FPT. Surprised the media are not currently even glancing at the unfolding uprising in Iran, and especially the future ramifications if the brutal Regime there finally falls for this country internally as well as the ending of State funded terrorism in at least three other middle countries as well as for the neighbouring country of Iraq where Iran's prescence has been a huge negative for the stability and progress of that country. The implications for change in the Middle East if this happens are huge.
In local news from Aberdeenshire, I see a major incident was finally declared here, too little and too bloody late after the biggest heaviest dump of snow over a week in my living memory since the late 70s when we were snowed in for a week throughout the whole Spey valley when I was growing up in Aviemore and they had to resort to bringing in essential food supplies by helicopter!
As with Storm Arwen four years ago, it finally took the media to suddenly notice the increasingly dire conditions for the North East in the days and weeks following it before the fecking SNP Government ever noticed or even acknowledged it never mind doing feck all to respond to it!! It should still be a badge of shame for the SNP Government at Holyrood that Boris Johnson in London was the first party Leader to acknowledge the hardship we were experiencing up here without power and who reached out to the people in the North East of Scotland at that time. Like then, we just feel utterly ignored by this central belt focussed SNP Government at Holyrood, and again like then they have failed us as the enormity of this unfolding week long emergency has left us in dire straights, and it should have had them reaching out to the Westminster Government for army back up to help the people of the North East. But the selfish sods would never dream of doing it because of their tribal politics and so they have simple chosen to ignore and leave us to it up here yet again.
There have been people trapped in their homes since New Year and unable to get to the shops even for food essentials, a friend told me about a serious emergency two streets down from them yesterday where a resident needed an ambulance and it took the whole neighbourhood to clear their street of snow enough for the ambulance to get nearby access to the patient and then they had to dig out the ambulance when it got stuck trying to leave to get them back onto the main route again so they could get the patient to Aberdeen!
We finally got out of our driveway yesterday after the brief overnight thaw and we grabbed the chance to get to the nearest 40 mile round trip to a supermarket despite the local roads remaining extemely difficult, needs must! And then only to find there was not even a loaf bread to be had, luckily we managed to get milk, but the shelves were empty of many other usual fresh essential foods. And then we got home and the temperatures dropped again, and then the heavy snow started until the early hours...
Fear not, tonight the snow moves from Scotland into England and Wales, even reaching the Midlands and possibly the Cotswolds; places that even London media folk might know.
I am so angry now, especially as I now have seen and heard of the severe difficulties of so many who have been literally snowed in and unable to get out of their homes since New Year, I did put a brief post up here last weekI highlighting the heavy snow we were experiencing up here and then tumbleweed. I cannot highlight enough what a severe snow event we have experienced up here in Aberdeenshire over the last week and how little outside help or support we have had!!
I have not experieced anything like it since the late 1970s when I was growing up in Aviemore and the whole Spey valley was cut off for a week and you could only manage to walk on the deeply snow impacted main road there to get anywhere because the snow drifts were so big and deep at either side of the road. We also lost power for days, and I still remember one morning waking up and the snow drifts up to our front door and neighbours were so deep we literally had to dig ourselves out of our own homes and we made tunnels in the snow to connect us with us our neighbours to help each other out.
But that was back before Devolution at Holyrood, and I am not exaggerating, there was not only far earlier acknowledgement but also practical help from the then Westminster Government than we have ever seen in recent years during storm Arwen and now this last week. Not going to lie, we have yet again been shocked at how we have been ignored by the SNP Goverment. The Shire was already on its knees with this winter storm on Monday, go google what the SNP Government and the Political lobby at Holyrood were foccusing on and reporting on Monday when people in Aberdeenshire were already trapped in their homes since New Year after a three day amber of heavy snow...
I went skiing in Aviemore in the 70s as a kid. None of us had skied before, and my cousin badly broke his leg within 30sec of first getting on his skis at the top of the slope. Pretty good holiday for the rest of us, though.
Trying to see the local GPs in Aviemore at their surgery during the ski season from when they opened usually meant your appointment was far too often delayed or bumped to another day if not an emergency due to them having to deal with the emergency incoming injuries from the Cairngorm ski slopes from the minute they opened in the morning. More often than not, these patients were then dispatched to Inverness to have an X-ray and be assessed there.
But a funny story, I arrived home for a holiday as a student just as I was was struggling with a severe chest infection and being asthmatic it made it harder and my Mum immediately made me an appointment to see my one of my childhood GPs on the day they finally got their own X-ray machine in the surgery as it went active and yes, I was the first person to use it as I had chest X-rays done in my local surgery as my GP was so desperate to try it out..
Harry Brook clashed with nightclub bouncer hours before captaining England
Exclusive: Brook is on his final warning after incident where he was struck by nightclub bouncer in build-up to the Ashes
Harry Brook is on a final warning about his conduct after a late-night altercation with a bouncer just hours before captaining England on the tour that preceded the Ashes.
Telegraph Sport can reveal that:
Brook was close to being sacked as white-ball captain after an investigation by the team’s management
He was struck by a bouncer who would not allow him into a nightclub
Brook was fined around £30,000, the maximum amount possible by the ECB, for the incident
England’s conduct during the Ashes, which started shortly after the tour to New Zealand, has been heavily criticised – in particular a mid-series holiday to Noosa where players, including Brook, were pictured drinking.
To my eye the officer could have stepped out of the way, on top of the vehicle moving round him at a modest speed, rather than stand and shoot through the windscreen.
I think there is a cultural issue around aspects of the US policing, and various legal and organisational loopholes that facilitate it far too easily.
There is no legal justification for that shooting. A number of lawyers have already opined.
Including ones who defend cops involved in shootings for a living.
Adam Cochran (adamscochran.eth) @adamscochran · 5h Spoke on background with two attorneys who have defended officer involved shootings.
Both have always taken their cases to trial.
After reviewing the events today, both said if it were their client they’d advise:
-Seek a plea deal -Be willing to plead guilty to a lesser crime or a lower sentence -Accept anything that isn’t de jure LWOP (life with out parole)
In other words, the guys who defend police officers shooting for a living, think this case is unwinnable.
They would try to defend his actions, they’d just try and lower the impact of the outcome.
Their main sticking point were:
-“I could argue shot number one and hope for an acquittal or a hung jury - but I can’t get there on shots 2 and 3”
-“A jury will not get passed the turning of the wheels”
-“Denying medics throws self defense out the window”
To my eye the officer could have stepped out of the way, on top of the vehicle moving round him at a modest speed, rather than stand and shoot through the windscreen.
I think there is a cultural issue around aspects of the US policing, and various legal and organisational loopholes that facilitate it far too easily.
There is no legal justification for that shooting. A number of lawyers have already opined.
Including ones who defend cops involved in shootings for a living.
Adam Cochran (adamscochran.eth) @adamscochran · 5h Spoke on background with two attorneys who have defended officer involved shootings.
Both have always taken their cases to trial.
After reviewing the events today, both said if it were their client they’d advise:
-Seek a plea deal -Be willing to plead guilty to a lesser crime or a lower sentence -Accept anything that isn’t de jure LWOP (life with out parole)
In other words, the guys who defend police officers shooting for a living, think this case is unwinnable.
They would try to defend his actions, they’d just try and lower the impact of the outcome.
Their main sticking point were:
-“I could argue shot number one and hope for an acquittal or a hung jury - but I can’t get there on shots 2 and 3”
-“A jury will not get passed the turning of the wheels”
-“Denying medics throws self defense out the window”
Polymarket appear to have learnt from the Betfair playbook. This is why I personally would no longer bet serious money with a betting exchange. They are as likely as any Insurance Company to try and wriggle out of of paying up on a winner.
