BBC's "The Pandemic 5 years on" documentary seems determined to cement that "lockdown was a necessary evil" narrative by focussing on a few sad stories..🧐
Scientific consensus is that the first lockdown WAS a necessary evil. Probably the later ones too, before the pandemic rollout to the most vulnerable.
I know it’s become fashionable to claim the opposite now, and one shouldn’t ignore the downsides of lockdown, it was a crisis with very few levers to be pulled.
More and more I've come to realise that people die from diseases, fat and old ones even more than usual. The degree to which we sacrificed as a nation to add a few months of life expectancy to the old and the obese was way too high.
The Boris Johnson government will undoubtedly go down in history as the worst in the post war era.
They couldn't even be bothered to tell the fat slobs to do some exercise.
With slightly gentler language, I agree. I wonder how many lives (or are least, QALYs) could have been saved with a "lose 5 pounds to save the NHS" campaign from March '20. More than the vaccine?
Secretary Brooke Rollins @SecRollins Just finished up another great Cabinet meeting. Takeaways👇
- @POTUS’ example of energy in office will be the standard by which all future presidents will be judged.
-The President has assembled the most qualified — and unified — Cabinet in history.
-The bureaucracy will never reform itself; @DOGE is right-sizing the government to the size and scope the American people mandated — and the Cabinet fully stands behind @elonmusk . Don’t judge DOGE by the standards of the class that lives and dies by the D.C. model. Judge it by the standards of the world-beating entrepreneurs that only America produces.
Pete Buttigieg @PeteButtigieg · 2h From an operational security perspective, this is the highest level of fuckup imaginable. These people cannot keep America safe.
Edit: The latter is probably good news for Europe, Greenland and Canada.
BBC's "The Pandemic 5 years on" documentary seems determined to cement that "lockdown was a necessary evil" narrative by focussing on a few sad stories..🧐
Scientific consensus is that the first lockdown WAS a necessary evil. Probably the later ones too, before the pandemic rollout to the most vulnerable.
I know it’s become fashionable to claim the opposite now, and one shouldn’t ignore the downsides of lockdown, it was a crisis with very few levers to be pulled.
More and more I've come to realise that people die from diseases, fat and old ones even more than usual. The degree to which we sacrificed as a nation to add a few months of life expectancy to the old and the obese was way too high.
The Boris Johnson government will undoubtedly go down in history as the worst in the post war era.
They couldn't even be bothered to tell the fat slobs to do some exercise.
Shutting down the gyms and eat out to help out was a killer combo.
EOTHO is unfairly maligned. It coincided with a new variant being imported from holiday travel to Spain and was a genuine attempt to keep businesses going.
It is somewhat the poster-child for the un-joined-up thinking that was going on though.
BBC's "The Pandemic 5 years on" documentary seems determined to cement that "lockdown was a necessary evil" narrative by focussing on a few sad stories..🧐
Scientific consensus is that the first lockdown WAS a necessary evil. Probably the later ones too, before the pandemic rollout to the most vulnerable.
I know it’s become fashionable to claim the opposite now, and one shouldn’t ignore the downsides of lockdown, it was a crisis with very few levers to be pulled.
More and more I've come to realise that people die from diseases, fat and old ones even more than usual. The degree to which we sacrificed as a nation to add a few months of life expectancy to the old and the obese was way too high.
The Boris Johnson government will undoubtedly go down in history as the worst in the post war era.
They couldn't even be bothered to tell the fat slobs to do some exercise.
Shutting down the gyms and eat out to help out was a killer combo.
EOTHO is unfairly maligned. It coincided with a new variant being imported from holiday travel to Spain and was a genuine attempt to keep businesses going.
It is somewhat the poster-child for the un-joined-up thinking that was going on though.
But too many simple minded people attack it, just as they go on about the waste of Track and Trace whilst they still have hundreds of ‘free’ test kits in their cupboards.
This is clearly an attempt to force people to stop using cash on London transport.
"Tube tickets shock: Passengers who use cash pay three times more in fares for the same journey Single Tube journey in Zones 1-6 costs £7 cash but £2.80 with Contactless"
"There is concern that growing numbers of suicidal people, especially young people, are asking for help to die. Last year, there were 219 reports of euthanasia after psychological suffering, up by almost 60 per cent from 138 the previous year. In 2020 there were just 88."
@kristincbrown · 2m NEW: Defense Secretary Hegseth tells pooler @ellee_watson that “nobody was texting any war plans” and calls @JeffreyGoldberg a “deceitful and highly-discredited so-called journalist who’s made a profession of peddling hoaxes” - as the fallout from the Atlantic article continues
Ed Davey @EdwardJDavey · 1h JD Vance and his mates clearly aren’t fit to run a group chat, let alone the world’s strongest military force. It has to make our security services nervous about the intelligence we’re sharing with them.
@kristincbrown · 2m NEW: Defense Secretary Hegseth tells pooler @ellee_watson that “nobody was texting any war plans” and calls @JeffreyGoldberg a “deceitful and highly-discredited so-called journalist who’s made a profession of peddling hoaxes” - as the fallout from the Atlantic article continues
BBC's "The Pandemic 5 years on" documentary seems determined to cement that "lockdown was a necessary evil" narrative by focussing on a few sad stories..🧐
Scientific consensus is that the first lockdown WAS a necessary evil. Probably the later ones too, before the pandemic rollout to the most vulnerable.
I know it’s become fashionable to claim the opposite now, and one shouldn’t ignore the downsides of lockdown, it was a crisis with very few levers to be pulled.
More and more I've come to realise that people die from diseases, fat and old ones even more than usual. The degree to which we sacrificed as a nation to add a few months of life expectancy to the old and the obese was way too high.
The Boris Johnson government will undoubtedly go down in history as the worst in the post war era.
Initial lockdown was more about avoiding the complete collapse of healthcare provision. People dying of other things because the hospitals were full. We have a spectacular ability to use hindsight over the covid period.
IIRC we got to the point that a few patients were moved into a couple of the Nightingale "hospitals"
Happily we live in a more caring society than @MaxPB imagines, which comes across as a 21st version of putting a black cross on front doors and locking people in to die. We never tried the experiment of just letting it burn through.
I really don’t get the levels of revisionism that some on here are indulging in.
Yes and look at what unlimited kindness has done for us. £38bn per year for "disability" benefits, 9m people inactive, 1 in 5 people employed by the state, a 6.7m NHS waiting list, lowest ever ranking on the global happiness index.
The country needed and still needs tough love. The government is like a doctor giving out heroin to addicts because they think it's better than the pain of withdrawal.
It’s fair enough to challenge whether every person who is certified as disabled really is, and what support the state offers. On The Last Leg on Friday it was claimed there were 16 million disabled in the U.K. which seems huge, and surely must include some dubious cases.
But that doesn’t mean that there was a better, harsher way that would have left us in a better place now.
You're in denial about the deleterious effects of the lockdowns imo.
BBC's "The Pandemic 5 years on" documentary seems determined to cement that "lockdown was a necessary evil" narrative by focussing on a few sad stories..🧐
Because at the time it was. I am no Johnson fanboi, but other than looking down later than was often optimal he got that big call right. Now with the benefit of hindsight people may argue that lockdowns could have been managed better, but at the time we didn't know what had hit us. I am sure it will all be done differently next time.
I am jolly glad that as someone in the over 55 category and thus would have been high risk, I am glad I am still around to carp on about lockdowns.
BBC's "The Pandemic 5 years on" documentary seems determined to cement that "lockdown was a necessary evil" narrative by focussing on a few sad stories..🧐
Because at the time it was. I am no Johnson fanboi, but other than looking down later than was often optimal he got that big call right. Now with the benefit of hindsight people may argue that lockdowns could have been managed better, but at the time we didn't know what had hit us. I am sure it will all be done differently next time.
I am jolly glad that as someone in the over 55 category and thus would have been high risk, I am glad I am still around to carp on about lockdowns.
"I am sure it will all be done differently next time."
Very early days but seems to me Reform have picked a winner for Runcorn.
On the face of it not mad, seems ordinary-ish (but touch of the 'I own a kitchen with a central isle'), magistrate - so nice line on law and order after Ashby.
I wish BF would put the bloody book up but looks lost for Lab here.
The really interesting thing is that if you are Morgan McSweeny then losing this could be an advantage. Means more pressure on his side to push for blue lab/working class/old lab values and less of the Islington workshop on colonial values shite.
Pete Buttigieg @PeteButtigieg · 2h From an operational security perspective, this is the highest level of fuckup imaginable. These people cannot keep America safe.
And even Fox News acknowledged that Whiskey Pete was lying when he denied it.
Fox’s Brit Hume on Hegseth’s response to war plans texts: ‘Oh for God’s sake’ Fox News political commentator Brit Hume on Monday afternoon pushed back on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s claim that “nobody was texting war plans” after news broke that Hegseth and other Trump administration officials discussed plans for an attack against Houthi rebels in Yemen on a text chain that mistakenly included the editor-in-chief for The Atlantic. “Nobody was texting war plans, and that’s all I have to say about that,” Hegseth said outside a plane in Hawaii when asked about editor-in-chief of The Atlantic Jeffrey Goldberg’s access to the chat...
Pete Buttigieg @PeteButtigieg · 2h From an operational security perspective, this is the highest level of fuckup imaginable. These people cannot keep America safe.
And even Fox News acknowledged that Whiskey Pete was lying when he denied it.
Fox’s Brit Hume on Hegseth’s response to war plans texts: ‘Oh for God’s sake’ Fox News political commentator Brit Hume on Monday afternoon pushed back on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s claim that “nobody was texting war plans” after news broke that Hegseth and other Trump administration officials discussed plans for an attack against Houthi rebels in Yemen on a text chain that mistakenly included the editor-in-chief for The Atlantic. “Nobody was texting war plans, and that’s all I have to say about that,” Hegseth said outside a plane in Hawaii when asked about editor-in-chief of The Atlantic Jeffrey Goldberg’s access to the chat...
A senior administration official told POLITICO the White House isn’t sure if Mike Waltz can survive as national security adviser after The Atlantic's bombshell report.
"Half of them saying he’s never going to survive or shouldn’t survive," the official said. "It was reckless not to check who was on the thread. It was reckless to be having that conversation on Signal. You can’t have recklessness as the national security adviser."
BBC's "The Pandemic 5 years on" documentary seems determined to cement that "lockdown was a necessary evil" narrative by focussing on a few sad stories..🧐
Scientific consensus is that the first lockdown WAS a necessary evil. Probably the later ones too, before the pandemic rollout to the most vulnerable.
I know it’s become fashionable to claim the opposite now, and one shouldn’t ignore the downsides of lockdown, it was a crisis with very few levers to be pulled.
More and more I've come to realise that people die from diseases, fat and old ones even more than usual. The degree to which we sacrificed as a nation to add a few months of life expectancy to the old and the obese was way too high.
The Boris Johnson government will undoubtedly go down in history as the worst in the post war era.
That’s normal for a healthcare system, though. I believe I am right in saying that something like 33%-40% of all healthcare expenditure (data from both UK and US, I believe) is spent on the last few months of life?
BBC's "The Pandemic 5 years on" documentary seems determined to cement that "lockdown was a necessary evil" narrative by focussing on a few sad stories..🧐
Scientific consensus is that the first lockdown WAS a necessary evil. Probably the later ones too, before the pandemic rollout to the most vulnerable.
I know it’s become fashionable to claim the opposite now, and one shouldn’t ignore the downsides of lockdown, it was a crisis with very few levers to be pulled.
More and more I've come to realise that people die from diseases, fat and old ones even more than usual. The degree to which we sacrificed as a nation to add a few months of life expectancy to the old and the obese was way too high.
The Boris Johnson government will undoubtedly go down in history as the worst in the post war era.
