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Why Amanda Spielman Deserves her Peerage – politicalbetting.com

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  • StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 9,634

    Terrible story about a Brit trapped in US ICE system for weeks for a minor technicality on a tourist visa.

    No one in their right mind would visit the US now.

    Just incredible.


    "Her advice to anyone planning to travel to the US is simply not to go."

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/05/i-was-a-british-tourist-trying-to-leave-america-then-i-was-detained-shackled-and-sent-to-an-immigration-detention-centre

    A “minor technicality” being “working on a tourist visa”?

    In this case the US was perfectly within their rights to deport her. The time and the process / performative cruelty less so (although a good part appears to be classic administrative incompetence - her assigned agent went on annual leave and no one picked up the case)
  • bondegezoubondegezou Posts: 13,453
    Andy_JS said:

    "Mother jailed for Southport X post should be freed, says former prime minister
    Liz Truss says Lucy Connolly was ‘victim of politicised two-tier justice system in Starmer’s Britain’" (£)

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/04/05/lucy-connolly-jailed-southport-tweet-freed-braverman/

    Truss has gone down a MAGA rabbit hole.

  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 83,185
    edited April 6
    eek said:

    Nobody who has experienced an American supermarket wants to allow their god-awful food into the UK.

    I don't recognise this. If all our supermarkets were replaced by Safeway, Walmart, Costco, Whole Foods and Trader Joe's, it wouldn't be a problem (assuming prices stay the same).
    Well Walmart left the UK because they couldn't compete with Tesco.
    Safeway likewise gave up and ended up as part of Morrisons.
    Whole Foods isn't what anyone would call cheap
    Trader Joe is Aldi Nord which isn't in the UK because Aldi Süd have the UK. Aldi Süd actually have 2700 stores in the USA compared to 587 Trader Joe's.
    Not a Erewhon shopper?

    I have always found Publix very good in the US.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 76,113

    Nobody who has experienced an American supermarket wants to allow their god-awful food into the UK.

    Depends which supermarkets.

    And where do you think our almonds come from ?
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 30,544
    edited April 6
    Taz said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "Mother jailed for Southport X post should be freed, says former prime minister
    Liz Truss says Lucy Connolly was ‘victim of politicised two-tier justice system in Starmer’s Britain’" (£)

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/04/05/lucy-connolly-jailed-southport-tweet-freed-braverman/

    31 months does seem excessive, it was a ridiculous tweet and she knew it and pulled it after a few hours, but she must have been poorly advised as didn’t she plead guilty. So some punishment is justified.
    Is is and was extraordinarily excessive. Why no bail for example? There's a good interview with her husband on the Planet Normal podcast.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 83,185
    The big difference I always find in the US compared to the UK is I can go anywhere in the UK and I will find a number of choices of supermarket and I can buy a wide range of fresh fruit and veg.

    The US there are so many examples of small towns that Walmart bust all the competition and now its a giant Walmart Mega Store / Sams Club but with f##k all fresh in there. Perhaps if you are lucky there might be a Safeway or Albertsons as your only other option.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 83,185
    edited April 6
    More than 50 countries have reached out to the White House to start trade talks since Trump's tariffs announcement, according to the director of the White House's National Economic Council.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/ce3qnyr7y94t

    As we at the front or the back of the queue?
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 30,544

    Andy_JS said:

    "Mother jailed for Southport X post should be freed, says former prime minister
    Liz Truss says Lucy Connolly was ‘victim of politicised two-tier justice system in Starmer’s Britain’" (£)

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/04/05/lucy-connolly-jailed-southport-tweet-freed-braverman/

    Truss has gone down a MAGA rabbit hole.

    If you think that a 31 month sentence for a Tweet is justifiable, I don't think it's Truss who's down the rabbit hole.
  • noneoftheabovenoneoftheabove Posts: 24,099

    More than 50 countries have reached out to the White House to start trade talks since Trump's tariffs announcement, according to the director of the White House's National Economic Council.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/ce3qnyr7y94t

    As we at the front or the back of the queue?

    Does it matter?
  • bondegezoubondegezou Posts: 13,453

    Taz said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "Mother jailed for Southport X post should be freed, says former prime minister
    Liz Truss says Lucy Connolly was ‘victim of politicised two-tier justice system in Starmer’s Britain’" (£)

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/04/05/lucy-connolly-jailed-southport-tweet-freed-braverman/

    31 months does seem excessive, it was a ridiculous tweet and she knew it and pulled it after a few hours, but she must have been poorly advised as didn’t she plead guilty. So some punishment is justified.
    Is is and was extraordinarily excessive. Why no bail for example? There's a good interview with her husband on the Planet Normal podcast.
    She’ll only serve a year and a fortnight (40% of 31 months).
  • TresTres Posts: 2,789

    Andy_JS said:

    "Mother jailed for Southport X post should be freed, says former prime minister
    Liz Truss says Lucy Connolly was ‘victim of politicised two-tier justice system in Starmer’s Britain’" (£)

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/04/05/lucy-connolly-jailed-southport-tweet-freed-braverman/

    Truss has gone down a MAGA rabbit hole.

    If you think that a 31 month sentence for a Tweet is justifiable, I don't think it's Truss who's down the rabbit hole.
    "There is a further significant aggravating factor namely, the timing of the publication when there was obviously a particularly sensitive social climate. It would be difficult to think of a more sensitive such time than during the evening of the 29th July of this year."

    file under fafo
  • Daveyboy1961Daveyboy1961 Posts: 4,451

    Andy_JS said:

    "Mother jailed for Southport X post should be freed, says former prime minister
    Liz Truss says Lucy Connolly was ‘victim of politicised two-tier justice system in Starmer’s Britain’" (£)

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/04/05/lucy-connolly-jailed-southport-tweet-freed-braverman/

    Truss has gone down a MAGA rabbit hole.

    If you think that a 31 month sentence for a Tweet is justifiable, I don't think it's Truss who's down the rabbit hole.
    depends what she tweeted I suppose.
  • TazTaz Posts: 17,262
    Scott_xP said:

    What I did find out is that BYD have 100k engineers doing their R&D.....and 900k work for them. At Jag, I presume its some bloke called Bob who has been their 50 years and a couple of recent grads.

    I think Land Rover have some smart people working for them

    I had a go in the new Defender round the jungle track at Solihull

    There are cameras in the door mirrors that can see the front wheels, and you can see the back wheels in the mirrors so you can see all 4 wheels at all times from the driving seat. You can also see a simulated view through the bonnet, so little excuse for getting stuck

    Even the Discovery Sport has some fancy camera tech that allows you to see a view from outside (multiple angles) while you park

    They also have 'smart' headlights. The full beam is actually a matrix of LEDs, and if it senses a vehicle in the beam in either direction it turns off that section of the matrix. It's freaky
    Is that the JLR team who are smart or their supply base offering the latest technological innovations and they are now accepting them.

    When I worked there a decade or so ago they were just pride focussed. New innovations were fine but suppliers had to commit to annual price reductions to get the business.

    As a consequence suppliers did not always come to them with the latest technology.

    I got to drive the R50 Mini round the track at Oxford on a BMW supplier day. We made the CPM. Cracking buffets too.

  • bondegezoubondegezou Posts: 13,453
    edited April 6

    Andy_JS said:

    "Mother jailed for Southport X post should be freed, says former prime minister
    Liz Truss says Lucy Connolly was ‘victim of politicised two-tier justice system in Starmer’s Britain’" (£)

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/04/05/lucy-connolly-jailed-southport-tweet-freed-braverman/

    Truss has gone down a MAGA rabbit hole.

    If you think that a 31 month sentence for a Tweet is justifiable, I don't think it's Truss who's down the rabbit hole.
    She was convicted for what she said, not how she said it. Distributing material with the intention of stirring up racial hatred is illegal whether it’s a tweet or a skeet, a lithograph or a banner flown behind a plane.

    She’d be out a month earlier if she’d pleaded guilty earlier.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 83,185
    Was the tweet a one off? Or was it part of an pattern of behaviour?
  • GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 22,166
    Nigelb said:

    Nobody who has experienced an American supermarket wants to allow their god-awful food into the UK.

    Depends which supermarkets.

    And where do you think our almonds come from ?
    American produce is uniformly low quality, compared to Europe, with the exception of seafood (oysters and such).

    I’m not talking about GMO, hydrogenated corn oil, or anything like that. I’m just saying it tastes crap.

