Georgescu (the far far right candidate) broke through on the back of a huge campaign on TikTok - Romania is a big user - with accusations that his videos were backed by China.
All parties will now need to get behind Lasconi to defeat him.
A member of Trump’s new cabinet says Trump will end the Ukraine war by threatening Putin that he will flood Ukraine with weaponry
“Sebastian Gorka, who Trump just named a Director of national security policy in the White House, says that Trump's strategy for ending the Ukraine war will include threatening Putin to provide Ukraine with exponentially more military "aid"”
If Trump turns out to be BETTER for Ukraine than Biden that will explode heads
That would be a good outcome
Indeed. But I am sceptical, because it would also be against what Trump, and especially the GOP, have spent the last few years saying.
After all, the GOP could have pressurised Biden to flood Ukraine with weaponry. Instead, they starved Ukraine of weapons for months.
Yes. But that would fit with standard GOP misdemeanor, of blocking any effective action by a Dem President, so that they can take the credit for it under a GOP President instead. We shouldn't expect consistency from the GOP.
Get Musk interested in building rockets with an explosive payload, it's not an impossible reverse ferret. And Ukraine are obviously working hard diplomatically to help Trump agree to help them, by creating different narratives that appeal to him, since defending democracy doesn't motivate him.
Musk also has a line to Putin and has spoken of enabling ceasefires - indeed he mapped out one scenario for a truce and was widely mocked for it. I’m not sure why. At least he tried and if it had somehow worked it would have saved many thousands of lives
Saving Russian lives would have been a bad thing.
The vast destruction of Russian equipment and lives has been a huge success for the western world.
That’s… quite repulsive. Sorry. But it is
True though. Viewed selfishly, the major western strategic success has been to kill as many Russians, and destroy as much Russian kit, as possible.
Might leave a bad taste in the mouth, but achieving that has made Europe safer. It’s why donating NATO kit to Ukraine always made sense. We bought it to kill Russians and destroy Russian kit. Might as well do that job for us in Ukraine.
A T80 destroyed there is one we don’t have to blow up in Warsaw.
The “vast destruction of human lives” is never a “huge success” - whether they are Russian, British, Palestinian, Jewish, Gambian, Azerbaijani or Bhutanese
The statement is repulsive
Its people with your mentality which the likes of Putin and Hitler have always preyed upon.
I'm sure you regard yourself as humane, they think that you're weak.
Er, ok
I’m on record as thinking that the British bombing of Germany was entirely justified. They sowed the wind etc
I just don’t regard all those dead Germans as a “huge success”. A grim and hideous necessity, more like
I object to your language, and language is important. You are dehumanising Russians
Russians are doing a good job of doing it themselves. It's ordinary Russians who are doing the murder, the rape, the torture.
And they do have agency, they can frag their officers, they can desert, they can mutiny, they can surrender to the enemy
Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel tells the BBC’s Katya Adler the gas deals she made with Russia were intended to help German firms and kept the peace with Moscow, as she insisted the war with Ukraine would have started earlier if she hadn’t blocked Kyiv’s entry into Nato in 2008.
There's a great deal of MRD in her book. She "bitterly regrets" Brexit, but after deep self analysis, and pondering whether she could have done more to help, comes to the conclusion that the failure of the Cameron 'renegotiation' was entirely his fault.
B&Q owner Kingfisher has warned it expects a £45m hit from tax raids in the UK and France.
Shares in the company, which also runs Screwfix and Castorama DIY stores, fell 11.8pc after it said Rachel Reeves’s plan to increase employer National Insurance contributions would cost it £31m in its next financial year.
It said proposed tax moves in France, where the government is plotting changes to social taxes and delaying the abolishment of the CVAE sales tax, would deal a £14m blow to its profits.
“It now expects adjusted profit before tax of £510m to £540m, down from £510m to £550m.”
Only £500m profit? My heart bleeds
So, the £45m hit will reduce profits by £0 (bottom end estimate) to £10m (top end estimate)? Or is that ~£500m only the France figure? Even there, the £14m 'hit' doesn't shift the bottom end of profit expectations and hits the top end by £10m. I'm only a lowly scientist and not good with fancy accountancy maths, but I can't quite see how that adds up.
The Kingfisher group is global. As well as UK and France, they have big chains in other EU countries, Turkey and the Middle East.
Sure, but that doesn't explain the maths. If those are global profits then for the £45m alleged hit from UK and France to have a much smaller impact on expected global profits then you need either a direct benefit in those other markets or - and maybe this is the explanation - uprating in those other markets and/or UK/France for unrelated reasons since the original profit estimates. But the quotes from the article don't make that clear (I haven't seen the source, which I don't think was linked).
"We are developing a range of additional mitigations, but at this stage expect to offset only part of this impact," it said.
As regards a 6.7% increase in Britain's minimum wage, also announced in the budget, Kingfisher said it expected to offset the impact through "structural cost reductions and productivity gains"*.
Georgescu (the far far right candidate) broke through on the back of a huge campaign on TikTok - Romania is a big user - with accusations that his videos were backed by China.
All parties will now need to get behind Lasconi to defeat him.
The result looks pretty nuts. The obvious explanations are either a massive polling fail pre-election or a massive polling fail in-election (the latter being some kind of fraud, but no one seems to be calling that, so presumably not the case). Be interesting to see whether the demographics of voters have changed in a big way, so that the pollsters were asking/weighting the wrong people.
B&Q owner Kingfisher has warned it expects a £45m hit from tax raids in the UK and France.
Shares in the company, which also runs Screwfix and Castorama DIY stores, fell 11.8pc after it said Rachel Reeves’s plan to increase employer National Insurance contributions would cost it £31m in its next financial year.
It said proposed tax moves in France, where the government is plotting changes to social taxes and delaying the abolishment of the CVAE sales tax, would deal a £14m blow to its profits.
“It now expects adjusted profit before tax of £510m to £540m, down from £510m to £550m.”
Only £500m profit? My heart bleeds
So, the £45m hit will reduce profits by £0 (bottom end estimate) to £10m (top end estimate)? Or is that ~£500m only the France figure? Even there, the £14m 'hit' doesn't shift the bottom end of profit expectations and hits the top end by £10m. I'm only a lowly scientist and not good with fancy accountancy maths, but I can't quite see how that adds up.
The Kingfisher group is global. As well as UK and France, they have big chains in other EU countries, Turkey and the Middle East.
Sure, but that doesn't explain the maths. If those are global profits then for the £45m alleged hit from UK and France to have a much smaller impact on expected global profits then you need either a direct benefit in those other markets or - and maybe this is the explanation - uprating in those other markets and/or UK/France for unrelated reasons since the original profit estimates. But the quotes from the article don't make that clear (I haven't seen the source, which I don't think was linked).
"We are developing a range of additional mitigations, but at this stage expect to offset only part of this impact," it said.
As regards a 6.7% increase in Britain's minimum wage, also announced in the budget, Kingfisher said it expected to offset the impact through structural cost reductions* and productivity gains.
Georgescu (the far far right candidate) broke through on the back of a huge campaign on TikTok - Romania is a big user - with accusations that his videos were backed by China.
All parties will now need to get behind Lasconi to defeat him.
Something Trump got right at the end of his first term*, but because Trump raised it, can't be seen to do anything about it for several years.
* well by right, I mean he actually listened to the security briefing that one time.
Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel tells the BBC’s Katya Adler the gas deals she made with Russia were intended to help German firms and kept the peace with Moscow, as she insisted the war with Ukraine would have started earlier if she hadn’t blocked Kyiv’s entry into Nato in 2008.
On topic, I think this is a good article and as a retrospective it is a fascinating discussion as to what went wrong for the Democrats.