Initial lockdown was more about avoiding the complete collapse of healthcare provision. People dying of other things because the hospitals were full. We have a spectacular ability to use hindsight over the covid period.
As I've said, COVID should have been treated in the home, no hospital visits, anyone testing positive sent home until they were clear of it. I'm under no illusions that this would have led to more deaths up front until there was a viable vaccine to reduce the severity. I would also have not had any furlough scheme and minimal business support and for big businesses cash injections in return for equity. Again, I'm aware this would have led to more unemployment but we wouldn't have any of the current issues where people are finding methods of sitting at home and getting free money from the government by gaming the system.
Lockdown and all of the measures we took will one day be seen as a disaster, we gave people unlimited kindness and in return we've turned into a nation that doesn't want to work and a population that feels entitled to a high standard of living for zero effort.
As to your other point, yes I agree it would have been worse under Labour, yet they weren't in charge. Boris and Rishi could have set the tone a lot better. Giving people up to £2.5k per month to sit at home was and remains a terrible policy, especially for as long as the government kept it.
You are condemning a lot of people based on the spurious idea that we're "a nation that doesn't want to work and a population that feels entitled to a high standard of living for zero effort." Unemployment is low and the vast majority of people work hard and claim no benefits.
The unemployment statistics are a sham, even the government recognises it hence the drive to reduce the number of people eligible for disability benefits. There is a projection that the state will soon spend £60bn per year on "disability" benefits and more than 5m people will be claiming them. How naïve are you to believe that all of these people are disabled?
The aspect to focus on is how and why the UK experience has diverged from that of comparable countries, since the pandemic.
BBC's "The Pandemic 5 years on" documentary seems determined to cement that "lockdown was a necessary evil" narrative by focussing on a few sad stories..🧐
Scientific consensus is that the first lockdown WAS a necessary evil. Probably the later ones too, before the pandemic rollout to the most vulnerable.
I know it’s become fashionable to claim the opposite now, and one shouldn’t ignore the downsides of lockdown, it was a crisis with very few levers to be pulled.
More and more I've come to realise that people die from diseases, fat and old ones even more than usual. The degree to which we sacrificed as a nation to add a few months of life expectancy to the old and the obese was way too high.
The Boris Johnson government will undoubtedly go down in history as the worst in the post war era.
Initial lockdown was more about avoiding the complete collapse of healthcare provision. People dying of other things because the hospitals were full. We have a spectacular ability to use hindsight over the covid period.
As I've said, COVID should have been treated in the home, no hospital visits, anyone testing positive sent home until they were clear of it. I'm under no illusions that this would have led to more deaths up front until there was a viable vaccine to reduce the severity. I would also have not had any furlough scheme and minimal business support and for big businesses cash injections in return for equity. Again, I'm aware this would have led to more unemployment but we wouldn't have any of the current issues where people are finding methods of sitting at home and getting free money from the government by gaming the system.
Lockdown and all of the measures we took will one day be seen as a disaster, we gave people unlimited kindness and in return we've turned into a nation that doesn't want to work and a population that feels entitled to a high standard of living for zero effort.
As to your other point, yes I agree it would have been worse under Labour, yet they weren't in charge. Boris and Rishi could have set the tone a lot better. Giving people up to £2.5k per month to sit at home was and remains a terrible policy, especially for as long as the government kept it.
You are condemning a lot of people based on the spurious idea that we're "a nation that doesn't want to work and a population that feels entitled to a high standard of living for zero effort." Unemployment is low and the vast majority of people work hard and claim no benefits.
The unemployment statistics are a sham, even the government recognises it hence the drive to reduce the number of people eligible for disability benefits. There is a projection that the state will soon spend £60bn per year on "disability" benefits and more than 5m people will be claiming them. How naïve are you to believe that all of these people are disabled?
The aspect to focus on is how and why the UK experience has diverged from that of comparable countries, since the pandemic.
Quite. UKs response to COVID was very similar to many other countries. To suggest it has caused all of these other problems is ridiculous as is the hostility to UK pensions which are not especially generous compared to many other countries. And of course the pension is contributory - implying an obligation at the end.
*) Not all disabilities are visible, and not all disabilities are continuous.
*) If the first lockdown was not necessary with what we knew at the time, why did so many countries take the same action? Simply because it was necessary.
*) Many of those Monday-morning quarterbacking against lockdowns would be complaining about not having had one if we hadn't.
*) I started exercising *more* during and after lockdown, a trend I have continued. I know others who are the same.
Pete Buttigieg @PeteButtigieg · 2h From an operational security perspective, this is the highest level of fuckup imaginable. These people cannot keep America safe.
And even Fox News acknowledged that Whiskey Pete was lying when he denied it.
Fox’s Brit Hume on Hegseth’s response to war plans texts: ‘Oh for God’s sake’ Fox News political commentator Brit Hume on Monday afternoon pushed back on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s claim that “nobody was texting war plans” after news broke that Hegseth and other Trump administration officials discussed plans for an attack against Houthi rebels in Yemen on a text chain that mistakenly included the editor-in-chief for The Atlantic. “Nobody was texting war plans, and that’s all I have to say about that,” Hegseth said outside a plane in Hawaii when asked about editor-in-chief of The Atlantic Jeffrey Goldberg’s access to the chat...
That's quite an incredible take, and the one Musky Baby is taking on Twix. Attacking the journalist and the Atlantic.
And their base will lap it up.
It's getting to the stage where the US government and MAGA are becoming traitors to their own country. And before anyone complains, that's the language they're using against their political enemies.
Pete Buttigieg @PeteButtigieg · 2h From an operational security perspective, this is the highest level of fuckup imaginable. These people cannot keep America safe.
And even Fox News acknowledged that Whiskey Pete was lying when he denied it.
Fox’s Brit Hume on Hegseth’s response to war plans texts: ‘Oh for God’s sake’ Fox News political commentator Brit Hume on Monday afternoon pushed back on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s claim that “nobody was texting war plans” after news broke that Hegseth and other Trump administration officials discussed plans for an attack against Houthi rebels in Yemen on a text chain that mistakenly included the editor-in-chief for The Atlantic. “Nobody was texting war plans, and that’s all I have to say about that,” Hegseth said outside a plane in Hawaii when asked about editor-in-chief of The Atlantic Jeffrey Goldberg’s access to the chat...
That's quite an incredible take, and the one Musky Baby is taking on Twix. Attacking the journalist and the Atlantic.
And their base will lap it up.
It's getting to the stage where the US government and MAGA are becoming traitors to their own country. And before anyone complains, that's the language they're using against their political enemies.
'getting to'? It passed that stage at a gallop on the 6th January 2020.
One other effect of Covid-19 is that it has utterly shafted the bike industry. There was a large build-up in demand during C-19, as more people cycled to keep fit. Many companies increased production despite supply-chain issues, only for the fad to quickly die away. There are more second-hand bikes on the market, and pretty much the entire industry is in recession and massively overstocked.
The few companies that did not try to expand production are apparently doing relatively well...
Secretary Brooke Rollins @SecRollins Just finished up another great Cabinet meeting. Takeaways👇
- @POTUS’ example of energy in office will be the standard by which all future presidents will be judged.
-The President has assembled the most qualified — and unified — Cabinet in history.
-The bureaucracy will never reform itself; @DOGE is right-sizing the government to the size and scope the American people mandated — and the Cabinet fully stands behind @elonmusk . Don’t judge DOGE by the standards of the class that lives and dies by the D.C. model. Judge it by the standards of the world-beating entrepreneurs that only America produces.
A senior administration official told POLITICO the White House isn’t sure if Mike Waltz can survive as national security adviser after The Atlantic's bombshell report.
"Half of them saying he’s never going to survive or shouldn’t survive," the official said. "It was reckless not to check who was on the thread. It was reckless to be having that conversation on Signal. You can’t have recklessness as the national security adviser."
They're all idiots, they all took part in a discussion that should not have been conducted on Signal and none of them tried to close it down. The implications is that this is "business as usual", that govt is being done via a commercial app not official communication channels. The obvious reason for that is they don't want an official record of their discussions.
I reckon we'll see the US gaslit and that no one will go due to this... Let's see what WG starts reposting.
Hold on, so Steve Witkoff was participating in the Signal group discussing war plans against Houthis while being physically in Moscow, perhaps even in the Kremlin? He met Putin late on March 13.
Come on Democrats. The Secretary of Defense was drunk texting plans of a highly classified military operation. Get on tv. Call it treason. Demand a criminal investigation. Call for resignations. And when they cover it up, Call for the public to support impeachment. This is a slam dunk
A senior administration official told POLITICO the White House isn’t sure if Mike Waltz can survive as national security adviser after The Atlantic's bombshell report.
"Half of them saying he’s never going to survive or shouldn’t survive," the official said. "It was reckless not to check who was on the thread. It was reckless to be having that conversation on Signal. You can’t have recklessness as the national security adviser."
They're all idiots, they all took part in a discussion that should not have been conducted on Signal and none of them tried to close it down. The implications is that this is "business as usual", that govt is being done via a commercial app not official communication channels. The obvious reason for that is they don't want an official record of their discussions.
I reckon we'll see the US gaslit and that no one will go due to this... Let's see what WG starts reposting.
If Trump had cared about the security of the US, none of Gabbard, Waltz, Hegseth or Vance would be in post anyway.
And the Republicans will never vote to impeach, or at least not in sufficient numbers (Murkowski might) so they won't be removed.
"The purge of DEI language from US federal websites has claimed another victim. This time, it is NASA's pledge to land the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon as part of the Artemis program."
Very early days but seems to me Reform have picked a winner for Runcorn.
On the face of it not mad, seems ordinary-ish (but touch of the 'I own a kitchen with a central isle'), magistrate - so nice line on law and order after Ashby.
I wish BF would put the bloody book up but looks lost for Lab here.
The really interesting thing is that if you are Morgan McSweeny then losing this could be an advantage. Means more pressure on his side to push for blue lab/working class/old lab values and less of the Islington workshop on colonial values shite.
I think the opposite. If Labour lose it is because they pissed off their own voters trying to be a pale imitation of Reform, and failed to win them over.
Labour can win by being red, but not by pretending to be turquoise.
BBC's "The Pandemic 5 years on" documentary seems determined to cement that "lockdown was a necessary evil" narrative by focussing on a few sad stories..🧐
Scientific consensus is that the first lockdown WAS a necessary evil. Probably the later ones too, before the pandemic rollout to the most vulnerable.
I know it’s become fashionable to claim the opposite now, and one shouldn’t ignore the downsides of lockdown, it was a crisis with very few levers to be pulled.
More and more I've come to realise that people die from diseases, fat and old ones even more than usual. The degree to which we sacrificed as a nation to add a few months of life expectancy to the old and the obese was way too high.
The Boris Johnson government will undoubtedly go down in history as the worst in the post war era.
Initial lockdown was more about avoiding the complete collapse of healthcare provision. People dying of other things because the hospitals were full. We have a spectacular ability to use hindsight over the covid period.
IIRC we got to the point that a few patients were moved into a couple of the Nightingale "hospitals"
Happily we live in a more caring society than @MaxPB imagines, which comes across as a 21st version of putting a black cross on front doors and locking people in to die. We never tried the experiment of just letting it burn through.
I really don’t get the levels of revisionism that some on here are indulging in.
Yes and look at what unlimited kindness has done for us. £38bn per year for "disability" benefits, 9m people inactive, 1 in 5 people employed by the state, a 6.7m NHS waiting list, lowest ever ranking on the global happiness index.
The country needed and still needs tough love. The government is like a doctor giving out heroin to addicts because they think it's better than the pain of withdrawal.
