renewal is massively less than the rate of consumption.
    The rate of coal "production" is going to be much lower due to bacteria and funghi having evolved that "eat" dead trees. However, there will still be some, because most of those microorganisms need oxygen.
    The other problem is that we've been digging up a lot of the recent (post ice age) peat to put in grow bags and plant pots.

    Mostly this happens in Estonia & Ireland now rather than the UK as the damage has been done here.

    Restoring peat bogs is difficult (but some of us are trying).
    It's quite amazing to be up on the Peak District's tops and see helicopters with large bags slug underneath them, carrying materials to try to revegetate the eroded peat.
    Ah, yes, Moors for the Future are doing a good job. Partially funded by the water companies who don't want their reservoirs filled with brown sludge.

    These are blanket bogs though, the ones that have been dug up are mostly raised mires (lowland bogs) like our local ones in the Flatlands.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorne_and_Hatfield_Moors

    [A bit disappointed that most of the article seems to be about the engines used to get the peat off rather than the conservation. These 'enthusiasts' get everywhere...]
  • bondegezoubondegezou Posts: 11,047
    edited February 6

    isam said:

    An unexpected endorsement…

    'Everyone starts as a leftie and then wakes up and realises all the ideas are crap'

    Australian model and actress, Holly Valance, was at the launch of Liz Truss' new conservative movement 'PopCon'.



    https://x.com/gbnews/status/1754919130837483709?s=46&t=CW4pL-mMpTqsJXCdjW0Z6Q

    Who is Holly Valance?
    This is her best known song, I think: https://youtu.be/o3wS2tdlZtE Top song.

    (It’s a cover of a Turkish song, so won’t go down well with the Brexit crowd.)

    Edit: As someone’s already posted that, here’s “Naughty Girl”, a lesser follow-up, but maybe appealing to Liz Truss: https://youtu.be/hn5o3Vo2pvo
  • BurgessianBurgessian Posts: 2,747

    rcs1000 said:

    RobD said:

    Lee Anderson MP, former Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party: "I'm pretty sure that coal 100 million years ago was trees and plants.. it was, well I would argue that's sustainable."

    https://twitter.com/ShehabKhan/status/1754896431461052886

    Coal was formed because there was nothing to digest the remnants of dead trees. They just accumulated in massive piles which eventually became coal. That wouldn't happen again as we now have wood-eating bacteria etc.
    Isn't that slightly arguable in that peat is still being formed, very slowly, in boggy areas? I mean, Anderson is clearly completely wrong to call that "sustainable" just in the sense that the rate of renewal is massively less than the rate of consumption.
    The rate of coal "production" is going to be much lower due to bacteria and funghi having evolved that "eat" dead trees. However, there will still be some, because most of those microorganisms need oxygen.
    The other problem is that we've been digging up a lot of the recent (post ice age) peat to put in grow bags and plant pots.

    Mostly this happens in Estonia & Ireland now rather than the UK as the damage has been done here.

    Restoring peat bogs is difficult (but some of us are trying).
    It's quite amazing to be up on the Peak District's tops and see helicopters with large bags slug underneath them, carrying materials to try to revegetate the eroded peat.
    Really? Interesting. In other areas, notably Scotland., the more usual technique is damming the dikes, so as to give the sphagnum a chance to regrow in the newly more wet conditions.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,242
    A
    IanB2 said:

    In absolutely fr**cking awesome news, the first passages from a new Herculaneum scroll has been deciphered:

    https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00346-8

    And it's about senses ans pleasure...

    This is a big thing. When Vesuvius erupted in 76AD, a library containing hundreds of scrolls was destroyed, and the scrolls carbonised. Some have been successfully opened, but this is a destructive process that often fails. The new prize uses very precise non-destructive 3D scanning of a scroll, and awards people who can find text in the resultant data.

    Late last year, it was announced that a couple of people had uncovered a few letters in part of the scroll. Using this data, a team has found entire columns of text.