I think the main ones are (a) a lack of clarity around what they were actually for, rather than simply being in opposition to MAGA (b) the economy and (c) the fact that they are perhaps speaking to a world and a voter coalition that is diminishing and no longer delivers where they need it to.
(C) is the interesting one.
I have said before that Democrats are very good at the hopey/changey/let’s all get along mood music, but that in and of itself doesn’t really speak to the people they need to speak to. They need to come up with answers for our times. Trump had answers - people might not like them, or think they are extremely destructive, but he taps into a rich seam of voters - people worried about price rises, people worried about immigration, people concerned at the international situation, people who feel America is being taken for granted, people who feel their votes are being taken for granted, people worried about crime etc etc.
We see some of this in the UK too. I think voters want their politicians to actually offer radical ideas at the moment, to think outside the box and to disrupt the consensus.
Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel tells the BBC’s Katya Adler the gas deals she made with Russia were intended to help German firms and kept the peace with Moscow, as she insisted the war with Ukraine would have started earlier if she hadn’t blocked Kyiv’s entry into Nato in 2008.
There are newer drugs out there. Nitazenes are the latest on the UK streets.
Jesus. Is PB in a collective and hysterical funk?
“Hey, Trump might just have a plan to end the war, sounds crazy but could be true”
PB: no the war must go on for ever and ever, there is no end
“Hey, looks like Fentanyl overdoses are down! By a lot!”
PB: doesn’t matter there are worse drugs and everything is shit
“Hey -“
PB: no, the only good thing is millions and millions of dead Russians. Shut up
Just trying to give you some info on the current position on the street. My colleagues are very in the know about this as the liaise with the police. What did you prefer the answer to be? I wasn't implying everything is worse, its just that its quite likely users and dealers are switching to other products (just as happened with fentanyl, if you think about it)
Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel tells the BBC’s Katya Adler the gas deals she made with Russia were intended to help German firms and kept the peace with Moscow, as she insisted the war with Ukraine would have started earlier if she hadn’t blocked Kyiv’s entry into Nato in 2008.
Rarely does a politician’s economic record get so comprehensively demolished in the years following their retirement, as much as Angela Merkel.
Tory Party leaders 2010-24: Hold my bier (English meaning of bier may also apply).
2014 - 2024.
Dunno, outside TSE's sitting room Cameron's rep is trashed for various reasons, but I think the grip that Cameron-Osborne austerity has on Westminster thinking is still pretty disastrous.
Totally OT, but not unrelated the current war, found out about this today. At the risk of boring those who've known about it for years, who knew about Europe's largest known Bronze Age battlefield ?
There are newer drugs out there. Nitazenes are the latest on the UK streets.
Jesus. Is PB in a collective and hysterical funk?
“Hey, Trump might just have a plan to end the war, sounds crazy but could be true”
PB: no the war must go on for ever and ever, there is no end
“Hey, looks like Fentanyl overdoses are down! By a lot!”
PB: doesn’t matter there are worse drugs and everything is shit
“Hey -“
PB: no, the only good thing is millions and millions of dead Russians. Shut up
Just trying to give you some info on the current position on the street. My colleagues are very in the know about this as the liaise with the police. What did you prefer the answer to be? I wasn't implying everything is worse, its just that its quite likely users and dealers are switching to other products (just as happened with fentanyl, if you think about it)
Fair enough
Is that what’s happening in America? Is the drop in Fentanyl deaths merely revealing a move to other drugs?
A member of Trump’s new cabinet says Trump will end the Ukraine war by threatening Putin that he will flood Ukraine with weaponry
“Sebastian Gorka, who Trump just named a Director of national security policy in the White House, says that Trump's strategy for ending the Ukraine war will include threatening Putin to provide Ukraine with exponentially more military "aid"”
If Trump turns out to be BETTER for Ukraine than Biden that will explode heads
That would be a good outcome
Indeed. But I am sceptical, because it would also be against what Trump, and especially the GOP, have spent the last few years saying.
After all, the GOP could have pressurised Biden to flood Ukraine with weaponry. Instead, they starved Ukraine of weapons for months.
Yes. But that would fit with standard GOP misdemeanor, of blocking any effective action by a Dem President, so that they can take the credit for it under a GOP President instead. We shouldn't expect consistency from the GOP.
Get Musk interested in building rockets with an explosive payload, it's not an impossible reverse ferret. And Ukraine are obviously working hard diplomatically to help Trump agree to help them, by creating different narratives that appeal to him, since defending democracy doesn't motivate him.
Musk also has a line to Putin and has spoken of enabling ceasefires - indeed he mapped out one scenario for a truce and was widely mocked for it. I’m not sure why. At least he tried and if it had somehow worked it would have saved many thousands of lives
Saving Russian lives would have been a bad thing.
The vast destruction of Russian equipment and lives has been a huge success for the western world.
That’s… quite repulsive. Sorry. But it is
True though. Viewed selfishly, the major western strategic success has been to kill as many Russians, and destroy as much Russian kit, as possible.
Might leave a bad taste in the mouth, but achieving that has made Europe safer. It’s why donating NATO kit to Ukraine always made sense. We bought it to kill Russians and destroy Russian kit. Might as well do that job for us in Ukraine.
A T80 destroyed there is one we don’t have to blow up in Warsaw.
The “vast destruction of human lives” is never a “huge success” - whether they are Russian, British, Palestinian, Jewish, Gambian, Azerbaijani or Bhutanese
The statement is repulsive
It’s realpolitik. Russia started this war, not us, but it having done so, a major western success has been to blunt its war machine and deter others who bought into its kit (looking at China).
Blunting its war machine means killing its soldiers and destroying its kit.
That’s what you do in a war. You kill the other side.
Yes. But the “vast destruction of human lives” is NEVER a “huge success”. Usually it is an enormous evil - or a monumental tragedy. During a just war it is a grave and necessary evil
Those dead Russians are not Vladimir Putin, they are generally poor badly armed conscripts from the Russian fringes and boondocks. Frightened, lonely, cold. Sons, brothers, fathers
I'd like to agree with that, but it's those sons, brothers and fathers that haven't to my knowledge shown the slightest scruple about taking part in the rape of Bucha, the execution of countless Ukrainian POWs and ten thousand less well known war crimes in the last two and a half years. Sure I'd rather we tried them in a court of law and exposed their crimes sending them to a humane jail, but in an imperfect world a HIMARS or two hundred will do the job almost as well.
The only good Russian solder is either a deserter or a corpse.
According to Ryan McBeth "they" (unspecified, possibly NATO HQ given context) are tracking about 130,000 Russian war crimes in Ukraine.
There are newer drugs out there. Nitazenes are the latest on the UK streets.
Jesus. Is PB in a collective and hysterical funk?
“Hey, Trump might just have a plan to end the war, sounds crazy but could be true”
PB: no the war must go on for ever and ever, there is no end
“Hey, looks like Fentanyl overdoses are down! By a lot!”
PB: doesn’t matter there are worse drugs and everything is shit
“Hey -“
PB: no, the only good thing is millions and millions of dead Russians. Shut up
Just trying to give you some info on the current position on the street. My colleagues are very in the know about this as the liaise with the police. What did you prefer the answer to be? I wasn't implying everything is worse, its just that its quite likely users and dealers are switching to other products (just as happened with fentanyl, if you think about it)
Fair enough
Is that what’s happening in America? Is the drop in Fentanyl deaths merely revealing a move to other drugs?
There are newer drugs out there. Nitazenes are the latest on the UK streets.
Jesus. Is PB in a collective and hysterical funk?
“Hey, Trump might just have a plan to end the war, sounds crazy but could be true”
PB: no the war must go on for ever and ever, there is no end
“Hey, looks like Fentanyl overdoses are down! By a lot!”