It’s fair enough to challenge whether every person who is certified as disabled really is, and what support the state offers. On The Last Leg on Friday it was claimed there were 16 million disabled in the U.K. which seems huge, and surely must include some dubious cases.
But that doesn’t mean that there was a better, harsher way that would have left us in a better place now.
You're in denial about the deleterious effects of the lockdowns imo.
The other thing to remember is not to blame the lockdowns for the pandemic. The disease itself is responsible for many of the problems we face, not the attempted official response.
There is a legacy of cardiovascular, cerebrovascular and metabolic damage that relates purely to the virus.
The alternative to Lockdowns was not normality. We couldn't wish the pandemic away.
This is clearly an attempt to force people to stop using cash on London transport.
"Tube tickets shock: Passengers who use cash pay three times more in fares for the same journey Single Tube journey in Zones 1-6 costs £7 cash but £2.80 with Contactless"
That’s been the case for a long time. - but it’s only paper tickets, buy an oyster card (£5 deposit) and you willl save money from journey 2 onwards. And you can top up your oyster card with cash at every station
In Paris you don’t have a choice since January -paper tickets have been banned you need a navigo to travel.
and make sure you pick the correct journey type before you begin - it’s not clever enough to cope with debiting €x off the account balance as we discovered at CGG last week when a guard had to allow us to escape
I see the US administration remains super clever, smartest administration ever. You'll all soon realise what looks like incredible incompetence is simply the latest move in a 7D chess game you're not smart enough to understand yet. This is an A Plus move.
A senior administration official told POLITICO the White House isn’t sure if Mike Waltz can survive as national security adviser after The Atlantic's bombshell report.
"Half of them saying he’s never going to survive or shouldn’t survive," the official said. "It was reckless not to check who was on the thread. It was reckless to be having that conversation on Signal. You can’t have recklessness as the national security adviser."
A senior administration official told POLITICO the White House isn’t sure if Mike Waltz can survive as national security adviser after The Atlantic's bombshell report.
"Half of them saying he’s never going to survive or shouldn’t survive," the official said. "It was reckless not to check who was on the thread. It was reckless to be having that conversation on Signal. You can’t have recklessness as the national security adviser."
A senior administration official told POLITICO the White House isn’t sure if Mike Waltz can survive as national security adviser after The Atlantic's bombshell report.
"Half of them saying he’s never going to survive or shouldn’t survive," the official said. "It was reckless not to check who was on the thread. It was reckless to be having that conversation on Signal. You can’t have recklessness as the national security adviser."
One other effect of Covid-19 is that it has utterly shafted the bike industry. There was a large build-up in demand during C-19, as more people cycled to keep fit. Many companies increased production despite supply-chain issues, only for the fad to quickly die away. There are more second-hand bikes on the market, and pretty much the entire industry is in recession and massively overstocked.
The few companies that did not try to expand production are apparently doing relatively well...
Ditto with dogs. Dog prices near trebled, as everyone stuck at home decided they wanted a dog, with the additional benefit of it 'justifying' going out for a walk. Now, as offices try and pull their employees back into their buildings, there's a surplus, prices have fallen, and shelters are full of abandoned pets.
A senior administration official told POLITICO the White House isn’t sure if Mike Waltz can survive as national security adviser after The Atlantic's bombshell report.
"Half of them saying he’s never going to survive or shouldn’t survive," the official said. "It was reckless not to check who was on the thread. It was reckless to be having that conversation on Signal. You can’t have recklessness as the national security adviser."
They're all idiots, they all took part in a discussion that should not have been conducted on Signal and none of them tried to close it down. The implications is that this is "business as usual", that govt is being done via a commercial app not official communication channels. The obvious reason for that is they don't want an official record of their discussions.
I reckon we'll see the US gaslit and that no one will go due to this... Let's see what WG starts reposting.
I doubt the US is unique in this, though.
In part its politicians v officials. Officials want politicians to correspond with each other through official channels, both for legitimate legal reasons and so they can keep tabs on it all. Whereas politicians want the chance to share ideas and plans informally, without their staff looking on, and without leaving indelible hostages to future fortune. Whatsapp and the like have stepped nicely into the gap.
"The purge of DEI language from US federal websites has claimed another victim. This time, it is NASA's pledge to land the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon as part of the Artemis program."
A senior administration official told POLITICO the White House isn’t sure if Mike Waltz can survive as national security adviser after The Atlantic's bombshell report.
"Half of them saying he’s never going to survive or shouldn’t survive," the official said. "It was reckless not to check who was on the thread. It was reckless to be having that conversation on Signal. You can’t have recklessness as the national security adviser."
They're all idiots, they all took part in a discussion that should not have been conducted on Signal and none of them tried to close it down. The implications is that this is "business as usual", that govt is being done via a commercial app not official communication channels. The obvious reason for that is they don't want an official record of their discussions.
I reckon we'll see the US gaslit and that no one will go due to this... Let's see what WG starts reposting.
I doubt the US is unique in this, though.
In part its politicians v officials. Officials want politicians to correspond with each other through official channels, both for legitimate legal reasons and so they can keep tabs on it all. Whereas politicians want the chance to share ideas and plans informally, without their staff looking on, and without leaving indelible hostages to future fortune. Whatsapp and the like have stepped nicely into the gap.
You don't "informally share" a decision for a military strike. They are legally required by statute both to ensure such discussion are secure*, and to keep full records. And are criminally liable when they don't.
Of course the DOJ is now led by similar scofflaw idiots, so they'll probably face no such consequences.
A senior administration official told POLITICO the White House isn’t sure if Mike Waltz can survive as national security adviser after The Atlantic's bombshell report.
"Half of them saying he’s never going to survive or shouldn’t survive," the official said. "It was reckless not to check who was on the thread. It was reckless to be having that conversation on Signal. You can’t have recklessness as the national security adviser."
They're all idiots, they all took part in a discussion that should not have been conducted on Signal and none of them tried to close it down. The implications is that this is "business as usual", that govt is being done via a commercial app not official communication channels. The obvious reason for that is they don't want an official record of their discussions.
I reckon we'll see the US gaslit and that no one will go due to this... Let's see what WG starts reposting.
I doubt the US is unique in this, though.
In part its politicians v officials. Officials want politicians to correspond with each other through official channels, both for legitimate legal reasons and so they can keep tabs on it all. Whereas politicians want the chance to share ideas and plans informally, without their staff looking on, and without leaving indelible hostages to future fortune. Whatsapp and the like have stepped nicely into the gap.
You don't "informally share" a decision for a military strike. They are legally required by statute both to ensure such discussion are secure*, and to keep full records. And are criminally liable when they don't.
Of course the DOJ is now led by similar scofflaw idiots, so they'll probably face no such consequences.
*as Gabbard publicly reminded herself last week.
For sure.
I know I am right, nevertheless, that politicians in other parties and other countries are discussing all sorts of stuff over Whatsapp.
Radical free speech policies continue to expand their scope.
https://x.com/jason_paladino/status/1904304968464818417 ICE is hunting for Yunseo Chung, a Columbia student who attended pro-Palestine protests. Chung came to the US from Korea with her family at age 7, and was her high school's valedictorian. She's a lawful permanent resident. Here's what we know so far...
...Chung's lawyers stress that she was not a movement leader, like Mahmoud Khalil, but only attended a few protests. She faced a disciplinary process from Columbia which found she was NOT in violation of any policies.
A senior administration official told POLITICO the White House isn’t sure if Mike Waltz can survive as national security adviser after The Atlantic's bombshell report.
"Half of them saying he’s never going to survive or shouldn’t survive," the official said. "It was reckless not to check who was on the thread. It was reckless to be having that conversation on Signal. You can’t have recklessness as the national security adviser."
They're all idiots, they all took part in a discussion that should not have been conducted on Signal and none of them tried to close it down. The implications is that this is "business as usual", that govt is being done via a commercial app not official communication channels. The obvious reason for that is they don't want an official record of their discussions.
I reckon we'll see the US gaslit and that no one will go due to this... Let's see what WG starts reposting.
I doubt the US is unique in this, though.
In part its politicians v officials. Officials want politicians to correspond with each other through official channels, both for legitimate legal reasons and so they can keep tabs on it all. Whereas politicians want the chance to share ideas and plans informally, without their staff looking on, and without leaving indelible hostages to future fortune. Whatsapp and the like have stepped nicely into the gap.
Somewhere there's a Jeff Goldberg on the US Yemen team wondering why he wasn't in on the chat.
The breach is interesting for several reasons apart from the obvious security risk. One is the reaction to the leak, but perhaps most interesting is the light it sheds on decision making in the Trump administration, with Vance disagreeing with Trump over the wisdom of bombing the Houthis.
"The Vance account then goes on to make a noteworthy statement, considering that the vice president has not deviated publicly from Trump’s position on virtually any issue. “I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now. There’s a further risk that we see a moderate to severe spike in oil prices. I am willing to support the consensus of the team and keep these concerns to myself. But there is a strong argument for delaying this a month, doing the messaging work on why this matters, seeing where the economy is, etc.”
Vance hates the free countries of Europe. On this there can be no doubt.
I am still of the view that the list of White House appointees will look very different by year end.
Why?
These idiots, appointed by an idiot, are doing exactly what he wants.
There's a difference in owning the Libtards and making the President a laughing stock. He's too thin-skinned to allow the idiots to make the White House a permanent Whitehall farce.
"Donald, where's your trousers?" as Jimmy Kimmell will ask every episode. You KNOW there will be a price to pay for those letting him down. He'll end up more capricious than the Queen of Hearts.
A senior administration official told POLITICO the White House isn’t sure if Mike Waltz can survive as national security adviser after The Atlantic's bombshell report.
"Half of them saying he’s never going to survive or shouldn’t survive," the official said. "It was reckless not to check who was on the thread. It was reckless to be having that conversation on Signal. You can’t have recklessness as the national security adviser."
They're all idiots, they all took part in a discussion that should not have been conducted on Signal and none of them tried to close it down. The implications is that this is "business as usual", that govt is being done via a commercial app not official communication channels. The obvious reason for that is they don't want an official record of their discussions.
I reckon we'll see the US gaslit and that no one will go due to this... Let's see what WG starts reposting.
I doubt the US is unique in this, though.
In part its politicians v officials. Officials want politicians to correspond with each other through official channels, both for legitimate legal reasons and so they can keep tabs on it all. Whereas politicians want the chance to share ideas and plans informally, without their staff looking on, and without leaving indelible hostages to future fortune. Whatsapp and the like have stepped nicely into the gap.
Somewhere there's a Jeff Goldberg on the US Yemen team wondering why he wasn't in on the chat.
A senior administration official told POLITICO the White House isn’t sure if Mike Waltz can survive as national security adviser after The Atlantic's bombshell report.
"Half of them saying he’s never going to survive or shouldn’t survive," the official said. "It was reckless not to check who was on the thread. It was reckless to be having that conversation on Signal. You can’t have recklessness as the national security adviser."
They're all idiots, they all took part in a discussion that should not have been conducted on Signal and none of them tried to close it down. The implications is that this is "business as usual", that govt is being done via a commercial app not official communication channels. The obvious reason for that is they don't want an official record of their discussions.
I reckon we'll see the US gaslit and that no one will go due to this... Let's see what WG starts reposting.
I doubt the US is unique in this, though.
In part its politicians v officials. Officials want politicians to correspond with each other through official channels, both for legitimate legal reasons and so they can keep tabs on it all. Whereas politicians want the chance to share ideas and plans informally, without their staff looking on, and without leaving indelible hostages to future fortune. Whatsapp and the like have stepped nicely into the gap.
You don't "informally share" a decision for a military strike. They are legally required by statute both to ensure such discussion are secure*, and to keep full records. And are criminally liable when they don't.
Of course the DOJ is now led by similar scofflaw idiots, so they'll probably face no such consequences.