Polymarket (or rather their program on the blockchain, they don't hold the stakes themselves) will have to pay the one side or the other, so "wriggle out of paying up" doesn't really describe what they could do.
However the tricksy part with Polymarket is that they reserve the right to redefine the terms of the market whenever they like, and presumably some insiders in Polymarket know when they're going to do this before they do it.
FPT. Surprised the media are not currently even glancing at the unfolding uprising in Iran, and especially the future ramifications if the brutal Regime there finally falls for this country internally as well as the ending of State funded terrorism in at least three other middle countries as well as for the neighbouring country of Iraq where Iran's prescence has been a huge negative for the stability and progress of that country. The implications for change in the Middle East if this happens are huge.
In local news from Aberdeenshire, I see a major incident was finally declared here, too little and too bloody late after the biggest heaviest dump of snow over a week in my living memory since the late 70s when we were snowed in for a week throughout the whole Spey valley when I was growing up in Aviemore and they had to resort to bringing in essential food supplies by helicopter!
As with Storm Arwen four years ago, it finally took the media to suddenly notice the increasingly dire conditions for the North East in the days and weeks following it before the fecking SNP Government ever noticed or even acknowledged it never mind doing feck all to respond to it!! It should still be a badge of shame for the SNP Government at Holyrood that Boris Johnson in London was the first party Leader to acknowledge the hardship we were experiencing up here without power and who reached out to the people in the North East of Scotland at that time. Like then, we just feel utterly ignored by this central belt focussed SNP Government at Holyrood, and again like then they have failed us as the enormity of this unfolding week long emergency has left us in dire straights, and it should have had them reaching out to the Westminster Government for army back up to help the people of the North East. But the selfish sods would never dream of doing it because of their tribal politics and so they have simple chosen to ignore and leave us to it up here yet again.
There have been people trapped in their homes since New Year and unable to get to the shops even for food essentials, a friend told me about a serious emergency two streets down from them yesterday where a resident needed an ambulance and it took the whole neighbourhood to clear their street of snow enough for the ambulance to get nearby access to the patient and then they had to dig out the ambulance when it got stuck trying to leave to get them back onto the main route again so they could get the patient to Aberdeen!
We finally got out of our driveway yesterday after the brief overnight thaw and we grabbed the chance to get to the nearest 40 mile round trip to a supermarket despite the local roads remaining extemely difficult, needs must! And then only to find there was not even a loaf bread to be had, luckily we managed to get milk, but the shelves were empty of many other usual fresh essential foods. And then we got home and the temperatures dropped again, and then the heavy snow started until the early hours...
Fear not, tonight the snow moves from Scotland into England and Wales, even reaching the Midlands and possibly the Cotswolds; places that even London media folk might know.
I am so angry now, especially as I now have seen and heard of the severe difficulties of so many who have been literally snowed in and unable to get out of their homes since New Year, I did put a brief post up here last weekI highlighting the heavy snow we were experiencing up here and then tumbleweed. I cannot highlight enough what a severe snow event we have experienced up here in Aberdeenshire over the last week and how little outside help or support we have had!!
I have not experieced anything like it since the late 1970s when I was growing up in Aviemore and the whole Spey valley was cut off for a week and you could only manage to walk on the deeply snow impacted main road there to get anywhere because the snow drifts were so big and deep at either side of the road. We also lost power for days, and I still remember one morning waking up and the snow drifts up to our front door and neighbours were so deep we literally had to dig ourselves out of our own homes and we made tunnels in the snow to connect us with us our neighbours to help each other out.
But that was back before Devolution at Holyrood, and I am not exaggerating, there was not only far earlier acknowledgement but also practical help from the then Westminster Government than we have ever seen in recent years during storm Arwen and now this last week. Not going to lie, we have yet again been shocked at how we have been ignored by the SNP Goverment. The Shire was already on its knees with this winter storm on Monday, go google what the SNP Government and the Political lobby at Holyrood were foccusing on and reporting on Monday when people in Aberdeenshire were already trapped in their homes since New Year after a three day amber of heavy snow...
I went skiing in Aviemore in the 70s as a kid. None of us had skied before, and my cousin badly broke his leg within 30sec of first getting on his skis at the top of the slope. Pretty good holiday for the rest of us, though.
Trying to see the local GPs in Aviemore at their surgery during the ski season from when they opened usually meant your appointment was far too often delayed or bumped to another day if not an emergency due to them having to deal with the emergency incoming injuries from the Cairngorm ski slopes from the minute they opened in the morning. More often than not, these patients were then dispatched to Inverness to have an X-ray and be assessed there.
But a funny story, I arrived home for a holiday as a student just as I was was struggling with a severe chest infection and being asthmatic it made it harder and my Mum immediately made me an appointment to see my one of my childhood GPs on the day they finally got their own X-ray machine in the surgery as it went active and yes, I was the first person to use it as I had chest X-rays done in my local surgery as my GP was so desperate to try it out..
Cracking story.
Speaking of which, I can still clearly picture my cousin pointing his skis downhill, rapidly picking up speed, briefly disappearing, reappearing as he hit a mogul and went airborne, and disappearing again accompanied by an audible crack.
To my eye the officer could have stepped out of the way, on top of the vehicle moving round him at a modest speed, rather than stand and shoot through the windscreen.
I think there is a cultural issue around aspects of the US policing, and various legal and organisational loopholes that facilitate it far too easily.
There is no legal justification for that shooting. A number of lawyers have already opined.
Including ones who defend cops involved in shootings for a living.
Adam Cochran (adamscochran.eth) @adamscochran · 5h Spoke on background with two attorneys who have defended officer involved shootings.
Both have always taken their cases to trial.
After reviewing the events today, both said if it were their client they’d advise:
-Seek a plea deal -Be willing to plead guilty to a lesser crime or a lower sentence -Accept anything that isn’t de jure LWOP (life with out parole)
In other words, the guys who defend police officers shooting for a living, think this case is unwinnable.
They would try to defend his actions, they’d just try and lower the impact of the outcome.
Their main sticking point were:
-“I could argue shot number one and hope for an acquittal or a hung jury - but I can’t get there on shots 2 and 3”
-“A jury will not get passed the turning of the wheels”
-“Denying medics throws self defense out the window”
“ PC Cliff Mitchell applied to join the Met in 2020, but the vetting process flagged up a previous allegation of raping a child in 2017, and his application was rejected.
However, a vetting panel, made up partly of senior officers, overturned the decision because the force wanted to improve the number of officers from ethnic minorities.
PC Mitchell went on to carry out a “campaign of rape” against two victims, including a child under the age of 13, while he was a serving officer.
He is one of 131 officers and staff at the Met who were not properly vetted and went on to commit criminal offences and misconduct.”
With Trump's SA goons murdering that woman and people defending the SA, I do wonder if we're rapidly approaching the tipping point. "Get the fuck out of" our city vs SA goons literally shooting people in the head.
You know that 2nd Amendment? That it mentions militias? Now would be an opportune moment for militias to be formed, to defend themselves against the SA goons murdering people in the street.
The Mayor made a comment about mobilising the Minnesota National Guard to protect against ICE
The point where State and Federal police start fighting each other, is the point at which talk of C**** W** gets going.
Minnesota could well be the epicentre. There is fury about the fraud that’s been uncovered, much of it linked to immigrant communities. There’s also fury about the heavyhandedness of Federal police, and incidents such as we saw yesterday.
You also have a Governor who’s incredibly bitter at his deserved fall from grace and has little to lose really.
To my eye the officer could have stepped out of the way, on top of the vehicle moving round him at a modest speed, rather than stand and shoot through the windscreen.
I think there is a cultural issue around aspects of the US policing, and various legal and organisational loopholes that facilitate it far too easily.
There is no legal justification for that shooting. A number of lawyers have already opined.
