Regarding America. John Gray describes Trump's victory (in the article linked to earlier) as being similar to the soviet collapse, but the more I think about it, I don't agree with that analysis. My sense is that 'the soviet collapse' scenario would have been likely to occur if business carried on as usual, because the western liberal order was unable to adapt to numerous intractible issues it was encountering, the Ukraine war being the most obvious one; and was beholden to intolerant extremists. So the opportunity with Trump is for evolution, in to a new world order that has none of the illusions and baggage of the old 'liberal world order'. It is essentially up to Europe how it wants to deal with this but what should be clear to everyone now is the old world is not coming back or being restored, and those that adapt fastest will succeed. It is unfortunate for the UK that we have Labour in power at this moment, who have failed to make any preperation for what has just happened, despite the election of Trump being a highly likely outcome. They need to adapt very quickly.
Yes, stuff is changing, but I am not sure Darkage has made allowance for the fact that whatever is the new world order will have its own 'illusions and baggage'.
Further, liberalism being unable to deal with 'numerous intractable issues' it is encountering may be true, but that may be a reality of the human condition - the thing Matthew Parris compares with the unopenable pistachio nuts at the end of the party. They are still there because you can't open them. Some non liberals are remarkably bad at running countries too.
Also, the only other government available is a Tory one. Is there any evidence it is prepared any more than anyone else for what is coming. And what would you do in Labour's position?
America reelecting Trump is certainly a world-changing event. It doesn't change the challenges we face, but it makes most of them more difficult and adds a new one. It's hard to see an upside to it unless you're one of these people that views "woke" as some sort of mortal threat to civilisation. Most Trump apologism/fandom comes from that quarter, I'd say.
Woke is a mortal threat to Civilisation. Next
A reminder to readers: Leon is a racist, who objects to being told he shouldn’t be racist and that he should stop saying racist things. This is what he means when he says “Woke is a mortal threat”.
People like you are responsible for the rise of populism.
"This didn't happen overnight. It took years and years for people on the Left to construct the censorship machinery that inevitably led to police knocking on a journalist's door for something she posted on social media.
These bigots HATE that you might think differently and NOTHING will change their thinking until the Right grabs hold of this machinery and turns it on them."
The world was a happier place when people like you were off their tits on class A drugs, whilst drinking and shagging with gay abandon. The side effect of coming off the all time high has been a propensity for miserable prejudice against anyone they believe might be having a nicer time than themselves.
With all due respect, what the Holy Sweet Fuck are you on about?
When you were, as you have explained many times before, having carnal knowledge of a minor celebrity in a French church whilst, as you have admitted on here, worse the wear for self medicated narcotics, you were most likely not concerned by people's race, religion or sexual preferences. Being not concerned by other people's race, religion or sexual preferences seems to be a good space to find oneself.
Ah, so you just found an extra-obscure way to make your normal boring, vacuous, low-wattage points
Yes.
Although to be ultra dreary I could try hijacking a political betting site into a personal travelogue.
Or you could do one of your amazing flounces when you leave the site in a flamboyant huff.... and no one notices for a fortnight that you've gone, indeed no one notices when you return, either, because no one cares. Do one of those, I like those
Flounces are preferable to people who keep on getting banned for being shits.
And who could possibly have guessed it would be this group who were first to realise what they have done?
Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 1h The cofounder of Muslims for Trump tells Reuters that he is disappointed to discover the president-elect's position on the US approach to Israel, Palestine and the Middle East
Leon is one of the best advertisements for wokeness that there is, since he so often demonstrates the alternative of being an ignorant bigoted twat. Compared to which, being woke seems so much nicer.
Mr. Malmesbury, China's also making moves in Bhutan. They have a series of border disputes with India, and Bhutan is strategically located.
Apparently, what they are doing in Tibet is in a reaction to what they saw happen in the Baltics at the end of the Soviet Union.
Stalins plans to overwhelm the local populations with ethnic Russians were not fully carried out.
The Chinese intent is not to make that mistake. IIRC they are aiming for a population 80% Han Chinese. At minimum.
Yes, it's surprising, really, that Stalin did not create an overwhelming Russian majority, in those States, if necessary, by deporting most of the locals. He didn't usually leave loose ends.
He was interrupted by a slight case of death. The plans were made and started.
See Kaliningrad, for an example of the finished product.
If some sources are to be believed he was looking at mass deporting the non-Russian population of Ukraine.
Happened of course in parts of Ukraine. E.g. Crimea. Although whether that was really ever actually 'Ukrainian' is, AIUI, questionable.
It was until Catherine conquered it
It was a Tatar khanate (descended from the Golden Horde) and a tributary of the Ottomans. So Tatar rather than Ukrainian. Plus some Greeks and Goths
Yes. I deal with the Giray Khan from time to time.
To be fair to the egregious Ms Pearson - I'll believe the police when they publish the footage and it's confirmed by an independent party to be genuine. And not one second before.
It is possible they simply have different slants on the incident.
And it's possible of course that they're all lying.
It'll be interesting to see how much of the full encounter the cams caught.
Its not like its a volatile incident happening without notice. It is a meeting with a senior antagonistic journalist at ta time of the police's choosing. There is near zero chance they don't have all of it.
The police won't have mentioned non crime hate crime, they might have mentioned hate crime but more likely public order act 1986 (yes that is how long this has been the status quo). Pearson will think she has committed no crime and is therefore justified in calling it a no crime hate crime.
"A person who uses threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour, or displays any written material which is threatening, abusive or insulting, is guilty of an offence if—
(a)he intends thereby to stir up racial hatred, or
(b)having regard to all the circumstances racial hatred is likely to be stirred up thereby."
As an aside, I have never understood how chanting 'from the river to the sea' does not meet this description. As it seems to be 'threatening, abusive and insulting', and also in my view invokes racial hatred against the Jewish people.
I'm intrigued by your view darkage and tbh I don't think I've ever fully understood the opprobrium chanting 'from the river to the sea' receives.
If someone has a view that the creation of the Isreali state was wrong* and the land should revert to being a Palestinian state is there any legitimate way in which they can protest?
Andy McDonald was suspended from the Labour Party after stating in a pro-Palestine rally speech: "We won't rest until we have justice, until all people, Israelis and Palestinians, between the river and the sea can live in peaceful liberty". The party described McDonald's comment as "deeply offensive". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_the_river_to_the_sea#Usage
What's 'deeply offensive' about wishing that 'all people, Israelis and Palestinians, between the river and the sea can live in peaceful liberty'?
(*For the avoidance of doubt, I fully support Isreal's right to exist.)
Anyone involved knows it causes offence, regardless of whether that offence is justified or not. They can choose other words like in the region, in the area etc, but want to pick the one that causes significant offence.
Is it criminal, probably not. Is it bad politics for a mainstream party, absolutely.
boo hoo sob, the arseholes take offence at anything nowadays. People should be entitled to their opinion and they are very selective on which opinions are offensive
Mr. Malmesbury, China's also making moves in Bhutan. They have a series of border disputes with India, and Bhutan is strategically located.
Apparently, what they are doing in Tibet is in a reaction to what they saw happen in the Baltics at the end of the Soviet Union.
Stalins plans to overwhelm the local populations with ethnic Russians were not fully carried out.
The Chinese intent is not to make that mistake. IIRC they are aiming for a population 80% Han Chinese. At minimum.
Yes, it's surprising, really, that Stalin did not create an overwhelming Russian majority, in those States, if necessary, by deporting most of the locals. He didn't usually leave loose ends.
He was interrupted by a slight case of death. The plans were made and started.
See Kaliningrad, for an example of the finished product.
If some sources are to be believed he was looking at mass deporting the non-Russian population of Ukraine.
Happened of course in parts of Ukraine. E.g. Crimea. Although whether that was really ever actually 'Ukrainian' is, AIUI, questionable.
It was until Catherine conquered it
Crimea was an independent country until Catherine's conquest, not part of Ukraine.
It was afterwards attached to the Novorossiya governate, what we would now call Ukraine, or to various successor entities.
In 1922 it was added to Russia to ensure Ukraine could not access the Black Sea easily, making independence much more difficult.
In 1944 the population of Tartars was mostly murdered, and replaced with a mix of Russians and Ukrainians.
In 1955 Malenkov was persuaded by Khrushchev to transfer it to the Ukrainian SSR because its power and water supplies were difficult to manage and needed to be integrated into the Ukrainian grids.
For most of history the land we refer to as Ukraine was part of Crimea not the other way around
Regarding America. John Gray describes Trump's victory (in the article linked to earlier) as being similar to the soviet collapse, but the more I think about it, I don't agree with that analysis. My sense is that 'the soviet collapse' scenario would have been likely to occur if business carried on as usual, because the western liberal order was unable to adapt to numerous intractible issues it was encountering, the Ukraine war being the most obvious one; and was beholden to intolerant extremists. So the opportunity with Trump is for evolution, in to a new world order that has none of the illusions and baggage of the old 'liberal world order'. It is essentially up to Europe how it wants to deal with this but what should be clear to everyone now is the old world is not coming back or being restored, and those that adapt fastest will succeed. It is unfortunate for the UK that we have Labour in power at this moment, who have failed to make any preperation for what has just happened, despite the election of Trump being a highly likely outcome. They need to adapt very quickly.
Yes, stuff is changing, but I am not sure Darkage has made allowance for the fact that whatever is the new world order will have its own 'illusions and baggage'.
Further, liberalism being unable to deal with 'numerous intractable issues' it is encountering may be true, but that may be a reality of the human condition - the thing Matthew Parris compares with the unopenable pistachio nuts at the end of the party. They are still there because you can't open them. Some non liberals are remarkably bad at running countries too.
Also, the only other government available is a Tory one. Is there any evidence it is prepared any more than anyone else for what is coming. And what would you do in Labour's position?
America reelecting Trump is certainly a world-changing event. It doesn't change the challenges we face, but it makes most of them more difficult and adds a new one. It's hard to see an upside to it unless you're one of these people that views "woke" as some sort of mortal threat to civilisation. Most Trump apologism/fandom comes from that quarter, I'd say.
Woke is a mortal threat to Civilisation. Next
A reminder to readers: Leon is a racist, who objects to being told he shouldn’t be racist and that he should stop saying racist things. This is what he means when he says “Woke is a mortal threat”.
He has just as much right to post here as anyone else. People rightly were annoyed when people jumped on another user the other day, so I would just hope we can provide Pete the same courtesy.
He starts attacking people, for no reason, especially me, because I keep belittling him and it drives him nuts. Cf @IanB2 for exactly the same process
Tell him to stop doing that and he won't get negative juju on PB
Genuine question. Do you enjoy Bluesky? Is it not a boring liberal echo chamber?
I've seen a few lefty friends desert TwiX for BlueSky, as they once left for Threads and Mastodon, but returned
However, maybe this time they mean it. I'm curious what attracts them, because they lose all the followers they had built up on TwiX, so it is a proper sacrifice
It will be a shame if there is no one space where we can all argue, and Twitter was that, albeit biased to the left before and biased to the right now
Let me reflect on that for the afternoon, and I'll come back with an answer later and tag you in.
My other half was gradually losing non-bot followers on Twitter over the last year or so, and has been on Bluesky for a while, but with a far lower follower count.
In the last couple of weeks, they're up to 5k followers which is roughly half where they were at on the other place, but there are far fewer bots.
It's work in progress. But the difference is that it's designed to avoid becoming the kind of sewer Musk appears determined that his X should be.
With critical mass it could replace Twitter, but that's far from a certainty. The Musk site is still useful, despite the increased effort required of users to keep it do.
It tipped over for me personally a few weeks ago. My timeline was a total sewer, I was starting to see more bot tweets, largely about the US Election, and I just stopped bothering to go to the site.
Im getting there. Not yet. And if I leave Twitter it won’t be for bluesky or the vacuous threads, but a full detox of political social media.
Like with others, the porn bots, the Russian bots and the drop shipping ads are making it an unappealing place to spend time.
The greatest danger to all of them is Dead Internet, the same applies to Reddit and Threads and Insta and Bluesky and - God help us - maybe even PB
There will come a point when you will wonder - am I simply arguing with a machine? a bunch of robots? - and then that could kill off all social media entirely. the only way to save it will be prohibiting anonymity but that will kill off social media in a dfferent way
My god, that means we will actually have to start meeting people and having real life chats
Anyway I took a digital detox over the last few months - mainly because I was concentrating on writing my book - and it was jolly nice. Did a lot of reading as well.
I just wondered if my suggestion for consensus at least on the trans issue would still be considered too "w word" for some?
You asked me if I could do a summary of the arguments in the forthcoming SC case. The Scottish government and Amnesty have refused to publish their arguments so it is going to be hard to do. I will try but it may take a while because, frankly, most of the arguments are very technical ones about statutory interpretation. But not for a while, if you don't mind as have other stuff to do.
If the police come to your door talking about a non-crime hate incident you politely tell them that since they have told you it is a non-crime you have no obligation to talk to them. If they wish to write to you then they are free to do so, you will pass the letter onto your solicitor who will reply.
That’s is useful to know. This is not, according to Essex Police, what happened to Allison Pearson. They never mentioned non-crime hate incidents, and they say they have video to back that up.