*as Gabbard publicly reminded herself last week.
For sure.
I know I am right, nevertheless, that politicians in other parties and other countries are discussing all sorts of stuff over Whatsapp.
A senior administration official told POLITICO the White House isn’t sure if Mike Waltz can survive as national security adviser after The Atlantic's bombshell report.
"Half of them saying he’s never going to survive or shouldn’t survive," the official said. "It was reckless not to check who was on the thread. It was reckless to be having that conversation on Signal. You can’t have recklessness as the national security adviser."
They're all idiots, they all took part in a discussion that should not have been conducted on Signal and none of them tried to close it down. The implications is that this is "business as usual", that govt is being done via a commercial app not official communication channels. The obvious reason for that is they don't want an official record of their discussions.
I reckon we'll see the US gaslit and that no one will go due to this... Let's see what WG starts reposting.
I doubt the US is unique in this, though.
In part its politicians v officials. Officials want politicians to correspond with each other through official channels, both for legitimate legal reasons and so they can keep tabs on it all. Whereas politicians want the chance to share ideas and plans informally, without their staff looking on, and without leaving indelible hostages to future fortune. Whatsapp and the like have stepped nicely into the gap.
Somewhere there's a Jeff Goldberg on the US Yemen team wondering why he wasn't in on the chat.
These clowns invited Jeff Goldblum instead.
Every disaster movie starts with someone ignoring an expert.
Asked if he thinks someone should be fired over the national security breach, Pete Buttigieg says, “Absolutely. I mean, if I made a mistake like this as lieutenant, I would be probably not just fired, but probably indicted and tried and maybe in prison.” https://x.com/kaitlancollins/status/1904369972911980970
"The purge of DEI language from US federal websites has claimed another victim. This time, it is NASA's pledge to land the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon as part of the Artemis program."
I have some sympathy with that one. NASA should be aiming to land the most qualified and scientifically relevant astronauts. Colour and gender are irrelevant
"The purge of DEI language from US federal websites has claimed another victim. This time, it is NASA's pledge to land the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon as part of the Artemis program."
I have some sympathy with that one. NASA should be aiming to land the most qualified and scientifically relevant astronauts. Colour and gender are irrelevant
Are all of the most qualified astronauts White males perchance?
"The purge of DEI language from US federal websites has claimed another victim. This time, it is NASA's pledge to land the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon as part of the Artemis program."
I have some sympathy with that one. NASA should be aiming to land the most qualified and scientifically relevant astronauts. Colour and gender are irrelevant
The whole point of DEI is to appoint qualified people who you otherwise miss, because your policies are white-male-centric.
A senior administration official told POLITICO the White House isn’t sure if Mike Waltz can survive as national security adviser after The Atlantic's bombshell report.
"Half of them saying he’s never going to survive or shouldn’t survive," the official said. "It was reckless not to check who was on the thread. It was reckless to be having that conversation on Signal. You can’t have recklessness as the national security adviser."
A senior administration official told POLITICO the White House isn’t sure if Mike Waltz can survive as national security adviser after The Atlantic's bombshell report.
"Half of them saying he’s never going to survive or shouldn’t survive," the official said. "It was reckless not to check who was on the thread. It was reckless to be having that conversation on Signal. You can’t have recklessness as the national security adviser."
They're all idiots, they all took part in a discussion that should not have been conducted on Signal and none of them tried to close it down. The implications is that this is "business as usual", that govt is being done via a commercial app not official communication channels. The obvious reason for that is they don't want an official record of their discussions.
I reckon we'll see the US gaslit and that no one will go due to this... Let's see what WG starts reposting.
I doubt the US is unique in this, though.
In part its politicians v officials. Officials want politicians to correspond with each other through official channels, both for legitimate legal reasons and so they can keep tabs on it all. Whereas politicians want the chance to share ideas and plans informally, without their staff looking on, and without leaving indelible hostages to future fortune. Whatsapp and the like have stepped nicely into the gap.
Somewhere there's a Jeff Goldberg on the US Yemen team wondering why he wasn't in on the chat.
These clowns invited Jeff Goldblum instead.
Every disaster movie starts with someone ignoring an expert.
Secretary Brooke Rollins @SecRollins Just finished up another great Cabinet meeting. Takeaways👇
- @POTUS’ example of energy in office will be the standard by which all future presidents will be judged.
-The President has assembled the most qualified — and unified — Cabinet in history.
-The bureaucracy will never reform itself; @DOGE is right-sizing the government to the size and scope the American people mandated — and the Cabinet fully stands behind @elonmusk . Don’t judge DOGE by the standards of the class that lives and dies by the D.C. model. Judge it by the standards of the world-beating entrepreneurs that only America produces.
"The purge of DEI language from US federal websites has claimed another victim. This time, it is NASA's pledge to land the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon as part of the Artemis program."
I have some sympathy with that one. NASA should be aiming to land the most qualified and scientifically relevant astronauts. Colour and gender are irrelevant
I have zero sympathy with it; that's the sort of thinking that leads to everyone involved being male and white, as it was in the sixties. No woman or black man has been to the Moon, let alone landed on it. The Russian space program launched Valentina Tereshkova into space as a PR coup, then launched no other woman for 19 years. The Russian cosmonaut corps has 23 men and 1 woman, who is apparently not expected to fly into space again.
The amount of pushback in NASA and the astronaut corps *against* female astronauts in the sixties and seventies was quite amazing. Something that was fight against by Lieutenant Uhura, of all people.
A senior administration official told POLITICO the White House isn’t sure if Mike Waltz can survive as national security adviser after The Atlantic's bombshell report.
"Half of them saying he’s never going to survive or shouldn’t survive," the official said. "It was reckless not to check who was on the thread. It was reckless to be having that conversation on Signal. You can’t have recklessness as the national security adviser."
They're all idiots, they all took part in a discussion that should not have been conducted on Signal and none of them tried to close it down. The implications is that this is "business as usual", that govt is being done via a commercial app not official communication channels. The obvious reason for that is they don't want an official record of their discussions.
I reckon we'll see the US gaslit and that no one will go due to this... Let's see what WG starts reposting.
I doubt the US is unique in this, though.
In part its politicians v officials. Officials want politicians to correspond with each other through official channels, both for legitimate legal reasons and so they can keep tabs on it all. Whereas politicians want the chance to share ideas and plans informally, without their staff looking on, and without leaving indelible hostages to future fortune. Whatsapp and the like have stepped nicely into the gap.
Somewhere there's a Jeff Goldberg on the US Yemen team wondering why he wasn't in on the chat.
The breach is interesting for several reasons apart from the obvious security risk. One is the reaction to the leak, but perhaps most interesting is the light it sheds on decision making in the Trump administration, with Vance disagreeing with Trump over the wisdom of bombing the Houthis.
"The Vance account then goes on to make a noteworthy statement, considering that the vice president has not deviated publicly from Trump’s position on virtually any issue. “I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now. There’s a further risk that we see a moderate to severe spike in oil prices. I am willing to support the consensus of the team and keep these concerns to myself. But there is a strong argument for delaying this a month, doing the messaging work on why this matters, seeing where the economy is, etc.”
Vance hates the free countries of Europe. On this there can be no doubt.
I'm reading his autobiography currently. From his upbringing he has a chip on his shoulder from the patronising way in which (he felt) middle classes and liberals generally looked down upon his 'hillbilly' folk, and their honest/direct/blunt/crude habits and ways. It's easy to see how he's now projecting this onto both the Democrats and the European liberal democracies.
A senior administration official told POLITICO the White House isn’t sure if Mike Waltz can survive as national security adviser after The Atlantic's bombshell report.
"Half of them saying he’s never going to survive or shouldn’t survive," the official said. "It was reckless not to check who was on the thread. It was reckless to be having that conversation on Signal. You can’t have recklessness as the national security adviser."
They're all idiots, they all took part in a discussion that should not have been conducted on Signal and none of them tried to close it down. The implications is that this is "business as usual", that govt is being done via a commercial app not official communication channels. The obvious reason for that is they don't want an official record of their discussions.
I reckon we'll see the US gaslit and that no one will go due to this... Let's see what WG starts reposting.
I doubt the US is unique in this, though.
In part its politicians v officials. Officials want politicians to correspond with each other through official channels, both for legitimate legal reasons and so they can keep tabs on it all. Whereas politicians want the chance to share ideas and plans informally, without their staff looking on, and without leaving indelible hostages to future fortune. Whatsapp and the like have stepped nicely into the gap.
Somewhere there's a Jeff Goldberg on the US Yemen team wondering why he wasn't in on the chat.
The breach is interesting for several reasons apart from the obvious security risk. One is the reaction to the leak, but perhaps most interesting is the light it sheds on decision making in the Trump administration, with Vance disagreeing with Trump over the wisdom of bombing the Houthis.
"The Vance account then goes on to make a noteworthy statement, considering that the vice president has not deviated publicly from Trump’s position on virtually any issue. “I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now. There’s a further risk that we see a moderate to severe spike in oil prices. I am willing to support the consensus of the team and keep these concerns to myself. But there is a strong argument for delaying this a month, doing the messaging work on why this matters, seeing where the economy is, etc.”
Vance hates the free countries of Europe. On this there can be no doubt.
I'm reading his autobiography currently. From his upbringing he has a chip on his shoulder from the patronising way in which (he felt) middle classes and liberals generally looked down upon his 'hillbilly' folk. It's easy to see how he's now projecting this onto both the Democrats and the European liberal democracies.
Vance hasn't got a chip on his shoulder. It's an entire potato.
Radical free speech policies continue to expand their scope.
https://x.com/jason_paladino/status/1904304968464818417 ICE is hunting for Yunseo Chung, a Columbia student who attended pro-Palestine protests. Chung came to the US from Korea with her family at age 7, and was her high school's valedictorian. She's a lawful permanent resident. Here's what we know so far...
...Chung's lawyers stress that she was not a movement leader, like Mahmoud Khalil, but only attended a few protests. She faced a disciplinary process from Columbia which found she was NOT in violation of any policies.
A senior administration official told POLITICO the White House isn’t sure if Mike Waltz can survive as national security adviser after The Atlantic's bombshell report.
"Half of them saying he’s never going to survive or shouldn’t survive," the official said. "It was reckless not to check who was on the thread. It was reckless to be having that conversation on Signal. You can’t have recklessness as the national security adviser."
They're all idiots, they all took part in a discussion that should not have been conducted on Signal and none of them tried to close it down. The implications is that this is "business as usual", that govt is being done via a commercial app not official communication channels. The obvious reason for that is they don't want an official record of their discussions.
I reckon we'll see the US gaslit and that no one will go due to this... Let's see what WG starts reposting.
I doubt the US is unique in this, though.
In part its politicians v officials. Officials want politicians to correspond with each other through official channels, both for legitimate legal reasons and so they can keep tabs on it all. Whereas politicians want the chance to share ideas and plans informally, without their staff looking on, and without leaving indelible hostages to future fortune. Whatsapp and the like have stepped nicely into the gap.
Somewhere there's a Jeff Goldberg on the US Yemen team wondering why he wasn't in on the chat.
The breach is interesting for several reasons apart from the obvious security risk. One is the reaction to the leak, but perhaps most interesting is the light it sheds on decision making in the Trump administration, with Vance disagreeing with Trump over the wisdom of bombing the Houthis.
"The Vance account then goes on to make a noteworthy statement, considering that the vice president has not deviated publicly from Trump’s position on virtually any issue. “I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now. There’s a further risk that we see a moderate to severe spike in oil prices. I am willing to support the consensus of the team and keep these concerns to myself. But there is a strong argument for delaying this a month, doing the messaging work on why this matters, seeing where the economy is, etc.”
Vance hates the free countries of Europe. On this there can be no doubt.