    As for packaged food, it’s notably sweeter and saltier and contains god knows what.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 53,918
    Sean_F said:

    Taz said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "Mother jailed for Southport X post should be freed, says former prime minister
    Liz Truss says Lucy Connolly was ‘victim of politicised two-tier justice system in Starmer’s Britain’" (£)

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/04/05/lucy-connolly-jailed-southport-tweet-freed-braverman/

    31 months does seem excessive, it was a ridiculous tweet and she knew it and pulled it after a few hours, but she must have been poorly advised as didn’t she plead guilty. So some punishment is justified.
    Outside of a riot situation, she probably would have got a suspended sentence. In the middle of widespread rioting, the judiciary will hand down exemplary sentences.
    The judiciary don’t have much latitude in sentencing.

    The variation is down to charging. In “normal” times, charges are downgraded, so the conviction and sentence is lesser.

    During the rioting, the CPS was charging people with the full appreciable charge. So the sentences were higher.
  • bondegezoubondegezou Posts: 13,453

    Was the tweet a one off? Or was it part of a pattern of behaviour?

    The sentencing comments at https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/R-v-Lucy-Connolly.pdf describe “other tweets” which made “further racist remarks” sent before and after.
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 37,790
    eek said:

    Nigelb said:

    rcs1000 said:

    On the subject of bringing industries back on shore, tariffs are a very inefficient way of doing it.

    Why?

    Because how can you, as a business owner be sure that the tariff policy will continue? If you build a factory to make MAGA hats, and then the tariffs come down, then you are really stuffed, because you've spent all this money on a factory and it can't compete.

    Which is why most industrial support in countries like China is via subsidised finance. You want to build a $100m factory, well the government will set you up with one of the State supported banks, who'll lend you $95m for 20 years at 3%.

    That funding - which is what the Germans did in East Germany too - is much more effective at stimulating a domestic manufacturing industry because your loan is set in stone for the next 20 years. It's not like a tariff which might get pulled if the President cuts a deal with the Vietnamese government, or if a new administration gets in with different priorities.

    So the Biden administration was thinking along the right lines ?
    Yep - the thing you have to remember is that Trump and everyone he is taking advice from is a f***ing idiot...
    Yup

    @annmarie

    Secretary Bessent: “I see no reason that we have to price in a recession.”

    https://x.com/annmarie/status/1908875744979153329
  • GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 22,166
    edited April 6
    Americans spend a decent percentage of their additional GDP on shit that no European actually wants.

    Crap food.
    Ugly furniture.
    Healthcare bureaucracy.
    Tat from 24 hr shopping channels.

    However they have much bigger houses, and the domestic market is so large that consumer product innovation is more vigorous here.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 83,185
    edited April 6

    Was the tweet a one off? Or was it part of a pattern of behaviour?

    The sentencing comments at https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/R-v-Lucy-Connolly.pdf describe “other tweets” which made “further racist remarks” sent before and after.
    The report says she deleted the tweet that got her in trouble within 4hrs. I wonder if all the others that were deemed racist were sent around the same time and also deleted, or was this a prolonged behaviour?
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 37,790
    @atrupar.com‬

    WELKER: The markets lost more than $6 trillion in value. Was this disruption always part of the plan?

    BESSENT: We had record volume on Friday and everything is working very smoothly. So the American people can take great comfort in that.

    https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lm5mvrdqhl2s
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 37,790
    OK, PB quiz, round 2.

    What day this week does Bessent get fired? Does he make it to Friday?
  • RochdalePioneersRochdalePioneers Posts: 29,677
    With regards to the welsh backpacker, what I don't understand is why US ICE took her in the first place.

    She was crossing *into Canada*. If as is being supposed that she needed a work visa to do unpaid housesitting and therefore she was "working" illegally, she would need to be removed from the US.

    But she's at the border. Removing herself.

    The piece highlights a few other examples. Romanian arrested for illegally crossing the US border at the Peace Arch whilst taking a photo of it. Someone else arrested for jogging on the beach.

    Whilst there is definitely some performative cruelty going on by Trump (so that he can boast about how many more illegals he is deporting), this has been going on for a long time.

    There is a way to avoid this - don't go to America.
  • GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 22,166

    Was the tweet a one off? Or was it part of a pattern of behaviour?

    The sentencing comments at https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/R-v-Lucy-Connolly.pdf describe “other tweets” which made “further racist remarks” sent before and after.
    The report says she deleted the tweet that got her in trouble within 4hrs. I wonder if all the others that were deemed racist were also deleted?
    She shouted fire in a crowded theatre.
    Highly regrettable, but it cannot be tolerated.
    2 years is overly punitive, but there are frankly worthier causes if one is focused on free speech.
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 54,561
    Scott_xP said:

    @atrupar.com‬

    WELKER: The markets lost more than $6 trillion in value. Was this disruption always part of the plan?

    BESSENT: We had record volume on Friday and everything is working very smoothly. So the American people can take great comfort in that.

    https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lm5mvrdqhl2s

    As he pointed out, the top 10% own 88% of the stock market. Why is it a disaster if their paper wealth is marked down?
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 37,790
    Soooo much stupid...

    @atrupar.com‬

    TAPPER: You're imposing a 10% on the Heard and MccDonald islands. They have zero human inhabitants. Why are you putting tariffs on islands entirely populated by penguins?

    ROLLINS: Whatever. Listen, the people leading this are serious, intentional, patriotic, the smartest I've ever worked with.

    https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lm5mq6aohk2e
  • TresTres Posts: 2,789

    Scott_xP said:

    @atrupar.com‬

    WELKER: The markets lost more than $6 trillion in value. Was this disruption always part of the plan?

    BESSENT: We had record volume on Friday and everything is working very smoothly. So the American people can take great comfort in that.

    https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lm5mvrdqhl2s

    As he pointed out, the top 10% own 88% of the stock market. Why is it a disaster if their paper wealth is marked down?
    is this how you thought your life would turn out william? shilling for ppl who don't give a shit about you
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 83,185
    edited April 6

    With regards to the welsh backpacker, what I don't understand is why US ICE took her in the first place.

    She was crossing *into Canada*. If as is being supposed that she needed a work visa to do unpaid housesitting and therefore she was "working" illegally, she would need to be removed from the US.

    But she's at the border. Removing herself.

    The piece highlights a few other examples. Romanian arrested for illegally crossing the US border at the Peace Arch whilst taking a photo of it. Someone else arrested for jogging on the beach.

    Whilst there is definitely some performative cruelty going on by Trump (so that he can boast about how many more illegals he is deporting), this has been going on for a long time.

    There is a way to avoid this - don't go to America.

    The report I read is the Canadian officials spoke to the US officials. So I am guessing the conversation went something along the lines of we aren't letting her in because she has admitted she is coming to work illegally in Canada against her visa, she has been in the US for several months using a similar scheme.
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 37,790

    Scott_xP said:

    @atrupar.com‬

    WELKER: The markets lost more than $6 trillion in value. Was this disruption always part of the plan?

    BESSENT: We had record volume on Friday and everything is working very smoothly. So the American people can take great comfort in that.

    https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lm5mvrdqhl2s

    As he pointed out, the top 10% own 88% of the stock market. Why is it a disaster if their paper wealth is marked down?
    @linegraft86761813.bsky.social‬

    The market crashed smoothly and people lost their life savings very quickly without any hiccups. The American people can take great solace that our markets work so efficiently and effectively.

    https://bsky.app/profile/linegraft86761813.bsky.social/post/3lm5mzr4yhk2x
  • GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 22,166
    I don’t think Bessent is getting fired.
    In fact seems to be high on his own supply.

    It was funny to hear so many Brexit memes repeated in his Tucker interview (they need us more than we need them!)
  • MattWMattW Posts: 26,295
    edited April 6

    With regards to the welsh backpacker, what I don't understand is why US ICE took her in the first place.

    She was crossing *into Canada*. If as is being supposed that she needed a work visa to do unpaid housesitting and therefore she was "working" illegally, she would need to be removed from the US.

    But she's at the border. Removing herself.

    The piece highlights a few other examples. Romanian arrested for illegally crossing the US border at the Peace Arch whilst taking a photo of it. Someone else arrested for jogging on the beach.

    Whilst there is definitely some performative cruelty going on by Trump (so that he can boast about how many more illegals he is deporting), this has been going on for a long time.

    There is a way to avoid this - don't go to America.

    The Canadian border guards sent her back.

    And the USA border guards went a bit bonkers on the "working". It was walking dogs in the mornings and baby sitting in return for a bed.

    Unfortunately the website she had done the arrangement on was called Workaway.

    A report was overegged with an interpretation, and ... bingo, given the deliberately cruel policies of the USA. The detention centre was private, so there may be a commercial motive.

    I think her main error was in being naive.
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 54,561

    Was the tweet a one off? Or was it part of a pattern of behaviour?

