Weekend at Donnie’s – politicalbetting.com
Weekend at Donnie’s – politicalbetting.com
It’s been almost a week since Trump made a public appearance or spoke to the press, apart from being spotted leaving the White House, allegedly on his way to the golf course. This is very unusual. What’s going on? pic.twitter.com/ZCLHyMe20B
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* Not here referring to the Scottish or Welsh Nationalist movements
What to do? COVER. Lets just have someone tweeting in a style almost wholly dissimilar to the boss - nobody will notice. Lets release some photos of him playing golf, video too. Obviously him. Forget that we released these 3 months ago. And now a nice photo of him smiling with a friend at his resort. No that isn't the Mar a Lago carpet. No we haven't badly photoshopped the mirror to hide that its Mar a Lago.
How shit is the White House operation?
Starmer says he will lead Labour at the next election. Never believe anything until it's been officially denied – Jim Hacker. I still expect Starmer to step down early, although I wonder now if Trump's possible retirement will complicate his timing.
Somebody spotted my subtle reference to a film from the 1980s in the headline.
The White House briefing says "The PRESIDENT makes an announcement"
It doesn't say who the president is / will be...
https://unherd.com/newsroom/trump-will-make-penn-station-beautiful-again/
Someone put some kryptonite in his milkshake.
Podbean: https://undercutters.podbean.com/e/f1-2025-dutch-gp-review-and-italian-gp-preview-and-predictions/
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/f1-2025-dutch-gp-review-and-italian-gp-preview/id1786574257?i=1000724509684
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6cXF1emgIM9Qs5dV3Bji5J
Amazon: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/bcfe213b-55fb-408a-a823-dc6693ee9f78/episodes/55272473-3f6e-4d80-8c7d-be415818a6fc/undercutters---f1-podcast-f1-2025-dutch-gp-review-and-italian-gp-preview-and-predictions
Transcript: https://morrisf1.blogspot.com/2025/09/f1-2025-dutch-gp-review-and-italian-gp.html
https://rollcall.com/factbase/trump/topic/calendar/
Oval Office announcements aren't daily things, but the last such was only August 22nd for the National Guard to DC announcement.
Nothing else (yet) on the calendar.
Depending on how that announcement goes, what it is and, indeed, whether it goes ahead, potentially that's when health concerns go from an internet speculation to mainstream, or subside once more.
Set your watches.
I think there’s an indication that the Trump operation has always been about barely controlled chaos, and without the orange talisman it begins to implode. It’ll be interesting (probably not in a good way) to see how long the magic lasts when Trump finally carks it.
It's new central concause is the Moynihan Train Hall: which the city spent about $1.6 billion on, and which opened in January 2021. Complete with a luminous glass roof and grand Beaux‑Arts touches.
Go there.
You'll love it.
It's already beautiful.
Maybe TV news should revert to the old ways and essentially take the summer holidays off.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moynihan_Train_Hall
Is this a good or a bad thing, and is it going to increase or decrease revenue? That will depend on whether Peak trains in Scotland are full or not.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czxp9zl0k90o
The skeptical parrot on my shoulder says that this is the last gasp SNP administration laying an egg for the following administration to deal with, but that would be too cynical surely?
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/style/inside-the-secret-world-of-trumps-bling-tastic-tower/
This is their MAIN headline
“Prominent UK women tell rightwingers: stop linking immigration to sexual abuse”
Shami Chakrabarti and Diane Abbott are among the purse-lipped matrons whacking every right wing erection with a cold metal spoon
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/sep/02/women-stop-linking-asylum-seekers-sexual-abuse
When did the Left lose its Cringe Function? Because it has gone very missing. And it’s a vital resource
Surely though something would have leaked if it had been a major new health scare . So more probable he had treatment for an existing medical condition .
He's a New Urbanist, with a strangely single minded, imo indiscriminate, anti-fetish for modernism, and a bit too much of an enthusiasm for Poundbury. Poundbury is OK in a 1990s sort of "let's discover how it used to be" sort of way, but has it's own problems and is a bit too much cardboard cut out Trumpton.
What has been noticeable in recent years is the increase in intercity buses such as Ember is substantially undercutting the cost of trains and has been growing quite rapidly. Scotrail provides a truly shocking service, internet on their trains is very much the exception as indeed is sockets that actually work. I think, rather than causing problems for the next administration, the cut in fares is an uncharacteristic nod to the economic reality.
Good morning everyone.