I'm interested that Trump's reaction when asked about the report in the Atlantic by the press. Trump goes all Manuel on the whole thing - "I know nothing - Nuh Thing !".
That is after the Atlantic has published in the article that JD Vance's spokesman has already told the Atlantic that JD Vance has 'discussed it with the President".
And the others are focused on revenge, or attacking opponents, or outright lying.
There are several scenarios - is Trump a useful idiot being manipulated, is he sane or not, is there an evil genius somewhere, does Vlad have an inside man, and so on?
Either way it will rot from within and collapse like a mouldy potato. The risk for everybody else is the damage they are doing, and risk, in the meantime. Mr Chump, not Putin, would be the one to use the nuclear weapon, I suspect - he might not grasp, never mind consider, the consequences.
A senior administration official told POLITICO the White House isn’t sure if Mike Waltz can survive as national security adviser after The Atlantic's bombshell report.
"Half of them saying he’s never going to survive or shouldn’t survive," the official said. "It was reckless not to check who was on the thread. It was reckless to be having that conversation on Signal. You can’t have recklessness as the national security adviser."
They're all idiots, they all took part in a discussion that should not have been conducted on Signal and none of them tried to close it down. The implications is that this is "business as usual", that govt is being done via a commercial app not official communication channels. The obvious reason for that is they don't want an official record of their discussions.
I reckon we'll see the US gaslit and that no one will go due to this... Let's see what WG starts reposting.
I doubt the US is unique in this, though.
In part its politicians v officials. Officials want politicians to correspond with each other through official channels, both for legitimate legal reasons and so they can keep tabs on it all. Whereas politicians want the chance to share ideas and plans informally, without their staff looking on, and without leaving indelible hostages to future fortune. Whatsapp and the like have stepped nicely into the gap.
Somewhere there's a Jeff Goldberg on the US Yemen team wondering why he wasn't in on the chat.
These clowns invited Jeff Goldblum instead.
Well the project 2025 chaps spent so long asking if they could, they never asked if they should.
Asked if he thinks someone should be fired over the national security breach, Pete Buttigieg says, “Absolutely. I mean, if I made a mistake like this as lieutenant, I would be probably not just fired, but probably indicted and tried and maybe in prison.” https://x.com/kaitlancollins/status/1904369972911980970
At last a prominent Democrat stops pussyfooting around. Trumps cabal have been so successful excusing their own man’s illegality as Democrat lawfare that they’ve frozen them in the headlights.
A senior administration official told POLITICO the White House isn’t sure if Mike Waltz can survive as national security adviser after The Atlantic's bombshell report.
"Half of them saying he’s never going to survive or shouldn’t survive," the official said. "It was reckless not to check who was on the thread. It was reckless to be having that conversation on Signal. You can’t have recklessness as the national security adviser."
They're all idiots, they all took part in a discussion that should not have been conducted on Signal and none of them tried to close it down. The implications is that this is "business as usual", that govt is being done via a commercial app not official communication channels. The obvious reason for that is they don't want an official record of their discussions.
I reckon we'll see the US gaslit and that no one will go due to this... Let's see what WG starts reposting.
I doubt the US is unique in this, though.
In part its politicians v officials. Officials want politicians to correspond with each other through official channels, both for legitimate legal reasons and so they can keep tabs on it all. Whereas politicians want the chance to share ideas and plans informally, without their staff looking on, and without leaving indelible hostages to future fortune. Whatsapp and the like have stepped nicely into the gap.
Somewhere there's a Jeff Goldberg on the US Yemen team wondering why he wasn't in on the chat.
The breach is interesting for several reasons apart from the obvious security risk. One is the reaction to the leak, but perhaps most interesting is the light it sheds on decision making in the Trump administration, with Vance disagreeing with Trump over the wisdom of bombing the Houthis.
"The Vance account then goes on to make a noteworthy statement, considering that the vice president has not deviated publicly from Trump’s position on virtually any issue. “I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now. There’s a further risk that we see a moderate to severe spike in oil prices. I am willing to support the consensus of the team and keep these concerns to myself. But there is a strong argument for delaying this a month, doing the messaging work on why this matters, seeing where the economy is, etc.”
Vance hates the free countries of Europe. On this there can be no doubt.
No he likes non woke European free nations like Poland and Meloni's Italy that control their borders and support the traditional family.
Vance was also logically right that if Trump wants to put America First and not risk American dollars and soldiers lives to contain Putin there is even less case to intervene to bomb the Houthis which is a Cheney and John Bolton neocon move
A senior administration official told POLITICO the White House isn’t sure if Mike Waltz can survive as national security adviser after The Atlantic's bombshell report.
"Half of them saying he’s never going to survive or shouldn’t survive," the official said. "It was reckless not to check who was on the thread. It was reckless to be having that conversation on Signal. You can’t have recklessness as the national security adviser."
They're all idiots, they all took part in a discussion that should not have been conducted on Signal and none of them tried to close it down. The implications is that this is "business as usual", that govt is being done via a commercial app not official communication channels. The obvious reason for that is they don't want an official record of their discussions.
I reckon we'll see the US gaslit and that no one will go due to this... Let's see what WG starts reposting.
I doubt the US is unique in this, though.
In part its politicians v officials. Officials want politicians to correspond with each other through official channels, both for legitimate legal reasons and so they can keep tabs on it all. Whereas politicians want the chance to share ideas and plans informally, without their staff looking on, and without leaving indelible hostages to future fortune. Whatsapp and the like have stepped nicely into the gap.
Somewhere there's a Jeff Goldberg on the US Yemen team wondering why he wasn't in on the chat.
The breach is interesting for several reasons apart from the obvious security risk. One is the reaction to the leak, but perhaps most interesting is the light it sheds on decision making in the Trump administration, with Vance disagreeing with Trump over the wisdom of bombing the Houthis.
"The Vance account then goes on to make a noteworthy statement, considering that the vice president has not deviated publicly from Trump’s position on virtually any issue. “I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now. There’s a further risk that we see a moderate to severe spike in oil prices. I am willing to support the consensus of the team and keep these concerns to myself. But there is a strong argument for delaying this a month, doing the messaging work on why this matters, seeing where the economy is, etc.”
Vance hates the free countries of Europe. On this there can be no doubt.
I'm reading his autobiography currently. From his upbringing he has a chip on his shoulder from the patronising way in which (he felt) middle classes and liberals generally looked down upon his 'hillbilly' folk. It's easy to see how he's now projecting this onto both the Democrats and the European liberal democracies.
Vance hasn't got a chip on his shoulder. It's an entire potato.
He tells the story of how his grandparents left his father in a toy shop, and the son was thrown out for playing with the most expensive toy in the shop. When his parents returned to find him standing outside the shop, they went inside and smashed the whole place up. This story is recounted admiringly from the perspective of "no-one disses a hillbilly's kid and gets away with it".
A senior administration official told POLITICO the White House isn’t sure if Mike Waltz can survive as national security adviser after The Atlantic's bombshell report.
"Half of them saying he’s never going to survive or shouldn’t survive," the official said. "It was reckless not to check who was on the thread. It was reckless to be having that conversation on Signal. You can’t have recklessness as the national security adviser."
They're all idiots, they all took part in a discussion that should not have been conducted on Signal and none of them tried to close it down. The implications is that this is "business as usual", that govt is being done via a commercial app not official communication channels. The obvious reason for that is they don't want an official record of their discussions.
I reckon we'll see the US gaslit and that no one will go due to this... Let's see what WG starts reposting.
I doubt the US is unique in this, though.
In part its politicians v officials. Officials want politicians to correspond with each other through official channels, both for legitimate legal reasons and so they can keep tabs on it all. Whereas politicians want the chance to share ideas and plans informally, without their staff looking on, and without leaving indelible hostages to future fortune. Whatsapp and the like have stepped nicely into the gap.
Somewhere there's a Jeff Goldberg on the US Yemen team wondering why he wasn't in on the chat.
The breach is interesting for several reasons apart from the obvious security risk. One is the reaction to the leak, but perhaps most interesting is the light it sheds on decision making in the Trump administration, with Vance disagreeing with Trump over the wisdom of bombing the Houthis.
"The Vance account then goes on to make a noteworthy statement, considering that the vice president has not deviated publicly from Trump’s position on virtually any issue. “I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now. There’s a further risk that we see a moderate to severe spike in oil prices. I am willing to support the consensus of the team and keep these concerns to myself. But there is a strong argument for delaying this a month, doing the messaging work on why this matters, seeing where the economy is, etc.”
Vance hates the free countries of Europe. On this there can be no doubt.
I'm reading his autobiography currently. From his upbringing he has a chip on his shoulder from the patronising way in which (he felt) middle classes and liberals generally looked down upon his 'hillbilly' folk. It's easy to see how he's now projecting this onto both the Democrats and the European liberal democracies.
Vance hasn't got a chip on his shoulder. It's an entire potato.
I am still of the view that the list of White House appointees will look very different by year end.
Why?
These idiots, appointed by an idiot, are doing exactly what he wants.
There's a difference in owning the Libtards and making the President a laughing stock. He's too thin-skinned to allow the idiots to make the White House a permanent Whitehall farce.
"Donald, where's your trousers?" as Jimmy Kimmell will ask every episode. You KNOW there will be a price to pay for those letting him down. He'll end up more capricious than the Queen of Hearts.
Trumpski is the one making himself look like a clown. Changing the supporting cast won't help
A senior administration official told POLITICO the White House isn’t sure if Mike Waltz can survive as national security adviser after The Atlantic's bombshell report.
"Half of them saying he’s never going to survive or shouldn’t survive," the official said. "It was reckless not to check who was on the thread. It was reckless to be having that conversation on Signal. You can’t have recklessness as the national security adviser."
They're all idiots, they all took part in a discussion that should not have been conducted on Signal and none of them tried to close it down. The implications is that this is "business as usual", that govt is being done via a commercial app not official communication channels. The obvious reason for that is they don't want an official record of their discussions.
I reckon we'll see the US gaslit and that no one will go due to this... Let's see what WG starts reposting.
I doubt the US is unique in this, though.
In part its politicians v officials. Officials want politicians to correspond with each other through official channels, both for legitimate legal reasons and so they can keep tabs on it all. Whereas politicians want the chance to share ideas and plans informally, without their staff looking on, and without leaving indelible hostages to future fortune. Whatsapp and the like have stepped nicely into the gap.
Somewhere there's a Jeff Goldberg on the US Yemen team wondering why he wasn't in on the chat.
The breach is interesting for several reasons apart from the obvious security risk. One is the reaction to the leak, but perhaps most interesting is the light it sheds on decision making in the Trump administration, with Vance disagreeing with Trump over the wisdom of bombing the Houthis.
"The Vance account then goes on to make a noteworthy statement, considering that the vice president has not deviated publicly from Trump’s position on virtually any issue. “I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now. There’s a further risk that we see a moderate to severe spike in oil prices. I am willing to support the consensus of the team and keep these concerns to myself. But there is a strong argument for delaying this a month, doing the messaging work on why this matters, seeing where the economy is, etc.”
Vance hates the free countries of Europe. On this there can be no doubt.
No he likes non woke free nations like Poland and Meloni's Italy that control their borders and support the traditional family
So he supports their freedoms other than their freedom to disagree with him.
A senior administration official told POLITICO the White House isn’t sure if Mike Waltz can survive as national security adviser after The Atlantic's bombshell report.
"Half of them saying he’s never going to survive or shouldn’t survive," the official said. "It was reckless not to check who was on the thread. It was reckless to be having that conversation on Signal. You can’t have recklessness as the national security adviser."
They're all idiots, they all took part in a discussion that should not have been conducted on Signal and none of them tried to close it down. The implications is that this is "business as usual", that govt is being done via a commercial app not official communication channels. The obvious reason for that is they don't want an official record of their discussions.