Including ones who defend cops involved in shootings for a living.
Adam Cochran (adamscochran.eth) @adamscochran · 5h Spoke on background with two attorneys who have defended officer involved shootings.
Both have always taken their cases to trial.
After reviewing the events today, both said if it were their client they’d advise:
-Seek a plea deal -Be willing to plead guilty to a lesser crime or a lower sentence -Accept anything that isn’t de jure LWOP (life with out parole)
In other words, the guys who defend police officers shooting for a living, think this case is unwinnable.
They would try to defend his actions, they’d just try and lower the impact of the outcome.
Their main sticking point were:
-“I could argue shot number one and hope for an acquittal or a hung jury - but I can’t get there on shots 2 and 3”
-“A jury will not get passed the turning of the wheels”
-“Denying medics throws self defense out the window”
I won’t apologise for lifting almost half a million children out of poverty.
I won’t apologise for putting money back in people’s pockets.
That's why we are scrapping the two-child limit.
Whoever is running social media in No.10 appears to be living in a very big bubble, scheduling posts well in advance and ignoring what’s actually going on in the real world.
The money is being taken out of the pockets of working people and handed over to the feckless to buy booze and fags.
So the interesting thing about these purported Iranian videos is - compared to the ones we saw from Syria and others - just how few 'Allahu Akbars' there are in the crowds chants. It suggests a different base mindset to the protestors.
To my eye the officer could have stepped out of the way, on top of the vehicle moving round him at a modest speed, rather than stand and shoot through the windscreen.
I think there is a cultural issue around aspects of the US policing, and various legal and organisational loopholes that facilitate it far too easily.
There is no legal justification for that shooting. A number of lawyers have already opined.
Including ones who defend cops involved in shootings for a living.
Adam Cochran (adamscochran.eth) @adamscochran · 5h Spoke on background with two attorneys who have defended officer involved shootings.
Both have always taken their cases to trial.
After reviewing the events today, both said if it were their client they’d advise:
-Seek a plea deal -Be willing to plead guilty to a lesser crime or a lower sentence -Accept anything that isn’t de jure LWOP (life with out parole)
In other words, the guys who defend police officers shooting for a living, think this case is unwinnable.
They would try to defend his actions, they’d just try and lower the impact of the outcome.
Their main sticking point were:
-“I could argue shot number one and hope for an acquittal or a hung jury - but I can’t get there on shots 2 and 3”
-“A jury will not get passed the turning of the wheels”
-“Denying medics throws self defense out the window”
How about advising to get the case heard in Florida?
This kind of discussion seems strangely quaint now with the presidential pardon.
A preemptive presidential pardon only applies to federal crimes, would this be classified as state or fed? I think there's a non-zero chance of nothing happening, particularly after Trump & Noem already defining the event as domestic terrorism and 'our brave officer barely escaping with his life'.
I haven't commented on the ICE shooting as I hadn't seen the footage but Sky have played the footage from two angles and I cannot understand how anyone can excuse the ICE officer
He may well have panicked, but his action was inexcusable
“ PC Cliff Mitchell applied to join the Met in 2020, but the vetting process flagged up a previous allegation of raping a child in 2017, and his application was rejected.
However, a vetting panel, made up partly of senior officers, overturned the decision because the force wanted to improve the number of officers from ethnic minorities.
PC Mitchell went on to carry out a “campaign of rape” against two victims, including a child under the age of 13, while he was a serving officer.
He is one of 131 officers and staff at the Met who were not properly vetted and went on to commit criminal offences and misconduct.”
Oligarch linked to bribery paid Andrew £15m for mansion
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor received millions of pounds from an oligarch using funds from a firm implicated in criminal corruption, a BBC investigation has found.
Kazakh billionaire Timur Kulibayev has told the BBC through his lawyers that he used a loan from a company called Enviro Pacific Investments to help him buy Andrew's former mansion.
Prosecutors in Italy concluded that the firm had received cash from a bribery scheme in 2007.
Weeks after the last of these payments was made, the oligarch bought Sunninghill Park in Berkshire from the then prince for £15m - with the help of funds from Enviro Pacific.
Kulibayev is the son-in-law of Kazakhstan's then-president and was one of the most influential officials in the central Asian country's oil and gas industry. The BBC has also learned that, in another case, an Italian businessman pleaded guilty to bribing the oligarch.
Kulibayev's lawyers told us he has never engaged in bribery or corruption, and the funds used to acquire Sunninghill Park were entirely legitimate.
The revelations raise questions about whether the then-prince may have inadvertently benefited from the proceeds of crime and whether he and his advisers conducted the proper checks required by law to avoid this.
Money laundering expert Tom Keatinge, director of the Centre for Finance and Security, said the deal had "blatant red flags" which should have prompted detailed checks to ensure it was not "helping to launder the proceeds of corruption".
Kulibayev reportedly paid £3m more than the asking price and an estimated £7m more than the property's market value.
With Trump's SA goons murdering that woman and people defending the SA, I do wonder if we're rapidly approaching the tipping point. "Get the fuck out of" our city vs SA goons literally shooting people in the head.
You know that 2nd Amendment? That it mentions militias? Now would be an opportune moment for militias to be formed, to defend themselves against the SA goons murdering people in the street.
The Mayor made a comment about mobilising the Minnesota National Guard to protect against ICE
The point where State and Federal police start fighting each other, is the point at which talk of C**** W** gets going.
Minnesota could well be the epicentre. There is fury about the fraud that’s been uncovered, much of it linked to immigrant communities. There’s also fury about the heavyhandedness of Federal police, and incidents such as we saw yesterday.
You also have a Governor who’s incredibly bitter at his deserved fall from grace and has little to lose really.
It’s not too difficult to imagine, if the events in Minnesota of the last couple of weeks had been in the middle of summer, to see two large opposing groups of ‘protestors’ in the streets of Minneapolis by now.
Somehow the situation needs to be defused, but it’s difficult to see how it doesn’t get worse before it gets better. Potentially a lot worse.
Oligarch linked to bribery paid Andrew £15m for mansion
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor received millions of pounds from an oligarch using funds from a firm implicated in criminal corruption, a BBC investigation has found.
Kazakh billionaire Timur Kulibayev has told the BBC through his lawyers that he used a loan from a company called Enviro Pacific Investments to help him buy Andrew's former mansion.
Prosecutors in Italy concluded that the firm had received cash from a bribery scheme in 2007.
Weeks after the last of these payments was made, the oligarch bought Sunninghill Park in Berkshire from the then prince for £15m - with the help of funds from Enviro Pacific.
Kulibayev is the son-in-law of Kazakhstan's then-president and was one of the most influential officials in the central Asian country's oil and gas industry. The BBC has also learned that, in another case, an Italian businessman pleaded guilty to bribing the oligarch.
Kulibayev's lawyers told us he has never engaged in bribery or corruption, and the funds used to acquire Sunninghill Park were entirely legitimate.
The revelations raise questions about whether the then-prince may have inadvertently benefited from the proceeds of crime and whether he and his advisers conducted the proper checks required by law to avoid this.
Money laundering expert Tom Keatinge, director of the Centre for Finance and Security, said the deal had "blatant red flags" which should have prompted detailed checks to ensure it was not "helping to launder the proceeds of corruption".
Kulibayev reportedly paid £3m more than the asking price and an estimated £7m more than the property's market value.
With Trump's SA goons murdering that woman and people defending the SA, I do wonder if we're rapidly approaching the tipping point. "Get the fuck out of" our city vs SA goons literally shooting people in the head.
You know that 2nd Amendment? That it mentions militias? Now would be an opportune moment for militias to be formed, to defend themselves against the SA goons murdering people in the street.
The Mayor made a comment about mobilising the Minnesota National Guard to protect against ICE
The point where State and Federal police start fighting each other, is the point at which talk of C**** W** gets going.