    The next one will be from some Roman twat bemoaning that the empire is going to woke and hence this is the last scroll he will be writing….
    Nah.

    It’s a letter bemoaning that his wife has got into some happy-clappy cult involving a Red Sea pedestrian.

    It’ll be the End of The Roman Empire, I tell you.
  • StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 17,214

    Nigelb said:

    Trump unanimously loses his appeal on presidential immunity in DC.

    Next stop the Supreme Court. Hard to see any different outcome there.

    Reading the opinion, it's a pretty comprehensive demolition of Trump's case.
    Trump has until Monday to seek review by the SC, but it's quite possible they turn him down. There is (IMO) almost no prospect of the court reversing the opinion, and for them to delay things by another three or four months by rehearing futile arguments, would further damage their credibility.
    I don't see how the SC can run away from ruling on this matter. It is so fundamental to the role of the President under the Constitution that they HAVE to say the President is not a Monarch. They HAVE to say that the President cannot use Seal Team 6 to take out opponents. This is not about Trump; it is about the rule of law.
    But it’s not just about the actual answer to the legal point. It’s also about delaying the court case until after the election. It’s about sowing doubt. Any argument that does that works for Trump.
    What works best for the judges, though?

    I'm sure they have a healthy fear of Trump and the Trumpettes.

    But their role is also to fear the verdict of history, which requires a different set of conclusions.

    And doing nothing is an action in itself.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,258
    And here. Same photo

    An entire side of the house with three windows so small even Rishi Sunak couldn’t burgle you

    You’d honestly have trouble getting planning permission for this as a prison, due to deprivation of natural light. It looks like the wall of an abattoir. And we sell this as housing. Shameful. Shameful



  • HarperHarper Posts: 197
    pm215 said:

    theProle said:

    Leon said:

    Awks.




    Work is under way on a warehouse “monstrosity” at least 40ft high after a blundering Tory council consulted homeowners on the wrong street.

    Residents in Corby, Northamptonshire, awoke to find the large metal frame of the industrial units being erected just yards from their back doors.

    Many were blindsided and when they asked officials what had happened, it emerged that the council had got the road mixed up with another half a mile away.

    North Northamptonshire council’s building planning officers had mistakenly consulted people living on Hubble Road instead of Hooke Close to ask their opinions about the 160,800 sq ft development.

    The plans for the Earlstree 160 project, on the site of a former Weetabix factory, were approved by the council in November with construction works expected to be completed towards the end of this year.

    The height of the industrial unit will be a minimum 40ft when built, with a pitched roof which extends higher, which will be more than double the height of many two-storey surrounding houses.


    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/06/40ft-warehouse-monstrosity-council-consult-wrong-street/

    The industrial unit can’t be any uglier than those hideous little rabbit hutch new-builds next door. Look at them. I think I can see @BartholomewRoberts in the bathroom of the house on the left

    When did we decide as a nation that we want to feel trapped in tiny rooms with no windows? Windows are good. Britain is a shit-hole and we’ve done it to ourselves
    Tiny windows is another bonus from the bonkers energy efficiency regs for new builds. Going for tiny windows is almost certainly one of the easier ways to get the thermal loss values down to the required threshold.
    The problem is not "houses should be energy efficient", though -- the problem is we let builders get away with satisfying the regs with the absolute cheapest and nastiest possible design. You could have bigger windows which met the regs, but they'd cost the builders more. And people will bid the terrible housing up to "as much as we can afford a mortgage for" because we aren't building enough.
    Put it this way. In say the south of england for how many months do energy efficient homes really benefit you. At most a couple of months. Is it worth it. Why not build lighter and airier homes.
  • FlatlanderFlatlander Posts: 4,664
    edited February 6

    rcs1000 said:

    RobD said:

    Lee Anderson MP, former Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party: "I'm pretty sure that coal 100 million years ago was trees and plants.. it was, well I would argue that's sustainable."