Given the history of the police blatent lying to protect their reputation or get others (including Government ministers) into trouble, I wouldn't them as far as I could throw them. Nor would I trust their transcripts. If they want to prove themselves they should release the footage for everyone to see.
And who could possibly have guessed it would be this group who were first to realise what they have done?
Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 1h The cofounder of Muslims for Trump tells Reuters that he is disappointed to discover the president-elect's position on the US approach to Israel, Palestine and the Middle East
Well as somebody on the left who is sympathetic to the “culture war” I’m saying I’ve given up. I can’t be alone in that thought.
GE2024 was barely about culture, that issue as far as I can see seems to be receding.
You won, I lost. It’s the economy that matters now - and funnily enough that is all that SKS seems to be focussing on?
You aren't alone. AOC of the "squad" has removed her pronouns from her social media bios. She's the most far leftist woke warrior in the Democratic party and she's given up.
If the police come to your door talking about a non-crime hate incident you politely tell them that since they have told you it is a non-crime you have no obligation to talk to them. If they wish to write to you then they are free to do so, you will pass the letter onto your solicitor who will reply.
That’s is useful to know. This is not, according to Essex Police, what happened to Allison Pearson. They never mentioned non-crime hate incidents, and they say they have video to back that up.
Given the history of the police blatent lying to protect their reputation or get others (including Government ministers) into trouble, I wouldn't them as far as I could throw them. Nor would I trust their transcripts. If they want to prove themselves they should release the footage for everyone to see.
Quite so
Indeed, them just saying "Oh she's lying we have the footage", and then not releasing the footage -makes me more suspicious, not less
Perhaps they do have video which proves Pearson is a liar, it is of course possible; now show us
"This didn't happen overnight. It took years and years for people on the Left to construct the censorship machinery that inevitably led to police knocking on a journalist's door for something she posted on social media.
These bigots HATE that you might think differently and NOTHING will change their thinking until the Right grabs hold of this machinery and turns it on them."
The world was a happier place when people like you were off their tits on class A drugs, whilst drinking and shagging with gay abandon. The side effect of coming off the all time high has been a propensity for miserable prejudice against anyone they believe might be having a nicer time than themselves.
With all due respect, what the Holy Sweet Fuck are you on about?
When you were, as you have explained many times before, having carnal knowledge of a minor celebrity in a French church whilst, as you have admitted on here, worse the wear for self medicated narcotics, you were most likely not concerned by people's race, religion or sexual preferences. Being not concerned by other people's race, religion or sexual preferences seems to be a good space to find oneself.
Ah, so you just found an extra-obscure way to make your normal boring, vacuous, low-wattage points
Yes.
Although to be ultra dreary I could try hijacking a political betting site into a personal travelogue.
Or you could do one of your amazing flounces when you leave the site in a flamboyant huff.... and no one notices for a fortnight that you've gone, indeed no one notices when you return, either, because no one cares. Do one of those, I like those
Flounces are preferable to people who keep on getting banned for being shits.
Careful...it's a Saturday close to the full moon. Do not feed the Wertrump after midnight... or even before.
"This didn't happen overnight. It took years and years for people on the Left to construct the censorship machinery that inevitably led to police knocking on a journalist's door for something she posted on social media.
These bigots HATE that you might think differently and NOTHING will change their thinking until the Right grabs hold of this machinery and turns it on them."
The world was a happier place when people like you were off their tits on class A drugs, whilst drinking and shagging with gay abandon. The side effect of coming off the all time high has been a propensity for miserable prejudice against anyone they believe might be having a nicer time than themselves.
ALSO, I'm genuinely unsure that anyone is having a nicer time than me
Well, we've just bought a building plot and are about to embark on a 2-3 year eco-build adventure. Meanwhile we're living in a rented cottage looking out over beautiful Dorset valley.
"This didn't happen overnight. It took years and years for people on the Left to construct the censorship machinery that inevitably led to police knocking on a journalist's door for something she posted on social media.
These bigots HATE that you might think differently and NOTHING will change their thinking until the Right grabs hold of this machinery and turns it on them."
The world was a happier place when people like you were off their tits on class A drugs, whilst drinking and shagging with gay abandon. The side effect of coming off the all time high has been a propensity for miserable prejudice against anyone they believe might be having a nicer time than themselves.
ALSO, I'm genuinely unsure that anyone is having a nicer time than me
Well, we've just bought a building plot and are about to embark on a 2-3 year eco-build adventure. Meanwhile we're living in a rented cottage looking out over beautiful Dorset valley.
So all good here, thanks for asking.
I was joking, My life is fun but its certainly not for everyone, indeed most people would probably dislike the endless change and movement
And your Dorset adventure sounds absorbing. Post regular photos on here!
I've got a mate who has built a house from scratch in the Thai countryside, and he posts regular update snaps on WhatSapp. It's fascinating and kinda heartening to see it all slowly come together (or maybe the word is quickly, they build fast in Thailand)
"This didn't happen overnight. It took years and years for people on the Left to construct the censorship machinery that inevitably led to police knocking on a journalist's door for something she posted on social media.
These bigots HATE that you might think differently and NOTHING will change their thinking until the Right grabs hold of this machinery and turns it on them."
The world was a happier place when people like you were off their tits on class A drugs, whilst drinking and shagging with gay abandon. The side effect of coming off the all time high has been a propensity for miserable prejudice against anyone they believe might be having a nicer time than themselves.
ALSO, I'm genuinely unsure that anyone is having a nicer time than me
Well, we've just bought a building plot and are about to embark on a 2-3 year eco-build adventure. Meanwhile we're living in a rented cottage looking out over beautiful Dorset valley.
Well as somebody on the left who is sympathetic to the “culture war” I’m saying I’ve given up. I can’t be alone in that thought.
GE2024 was barely about culture, that issue as far as I can see seems to be receding.
You won, I lost. It’s the economy that matters now - and funnily enough that is all that SKS seems to be focussing on?
You aren't alone. AOC of the "squad" has removed her pronouns from her social media bios. She's the most far leftist woke warrior in the Democratic party and she's given up.
The pronouns thing was something I wasn’t particularly bothered about. Making others feel like they should I don’t agree with but it you want to is that a problem?
Anyway, I strongly feel it’s over. We will go back to the centre now, especially in this country.
Let trans people live in peace. Protect single sex spaces. Protect sports. Job done.
"This didn't happen overnight. It took years and years for people on the Left to construct the censorship machinery that inevitably led to police knocking on a journalist's door for something she posted on social media.
These bigots HATE that you might think differently and NOTHING will change their thinking until the Right grabs hold of this machinery and turns it on them."
The world was a happier place when people like you were off their tits on class A drugs, whilst drinking and shagging with gay abandon. The side effect of coming off the all time high has been a propensity for miserable prejudice against anyone they believe might be having a nicer time than themselves.
ALSO, I'm genuinely unsure that anyone is having a nicer time than me
Well, we've just bought a building plot and are about to embark on a 2-3 year eco-build adventure. Meanwhile we're living in a rented cottage looking out over beautiful Dorset valley.
So all good here, thanks for asking.
Good luck!
Thanks! And thanks for the pointer to BuildHub (I think it was you who put me on to it) - it's a great resource.
I had to do a 15km run this morning, so I took what is now my favourite route for that distance: St Neots to Huntingdon, from where I get the train back to St Neots. It's a nice, fast route, with a couple of minor hills. I've done it three times now, and always come back from it, wanting to do it again.
The only problem is that half of it is along the A1. There's a pavement, but the traffic still rushes towards me like a load of giant metal rushing things. The air is unclean.
But so far, I've always loved it. It's a straightish, fast route, and unlike circular runs, it actually feels as though I am getting somewhere.
(The route passes through Buckden, and past the beautiful Buckden Towers, the 15th C remains of the palace of the bishop of Lincoln: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckden_Towers )
Regarding America. John Gray describes Trump's victory (in the article linked to earlier) as being similar to the soviet collapse, but the more I think about it, I don't agree with that analysis. My sense is that 'the soviet collapse' scenario would have been likely to occur if business carried on as usual, because the western liberal order was unable to adapt to numerous intractible issues it was encountering, the Ukraine war being the most obvious one; and was beholden to intolerant extremists. So the opportunity with Trump is for evolution, in to a new world order that has none of the illusions and baggage of the old 'liberal world order'. It is essentially up to Europe how it wants to deal with this but what should be clear to everyone now is the old world is not coming back or being restored, and those that adapt fastest will succeed. It is unfortunate for the UK that we have Labour in power at this moment, who have failed to make any preperation for what has just happened, despite the election of Trump being a highly likely outcome. They need to adapt very quickly.
Yes, stuff is changing, but I am not sure Darkage has made allowance for the fact that whatever is the new world order will have its own 'illusions and baggage'.
Further, liberalism being unable to deal with 'numerous intractable issues' it is encountering may be true, but that may be a reality of the human condition - the thing Matthew Parris compares with the unopenable pistachio nuts at the end of the party. They are still there because you can't open them. Some non liberals are remarkably bad at running countries too.
Also, the only other government available is a Tory one. Is there any evidence it is prepared any more than anyone else for what is coming. And what would you do in Labour's position?
America reelecting Trump is certainly a world-changing event. It doesn't change the challenges we face, but it makes most of them more difficult and adds a new one. It's hard to see an upside to it unless you're one of these people that views "woke" as some sort of mortal threat to civilisation. Most Trump apologism/fandom comes from that quarter, I'd say.
Woke is a mortal threat to Civilisation. Next
A reminder to readers: Leon is a racist, who objects to being told he shouldn’t be racist and that he should stop saying racist things. This is what he means when he says “Woke is a mortal threat”.
People like you are responsible for the rise of populism.
The demographics leading to economic underperformance to expectations is probably a tad more influential than him. As are populists. Otherwise, great point.
Well as somebody on the left who is sympathetic to the “culture war” I’m saying I’ve given up. I can’t be alone in that thought.
GE2024 was barely about culture, that issue as far as I can see seems to be receding.
You won, I lost. It’s the economy that matters now - and funnily enough that is all that SKS seems to be focussing on?
You aren't alone. AOC of the "squad" has removed her pronouns from her social media bios. She's the most far leftist woke warrior in the Democratic party and she's given up.
The pronouns thing was something I wasn’t particularly bothered about. Making others feel like they should I don’t agree with but it you want to is that a problem?
Anyway, I strongly feel it’s over. We will go back to the centre now, especially in this country.
Let trans people live in peace. Protect single sex spaces. Protect sports. Job done.
Good afternoon
I hope you are right and agree with your last line
"This didn't happen overnight. It took years and years for people on the Left to construct the censorship machinery that inevitably led to police knocking on a journalist's door for something she posted on social media.
These bigots HATE that you might think differently and NOTHING will change their thinking until the Right grabs hold of this machinery and turns it on them."
The world was a happier place when people like you were off their tits on class A drugs, whilst drinking and shagging with gay abandon. The side effect of coming off the all time high has been a propensity for miserable prejudice against anyone they believe might be having a nicer time than themselves.
ALSO, I'm genuinely unsure that anyone is having a nicer time than me
Well, we've just bought a building plot and are about to embark on a 2-3 year eco-build adventure. Meanwhile we're living in a rented cottage looking out over beautiful Dorset valley.
So all good here, thanks for asking.
Good luck!
Thanks! And thanks for the pointer to BuildHub (I think it was you who put me on to it) - it's a great resource.
I actually got the urge to build my own retirement home in Siargao Island in the Philippines
It's so cheap. There are loads of young and arty people from all over, it's become a mix of a backpacker towns and bohemian resort. The climate is super kind. The food is good (by Filipino standards) the place is VERY safe (by Filipino standards). It's friendly and lovely and there is wilderness everywhere, but also cultural life and it's Christian and yet laid back
God I was tempted. Hmmmm
But I still think I would get bored. Is my big worry. But that's my big worry about everything
Well as somebody on the left who is sympathetic to the “culture war” I’m saying I’ve given up. I can’t be alone in that thought.
GE2024 was barely about culture, that issue as far as I can see seems to be receding.
You won, I lost. It’s the economy that matters now - and funnily enough that is all that SKS seems to be focussing on?
You aren't alone. AOC of the "squad" has removed her pronouns from her social media bios. She's the most far leftist woke warrior in the Democratic party and she's given up.
The pronouns thing was something I wasn’t particularly bothered about. Making others feel like they should I don’t agree with but it you want to is that a problem?
Anyway, I strongly feel it’s over. We will go back to the centre now, especially in this country.
Let trans people live in peace. Protect single sex spaces. Protect sports. Job done.
It needs to go a lot further than that, dismantle all ESG/DEI initiatives and regulatory reporting requirements for companies, stand behind companies who seek profit rather than some ephemeral idea of "social good" when the idiots at the activist charities come after them, call time on black history month, pride month and all that rainbow warrior nonsense. End all positive discrimination in hiring and for university spots, outlaw it - the best candidate should always get the job/place based on ability, skill and realised potential.
We should live in a country where the colour of someone's skin doesn't give them any disadvantages or advantages. The idea is ridiculous.
"This didn't happen overnight. It took years and years for people on the Left to construct the censorship machinery that inevitably led to police knocking on a journalist's door for something she posted on social media.