- the trial didn't have a huge effect on passenger numbers, so is in effect a cash transfer to current rail commuters. Many trains are maxed out already so you'd really want prices to go up.
- rail commuters tend to be quite high income (only car commuters are richer in Scotland), so it can be framed as a middle class bung
- but these do tend to be younger people working in the big cities, so a slightly unusual reduction in costs for my cohort
- I would guess it will be offset in the long run in an relative increase in off-peak fares, which isn't great for efficiency - rail only realises all its benefits if you maximise passenger numbers
I'd just like it if there were more bike spots. 4 on each Edinburgh - Glasgow train is only 16 per hour.Because this really is a thing. Lefty Cringelordism
Look at Starmer’s latest tweet
“I’m proud of our flag as a patriotic symbol of our nation, like lots of people I’ve proudly got one up at home.
Using our flag to divide devalues it.”
Pure, unadulterated CRINGE
Why 29 you ask?
Cos at 30 their benefits kick in.
DementiaDon, cheap to his last breath...
"Like many Britons, I too enjoy food."
Hadjar and Hulkenberg are tied on 37 each. Hulkenberg has still not reached Q3 this year.
The cringe thing. I also saw this on Bluesky
“I created a list to record prominent posters here who are still very active on X. It's not complete and I'll add to it over time. People have their reasons, but also it's worth knowing who is and who is not contributing to the survival there and the lack of growth here. “
He’s worried about Bluesky dying so he’s made a deeply sinister and cringeworthy list of suspicious people still using X, so that they can be bullied into moving to Bluesky
If his Cringe Module was still operational, he would not have written that ridiculous comment
https://bsky.app/profile/t0nyyates.bsky.social/post/3lxptuxnjk22o
But surely you see the nonsense of trying to stigmatise a whole group of people based on the behaviour of a tiny, tiny, minority? The principle is precisely the same when there are just five of them, and by your logic because one of the elected Reform MPs has previously been convicted of assault against a woman, we are entitled to similarly condemn the lot of them?
“Prime Minister, do you know the price of a pint of milk.”
“No idea, did you before you checked this morning, I’m glad you used your one question for something so important to the country.”
“prime minister, do you like the English flag?”
“Of course I do, it’s a symbol of our country and I’m happy we are free enough for people to fly them if they want to, would you like now to ask about our plan to stave off a debt crisis?”
I think the vast majority of the population would rather this than inane clearly BS answers and after the initial screeching from the media that they can’t control the narrative things would be much better.
The parallels of incompetence, corruption and the spectacular policy failures that will seriously weaken the US for years to come are notable, if not exact. Neither is JD Vance exactly "Silent Cal" - more Spiro Agnew really.
Nevertheless, a century later the United States finds itself once again being challenged by crises at home and overseas. The failure to understand the nature of the Putin regime is a stunning disaster and the consequences could lead to a similar collapse in the global order that began 100 years ago when the US walked away from the League of Nations.
Harding too was regarded as a second rate figure and although his corruption was not obvious in his lifetime, the scale of the scandals that came out after his death were as shocking in the 1920s as the naked grifting of trump in the 2020s.
One other thing of course is that Harding died in office in the second year of his term.
Perhaps the constitution.
His flag obsession is obviously a clunky and failing attempt to win back some Reform voters as he and his party govern from the Guardianista left, but I don't think it will make up for his lack of principles, vision or political judgement.
Not only that, the tweet is so badly written. It uses the word “proud” twice in one sentence. The punctuation is weird. I genuinely suspect his social media team dislike him and are doing this to undermine him. No one could write tweets this bad by mistake
You'd do better to avoid commenting on press coverage of subjects you're not allowed to talk about.
Do you think London subsidising bus fares is laying an egg for next mayor
He can't send a double. He'll be expected to make a speech at the state banquet.
Two weeks at most to wait.
Edit: apparently easier in Scotland because almost all the trains and track are in unified system, unlike you know where.
I'm not sure what other countries do?
In Bristol, where there were 60 arrests, more than two-thirds of those arrested had been the subject of a previous domestic abuse report.
In Hartlepool and Middlesbrough, Cleveland police reported there had been 107 arrests, 44 of whom had been subject to a prior domestic abuse report.
In Rotherham, where rioters set fire to an asylum hotel, 75 people were arrested, 35 of whom had been reported for domestic abuse, South Yorkshire police said.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/jul/26/two-in-five-arrested-for-last-summers-uk-riots-had-been-reported-for-domestic-abuse
There's a fair chance that, whilst there are hideous wrong'uns in all walks of life, women and children are more at risk from the protestors than the protestees.