    https://twitter.com/ShehabKhan/status/1754896431461052886

    Coal was formed because there was nothing to digest the remnants of dead trees. They just accumulated in massive piles which eventually became coal. That wouldn't happen again as we now have wood-eating bacteria etc.
    Isn't that slightly arguable in that peat is still being formed, very slowly, in boggy areas? I mean, Anderson is clearly completely wrong to call that "sustainable" just in the sense that the rate of renewal is massively less than the rate of consumption.
    The rate of coal "production" is going to be much lower due to bacteria and funghi having evolved that "eat" dead trees. However, there will still be some, because most of those microorganisms need oxygen.
    The other problem is that we've been digging up a lot of the recent (post ice age) peat to put in grow bags and plant pots.

    Mostly this happens in Estonia & Ireland now rather than the UK as the damage has been done here.

    Restoring peat bogs is difficult (but some of us are trying).
    It's quite amazing to be up on the Peak District's tops and see helicopters with large bags slug underneath them, carrying materials to try to revegetate the eroded peat.
    Really? Interesting. In other areas, notably Scotland., the more usual technique is damming the dikes, so as to give the sphagnum a chance to regrow in the newly more wet conditions.
    Yes. The surface was completely bare in some places, with no vegetation at all and certainly no sphagnum. The helicopters have been spreading seed and heather brash cut from elsewhere.

    Bleaklow & Black Hill were particularly bad.

    Once some binding vegetation has been established (and the grips have been blocked up) there has also been a campaign to plant out sphagnum using plugs grown on by micropropogation.

    It is interesting to see (non-planted) species returning to the Pennines after 150 years of absence in some cases - killed off by drainage and pollution from Manchester.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,365

    Nigelb said:

    Trump unanimously loses his appeal on presidential immunity in DC.

    Next stop the Supreme Court. Hard to see any different outcome there.

    Reading the opinion, it's a pretty comprehensive demolition of Trump's case.
    Trump has until Monday to seek review by the SC, but it's quite possible they turn him down. There is (IMO) almost no prospect of the court reversing the opinion, and for them to delay things by another three or four months by rehearing futile arguments, would further damage their credibility.
    I don't see how the SC can run away from ruling on this matter. It is so fundamental to the role of the President under the Constitution that they HAVE to say the President is not a Monarch. They HAVE to say that the President cannot use Seal Team 6 to take out opponents. This is not about Trump; it is about the rule of law.
    But it’s not just about the actual answer to the legal point. It’s also about delaying the court case until after the election. It’s about sowing doubt. Any argument that does that works for Trump.
    What works best for the judges, though?

    I'm sure they have a healthy fear of Trump and the Trumpettes.

    But their role is also to fear the verdict of history, which requires a different set of conclusions.

    And doing nothing is an action in itself.
    They may also want to consider that if the trial starts later than June if Trump is the nominee he will be pinned in a courtroom instead of campaigning. Meanwhile, there is no obvious avenue for them to delay it for a year or to toss it altogether.

    So actually a speedy decision would be the sensible option.

    However, Trump’s justices and sense have been strangers for many long years.
  • SirNorfolkPassmoreSirNorfolkPassmore Posts: 7,149
    edited February 6
    kle4 said:

    MattW said:

    Nigelb said:

    Trump unanimously loses his appeal on presidential immunity in DC.

    Next stop the Supreme Court. Hard to see any different outcome there.

    Reading the opinion, it's a pretty comprehensive demolition of Trump's case.
    Trump has until Monday to seek review by the SC, but it's quite possible they turn him down. There is (IMO) almost no prospect of the court reversing the opinion, and for them to delay things by another three or four months by rehearing futile arguments, would further damage their credibility.
    I don't see how the SC can run away from ruling on this matter. It is so fundamental to the role of the President under the Constitution that they HAVE to say the President is not a Monarch. They HAVE to say that the President cannot use Seal Team 6 to take out opponents. This is not about Trump; it is about the rule of law.
    They could actually run away from ruling on this one, couldn't they? They have absolute discretion not to hear cases without any explanation, in which case the appealed ruling stands.