These bigots HATE that you might think differently and NOTHING will change their thinking until the Right grabs hold of this machinery and turns it on them."
The world was a happier place when people like you were off their tits on class A drugs, whilst drinking and shagging with gay abandon. The side effect of coming off the all time high has been a propensity for miserable prejudice against anyone they believe might be having a nicer time than themselves.
With all due respect, what the Holy Sweet Fuck are you on about?
When you were, as you have explained many times before, having carnal knowledge of a minor celebrity in a French church whilst, as you have admitted on here, worse the wear for self medicated narcotics, you were most likely not concerned by people's race, religion or sexual preferences. Being not concerned by other people's race, religion or sexual preferences seems to be a good space to find oneself.
Ah, so you just found an extra-obscure way to make your normal boring, vacuous, low-wattage points
Yes.
Although to be ultra dreary I could try hijacking a political betting site into a personal travelogue.
Or you could do one of your amazing flounces when you leave the site in a flamboyant huff.... and no one notices for a fortnight that you've gone, indeed no one notices when you return, either, because no one cares. Do one of those, I like those
Well clearly by your last statement, no one but YOU cares. I am genuinely heartened! Thank you.
Well as somebody on the left who is sympathetic to the “culture war” I’m saying I’ve given up. I can’t be alone in that thought.
GE2024 was barely about culture, that issue as far as I can see seems to be receding.
You won, I lost. It’s the economy that matters now - and funnily enough that is all that SKS seems to be focussing on?
You aren't alone. AOC of the "squad" has removed her pronouns from her social media bios. She's the most far leftist woke warrior in the Democratic party and she's given up.
The pronouns thing was something I wasn’t particularly bothered about. Making others feel like they should I don’t agree with but it you want to is that a problem?
Anyway, I strongly feel it’s over. We will go back to the centre now, especially in this country.
Let trans people live in peace. Protect single sex spaces. Protect sports. Job done.
It needs to go a lot further than that, dismantle all ESG/DEI initiatives and regulatory reporting requirements for companies, stand behind companies who seek profit rather than some ephemeral idea of "social good" when the idiots at the activist charities come after them, call time on black history month, pride month and all that rainbow warrior nonsense. End all positive discrimination in hiring and for university spots, outlaw it - the best candidate should always get the job/place based on ability, skill and realised potential.
We should live in a country where the colour of someone's skin doesn't give them any disadvantages or advantages. The idea is ridiculous.
Yes, if this really is the turning point of the Culture Wars then it is El Alamein not the Battle for Berlin. There is, sadly, much more bloody fighting to be done and vast tracts of reality to be regained
He has just as much right to post here as anyone else. People rightly were annoyed when people jumped on another user the other day, so I would just hope we can provide Pete the same courtesy.
He has just as much right to post here as anyone else. People rightly were annoyed when people jumped on another user the other day, so I would just hope we can provide Pete the same courtesy.
He starts attacking people, for no reason, especially me, because I keep belittling him and it drives him nuts. Cf @IanB2 for exactly the same process
Tell him to stop doing that and he won't get negative juju on PB
Don't worry big boy. I can handle any quite justifiable abuse. I daresay Ian can too.
He has just as much right to post here as anyone else. People rightly were annoyed when people jumped on another user the other day, so I would just hope we can provide Pete the same courtesy.
He has just as much right to post here as anyone else. People rightly were annoyed when people jumped on another user the other day, so I would just hope we can provide Pete the same courtesy.
He starts attacking people, for no reason, especially me, because I keep belittling him and it drives him nuts. Cf @IanB2 for exactly the same process
Tell him to stop doing that and he won't get negative juju on PB
Don't worry big boy. I can handle any quite justifiable abuse. I daresay Ian can too.
Most of us see, and know, that the site is more enlightening and stimulating when he’s not around. It’s just a question of waiting.
"This didn't happen overnight. It took years and years for people on the Left to construct the censorship machinery that inevitably led to police knocking on a journalist's door for something she posted on social media.
These bigots HATE that you might think differently and NOTHING will change their thinking until the Right grabs hold of this machinery and turns it on them."
The world was a happier place when people like you were off their tits on class A drugs, whilst drinking and shagging with gay abandon. The side effect of coming off the all time high has been a propensity for miserable prejudice against anyone they believe might be having a nicer time than themselves.
ALSO, I'm genuinely unsure that anyone is having a nicer time than me
Well, we've just bought a building plot and are about to embark on a 2-3 year eco-build adventure. Meanwhile we're living in a rented cottage looking out over beautiful Dorset valley.
So all good here, thanks for asking.
Good luck!
Thanks! And thanks for the pointer to BuildHub (I think it was you who put me on to it) - it's a great resource.
Is that like pornhub, but for people with a specific fetish?
Well as somebody on the left who is sympathetic to the “culture war” I’m saying I’ve given up. I can’t be alone in that thought.
GE2024 was barely about culture, that issue as far as I can see seems to be receding.
You won, I lost. It’s the economy that matters now - and funnily enough that is all that SKS seems to be focussing on?
You aren't alone. AOC of the "squad" has removed her pronouns from her social media bios. She's the most far leftist woke warrior in the Democratic party and she's given up.
"This didn't happen overnight. It took years and years for people on the Left to construct the censorship machinery that inevitably led to police knocking on a journalist's door for something she posted on social media.
These bigots HATE that you might think differently and NOTHING will change their thinking until the Right grabs hold of this machinery and turns it on them."
The world was a happier place when people like you were off their tits on class A drugs, whilst drinking and shagging with gay abandon. The side effect of coming off the all time high has been a propensity for miserable prejudice against anyone they believe might be having a nicer time than themselves.
ALSO, I'm genuinely unsure that anyone is having a nicer time than me
Well, we've just bought a building plot and are about to embark on a 2-3 year eco-build adventure. Meanwhile we're living in a rented cottage looking out over beautiful Dorset valley.
So all good here, thanks for asking.
Good luck!
Thanks! And thanks for the pointer to BuildHub (I think it was you who put me on to it) - it's a great resource.
Is that like pornhub, but for people with a specific fetish?
Well as somebody on the left who is sympathetic to the “culture war” I’m saying I’ve given up. I can’t be alone in that thought.
GE2024 was barely about culture, that issue as far as I can see seems to be receding.
You won, I lost. It’s the economy that matters now - and funnily enough that is all that SKS seems to be focussing on?
You aren't alone. AOC of the "squad" has removed her pronouns from her social media bios. She's the most far leftist woke warrior in the Democratic party and she's given up.
Maybe she doesn't know what her pronouns are?
HOT, her pronoun is HOT
Or at least it was. She is maybe past her prime now, but five years ago, growl
It's a complex mix of emotioins for the red-blooded rightwing male, when you are confronted by a woman whose political views you abhor, and whose intellect (you feel) is lacking, but every time you look at her you can't help thinking Oof, yes
Has any other PBer experienced this? Does any other PB-er encounter a politician they actively despise, in terms of their views, but nonetheless they find them alluring in some way?
I'm gonna have guess - and I readily confess it is just a guess - that @IanB2 finds Javier Millei's libertarian Thatcherism quite contemptible and foolish, but at the same time @IanB2 also finds Millei sexually arousing, mainly because the Argentine leader looks a bit like a labradoodle, and @IanB2 does REALLY love his dogs
I had to do a 15km run this morning, so I took what is now my favourite route for that distance: St Neots to Huntingdon, from where I get the train back to St Neots. It's a nice, fast route, with a couple of minor hills. I've done it three times now, and always come back from it, wanting to do it again.
The only problem is that half of it is along the A1. There's a pavement, but the traffic still rushes towards me like a load of giant metal rushing things. The air is unclean.
But so far, I've always loved it. It's a straightish, fast route, and unlike circular runs, it actually feels as though I am getting somewhere.
(The route passes through Buckden, and past the beautiful Buckden Towers, the 15th C remains of the palace of the bishop of Lincoln: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckden_Towers )
I agree with you: circular runs can feel pointless. Although I have the Basingstoke Canal and can run along the towpath to Woking, and back by train, that's a 20-miler though so only happens when I'm training for a marathon. Shorter runs are possible, tbough.
"This didn't happen overnight. It took years and years for people on the Left to construct the censorship machinery that inevitably led to police knocking on a journalist's door for something she posted on social media.
These bigots HATE that you might think differently and NOTHING will change their thinking until the Right grabs hold of this machinery and turns it on them."
The world was a happier place when people like you were off their tits on class A drugs, whilst drinking and shagging with gay abandon. The side effect of coming off the all time high has been a propensity for miserable prejudice against anyone they believe might be having a nicer time than themselves.
ALSO, I'm genuinely unsure that anyone is having a nicer time than me
Well, we've just bought a building plot and are about to embark on a 2-3 year eco-build adventure. Meanwhile we're living in a rented cottage looking out over beautiful Dorset valley.
So all good here, thanks for asking.
Good luck!
Thanks! And thanks for the pointer to BuildHub (I think it was you who put me on to it) - it's a great resource.
Well as somebody on the left who is sympathetic to the “culture war” I’m saying I’ve given up. I can’t be alone in that thought.
GE2024 was barely about culture, that issue as far as I can see seems to be receding.
You won, I lost. It’s the economy that matters now - and funnily enough that is all that SKS seems to be focussing on?
You aren't alone. AOC of the "squad" has removed her pronouns from her social media bios. She's the most far leftist woke warrior in the Democratic party and she's given up.
Maybe she doesn't know what her pronouns are?
HOT, her pronoun is HOT
Or at least it was. She is maybe past her prime now, but five years ago, growl
It's a complex mix of emotioins for the red-blooded rightwing male, when you are confronted by a woman whose political views you abhor, and whose intellect (you feel) is lacking, but every time you look at her you can't help thinking Oof, yes
Has any other PBer experienced this? Does any other PB-er encounter a politician they actively despise, in terms of their views, but nonetheless they find them alluring in some way?
I'm gonna have guess - and I readily confess it is just a guess - that @IanB2 finds Javier Millei's libertarian Thatcherism quite contemptible and foolish, but at the same time @IanB2 also finds Millei sexually arousing, mainly because the Argentine leader looks a bit like a labradoodle, and @IanB2 does REALLY love his dogs
Well as somebody on the left who is sympathetic to the “culture war” I’m saying I’ve given up. I can’t be alone in that thought.
GE2024 was barely about culture, that issue as far as I can see seems to be receding.
You won, I lost. It’s the economy that matters now - and funnily enough that is all that SKS seems to be focussing on?
You aren't alone. AOC of the "squad" has removed her pronouns from her social media bios. She's the most far leftist woke warrior in the Democratic party and she's given up.
The pronouns thing was something I wasn’t particularly bothered about. Making others feel like they should I don’t agree with but it you want to is that a problem?
Anyway, I strongly feel it’s over. We will go back to the centre now, especially in this country.
Let trans people live in peace. Protect single sex spaces. Protect sports. Job done.
It needs to go a lot further than that, dismantle all ESG/DEI initiatives and regulatory reporting requirements for companies, stand behind companies who seek profit rather than some ephemeral idea of "social good" when the idiots at the activist charities come after them, call time on black history month, pride month and all that rainbow warrior nonsense. End all positive discrimination in hiring and for university spots, outlaw it - the best candidate should always get the job/place based on ability, skill and realised potential.
We should live in a country where the colour of someone's skin doesn't give them any disadvantages or advantages. The idea is ridiculous.
How do we stop utterly mediocre posh boys like Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees Mogg and countless others sliding into their usual positions of power on the back of who their parents are and who they met when they went to school?
The conveyor belt that takes people who would not get close to where they do if talent and ability were the deciding factors from school through university to positions of significant influence and responsibility has done far more damage to this country over a far longer period than the odd DEI programme.
Well as somebody on the left who is sympathetic to the “culture war” I’m saying I’ve given up. I can’t be alone in that thought.
GE2024 was barely about culture, that issue as far as I can see seems to be receding.
You won, I lost. It’s the economy that matters now - and funnily enough that is all that SKS seems to be focussing on?
You aren't alone. AOC of the "squad" has removed her pronouns from her social media bios. She's the most far leftist woke warrior in the Democratic party and she's given up.
Maybe she doesn't know what her pronouns are?
HOT, her pronoun is HOT
Or at least it was. She is maybe past her prime now, but five years ago, growl
It's a complex mix of emotioins for the red-blooded rightwing male, when you are confronted by a woman whose political views you abhor, and whose intellect (you feel) is lacking, but every time you look at her you can't help thinking Oof, yes
Has any other PBer experienced this? Does any other PB-er encounter a politician they actively despise, in terms of their views, but nonetheless they find them alluring in some way?
I'm gonna have guess - and I readily confess it is just a guess - that @IanB2 finds Javier Millei's libertarian Thatcherism quite contemptible and foolish, but at the same time @IanB2 also finds Millei sexually arousing, mainly because the Argentine leader looks a bit like a labradoodle, and @IanB2 does REALLY love his dogs
Well as somebody on the left who is sympathetic to the “culture war” I’m saying I’ve given up. I can’t be alone in that thought.
GE2024 was barely about culture, that issue as far as I can see seems to be receding.