A former Tory MP who quit the Commons two years ago has reportedly been found dead at the age of 59. David Warburton, the ex-MP for Somerset and Frome, was pronounced dead last week after an ambulance crew attended his Chelsea flat. His death is being treated as unexpected but not suspicious.
It’s an idiot media problem as much as it’s an idiot politician problem, although Starmer has to tread more carefully than most as so many of his voters clearly do dislike the flying of British and English flags, and would happily see them replaced with Pride and Palestine flags.
Starmer is getting there but is not the finished article. Major always gave the impression that he was just slightly one of us and on our side and had accidentally ended up in charge of the country, meeting important despots and declaring war.
Starmer's current form of banality is an act. Major's wasn't, as his brother's great comic work 'Major Major' accidentally discloses.
Another, arguably worst President in US history dying in the first year of his second term has a certain symmetry.
It may well be worse because sexual violence against women is even greater in some countries than it is here. There is plenty of evidence about that.
What we cannot say is that it is only a tiny minority because it is not a tiny minority for men generally. Nor is it a tiny minority of women who suffer these crimes.
It goes without saying that women here should not have to face this risk at all, whether from men here or strangers arriving here without permission. And it should also be part of public policy on this issue to take this into account when deciding on whether such migration should be permitted. Currently public policy seems to be that women should have to put up with this "perceived nuisance", regardless of who commits it.
But several have posted on this.
I fully expect the US to have its Andropov/Chernenko moment.
He has no inner life. He never dreams. He can’t name a favourite book or poem. He’s never wondered if he is extrovert or introvert. He doesn’t understand the concept of “joke” or “funny story”
Ergo he has to fake it to make it. He’s decided that faking a love of flags is his new priority
What Starmer LOVES is rules. Rules make him feel good. The world is ordered. The judge is always right
It's not easy in a world of five second clips and gotchas. But if Starmer can't find the words, he needs someone to find the words for him.
Well I'll go to the foot of our stairs!
There's clearly a conmsistent and heavy bias in the UK (Treasury?) funding analysis model for rail infrastructure investment which consistentlyh underpredicts actual results of investment in terms of increased passengers. E.g. Bathgate line, Tweedside, etc. all got much better than predicted (but, presumably partly for that reason, the Tweedside line was underinvested, in the sense of not being completely doubled ab initio).
Cummins underwent what had been described as a routine scan on his back last week, but it is understood to have revealed a problem that will need his workload to be carefully managed. He has not played since July when Australia beat West Indies and was last week rested for a T20 tour to New Zealand before the Ashes.
Sources are privately admitting the problem is worse than expected and he is a doubt for the start of the Ashes series. Even if fit for the first Test, his workload will need managing throughout the five-match series that starts in Perth on November 21.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2025/09/01/pat-cummins-ashes-injury-doubt-in-hammer-blow-australia/
A quiet morning so far - 86 years ago, it wasn’t so quiet. Had a place like this existed then, what would we have been saying or typing?
In New Zealand, where there are no inter-city or long distance trains, if you want to get from Napier to Wellington (about 170 miles) you have three options. Drive, fly or take the bus. The drive is about four and a half hours, the flight about 90 minutes and the bus six and a half hours. The Premium Economy on the bus one way works out about £30 so competitive with the drive and much cheaper than the plane.
I seem to remember a previous Labour Government being keen on long distance buses as a viable alternative to rail. The cheapest way from London to Penzance is on the bus (as low as £13 for a single nine hour trip). Weekend rail travel is not for the faint hearted in my experience and we clearly need more transport capacity given the rapid return of leisure travel to and indeed above pre-pandemic levels.
You’re right that the wifi was crap though, and the first fast train we intended to get was cancelled, so we upgraded to First as the next one was crazy busy.
An ‘ultracrepidarian’ (19th century) is one who loves to give their opinion, at length, on matters they know nothing about.
(*) Individual parts may, such as Intercity services. As a whole, no.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdGbLzQ40Zg
(ITV news 10 minutes, includes interview with the Deputy Leaders of Warwickshire CC, who is the youngest one.)
Saul Staniforth
@SaulStaniforth
Asked if she's got a flag on display in her home, the Home Secretary says she has Union Jack bunting, St Georges flags, St Georges bunting, and Union Jack flags and tablecloths.
https://x.com/SaulStaniforth/status/1962774325435494899
We don't run the flag up the pole and sing the NA Usonian style every morning after splash, shave and brekkers, that's true.
Wonder what that is.