Minnesota could well be the epicentre. There is fury about the fraud that’s been uncovered, much of it linked to immigrant communities. There’s also fury about the heavyhandedness of Federal police, and incidents such as we saw yesterday.
You also have a Governor who’s incredibly bitter at his deserved fall from grace and has little to lose really.
Trying to get to the truth of what is allegedly happening in Minnesota is far from easy given the mountains of propaganda and oceans of misinformation (why one is solid, the other liquid I don't know).
The alleged fraud needs to be investigated and interestingly there's not been much said about the huge levels of fraud arising from Sunak's initial furlough scheme here. Whether the American fraud is as systemic and endemic as Republicans claim is debatable and I'm sure, if it were so, it would be in Republican states as well.
I imagine the due diligence failed in Minnesota (as it did here) because of the sheer numbers of claims which overwhelmed the bureaucracy. As far as Walz is concerned, it does seem like a bit of a personal vendetta from Trump and Vance.
“ PC Cliff Mitchell applied to join the Met in 2020, but the vetting process flagged up a previous allegation of raping a child in 2017, and his application was rejected.
However, a vetting panel, made up partly of senior officers, overturned the decision because the force wanted to improve the number of officers from ethnic minorities.
PC Mitchell went on to carry out a “campaign of rape” against two victims, including a child under the age of 13, while he was a serving officer.
He is one of 131 officers and staff at the Met who were not properly vetted and went on to commit criminal offences and misconduct.”
Oligarch linked to bribery paid Andrew £15m for mansion
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor received millions of pounds from an oligarch using funds from a firm implicated in criminal corruption, a BBC investigation has found.
Kazakh billionaire Timur Kulibayev has told the BBC through his lawyers that he used a loan from a company called Enviro Pacific Investments to help him buy Andrew's former mansion.
Prosecutors in Italy concluded that the firm had received cash from a bribery scheme in 2007.
Weeks after the last of these payments was made, the oligarch bought Sunninghill Park in Berkshire from the then prince for £15m - with the help of funds from Enviro Pacific.
Kulibayev is the son-in-law of Kazakhstan's then-president and was one of the most influential officials in the central Asian country's oil and gas industry. The BBC has also learned that, in another case, an Italian businessman pleaded guilty to bribing the oligarch.
Kulibayev's lawyers told us he has never engaged in bribery or corruption, and the funds used to acquire Sunninghill Park were entirely legitimate.
The revelations raise questions about whether the then-prince may have inadvertently benefited from the proceeds of crime and whether he and his advisers conducted the proper checks required by law to avoid this.
Money laundering expert Tom Keatinge, director of the Centre for Finance and Security, said the deal had "blatant red flags" which should have prompted detailed checks to ensure it was not "helping to launder the proceeds of corruption".
Kulibayev reportedly paid £3m more than the asking price and an estimated £7m more than the property's market value.
I haven't commented on the ICE shooting as I hadn't seen the footage but Sky have played the footage from two angles and I cannot understand how anyone can excuse the ICE officer
He may well have panicked, but his action was inexcusable
US really is the Wild West
I think Topping summed it up well. My comment last night was that it looked like, from the tyre positioning, she was trying to go past the official. However we will see.
Still, PB has now pivoted its mass expertise onto the US state and federal legal system, ably aided by Chat GPT.
It has already been deemed murder by people not even there, and there have been no charges laid yet.
I look forward to further informed, incisive, commentary on this incident which from some of the stuff I’ve seen on Twitter about traffic cops is rather common.
With Trump's SA goons murdering that woman and people defending the SA, I do wonder if we're rapidly approaching the tipping point. "Get the fuck out of" our city vs SA goons literally shooting people in the head.
You know that 2nd Amendment? That it mentions militias? Now would be an opportune moment for militias to be formed, to defend themselves against the SA goons murdering people in the street.
The Mayor made a comment about mobilising the Minnesota National Guard to protect against ICE
The point where State and Federal police start fighting each other, is the point at which talk of C**** W** gets going.
Minnesota could well be the epicentre. There is fury about the fraud that’s been uncovered, much of it linked to immigrant communities. There’s also fury about the heavyhandedness of Federal police, and incidents such as we saw yesterday.
You also have a Governor who’s incredibly bitter at his deserved fall from grace and has little to lose really.
It’s not too difficult to imagine, if the events in Minnesota of the last couple of weeks had been in the middle of summer, to see two large opposing groups of ‘protestors’ in the streets of Minneapolis by now.
Somehow the situation needs to be defused, but it’s difficult to see how it doesn’t get worse before it gets better. Potentially a lot worse.
The situation could be defused very quickly by doing what is entirely standard in the UK: remove the offending office from duty and open an independent investigation into the shooting.
Polymarket appear to have learnt from the Betfair playbook. This is why I personally would no longer bet serious money with a betting exchange. They are as likely as any Insurance Company to try and wriggle out of of paying up on a winner.
I don’t think there’s any wriggling going on here. The US has not invaded Venezuela. They did a very successful snatch and grab operation, but they have not remained in the country, they are not occupying any territory, they’re not in control of anywhere. It’s not an invasion.
Only slightly complicated by President Trump claiming he now runs the gaff.
With Trump's SA goons murdering that woman and people defending the SA, I do wonder if we're rapidly approaching the tipping point. "Get the fuck out of" our city vs SA goons literally shooting people in the head.
You know that 2nd Amendment? That it mentions militias? Now would be an opportune moment for militias to be formed, to defend themselves against the SA goons murdering people in the street.
The Mayor made a comment about mobilising the Minnesota National Guard to protect against ICE
The point where State and Federal police start fighting each other, is the point at which talk of C**** W** gets going.
Minnesota could well be the epicentre. There is fury about the fraud that’s been uncovered, much of it linked to immigrant communities. There’s also fury about the heavyhandedness of Federal police, and incidents such as we saw yesterday.
You also have a Governor who’s incredibly bitter at his deserved fall from grace and has little to lose really.
It’s not too difficult to imagine, if the events in Minnesota of the last couple of weeks had been in the middle of summer, to see two large opposing groups of ‘protestors’ in the streets of Minneapolis by now.
Somehow the situation needs to be defused, but it’s difficult to see how it doesn’t get worse before it gets better. Potentially a lot worse.
This is perfect for Trump. Foster a full-blown insurrection by "domestic terrorists". Restore order through force. And - shock horror - some of the people who organise elections in these fallen cities are seditious traitors.
Remove the elections and remove the threat of losing. Simples.
I have little doubt that we are going to see angry protestors out on the streets being literally murdered in front of the cameras, and fascism fans will continue to justify it.
So the interesting thing about these purported Iranian videos is - compared to the ones we saw from Syria and others - just how few 'Allahu Akbars' there are in the crowds chants. It suggests a different base mindset to the protestors.
Could be a language & culture thing? Persian vs Arabic. I’m not sure whether Farsi speakers (or indeed Shias) routinely say Allahu Akbar.
So the interesting thing about these purported Iranian videos is - compared to the ones we saw from Syria and others - just how few 'Allahu Akbars' there are in the crowds chants. It suggests a different base mindset to the protestors.
Could be a language & culture thing? Persian vs Arabic. I’m not sure whether Farsi speakers (or indeed Shias) routinely say Allahu Akbar.
That's entirely possible. I was just trying to work out why they felt different to other videos we've seen from predominantly Muslim protesters in the M.E. and North Africa over the last few decades.
So far the US government has: 1. Raided another country to kidnap its president 2. Threatened to invade a fellow NATO country 3. Sent its vigilantes to a major city to murder random civilians
It's only the 8 January. Is their shit going to continue at the same pace for the rest of 2026?