You won, I lost. It’s the economy that matters now - and funnily enough that is all that SKS seems to be focussing on?
You aren't alone. AOC of the "squad" has removed her pronouns from her social media bios. She's the most far leftist woke warrior in the Democratic party and she's given up.
Maybe she doesn't know what her pronouns are?
HOT, her pronoun is HOT
Or at least it was. She is maybe past her prime now, but five years ago, growl
It's a complex mix of emotioins for the red-blooded rightwing male, when you are confronted by a woman whose political views you abhor, and whose intellect (you feel) is lacking, but every time you look at her you can't help thinking Oof, yes
Has any other PBer experienced this? Does any other PB-er encounter a politician they actively despise, in terms of their views, but nonetheless they find them alluring in some way?
I'm gonna have guess - and I readily confess it is just a guess - that @IanB2 finds Javier Millei's libertarian Thatcherism quite contemptible and foolish, but at the same time @IanB2 also finds Millei sexually arousing, mainly because the Argentine leader looks a bit like a labradoodle, and @IanB2 does REALLY love his dogs
Seven years old this week….
And people say the romance dies after seven years! You two are living proof that true erotic love can conquer time
Well as somebody on the left who is sympathetic to the “culture war” I’m saying I’ve given up. I can’t be alone in that thought.
GE2024 was barely about culture, that issue as far as I can see seems to be receding.
You won, I lost. It’s the economy that matters now - and funnily enough that is all that SKS seems to be focussing on?
You aren't alone. AOC of the "squad" has removed her pronouns from her social media bios. She's the most far leftist woke warrior in the Democratic party and she's given up.
Maybe she doesn't know what her pronouns are?
HOT, her pronoun is HOT
Or at least it was. She is maybe past her prime now, but five years ago, growl
It's a complex mix of emotioins for the red-blooded rightwing male, when you are confronted by a woman whose political views you abhor, and whose intellect (you feel) is lacking, but every time you look at her you can't help thinking Oof, yes
Has any other PBer experienced this? Does any other PB-er encounter a politician they actively despise, in terms of their views, but nonetheless they find them alluring in some way?
I'm gonna have guess - and I readily confess it is just a guess - that @IanB2 finds Javier Millei's libertarian Thatcherism quite contemptible and foolish, but at the same time @IanB2 also finds Millei sexually arousing, mainly because the Argentine leader looks a bit like a labradoodle, and @IanB2 does REALLY love his dogs
Amy Coney-Barrett, but I think it might just be her voice.
There is something stuck in a timeless past of the language of police talk. It almost takes you back to places "frequented by courting couples" where dead bodies used to be found so often. As it happens this is from the Guardian:
“Fast-track inquiries were made which sadly led to the discovery of a woman’s body inside the boot of a vehicle in the Ilford area of London,” he said. “We are treating the death as suspicious"
Well as somebody on the left who is sympathetic to the “culture war” I’m saying I’ve given up. I can’t be alone in that thought.
GE2024 was barely about culture, that issue as far as I can see seems to be receding.
You won, I lost. It’s the economy that matters now - and funnily enough that is all that SKS seems to be focussing on?
You aren't alone. AOC of the "squad" has removed her pronouns from her social media bios. She's the most far leftist woke warrior in the Democratic party and she's given up.
Maybe she doesn't know what her pronouns are?
HOT, her pronoun is HOT
Or at least it was. She is maybe past her prime now, but five years ago, growl
It's a complex mix of emotioins for the red-blooded rightwing male, when you are confronted by a woman whose political views you abhor, and whose intellect (you feel) is lacking, but every time you look at her you can't help thinking Oof, yes
Has any other PBer experienced this? Does any other PB-er encounter a politician they actively despise, in terms of their views, but nonetheless they find them alluring in some way?
I'm gonna have guess - and I readily confess it is just a guess - that @IanB2 finds Javier Millei's libertarian Thatcherism quite contemptible and foolish, but at the same time @IanB2 also finds Millei sexually arousing, mainly because the Argentine leader looks a bit like a labradoodle, and @IanB2 does REALLY love his dogs
Amy Coney-Barrett, but I think it might just be her voice.
If the police come to your door talking about a non-crime hate incident you politely tell them that since they have told you it is a non-crime you have no obligation to talk to them. If they wish to write to you then they are free to do so, you will pass the letter onto your solicitor who will reply.
That’s is useful to know. This is not, according to Essex Police, what happened to Allison Pearson. They never mentioned non-crime hate incidents, and they say they have video to back that up.
Given the history of the police blatent lying to protect their reputation or get others (including Government ministers) into trouble, I wouldn't them as far as I could throw them. Nor would I trust their transcripts. If they want to prove themselves they should release the footage for everyone to see.
I am no fan of the Old Bill, but there again when the opposing campaign is behind a Telegraph columnist one does wonder whether a plague on both their houses is appropriate.
Although "a non-criminal hate intervention" seems like an act of extreme time and tax revenue wasting irrelevance, particularly when there are villains to catch.
Well as somebody on the left who is sympathetic to the “culture war” I’m saying I’ve given up. I can’t be alone in that thought.
GE2024 was barely about culture, that issue as far as I can see seems to be receding.
You won, I lost. It’s the economy that matters now - and funnily enough that is all that SKS seems to be focussing on?
You aren't alone. AOC of the "squad" has removed her pronouns from her social media bios. She's the most far leftist woke warrior in the Democratic party and she's given up.
Maybe she doesn't know what her pronouns are?
HOT, her pronoun is HOT
Or at least it was. She is maybe past her prime now, but five years ago, growl
It's a complex mix of emotioins for the red-blooded rightwing male, when you are confronted by a woman whose political views you abhor, and whose intellect (you feel) is lacking, but every time you look at her you can't help thinking Oof, yes
Has any other PBer experienced this? Does any other PB-er encounter a politician they actively despise, in terms of their views, but nonetheless they find them alluring in some way?
I'm gonna have guess - and I readily confess it is just a guess - that @IanB2 finds Javier Millei's libertarian Thatcherism quite contemptible and foolish, but at the same time @IanB2 also finds Millei sexually arousing, mainly because the Argentine leader looks a bit like a labradoodle, and @IanB2 does REALLY love his dogs
Amy Coney-Barrett, but I think it might just be her voice.
For me (if we are allowed to include political journalists as well as politicians) it's Ash Sarkar and - even more so - Grace Blakeley (yes yes, I'm a filthy old perv, they are half my age or less, whatever)
At least Ash has a spirited intellect, Grace Blakeley seems entirely vapid (as well as woke annoying and daft), but hmmmm she's pretty
I used to quite fancy Yvette Cooper when she looked a bit like a Leni Riefenstahl heroine but she's doesn't any more
Well as somebody on the left who is sympathetic to the “culture war” I’m saying I’ve given up. I can’t be alone in that thought.
GE2024 was barely about culture, that issue as far as I can see seems to be receding.
You won, I lost. It’s the economy that matters now - and funnily enough that is all that SKS seems to be focussing on?
You aren't alone. AOC of the "squad" has removed her pronouns from her social media bios. She's the most far leftist woke warrior in the Democratic party and she's given up.
Maybe she doesn't know what her pronouns are?
HOT, her pronoun is HOT
Or at least it was. She is maybe past her prime now, but five years ago, growl
It's a complex mix of emotioins for the red-blooded rightwing male, when you are confronted by a woman whose political views you abhor, and whose intellect (you feel) is lacking, but every time you look at her you can't help thinking Oof, yes
Has any other PBer experienced this? Does any other PB-er encounter a politician they actively despise, in terms of their views, but nonetheless they find them alluring in some way?
I'm gonna have guess - and I readily confess it is just a guess - that @IanB2 finds Javier Millei's libertarian Thatcherism quite contemptible and foolish, but at the same time @IanB2 also finds Millei sexually arousing, mainly because the Argentine leader looks a bit like a labradoodle, and @IanB2 does REALLY love his dogs
Genuine question. Do you enjoy Bluesky? Is it not a boring liberal echo chamber?
I've seen a few lefty friends desert TwiX for BlueSky, as they once left for Threads and Mastodon, but returned
However, maybe this time they mean it. I'm curious what attracts them, because they lose all the followers they had built up on TwiX, so it is a proper sacrifice
It will be a shame if there is no one space where we can all argue, and Twitter was that, albeit biased to the left before and biased to the right now
Let me reflect on that for the afternoon, and I'll come back with an answer later and tag you in.
My other half was gradually losing non-bot followers on Twitter over the last year or so, and has been on Bluesky for a while, but with a far lower follower count.
In the last couple of weeks, they're up to 5k followers which is roughly half where they were at on the other place, but there are far fewer bots.
It's work in progress. But the difference is that it's designed to avoid becoming the kind of sewer Musk appears determined that his X should be.
With critical mass it could replace Twitter, but that's far from a certainty. The Musk site is still useful, despite the increased effort required of users to keep it do.
It tipped over for me personally a few weeks ago. My timeline was a total sewer, I was starting to see more bot tweets, largely about the US Election, and I just stopped bothering to go to the site.
Im getting there. Not yet. And if I leave Twitter it won’t be for bluesky or the vacuous threads, but a full detox of political social media.
Like with others, the porn bots, the Russian bots and the drop shipping ads are making it an unappealing place to spend time.
The greatest danger to all of them is Dead Internet, the same applies to Reddit and Threads and Insta and Bluesky and - God help us - maybe even PB
There will come a point when you will wonder - am I simply arguing with a machine? a bunch of robots? - and then that could kill off all social media entirely. the only way to save it will be prohibiting anonymity but that will kill off social media in a dfferent way
My god, that means we will actually have to start meeting people and having real life chats
It will kill off open social media - such as here, where we chat among strangers - but instead you'll have a variety of closed groups. WhatsApp groups for various sets of friends and interest groups, discords, etc.
Facebook started off thar way, as a social media based on real identities, where you controlled who could see what. Something like that could become popular again.
Genuine question. Do you enjoy Bluesky? Is it not a boring liberal echo chamber?
I've seen a few lefty friends desert TwiX for BlueSky, as they once left for Threads and Mastodon, but returned
However, maybe this time they mean it. I'm curious what attracts them, because they lose all the followers they had built up on TwiX, so it is a proper sacrifice
It will be a shame if there is no one space where we can all argue, and Twitter was that, albeit biased to the left before and biased to the right now
Let me reflect on that for the afternoon, and I'll come back with an answer later and tag you in.
My other half was gradually losing non-bot followers on Twitter over the last year or so, and has been on Bluesky for a while, but with a far lower follower count.
In the last couple of weeks, they're up to 5k followers which is roughly half where they were at on the other place, but there are far fewer bots.
It's work in progress. But the difference is that it's designed to avoid becoming the kind of sewer Musk appears determined that his X should be.
With critical mass it could replace Twitter, but that's far from a certainty. The Musk site is still useful, despite the increased effort required of users to keep it do.
It tipped over for me personally a few weeks ago. My timeline was a total sewer, I was starting to see more bot tweets, largely about the US Election, and I just stopped bothering to go to the site.
Im getting there. Not yet. And if I leave Twitter it won’t be for bluesky or the vacuous threads, but a full detox of political social media.
Like with others, the porn bots, the Russian bots and the drop shipping ads are making it an unappealing place to spend time.
The greatest danger to all of them is Dead Internet, the same applies to Reddit and Threads and Insta and Bluesky and - God help us - maybe even PB
There will come a point when you will wonder - am I simply arguing with a machine? a bunch of robots? - and then that could kill off all social media entirely. the only way to save it will be prohibiting anonymity but that will kill off social media in a dfferent way
My god, that means we will actually have to start meeting people and having real life chats
It will kill off open social media - such as here, where we chat among strangers - but instead you'll have a variety of closed groups. WhatsApp groups for various sets of friends and interest groups, discords, etc.
Facebook started off thar way, as a social media based on real identities, where you controlled who could see what. Something like that could become popular again.
Facebook still is that. Yes there are adverts but the vast majority of posts on my feed are from groups I chose to join and people I know. I also run a whole series of both public and private groups for various hobbies and interests. As long as you practice active moderation they are very good.
"This didn't happen overnight. It took years and years for people on the Left to construct the censorship machinery that inevitably led to police knocking on a journalist's door for something she posted on social media.
These bigots HATE that you might think differently and NOTHING will change their thinking until the Right grabs hold of this machinery and turns it on them."
The world was a happier place when people like you were off their tits on class A drugs, whilst drinking and shagging with gay abandon. The side effect of coming off the all time high has been a propensity for miserable prejudice against anyone they believe might be having a nicer time than themselves.
ALSO, I'm genuinely unsure that anyone is having a nicer time than me
Well, we've just bought a building plot and are about to embark on a 2-3 year eco-build adventure. Meanwhile we're living in a rented cottage looking out over beautiful Dorset valley.
So all good here, thanks for asking.
Good luck!
Thanks! And thanks for the pointer to BuildHub (I think it was you who put me on to it) - it's a great resource.
Is that like pornhub, but for people with a specific fetish?
Their specialty is erections.
I’ll get my coat.
It's on the thing sticking out from the wall at a 45 degree angle.
Well as somebody on the left who is sympathetic to the “culture war” I’m saying I’ve given up. I can’t be alone in that thought.