    On the Colorado one, they couldn't really dodge it as Colorado were saying Trump was not constiutionally eligible to be President, but other states were saying he was. That has to be resolved in practical terms because Trump simply can't be eligible to be President in some states but not in others if the United States is to remain united.

    In this case, though, there's no conflict that really needs resolving. It's not the case that Trump is immune from criminal prosecution on federal charges in some parts of the US but not in others - maybe if there was a prosecution in Idaho, they'd rule immunity applied, but there isn't so that's pure conjecture.

    I think the Supreme Court will probably rule on this just on the importance of it, and because the justices are predominantly conservative and it buys Trump time (although they won't find for him as it is baseless). But I certainly don't rule out that they'd simply decline to take the case.
    How many days is it before silence is taken to imply that they decline?

    Or do they have to specifically say no?
    I don't think there is a formal deadline, but declining to take a case is an active decision in the sense that they'd simply publish a denial of the writ of certiorari.

    So what happens is the lower court has given the loser (Trump) has six days to file submit a petition for certiorari to the Supreme Court. The respondent (the prosecutor) has a month to respond but would be much quicker as this is basically just re-filing arguments already made. The Supreme Court meets regularly when it's in session to decide which cases to hear and which not to bother with (this would be entirely behind closed doors - it's purely administrative as they don't have to take any cases and indeed don't with 95%+ of them). The convention - and Roberts as Chief Justice isn't going to change it now - is that if four or more justices want to hear it, it's heard. Otherwise, they'd simply announce a denial with no reasoning.

    Normally, it takes the Supreme Court up to a month to go through that process. But they'll probably do it sooner - they won't want to be in a "will they, won't they" game.
    Don't they? I can think quite a few of them would be much happier to drag things out as much as possible, but if convention is if four want to hear it it goes then that does sound like it should be enough to overcome the draggers.
    The answer to that is that Roberts is Chief Justice and just isn't going to dick about. So essentially he'll run the administrative meeting and will say "right, you've all had a week to read the papers in this Trump matter... who wants to hear the case?" Either four of them do or not. It just isn't open to Thomas or Alito to say, "Maybe, ask us again in a couple of months". If their hands aren't up along with two others, Roberts will just get the denial issued post haste.

    Whilst the Supreme Court is six conservative to three liberal, it is also at least seven essentially normal to no more than two fruitcakes. Roberts is king of the essentially normals, and has the gavel so runs the process. He'll run it basically down the line. In that, he has the support of all three liberals (obviously) and all three Trump appointees (ironically).

    On the substance, the conservative justices will be under pressure, clearly. But, on immunity, I don't think there's a fig leaf available that will save Trump from at least a 7-2 loss if the case is taken. On eligibility, I think there is enough for him to win. It's a huge call to say Trump is, today, ineligible to be President. Not so much to say he isn't immune from criminal charges.
  • bondegezoubondegezou Posts: 11,047

    Nigelb said:

    Trump unanimously loses his appeal on presidential immunity in DC.

    Next stop the Supreme Court. Hard to see any different outcome there.

    Reading the opinion, it's a pretty comprehensive demolition of Trump's case.
    Trump has until Monday to seek review by the SC, but it's quite possible they turn him down. There is (IMO) almost no prospect of the court reversing the opinion, and for them to delay things by another three or four months by rehearing futile arguments, would further damage their credibility.
    I don't see how the SC can run away from ruling on this matter. It is so fundamental to the role of the President under the Constitution that they HAVE to say the President is not a Monarch. They HAVE to say that the President cannot use Seal Team 6 to take out opponents. This is not about Trump; it is about the rule of law.
    But it’s not just about the actual answer to the legal point. It’s also about delaying the court case until after the election. It’s about sowing doubt. Any argument that does that works for Trump.
    What works best for the judges, though?

    I'm sure they have a healthy fear of Trump and the Trumpettes.