PB: doesn’t matter there are worse drugs and everything is shit
“Hey -“
PB: no, the only good thing is millions and millions of dead Russians. Shut up
Just trying to give you some info on the current position on the street. My colleagues are very in the know about this as the liaise with the police. What did you prefer the answer to be? I wasn't implying everything is worse, its just that its quite likely users and dealers are switching to other products (just as happened with fentanyl, if you think about it)
Fair enough
Is that what’s happening in America? Is the drop in Fentanyl deaths merely revealing a move to other drugs?
No, I think there's been a significant, general fall in overdose deaths. No real consensus on why yet.
Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel tells the BBC’s Katya Adler the gas deals she made with Russia were intended to help German firms and kept the peace with Moscow, as she insisted the war with Ukraine would have started earlier if she hadn’t blocked Kyiv’s entry into Nato in 2008.
Rarely does a politician’s economic record get so comprehensively demolished in the years following their retirement, as much as Angela Merkel.
Tory Party leaders 2010-24: Hold my bier (English meaning of bier may also apply).
2014 - 2024.
Dunno, outside TSE's sitting room Cameron's rep is trashed for various reasons, but I think the grip that Cameron-Osborne austerity has on Westminster thinking is still pretty disastrous.
There's the counterfactual of what might have happened without Brexit. Kind of unknowable, but we wouldn't have had the best part of a decade's decision paralysis.
There are newer drugs out there. Nitazenes are the latest on the UK streets.
Jesus. Is PB in a collective and hysterical funk?
“Hey, Trump might just have a plan to end the war, sounds crazy but could be true”
PB: no the war must go on for ever and ever, there is no end
“Hey, looks like Fentanyl overdoses are down! By a lot!”
PB: doesn’t matter there are worse drugs and everything is shit
“Hey -“
PB: no, the only good thing is millions and millions of dead Russians. Shut up
Just trying to give you some info on the current position on the street. My colleagues are very in the know about this as the liaise with the police. What did you prefer the answer to be? I wasn't implying everything is worse, its just that its quite likely users and dealers are switching to other products (just as happened with fentanyl, if you think about it)
Fair enough
Is that what’s happening in America? Is the drop in Fentanyl deaths merely revealing a move to other drugs?
No, I think there's been a significant, general fall in overdose deaths. No real consensus on why yet.
There are newer drugs out there. Nitazenes are the latest on the UK streets.
Jesus. Is PB in a collective and hysterical funk?
“Hey, Trump might just have a plan to end the war, sounds crazy but could be true”
PB: no the war must go on for ever and ever, there is no end
“Hey, looks like Fentanyl overdoses are down! By a lot!”
PB: doesn’t matter there are worse drugs and everything is shit
“Hey -“
PB: no, the only good thing is millions and millions of dead Russians. Shut up
@Leon I take your point, but this is rather a turn around of the typical posts on here. We are normally criticising you for being hysterical. You may have some feeling for our exasperation sometimes now?
And in fairness to @turbotubbs I think he was only trying to be informative.
Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel tells the BBC’s Katya Adler the gas deals she made with Russia were intended to help German firms and kept the peace with Moscow, as she insisted the war with Ukraine would have started earlier if she hadn’t blocked Kyiv’s entry into Nato in 2008.
Rarely does a politician’s economic record get so comprehensively demolished in the years following their retirement, as much as Angela Merkel.
Tory Party leaders 2010-24: Hold my bier (English meaning of bier may also apply).
2014 - 2024.
Dunno, outside TSE's sitting room Cameron's rep is trashed for various reasons, but I think the grip that Cameron-Osborne austerity has on Westminster thinking is still pretty disastrous.
There's the counterfactual of what might have happened without Brexit. Kind of unknowable, but we wouldn't have had the best part of a decade's decision paralysis.
A narrow Remain win would have signalled that there are a lot of votes to be won by opposing the EU, so it wouldn't have been the end of it.
Totally OT, but not unrelated the current war, found out about this today. At the risk of boring those who've known about it for years, who knew about Europe's largest known Bronze Age battlefield ?
Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel tells the BBC’s Katya Adler the gas deals she made with Russia were intended to help German firms and kept the peace with Moscow, as she insisted the war with Ukraine would have started earlier if she hadn’t blocked Kyiv’s entry into Nato in 2008.
Rarely does a politician’s economic record get so comprehensively demolished in the years following their retirement, as much as Angela Merkel.
Tory Party leaders 2010-24: Hold my bier (English meaning of bier may also apply).
2014 - 2024.
Dunno, outside TSE's sitting room Cameron's rep is trashed for various reasons, but I think the grip that Cameron-Osborne austerity has on Westminster thinking is still pretty disastrous.
The tax burden is at its highest for decades and spending grew massively under Boris and Starmer and Reeves will do little to change that.
The 2010-2015 coalition of Tories and LDs was a brief period of lower tax and lower spending which has largely been reversed since and even then many rightwingers did not think Cameron and Osborne should have protected the NHS and overseas aid from cuts
There are newer drugs out there. Nitazenes are the latest on the UK streets.
Jesus. Is PB in a collective and hysterical funk?
“Hey, Trump might just have a plan to end the war, sounds crazy but could be true”
PB: no the war must go on for ever and ever, there is no end
“Hey, looks like Fentanyl overdoses are down! By a lot!”
PB: doesn’t matter there are worse drugs and everything is shit
“Hey -“
PB: no, the only good thing is millions and millions of dead Russians. Shut up
Just trying to give you some info on the current position on the street. My colleagues are very in the know about this as the liaise with the police. What did you prefer the answer to be? I wasn't implying everything is worse, its just that its quite likely users and dealers are switching to other products (just as happened with fentanyl, if you think about it)
Fair enough
Is that what’s happening in America? Is the drop in Fentanyl deaths merely revealing a move to other drugs?
No, I think there's been a significant, general fall in overdose deaths. No real consensus on why yet.
I see this work the hammer will once again be taken to working age benefits whilst nothing is done about the ludicrously non-affordable triple lock for boomers.
Starmer has already hammered pensioners winter fuel allowance so many will freeze this winter
A member of Trump’s new cabinet says Trump will end the Ukraine war by threatening Putin that he will flood Ukraine with weaponry
“Sebastian Gorka, who Trump just named a Director of national security policy in the White House, says that Trump's strategy for ending the Ukraine war will include threatening Putin to provide Ukraine with exponentially more military "aid"”
If Trump turns out to be BETTER for Ukraine than Biden that will explode heads
Good news for Zelensky but I can't see Putin accepting terms dictated to him that don't see large amounts of Ukraine in Russian hands
It will likely be a division of Ukraine roughly where the front lines are now. Is my guess. So it’s not good news for Zelensky - but it is good news for tens of thousands of Ukrainians who won’t die in an endless war. IF IF IF it happens
Then Zelensky as well as Putin might reject such terms
Zelensky could be toppled and Putin can be bullied
No Ukranian leader will accept half their nation being Russian and Putin won't accept any deal which does not give Russia large areas of Ukraine
Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel tells the BBC’s Katya Adler the gas deals she made with Russia were intended to help German firms and kept the peace with Moscow, as she insisted the war with Ukraine would have started earlier if she hadn’t blocked Kyiv’s entry into Nato in 2008.
Rarely does a politician’s economic record get so comprehensively demolished in the years following their retirement, as much as Angela Merkel.
Tory Party leaders 2010-24: Hold my bier (English meaning of bier may also apply).
Their economic record was trashed while they were still in office. This is the way for most politicians, and is the principal route to creating ex-politicians.
Merkel is a bit unusual in having a long stint on office and leaving before it all fell apart.
This, though, is set to be consequential (whether effective or otherwise).