    The sentencing comments at https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/R-v-Lucy-Connolly.pdf describe “other tweets” which made “further racist remarks” sent before and after.
    The report says she deleted the tweet that got her in trouble within 4hrs. I wonder if all the others that were deemed racist were also deleted?
    She shouted fire in a crowded theatre.
    Highly regrettable, but it cannot be tolerated.
    2 years is overly punitive, but there are frankly worthier causes if one is focused on free speech.
    I don't think that analogy is satisfactory.

    If you shout fire in a crowded theatre, everyone who could act on it will hear you. If you make a post on Facebook as a nobody, virtually nobody will see it. There was no tangible link between her post and anyone's actions.
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 37,790
    @atrupar.com‬

    WELKER: Trump promised he was going to improve the economy on day one. What's your message to Americans who want to retire and have just seen their lifetime savings drop significantly?

    BESSENT: Most Americans who have put away for years in savings accounts don't look at the day to day fluctuations

    https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lm5nbt7kus2e
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 83,185
    edited April 6
    MattW said:

    With regards to the welsh backpacker, what I don't understand is why US ICE took her in the first place.

    She was crossing *into Canada*. If as is being supposed that she needed a work visa to do unpaid housesitting and therefore she was "working" illegally, she would need to be removed from the US.

    But she's at the border. Removing herself.

    The piece highlights a few other examples. Romanian arrested for illegally crossing the US border at the Peace Arch whilst taking a photo of it. Someone else arrested for jogging on the beach.

    Whilst there is definitely some performative cruelty going on by Trump (so that he can boast about how many more illegals he is deporting), this has been going on for a long time.

    There is a way to avoid this - don't go to America.

    The Canadian border guards sent her back.

    And the USA border guards went a bit bonkers on the "working". It was walking dogs in the mornings and baby sitting in return for a bed.

    A report was overegged, and ... bingo.
    Her problem is she initially lied to them. They asked a list of questions which she said no to, but in reality the answer was yes. So they went and checked and she has done this before. So in their eyes that is multiple breaches of your tourist visa.
  • GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 22,166
    Tres said:

    Scott_xP said:

    @atrupar.com‬

    WELKER: The markets lost more than $6 trillion in value. Was this disruption always part of the plan?

    BESSENT: We had record volume on Friday and everything is working very smoothly. So the American people can take great comfort in that.

    https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lm5mvrdqhl2s

    As he pointed out, the top 10% own 88% of the stock market. Why is it a disaster if their paper wealth is marked down?
    is this how you thought your life would turn out william? shilling for ppl who don't give a shit about you
    Who *is* the real William?
    He is perhaps the most mysterious of PB’s perma-trolls.
  • bondegezoubondegezou Posts: 13,453

    Was the tweet a one off? Or was it part of a pattern of behaviour?

    The sentencing comments at https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/R-v-Lucy-Connolly.pdf describe “other tweets” which made “further racist remarks” sent before and after.
    The report says she deleted the tweet that got her in trouble within 4hrs. I wonder if all the others that were deemed racist were sent around the same time and also deleted, or was this a prolonged behaviour?
    The before and after is with respect to the date, so on other days before and after, i.e. outside the 4 hour window.
  • Richard_TyndallRichard_Tyndall Posts: 33,242

    Andy_JS said:

    "Mother jailed for Southport X post should be freed, says former prime minister
    Liz Truss says Lucy Connolly was ‘victim of politicised two-tier justice system in Starmer’s Britain’" (£)

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/04/05/lucy-connolly-jailed-southport-tweet-freed-braverman/

    Truss has gone down a MAGA rabbit hole.

    If you think that a 31 month sentence for a Tweet is justifiable, I don't think it's Truss who's down the rabbit hole.
    She was convicted for what she said, not how she said it. Distributing material with the intention of stirring up racial hatred is illegal whether it’s a tweet or a skeet, a lithograph or a banner flown behind a plane.

    She’d be out a month earlier if she’d pleaded guilty earlier.
    Unless it was explicit incitement to violence (I haven't seen the tweets so don't know) then she should not have been convicted at all for what she said or wrote. Racism is offensive and repellent as well as ignorant but the law should not criminalise being offensive or ignorant.
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 37,790
    @atrupar.com‬

    TAPPER: The European Union don't take as much as American pork because they have issues w/ hormones used in pork. It's not an issue about tariffs

    BROOKE ROLLINS: No no no. This is really important. Here's the bottom line. They are using fake science & unsubstantiated claims to not take our products

    https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lm5mhiseyk2e
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 83,185
    edited April 6

    Was the tweet a one off? Or was it part of a pattern of behaviour?

    The sentencing comments at https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/R-v-Lucy-Connolly.pdf describe “other tweets” which made “further racist remarks” sent before and after.
    The report says she deleted the tweet that got her in trouble within 4hrs. I wonder if all the others that were deemed racist were sent around the same time and also deleted, or was this a prolonged behaviour?
    The before and after is with respect to the date, so on other days before and after, i.e. outside the 4 hour window.
    Well consistent behaviour of a similar nature is going to rather nullify your defence that it was emotional overreaction.

    Its a bit like Tommy Robinson going no fair I am persecuted, but he has a consistent pattern of behaviour.
  • TazTaz Posts: 17,262
    Scott_xP said:

    Soooo much stupid...

    @atrupar.com‬

    TAPPER: You're imposing a 10% on the Heard and MccDonald islands. They have zero human inhabitants. Why are you putting tariffs on islands entirely populated by penguins?

    ROLLINS: Whatever. Listen, the people leading this are serious, intentional, patriotic, the smartest I've ever worked with.

    https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lm5mq6aohk2e

    It’s obvious. To stop countries trying to circumvent the tariffs. Their covering the bases.
  • bondegezoubondegezou Posts: 13,453

    Scott_xP said:

    @atrupar.com‬

    WELKER: The markets lost more than $6 trillion in value. Was this disruption always part of the plan?

    BESSENT: We had record volume on Friday and everything is working very smoothly. So the American people can take great comfort in that.

    https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lm5mvrdqhl2s

    As he pointed out, the top 10% own 88% of the stock market. Why is it a disaster if their paper wealth is marked down?
    The fall in the stock market is because investors expect those companies to make less money in the future. It’s what they’re predicting that’s the problem. A recession that will very definitely hurt the other 90% of the population.
  • TazTaz Posts: 17,262

    I don’t think Bessent is getting fired.
    In fact seems to be high on his own supply.

    It was funny to hear so many Brexit memes repeated in his Tucker interview (they need us more than we need them!)

    I’m halfway through that interview. It’s not very probing. More a monologue with this Tucker guy nodding a lot.
  • bondegezoubondegezou Posts: 13,453

    Was the tweet a one off? Or was it part of a pattern of behaviour?

    The sentencing comments at https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/R-v-Lucy-Connolly.pdf describe “other tweets” which made “further racist remarks” sent before and after.
    The report says she deleted the tweet that got her in trouble within 4hrs. I wonder if all the others that were deemed racist were also deleted?
    She shouted fire in a crowded theatre.
    Highly regrettable, but it cannot be tolerated.
    2 years is overly punitive, but there are frankly worthier causes if one is focused on free speech.
    I don't think that analogy is satisfactory.

    If you shout fire in a crowded theatre, everyone who could act on it will hear you. If you make a post on Facebook as a nobody, virtually nobody will see it. There was no tangible link between her post and anyone's actions.
    The sentencing remarks point out her tweet was viewed 310,000 times with 940 re-tweets.
  • bondegezoubondegezou Posts: 13,453

    Andy_JS said:

    "Mother jailed for Southport X post should be freed, says former prime minister
    Liz Truss says Lucy Connolly was ‘victim of politicised two-tier justice system in Starmer’s Britain’" (£)

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/04/05/lucy-connolly-jailed-southport-tweet-freed-braverman/

    Truss has gone down a MAGA rabbit hole.

    If you think that a 31 month sentence for a Tweet is justifiable, I don't think it's Truss who's down the rabbit hole.
    She was convicted for what she said, not how she said it. Distributing material with the intention of stirring up racial hatred is illegal whether it’s a tweet or a skeet, a lithograph or a banner flown behind a plane.

    She’d be out a month earlier if she’d pleaded guilty earlier.
    Unless it was explicit incitement to violence (I haven't seen the tweets so don't know) then she should not have been convicted at all for what she said or wrote. Racism is offensive and repellent as well as ignorant but the law should not criminalise being offensive or ignorant.
    For the third time, https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/R-v-Lucy-Connolly.pdf has the sentencing remarks including what she wrote.
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 54,561

    Was the tweet a one off? Or was it part of a pattern of behaviour?

    The sentencing comments at https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/R-v-Lucy-Connolly.pdf describe “other tweets” which made “further racist remarks” sent before and after.
    The report says she deleted the tweet that got her in trouble within 4hrs. I wonder if all the others that were deemed racist were also deleted?
    She shouted fire in a crowded theatre.
    Highly regrettable, but it cannot be tolerated.
    2 years is overly punitive, but there are frankly worthier causes if one is focused on free speech.
    I don't think that analogy is satisfactory.