    But their role is also to fear the verdict of history, which requires a different set of conclusions.

    And doing nothing is an action in itself.
    I think most of them have long stopped worrying about the verdict of history.
  • WhisperingOracleWhisperingOracle Posts: 9,131
    edited February 6
    stodge said:

    I have to say the "Popular Conservatism" event looks and sounds a bit like a meeting of Jacobites in Paris in the 1770s.

    Thinking they are important, thinking they still have something to say in which people will be interested and about as important to British politics as a Liberal Democrat Conference.

    Time for them to all shuffle quietly into the night or right if you prefer.

    Both Mark Littlewood, and Liz Truss, used to actually be in the Liberal Democrats.

    Not the Lib Dem's finest hour. Both ex-moderates who turned into fanatics, although Littlewood was always an economic ultra-liberal, and as I understand it Truss was a bit of a student-leftwinger.
  • bigglesbiggles Posts: 6,051
    Foxy said:

    Scott_xP said:

    @hzeffman
    EXCL: The govt is preparing to offer dentists cash incentives to take on NHS patients and send teams to schools to treat children's teeth, it has emerged

    Ministers will unveil the dental recovery plan tomorrow but details were inadvertently sent to MPs of all parties today

    I found out the other day that the English have on average more teeth than Americans.

    https://dentistry.co.uk/2016/01/06/english-have-better-teeth-than-americans/

    Of course that was before Brexit...

    The NHS dental contract is such a mess that it barely pays for the cost of materials. It badly needed sorting for decades.
    It feels like an opportunity to rethink the whole model. Raise the rates and I’d be sceptical of a “per procedure” payment approach where there’s no real danger of harming the patient, and therefore a real danger of a perverse incentive to push unnecessary treatment.
  • bigglesbiggles Posts: 6,051

    isam said:

    An unexpected endorsement…

    'Everyone starts as a leftie and then wakes up and realises all the ideas are crap'

    Australian model and actress, Holly Valance, was at the launch of Liz Truss' new conservative movement 'PopCon'.



    https://x.com/gbnews/status/1754919130837483709?s=46&t=CW4pL-mMpTqsJXCdjW0Z6Q

    Who is Holly Valance?
    This is her best known song, I think: https://youtu.be/o3wS2tdlZtE Top song.

    (It’s a cover of a Turkish song, so won’t go down well with the Brexit crowd.)

    Edit: As someone’s already posted that, here’s “Naughty Girl”, a lesser follow-up, but maybe appealing to Liz Truss: https://youtu.be/hn5o3Vo2pvo
    She was on Neighbours years ago. She was… decorative.
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 57,129

    rcs1000 said:

    Sandpit said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    rcs1000 said:

    This is the first comment from an Apple Vision Pro

    Ask me anything

    I vowed to not get one, is it worth it?
    If you wear it in combination with Dyson headphones, you can look like this:

    https://twitter.com/HumansNoContext/status/1754243633925042450
    Has anyone here got the Dyson or Apple headphones? I refuse to believe they could possibly be worth double the price of my $450 Bose NC700s.
    I wasn’t aware that Dyson made them until seeing that tweet. Presumably they have a vacuum function to clean your ear canal.
    If I’m paying $900 for them, they’d better be good at sucking something.
    They are a rare commercial dud from Dyson.
    If you’re going up against Bose, Sony, and Apple, not to mention the off-brand noice-cancellers which are getting a lot better, you sure as hell want to make sure you have clearly the best product if you’re looking for such a massive premium. What were they thinking?
    I really don't know.

    It seems like they thought "well, we're all going to be wearing masks for ever due to Covid, so let's be the first to integrate one into a pair of headphones."

    Also, they forgot that there's a reason why Sony and Bose make their headphones as light as possible: it's because it's uncomfortable wandering around wearing headphones that weight the best part of a kilo.
    It sounds like Apple have also forgotten that lesson based on your comments about their goggles.
    The AVP is clearly a first generation product. It needs to come down in weight and it needs its weight to be better distributed. It also needs to auto adjust itself somehow: no one wants to spend two minutes adjusting the fit before the image comes into focus.