GE2024 was barely about culture, that issue as far as I can see seems to be receding.
You won, I lost. It’s the economy that matters now - and funnily enough that is all that SKS seems to be focussing on?
You aren't alone. AOC of the "squad" has removed her pronouns from her social media bios. She's the most far leftist woke warrior in the Democratic party and she's given up.
The pronouns thing was something I wasn’t particularly bothered about. Making others feel like they should I don’t agree with but it you want to is that a problem?
Anyway, I strongly feel it’s over. We will go back to the centre now, especially in this country.
Let trans people live in peace. Protect single sex spaces. Protect sports. Job done.
It needs to go a lot further than that, dismantle all ESG/DEI initiatives and regulatory reporting requirements for companies, stand behind companies who seek profit rather than some ephemeral idea of "social good" when the idiots at the activist charities come after them, call time on black history month, pride month and all that rainbow warrior nonsense. End all positive discrimination in hiring and for university spots, outlaw it - the best candidate should always get the job/place based on ability, skill and realised potential.
We should live in a country where the colour of someone's skin doesn't give them any disadvantages or advantages. The idea is ridiculous.
How do we stop utterly mediocre posh boys like Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees Mogg and countless others sliding into their usual positions of power on the back of who their parents are and who they met when they went to school?
The conveyor belt that takes people who would not get close to where they do if talent and ability were the deciding factors from school through university to positions of significant influence and responsibility has done far more damage to this country over a far longer period than the odd DEI programme.
Ha. Haven’t you noticed? The posh boys have left. The apparatus of state is controlled by people who are far closer the Cressida Dick.
We have replaced the nepotistic incompetence of the Old10K with the nepotistic* incompetence of the NU10K.
So on one level with have some diversity. On the other, the mind set is curiously similar. Oh, some of the nostrums they parrot are different.
Chief Superintendent Savage of the Met has the cleaning lady polish his awards for AntiRacism now and again. While protecting the officers who illegally strip searched black teenagers… Savage didn’t go to Oxbridge, is that something?
Meet the new bosses. Bit shinier and more colourful than the old bosses. But so very familiar, somehow.
*check out the social connections of the new elite.
Well as somebody on the left who is sympathetic to the “culture war” I’m saying I’ve given up. I can’t be alone in that thought.
GE2024 was barely about culture, that issue as far as I can see seems to be receding.
You won, I lost. It’s the economy that matters now - and funnily enough that is all that SKS seems to be focussing on?
You aren't alone. AOC of the "squad" has removed her pronouns from her social media bios. She's the most far leftist woke warrior in the Democratic party and she's given up.
Maybe she doesn't know what her pronouns are?
HOT, her pronoun is HOT
Or at least it was. She is maybe past her prime now, but five years ago, growl
It's a complex mix of emotioins for the red-blooded rightwing male, when you are confronted by a woman whose political views you abhor, and whose intellect (you feel) is lacking, but every time you look at her you can't help thinking Oof, yes
Has any other PBer experienced this? Does any other PB-er encounter a politician they actively despise, in terms of their views, but nonetheless they find them alluring in some way?
I'm gonna have guess - and I readily confess it is just a guess - that @IanB2 finds Javier Millei's libertarian Thatcherism quite contemptible and foolish, but at the same time @IanB2 also finds Millei sexually arousing, mainly because the Argentine leader looks a bit like a labradoodle, and @IanB2 does REALLY love his dogs
Amy Coney-Barrett, but I think it might just be her voice.
For me (if we are allowed to include political journalists as well as politicians) it's Ash Sarkar and - even more so - Grace Blakeley (yes yes, I'm a filthy old perv, they are half my age or less, whatever)
At least Ash has a spirited intellect, Grace Blakeley seems entirely vapid (as well as woke annoying and daft), but hmmmm she's pretty
I used to quite fancy Yvette Cooper when she looked a bit like a Leni Riefenstahl heroine but she's doesn't any more
Genuine question. Do you enjoy Bluesky? Is it not a boring liberal echo chamber?
I've seen a few lefty friends desert TwiX for BlueSky, as they once left for Threads and Mastodon, but returned
However, maybe this time they mean it. I'm curious what attracts them, because they lose all the followers they had built up on TwiX, so it is a proper sacrifice
It will be a shame if there is no one space where we can all argue, and Twitter was that, albeit biased to the left before and biased to the right now
Let me reflect on that for the afternoon, and I'll come back with an answer later and tag you in.
My other half was gradually losing non-bot followers on Twitter over the last year or so, and has been on Bluesky for a while, but with a far lower follower count.
In the last couple of weeks, they're up to 5k followers which is roughly half where they were at on the other place, but there are far fewer bots.
I assume Threads is doing ok just by capturing those of us with an Instagram account? Is Bluesky more popular?
I dumped Twitter years ago and find Threads to be unobjectionable but not something I actively scroll through because it doesn’t have the peak Twitter benefit of it feeling like EVERYONE is on it; and the algorithm making it a useful amalgamator for live news events. I don’t think anything will ever quite be that again now the audience has split.
I don't do Facebook stuff, so never tried Threads. That and no-one in their 50s can detach the name from nuclear nightmare TV.
I use Mastodon for tech stuff, but Bluesky suddenly feels like Twitter did before the fall. Most everybody is there now (as of the last few weeks) and the conversations have picked up. And you can detach yourself from troll retweets and that kind of thing so it is better than Twitter ever was for self-preservation.
ETA: except Geoff McGivern. He's still refusing to leave.
The other nice thing about it is that they seem to have designed out some of the patterns used by grifters and trolls.
For instance, you can't continually lock and unlock your profile, and you can't reply from behind a block - both of which were often used on Twitter to construct a false record of a conversation.
I'm sure the grifters will find other ways to exploit it in time, but right now it's much better than Twitter was at any point since the mid-2010s.
Just a month to go, and it will be getting lighter again.
Meanwhile I’ve spent the day planting an absurd number of spring bulbs, ready to welcome in spring next year.
And booking my long summer trip to Scandinavia and my only slightly less long autumn trip to Italy next year. A good way to spend these dark evenings.
And I have to plan another long trip to the US for 2026. Arizona, I’m thinking.
You want to visit America, two years into Trump 2.0?
You like dystopian holidays?
Well, I committed before the election result.
You’re right that having the lunatics in charge is a reason to think again. I don’t have to pay any more for the trip until early 2026.
Maybe the impending midterm Democratic triumph might make it a good time to be your man on the spot…?
More seriously, having a dog and a car and being free to drive anywhere for a couple of months in a welcoming, English-speaking continent is an amazing travel opportunity. I usually return grateful that Europe isn’t the US, but also wondering where I will go the next time I cross the Atlantic on the QM2 and go pick up my AVIS hire car from NYC. 6,608 miles, this autumn, to beat.
Well as somebody on the left who is sympathetic to the “culture war” I’m saying I’ve given up. I can’t be alone in that thought.
GE2024 was barely about culture, that issue as far as I can see seems to be receding.
You won, I lost. It’s the economy that matters now - and funnily enough that is all that SKS seems to be focussing on?
You aren't alone. AOC of the "squad" has removed her pronouns from her social media bios. She's the most far leftist woke warrior in the Democratic party and she's given up.
The pronouns thing was something I wasn’t particularly bothered about. Making others feel like they should I don’t agree with but it you want to is that a problem?
Anyway, I strongly feel it’s over. We will go back to the centre now, especially in this country.
Let trans people live in peace. Protect single sex spaces. Protect sports. Job done.
It needs to go a lot further than that, dismantle all ESG/DEI initiatives and regulatory reporting requirements for companies, stand behind companies who seek profit rather than some ephemeral idea of "social good" when the idiots at the activist charities come after them, call time on black history month, pride month and all that rainbow warrior nonsense. End all positive discrimination in hiring and for university spots, outlaw it - the best candidate should always get the job/place based on ability, skill and realised potential.
We should live in a country where the colour of someone's skin doesn't give them any disadvantages or advantages. The idea is ridiculous.
How do we stop utterly mediocre posh boys like Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees Mogg and countless others sliding into their usual positions of power on the back of who their parents are and who they met when they went to school?
The conveyor belt that takes people who would not get close to where they do if talent and ability were the deciding factors from school through university to positions of significant influence and responsibility has done far more damage to this country over a far longer period than the odd DEI programme.
Ha. Haven’t you noticed? The posh boys have left. The apparatus of state is controlled by people who are far closer the Cressida Dick.
We have replaced the nepotistic incompetence of the Old10K with the nepotistic* incompetence of the NU10K.
So on one level with have some diversity. On the other, the mind set is curiously similar. Oh, some of the nostrums they parrot are different.
Chief Superintendent Savage of the Met has the cleaning lady polish his awards for AntiRacism now and again. While protecting the officers who illegally strip searched black teenagers… Savage didn’t go to Oxbridge, is that something?
Meet the new bosses. Bit shinier and more colourful than the old bosses. But so very familiar, somehow.
*check out the social connections of the new elite.
Hmmm
The percentage of posh boys at the top of British society - in all its facets - remains extraordinarily high: from the media through politics to finance and the law. Funnily enough, policing is probably one area where they have always been less influential. Probably because it has involved starting at the bottom. Daddy can't have a word and secure you a chief inspectors role.
lol. But it is genuinely shocking when you've been away for so long; and then you come home and the day ends about two hours after it started
Our (half-)Thai grandchildren, resident in Bangkok, used to find the variation in day length very confusing when visiting us when they were young.
You shouldn’t have let them stay so long.
Ha ha! I wondered, after I'd posted, whether I'd made it clear that the difference was on successive visits! Came at Christmas; stayed up well after dark; came in the summer, had to go to bed in daylight. Not like home at all.
If the police come to your door talking about a non-crime hate incident you politely tell them that since they have told you it is a non-crime you have no obligation to talk to them. If they wish to write to you then they are free to do so, you will pass the letter onto your solicitor who will reply.
That’s is useful to know. This is not, according to Essex Police, what happened to Allison Pearson. They never mentioned non-crime hate incidents, and they say they have video to back that up.
Given the history of the police blatent lying to protect their reputation or get others (including Government ministers) into trouble, I wouldn't them as far as I could throw them. Nor would I trust their transcripts. If they want to prove themselves they should release the footage for everyone to see.
I am no fan of the Old Bill, but there again when the opposing campaign is behind a Telegraph columnist one does wonder whether a plague on both their houses is appropriate.
Although "a non-criminal hate intervention" seems like an act of extreme time and tax revenue wasting irrelevance, particularly when there are villains to catch.
The abuses and miscarriages of justice always start with those we don’t like.
For example, the “fitting up” culture always starts with the obviously guilty, habitual criminals.
In the US, for exanple, a prosecutor was disbarred for massively abusing justice in a case involving some posh kids at a posh university. People you’d love to hate. A journalist realised it was unlikely to be the first time for that prosecutor. And guess who were the most common customers? Yup, the prosecutor had a long track record of railroading poor, black men.
And who could possibly have guessed it would be this group who were first to realise what they have done?
Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 1h The cofounder of Muslims for Trump tells Reuters that he is disappointed to discover the president-elect's position on the US approach to Israel, Palestine and the Middle East
Milei is a fascinating politician. Of all the populists misnamed as far right, he is surely the most misnamed.
He’s basically the love child of John Redwood (vintage 1995, before he discovered trade protectionism) and LuckyGuy, plus a dose of dinosaurian misogyny and the after effects of a night on the happy pills.
Slash and burn libertarian, ultra-Thatcherite, climate denier, but also a stalwart anti-Putinist and not as far as I’ve noticed either an ethno-nationalist, a Falklands imperialist, an oligarchic crony-capitalist or a homophobe.
Based on current evidence I’d take him over Trump, Bolsonaro or Farage any day.
I’d also rather have a climate change denier in power in Argentina than Brazil or the US.
He is staunchly pro-western. Is he a climate denier as in he doesn't believe in the greenhouse effect/global warming or does he think our policies are a waste of time?
Well as somebody on the left who is sympathetic to the “culture war” I’m saying I’ve given up. I can’t be alone in that thought.
GE2024 was barely about culture, that issue as far as I can see seems to be receding.
You won, I lost. It’s the economy that matters now - and funnily enough that is all that SKS seems to be focussing on?
You aren't alone. AOC of the "squad" has removed her pronouns from her social media bios. She's the most far leftist woke warrior in the Democratic party and she's given up.
The pronouns thing was something I wasn’t particularly bothered about. Making others feel like they should I don’t agree with but it you want to is that a problem?
Anyway, I strongly feel it’s over. We will go back to the centre now, especially in this country.
Let trans people live in peace. Protect single sex spaces. Protect sports. Job done.
It needs to go a lot further than that, dismantle all ESG/DEI initiatives and regulatory reporting requirements for companies, stand behind companies who seek profit rather than some ephemeral idea of "social good" when the idiots at the activist charities come after them, call time on black history month, pride month and all that rainbow warrior nonsense. End all positive discrimination in hiring and for university spots, outlaw it - the best candidate should always get the job/place based on ability, skill and realised potential.
We should live in a country where the colour of someone's skin doesn't give them any disadvantages or advantages. The idea is ridiculous.