Biggest overhaul of local government in over 50 years - Dozens of councils abolished to make more "efficient" large authorities with populations of 500k+ - First wave of restructuring includes Essex, Kent, Surrey, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk.. https://x.com/MaxKendix/status/1860810593835286739
Still on theme with the 1970s redux, of course.
Could see the county council elections cancelled in those areas then unless the unitary boundaries agreed by next May
That's an intriguing thought, when the County's are mainly Conservatives, and they are expected (I think) to be on the way down.
The article says they will go ahead but what is the point if half the county councils elected will be scrapped within a few years and merged with district councils to form 1, 2 or 3 big new unitaries per county?
There are newer drugs out there. Nitazenes are the latest on the UK streets.
Jesus. Is PB in a collective and hysterical funk?
“Hey, Trump might just have a plan to end the war, sounds crazy but could be true”
PB: no the war must go on for ever and ever, there is no end
“Hey, looks like Fentanyl overdoses are down! By a lot!”
PB: doesn’t matter there are worse drugs and everything is shit
“Hey -“
PB: no, the only good thing is millions and millions of dead Russians. Shut up
Just trying to give you some info on the current position on the street. My colleagues are very in the know about this as the liaise with the police. What did you prefer the answer to be? I wasn't implying everything is worse, its just that its quite likely users and dealers are switching to other products (just as happened with fentanyl, if you think about it)
Fair enough
Is that what’s happening in America? Is the drop in Fentanyl deaths merely revealing a move to other drugs?
No, I think there's been a significant, general fall in overdose deaths. No real consensus on why yet.
Maybe all the idiots have died?
That was one of the theories.
That’s actually a pretty good theory. This was always the risk for the dealers - supplying a drug so dangerous you kill all your customers
Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel tells the BBC’s Katya Adler the gas deals she made with Russia were intended to help German firms and kept the peace with Moscow, as she insisted the war with Ukraine would have started earlier if she hadn’t blocked Kyiv’s entry into Nato in 2008.
Rarely does a politician’s economic record get so comprehensively demolished in the years following their retirement, as much as Angela Merkel.
Tory Party leaders 2010-24: Hold my bier (English meaning of bier may also apply).
Nah, with the possible exception of Cameron, they were seen as shit (including economic record) before retirement, too. Merkel's reputation has only really taken a nosedive after leaving the job.
OSINTdefender @sentdefender · 3h According to a Senior Israeli Official, a Ceasefire in Southern Lebanon is likely only days away, if not less, from being Finalized by all Parties.
There are newer drugs out there. Nitazenes are the latest on the UK streets.
Jesus. Is PB in a collective and hysterical funk?
“Hey, Trump might just have a plan to end the war, sounds crazy but could be true”
PB: no the war must go on for ever and ever, there is no end
“Hey, looks like Fentanyl overdoses are down! By a lot!”
PB: doesn’t matter there are worse drugs and everything is shit
“Hey -“
PB: no, the only good thing is millions and millions of dead Russians. Shut up
Just trying to give you some info on the current position on the street. My colleagues are very in the know about this as the liaise with the police. What did you prefer the answer to be? I wasn't implying everything is worse, its just that its quite likely users and dealers are switching to other products (just as happened with fentanyl, if you think about it)
Fair enough
Is that what’s happening in America? Is the drop in Fentanyl deaths merely revealing a move to other drugs?
No, I think there's been a significant, general fall in overdose deaths. No real consensus on why yet.
You don't die from a Crystal meth overdose. It merely rots your brain
OSINTdefender @sentdefender · 3h According to a Senior Israeli Official, a Ceasefire in Southern Lebanon is likely only days away, if not less, from being Finalized by all Parties.
Given Israel has killed all of Hezbollah upper management who was left to actually negotiate a ceasefire with?
There are newer drugs out there. Nitazenes are the latest on the UK streets.
Jesus. Is PB in a collective and hysterical funk?
“Hey, Trump might just have a plan to end the war, sounds crazy but could be true”
PB: no the war must go on for ever and ever, there is no end
“Hey, looks like Fentanyl overdoses are down! By a lot!”
PB: doesn’t matter there are worse drugs and everything is shit
“Hey -“
PB: no, the only good thing is millions and millions of dead Russians. Shut up
A new government is an opportunity for a country to make a fresh start. Starmer's new government is only the fourth swing of the pendulum in the last 50 years. So, in Britain, quite a rare opportunity.
Totally OT, but not unrelated the current war, found out about this today. At the risk of boring those who've known about it for years, who knew about Europe's largest known Bronze Age battlefield ?
A member of Trump’s new cabinet says Trump will end the Ukraine war by threatening Putin that he will flood Ukraine with weaponry
“Sebastian Gorka, who Trump just named a Director of national security policy in the White House, says that Trump's strategy for ending the Ukraine war will include threatening Putin to provide Ukraine with exponentially more military "aid"”
If Trump turns out to be BETTER for Ukraine than Biden that will explode heads
Good news for Zelensky but I can't see Putin accepting terms dictated to him that don't see large amounts of Ukraine in Russian hands
It will likely be a division of Ukraine roughly where the front lines are now. Is my guess. So it’s not good news for Zelensky - but it is good news for tens of thousands of Ukrainians who won’t die in an endless war. IF IF IF it happens
Then Zelensky as well as Putin might reject such terms
Zelensky could be toppled and Putin can be bullied
No Ukranian leader will accept half their nation being Russian and Putin won't accept any deal which does not give Russia large areas of Ukraine
Ukraine is looking like it is going to be a 21st century Czechoslovakia in terms of being betrayed in the face of a foreign aggressor. Let's hope it doesn't follow the rest of the historical precedent.
I see this work the hammer will once again be taken to working age benefits whilst nothing is done about the ludicrously non-affordable triple lock for boomers.
Starmer has already hammered pensioners winter fuel allowance so many will freeze this winter
Rich pensioners can sell their mansions and buy smaller and cheaper to heat properties. The country benefits. You’re welcome.
Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel tells the BBC’s Katya Adler the gas deals she made with Russia were intended to help German firms and kept the peace with Moscow, as she insisted the war with Ukraine would have started earlier if she hadn’t blocked Kyiv’s entry into Nato in 2008.
Rarely does a politician’s economic record get so comprehensively demolished in the years following their retirement, as much as Angela Merkel.
Tory Party leaders 2010-24: Hold my bier (English meaning of bier may also apply).
Nah, with the possible exception of Cameron, they were seen as shit (including economic record) before retirement, too. Merkel's reputation has only really taken a nosedive after leaving the job.
I guess the German voters should take a bit of responsibility (hint: they won't) also as most of Merkel's 'terrible' decisions were pretty strongly backed by them at the time. I was struck by a report form Berlin last week (once I'd got over Nick Robinsin's aural smirking) where one of the German commentators pointed out that the Volk were right behind Merkel's open doors policy to immigrants at the time, flowers and gifts spontaneously handed out at stations to arriving Syrian refugees, applause, embracing, the lot.
Feeling virtuous about themselves seems an unaffordable luxury to voters nowadays.
There are newer drugs out there. Nitazenes are the latest on the UK streets.
Jesus. Is PB in a collective and hysterical funk?
“Hey, Trump might just have a plan to end the war, sounds crazy but could be true”
PB: no the war must go on for ever and ever, there is no end
“Hey, looks like Fentanyl overdoses are down! By a lot!”
PB: doesn’t matter there are worse drugs and everything is shit
“Hey -“
PB: no, the only good thing is millions and millions of dead Russians. Shut up
A new government is an opportunity for a country to make a fresh start. Starmer's new government is only the fourth swing of the pendulum in the last 50 years. So, in Britain, quite a rare opportunity.
Looks like they've fucked it.