    Also: they need to sort out text input.

    On the other hand...

    It's a glimpse of a possible future, where we won't need screens on our desks. We will be able to simply pick up something no heavier than a pair of ski goggles, and get the best screens in the world.

    I watched some football highlights last night, on the equivalent of an Imax screen. It was insane. Why would I want to use a little phone or tablet when I carry around the world's greatest cinema.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,071

    kle4 said:

    MattW said:

    Nigelb said:

    Trump unanimously loses his appeal on presidential immunity in DC.

    Next stop the Supreme Court. Hard to see any different outcome there.

    Reading the opinion, it's a pretty comprehensive demolition of Trump's case.
    Trump has until Monday to seek review by the SC, but it's quite possible they turn him down. There is (IMO) almost no prospect of the court reversing the opinion, and for them to delay things by another three or four months by rehearing futile arguments, would further damage their credibility.
    I don't see how the SC can run away from ruling on this matter. It is so fundamental to the role of the President under the Constitution that they HAVE to say the President is not a Monarch. They HAVE to say that the President cannot use Seal Team 6 to take out opponents. This is not about Trump; it is about the rule of law.
    They could actually run away from ruling on this one, couldn't they? They have absolute discretion not to hear cases without any explanation, in which case the appealed ruling stands.

    On the Colorado one, they couldn't really dodge it as Colorado were saying Trump was not constiutionally eligible to be President, but other states were saying he was. That has to be resolved in practical terms because Trump simply can't be eligible to be President in some states but not in others if the United States is to remain united.

    In this case, though, there's no conflict that really needs resolving. It's not the case that Trump is immune from criminal prosecution on federal charges in some parts of the US but not in others - maybe if there was a prosecution in Idaho, they'd rule immunity applied, but there isn't so that's pure conjecture.

    I think the Supreme Court will probably rule on this just on the importance of it, and because the justices are predominantly conservative and it buys Trump time (although they won't find for him as it is baseless). But I certainly don't rule out that they'd simply decline to take the case.
    How many days is it before silence is taken to imply that they decline?

    Or do they have to specifically say no?
    I don't think there is a formal deadline, but declining to take a case is an active decision in the sense that they'd simply publish a denial of the writ of certiorari.

    So what happens is the lower court has given the loser (Trump) has six days to file submit a petition for certiorari to the Supreme Court. The respondent (the prosecutor) has a month to respond but would be much quicker as this is basically just re-filing arguments already made. The Supreme Court meets regularly when it's in session to decide which cases to hear and which not to bother with (this would be entirely behind closed doors - it's purely administrative as they don't have to take any cases and indeed don't with 95%+ of them). The convention - and Roberts as Chief Justice isn't going to change it now - is that if four or more justices want to hear it, it's heard. Otherwise, they'd simply announce a denial with no reasoning.

    Normally, it takes the Supreme Court up to a month to go through that process. But they'll probably do it sooner - they won't want to be in a "will they, won't they" game.
    Don't they? I can think quite a few of them would be much happier to drag things out as much as possible, but if convention is if four want to hear it it goes then that does sound like it should be enough to overcome the draggers.
    The answer to that is that Roberts is Chief Justice and just isn't going to dick about. So essentially he'll run the administrative meeting and will say "right, you've all had a week to read the papers in this Trump matter... who wants to hear the case?" Either four of them do or not. It just isn't open to Thomas or Alito to say, "Maybe, ask us again in a couple of months". If their hands aren't up along with two others, Roberts will just get the denial issued post haste.

    Whilst the Supreme Court is six conservative to three liberal, it is also at least seven essentially normal to no more than two fruitcakes. Roberts is king of the essentially normals, and has the gavel to runs the process. He'll run it basically down the line. In that, he has the support of all three liberals (obviously) and all three Trump appointees (ironically).