    If you shout fire in a crowded theatre, everyone who could act on it will hear you. If you make a post on Facebook as a nobody, virtually nobody will see it. There was no tangible link between her post and anyone's actions.
    The sentencing remarks point out her tweet was viewed 310,000 times with 940 re-tweets.
    Should the 940 retweeters not receive the same punishment?
  • MattWMattW Posts: 26,295

    Was the tweet a one off? Or was it part of a pattern of behaviour?

    The sentencing comments at https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/R-v-Lucy-Connolly.pdf describe “other tweets” which made “further racist remarks” sent before and after.
    The report says she deleted the tweet that got her in trouble within 4hrs. I wonder if all the others that were deemed racist were sent around the same time and also deleted, or was this a prolonged behaviour?
    A couple of us have linked it. The main one mentioned:

    At 8.30pm on the 29th July of this year you used the social media platform, then known as Twitter, to publish the following:

    “Mass deportation now, set fire to all the fucking hotels full of the bastards for all I care, while you’re at it take the treacherous government and politicians with them. I feel physically sick knowing what these families will now have to endure. If that makes me racist so be it”

    When you published those words you were well aware of how volatile the situation was. As everyone is aware, that volatility led to serious disorder in a number of areas of the country where mindless violence was used to cause injury and damage to wholly innocent members of the public and to their properties.
    ...
    Your message was widely read – it was viewed 310,000 times with 940 reposts, 58 quotes and 113 bookmarks.
  • GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 22,166

    Was the tweet a one off? Or was it part of a pattern of behaviour?

    The sentencing comments at https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/R-v-Lucy-Connolly.pdf describe “other tweets” which made “further racist remarks” sent before and after.
    The report says she deleted the tweet that got her in trouble within 4hrs. I wonder if all the others that were deemed racist were also deleted?
    She shouted fire in a crowded theatre.
    Highly regrettable, but it cannot be tolerated.
    2 years is overly punitive, but there are frankly worthier causes if one is focused on free speech.
    I don't think that analogy is satisfactory.

    If you shout fire in a crowded theatre, everyone who could act on it will hear you. If you make a post on Facebook as a nobody, virtually nobody will see it. There was no tangible link between her post and anyone's actions.
    The sentencing remarks point out her tweet was viewed 310,000 times with 940 re-tweets.
    Should the 940 retweeters not receive the same punishment?
    They should be issued stiff fines.
  • Daveyboy1961Daveyboy1961 Posts: 4,451

    Was the tweet a one off? Or was it part of a pattern of behaviour?

    The sentencing comments at https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/R-v-Lucy-Connolly.pdf describe “other tweets” which made “further racist remarks” sent before and after.
    The report says she deleted the tweet that got her in trouble within 4hrs. I wonder if all the others that were deemed racist were also deleted?
    She shouted fire in a crowded theatre.
    Highly regrettable, but it cannot be tolerated.
    2 years is overly punitive, but there are frankly worthier causes if one is focused on free speech.
    I don't think that analogy is satisfactory.

    If you shout fire in a crowded theatre, everyone who could act on it will hear you. If you make a post on Facebook as a nobody, virtually nobody will see it. There was no tangible link between her post and anyone's actions.
    I would agree if she was gossipping over the garden fence, but surely she had many followers on her tweet account?
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 76,113
    .

    Nigelb said:

    Nobody who has experienced an American supermarket wants to allow their god-awful food into the UK.

    Depends which supermarkets.

    And where do you think our almonds come from ?
    American produce is uniformly low quality, compared to Europe, with the exception of seafood (oysters and such).

    I’m not talking about GMO, hydrogenated corn oil, or anything like that. I’m just saying it tastes crap.

    As for packaged food, it’s notably sweeter and saltier and contains god knows what.
    On the whole that’s correct.
    But it’s not quite ‘uniformly’; there are exceptions.
  • bondegezoubondegezou Posts: 13,453
    Nigelb said:

    .

    Nigelb said:

    Nobody who has experienced an American supermarket wants to allow their god-awful food into the UK.

    Depends which supermarkets.

    And where do you think our almonds come from ?
    American produce is uniformly low quality, compared to Europe, with the exception of seafood (oysters and such).

    I’m not talking about GMO, hydrogenated corn oil, or anything like that. I’m just saying it tastes crap.

    As for packaged food, it’s notably sweeter and saltier and contains god knows what.
    On the whole that’s correct.
    But it’s not quite ‘uniformly’; there are exceptions.
    There’s plenty of great food in parts of the US, like New York and San Francisco. Y’know, the bits that don’t vote for Trump.
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 54,561
    Government crackdown on civil servants eating posh American food:

    https://x.com/kateferguson4/status/1908815821909966950

    Greedy civil servants caught trying to buy posh Five Guys burgers on taxpayer-funded card

    Their order was declined - b/c their government credit card was turned off in waste crackdown.

    Cabinet Office froze 20k cards
  • MattWMattW Posts: 26,295
    Commentary from a lefty on the Starmer piece in the Telegraph.

    I'm interested in the speculation that Starmer's "reforms" are something waiting in the wings, for which this has provided an opportunity to instantiate.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWlQ_zTJwiA
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 76,113

    Was the tweet a one off? Or was it part of a pattern of behaviour?

    The sentencing comments at https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/R-v-Lucy-Connolly.pdf describe “other tweets” which made “further racist remarks” sent before and after.
    The report says she deleted the tweet that got her in trouble within 4hrs. I wonder if all the others that were deemed racist were also deleted?
    She shouted fire in a crowded theatre.
    Highly regrettable, but it cannot be tolerated.
    2 years is overly punitive, but there are frankly worthier causes if one is focused on free speech.
    That’s the thing, though.
    Excessive sentencing of unsympathetic characters contributes to the chilling effect on free speech. ‘Worthy’ doesn’t really come into it.

    Given the full circumstances, a custodial sentence is certainly justified, otherwise you’re effectively condoning incitement. But six months would probably have served the same purpose.

    Prompt justice, with shorter sentences, is what we ought to be aiming for anyway.
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 37,790
    How does this guy make it out of the house with his pants on every day?

    @atrupar.com‬

    Lutnick: "The army of millions and millions of human beings screwing in little screws to make iPhones -- that kind of thing is going to come to America."

    https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lm5p4tdc6a2c
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 23,996
    isam said:

    Has anyone here heard of or read anything by Charles Amos? Quite a bizarre character who I first saw on tv defending cousins having children together. I think he has an interesting view on life

    Substack is full of dating advice; rarely, though, is there advice to lonely people on getting more company. I present the market fundamentalist solution: Lonely people should buy company with dinner and drinks.

    https://x.com/mrcharlesamos/status/1908817685770907823?s=46&t=CW4pLmMpTqsJXCdjW0Z6Q

    Advice to Lonely People: Buy Company
    Just friends but not like before


    https://t.co/lgOA9rdX2E

    There are good reasons for preventing cousin marriage: as well as the genetic problems, it also leads to tribal warfare as family groups become dramatically larger. Nuclear families where only the children inherit from the parent are more stable, and cases where only the eldest son inherits ensure that land estates are not broken up over time.
  • TazTaz Posts: 17,262
    Poor old LOLverpool 😂
  • StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 9,634
    MattW said:

    carnforth said:

    AnneJGP said:

    Taz said:

    MattW said:

    Taz said:

    Taz said:

    viewcode said:

    Scott_xP said:

    Mark Carney compares Trumpski torching the US economy to Brexit

    https://x.com/liberal_party/status/1908643764304044132

    The least surprising comment in all this chaos

    In the meantime Starmer is taking the benefit of Brexit by prioritising trade deals with the US, India and Australia
    How is Starmer's post Brexit "deal" with the US going? Ten percent on all imports from the UK compared to zip in the other direction.

    The art of the deal.
    Well it seems Darren Jones on Sky confirms it is a Brexit divided

    And you do not mention the 20% on the EU
    "He is hurting us less than the other guy" does not make it free trade. Somebody who is imposing tariffs on the UK is not interested in free trade.
    So given we apply tariffs to US goods coming into the U.K. presumably we’re not interested in free trade either ?
    One can be interested in free trade while still having other concerns and wanting reciprocity. The test of whether the UK is interested in free trade with the US, and vice versa, is whether we’re moving towards lower tariffs.
    So we’re interested but not interested enough to do anything about it.

    Let’s see what happens.

    I reckon we should just get rid of them and see what happens. Call his bluff.
    As you noted in another post, Trump wants a win. That implies we should negotiate something that looks like a win to him, which might involve dropping our tariffs. Just dropping them unilaterally might not work, however. Where’s the leverage in a future negotiation if we’ve already dropped them?