Indeed. They’ve really fucked it and yes that is a genuine reason to be melancholy
Mr. Password, I've just finished the Basil II part of the History of Byzantium podcast and it's ironic how little is known of the period (largely because he spent little time in the capital where the historians were).
On the other hand, we do have lots more than we might have thanks to Egypt's climate preserving papyrus, and ancient clay tablets lasting a long time.
I see this work the hammer will once again be taken to working age benefits whilst nothing is done about the ludicrously non-affordable triple lock for boomers.
Starmer has already hammered pensioners winter fuel allowance so many will freeze this winter
Rich pensioners can sell their mansions and buy smaller and cheaper to heat properties. The country benefits. You’re welcome.
Perfect evidence of the attitudes of heartlessness of those on the left. And they say the Tories are the "nasty party".
There are newer drugs out there. Nitazenes are the latest on the UK streets.
Jesus. Is PB in a collective and hysterical funk?
“Hey, Trump might just have a plan to end the war, sounds crazy but could be true”
PB: no the war must go on for ever and ever, there is no end
“Hey, looks like Fentanyl overdoses are down! By a lot!”
PB: doesn’t matter there are worse drugs and everything is shit
“Hey -“
PB: no, the only good thing is millions and millions of dead Russians. Shut up
A new government is an opportunity for a country to make a fresh start. Starmer's new government is only the fourth swing of the pendulum in the last 50 years. So, in Britain, quite a rare opportunity.
Looks like they've fucked it.
Indeed. They’ve really fucked it and yes that is a genuine reason to be melancholy
Ok coffee and work. Later
There is a brighter side - this toxic Government is comprehensively destroying social democracy in all its particulars. By the time they go, they'll have demolished the case for Net Zero, the unreformed state of the NHS, woke, 'pooling' more sovereignty with the EU, keeping taxes and spending at historically high levels, policing speech, banning things, and just about every other thing they lay their politically gangrenous hands on. They are the personification of all that is wicked and grotesque about the centrist consensus.
They won't be allowed near power for a generation.
I see this work the hammer will once again be taken to working age benefits whilst nothing is done about the ludicrously non-affordable triple lock for boomers.
Starmer has already hammered pensioners winter fuel allowance so many will freeze this winter
Rich pensioners can sell their mansions and buy smaller and cheaper to heat properties. The country benefits. You’re welcome.
Perfect evidence of the attitudes of heartlessness of those on the left. And they say the Tories are the "nasty party".
I am sorry but those with large expensive assets do not need my sympathy. The lack of perspective is mind blowing.
I see this work the hammer will once again be taken to working age benefits whilst nothing is done about the ludicrously non-affordable triple lock for boomers.
Starmer has already hammered pensioners winter fuel allowance so many will freeze this winter
Rich pensioners can sell their mansions and buy smaller and cheaper to heat properties. The country benefits. You’re welcome.
Perfect evidence of the attitudes of heartlessness of those on the left. And they say the Tories are the "nasty party".
I am sorry but those with large expensive assets do not need my sympathy. The lack of perspective is mind blowing.
If you listen to some people on the right then you'd believe that the country is so close to the edge of bankruptcy that it cannot afford any additional spending on the health service, while at the same time the country is so flush with cash that it is desirable and possible to give millionaire pensioners a handout for heating their homes in winter.
A member of Trump’s new cabinet says Trump will end the Ukraine war by threatening Putin that he will flood Ukraine with weaponry
“Sebastian Gorka, who Trump just named a Director of national security policy in the White House, says that Trump's strategy for ending the Ukraine war will include threatening Putin to provide Ukraine with exponentially more military "aid"”
If Trump turns out to be BETTER for Ukraine than Biden that will explode heads
Good news for Zelensky but I can't see Putin accepting terms dictated to him that don't see large amounts of Ukraine in Russian hands
It will likely be a division of Ukraine roughly where the front lines are now. Is my guess. So it’s not good news for Zelensky - but it is good news for tens of thousands of Ukrainians who won’t die in an endless war. IF IF IF it happens
Then Zelensky as well as Putin might reject such terms
Zelensky could be toppled and Putin can be bullied
No Ukranian leader will accept half their nation being Russian and Putin won't accept any deal which does not give Russia large areas of Ukraine
The Ukrainian economy just has to outlast the Russian economy.
The rouble has reached the "death cross" - when the 50 day moving average breaks through the 200 day moving average going down... No longer has the trust required of an interntional currency.
I see this work the hammer will once again be taken to working age benefits whilst nothing is done about the ludicrously non-affordable triple lock for boomers.
Starmer has already hammered pensioners winter fuel allowance so many will freeze this winter
Rich pensioners can sell their mansions and buy smaller and cheaper to heat properties. The country benefits. You’re welcome.
Perfect evidence of the attitudes of heartlessness of those on the left. And they say the Tories are the "nasty party".
I am sorry but those with large expensive assets do not need my sympathy. The lack of perspective is mind blowing.
If you listen to some people on the right then you'd believe that the country is so close to the edge of bankruptcy that it cannot afford any additional spending on the health service, while at the same time the country is so flush with cash that it is desirable and possible to give millionaire pensioners a handout for heating their homes in winter.
Pull the other one.
The assumption that all pensioners are millionaires is an interesting one.
In leftworld, redefine groups as “rich”, then switch off empathy.
I see this work the hammer will once again be taken to working age benefits whilst nothing is done about the ludicrously non-affordable triple lock for boomers.
Starmer has already hammered pensioners winter fuel allowance so many will freeze this winter
Rich pensioners can sell their mansions and buy smaller and cheaper to heat properties. The country benefits. You’re welcome.
Perfect evidence of the attitudes of heartlessness of those on the left. And they say the Tories are the "nasty party".
I am sorry but those with large expensive assets do not need my sympathy. The lack of perspective is mind blowing.
Some years ago we sold a four bedroomed house partly at least because with all our children married with homes of their own we didn't need it. We sold it to a couple with one adult son. They have now sold it on to another couple with one teenage child.
Our current two bedroomed home is a great deal easier to heat and to manage generally.
I see this work the hammer will once again be taken to working age benefits whilst nothing is done about the ludicrously non-affordable triple lock for boomers.
Starmer has already hammered pensioners winter fuel allowance so many will freeze this winter
Rich pensioners can sell their mansions and buy smaller and cheaper to heat properties. The country benefits. You’re welcome.
Perfect evidence of the attitudes of heartlessness of those on the left. And they say the Tories are the "nasty party".
I am sorry but those with large expensive assets do not need my sympathy. The lack of perspective is mind blowing.
If you listen to some people on the right then you'd believe that the country is so close to the edge of bankruptcy that it cannot afford any additional spending on the health service, while at the same time the country is so flush with cash that it is desirable and possible to give millionaire pensioners a handout for heating their homes in winter.
Pull the other one.
The assumption that all pensioners are millionaires is an interesting one.
In leftworld, redefine groups as “rich”, then switch off empathy.
I see this work the hammer will once again be taken to working age benefits whilst nothing is done about the ludicrously non-affordable triple lock for boomers.
Starmer has already hammered pensioners winter fuel allowance so many will freeze this winter
Rich pensioners can sell their mansions and buy smaller and cheaper to heat properties. The country benefits. You’re welcome.
Perfect evidence of the attitudes of heartlessness of those on the left. And they say the Tories are the "nasty party".
I am sorry but those with large expensive assets do not need my sympathy. The lack of perspective is mind blowing.
If you listen to some people on the right then you'd believe that the country is so close to the edge of bankruptcy that it cannot afford any additional spending on the health service, while at the same time the country is so flush with cash that it is desirable and possible to give millionaire pensioners a handout for heating their homes in winter.
Pull the other one.
The assumption that all pensioners are millionaires is an interesting one.