How do we stop utterly mediocre posh boys like Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees Mogg and countless others sliding into their usual positions of power on the back of who their parents are and who they met when they went to school?
The conveyor belt that takes people who would not get close to where they do if talent and ability were the deciding factors from school through university to positions of significant influence and responsibility has done far more damage to this country over a far longer period than the odd DEI programme.
Ha. Haven’t you noticed? The posh boys have left. The apparatus of state is controlled by people who are far closer the Cressida Dick.
We have replaced the nepotistic incompetence of the Old10K with the nepotistic* incompetence of the NU10K.
So on one level with have some diversity. On the other, the mind set is curiously similar. Oh, some of the nostrums they parrot are different.
Chief Superintendent Savage of the Met has the cleaning lady polish his awards for AntiRacism now and again. While protecting the officers who illegally strip searched black teenagers… Savage didn’t go to Oxbridge, is that something?
Meet the new bosses. Bit shinier and more colourful than the old bosses. But so very familiar, somehow.
*check out the social connections of the new elite.
Hmmm
The percentage of posh boys at the top of British society - in all its facets - remains extraordinarily high: from the media through politics to finance and the law. Funnily enough, policing is probably one area where they have always been less influential. Probably because it has involved starting at the bottom. Daddy can't have a word and secure you a chief inspectors role.
It's noticeable that pretty well every time someone from Scotland is interviewed on the TV they've a Scots accent of some sort. Unless, of course they are landed gentry. Same in Norn, but not quite so marked in Cymru.
Well as somebody on the left who is sympathetic to the “culture war” I’m saying I’ve given up. I can’t be alone in that thought.
GE2024 was barely about culture, that issue as far as I can see seems to be receding.
You won, I lost. It’s the economy that matters now - and funnily enough that is all that SKS seems to be focussing on?
You aren't alone. AOC of the "squad" has removed her pronouns from her social media bios. She's the most far leftist woke warrior in the Democratic party and she's given up.
Maybe she doesn't know what her pronouns are?
HOT, her pronoun is HOT
Or at least it was. She is maybe past her prime now, but five years ago, growl
It's a complex mix of emotioins for the red-blooded rightwing male, when you are confronted by a woman whose political views you abhor, and whose intellect (you feel) is lacking, but every time you look at her you can't help thinking Oof, yes
Has any other PBer experienced this? Does any other PB-er encounter a politician they actively despise, in terms of their views, but nonetheless they find them alluring in some way?
I'm gonna have guess - and I readily confess it is just a guess - that @IanB2 finds Javier Millei's libertarian Thatcherism quite contemptible and foolish, but at the same time @IanB2 also finds Millei sexually arousing, mainly because the Argentine leader looks a bit like a labradoodle, and @IanB2 does REALLY love his dogs
Amy Coney-Barrett, but I think it might just be her voice.
For me (if we are allowed to include political journalists as well as politicians) it's Ash Sarkar and - even more so - Grace Blakeley (yes yes, I'm a filthy old perv, they are half my age or less, whatever)
At least Ash has a spirited intellect, Grace Blakeley seems entirely vapid (as well as woke annoying and daft), but hmmmm she's pretty
I used to quite fancy Yvette Cooper when she looked a bit like a Leni Riefenstahl heroine but she's doesn't any more
Another posho taught to believe they can and should do whatever they like regardless of whether they have the talent to do it. And we let them!!!
It was that video where I first noticed her! Not great music but.... so pretty, and that lovely summer dress
EMITS GERIATRIC SIGH
In the same vein, and even more annoying, that Irish Remainy woman who bangs on about Palestine, wossname - Cassidy? Irritating but also fetching
And even more, Zoe Gardner, who campaigns about refugees in the most infuriatingly woke-ish way, absolutuely insane, "let them all in", would allow 7m migrants a week if she could, and yet she is also stunning. What's a man to do
EMBRACE the seasonality. It's what makes our long summer nights so rewarding. There's a cold snap coming up: which gives you the opportunity to hike up to a modest elevation to see some really quite heartbreakingly lovely sunset before teatime, then have your dinner in some cosy pub somewhere. Because I'm a parent of heavily scheduled children and have almost no scope to be spontaneous, my annual November sunset hike up Arnside Knott with two like minded familities was pencilled in months ago for months for tomorrow, when it's due to be pissing down with rain at the allotted slot, but you have the flexibility to do it whenever there's a clear evening. Being in London you have neither the elevation nor the west coast that is accessible to me, but all you need is somewhere with a southwesterly view. I'd say you get a cracking November sunset from Box Hill, and Surrey's leaf coverage will be close to its best right now.
EDIT: Just checked the weather forecast. Go to Box Hill on Wednesday and watch the sunset: 51.247431, -0.311295. That will make sunset at 4 worthwhile.
Well as somebody on the left who is sympathetic to the “culture war” I’m saying I’ve given up. I can’t be alone in that thought.
GE2024 was barely about culture, that issue as far as I can see seems to be receding.
You won, I lost. It’s the economy that matters now - and funnily enough that is all that SKS seems to be focussing on?
You aren't alone. AOC of the "squad" has removed her pronouns from her social media bios. She's the most far leftist woke warrior in the Democratic party and she's given up.
The pronouns thing was something I wasn’t particularly bothered about. Making others feel like they should I don’t agree with but it you want to is that a problem?
Anyway, I strongly feel it’s over. We will go back to the centre now, especially in this country.
Let trans people live in peace. Protect single sex spaces. Protect sports. Job done.
It needs to go a lot further than that, dismantle all ESG/DEI initiatives and regulatory reporting requirements for companies, stand behind companies who seek profit rather than some ephemeral idea of "social good" when the idiots at the activist charities come after them, call time on black history month, pride month and all that rainbow warrior nonsense. End all positive discrimination in hiring and for university spots, outlaw it - the best candidate should always get the job/place based on ability, skill and realised potential.
We should live in a country where the colour of someone's skin doesn't give them any disadvantages or advantages. The idea is ridiculous.
How do we stop utterly mediocre posh boys like Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees Mogg and countless others sliding into their usual positions of power on the back of who their parents are and who they met when they went to school?
The conveyor belt that takes people who would not get close to where they do if talent and ability were the deciding factors from school through university to positions of significant influence and responsibility has done far more damage to this country over a far longer period than the odd DEI programme.
Ha. Haven’t you noticed? The posh boys have left. The apparatus of state is controlled by people who are far closer the Cressida Dick.
We have replaced the nepotistic incompetence of the Old10K with the nepotistic* incompetence of the NU10K.
So on one level with have some diversity. On the other, the mind set is curiously similar. Oh, some of the nostrums they parrot are different.
Chief Superintendent Savage of the Met has the cleaning lady polish his awards for AntiRacism now and again. While protecting the officers who illegally strip searched black teenagers… Savage didn’t go to Oxbridge, is that something?
Meet the new bosses. Bit shinier and more colourful than the old bosses. But so very familiar, somehow.
*check out the social connections of the new elite.
Hmmm
The percentage of posh boys at the top of British society - in all its facets - remains extraordinarily high: from the media through politics to finance and the law. Funnily enough, policing is probably one area where they have always been less influential. Probably because it has involved starting at the bottom. Daddy can't have a word and secure you a chief inspectors role.
The police just a mildly different version of the same thing - it’s all about who you know. And having a reputation for being a “safe pair of hands” eg covering up for other people.
Just a month to go, and it will be getting lighter again.
Meanwhile I’ve spent the day planting an absurd number of spring bulbs, ready to welcome in spring next year.
And booking my long summer trip to Scandinavia and my only slightly less long autumn trip to Italy next year. A good way to spend these dark evenings.
And I have to plan another long trip to the US for 2026. Arizona, I’m thinking.
You want to visit America, two years into Trump 2.0?
You like dystopian holidays?
Well, I committed before the election result.
You’re right that having the lunatics in charge is a reason to think again. I don’t have to pay any more for the trip until early 2026.
Maybe the impending midterm Democratic triumph might make it a good time to be your man on the spot…?
More seriously, having a dog and a car and being free to drive anywhere for a couple of months in a welcoming, English-speaking continent is an amazing travel opportunity. I usually return grateful that Europe isn’t the US, but also wondering where I will go the next time I cross the Atlantic on the QM2 and go pick up my AVIS hire car from NYC. 6,608 miles, this autumn, to beat.
May I ask, does your dog like being at sea on a passenger liner?
EMBRACE the seasonality. It's what makes our long summer nights so rewarding. There's a cold snap coming up: which gives you the opportunity to hike up to a modest elevation to see some really quite heartbreakingly lovely sunset before teatime, then have your dinner in some cosy pub somewhere. Because I'm a parent of heavily scheduled children and have almost no scope to be spontaneous, my annual November sunset hike up Arnside Knott with two like minded familities was pencilled in months ago for months for tomorrow, when it's due to be pissing down with rain at the allotted slot, but you have the flexibility to do it whenever there's a clear evening. Being in London you have neither the elevation nor the west coast that is accessible to me, but all you need is somewhere with a southwesterly view. I'd say you get a cracking November sunset from Box Hill, and Surrey's leaf coverage will be close to its best right now.
TBH I'm still numb with shock from jetlag. Should be feeling a bit better by Monday and I will do as you sensibly advise. Lean into it. Wrap handsome scarves around my neck 30s Brideshead style! Eat oysters in season! Drink deep draughts of red wine in pubs with roaring fires. Gaze thoughtfully at the sere and final leaves of the ash and the lime. Yomp across Hampstead Heath in the exhilarating chill. Admire the filigree of morning frost. Mulled wine and good cheer. Snuffling dogs. Evensong in the gloaming. Roast dinners with chestnuts
And who could possibly have guessed it would be this group who were first to realise what they have done?
Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 1h The cofounder of Muslims for Trump tells Reuters that he is disappointed to discover the president-elect's position on the US approach to Israel, Palestine and the Middle East
I went to school with Grace. She was a nobody then and is also now.
She does seem to have been somewhat found out as an economics guru. But she'll keep reappearing in slightly different guises. I imagine she'll try self-help at some point and TV cheffing.
And who could possibly have guessed it would be this group who were first to realise what they have done?
Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 1h The cofounder of Muslims for Trump tells Reuters that he is disappointed to discover the president-elect's position on the US approach to Israel, Palestine and the Middle East
Sounds extreme but if correct with 2.5m registered Muslim voters assume half voted that is about -900k Harris and +175k Trump. About a third of the popular vote gap just on that issue.
Well as somebody on the left who is sympathetic to the “culture war” I’m saying I’ve given up. I can’t be alone in that thought.
GE2024 was barely about culture, that issue as far as I can see seems to be receding.
You won, I lost. It’s the economy that matters now - and funnily enough that is all that SKS seems to be focussing on?
You aren't alone. AOC of the "squad" has removed her pronouns from her social media bios. She's the most far leftist woke warrior in the Democratic party and she's given up.
The pronouns thing was something I wasn’t particularly bothered about. Making others feel like they should I don’t agree with but it you want to is that a problem?
Anyway, I strongly feel it’s over. We will go back to the centre now, especially in this country.
Let trans people live in peace. Protect single sex spaces. Protect sports. Job done.
It needs to go a lot further than that, dismantle all ESG/DEI initiatives and regulatory reporting requirements for companies, stand behind companies who seek profit rather than some ephemeral idea of "social good" when the idiots at the activist charities come after them, call time on black history month, pride month and all that rainbow warrior nonsense. End all positive discrimination in hiring and for university spots, outlaw it - the best candidate should always get the job/place based on ability, skill and realised potential.
We should live in a country where the colour of someone's skin doesn't give them any disadvantages or advantages. The idea is ridiculous.
How do we stop utterly mediocre posh boys like Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees Mogg and countless others sliding into their usual positions of power on the back of who their parents are and who they met when they went to school?
The conveyor belt that takes people who would not get close to where they do if talent and ability were the deciding factors from school through university to positions of significant influence and responsibility has done far more damage to this country over a far longer period than the odd DEI programme.
Ha. Haven’t you noticed? The posh boys have left. The apparatus of state is controlled by people who are far closer the Cressida Dick.
We have replaced the nepotistic incompetence of the Old10K with the nepotistic* incompetence of the NU10K.
So on one level with have some diversity. On the other, the mind set is curiously similar. Oh, some of the nostrums they parrot are different.
Chief Superintendent Savage of the Met has the cleaning lady polish his awards for AntiRacism now and again. While protecting the officers who illegally strip searched black teenagers… Savage didn’t go to Oxbridge, is that something?
Meet the new bosses. Bit shinier and more colourful than the old bosses. But so very familiar, somehow.
*check out the social connections of the new elite.
Hmmm
The percentage of posh boys at the top of British society - in all its facets - remains extraordinarily high: from the media through politics to finance and the law. Funnily enough, policing is probably one area where they have always been less influential. Probably because it has involved starting at the bottom. Daddy can't have a word and secure you a chief inspectors role.
It's noticeable that pretty well every time someone from Scotland is interviewed on the TV they've a Scots accent of some sort. Unless, of course they are landed gentry. Same in Norn, but not quite so marked in Cymru.
I am pretty bad at picking Scottish accents but Edinburgh ones do seem to be quite over-represented.