    The other issue is that there are trade barriers other than tariffs. Trump has said he wants the UK to drop food safety standards. I can see resistance to doing that from UK consumers.
    Lee Anderson's been on that one, citing lettuce.

    I'm not sure if he's checked how many people don't want US needs-to-be-chlorine-washed chicken (off the top of my head: 80-90%) here, and what this does for his attempted populism.

    We'll see how the "patriots" react, and what happens to the different factions of his voting coalition.
    People don’t have to buy chlorinated chicken though. I don’t see the issue. Give the consumer resistance I cannot see it being sold here in numbers to make it worthwhile even if it was allowed.
    Consumer resistance might stop chlorinated chicken being sold directly to supermarket customers but in practice it would be sold to food processing companies instead, and the customer would have no idea what is in their meat pie, kebab or kyev kyiv.
    Such companies are already sourcing the cheapest possible meat. How will pricier chlorinated chicken transported from the US beat that price?
    They'd have to beat £4/kg for brazilian chicken breast:

    https://www.ckfastfoods.com/product/chicken-fillet-brazilian-15kg-seara

    Even UK chicken breasts are only £4.17/kg at retail:

    https://www.iceland.co.uk/p/iceland-chicken-breast-fillets-1.2kg/38563.html
    "Chlorinated Chicken" is a bit of a red herring. It's also about animal welfare, where Europe is ahead of the USA.

    As AI put it when asked for an example:

    "In the UK, litter must be removed and chicken houses cleaned between ocks. In the USA, litter is not always removed between ocks.

    This is an AI typo, and not in Scotland.

    To paraphrase the potato advert - for ocks read flocks.
    One of the most memorable experiences in my life was visiting a coccidiosis vaccine facility in high summer in North Carolina.

    The make the vaccine by collecting chicken shit that falls through the mesh floor and processing the bacteria in it…
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 76,113
    Scott_xP said:

    How does this guy make it out of the house with his pants on every day?

    @atrupar.com‬

    Lutnick: "The army of millions and millions of human beings screwing in little screws to make iPhones -- that kind of thing is going to come to America."

    https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lm5p4tdc6a2c

    Someone that keen on screwing probably doesn’t bother ?
  • AnneJGPAnneJGP Posts: 3,328

    Another clear beer

    Everyone loves it. I’m going to make much more


    For many hobbyists I know, the biggest problem is disposing of the fruit of their labours - model aircraft, hand knitted garments, whatever. It doesn't sound as though that's an issue for the home brewer.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 76,113
    An average of 30 Syrians have been killed *every week* in 2025 by unexploded ordinance (UXO).

    Why? Because #Assad’s regime laid 10,000s across #Syria — like here in Deir ez Zour. Extraordinary video.

    https://x.com/Charles_Lister/status/1908632326189334850
  • noneoftheabovenoneoftheabove Posts: 24,099

    Was the tweet a one off? Or was it part of a pattern of behaviour?

    The sentencing comments at https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/R-v-Lucy-Connolly.pdf describe “other tweets” which made “further racist remarks” sent before and after.
    The report says she deleted the tweet that got her in trouble within 4hrs. I wonder if all the others that were deemed racist were also deleted?
    She shouted fire in a crowded theatre.
    Highly regrettable, but it cannot be tolerated.
    2 years is overly punitive, but there are frankly worthier causes if one is focused on free speech.
    I don't think that analogy is satisfactory.

    If you shout fire in a crowded theatre, everyone who could act on it will hear you. If you make a post on Facebook as a nobody, virtually nobody will see it. There was no tangible link between her post and anyone's actions.
    The sentencing remarks point out her tweet was viewed 310,000 times with 940 re-tweets.
    Should the 940 retweeters not receive the same punishment?
    Only if they also made their response into a banal question.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 26,295
    edited April 6
    Scott_xP said:

    How does this guy make it out of the house with his pants on every day?

    @atrupar.com‬

    Lutnick: "The army of millions and millions of human beings screwing in little screws to make iPhones -- that kind of thing is going to come to America."

    https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lm5p4tdc6a2c

    Are there many little screws in an iPhone? By now it should be heavily integrated and a "click".

    As an Apple Refusenik, I need to be told.

    Has Howard Nutlick explained where he's going to get millions and millions of people from, given that they plan to round everyone up and rendition them abroad?
  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 29,882

    Americans spend a decent percentage of their additional GDP on shit that no European actually wants.

    Crap food.
    Ugly furniture.
    Healthcare bureaucracy.
    Tat from 24 hr shopping channels.

    However they have much bigger houses, and the domestic market is so large that consumer product innovation is more vigorous here.

    America also has 50 states competing with each other. It is like the European Union on steroids.
  • BarnesianBarnesian Posts: 9,034

    Tres said:

    Scott_xP said:

    @atrupar.com‬

    WELKER: The markets lost more than $6 trillion in value. Was this disruption always part of the plan?

    BESSENT: We had record volume on Friday and everything is working very smoothly. So the American people can take great comfort in that.

    https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lm5mvrdqhl2s

    As he pointed out, the top 10% own 88% of the stock market. Why is it a disaster if their paper wealth is marked down?
    is this how you thought your life would turn out william? shilling for ppl who don't give a shit about you
    Who *is* the real William?
    He is perhaps the most mysterious of PB’s perma-trolls.
    William is enjoying himself.
  • edited April 6

    The big difference I always find in the US compared to the UK is I can go anywhere in the UK and I will find a number of choices of supermarket and I can buy a wide range of fresh fruit and veg.

    The US there are so many examples of small towns that Walmart bust all the competition and now its a giant Walmart Mega Store / Sams Club but with f##k all fresh in there. Perhaps if you are lucky there might be a Safeway or Albertsons as your only other option.

    In New Zealand it seemed to be all New World or Woolworth with countless roadside cafes / shoplets sort of like Spar.

    Eating out was the food good / bad ? Generally not bad, portions too large for me. We found the quality of the food was inversely proportional to the number of 60 in TVs you could see from your seat. Because Sterling was high and NZ dollar not recovered from 6 years of Labor food and acommodation was cheap compared with the UK, cheap to very cheap. Didn't try the possum.

  • CookieCookie Posts: 14,728
    MattW said:

    Was the tweet a one off? Or was it part of a pattern of behaviour?

    The sentencing comments at https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/R-v-Lucy-Connolly.pdf describe “other tweets” which made “further racist remarks” sent before and after.
    The report says she deleted the tweet that got her in trouble within 4hrs. I wonder if all the others that were deemed racist were sent around the same time and also deleted, or was this a prolonged behaviour?
    A couple of us have linked it. The main one mentioned:

    At 8.30pm on the 29th July of this year you used the social media platform, then known as Twitter, to publish the following:

    “Mass deportation now, set fire to all the fucking hotels full of the bastards for all I care, while you’re at it take the treacherous government and politicians with them. I feel physically sick knowing what these families will now have to endure. If that makes me racist so be it”

    When you published those words you were well aware of how volatile the situation was. As everyone is aware, that volatility led to serious disorder in a number of areas of the country where mindless violence was used to cause injury and damage to wholly innocent members of the public and to their properties.
    ...
    Your message was widely read – it was viewed 310,000 times with 940 reposts, 58 quotes and 113 bookmarks.
    That's it? She was jailed for two years for that? I've seen Palestinian activists make rather more incendiary comments about Jews without similar repurcussions.

    Your regular reminder that free speech also includes free speech we disapprove of.
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 37,790
    MattW said:

    Are there many little screws in an iPhone? By now it should be heavily integrated and a "click".

    Earlier models had a few.

    What was really cool was although they were the same thread, they were different lengths. If you used a long one by mistake instead of a short one it would damage the components underneath and wreck the phone.

    Ask me how I know...
  • MattWMattW Posts: 26,295
    Barnesian said:

    Tres said:

    Scott_xP said:

    @atrupar.com‬

    WELKER: The markets lost more than $6 trillion in value. Was this disruption always part of the plan?

    BESSENT: We had record volume on Friday and everything is working very smoothly. So the American people can take great comfort in that.

    https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lm5mvrdqhl2s

    As he pointed out, the top 10% own 88% of the stock market. Why is it a disaster if their paper wealth is marked down?
    is this how you thought your life would turn out william? shilling for ppl who don't give a shit about you
    Who *is* the real William?
    He is perhaps the most mysterious of PB’s perma-trolls.
    William is enjoying himself.
    I'd punt for either Just William, or Father William from Lewis Carroll :wink:

    "You are old, father William," the young man said,
    "And your hair has become very white;
    And yet you incessantly stand on your head —
    Do you think, at your age, it is right?"


    https://allpoetry.com/Father-William

  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 76,113
    My favourite tariff debate exchange of the day.
    https://x.com/jonfavs/status/1908872691890733198
  • bigglesbiggles Posts: 6,737
    edited April 6

    Andy_JS said:

    "Mother jailed for Southport X post should be freed, says former prime minister
    Liz Truss says Lucy Connolly was ‘victim of politicised two-tier justice system in Starmer’s Britain’" (£)

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/04/05/lucy-connolly-jailed-southport-tweet-freed-braverman/

    Truss has gone down a MAGA rabbit hole.