In leftworld, redefine groups as “rich”, then switch off empathy.
I see this work the hammer will once again be taken to working age benefits whilst nothing is done about the ludicrously non-affordable triple lock for boomers.
Starmer has already hammered pensioners winter fuel allowance so many will freeze this winter
Rich pensioners can sell their mansions and buy smaller and cheaper to heat properties. The country benefits. You’re welcome.
Perfect evidence of the attitudes of heartlessness of those on the left. And they say the Tories are the "nasty party".
I am sorry but those with large expensive assets do not need my sympathy. The lack of perspective is mind blowing.
If you listen to some people on the right then you'd believe that the country is so close to the edge of bankruptcy that it cannot afford any additional spending on the health service, while at the same time the country is so flush with cash that it is desirable and possible to give millionaire pensioners a handout for heating their homes in winter.
Pull the other one.
The assumption that all pensioners are millionaires is an interesting one.
In leftworld, redefine groups as “rich”, then switch off empathy.
It's not an assumption. It's a rhetorical device.
The median net wealth of pensioner households is £470,000. The WFP, over the course of their retired lives, represents 2% of that value.
I see this work the hammer will once again be taken to working age benefits whilst nothing is done about the ludicrously non-affordable triple lock for boomers.
Starmer has already hammered pensioners winter fuel allowance so many will freeze this winter
Rich pensioners can sell their mansions and buy smaller and cheaper to heat properties. The country benefits. You’re welcome.
Perfect evidence of the attitudes of heartlessness of those on the left. And they say the Tories are the "nasty party".
I am sorry but those with large expensive assets do not need my sympathy. The lack of perspective is mind blowing.
If you listen to some people on the right then you'd believe that the country is so close to the edge of bankruptcy that it cannot afford any additional spending on the health service, while at the same time the country is so flush with cash that it is desirable and possible to give millionaire pensioners a handout for heating their homes in winter.
Pull the other one.
The assumption that all pensioners are millionaires is an interesting one.
In leftworld, redefine groups as “rich”, then switch off empathy.
It's not an assumption. It's a rhetorical device.
The median net wealth of pensioner households is £470,000. The WFP, over the course of their retired lives, represents 2% of that value.
If all pensioners are rich, obviously we should abolish the state pension.
Does anyone have access to the OED? I'm trying to find the origin and etymology of the word "agentic"
It seems to be REALLY new, the earliest citation I can find is 2011. But surely it is older than that. There are hints that it comes from psychological theory in the 20th century. Any PB wordniks have a better idea, or, perhaps, a sub for the OED?
Does anyone have access to the OED? I'm trying to find the origin and etymology of the word "agentic"
It seems to be REALLY new, the earliest citation I can find is 2011. But surely it is older than that. There are hints that it comes from psychological theory in the 20th century. Any PB wordniks have a better idea, or, perhaps, a sub for the OED?
I see this work the hammer will once again be taken to working age benefits whilst nothing is done about the ludicrously non-affordable triple lock for boomers.
Starmer has already hammered pensioners winter fuel allowance so many will freeze this winter
Rich pensioners can sell their mansions and buy smaller and cheaper to heat properties. The country benefits. You’re welcome.
Perfect evidence of the attitudes of heartlessness of those on the left. And they say the Tories are the "nasty party".
I am sorry but those with large expensive assets do not need my sympathy. The lack of perspective is mind blowing.
If you listen to some people on the right then you'd believe that the country is so close to the edge of bankruptcy that it cannot afford any additional spending on the health service, while at the same time the country is so flush with cash that it is desirable and possible to give millionaire pensioners a handout for heating their homes in winter.
Pull the other one.
The assumption that all pensioners are millionaires is an interesting one.
In leftworld, redefine groups as “rich”, then switch off empathy.
It's not an assumption. It's a rhetorical device.
The median net wealth of pensioner households is £470,000. The WFP, over the course of their retired lives, represents 2% of that value.
If all pensioners are rich, obviously we should abolish the state pension.
It's effectively a benefit like Universal Credit, so there would be some logic in applying the same eligibility requirements and tapering to it.
What's unfair IMO is historical NICs rates were lower than they are today, yet pensioners get triple-locked increases. I think it unlikely I'll enjoy a state pension that is significantly higher in real terms than the current one, despite my larger contribution.
I see this work the hammer will once again be taken to working age benefits whilst nothing is done about the ludicrously non-affordable triple lock for boomers.
Starmer has already hammered pensioners winter fuel allowance so many will freeze this winter
Rich pensioners can sell their mansions and buy smaller and cheaper to heat properties. The country benefits. You’re welcome.
Perfect evidence of the attitudes of heartlessness of those on the left. And they say the Tories are the "nasty party".
I am sorry but those with large expensive assets do not need my sympathy. The lack of perspective is mind blowing.
If you listen to some people on the right then you'd believe that the country is so close to the edge of bankruptcy that it cannot afford any additional spending on the health service, while at the same time the country is so flush with cash that it is desirable and possible to give millionaire pensioners a handout for heating their homes in winter.
Pull the other one.
The assumption that all pensioners are millionaires is an interesting one.
In leftworld, redefine groups as “rich”, then switch off empathy.
It's not an assumption. It's a rhetorical device.
The median net wealth of pensioner households is £470,000. The WFP, over the course of their retired lives, represents 2% of that value.
If all pensioners are rich, obviously we should abolish the state pension.
It's effectively a benefit like Universal Credit, so there would be some logic in applying the same eligibility requirements and tapering to it.
What's unfair IMO is historical NICs rates were lower than they are today, yet pensioners get triple-locked increases. I think it unlikely I'll enjoy a state pension that is significantly higher in real terms than the current one, despite my larger contribution.
Simpler to roll NI into income tax and just tax all income.
Does anyone have access to the OED? I'm trying to find the origin and etymology of the word "agentic"
It seems to be REALLY new, the earliest citation I can find is 2011. But surely it is older than that. There are hints that it comes from psychological theory in the 20th century. Any PB wordniks have a better idea, or, perhaps, a sub for the OED?
Only mention in OED seems to be a 2003 quote. AND it is a quote for *ahother* word, so caught in passing.
Self is both a source and site of the agentic self-referential conduct that anchors a sense of substantivity for the subject. A. J. Weigert & V. Gecas in L. T. Reynolds & N. J. Herman-Kinney, Handbook Symbolic Interactionism
And the entry for agent is too big to try and find if it is in there, andf I am not familiar with the OED search engine. .
But you should try also Google Book Search - the proper one. This has entries back to at least 1991 (assuming correctly entered, obvs).
Does anyone have access to the OED? I'm trying to find the origin and etymology of the word "agentic"
It seems to be REALLY new, the earliest citation I can find is 2011. But surely it is older than that. There are hints that it comes from psychological theory in the 20th century. Any PB wordniks have a better idea, or, perhaps, a sub for the OED?
Earliest in OED seems to be 2003. AND it is a quote for *ahother* word, so caught in passing.
Self is both a source and site of the agentic self-referential conduct that anchors a sense of substantivity for the subject. A. J. Weigert & V. Gecas in L. T. Reynolds & N. J. Herman-Kinney, Handbook Symbolic Interactionism
And the entry for agent is too big andf I am not familiar with the OED search engine. .
But you should try also Google Book Search - the proper one. This has entries back to at least 1991 (assuming correctly entered, obvs).
Look like it comes from the 1970s, and academic psychology.... like almost everything sinister....
Does anyone have access to the OED? I'm trying to find the origin and etymology of the word "agentic"
It seems to be REALLY new, the earliest citation I can find is 2011. But surely it is older than that. There are hints that it comes from psychological theory in the 20th century. Any PB wordniks have a better idea, or, perhaps, a sub for the OED?