So far the US government has: 1. Raided another country to kidnap its president 2. Threatened to invade a fellow NATO country 3. Sent its vigilantes to a major city to murder random civilians
It's only the 8 January. Is their shit going to continue at the same pace for the rest of 2026?
Yes, or at an even greater pace. It's a ratings war with only one participant.
Due to it's massive houses, industry and penchant for inefficient yet powerful consumer goods (Incl cars) it's a net oil consumer rather than producer so lower oil prices will benefit it in the round.
So far the US government has: 1. Raided another country to kidnap its president 2. Threatened to invade a fellow NATO country 3. Sent its vigilantes to a major city to murder random civilians
It's only the 8 January. Is their shit going to continue at the same pace for the rest of 2026?
Yes, or at an even greater pace. It's a ratings war with only one participant.
He tends to operate in shortish bursts followed by a period of *relative* quiet though. The periods of relative quiet allow the rest of the world to normalise his behaviour and prevent any meaningful escalation.
To my eye the officer could have stepped out of the way, on top of the vehicle moving round him at a modest speed, rather than stand and shoot through the windscreen.
I think there is a cultural issue around aspects of the US policing, and various legal and organisational loopholes that facilitate it far too easily.
There is no legal justification for that shooting. A number of lawyers have already opined.
Including ones who defend cops involved in shootings for a living.
Adam Cochran (adamscochran.eth) @adamscochran · 5h Spoke on background with two attorneys who have defended officer involved shootings.
Both have always taken their cases to trial.
After reviewing the events today, both said if it were their client they’d advise:
-Seek a plea deal -Be willing to plead guilty to a lesser crime or a lower sentence -Accept anything that isn’t de jure LWOP (life with out parole)
In other words, the guys who defend police officers shooting for a living, think this case is unwinnable.
They would try to defend his actions, they’d just try and lower the impact of the outcome.
Their main sticking point were:
-“I could argue shot number one and hope for an acquittal or a hung jury - but I can’t get there on shots 2 and 3”
-“A jury will not get passed the turning of the wheels”
-“Denying medics throws self defense out the window”
Yes I'm sure it was unjustified. I have already given you the statistical summary of right/wrong (40%/60%). So if it goes to trial he will be suitably dealt with.
But those "main sticking points" are a bit weird.
"Shot one...[vs].. shots 2 and 3" What? If you are drawing your weapon you are using it to full effect. Or is this one of those "why didn't they shoot to wound the mad axeman he wasn't hurting anyone" type situations.
Also the turning of the wheels. The guy in front of the car couldn't see and arguably shouldn't have been looking at the wheels. He was looking at the vehicle approaching him in what he thought was the use of a vehicle as a lethal weapon.
No idea how denying medics adds anything to the act itself for the individual, although it would presumably make a difference on an institutional level.
So the interesting thing about these purported Iranian videos is - compared to the ones we saw from Syria and others - just how few 'Allahu Akbars' there are in the crowds chants. It suggests a different base mindset to the protestors.
Could be a language & culture thing? Persian vs Arabic. I’m not sure whether Farsi speakers (or indeed Shias) routinely say Allahu Akbar.
That's entirely possible. I was just trying to work out why they felt different to other videos we've seen from predominantly Muslim protesters in the M.E. and North Africa over the last few decades.
In many cases protestors are Islamists who think the government is not strict enough. In Iran, most protestors want less religion.
Meanwhile, Venezuela has been arresting people who celebrated Maduro's capture. So, is Trump in charge and he doesn't care? Or is Trump not remotely in charge?
So the interesting thing about these purported Iranian videos is - compared to the ones we saw from Syria and others - just how few 'Allahu Akbars' there are in the crowds chants. It suggests a different base mindset to the protestors.
Could be a language & culture thing? Persian vs Arabic. I’m not sure whether Farsi speakers (or indeed Shias) routinely say Allahu Akbar.
That's entirely possible. I was just trying to work out why they felt different to other videos we've seen from predominantly Muslim protesters in the M.E. and North Africa over the last few decades.
In many cases protestors are Islamists who think the government is not strict enough. In Iran, most protestors want less religion.
In some countries, I don't think it's that protestors think the "government is not strict enough", but they are turning to a moral framework in the face of corrupt and authoritarian governments, and to a source of authority that is independent of state structures.
FPT. Surprised the media are not currently even glancing at the unfolding uprising in Iran, and especially the future ramifications if the brutal Regime there finally falls for this country internally as well as the ending of State funded terrorism in at least three other middle countries as well as for the neighbouring country of Iraq where Iran's prescence has been a huge negative for the stability and progress of that country. The implications for change in the Middle East if this happens are huge.
In local news from Aberdeenshire, I see a major incident was finally declared here, too little and too bloody late after the biggest heaviest dump of snow over a week in my living memory since the late 70s when we were snowed in for a week throughout the whole Spey valley when I was growing up in Aviemore and they had to resort to bringing in essential food supplies by helicopter!
As with Storm Arwen four years ago, it finally took the media to suddenly notice the increasingly dire conditions for the North East in the days and weeks following it before the fecking SNP Government ever noticed or even acknowledged it never mind doing feck all to respond to it!! It should still be a badge of shame for the SNP Government at Holyrood that Boris Johnson in London was the first party Leader to acknowledge the hardship we were experiencing up here without power and who reached out to the people in the North East of Scotland at that time. Like then, we just feel utterly ignored by this central belt focussed SNP Government at Holyrood, and again like then they have failed us as the enormity of this unfolding week long emergency has left us in dire straights, and it should have had them reaching out to the Westminster Government for army back up to help the people of the North East. But the selfish sods would never dream of doing it because of their tribal politics and so they have simple chosen to ignore and leave us to it up here yet again.
There have been people trapped in their homes since New Year and unable to get to the shops even for food essentials, a friend told me about a serious emergency two streets down from them yesterday where a resident needed an ambulance and it took the whole neighbourhood to clear their street of snow enough for the ambulance to get nearby access to the patient and then they had to dig out the ambulance when it got stuck trying to leave to get them back onto the main route again so they could get the patient to Aberdeen!
We finally got out of our driveway yesterday after the brief overnight thaw and we grabbed the chance to get to the nearest 40 mile round trip to a supermarket despite the local roads remaining extemely difficult, needs must! And then only to find there was not even a loaf bread to be had, luckily we managed to get milk, but the shelves were empty of many other usual fresh essential foods. And then we got home and the temperatures dropped again, and then the heavy snow started until the early hours...
Fear not, tonight the snow moves from Scotland into England and Wales, even reaching the Midlands and possibly the Cotswolds; places that even London media folk might know.
I am so angry now, especially as I now have seen and heard of the severe difficulties of so many who have been literally snowed in and unable to get out of their homes since New Year, I did put a brief post up here last week highlighting the heavy snow we were experiencing up here and then tumbleweed. I cannot highlight enough what a severe snow event we have experienced up here in Aberdeenshire over the last week and how little outside help or support we have had!!
I have not experieced anything like it since the late 1970s when I was growing up in Aviemore and the whole Spey valley was cut off for a week and you could only manage to walk on the deeply snow impacted snow on the main road there to get anywhere because the snow drifts were so big and deep at either side of the road. We also lost power for days, and I still remember one morning waking up and the snow drifts up to our front door and neighbours were so deep we literally had to dig ourselves out of our own homes and we made tunnels in the snow to connect us with us our neighbours to help each other out.
But that was back before Devolution at Holyrood, and I am not exaggerating, there was not only far earlier acknowledgement but also practical help from the then Westminster Government than we have ever seen in recent years during storm Arwen and now this last week. Not going to lie, we have yet again been shocked at how we have been ignored by the SNP Goverment.