    On the substance, the conservative justices will be under pressure, clearly. But, on immunity, I don't think there's a fig leaf available that will save Trump from at least a 7-2 loss if the case is taken. On eligibility, I think there is enough for him to win. It's a huge call to say Trump is, today, ineligible to be President. Not so much to say he isn't immune from criminal charges.
    Yes, the mood music seems to be that ineligibility is pretty improbable, but its much safer for them (and seemingly pretty legally sound) to confirm that Presidents are not completely immune from criminal liability. I can believe a lot of the Supreme Court, but why put their names to that concept without being a total fruitcake?
  • tlg86 said:
    Its a top idea. We built a stadium for Citeh, its only fair the red side of the city gets one as well.
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 57,129

    stodge said:

    I have to say the "Popular Conservatism" event looks and sounds a bit like a meeting of Jacobites in Paris in the 1770s.

    Thinking they are important, thinking they still have something to say in which people will be interested and about as important to British politics as a Liberal Democrat Conference.

    Time for them to all shuffle quietly into the night or right if you prefer.

    Mark Littlewood used to be in the Liberal Democrats, as did Liz Truss.

    Not the Lib Dems finest hour. Both roughly who turned into fanatics, although Littlewood was always an economic ultra-liberal, and I understand Truss was a bit of a student-leftist.
    I have a lot of sympathy with the Truss people: yes, we absolutely should be thinking about getting things moving, rather than managing decline.

    What you can't do, though, is to ignore the very real structural issues that all developed economies face: in particular, the impact of demographic drag.

    And that's where I depart company from Popular Conservatism. If you can't admit what the problems are, you are unlikely to find solutions.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,258
    rcs1000 said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Sandpit said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    rcs1000 said:

    This is the first comment from an Apple Vision Pro

    Ask me anything

    I vowed to not get one, is it worth it?
    If you wear it in combination with Dyson headphones, you can look like this:

    https://twitter.com/HumansNoContext/status/1754243633925042450
    Has anyone here got the Dyson or Apple headphones? I refuse to believe they could possibly be worth double the price of my $450 Bose NC700s.
    I wasn’t aware that Dyson made them until seeing that tweet. Presumably they have a vacuum function to clean your ear canal.
    If I’m paying $900 for them, they’d better be good at sucking something.
    They are a rare commercial dud from Dyson.
    If you’re going up against Bose, Sony, and Apple, not to mention the off-brand noice-cancellers which are getting a lot better, you sure as hell want to make sure you have clearly the best product if you’re looking for such a massive premium. What were they thinking?
    I really don't know.

    It seems like they thought "well, we're all going to be wearing masks for ever due to Covid, so let's be the first to integrate one into a pair of headphones."

    Also, they forgot that there's a reason why Sony and Bose make their headphones as light as possible: it's because it's uncomfortable wandering around wearing headphones that weight the best part of a kilo.
    It sounds like Apple have also forgotten that lesson based on your comments about their goggles.
    The AVP is clearly a first generation product. It needs to come down in weight and it needs its weight to be better distributed. It also needs to auto adjust itself somehow: no one wants to spend two minutes adjusting the fit before the image comes into focus.

    Also: they need to sort out text input.

    On the other hand...

    It's a glimpse of a possible future, where we won't need screens on our desks. We will be able to simply pick up something no heavier than a pair of ski goggles, and get the best screens in the world.

    I watched some football highlights last night, on the equivalent of an Imax screen. It was insane. Why would I want to use a little phone or tablet when I carry around the world's greatest cinema.
    Exactly. As I’ve been saying - they will obviously replace all screens - once they sort out the weight and awkwardness issues

    They remind me of the very first mobiles. Remember them? Size of an actual brick and about as heavy? Within a few short years they were vastly smaller - the same will happen here, but probably even quicker, as the potential is so clear and any company left behind will end up like BlackBerry or Kodak, so competition will be intense. Apple have just fired the starting gun
This discussion has been closed.