I reckon we'll see the US gaslit and that no one will go due to this... Let's see what WG starts reposting.
I doubt the US is unique in this, though.
In part its politicians v officials. Officials want politicians to correspond with each other through official channels, both for legitimate legal reasons and so they can keep tabs on it all. Whereas politicians want the chance to share ideas and plans informally, without their staff looking on, and without leaving indelible hostages to future fortune. Whatsapp and the like have stepped nicely into the gap.
Somewhere there's a Jeff Goldberg on the US Yemen team wondering why he wasn't in on the chat.
The breach is interesting for several reasons apart from the obvious security risk. One is the reaction to the leak, but perhaps most interesting is the light it sheds on decision making in the Trump administration, with Vance disagreeing with Trump over the wisdom of bombing the Houthis.
"The Vance account then goes on to make a noteworthy statement, considering that the vice president has not deviated publicly from Trump’s position on virtually any issue. “I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now. There’s a further risk that we see a moderate to severe spike in oil prices. I am willing to support the consensus of the team and keep these concerns to myself. But there is a strong argument for delaying this a month, doing the messaging work on why this matters, seeing where the economy is, etc.”
Vance hates the free countries of Europe. On this there can be no doubt.
No he likes non woke free nations like Poland and Meloni's Italy that control their borders and support the traditional family.
Vance was also logically right that if Trump wants to put America First and not risk American dollars and soldiers likes to contain Putin there is even less case to intervene to bomb the Houthis which is a Cheney and John Bolton neocon move
Uh? Are you sure you have that right? Too many double negatives perhaps. Although I maybe wrong.
A senior administration official told POLITICO the White House isn’t sure if Mike Waltz can survive as national security adviser after The Atlantic's bombshell report.
"Half of them saying he’s never going to survive or shouldn’t survive," the official said. "It was reckless not to check who was on the thread. It was reckless to be having that conversation on Signal. You can’t have recklessness as the national security adviser."
They're all idiots, they all took part in a discussion that should not have been conducted on Signal and none of them tried to close it down. The implications is that this is "business as usual", that govt is being done via a commercial app not official communication channels. The obvious reason for that is they don't want an official record of their discussions.
I reckon we'll see the US gaslit and that no one will go due to this... Let's see what WG starts reposting.
I doubt the US is unique in this, though.
In part its politicians v officials. Officials want politicians to correspond with each other through official channels, both for legitimate legal reasons and so they can keep tabs on it all. Whereas politicians want the chance to share ideas and plans informally, without their staff looking on, and without leaving indelible hostages to future fortune. Whatsapp and the like have stepped nicely into the gap.
Somewhere there's a Jeff Goldberg on the US Yemen team wondering why he wasn't in on the chat.
The breach is interesting for several reasons apart from the obvious security risk. One is the reaction to the leak, but perhaps most interesting is the light it sheds on decision making in the Trump administration, with Vance disagreeing with Trump over the wisdom of bombing the Houthis.
"The Vance account then goes on to make a noteworthy statement, considering that the vice president has not deviated publicly from Trump’s position on virtually any issue. “I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now. There’s a further risk that we see a moderate to severe spike in oil prices. I am willing to support the consensus of the team and keep these concerns to myself. But there is a strong argument for delaying this a month, doing the messaging work on why this matters, seeing where the economy is, etc.”
Vance hates the free countries of Europe. On this there can be no doubt.
I'm reading his autobiography currently. From his upbringing he has a chip on his shoulder from the patronising way in which (he felt) middle classes and liberals generally looked down upon his 'hillbilly' folk, and their honest/direct/blunt/crude habits and ways. It's easy to see how he's now projecting this onto both the Democrats and the European liberal democracies.
So you think that being affected by the way bien pensant liberal folk (oh, I don't know, such as yourself) look down on people not as sophisticated as themselves is "having a chip on your shoulder".
Asked if he thinks someone should be fired over the national security breach, Pete Buttigieg says, “Absolutely. I mean, if I made a mistake like this as lieutenant, I would be probably not just fired, but probably indicted and tried and maybe in prison.” https://x.com/kaitlancollins/status/1904369972911980970
At last a prominent Democrat stops pussyfooting around. Trumps cabal have been so successful excusing their own man’s illegality as Democrat lawfare that they’ve frozen them in the headlights.
Have you been watching the AOC/ Sanders rallies? Ossoff has been active too. I would recommend none of them stand too close to high rise balconies.
A senior administration official told POLITICO the White House isn’t sure if Mike Waltz can survive as national security adviser after The Atlantic's bombshell report.
"Half of them saying he’s never going to survive or shouldn’t survive," the official said. "It was reckless not to check who was on the thread. It was reckless to be having that conversation on Signal. You can’t have recklessness as the national security adviser."
They're all idiots, they all took part in a discussion that should not have been conducted on Signal and none of them tried to close it down. The implications is that this is "business as usual", that govt is being done via a commercial app not official communication channels. The obvious reason for that is they don't want an official record of their discussions.
I reckon we'll see the US gaslit and that no one will go due to this... Let's see what WG starts reposting.
I doubt the US is unique in this, though.
In part its politicians v officials. Officials want politicians to correspond with each other through official channels, both for legitimate legal reasons and so they can keep tabs on it all. Whereas politicians want the chance to share ideas and plans informally, without their staff looking on, and without leaving indelible hostages to future fortune. Whatsapp and the like have stepped nicely into the gap.
Somewhere there's a Jeff Goldberg on the US Yemen team wondering why he wasn't in on the chat.
The breach is interesting for several reasons apart from the obvious security risk. One is the reaction to the leak, but perhaps most interesting is the light it sheds on decision making in the Trump administration, with Vance disagreeing with Trump over the wisdom of bombing the Houthis.
"The Vance account then goes on to make a noteworthy statement, considering that the vice president has not deviated publicly from Trump’s position on virtually any issue. “I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now. There’s a further risk that we see a moderate to severe spike in oil prices. I am willing to support the consensus of the team and keep these concerns to myself. But there is a strong argument for delaying this a month, doing the messaging work on why this matters, seeing where the economy is, etc.”
Vance hates the free countries of Europe. On this there can be no doubt.
No he likes non woke free nations like Poland and Meloni's Italy that control their borders and support the traditional family.
Vance was also logically right that if Trump wants to put America First and not risk American dollars and soldiers lives to contain Putin there is even less case to intervene to bomb the Houthis which is a Cheney and John Bolton neocon move
Both Musk and Rubio insulted Radoslaw Sikorsky publicly on Twitter only a couple of weeks ago.
They have no liking or respect for any nation except Russia, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Turkey. Those are literally the only countries they can’t bring themselves to criticise.
F1: Chinese Grand Prix review in the latest Undercutters podcast. Weirdly, Apple is being ultra-slow, so I'll add that linked when it comes through.
Anyway, Tsunoda gets shafted by his strategy team (again), Ferrari have a very mixed weekend, Alonso's luck remains awful, and Piastri rapidly narrows the gap to Norris.
Very early days but seems to me Reform have picked a winner for Runcorn.
On the face of it not mad, seems ordinary-ish (but touch of the 'I own a kitchen with a central isle'), magistrate - so nice line on law and order after Ashby.
I wish BF would put the bloody book up but looks lost for Lab here.
The really interesting thing is that if you are Morgan McSweeny then losing this could be an advantage. Means more pressure on his side to push for blue lab/working class/old lab values and less of the Islington workshop on colonial values shite.
The problem is that risks Labour getting squeezed, failing to win back white working class Leave voters as you can't out nationalist and anti immigration Farage. While leaking left liberal middle class progressives to the LDs, Greens and Corbynite Independents with Reeves spending cuts and over Gaza
A senior administration official told POLITICO the White House isn’t sure if Mike Waltz can survive as national security adviser after The Atlantic's bombshell report.
"Half of them saying he’s never going to survive or shouldn’t survive," the official said. "It was reckless not to check who was on the thread. It was reckless to be having that conversation on Signal. You can’t have recklessness as the national security adviser."
They're all idiots, they all took part in a discussion that should not have been conducted on Signal and none of them tried to close it down. The implications is that this is "business as usual", that govt is being done via a commercial app not official communication channels. The obvious reason for that is they don't want an official record of their discussions.
I reckon we'll see the US gaslit and that no one will go due to this... Let's see what WG starts reposting.
I doubt the US is unique in this, though.
In part its politicians v officials. Officials want politicians to correspond with each other through official channels, both for legitimate legal reasons and so they can keep tabs on it all. Whereas politicians want the chance to share ideas and plans informally, without their staff looking on, and without leaving indelible hostages to future fortune. Whatsapp and the like have stepped nicely into the gap.
Somewhere there's a Jeff Goldberg on the US Yemen team wondering why he wasn't in on the chat.
The breach is interesting for several reasons apart from the obvious security risk. One is the reaction to the leak, but perhaps most interesting is the light it sheds on decision making in the Trump administration, with Vance disagreeing with Trump over the wisdom of bombing the Houthis.
"The Vance account then goes on to make a noteworthy statement, considering that the vice president has not deviated publicly from Trump’s position on virtually any issue. “I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now. There’s a further risk that we see a moderate to severe spike in oil prices. I am willing to support the consensus of the team and keep these concerns to myself. But there is a strong argument for delaying this a month, doing the messaging work on why this matters, seeing where the economy is, etc.”
Vance hates the free countries of Europe. On this there can be no doubt.
I'm reading his autobiography currently. From his upbringing he has a chip on his shoulder from the patronising way in which (he felt) middle classes and liberals generally looked down upon his 'hillbilly' folk. It's easy to see how he's now projecting this onto both the Democrats and the European liberal democracies.
Vance hasn't got a chip on his shoulder. It's an entire potato.
He tells the story of how his grandparents left his father in a toy shop, and the son was thrown out for playing with the most expensive toy in the shop. When his parents returned to find him standing outside the shop, they went inside and smashed the whole place up. This story is recounted admiringly from the perspective of "no-one disses a hillbilly's kid and gets away with it".
There might be a very different perspective to that story...
*) Not all disabilities are visible, and not all disabilities are continuous.
*) If the first lockdown was not necessary with what we knew at the time, why did so many countries take the same action? Simply because it was necessary.
*) Many of those Monday-morning quarterbacking against lockdowns would be complaining about not having had one if we hadn't.
*) I started exercising *more* during and after lockdown, a trend I have continued. I know others who are the same.
I recall considerable angst about Boris taking his bike to a less congested part of town to do some exercise….
I am still of the view that the list of White House appointees will look very different by year end.
Why?
These idiots, appointed by an idiot, are doing exactly what he wants.
There's a difference in owning the Libtards and making the President a laughing stock. He's too thin-skinned to allow the idiots to make the White House a permanent Whitehall farce.
"Donald, where's your trousers?" as Jimmy Kimmell will ask every episode. You KNOW there will be a price to pay for those letting him down. He'll end up more capricious than the Queen of Hearts.
That's a good one, that I hadn't seen before. I like Donald Shmuck and Donald Chump, but he does say that his mum was from the Isle of Skye, does he not?
A senior administration official told POLITICO the White House isn’t sure if Mike Waltz can survive as national security adviser after The Atlantic's bombshell report.
"Half of them saying he’s never going to survive or shouldn’t survive," the official said. "It was reckless not to check who was on the thread. It was reckless to be having that conversation on Signal. You can’t have recklessness as the national security adviser."
They're all idiots, they all took part in a discussion that should not have been conducted on Signal and none of them tried to close it down. The implications is that this is "business as usual", that govt is being done via a commercial app not official communication channels. The obvious reason for that is they don't want an official record of their discussions.
I reckon we'll see the US gaslit and that no one will go due to this... Let's see what WG starts reposting.