The Shire was already on its knees with this winter storm on Monday, go google what the SNP Government and the Political lobby at Holyrood were foccusing on and reporting on Monday when people in Aberdeenshire were already trapped in their homes since New Year after a three day amber of heavy snow...
I can only sympathise with your plight and with that of the local communities in Aberdeen and the surrounding areas.
Just because people don't respond on here doesn't mean they don't know and they don't care.
Many thanks Stodge, that means a lot because we really felt like we had been forgotten in the aftermath of Storm Arwen and now this last week. But the frustrating thing is that as usual without any recognition outside the North East of Scotland from the Scottish media who should have been reporting on this and putting pressure on the SNP Government and questioning them about their lack of any serious coordinated response days ago, there was in fact nothing as usual as far as I can see until Skynews finally popped up late last week to notice and report on it as I again briefly posted here.
The SNP Government should have been embarrassed and pressured into some much needed focus and a useful practical response. But again, tumbleweed until the UK media finally really picked up on the severity of what is happening here, but still no useful practicable response from the SNP Government at Holyrood. One of the local SNP Ministers Gillian Martin literally trolled us having announced that she and others had been locked in 'resilience' meetings for three days and she finally came up with the statement that the local Tesco's would taking deliveries of food so that was okay and without any acknowledgement of the fact that so many people in the Shire could not get out of their driveways far less their streets/roads to even tackle the main routes to get to any supermarket!
And yesterday when we finally managed to get out and reach a Tesco we could not even source a loaf of bread although we did manage to get milk. We are still waiting for any serious practical imput from this SNP Government, far less any visit from the leaders to even recognise what is going on up here. Big shout out to WAK MP Andrew Bowie for his as usual proactive help, he was brilliant during Storm Arwen and we got a surprise phone call from him as we were on his gathered list of vulnerable constituents and from an SNP supporting family member no less who wanted to highlight the plight of covid sufferers as we had just been diagnosed with Covid on the day Storm Arwen hit so we could not go to family or the shops during the lengthy power cut and he wanted to know what help we might need. But luckily we had an incredible and very proactive and supportive family making fresh food deliveries every day.
Financial Times: US oil companies want “serious guarantees” from Washington before they make splashy investments in Venezuela… “No one wants to go in there when a random fucking tweet can change the entire foreign policy of the country.”
So the interesting thing about these purported Iranian videos is - compared to the ones we saw from Syria and others - just how few 'Allahu Akbars' there are in the crowds chants. It suggests a different base mindset to the protestors.
Could be a language & culture thing? Persian vs Arabic. I’m not sure whether Farsi speakers (or indeed Shias) routinely say Allahu Akbar.
After a spell on Google I can conclude my supposition was wrong. It’s commonly used by Farsi speakers in Iran. So what was reported seems more likely to be about secularism.
He’s trying to get American O&G to go back into Venezuela, but for them it’s quite a risk both of stability and of cost of extraction. As we’ve discussed on here, there’s a lot of investment required to get what’s pretty crap oil out of the ground.
On the other hand, Americans in general live and die by “gas” (petrol) prices. the sight of some states now having $2 gallons is a massive win for Trump, and also a stick with which to beat Gavin Newsom in California, which has $6 and $7 gas because of local taxes and regulations.
Meanwhile, Venezuela has been arresting people who celebrated Maduro's capture. So, is Trump in charge and he doesn't care? Or is Trump not remotely in charge?
Financial Times: US oil companies want “serious guarantees” from Washington before they make splashy investments in Venezuela… “No one wants to go in there when a random fucking tweet can change the entire foreign policy of the country.”
Yesterday’s regulatory interventions with defence companies, and the recent arm twisting of pharma, will be giving plenty of industries cause for concern. Political risk increases IRRs and shifts the balance on marginal investments (and oil and gas companies are very used to concluding binding reg and tax stability agreements with developing world governments).
To my eye the officer could have stepped out of the way, on top of the vehicle moving round him at a modest speed, rather than stand and shoot through the windscreen.
I think there is a cultural issue around aspects of the US policing, and various legal and organisational loopholes that facilitate it far too easily.
ICE are not police and only have jurisdiction over immigration.
'That woke antifa lesbo was immigrating towards my foot'
Chat GPT will only remember one side of this conversation.
FPT. Surprised the media are not currently even glancing at the unfolding uprising in Iran, and especially the future ramifications if the brutal Regime there finally falls for this country internally as well as the ending of State funded terrorism in at least three other middle countries as well as for the neighbouring country of Iraq where Iran's prescence has been a huge negative for the stability and progress of that country. The implications for change in the Middle East if this happens are huge.
In local news from Aberdeenshire, I see a major incident was finally declared here, too little and too bloody late after the biggest heaviest dump of snow over a week in my living memory since the late 70s when we were snowed in for a week throughout the whole Spey valley when I was growing up in Aviemore and they had to resort to bringing in essential food supplies by helicopter!
As with Storm Arwen four years ago, it finally took the media to suddenly notice the increasingly dire conditions for the North East in the days and weeks following it before the fecking SNP Government ever noticed or even acknowledged it never mind doing feck all to respond to it!! It should still be a badge of shame for the SNP Government at Holyrood that Boris Johnson in London was the first party Leader to acknowledge the hardship we were experiencing up here without power and who reached out to the people in the North East of Scotland at that time. Like then, we just feel utterly ignored by this central belt focussed SNP Government at Holyrood, and again like then they have failed us as the enormity of this unfolding week long emergency has left us in dire straights, and it should have had them reaching out to the Westminster Government for army back up to help the people of the North East. But the selfish sods would never dream of doing it because of their tribal politics and so they have simple chosen to ignore and leave us to it up here yet again.
There have been people trapped in their homes since New Year and unable to get to the shops even for food essentials, a friend told me about a serious emergency two streets down from them yesterday where a resident needed an ambulance and it took the whole neighbourhood to clear their street of snow enough for the ambulance to get nearby access to the patient and then they had to dig out the ambulance when it got stuck trying to leave to get them back onto the main route again so they could get the patient to Aberdeen!
We finally got out of our driveway yesterday after the brief overnight thaw and we grabbed the chance to get to the nearest 40 mile round trip to a supermarket despite the local roads remaining extemely difficult, needs must! And then only to find there was not even a loaf bread to be had, luckily we managed to get milk, but the shelves were empty of many other usual fresh essential foods. And then we got home and the temperatures dropped again, and then the heavy snow started until the early hours...
Fear not, tonight the snow moves from Scotland into England and Wales, even reaching the Midlands and possibly the Cotswolds; places that even London media folk might know.
I am so angry now, especially as I now have seen and heard of the severe difficulties of so many who have been literally snowed in and unable to get out of their homes since New Year, I did put a brief post up here last week highlighting the heavy snow we were experiencing up here and then tumbleweed. I cannot highlight enough what a severe snow event we have experienced up here in Aberdeenshire over the last week and how little outside help or support we have had!!
I have not experieced anything like it since the late 1970s when I was growing up in Aviemore and the whole Spey valley was cut off for a week and you could only manage to walk on the deeply snow impacted snow on the main road there to get anywhere because the snow drifts were so big and deep at either side of the road. We also lost power for days, and I still remember one morning waking up and the snow drifts up to our front door and neighbours were so deep we literally had to dig ourselves out of our own homes and we made tunnels in the snow to connect us with us our neighbours to help each other out.
But that was back before Devolution at Holyrood, and I am not exaggerating, there was not only far earlier acknowledgement but also practical help from the then Westminster Government than we have ever seen in recent years during storm Arwen and now this last week. Not going to lie, we have yet again been shocked at how we have been ignored by the SNP Goverment.
The Shire was already on its knees with this winter storm on Monday, go google what the SNP Government and the Political lobby at Holyrood were foccusing on and reporting on Monday when people in Aberdeenshire were already trapped in their homes since New Year after a three day amber of heavy snow...