    If you think that a 31 month sentence for a Tweet is justifiable, I don't think it's Truss who's down the rabbit hole.
    depends what she tweeted I suppose.
    I would argue it would almost never be justified to imprison someone for tweeting anything at all.

    I can just about conjure up some circumstances that might justify it, but they would involve detailed instructions on how to make a bomb out of common household goods and discussing target selection; and I can’t accept that tweeting something unpleasant, no matter how unpleasant, justifies it.

    We will end up sorting this nonsense out, just unfortunately not before a few hundred people (or all political persuasions) have spent some time playing “hide the soap” at His Majesty’s pleasure.

    Posting on here as we all do, we had better just hope we don’t join them.

    NB: Please before anyone assumes I am a Trump inspired nutter who is drinking Vance’s “free speech” koolaid, stop. This isn’t that. This is proper liberalism. Something we’re losing.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 83,185
    edited April 6

    The big difference I always find in the US compared to the UK is I can go anywhere in the UK and I will find a number of choices of supermarket and I can buy a wide range of fresh fruit and veg.

    The US there are so many examples of small towns that Walmart bust all the competition and now its a giant Walmart Mega Store / Sams Club but with f##k all fresh in there. Perhaps if you are lucky there might be a Safeway or Albertsons as your only other option.

    In New Zealand it seemed to be all New World or Woolworth with countless roadside cafes / shoplets sort of like Spar.

    Eating out was the food good / bad ? Generally not bad, portions too large for me. We found the quality of the food was inversely proportional to the number of 60 in TVs you could see from your seat. Because Sterling was high and NZ dollar not recovered from 6 years of Labor food and acommodation was cheap compared with the UK, cheap to very cheap. Didn't try the possum.

    I have some relatives from NZ and they say that a problem is that many products are in high demand abroad e.g Middle East can't get enough of their lamb, so lots gets exported and what is left, the good stuff is expensive for local people. And stuff that needs importing NZ is a long way from everywhere and the market is tiny compared to even Australia.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 76,113
    MattW said:

    Scott_xP said:

    How does this guy make it out of the house with his pants on every day?

    @atrupar.com‬

    Lutnick: "The army of millions and millions of human beings screwing in little screws to make iPhones -- that kind of thing is going to come to America."

    https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lm5p4tdc6a2c

    Are there many little screws in an iPhone? By now it should be heavily integrated and a "click".

    As an Apple Refusenik, I need to be told.

    Has Howard Nutlick explained where he's going to get millions and millions of people from, given that they plan to round everyone up and rendition them abroad?
    It will be the overnight shift for the guys working in the garment sweatshops during the day.
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 37,790
    Nigelb said:

    MattW said:

    Scott_xP said:

    How does this guy make it out of the house with his pants on every day?

    @atrupar.com‬

    Lutnick: "The army of millions and millions of human beings screwing in little screws to make iPhones -- that kind of thing is going to come to America."

    https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lm5p4tdc6a2c

    Are there many little screws in an iPhone? By now it should be heavily integrated and a "click".

    As an Apple Refusenik, I need to be told.

    Has Howard Nutlick explained where he's going to get millions and millions of people from, given that they plan to round everyone up and rendition them abroad?
    It will be the overnight shift for the guys working in the garment sweatshops during the day.
    @jamellebouie.net‬

    you, a rube: “i want my kid to grow up to be a doctor or an engineer or a teacher”

    lutnick, a genius: “to make america great again your child will make iphones that they will not be able to afford”

    https://bsky.app/profile/jamellebouie.net/post/3lm5pnfz2js22
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 76,113

    Nigelb said:

    .

    Nigelb said:

    Nobody who has experienced an American supermarket wants to allow their god-awful food into the UK.

    Depends which supermarkets.

    And where do you think our almonds come from ?
    American produce is uniformly low quality, compared to Europe, with the exception of seafood (oysters and such).

    I’m not talking about GMO, hydrogenated corn oil, or anything like that. I’m just saying it tastes crap.

    As for packaged food, it’s notably sweeter and saltier and contains god knows what.
    On the whole that’s correct.
    But it’s not quite ‘uniformly’; there are exceptions.
    There’s plenty of great food in parts of the US, like New York and San Francisco. Y’know, the bits that don’t vote for Trump.
    I live in New York, so you can scrub that off your list.

    Yes, I believe the food is better in California.
    But I don’t live there, so I can’t be sure.

    The effect of zero tariffs on US produce would simply be a flooding of the UK with tonnes of shite. Lower income UK consumers might benefit economically (it’s difficult to say, because food prices are also much more expensive in the U.S.), but at the cost of their longevity, and the everyday savouring of quality produce*

    UK food gets a bad reputation, but it is still - mostly - plugged into the European supply chain, and its competitive supermarket delivers quality food and very low prices relative to other rich economies.

    Like Joni Mitchell said, you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.

    *One of those everyday quality of life issues which economists don’t know how to measure.
    My experience is largely California, so I can’t argue with you on that.
  • ChrisChris Posts: 11,892
    Scott_xP said:

    @atrupar.com‬

    WELKER: Trump promised he was going to improve the economy on day one. What's your message to Americans who want to retire and have just seen their lifetime savings drop significantly?

    BESSENT: Most Americans who have put away for years in savings accounts don't look at the day to day fluctuations

    https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lm5nbt7kus2e

    The US Treasury Secretary doesn't understand the difference between savings and investments?
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 37,790
    @atrupar.com‬

    Kevin Hassett on ABC goes from claiming "I don't you're gonna see a big effect on the consumer in the US" to acknowledging that "there might be some increase in prices" within one minute

    https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lm5qa5ybwg2n
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 37,790
    @atrupar.com‬

    STEPHANOPOULOS: The president retweeted a post that said the market drop was part of a deliberate strategy. Is that the president's strategy?

    HASSETT: Heh ha. The bottom line is the president has been talking about tariffs for 40 years. He's allowed to have an opinion.

    S: So that is his strategy.

    https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lm5qjyvzss2o
  • bondegezoubondegezou Posts: 13,453
    edited April 6
    Cookie said:

    MattW said:

    Was the tweet a one off? Or was it part of a pattern of behaviour?

    The sentencing comments at https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/R-v-Lucy-Connolly.pdf describe “other tweets” which made “further racist remarks” sent before and after.
    The report says she deleted the tweet that got her in trouble within 4hrs. I wonder if all the others that were deemed racist were sent around the same time and also deleted, or was this a prolonged behaviour?
    A couple of us have linked it. The main one mentioned:

    At 8.30pm on the 29th July of this year you used the social media platform, then known as Twitter, to publish the following:

    “Mass deportation now, set fire to all the fucking hotels full of the bastards for all I care, while you’re at it take the treacherous government and politicians with them. I feel physically sick knowing what these families will now have to endure. If that makes me racist so be it”

    When you published those words you were well aware of how volatile the situation was. As everyone is aware, that volatility led to serious disorder in a number of areas of the country where mindless violence was used to cause injury and damage to wholly innocent members of the public and to their properties.
    ...
    Your message was widely read – it was viewed 310,000 times with 940 reposts, 58 quotes and 113 bookmarks.
    That's it? She was jailed for two years for that? I've seen Palestinian activists make rather more incendiary comments about Jews without similar repurcussions.

    Your regular reminder that free speech also includes free speech we disapprove of.
    You are free to report said Palestinian activists to the police, if you should so wish. That others get away with crimes is not a reason to go lightly on those who were caught.

    And, no, she has been jailed for one year (40% of 31 months).
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 53,918
    MattW said:

    Scott_xP said:

    How does this guy make it out of the house with his pants on every day?

    @atrupar.com‬

    Lutnick: "The army of millions and millions of human beings screwing in little screws to make iPhones -- that kind of thing is going to come to America."

    https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lm5p4tdc6a2c

    Are there many little screws in an iPhone? By now it should be heavily integrated and a "click".

    As an Apple Refusenik, I need to be told.

    Has Howard Nutlick explained where he's going to get millions and millions of people from, given that they plan to round everyone up and rendition them abroad?
    There’s actually a further issue here.

    For mass automated assembly, screws are bad design. Gluing components into place
    and automated soldering for connections are preferred.

    Screws increase the ability to repay, but have vanished from many small hand held devices.