Anyway, a perfect video for a Saturday night: what happens physically and physiologically when someone gives up drinking for six weeks. In this case, he is an ex-professional cyclist who became a heavy drinker after he retired.
Well as somebody on the left who is sympathetic to the “culture war” I’m saying I’ve given up. I can’t be alone in that thought.
GE2024 was barely about culture, that issue as far as I can see seems to be receding.
You won, I lost. It’s the economy that matters now - and funnily enough that is all that SKS seems to be focussing on?
You aren't alone. AOC of the "squad" has removed her pronouns from her social media bios. She's the most far leftist woke warrior in the Democratic party and she's given up.
The pronouns thing was something I wasn’t particularly bothered about. Making others feel like they should I don’t agree with but it you want to is that a problem?
Anyway, I strongly feel it’s over. We will go back to the centre now, especially in this country.
Let trans people live in peace. Protect single sex spaces. Protect sports. Job done.
It needs to go a lot further than that, dismantle all ESG/DEI initiatives and regulatory reporting requirements for companies, stand behind companies who seek profit rather than some ephemeral idea of "social good" when the idiots at the activist charities come after them, call time on black history month, pride month and all that rainbow warrior nonsense. End all positive discrimination in hiring and for university spots, outlaw it - the best candidate should always get the job/place based on ability, skill and realised potential.
We should live in a country where the colour of someone's skin doesn't give them any disadvantages or advantages. The idea is ridiculous.
How do we stop utterly mediocre posh boys like Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees Mogg and countless others sliding into their usual positions of power on the back of who their parents are and who they met when they went to school?
The conveyor belt that takes people who would not get close to where they do if talent and ability were the deciding factors from school through university to positions of significant influence and responsibility has done far more damage to this country over a far longer period than the odd DEI programme.
Ha. Haven’t you noticed? The posh boys have left. The apparatus of state is controlled by people who are far closer the Cressida Dick.
We have replaced the nepotistic incompetence of the Old10K with the nepotistic* incompetence of the NU10K.
So on one level with have some diversity. On the other, the mind set is curiously similar. Oh, some of the nostrums they parrot are different.
Chief Superintendent Savage of the Met has the cleaning lady polish his awards for AntiRacism now and again. While protecting the officers who illegally strip searched black teenagers… Savage didn’t go to Oxbridge, is that something?
Meet the new bosses. Bit shinier and more colourful than the old bosses. But so very familiar, somehow.
*check out the social connections of the new elite.
Hmmm
The percentage of posh boys at the top of British society - in all its facets - remains extraordinarily high: from the media through politics to finance and the law. Funnily enough, policing is probably one area where they have always been less influential. Probably because it has involved starting at the bottom. Daddy can't have a word and secure you a chief inspectors role.
It's noticeable that pretty well every time someone from Scotland is interviewed on the TV they've a Scots accent of some sort. Unless, of course they are landed gentry. Same in Norn, but not quite so marked in Cymru.
I am pretty bad at picking Scottish accents but Edinburgh ones do seem to be quite over-represented.
You coiuld be thinking of the local variety of RP, aka Scottish Standard English. There is plenty of urban demotic Scots in Lothian, different from the variety over in the West, which some people might lump with it from inexperience, quite understandably.
EMBRACE the seasonality. It's what makes our long summer nights so rewarding. There's a cold snap coming up: which gives you the opportunity to hike up to a modest elevation to see some really quite heartbreakingly lovely sunset before teatime, then have your dinner in some cosy pub somewhere. Because I'm a parent of heavily scheduled children and have almost no scope to be spontaneous, my annual November sunset hike up Arnside Knott with two like minded familities was pencilled in months ago for months for tomorrow, when it's due to be pissing down with rain at the allotted slot, but you have the flexibility to do it whenever there's a clear evening. Being in London you have neither the elevation nor the west coast that is accessible to me, but all you need is somewhere with a southwesterly view. I'd say you get a cracking November sunset from Box Hill, and Surrey's leaf coverage will be close to its best right now.
TBH I'm still numb with shock from jetlag. Should be feeling a bit better by Monday and I will do as you sensibly advise. Lean into it. Wrap handsome scarves around my neck 30s Brideshead style! Eat oysters in season! Drink deep draughts of red wine in pubs with roaring fires. Gaze thoughtfully at the sere and final leaves of the ash and the lime. Yomp across Hampstead Heath in the exhilarating chill. Admire the filigree of morning frost. Mulled wine and good cheer. Snuffling dogs. Evensong in the gloaming. Roast dinners with chestnuts
Then fuck off somewhere hot and sunny again
Jolly good. England has a good seven weeks of being magnificent yet in all the ways you list. Nowhere I'd rather be in November. Once you get to January, I don't blame you. You can stay to marvel at the bleakness but it's rather making a virtue out of a necessity.
EMBRACE the seasonality. It's what makes our long summer nights so rewarding. There's a cold snap coming up: which gives you the opportunity to hike up to a modest elevation to see some really quite heartbreakingly lovely sunset before teatime, then have your dinner in some cosy pub somewhere. Because I'm a parent of heavily scheduled children and have almost no scope to be spontaneous, my annual November sunset hike up Arnside Knott with two like minded familities was pencilled in months ago for months for tomorrow, when it's due to be pissing down with rain at the allotted slot, but you have the flexibility to do it whenever there's a clear evening. Being in London you have neither the elevation nor the west coast that is accessible to me, but all you need is somewhere with a southwesterly view. I'd say you get a cracking November sunset from Box Hill, and Surrey's leaf coverage will be close to its best right now.
TBH I'm still numb with shock from jetlag. Should be feeling a bit better by Monday and I will do as you sensibly advise. Lean into it. Wrap handsome scarves around my neck 30s Brideshead style! Eat oysters in season! Drink deep draughts of red wine in pubs with roaring fires. Gaze thoughtfully at the sere and final leaves of the ash and the lime. Yomp across Hampstead Heath in the exhilarating chill. Admire the filigree of morning frost. Mulled wine and good cheer. Snuffling dogs. Evensong in the gloaming. Roast dinners with chestnuts
Then fuck off somewhere hot and sunny again
Jolly good. England has a good seven weeks of being magnificent yet in all the ways you list. Nowhere I'd rather be in November. Once you get to January, I don't blame you. You can stay to marvel at the bleakness but it's rather making a virtue out of a necessity.
I rather like Britain in late November and December for all these reasons
But January and February can fucking do one, to be honest. Fuck them. Wankers. Early March is often quite the c*nt as well
Well as somebody on the left who is sympathetic to the “culture war” I’m saying I’ve given up. I can’t be alone in that thought.
GE2024 was barely about culture, that issue as far as I can see seems to be receding.
You won, I lost. It’s the economy that matters now - and funnily enough that is all that SKS seems to be focussing on?
You aren't alone. AOC of the "squad" has removed her pronouns from her social media bios. She's the most far leftist woke warrior in the Democratic party and she's given up.
The pronouns thing was something I wasn’t particularly bothered about. Making others feel like they should I don’t agree with but it you want to is that a problem?
Anyway, I strongly feel it’s over. We will go back to the centre now, especially in this country.
Let trans people live in peace. Protect single sex spaces. Protect sports. Job done.
It needs to go a lot further than that, dismantle all ESG/DEI initiatives and regulatory reporting requirements for companies, stand behind companies who seek profit rather than some ephemeral idea of "social good" when the idiots at the activist charities come after them, call time on black history month, pride month and all that rainbow warrior nonsense. End all positive discrimination in hiring and for university spots, outlaw it - the best candidate should always get the job/place based on ability, skill and realised potential.
We should live in a country where the colour of someone's skin doesn't give them any disadvantages or advantages. The idea is ridiculous.
How do we stop utterly mediocre posh boys like Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees Mogg and countless others sliding into their usual positions of power on the back of who their parents are and who they met when they went to school?
The conveyor belt that takes people who would not get close to where they do if talent and ability were the deciding factors from school through university to positions of significant influence and responsibility has done far more damage to this country over a far longer period than the odd DEI programme.
Ha. Haven’t you noticed? The posh boys have left. The apparatus of state is controlled by people who are far closer the Cressida Dick.
We have replaced the nepotistic incompetence of the Old10K with the nepotistic* incompetence of the NU10K.
So on one level with have some diversity. On the other, the mind set is curiously similar. Oh, some of the nostrums they parrot are different.
Chief Superintendent Savage of the Met has the cleaning lady polish his awards for AntiRacism now and again. While protecting the officers who illegally strip searched black teenagers… Savage didn’t go to Oxbridge, is that something?
Meet the new bosses. Bit shinier and more colourful than the old bosses. But so very familiar, somehow.
*check out the social connections of the new elite.
Hmmm
The percentage of posh boys at the top of British society - in all its facets - remains extraordinarily high: from the media through politics to finance and the law. Funnily enough, policing is probably one area where they have always been less influential. Probably because it has involved starting at the bottom. Daddy can't have a word and secure you a chief inspectors role.
It's noticeable that pretty well every time someone from Scotland is interviewed on the TV they've a Scots accent of some sort. Unless, of course they are landed gentry. Same in Norn, but not quite so marked in Cymru.
I am pretty bad at picking Scottish accents but Edinburgh ones do seem to be quite over-represented.
Which is mildly weird, since the main broadcasters are based in Glasgow. But I think it's more that they're speaking in the "standard scots" register, rather than in an Edinburgh accent as such.
Something similar happens in NI - people often sound like Mid-Ulster English speakers on the TV even if they use a much more Ulster Scots-influenced variety of Belfast accent at home.
EMBRACE the seasonality. It's what makes our long summer nights so rewarding. There's a cold snap coming up: which gives you the opportunity to hike up to a modest elevation to see some really quite heartbreakingly lovely sunset before teatime, then have your dinner in some cosy pub somewhere. Because I'm a parent of heavily scheduled children and have almost no scope to be spontaneous, my annual November sunset hike up Arnside Knott with two like minded familities was pencilled in months ago for months for tomorrow, when it's due to be pissing down with rain at the allotted slot, but you have the flexibility to do it whenever there's a clear evening. Being in London you have neither the elevation nor the west coast that is accessible to me, but all you need is somewhere with a southwesterly view. I'd say you get a cracking November sunset from Box Hill, and Surrey's leaf coverage will be close to its best right now.
TBH I'm still numb with shock from jetlag. Should be feeling a bit better by Monday and I will do as you sensibly advise. Lean into it. Wrap handsome scarves around my neck 30s Brideshead style! Eat oysters in season! Drink deep draughts of red wine in pubs with roaring fires. Gaze thoughtfully at the sere and final leaves of the ash and the lime. Yomp across Hampstead Heath in the exhilarating chill. Admire the filigree of morning frost. Mulled wine and good cheer. Snuffling dogs. Evensong in the gloaming. Roast dinners with chestnuts
Then fuck off somewhere hot and sunny again
Jolly good. England has a good seven weeks of being magnificent yet in all the ways you list. Nowhere I'd rather be in November. Once you get to January, I don't blame you. You can stay to marvel at the bleakness but it's rather making a virtue out of a necessity.
January and February can be bleak, but in sunny weather they can also be sublime, especially with heavy morning frosts sheathing everything in a glistering sheen.
The Free Speech Union on "non hate crime incidents"
"In response to freedom of information requests, police forces across Britain have revealed that 'non-crime hate incidents' (NCHIs) are being logged against people in authority doing their jobs. Examples include:
❌ An NCHI recorded against a doctor in West Yorkshire after a patient alleged they were misdiagnosed "because they were bisexual".
❌ A journalist's article about his interview with a "deaf and dumb" scooterist being reported to the police as a hate incident.
❌ A social worker was also reported to the police in Lancashire over claims she had abused her position and racially discriminated against the victim by preventing her from seeing her children.
In 2014, the College of Policing — a taxpayer-funded quango — came up with the concept of the NCHI in its 'Hate Crime Operational Guidance'. As defined in this document, an NCHI is any incident perceived by the victim or any bystanders to be motivated by hostility or prejudice to the victim based on a 'protected' characteristic (race or perceived race, religion or perceived religion, and so on).
For the avoidance of doubt, non-crime hate incidents really are as Orwellian as they sound. They aren't anonymised, and sit forever against the names of the alleged perpetrators without any real investigation or right of appeal. In addition, if one is recorded against your name it can show up on an enhanced criminal records check and prevent you from getting a job.
That's right, you might not get a job because someone 'perceives' you've committed a 'non-crime'.
Here's a short 🧵detailing some of the most egregious of the 250,000+ NCHIs we estimate the police in England and Wales have logged since 2014..."
THIS IS NOT TRIVIAL
In fact it's fucking sinister and Orwellian and we need rid of this shit
EMBRACE the seasonality. It's what makes our long summer nights so rewarding. There's a cold snap coming up: which gives you the opportunity to hike up to a modest elevation to see some really quite heartbreakingly lovely sunset before teatime, then have your dinner in some cosy pub somewhere. Because I'm a parent of heavily scheduled children and have almost no scope to be spontaneous, my annual November sunset hike up Arnside Knott with two like minded familities was pencilled in months ago for months for tomorrow, when it's due to be pissing down with rain at the allotted slot, but you have the flexibility to do it whenever there's a clear evening. Being in London you have neither the elevation nor the west coast that is accessible to me, but all you need is somewhere with a southwesterly view. I'd say you get a cracking November sunset from Box Hill, and Surrey's leaf coverage will be close to its best right now.