Wtf is a ham pasta bake? Sounds grim. Also no favourite Xmas movie?! Home Alone is an easy choice for anyone who's got kids or been a kid, so everyone ever.
Does anyone have access to the OED? I'm trying to find the origin and etymology of the word "agentic"
It seems to be REALLY new, the earliest citation I can find is 2011. But surely it is older than that. There are hints that it comes from psychological theory in the 20th century. Any PB wordniks have a better idea, or, perhaps, a sub for the OED?
Most local libraries have an OED subscription which will let you access the online OED from anywhere by just putting your library card number in on the website. So if you often find you want to look something up in the OED joining your local library is a good way to get free access. (This is about the only thing I use my library membership for these days...)
A cautionary tale of the US school vouchers movement.
No-Limit Vouchers Are Blowing Up Arizona’s Budget. This Woman Is Leading the Way. Conservative parents seeking “educational freedom” have found a taxpayer-supported way to opt out of public schools. And other states want to imitate it. https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/11/24/arizona-no-limit-school-vouchers-00191201 ESAs are Empowerment Scholarship Accounts, the school voucher program that in 2022 opened to every family in Arizona. Originally created for students with disabilities who needed services they could not get at their neighborhood public schools, ESAs have morphed over the last two years into a budget-busting free-for-all used by more than 50,000 students — nearly 1 in 20 school-age children in the state — many of whom were already enrolled in private and religious schools or home-schooled. Families, mostly from high-income zip codes, have applied the taxpayer funds for everything from ski lift passes to visits to trampoline parks, a $4,000 grand piano, more than a million dollars in Legos, online ballet lessons, horse therapy and cookie-baking kits. Proponents justify expenditures like these in the name of parents’ prerogative to shape their children’s education or by pointing to wasteful spending by public schools. As a result, ESA costs have ballooned from the legislature’s original estimated price tag of $100 million over two years, to more than $400 million a year — a figure, critics have noted, that would explain more than half of Arizona’s projected budget deficit in 2024 and 2025...
...This fall, school districts around the country are finally facing the full fiscal implications of the Covid pandemic, as a $190 billion infusion of federal funding passed in 2021 runs out. Nationally, vouchers still support only a tiny proportion of the overall student population. Voucher advocates, like Clark, are eager to argue that students “taking their education dollars” elsewhere won’t hurt public district schools left behind. But the evidence from Arizona and other states is that per-pupil funding for public schools tends to freeze or decrease as voucher programs expand. In Arizona, the governor’s office projects that ESAs will steer more than half of new education funding this year to just 8 percent of the state’s children...
Wtf is a ham pasta bake? Sounds grim. Also no favourite Xmas movie?! Home Alone is an easy choice for anyone who's got kids or been a kid, so everyone ever.
Easily answered. Macaroni cheese, with added bits of ham opr bacon in it, browned in the oven, is an example.
Wtf is a ham pasta bake? Sounds grim. Also no favourite Xmas movie?! Home Alone is an easy choice for anyone who's got kids or been a kid, so everyone ever.
Are you kidding me right now? Ham pasta bake (with plenty of cheese/white sauce/etc) sounds like heaven. Super comfort food and I'm in.
Wtf is a ham pasta bake? Sounds grim. Also no favourite Xmas movie?! Home Alone is an easy choice for anyone who's got kids or been a kid, so everyone ever.
Die Hard (to trigger people) or Muppet Christmas Carol are obvious choices
Wtf is a ham pasta bake? Sounds grim. Also no favourite Xmas movie?! Home Alone is an easy choice for anyone who's got kids or been a kid, so everyone ever.
Easily answered. Macaroni cheese, with added bits of ham in it, browned in the oven, is an example.
But why would anyone use ham instead of bacon for that? Ham brings nothing to the table, it's the proverbial knife in a gun fight in that kind of dish.
On the header yes very interesting and compelling but as countless others have said, without an insight into the relative economic circumstances of the country, it is difficult to assess why the Dems lost and Trump won.
Wtf is a ham pasta bake? Sounds grim. Also no favourite Xmas movie?! Home Alone is an easy choice for anyone who's got kids or been a kid, so everyone ever.
Are you kidding me right now? Ham pasta bake (with plenty of cheese/white sauce/etc) sounds like heaven. Super comfort food and I'm in.
Ham would do nothing in that dish. It would bring precisely zero additional flavour, you're thinking of bacon - if you look at where Italians add pork to pasta it's always something with high fat and salt so guinciale or pancetta. Ham belongs on pizza or in a sandwich.
Wtf is a ham pasta bake? Sounds grim. Also no favourite Xmas movie?! Home Alone is an easy choice for anyone who's got kids or been a kid, so everyone ever.
Easily answered. Macaroni cheese, with added bits of ham in it, browned in the oven, is an example.
But why would anyone use ham instead of bacon for that? Ham brings nothing to the table, it's the proverbial knife in a gun fight in that kind of dish.
Some people do. Think of croques monsieur. And it may be a variety of ham which is more like bacon in UK terms.
I'm astounded at how PB righties will seek to pick complaints about any pol who isn't a Tory ...
I see this work the hammer will once again be taken to working age benefits whilst nothing is done about the ludicrously non-affordable triple lock for boomers.
Starmer has already hammered pensioners winter fuel allowance so many will freeze this winter
Rich pensioners can sell their mansions and buy smaller and cheaper to heat properties. The country benefits. You’re welcome.
Perfect evidence of the attitudes of heartlessness of those on the left. And they say the Tories are the "nasty party".
I am sorry but those with large expensive assets do not need my sympathy. The lack of perspective is mind blowing.
It's OK to say that people shouldn't have more children than they can afford (even when their circumstances might have changed for the worse since the birth) but it's not OK to suggest that people might have to downsize if they can no longer afford to heat and/or maintain their property?
What about the people who can no longer afford their mortgage (or rent) post-Truss? No allowance for those people.
Something I've noticed come up regarding Trump and Ukraine is the economic benefits for the US of a Ukrainian victory. It seems probable that Ukrainian diplomats are telling Trump and his circle that the US could make a lot of money if Ukraine wins, but if Russia wins only Russia will gain. Given that Trump is very transcational this seems like a good strategy, even if it does mean that Ukraine will be in hock to the US for a long time to come.
Wtf is a ham pasta bake? Sounds grim. Also no favourite Xmas movie?! Home Alone is an easy choice for anyone who's got kids or been a kid, so everyone ever.
Easily answered. Macaroni cheese, with added bits of ham in it, browned in the oven, is an example.
But why would anyone use ham instead of bacon for that? Ham brings nothing to the table, it's the proverbial knife in a gun fight in that kind of dish.
Some people do. Think of croques monsieur. And it may be a variety of ham which is more like bacon in UK terms.
I'm astounded at how PB righties will seek to pick complaints about any pol who isn't a Tory ...
You'd have thought he'd suggested adding pineapple, from the scale of the disapprobation.
Comments
https://bsky.app/profile/chadbourn.bsky.social/post/3lbrdgt7i7224
Georgescu (the far far right candidate) broke through on the back of a huge campaign on TikTok - Romania is a big user - with accusations that his videos were backed by China.
All parties will now need to get behind Lasconi to defeat him.
Fentanyl overdoses are - quite abruptly - dropping dramatically. No one is quite sure why. But yay
https://x.com/kdrum/status/1860384033211056372?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw
And they do have agency, they can frag their officers, they can desert, they can mutiny, they can surrender to the enemy
She "bitterly regrets" Brexit, but after deep self analysis, and pondering whether she could have done more to help, comes to the conclusion that the failure of the Cameron 'renegotiation' was entirely his fault.