I can only sympathise with your plight and with that of the local communities in Aberdeen and the surrounding areas.
Just because people don't respond on here doesn't mean they don't know and they don't care.
Many thanks Stodge, that means a lot because we really felt like we had been forgotten in the aftermath of Storm Arwen and now this last week. But the frustrating thing is that as usual without any recognition outside the North East of Scotland from the Scottish media who should have been reporting on this and putting pressure on the SNP Government and questioning them about their lack of any serious coordinated response days ago, there was in fact nothing as usual as far as I can see until Skynews finally popped up late last week to notice and report on it as I again briefly posted here.
The SNP Government should have been embarrassed and pressured into some much needed focus and a useful practical response. But again, tumbleweed until the UK media finally really picked up on the severity of what is happening here, but still no useful practicable response from the SNP Government at Holyrood. One of the local SNP Ministers Gillian Martin literally trolled us having announced that she and others had been locked in 'resilience' meetings for three days and she finally came up with the statement that the local Tesco's would taking deliveries of food so that was okay and without any acknowledgement of the fact that so many people in the Shire could not get out of their driveways far less their streets/roads to even tackle the main routes to get to any supermarket!
And yesterday when we finally managed to get out and reach a Tesco we could not even source a loaf of bread although we did manage to get milk. We are still waiting for any serious practical imput from this SNP Government, far less any visit from the leaders to even recognise what is going on up here. Big shout out to WAK MP Andrew Bowie for his as usual proactive help, he was brilliant during Storm Arwen and we got a surprise phone call from him as we were on his gathered list of vulnerable constituents and from an SNP supporting family member no less who wanted to highlight the plight of covid sufferers as we had just been diagnosed with Covid on the day Storm Arwen hit so we could not go to family or the shops during the lengthy power cut and he wanted to know what help we might need. But luckily we had an incredible and very proactive and supportive family making fresh food deliveries every day.
That really sounds rough, Ms fitalass. Sympathies.
My wife has relatives in the Peterhead area; so far we've not heard from them, but, to be fair, we probably wouldn't!
He’s trying to get American O&G to go back into Venezuela, but for them it’s quite a risk both of stability and of cost of extraction. As we’ve discussed on here, there’s a lot of investment required to get what’s pretty crap oil out of the ground.
On the other hand, Americans in general live and die by “gas” (petrol) prices. the sight of some states now having $2 gallons is a massive win for Trump, and also a stick with which to beat Gavin Newsom in California, which has $6 and $7 gas because of local taxes and regulations.
He’s trying to get American O&G to go back into Venezuela, but for them it’s quite a risk both of stability and of cost of extraction. As we’ve discussed on here, there’s a lot of investment required to get what’s pretty crap oil out of the ground.
On the other hand, Americans in general live and die by “gas” (petrol) prices. the sight of some states now having $2 gallons is a massive win for Trump, and also a stick with which to beat Gavin Newsom in California, which has $6 and $7 gas because of local taxes and regulations.
It’s a difficult needle to thread.
Is it a difficult needle to thread? Maybe Trump could start with baby steps, like making sure what he says, what Rubio says and what Johnson says are consistent with each other. You know, something almost every other world leader can manage.
He could then move on to the more challenging stuff, like obeying the law and not taking bribes.
To my eye the officer could have stepped out of the way, on top of the vehicle moving round him at a modest speed, rather than stand and shoot through the windscreen.
I think there is a cultural issue around aspects of the US policing, and various legal and organisational loopholes that facilitate it far too easily.
There is no legal justification for that shooting. A number of lawyers have already opined.
Including ones who defend cops involved in shootings for a living.
Adam Cochran (adamscochran.eth) @adamscochran · 5h Spoke on background with two attorneys who have defended officer involved shootings.
Both have always taken their cases to trial.
After reviewing the events today, both said if it were their client they’d advise:
-Seek a plea deal -Be willing to plead guilty to a lesser crime or a lower sentence -Accept anything that isn’t de jure LWOP (life with out parole)
In other words, the guys who defend police officers shooting for a living, think this case is unwinnable.
They would try to defend his actions, they’d just try and lower the impact of the outcome.
Their main sticking point were:
-“I could argue shot number one and hope for an acquittal or a hung jury - but I can’t get there on shots 2 and 3”
-“A jury will not get passed the turning of the wheels”
-“Denying medics throws self defense out the window”
Yes I'm sure it was unjustified. I have already given you the statistical summary of right/wrong (40%/60%). So if it goes to trial he will be suitably dealt with.
But those "main sticking points" are a bit weird.
"Shot one...[vs].. shots 2 and 3" What? If you are drawing your weapon you are using it to full effect. Or is this one of those "why didn't they shoot to wound the mad axeman he wasn't hurting anyone" type situations.
Also the turning of the wheels. The guy in front of the car couldn't see and arguably shouldn't have been looking at the wheels. He was looking at the vehicle approaching him in what he thought was the use of a vehicle as a lethal weapon.
No idea how denying medics adds anything to the act itself for the individual, although it would presumably make a difference on an institutional level.
Whether the actual shooting was justified is only one small part of the story here, and can't really be assessed in isolation.
The much bigger issues are 1) wtf are ICE up to in general, concealing identities and snatching US citizens without a warrant 2) immediately labelling this poor woman a "domestic terrorist". She's an American mother of three young children who was repeatedly shot in the face.
He’s trying to get American O&G to go back into Venezuela, but for them it’s quite a risk both of stability and of cost of extraction. As we’ve discussed on here, there’s a lot of investment required to get what’s pretty crap oil out of the ground.
On the other hand, Americans in general live and die by “gas” (petrol) prices. the sight of some states now having $2 gallons is a massive win for Trump, and also a stick with which to beat Gavin Newsom in California, which has $6 and $7 gas because of local taxes and regulations.
It’s a difficult needle to thread.
Light dawns: Oil & Gas.
I had Obstetrics & Gynaecology.
Obs & gynae do need to consider the risk both of stability and of cost of extraction...
8 days into 2026 and already there is lots of material assembling in favour of the idea that the gangster oligarchic kleptocracy plan to have sufficient crises around by November that elections are not an option.
BTW, re the header; the term 'invasion' is inherently imprecise. The whole basis of (sane) betting is that it is done on a basis in which what counts as an outcome is agreed, clear, independently arbitrated and uncorrupted. I shall stick to the 3.00 at Taunton (Bluegrass e/w?) and the like to burn money with.
For example, the USA mid terms would not count under that head.
Posted without comment, this is the camera angle of the shooting that Republicans are pointing to as suggesting the officer was hit by the car before opening fire.
Posted without comment, this is the camera angle of the shooting that Republicans are pointing to as suggesting the officer was hit by the car before opening fire.
Posted without comment, this is the camera angle of the shooting that Republicans are pointing to as suggesting the officer was hit by the car before opening fire.
Posted without comment, this is the camera angle of the shooting that Republicans are pointing to as suggesting the officer was hit by the car before opening fire.
Posted without comment, this is the camera angle of the shooting that Republicans are pointing to as suggesting the officer was hit by the car before opening fire.
Posted by the intrepid Tim Poole. Didn't he turn out to be a Russian asset?
He was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by Russian state media to spread pro-Russia content. I mean, if you want to call that being a "Russian asset"...
Posted without comment, this is the camera angle of the shooting that Republicans are pointing to as suggesting the officer was hit by the car before opening fire.
"Personally I try and avoid commenting on incidents such as we saw yesterday. Far too many times has the video been carefully edited to show one particular point of view, or we see only the beginning or the end of a larger incident, with the full video showing a different story once the media has moved on."