TBH I'm still numb with shock from jetlag. Should be feeling a bit better by Monday and I will do as you sensibly advise. Lean into it. Wrap handsome scarves around my neck 30s Brideshead style! Eat oysters in season! Drink deep draughts of red wine in pubs with roaring fires. Gaze thoughtfully at the sere and final leaves of the ash and the lime. Yomp across Hampstead Heath in the exhilarating chill. Admire the filigree of morning frost. Mulled wine and good cheer. Snuffling dogs. Evensong in the gloaming. Roast dinners with chestnuts
Then fuck off somewhere hot and sunny again
Jolly good. England has a good seven weeks of being magnificent yet in all the ways you list. Nowhere I'd rather be in November. Once you get to January, I don't blame you. You can stay to marvel at the bleakness but it's rather making a virtue out of a necessity.
January and February can be bleak, but in sunny weather they can also be sublime, especially with heavy morning frosts sheathing everything in a glistering sheen.
I like the early months of the year, just because there are a lot of months to come, with lots of possibilities. In November and December I get the feeling of time running out - running out for the year that is. There's not much time left for things - anything - to happen before the end of the year.
Comments
That’s *he didn’t do his f*cking homework* before voting Trump. Idiot
But there is absolutely no sign that the “woke” and “anti-woke” (whatever you take those to mean) are giving up and going away. Here or in America.
In America, the real issue will be literal, actual persecution of some minority groups by Trump & Co.
Tell him to stop doing that and he won't get negative juju on PB
There will come a point when you will wonder - am I simply arguing with a machine? a bunch of robots? - and then that could kill off all social media entirely. the only way to save it will be prohibiting anonymity but that will kill off social media in a dfferent way
My god, that means we will actually have to start meeting people and having real life chats
https://www.thetimes.com/world/us-world/article/presidential-election-results-2024-trump-harris-g2vsjqzh7
The best answer is probably to muddle along in a kind of polite befuddlement,
We could talk about Scotland v Portugal in the rugby but, well, QED
So I think I'll go back to that. You asked me if I could do a summary of the arguments in the forthcoming SC case. The Scottish government and Amnesty have refused to publish their arguments so it is going to be hard to do. I will try but it may take a while because, frankly, most of the arguments are very technical ones about statutory interpretation. But not for a while, if you don't mind as have other stuff to do.
In the meanwhile the arguments which have been published can be found here - https://sex-matters.org/posts/updates/sex-matters-intervention-to-the-supreme-court/ and Dr Foran has also published the attached - https://knowingius.org/p/uk-supreme-court-to-decide-what-is.
Indeed, them just saying "Oh she's lying we have the footage", and then not releasing the footage -makes me more suspicious, not less
Perhaps they do have video which proves Pearson is a liar, it is of course possible; now show us
So all good here, thanks for asking.
And your Dorset adventure sounds absorbing. Post regular photos on here!
I've got a mate who has built a house from scratch in the Thai countryside, and he posts regular update snaps on WhatSapp. It's fascinating and kinda heartening to see it all slowly come together (or maybe the word is quickly, they build fast in Thailand)
Anyway, I strongly feel it’s over. We will go back to the centre now, especially in this country.
Let trans people live in peace. Protect single sex spaces. Protect sports. Job done.
I had to do a 15km run this morning, so I took what is now my favourite route for that distance: St Neots to Huntingdon, from where I get the train back to St Neots. It's a nice, fast route, with a couple of minor hills. I've done it three times now, and always come back from it, wanting to do it again.
The only problem is that half of it is along the A1. There's a pavement, but the traffic still rushes towards me like a load of giant metal rushing things. The air is unclean.
But so far, I've always loved it. It's a straightish, fast route, and unlike circular runs, it actually feels as though I am getting somewhere.
(The route passes through Buckden, and past the beautiful Buckden Towers, the 15th C remains of the palace of the bishop of Lincoln: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckden_Towers )
I hope you are right and agree with your last line
However, I fear it is not over but we shall see
It's so cheap. There are loads of young and arty people from all over, it's become a mix of a backpacker towns and bohemian resort. The climate is super kind. The food is good (by Filipino standards) the place is VERY safe (by Filipino standards). It's friendly and lovely and there is wilderness everywhere, but also cultural life and it's Christian and yet laid back
God I was tempted. Hmmmm
But I still think I would get bored. Is my big worry. But that's my big worry about everything
We should live in a country where the colour of someone's skin doesn't give them any disadvantages or advantages. The idea is ridiculous.
I’ll get my coat.
Or at least it was. She is maybe past her prime now, but five years ago, growl
It's a complex mix of emotioins for the red-blooded rightwing male, when you are confronted by a woman whose political views you abhor, and whose intellect (you feel) is lacking, but every time you look at her you can't help thinking Oof, yes
Has any other PBer experienced this? Does any other PB-er encounter a politician they actively despise, in terms of their views, but nonetheless they find them alluring in some way?
I'm gonna have guess - and I readily confess it is just a guess - that @IanB2 finds Javier Millei's libertarian Thatcherism quite contemptible and foolish, but at the same time @IanB2 also finds Millei sexually arousing, mainly because the Argentine leader looks a bit like a labradoodle, and @IanB2 does REALLY love his dogs
The conveyor belt that takes people who would not get close to where they do if talent and ability were the deciding factors from school through university to positions of significant influence and responsibility has done far more damage to this country over a far longer period than the odd DEI programme.
My sincere congrats
“Fast-track inquiries were made which sadly led to the discovery of a woman’s body inside the boot of a vehicle in the Ilford area of London,” he said. “We are treating the death as suspicious"
OH dear no
Although "a non-criminal hate intervention" seems like an act of extreme time and tax revenue wasting irrelevance, particularly when there are villains to catch.
About three hours I think.
At least Ash has a spirited intellect, Grace Blakeley seems entirely vapid (as well as woke annoying and daft), but hmmmm she's pretty
I used to quite fancy Yvette Cooper when she looked a bit like a Leni Riefenstahl heroine but she's doesn't any more
Facebook started off thar way, as a social media based on real identities, where you controlled who could see what. Something like that could become popular again.
Meanwhile I’ve spent the day planting an absurd number of spring bulbs, ready to welcome in spring next year.
And booking my long summer trip to Scandinavia and my only slightly less long autumn trip to Italy next year. A good way to spend these dark evenings.
And I have to plan another long trip to the US for 2026. Arizona, I’m thinking.
Pause.
Hopefully it's a peg.
We have replaced the nepotistic incompetence of the Old10K with the nepotistic* incompetence of the NU10K.
So on one level with have some diversity. On the other, the mind set is curiously similar. Oh, some of the nostrums they parrot are different.
Chief Superintendent Savage of the Met has the cleaning lady polish his awards for AntiRacism now and again. While protecting the officers who illegally strip searched black teenagers… Savage didn’t go to Oxbridge, is that something?
Meet the new bosses. Bit shinier and more colourful than the old bosses. But so very familiar, somehow.
*check out the social connections of the new elite.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xU1SHgCsJDY
Another posho taught to believe they can and should do whatever they like regardless of whether they have the talent to do it. And we let them!!!
You like dystopian holidays?
For instance, you can't continually lock and unlock your profile, and you can't reply from behind a block - both of which were often used on Twitter to construct a false record of a conversation.
I'm sure the grifters will find other ways to exploit it in time, but right now it's much better than Twitter was at any point since the mid-2010s.
You’re right that having the lunatics in charge is a reason to think again. I don’t have to pay any more for the trip until early 2026.
Maybe the impending midterm Democratic triumph might make it a good time to be your man on the spot…?
More seriously, having a dog and a car and being free to drive anywhere for a couple of months in a welcoming, English-speaking continent is an amazing travel opportunity. I usually return grateful that Europe isn’t the US, but also wondering where I will go the next time I cross the Atlantic on the QM2 and go pick up my AVIS hire car from NYC. 6,608 miles, this autumn, to beat.
The percentage of posh boys at the top of British society - in all its facets - remains extraordinarily high: from the media through politics to finance and the law. Funnily enough, policing is probably one area where they have always been less influential. Probably because it has involved starting at the bottom. Daddy can't have a word and secure you a chief inspectors role.
Came at Christmas; stayed up well after dark; came in the summer, had to go to bed in daylight. Not like home at all.
For example, the “fitting up” culture always starts with the obviously guilty, habitual criminals.
In the US, for exanple, a prosecutor was disbarred for massively abusing justice in a case involving some posh kids at a posh university. People you’d love to hate. A journalist realised it was unlikely to be the first time for that prosecutor. And guess who were the most common customers? Yup, the prosecutor had a long track record of railroading poor, black men.
@LeftieStats
·
Nov 11
🇺🇸 How did Muslim-Americans vote in 2024?
🟩 Stein (GRN): 53% (+53)
🟥 Trump (REP): 21% (+14)
🟦 Harris (DEM): 20% (-73)
Via
@CAIRNational
, 5-6 Nov (+/- vs 2020)
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pennsylvania-democrats-openly-admit-counting-illegal-ballots-mccormick-casey-race
EMITS GERIATRIC SIGH
In the same vein, and even more annoying, that Irish Remainy woman who bangs on about Palestine, wossname - Cassidy? Irritating but also fetching
And even more, Zoe Gardner, who campaigns about refugees in the most infuriatingly woke-ish way, absolutuely insane, "let them all in", would allow 7m migrants a week if she could, and yet she is also stunning. What's a man to do
https://x.com/ZoeJardiniere
EMBRACE the seasonality. It's what makes our long summer nights so rewarding. There's a cold snap coming up: which gives you the opportunity to hike up to a modest elevation to see some really quite heartbreakingly lovely sunset before teatime, then have your dinner in some cosy pub somewhere. Because I'm a parent of heavily scheduled children and have almost no scope to be spontaneous, my annual November sunset hike up Arnside Knott with two like minded familities was pencilled in months ago for months for tomorrow, when it's due to be pissing down with rain at the allotted slot, but you have the flexibility to do it whenever there's a clear evening.
Being in London you have neither the elevation nor the west coast that is accessible to me, but all you need is somewhere with a southwesterly view. I'd say you get a cracking November sunset from Box Hill, and Surrey's leaf coverage will be close to its best right now.
EDIT: Just checked the weather forecast. Go to Box Hill on Wednesday and watch the sunset: 51.247431, -0.311295. That will make sunset at 4 worthwhile.
Good evening, everybody.
Then fuck off somewhere hot and sunny again
1 How much of Harris's loss of votes does this account for?
2 What drove it? Gaza, social conservatism, woke, girl cooties?
3 To the extent that it helped Trump win, it wasn't very clever, was it?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apGpkBUBZ50
(The whole series about his journey to health and fitness is worth watching IMO. He is fairly brutally honest.)
Once you get to January, I don't blame you. You can stay to marvel at the bleakness but it's rather making a virtue out of a necessity.
But January and February can fucking do one, to be honest. Fuck them. Wankers. Early March is often quite the c*nt as well
Brave Sir Keir he ran away
He bravely ran away
https://news.sky.com/story/sir-keir-starmer-vows-to-defend-budget-decisions-all-day-long-as-farmers-slam-disrespectful-pm-13255071
Something similar happens in NI - people often sound like Mid-Ulster English speakers on the TV even if they use a much more Ulster Scots-influenced variety of Belfast accent at home.
"In response to freedom of information requests, police forces across Britain have revealed that 'non-crime hate incidents' (NCHIs) are being logged against people in authority doing their jobs. Examples include:
❌ An NCHI recorded against a doctor in West Yorkshire after a patient alleged they were misdiagnosed "because they were bisexual".
❌ A journalist's article about his interview with a "deaf and dumb" scooterist being reported to the police as a hate incident.
❌ A social worker was also reported to the police in Lancashire over claims she had abused her position and racially discriminated against the victim by preventing her from seeing her children.
https://freespeechunion.org/doctors-and-vicars-accused-of-non-crime-hate-incidents/
In 2014, the College of Policing — a taxpayer-funded quango — came up with the concept of the NCHI in its 'Hate Crime Operational Guidance'. As defined in this document, an NCHI is any incident perceived by the victim or any bystanders to be motivated by hostility or prejudice to the victim based on a 'protected' characteristic (race or perceived race, religion or perceived religion, and so on).
For the avoidance of doubt, non-crime hate incidents really are as Orwellian as they sound. They aren't anonymised, and sit forever against the names of the alleged perpetrators without any real investigation or right of appeal. In addition, if one is recorded against your name it can show up on an enhanced criminal records check and prevent you from getting a job.
That's right, you might not get a job because someone 'perceives' you've committed a 'non-crime'.
Here's a short 🧵detailing some of the most egregious of the 250,000+ NCHIs we estimate the police in England and Wales have logged since 2014..."
THIS IS NOT TRIVIAL
In fact it's fucking sinister and Orwellian and we need rid of this shit
https://x.com/SpeechUnion/status/1857803685100744883
A fantastically attractive piano player, too; only two very minor missed notes in the whole, increadibly challenging, piece. Don't miss the finale.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yA5QlaFywOA