As regards a 6.7% increase in Britain's minimum wage, also announced in the budget, Kingfisher said it expected to offset the impact through "structural cost reductions and productivity gains"*.
https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2024/1125/1482777-kingfisher-lowers-top-end-of-annual-profit-forecast/
* corporate speak for job losses....
* well by right, I mean he actually listened to the security briefing that one time.
I think the main ones are (a) a lack of clarity around what they were actually for, rather than simply being in opposition to MAGA (b) the economy and (c) the fact that they are perhaps speaking to a world and a voter coalition that is diminishing and no longer delivers where they need it to.
(C) is the interesting one.
I have said before that Democrats are very good at the hopey/changey/let’s all get along mood music, but that in and of itself doesn’t really speak to the people they need to speak to. They need to come up with answers for our times. Trump had answers - people might not like them, or think they are extremely destructive, but he taps into a rich seam of voters - people worried about price rises, people worried about immigration, people concerned at the international situation, people who feel America is being taken for granted, people who feel their votes are being taken for granted, people worried about crime etc etc.
We see some of this in the UK too. I think voters want their politicians to actually offer radical ideas at the moment, to think outside the box and to disrupt the consensus.
“Hey, Trump might just have a plan to end the war, sounds crazy but could be true”
PB: no the war must go on for ever and ever, there is no end
“Hey, looks like Fentanyl overdoses are down! By a lot!”
PB: doesn’t matter there are worse drugs and everything is shit
“Hey -“
PB: no, the only good thing is millions and millions of dead Russians. Shut up
At the risk of boring those who've known about it for years, who knew about Europe's largest known Bronze Age battlefield ?
A Bronze Age Conflict: Insights from Europe’s Oldest Known Battlefield
Archaeologists uncover the scale and origins of a 3,250-year-old battle at Tollense Valley
https://www.anthropology.net/p/a-bronze-age-conflict-insights-from
Is that what’s happening in America? Is the drop in Fentanyl deaths merely revealing a move to other drugs?
https://youtu.be/loNQLkeBOpY?si=wXpWCm0r9SPnl0WR&t=772
No real consensus on why yet.
Kind of unknowable, but we wouldn't have had the best part of a decade's decision paralysis.
And in fairness to @turbotubbs I think he was only trying to be informative.
The 2010-2015 coalition of Tories and LDs was a brief period of lower tax and lower spending which has largely been reversed since and even then many rightwingers did not think Cameron and Osborne should have protected the NHS and overseas aid from cuts
Merkel is a bit unusual in having a long stint on office and leaving before it all fell apart.
@sentdefender
·
3h
According to a Senior Israeli Official, a Ceasefire in Southern Lebanon is likely only days away, if not less, from being Finalized by all Parties.
Looks like they've fucked it.
Florida: 24.6%
Texas: 21%
Washington: 20.5%
North Carolina: 17.4%
California: 15.3%
Georgia: 14.3%
Australia: 11%
Ohio: 9.1%
New York: 8.7%
Canada: 7.2%
Spain: 6.9%
Pennsylvania: 6.6%
Italy: 5%
Illinois 4.8%
France 3.8%
UK 3.4%
Japan 0.7%
Germany 0.3%
https://x.com/_fat_ugly_rat_/status/1860740947375431962
Feeling virtuous about themselves seems an unaffordable luxury to voters nowadays.
Ok coffee and work. Later
On the other hand, we do have lots more than we might have thanks to Egypt's climate preserving papyrus, and ancient clay tablets lasting a long time.
They won't be allowed near power for a generation.
Just rejoice at that news.
PPP or USD?
Per capita or per country?
Real or nominal?
Pull the other one.
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/polling/2024/11/labour-is-losing-big-in-the-council-by-election-sweepstakes
The rouble has reached the "death cross" - when the 50 day moving average breaks through the 200 day moving average going down... No longer has the trust required of an interntional currency.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwuUIjIwX4k
In leftworld, redefine groups as “rich”, then switch off empathy.
We sold it to a couple with one adult son.
They have now sold it on to another couple with one teenage child.
Our current two bedroomed home is a great deal easier to heat and to manage generally.
I meant, what's fat ugly rat's source?
Good question.
(If it's not per capita, then the per capita performances of Texas, Florida, and California are much closer.)
I just posted it as a provocation.
It seems to be REALLY new, the earliest citation I can find is 2011. But surely it is older than that. There are hints that it comes from psychological theory in the 20th century. Any PB wordniks have a better idea, or, perhaps, a sub for the OED?
What's unfair IMO is historical NICs rates were lower than they are today, yet pensioners get triple-locked increases. I think it unlikely I'll enjoy a state pension that is significantly higher in real terms than the current one, despite my larger contribution.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/27503444
https://www.jstor.org/stable/190944
Self is both a source and site of the agentic self-referential conduct that anchors a sense of substantivity for the subject.
A. J. Weigert & V. Gecas in L. T. Reynolds & N. J. Herman-Kinney, Handbook Symbolic Interactionism
And the entry for agent is too big to try and find if it is in there, andf I am not familiar with the OED search engine. .
But you should try also Google Book Search - the proper one. This has entries back to at least 1991 (assuming correctly entered, obvs).
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3e8y1qly52o
Still 50/50 as to whether she's a long term Russian asset.
https://x.com/politlcsuk/status/1861012533613633894?s=61
...although I can't find an original cite.
Looking at Google Books, the word is used in the 19th century in a pharmacological context, eg "agentic nitrite"
https://www.google.com/search?q=agentic+nitrite
https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=agentic&year_start=1800&year_end=2022&corpus=en&smoothing=3
Edit: and here's a mention from 1960
https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/New_Left_Review/idgQYj9PjgIC?hl=en&gbpv=0&bsq=agentic
No-Limit Vouchers Are Blowing Up Arizona’s Budget. This Woman Is Leading the Way.
Conservative parents seeking “educational freedom” have found a taxpayer-supported way to opt out of public schools. And other states want to imitate it.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/11/24/arizona-no-limit-school-vouchers-00191201
ESAs are Empowerment Scholarship Accounts, the school voucher program that in 2022 opened to every family in Arizona. Originally created for students with disabilities who needed services they could not get at their neighborhood public schools, ESAs have morphed over the last two years into a budget-busting free-for-all used by more than 50,000 students — nearly 1 in 20 school-age children in the state — many of whom were already enrolled in private and religious schools or home-schooled. Families, mostly from high-income zip codes, have applied the taxpayer funds for everything from ski lift passes to visits to trampoline parks, a $4,000 grand piano, more than a million dollars in Legos, online ballet lessons, horse therapy and cookie-baking kits. Proponents justify expenditures like these in the name of parents’ prerogative to shape their children’s education or by pointing to wasteful spending by public schools. As a result, ESA costs have ballooned from the legislature’s original estimated price tag of $100 million over two years, to more than $400 million a year — a figure, critics have noted, that would explain more than half of Arizona’s projected budget deficit in 2024 and 2025...
...This fall, school districts around the country are finally facing the full fiscal implications of the Covid pandemic, as a $190 billion infusion of federal funding passed in 2021 runs out. Nationally, vouchers still support only a tiny proportion of the overall student population. Voucher advocates, like Clark, are eager to argue that students “taking their education dollars” elsewhere won’t hurt public district schools left behind. But the evidence from Arizona and other states is that per-pupil funding for public schools tends to freeze or decrease as voucher programs expand. In Arizona, the governor’s office projects that ESAs will steer more than half of new education funding this year to just 8 percent of the state’s children...
Mind you to be fair I don’t really know what my favourite is either.
And he's circumspect over what @TSE might say.
I'm astounded at how PB righties will seek to pick complaints about any pol who isn't a Tory ...
But I don't think they're particularly important.
What about the people who can no longer afford their mortgage (or rent) post-Truss? No allowance for those people.