    IIRC the iPhone is down to a couple of screws at the bottom that hold the external casing together<img
  • StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 9,634

    With regards to the welsh backpacker, what I don't understand is why US ICE took her in the first place.

    She was crossing *into Canada*. If as is being supposed that she needed a work visa to do unpaid housesitting and therefore she was "working" illegally, she would need to be removed from the US.

    But she's at the border. Removing herself.

    The piece highlights a few other examples. Romanian arrested for illegally crossing the US border at the Peace Arch whilst taking a photo of it. Someone else arrested for jogging on the beach.

    Whilst there is definitely some performative cruelty going on by Trump (so that he can boast about how many more illegals he is deporting), this has been going on for a long time.

    There is a way to avoid this - don't go to America.

    Canada refused her entry so she went back to the US. They said “why did Canada refuse entry… ok you were planning to work illegally… so what have you been doing for the last X weeks in the US”?

    The Peace Arch type stuff is odd… you would have thought the normal solution would be “you need to head back 20 yards that way”… unless the media story isn’t quite true…
  • TazTaz Posts: 17,262
    AnneJGP said:

    Another clear beer

    Everyone loves it. I’m going to make much more


    For many hobbyists I know, the biggest problem is disposing of the fruit of their labours - model aircraft, hand knitted garments, whatever. It doesn't sound as though that's an issue for the home brewer.
    I brew 4 batches of beer a year as well,as lots of wine (from cartons and from fruit) and I usually give a sizeable chunk away as I cannot drink it all.
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 37,790

    MattW said:

    Scott_xP said:

    How does this guy make it out of the house with his pants on every day?

    @atrupar.com‬

    Lutnick: "The army of millions and millions of human beings screwing in little screws to make iPhones -- that kind of thing is going to come to America."

    https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lm5p4tdc6a2c

    Are there many little screws in an iPhone? By now it should be heavily integrated and a "click".

    As an Apple Refusenik, I need to be told.

    Has Howard Nutlick explained where he's going to get millions and millions of people from, given that they plan to round everyone up and rendition them abroad?
    There’s actually a further issue here.

    For mass automated assembly, screws are bad design. Gluing components into place
    and automated soldering for connections are preferred.

    Screws increase the ability to repay, but have vanished from many small hand held devices.

    IIRC the iPhone is down to a couple of screws at the bottom that hold the external casing together
    The new Mac Mini (and I assume the Studio and iMacs) have the "hard drives" glued and soldered directly to the motherboard which makes them (almost) impossible to repair or upgrade
  • StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 9,634
    Scott_xP said:

    @atrupar.com‬

    TAPPER: The European Union don't take as much as American pork because they have issues w/ hormones used in pork. It's not an issue about tariffs

    BROOKE ROLLINS: No no no. This is really important. Here's the bottom line. They are using fake science & unsubstantiated claims to not take our products

    https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lm5mhiseyk2e

    It’s to do with the EU application of the precautionary principle. They do tend to overuse it, but in this case they are right.

    One thing that RFK is doing right is going after the GRAS list
  • bigglesbiggles Posts: 6,737

    With regards to the welsh backpacker, what I don't understand is why US ICE took her in the first place.

    She was crossing *into Canada*. If as is being supposed that she needed a work visa to do unpaid housesitting and therefore she was "working" illegally, she would need to be removed from the US.

    But she's at the border. Removing herself.

    The piece highlights a few other examples. Romanian arrested for illegally crossing the US border at the Peace Arch whilst taking a photo of it. Someone else arrested for jogging on the beach.

    Whilst there is definitely some performative cruelty going on by Trump (so that he can boast about how many more illegals he is deporting), this has been going on for a long time.

    There is a way to avoid this - don't go to America.

    Canada refused her entry so she went back to the US. They said “why did Canada refuse entry… ok you were planning to work illegally… so what have you been doing for the last X weeks in the US”?

    The Peace Arch type stuff is odd… you would have thought the normal solution would be “you need to head back 20 yards that way”… unless the media story isn’t quite true…
    I have kayaked down the Rio Grande before, leaving my passport in the hotel to keep it safe, stopped on the Mexican side for a picnic, and then gone back to my hotel in the USA. Not sure I’d be quite so careless today…
  • TazTaz Posts: 17,262

    With regards to the welsh backpacker, what I don't understand is why US ICE took her in the first place.

    She was crossing *into Canada*. If as is being supposed that she needed a work visa to do unpaid housesitting and therefore she was "working" illegally, she would need to be removed from the US.

    But she's at the border. Removing herself.

    The piece highlights a few other examples. Romanian arrested for illegally crossing the US border at the Peace Arch whilst taking a photo of it. Someone else arrested for jogging on the beach.

    Whilst there is definitely some performative cruelty going on by Trump (so that he can boast about how many more illegals he is deporting), this has been going on for a long time.

    There is a way to avoid this - don't go to America.

    Canada refused her entry so she went back to the US. They said “why did Canada refuse entry… ok you were planning to work illegally… so what have you been doing for the last X weeks in the US”?

    The Peace Arch type stuff is odd… you would have thought the normal solution would be “you need to head back 20 yards that way”… unless the media story isn’t quite true…
    It’s been happening for years, I remember a story of someone who went for a run on a beach and ended up in the USA and incarcerated. Also this from a few years ago.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50050467

    Maybe it’s more of a focus now.

    As for Ms Burke in this story, I have little sympathy. Breached the terms of her visa, past issued, lied to ICE.
  • eekeek Posts: 29,588
    edited April 6
    Scott_xP said:

    MattW said:

    Scott_xP said:

    How does this guy make it out of the house with his pants on every day?

    @atrupar.com‬

    Lutnick: "The army of millions and millions of human beings screwing in little screws to make iPhones -- that kind of thing is going to come to America."

    https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lm5p4tdc6a2c

    Are there many little screws in an iPhone? By now it should be heavily integrated and a "click".

    As an Apple Refusenik, I need to be told.

    Has Howard Nutlick explained where he's going to get millions and millions of people from, given that they plan to round everyone up and rendition them abroad?
    There’s actually a further issue here.

    For mass automated assembly, screws are bad design. Gluing components into place
    and automated soldering for connections are preferred.

    Screws increase the ability to repay, but have vanished from many small hand held devices.

    IIRC the iPhone is down to a couple of screws at the bottom that hold the external casing together
    The new Mac Mini (and I assume the Studio and iMacs) have the "hard drives" glued and soldered directly to the motherboard which makes them (almost) impossible to repair or upgrade
    Not true the modern ones have storage that can be upgraded. The problem is that the format used is not standard and the drive has to be unused for the grade to "take" https://expandmacmini.com/
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 76,113
    This sort of thing is how the US (and perhaps the U.K.) should be, and is rebuilding its manufacturing base.
    It has bugger all to do with tariffs. Or sweatshops.

    manufacturing is hard. at @atomic_inc we're building the AWS of mass production. vertically integrated AI-powered factories. how? by building and training AI to make molds better, cheaper, and faster than anyone on earth. an evolution for the american industrial base. thread...
    https://x.com/aphysicist/status/1904647316327588140
  • Daveyboy1961Daveyboy1961 Posts: 4,451
    Cookie said:

    MattW said:

    Was the tweet a one off? Or was it part of a pattern of behaviour?

    The sentencing comments at https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/R-v-Lucy-Connolly.pdf describe “other tweets” which made “further racist remarks” sent before and after.
    The report says she deleted the tweet that got her in trouble within 4hrs. I wonder if all the others that were deemed racist were sent around the same time and also deleted, or was this a prolonged behaviour?
    A couple of us have linked it. The main one mentioned:

    At 8.30pm on the 29th July of this year you used the social media platform, then known as Twitter, to publish the following:

    “Mass deportation now, set fire to all the fucking hotels full of the bastards for all I care, while you’re at it take the treacherous government and politicians with them. I feel physically sick knowing what these families will now have to endure. If that makes me racist so be it”

    When you published those words you were well aware of how volatile the situation was. As everyone is aware, that volatility led to serious disorder in a number of areas of the country where mindless violence was used to cause injury and damage to wholly innocent members of the public and to their properties.
    ...
    Your message was widely read – it was viewed 310,000 times with 940 reposts, 58 quotes and 113 bookmarks.
    That's it? She was jailed for two years for that? I've seen Palestinian activists make rather more incendiary comments about Jews without similar repurcussions.