I doubt the US is unique in this, though.
In part its politicians v officials. Officials want politicians to correspond with each other through official channels, both for legitimate legal reasons and so they can keep tabs on it all. Whereas politicians want the chance to share ideas and plans informally, without their staff looking on, and without leaving indelible hostages to future fortune. Whatsapp and the like have stepped nicely into the gap.
Somewhere there's a Jeff Goldberg on the US Yemen team wondering why he wasn't in on the chat.
The breach is interesting for several reasons apart from the obvious security risk. One is the reaction to the leak, but perhaps most interesting is the light it sheds on decision making in the Trump administration, with Vance disagreeing with Trump over the wisdom of bombing the Houthis.
"The Vance account then goes on to make a noteworthy statement, considering that the vice president has not deviated publicly from Trump’s position on virtually any issue. “I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now. There’s a further risk that we see a moderate to severe spike in oil prices. I am willing to support the consensus of the team and keep these concerns to myself. But there is a strong argument for delaying this a month, doing the messaging work on why this matters, seeing where the economy is, etc.”
Vance hates the free countries of Europe. On this there can be no doubt.
No he likes non woke European free nations like Poland and Meloni's Italy that control their borders and support the traditional family.
Vance was also logically right that if Trump wants to put America First and not risk American dollars and soldiers lives to contain Putin there is even less case to intervene to bomb the Houthis which is a Cheney and John Bolton neocon move
"Support the traditional family" basically means downgrading women.
Radical free speech policies continue to expand their scope.
https://x.com/jason_paladino/status/1904304968464818417 ICE is hunting for Yunseo Chung, a Columbia student who attended pro-Palestine protests. Chung came to the US from Korea with her family at age 7, and was her high school's valedictorian. She's a lawful permanent resident. Here's what we know so far...
...Chung's lawyers stress that she was not a movement leader, like Mahmoud Khalil, but only attended a few protests. She faced a disciplinary process from Columbia which found she was NOT in violation of any policies.
Is that the same Columbia whose Principal couldn't confirm whether chanting "from the river to the sea" was anti-semitic or not.
Radical free speech policies continue to expand their scope.
https://x.com/jason_paladino/status/1904304968464818417 ICE is hunting for Yunseo Chung, a Columbia student who attended pro-Palestine protests. Chung came to the US from Korea with her family at age 7, and was her high school's valedictorian. She's a lawful permanent resident. Here's what we know so far...
...Chung's lawyers stress that she was not a movement leader, like Mahmoud Khalil, but only attended a few protests. She faced a disciplinary process from Columbia which found she was NOT in violation of any policies.
Is that the same Columbia whose Principal couldn't confirm whether chanting "from the river to the sea" was anti-semitic or not.
"From the river to the sea" on a protest sounds like First Amendment Protected Speech.
Radical free speech policies continue to expand their scope.
https://x.com/jason_paladino/status/1904304968464818417 ICE is hunting for Yunseo Chung, a Columbia student who attended pro-Palestine protests. Chung came to the US from Korea with her family at age 7, and was her high school's valedictorian. She's a lawful permanent resident. Here's what we know so far...
...Chung's lawyers stress that she was not a movement leader, like Mahmoud Khalil, but only attended a few protests. She faced a disciplinary process from Columbia which found she was NOT in violation of any policies.
Is that the same Columbia whose Principal couldn't confirm whether chanting "from the river to the sea" was anti-semitic or not.
"From the river to the sea" on a protest sounds like First Amendment Protected Speech.
Yes could easily be. Could also be anti-semitic and I don't know where the intersection of the two is.
Radical free speech policies continue to expand their scope.
https://x.com/jason_paladino/status/1904304968464818417 ICE is hunting for Yunseo Chung, a Columbia student who attended pro-Palestine protests. Chung came to the US from Korea with her family at age 7, and was her high school's valedictorian. She's a lawful permanent resident. Here's what we know so far...
...Chung's lawyers stress that she was not a movement leader, like Mahmoud Khalil, but only attended a few protests. She faced a disciplinary process from Columbia which found she was NOT in violation of any policies.
You’ve missed the part where they have revoked her residence status… making her liable for deportation despite having lived in the US lawfully since she was 7…
"The purge of DEI language from US federal websites has claimed another victim. This time, it is NASA's pledge to land the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon as part of the Artemis program."
I have some sympathy with that one. NASA should be aiming to land the most qualified and scientifically relevant astronauts. Colour and gender are irrelevant
Are all of the most qualified astronauts White males perchance?
I’d be very surprised but I suppose it’s is within the field of the mathematically possible.
My point is why are you pledging to land someone of colour and a woman rather than the most relevant scientists?
(The only scientifically relevant reason would be the ethically dubious desire to test whether being in space has a different impact on people with different ethnicity/gender… ie the astronauts are the subject of the experiment)
"The purge of DEI language from US federal websites has claimed another victim. This time, it is NASA's pledge to land the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon as part of the Artemis program."
I have some sympathy with that one. NASA should be aiming to land the most qualified and scientifically relevant astronauts. Colour and gender are irrelevant
The whole point of DEI is to appoint qualified people who you otherwise miss, because your policies are white-male-centric.
But that’s not what the pledge said.
(FWIW, in my view, it’s diversity of thought and opinion that is the most valuable - having a mix of ethnicity and gender is helpful, but it’s only a proxy for the ultimate objective which is to avoid groupthink)
"The purge of DEI language from US federal websites has claimed another victim. This time, it is NASA's pledge to land the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon as part of the Artemis program."
I have some sympathy with that one. NASA should be aiming to land the most qualified and scientifically relevant astronauts. Colour and gender are irrelevant
I have zero sympathy with it; that's the sort of thinking that leads to everyone involved being male and white, as it was in the sixties. No woman or black man has been to the Moon, let alone landed on it. The Russian space program launched Valentina Tereshkova into space as a PR coup, then launched no other woman for 19 years. The Russian cosmonaut corps has 23 men and 1 woman, who is apparently not expected to fly into space again.
The amount of pushback in NASA and the astronaut corps *against* female astronauts in the sixties and seventies was quite amazing. Something that was fight against by Lieutenant Uhura, of all people.
You assume that the brightest and thebbest are all white males.
I completely disagree. I’m not qualified to judge who are the most suitable astronauts, but the colour of their skin and their gender is irrelevant. The only merit might be to encourage kids from their respective backgrounds to start the educational path towards being a scientist (ie a role model), but that’s a very expensive way of doing that
"The purge of DEI language from US federal websites has claimed another victim. This time, it is NASA's pledge to land the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon as part of the Artemis program."
I have some sympathy with that one. NASA should be aiming to land the most qualified and scientifically relevant astronauts. Colour and gender are irrelevant
I have zero sympathy with it; that's the sort of thinking that leads to everyone involved being male and white, as it was in the sixties. No woman or black man has been to the Moon, let alone landed on it. The Russian space program launched Valentina Tereshkova into space as a PR coup, then launched no other woman for 19 years. The Russian cosmonaut corps has 23 men and 1 woman, who is apparently not expected to fly into space again.
The amount of pushback in NASA and the astronaut corps *against* female astronauts in the sixties and seventies was quite amazing. Something that was fight against by Lieutenant Uhura, of all people.
You assume that the brightest and thebbest are all white males.
I completely disagree. I’m not qualified to judge who are the most suitable astronauts, but the colour of their skin and their gender is irrelevant. The only merit might be to encourage kids from their respective backgrounds to start the educational path towards being a scientist (ie a role model), but that’s a very expensive way of doing that
"You assume that the brightest and thebbest are all white males."
That's not my assumption *at all*. But it's odd how all too often, without things like DEI, the 'brightest and best' turns out to be male and white. If the colour of their skin and their gender is irrelevant - and I agree it is - then how come people of certain colours and the 'wrong' gender end up less represented?
There's an obvious answer: discrimination.
And I agree, I want the 'brightest and best'. But 'best' is an odd metric: what is 'best'? And all too often, an answer is: "people like me".
Now, DEI can, and is, misused at times. But the idea that equality will automagically happen without things like DEI is, I'm afraid, stupid. Read the Nichelle Nichols link I posted below for an example of where it has worked well for NASA.
"The purge of DEI language from US federal websites has claimed another victim. This time, it is NASA's pledge to land the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon as part of the Artemis program."
I have some sympathy with that one. NASA should be aiming to land the most qualified and scientifically relevant astronauts. Colour and gender are irrelevant
I have zero sympathy with it; that's the sort of thinking that leads to everyone involved being male and white, as it was in the sixties. No woman or black man has been to the Moon, let alone landed on it. The Russian space program launched Valentina Tereshkova into space as a PR coup, then launched no other woman for 19 years. The Russian cosmonaut corps has 23 men and 1 woman, who is apparently not expected to fly into space again.
The amount of pushback in NASA and the astronaut corps *against* female astronauts in the sixties and seventies was quite amazing. Something that was fight against by Lieutenant Uhura, of all people.
You assume that the brightest and thebbest are all white males.
I completely disagree. I’m not qualified to judge who are the most suitable astronauts, but the colour of their skin and their gender is irrelevant. The only merit might be to encourage kids from their respective backgrounds to start the educational path towards being a scientist (ie a role model), but that’s a very expensive way of doing that
The catch is that, if you want the most effective explorers of space, you don't use humans at all- you use robots. Or better still, remote sensing.
Manned spaceflight largely is an expensive PR exercise.
The BBC is giving wall to wall coverage of the security lapse farce. And this is OK. But it doesn't tell us anything at all we didn't know before but merely confirms what we thought about their character and competence.
But the BBC continues to give relatively scant attention to the big story: USA has switched sides, and USA is becoming a rogue state both externally and internally.
"The purge of DEI language from US federal websites has claimed another victim. This time, it is NASA's pledge to land the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon as part of the Artemis program."
I have some sympathy with that one. NASA should be aiming to land the most qualified and scientifically relevant astronauts. Colour and gender are irrelevant
The whole point of DEI is to appoint qualified people who you otherwise miss, because your policies are white-male-centric.
Which is purely a myth.
Stuff like this is what brings Trump to power in the first place.
"The purge of DEI language from US federal websites has claimed another victim. This time, it is NASA's pledge to land the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon as part of the Artemis program."
I have some sympathy with that one. NASA should be aiming to land the most qualified and scientifically relevant astronauts. Colour and gender are irrelevant
I have zero sympathy with it; that's the sort of thinking that leads to everyone involved being male and white, as it was in the sixties. No woman or black man has been to the Moon, let alone landed on it. The Russian space program launched Valentina Tereshkova into space as a PR coup, then launched no other woman for 19 years. The Russian cosmonaut corps has 23 men and 1 woman, who is apparently not expected to fly into space again.
The amount of pushback in NASA and the astronaut corps *against* female astronauts in the sixties and seventies was quite amazing. Something that was fight against by Lieutenant Uhura, of all people.
Comments
Secretary Brooke Rollins
@SecRollins
Just finished up another great Cabinet meeting. Takeaways👇
-
@POTUS’ example of energy in office will be the standard by which all future presidents will be judged.
-The President has assembled the most qualified — and unified — Cabinet in history.
-The bureaucracy will never reform itself;
@DOGE
is right-sizing the government to the size and scope the American people mandated — and the Cabinet fully stands behind @elonmusk
. Don’t judge DOGE by the standards of the class that lives and dies by the D.C. model. Judge it by the standards of the world-beating entrepreneurs that only America produces.
https://x.com/SecRollins/status/1904228426388787505
Ed Krassenstein
@EdKrassen
WOW! Appeals Court Judge Patricia Millet to the Trump administration:
“Nazis got better treatment under the Alien Enemy Act [than what Trump gave to immigrants].”
"Tube tickets shock: Passengers who use cash pay three times more in fares for the same journey
Single Tube journey in Zones 1-6 costs £7 cash but £2.80 with Contactless"
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/tube-train-passengers-cash-tickets-tfl-london-travelwatch-report-b1218442.html
"There is concern that growing numbers of suicidal people, especially young people, are asking for help to die. Last year, there were 219 reports of euthanasia after psychological suffering, up by almost 60 per cent from 138 the previous year. In 2020 there were just 88."
https://www.thetimes.com/world/europe/article/dutch-rethink-euthanasia-law-60-percent-rise-mental-health-cases-nbnmqvb6q
We might hit those PIP targets after all!!!!!
·
2m
NEW: Defense Secretary Hegseth tells pooler @ellee_watson that “nobody was texting any war plans” and calls @JeffreyGoldberg a “deceitful and highly-discredited so-called journalist who’s made a profession of peddling hoaxes” - as the fallout from the Atlantic article continues
https://x.com/kristincbrown/status/1904316944964067551
Ummm, I'm pretty sure he has receipts, as the kool kids say...
@EdwardJDavey
·
1h
JD Vance and his mates clearly aren’t fit to run a group chat, let alone the world’s strongest military force. It has to make our security services nervous about the intelligence we’re sharing with them.
Knew it was those furriners behind it..😏
I am jolly glad that as someone in the over 55 category and thus would have been high risk, I am glad I am still around to carp on about lockdowns.
I'm not.
On the face of it not mad, seems ordinary-ish (but touch of the 'I own a kitchen with a central isle'), magistrate - so nice line on law and order after Ashby.
I wish BF would put the bloody book up but looks lost for Lab here.
The really interesting thing is that if you are Morgan McSweeny then losing this could be an advantage. Means more pressure on his side to push for blue lab/working class/old lab values and less of the Islington workshop on colonial values shite.
Fox’s Brit Hume on Hegseth’s response to war plans texts: ‘Oh for God’s sake’
Fox News political commentator Brit Hume on Monday afternoon pushed back on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s claim that “nobody was texting war plans” after news broke that Hegseth and other Trump administration officials discussed plans for an attack against Houthi rebels in Yemen on a text chain that mistakenly included the editor-in-chief for The Atlantic.
“Nobody was texting war plans, and that’s all I have to say about that,” Hegseth said outside a plane in Hawaii when asked about editor-in-chief of The Atlantic Jeffrey Goldberg’s access to the chat...
“You’re talking about a deceitful and highly discredited “so-called journalist”
https://x.com/DODResponse/status/1904311661629964334
"Half of them saying he’s never going to survive or shouldn’t survive," the official said. "It was reckless not to check who was on the thread. It was reckless to be having that conversation on Signal. You can’t have recklessness as the national security adviser."
A person close to the White House was even more blunt: “Everyone in the White House can agree on one thing: Mike Waltz is a fucking idiot"
https://x.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1904331181820199139
And compared with Hegseth, he's the smart guy.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/25/iwao-hakamada-worlds-longest-death-row-prisoner-japan-compensation-after-release
...Hakamada was the fifth death row inmate granted a retrial in Japan’s postwar history. All four previous cases also resulted in exonerations.
@Acyn
Hegseth: Under the previous administration, we looked like fools. Not anymore
https://x.com/Acyn/status/1903110676610158901
*) Not all disabilities are visible, and not all disabilities are continuous.
*) If the first lockdown was not necessary with what we knew at the time, why did so many countries take the same action? Simply because it was necessary.
*) Many of those Monday-morning quarterbacking against lockdowns would be complaining about not having had one if we hadn't.
*) I started exercising *more* during and after lockdown, a trend I have continued. I know others who are the same.
And their base will lap it up.
It's getting to the stage where the US government and MAGA are becoming traitors to their own country. And before anyone complains, that's the language they're using against their political enemies.
'Fool' just doesn't do it justice.
The few companies that did not try to expand production are apparently doing relatively well...
The implications is that this is "business as usual", that govt is being done via a commercial app not official communication channels. The obvious reason for that is they don't want an official record of their discussions.
I reckon we'll see the US gaslit and that no one will go due to this... Let's see what WG starts reposting.
It's like they lack the imagination to think of anything bad that they aren't already trying.
There ought to be a pithy word for this
Hold on, so Steve Witkoff was participating in the Signal group discussing war plans against Houthis while being physically in Moscow, perhaps even in the Kremlin? He met Putin late on March 13.
https://x.com/yarotrof/status/1904410695300493658
@BlackKnight10k
Come on Democrats. The Secretary of Defense was drunk texting plans of a highly classified military operation. Get on tv. Call it treason. Demand a criminal investigation. Call for resignations. And when they cover it up, Call for the public to support impeachment. This is a slam dunk
https://x.com/BlackKnight10k/status/1904244153703121033
And the Republicans will never vote to impeach, or at least not in sufficient numbers (Murkowski might) so they won't be removed.
https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/24/nasa_dei_artemis/
Labour can win by being red, but not by pretending to be turquoise.
There is a legacy of cardiovascular, cerebrovascular and metabolic damage that relates purely to the virus.
The alternative to Lockdowns was not normality. We couldn't wish the pandemic away.
In Paris you don’t have a choice since January -paper tickets have been banned you need a navigo to travel.
and make sure you pick the correct journey type before you begin - it’s not clever enough to cope with debiting €x off the account balance as we discovered at CGG last week when a guard had to allow us to escape
I see the US administration remains super clever, smartest administration ever. You'll all soon realise what looks like incredible incompetence is simply the latest move in a 7D chess game you're not smart enough to understand yet. This is an A Plus move.
Ahem.
RoomChat!"In part its politicians v officials. Officials want politicians to correspond with each other through official channels, both for legitimate legal reasons and so they can keep tabs on it all. Whereas politicians want the chance to share ideas and plans informally, without their staff looking on, and without leaving indelible hostages to future fortune. Whatsapp and the like have stepped nicely into the gap.
They are legally required by statute both to ensure such discussion are secure*, and to keep full records.
And are criminally liable when they don't.
Of course the DOJ is now led by similar scofflaw idiots, so they'll probably face no such consequences.
*as Gabbard publicly reminded herself last week.
I know I am right, nevertheless, that politicians in other parties and other countries are discussing all sorts of stuff over Whatsapp.
These idiots, appointed by an idiot, are doing exactly what he wants.
"What do you mean you never thought to just ask to join the top secret WhatsApp group?"
https://x.com/jason_paladino/status/1904304968464818417
ICE is hunting for Yunseo Chung, a Columbia student who attended pro-Palestine protests. Chung came to the US from Korea with her family at age 7, and was her high school's valedictorian. She's a lawful permanent resident. Here's what we know so far...
...Chung's lawyers stress that she was not a movement leader, like Mahmoud Khalil, but only attended a few protests. She faced a disciplinary process from Columbia which found she was NOT in violation of any policies.
The breach is interesting for several reasons apart from the obvious security risk. One is the reaction to the leak, but perhaps most interesting is the light it sheds on decision making in the Trump administration, with Vance disagreeing with Trump over the wisdom of bombing the Houthis.
"The Vance account then goes on to make a noteworthy statement, considering that the vice president has not deviated publicly from Trump’s position on virtually any issue. “I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now. There’s a further risk that we see a moderate to severe spike in oil prices. I am willing to support the consensus of the team and keep these concerns to myself. But there is a strong argument for delaying this a month, doing the messaging work on why this matters, seeing where the economy is, etc.”
Vance hates the free countries of Europe. On this there can be no doubt.
"Donald, where's your trousers?" as Jimmy Kimmell will ask every episode. You KNOW there will be a price to pay for those letting him down. He'll end up more capricious than the Queen of Hearts.
https://x.com/NatashaBertrand/status/1904335436949918029
https://x.com/kaitlancollins/status/1904369972911980970
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSTadzAs8Ug
P.S. isn't Musk a Sith Ifrican produced entrepreneur?
The amount of pushback in NASA and the astronaut corps *against* female astronauts in the sixties and seventies was quite amazing. Something that was fight against by Lieutenant Uhura, of all people.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nichelle_Nichols#Work_with_NASA
That is after the Atlantic has published in the article that JD Vance's spokesman has already told the Atlantic that JD Vance has 'discussed it with the President".
And the others are focused on revenge, or attacking opponents, or outright lying.
There are several scenarios - is Trump a useful idiot being manipulated, is he sane or not, is there an evil genius somewhere, does Vlad have an inside man, and so on?
Either way it will rot from within and collapse like a mouldy potato. The risk for everybody else is the damage they are doing, and risk, in the meantime. Mr Chump, not Putin, would be the one to use the nuclear weapon, I suspect - he might not grasp, never mind consider, the consequences.
free nations like Poland and Meloni's Italy that control their borders and support
the traditional family.
Vance was also logically right
that if Trump wants to put
America First and not risk
American dollars and soldiers
lives to contain Putin there is even less case to intervene to bomb the Houthis which is a Cheney and John Bolton neocon move
NEW THREAD
Tusk's Poland are a bit woke aren't they?
Interesting take.
They have no liking or respect for any nation except Russia, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Turkey. Those are literally the only countries they can’t bring themselves to criticise.
Anyway, Tsunoda gets shafted by his strategy team (again), Ferrari have a very mixed weekend, Alonso's luck remains awful, and Piastri rapidly narrows the gap to Norris.
Podbean: https://undercutters.podbean.com/e/f1-2025-chinese-grand-prix-review/
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0RrRUWYBdL1Wgsh08GFxhM
Amazon: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/bcfe213b-55fb-408a-a823-dc6693ee9f78/episodes/0423e194-ae55-4e4c-8ed6-77bc4c25e313/undercutters---f1-podcast-f1-2025-chinese-grand-prix-review
Transcript: https://morrisf1.blogspot.com/2025/03/f1-2025-chinese-grand-prix-review.html
Checking - it has been done back in 2018:
Donald, Where's Your Troosers?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y11yHLvmzA0
"He says his mum's from the Isle of Skye
But he doesn'y drink and he don't get high
He's never Scottish - Jings Och Aye !
Donald is a Doozer."
Every. Single. Time.
My point is why are you pledging to land someone of colour and a woman rather than the most relevant scientists?
(The only scientifically relevant reason would be the ethically dubious desire to test whether being in space has a different impact on people with different ethnicity/gender… ie the astronauts are the subject of the experiment)
(FWIW, in my view, it’s diversity of thought and opinion that is the most valuable - having a mix of ethnicity and gender is helpful, but it’s only a proxy for the ultimate objective which is to avoid groupthink)
I want the brightest and the best.
You assume that the brightest and thebbest are all white males.
I completely disagree. I’m not qualified to judge who are the most suitable astronauts, but the colour of their skin and their gender is irrelevant. The only merit might be to encourage kids from their respective backgrounds to start the educational path towards being a scientist (ie a role model), but that’s a very expensive way of doing that
That's not my assumption *at all*. But it's odd how all too often, without things like DEI, the 'brightest and best' turns out to be male and white. If the colour of their skin and their gender is irrelevant - and I agree it is - then how come people of certain colours and the 'wrong' gender end up less represented?
There's an obvious answer: discrimination.
And I agree, I want the 'brightest and best'. But 'best' is an odd metric: what is 'best'? And all too often, an answer is: "people like me".
Now, DEI can, and is, misused at times. But the idea that equality will automagically happen without things like DEI is, I'm afraid, stupid. Read the Nichelle Nichols link I posted below for an example of where it has worked well for NASA.
Manned spaceflight largely is an expensive PR exercise.
But the BBC continues to give relatively scant attention to the big story: USA has switched sides, and USA is becoming a rogue state both externally and internally.
Stuff like this is what brings Trump to power in the first place.
Applying social policy like it still is, well into the 2020s, is one of the key things driving political polarisation in today's world.