    Your regular reminder that free speech also includes free speech we disapprove of.
    If Palestinian activists made similar comments in Israel or the USA they'd be either shot by IDF soldiers or rounded up and deported respectively.
  • noneoftheabovenoneoftheabove Posts: 24,099
    Nigelb said:

    This sort of thing is how the US (and perhaps the U.K.) should be, and is rebuilding its manufacturing base.
    It has bugger all to do with tariffs. Or sweatshops.

    manufacturing is hard. at @atomic_inc we're building the AWS of mass production. vertically integrated AI-powered factories. how? by building and training AI to make molds better, cheaper, and faster than anyone on earth. an evolution for the american industrial base. thread...
    https://x.com/aphysicist/status/1904647316327588140

    Yes, but it needs to be accompanied by a wealth tax and universal basic incomes.
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 37,790
    eek said:

    Scott_xP said:

    MattW said:

    Scott_xP said:

    How does this guy make it out of the house with his pants on every day?

    @atrupar.com‬

    Lutnick: "The army of millions and millions of human beings screwing in little screws to make iPhones -- that kind of thing is going to come to America."

    https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lm5p4tdc6a2c

    Are there many little screws in an iPhone? By now it should be heavily integrated and a "click".

    As an Apple Refusenik, I need to be told.

    Has Howard Nutlick explained where he's going to get millions and millions of people from, given that they plan to round everyone up and rendition them abroad?
    There’s actually a further issue here.

    For mass automated assembly, screws are bad design. Gluing components into place
    and automated soldering for connections are preferred.

    Screws increase the ability to repay, but have vanished from many small hand held devices.

    IIRC the iPhone is down to a couple of screws at the bottom that hold the external casing together
    The new Mac Mini (and I assume the Studio and iMacs) have the "hard drives" glued and soldered directly to the motherboard which makes them (almost) impossible to repair or upgrade
    Not true the modern ones have storage that can be upgraded. The problem is that the format used is not standard and the drive has to be unused for the grade to "take" https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005008392402042.html
    That's why I said (almost)

    If you have a hot air desoldering station you can carefully cut the glue and desolder the chips

    But it's not as easy as swapping out a regular SSD
  • PhilPhil Posts: 2,537
    edited April 6



    Are there many little screws in an iPhone? By now it should be heavily integrated and a "click".

    As an Apple Refusenik, I need to be told.

    Has Howard Nutlick explained where he's going to get millions and millions of people from, given that they plan to round everyone up and rendition them abroad?

    There’s actually a further issue here.

    For mass automated assembly, screws are bad design. Gluing components into place
    and automated soldering for connections are preferred.

    Screws increase the ability to repay, but have vanished from many small hand held devices.

    IIRC the iPhone is down to a couple of screws at the bottom that hold the external casing togetherimage
    iPhone 16e has 22 screws total (although I might have miscounted by one or two): https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iPhone+16e+Disassembly/182375

    If Apple could eliminate these screws they would - they’re obsessive about supply chain issues & design for manufacturing. Screws can be good design - they’re far more rigid than glue.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 53,918
    Scott_xP said:

    MattW said:

    Scott_xP said:

    How does this guy make it out of the house with his pants on every day?

    @atrupar.com‬

    Lutnick: "The army of millions and millions of human beings screwing in little screws to make iPhones -- that kind of thing is going to come to America."

    https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lm5p4tdc6a2c

    Are there many little screws in an iPhone? By now it should be heavily integrated and a "click".

    As an Apple Refusenik, I need to be told.

    Has Howard Nutlick explained where he's going to get millions and millions of people from, given that they plan to round everyone up and rendition them abroad?
    There’s actually a further issue here.

    For mass automated assembly, screws are bad design. Gluing components into place
    and automated soldering for connections are preferred.

    Screws increase the ability to repay, but have vanished from many small hand held devices.

    IIRC the iPhone is down to a couple of screws at the bottom that hold the external casing together
    The new Mac Mini (and I assume the Studio and iMacs) have the "hard drives" glued and soldered directly to the motherboard which makes them (almost) impossible to repair or upgrade
    Nearly everything is heading that way. Easier and cheaper to replace whole machines under warranty. More reliable assembly, slimmer and lighter.

    People actually implementing upgrades is a bit like people wanting local, family business. Then driving 5 miles to the largest supermarket.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 83,185
    edited April 6
    Nigelb said:

    This sort of thing is how the US (and perhaps the U.K.) should be, and is rebuilding its manufacturing base.
    It has bugger all to do with tariffs. Or sweatshops.

    manufacturing is hard. at @atomic_inc we're building the AWS of mass production. vertically integrated AI-powered factories. how? by building and training AI to make molds better, cheaper, and faster than anyone on earth. an evolution for the american industrial base. thread...
    https://x.com/aphysicist/status/1904647316327588140

    And the UK government have thrown their lot in with a little known company trying to use AMD GPUs for AI datacentres, using tech that AMD themselves can't make work very well...all while having only raised a few 100 million but promising many billions of investment into the UK.
  • bondegezoubondegezou Posts: 13,453

    Cookie said:

    MattW said:

    Was the tweet a one off? Or was it part of a pattern of behaviour?

    The sentencing comments at https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/R-v-Lucy-Connolly.pdf describe “other tweets” which made “further racist remarks” sent before and after.
    The report says she deleted the tweet that got her in trouble within 4hrs. I wonder if all the others that were deemed racist were sent around the same time and also deleted, or was this a prolonged behaviour?
    A couple of us have linked it. The main one mentioned:

    At 8.30pm on the 29th July of this year you used the social media platform, then known as Twitter, to publish the following:

    “Mass deportation now, set fire to all the fucking hotels full of the bastards for all I care, while you’re at it take the treacherous government and politicians with them. I feel physically sick knowing what these families will now have to endure. If that makes me racist so be it”

    When you published those words you were well aware of how volatile the situation was. As everyone is aware, that volatility led to serious disorder in a number of areas of the country where mindless violence was used to cause injury and damage to wholly innocent members of the public and to their properties.
    ...
    Your message was widely read – it was viewed 310,000 times with 940 reposts, 58 quotes and 113 bookmarks.
    That's it? She was jailed for two years for that? I've seen Palestinian activists make rather more incendiary comments about Jews without similar repurcussions.

    Your regular reminder that free speech also includes free speech we disapprove of.
    If Palestinian activists made similar comments in Israel or the USA they'd be either shot by IDF soldiers or rounded up and deported respectively.
    If Palestinian activists didn't make such comments, they'd still get shot by the IDF.
  • StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 9,634
    Chris said:

    Scott_xP said:

    @atrupar.com‬

    WELKER: Trump promised he was going to improve the economy on day one. What's your message to Americans who want to retire and have just seen their lifetime savings drop significantly?

    BESSENT: Most Americans who have put away for years in savings accounts don't look at the day to day fluctuations

    https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lm5nbt7kus2e

    The US Treasury Secretary doesn't understand the difference between savings and investments?
    No he’s just diverted the question to one he wants to answer

    I haven’t looked at any data so this is an assumption

    Most Americans have relatively limited savings (if any). Much of that is in “savings accounts” which are cash based and not subject to the fluctuations in the stock market

    Of course “lifetime savings” =/= “savings accounts”
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 76,113
    This is pretty obviously a pack of lies.
    The only “mistake” they made was not finding the phone which proved they were lying.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy0xp969n69o
    …Israel's army has admitted its soldiers made mistakes over the killing of 15 emergency workers in southern Gaza on 23 March.
    The convoy of Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) ambulances, a UN car and a fire truck from Gaza's Civil Defence came under fire near Rafah.
    Israel originally claimed troops opened fire because the convoy approached "suspiciously" in darkness without headlights or flashing lights. It said movement of the vehicles had not been previously co-ordinated or agreed with the army.
    Mobile phone footage, filmed by one of the paramedics who was killed, showed the vehicles did have lights on as they answered a call to help wounded people.
    The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) insists at least six of the medics were linked to Hamas - but has so far provided no evidence. It admits they were unarmed when the soldiers opened fire.
    The mobile video, originally shared by the New York Times, shows the vehicles pulling up on the road when, without warning, shooting begins just before dawn.
    The footage continues for more than five minutes, with the paramedic, named as Refat Radwan, heard saying his last prayers before the voices of Israeli soldiers are heard approaching the vehicles.
    An IDF official briefed journalists on Saturday evening, saying the soldiers had earlier fired on a car containing three Hamas members.
    When the ambulances responded and approached the area, aerial surveillance monitors informed the soldiers on the ground of the convoy "advancing suspiciously".
    When the ambulances stopped beside the Hamas car, the soldiers assumed they were under threat and opened fire, despite no evidence any of the emergency team was armed.
    Israel has admitted its earlier account claiming the vehicles approached without lights was inaccurate, attributing the report to the troops involved.
    The video footage shows the vehicles were clearly marked and the paramedics wore reflective hi-vis uniform.
    The soldiers buried the bodies of the 15 dead workers in sand to protect them from wild animals, the official said, claiming the vehicles were moved and buried the following day to clear the road

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