Posted without comment, this is the camera angle of the shooting that Republicans are pointing to as suggesting the officer was hit by the car before opening fire.
Posted without comment, this is the camera angle of the shooting that Republicans are pointing to as suggesting the officer was hit by the car before opening fire.
"Personally I try and avoid commenting on incidents such as we saw yesterday. Far too many times has the video been carefully edited to show one particular point of view, or we see only the beginning or the end of a larger incident, with the full video showing a different story once the media has moved on."
Any guesses on who said this this morning?
T’was me, which is why I posted the link without personal comment.
Posted without comment, this is the camera angle of the shooting that Republicans are pointing to as suggesting the officer was hit by the car before opening fire.
Posted by the intrepid Tim Poole. Didn't he turn out to be a Russian asset?
He did a podcast for Tenet Media, who took funding from a subsidiary of RT.
The presenters were unaware of the funding, and were described as victims by Biden’s FBI.
Pool and others who presented for Tenet have all said that there was no attempt made to influence their content, which was middle-of-the-road and uncontroversial.
With Trump's SA goons murdering that woman and people defending the SA, I do wonder if we're rapidly approaching the tipping point. "Get the fuck out of" our city vs SA goons literally shooting people in the head.
You know that 2nd Amendment? That it mentions militias? Now would be an opportune moment for militias to be formed, to defend themselves against the SA goons murdering people in the street.
The Mayor made a comment about mobilising the Minnesota National Guard to protect against ICE
The point where State and Federal police start fighting each other, is the point at which talk of C**** W** gets going.
Minnesota could well be the epicentre. There is fury about the fraud that’s been uncovered, much of it linked to immigrant communities. There’s also fury about the heavyhandedness of Federal police, and incidents such as we saw yesterday.
You also have a Governor who’s incredibly bitter at his deserved fall from grace and has little to lose really.
Trying to get to the truth of what is allegedly happening in Minnesota is far from easy given the mountains of propaganda and oceans of misinformation (why one is solid, the other liquid I don't know).
The alleged fraud needs to be investigated and interestingly there's not been much said about the huge levels of fraud arising from Sunak's initial furlough scheme here. Whether the American fraud is as systemic and endemic as Republicans claim is debatable and I'm sure, if it were so, it would be in Republican states as well.
I imagine the due diligence failed in Minnesota (as it did here) because of the sheer numbers of claims which overwhelmed the bureaucracy. As far as Walz is concerned, it does seem like a bit of a personal vendetta from Trump and Vance.
There is going to be a lot of fraud in many states (of both hues), but this doesn't excuse the Walz administration from having been slow to recognise it, and being exceptionally poor at prosecuting the guilty.
Posted without comment, this is the camera angle of the shooting that Republicans are pointing to as suggesting the officer was hit by the car before opening fire.
Posted by the intrepid Tim Poole. Didn't he turn out to be a Russian asset?
He did a podcast for Tenet Media, who took funding from a subsidiary of RT.
The presenters were unaware of the funding, and were described as victims by Biden’s FBI.
Pool and others who presented for Tenet have all said that there was no attempt made to influence their content, which was middle-of-the-road and uncontroversial.
"Uncontroversial" things Pool has said include...
"Ukraine is the enemy of this country."
"One of the greatest enemies of our nation right now is Ukraine."
"We should apologize to Russia"
Sandpit, maybe you should get your head out of the sand?
I haven't commented on the ICE shooting as I hadn't seen the footage but Sky have played the footage from two angles and I cannot understand how anyone can excuse the ICE officer
He may well have panicked, but his action was inexcusable
US really is the Wild West
Should the ICE officer have (repeatedly) shot the woman in the car? Probably not, but at the same time it's a confusing and difficult situation, and if he was hit by the vehicle, he may well have regarded his life as being in danger. A fuck up, but not necessarily a malicious one.
To my mind, the most serious issue is the deliberate withholding of medical aid after the shooting. That is inexcusable.
Head coach Brendon McCullum and director of cricket Rob Key will be given the chance to stay on and show they can improve the England set-up, despite the Ashes defeat in Australia.
McCullum and Key have come under scrutiny after England surrendered the series with losses in the opening three Tests of the best-of-five series.
Both men and Test captain Ben Stokes have expressed a desire to remain in their positions – McCullum and Stokes have contracts with England until after the home Ashes in 2027.
And the management of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) are not minded to impose the sweeping changes that often follow Ashes defeats down under.
Any decision to remove 44-year-old McCullum in particular would have been complicated by the T20 World Cup in Sri Lanka and India, beginning in February.
Instead, the future of the hierarchy now seems to rest on their willingness to accept the need for change and their ability to enact it.
How long they are given to make alterations and improve results is unclear. A poor World Cup would increase pressure, then England's next Test is against New Zealand in June.
I listened to Stokes being interviewed on R4 this morning. Talked about learning lessons, while making it pretty clear that what he intends is to carry on doing everything much the same, but just do it better.
So I doubt much will change.
Good.
I'm not convinced by that. While Stokes is an inspirational leader, and fine player, both he and his team seem unable to adjust to situations which don't favour a one note approach.
In his interview he talked about England's batsmen being "fooled" by the Australians into playing rash shots. That's just delusional from what I observed.
England have had pretty good results because they have a handful of outstanding players. But I strongly believe they don't maximise their chances as a team. And certainly not on this tour.
As I said, Stokes' figures as Captain speak for themselves. The best % record of Test wins since Brearly in the late 70s. And people somehow forget that England just won their first Test match in Australia since 2011.
Head coach Brendon McCullum and director of cricket Rob Key will be given the chance to stay on and show they can improve the England set-up, despite the Ashes defeat in Australia.
McCullum and Key have come under scrutiny after England surrendered the series with losses in the opening three Tests of the best-of-five series.
Both men and Test captain Ben Stokes have expressed a desire to remain in their positions – McCullum and Stokes have contracts with England until after the home Ashes in 2027.
And the management of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) are not minded to impose the sweeping changes that often follow Ashes defeats down under.
Any decision to remove 44-year-old McCullum in particular would have been complicated by the T20 World Cup in Sri Lanka and India, beginning in February.
Instead, the future of the hierarchy now seems to rest on their willingness to accept the need for change and their ability to enact it.
How long they are given to make alterations and improve results is unclear. A poor World Cup would increase pressure, then England's next Test is against New Zealand in June.
I listened to Stokes being interviewed on R4 this morning. Talked about learning lessons, while making it pretty clear that what he intends is to carry on doing everything much the same, but just do it better.
So I doubt much will change.
Good.
I'm not convinced by that. While Stokes is an inspirational leader, and fine player, both he and his team seem unable to adjust to situations which don't favour a one note approach.
In his interview he talked about England's batsmen being "fooled" by the Australians into playing rash shots. That's just delusional from what I observed.
England have had pretty good results because they have a handful of outstanding players. But I strongly believe they don't maximise their chances as a team. And certainly not on this tour.
As I said, Stokes' figures as Captain speak for themselves. The best % record of Test wins since Brearly in the late 70s. And people somehow forget that England just won their first Test match in Australia since 2011.
Brearly - brilliant though he was - also benefited from large chunks of the Australian team having defected to World Series Cricket.
Posted without comment, this is the camera angle of the shooting that Republicans are pointing to as suggesting the officer was hit by the car before opening fire.
Is that the best they can come up with? There's no justification there.
That footage is the second of two on Sky.
There can be no justification for the shooting though it may have been a panic reaction, notwithstanding those on official duty with a gun should be trained to the highest level of due diligence, especially when taking a life is a very real prospect
David Allen Green, exactly right. Especially concerning what you can infer about what happens when the cameras and videos are not present from what happens when they are:
David Allen Green, exactly right. Especially concerning what you can infer about what happens when the cameras and videos are not present from what happens when they are:
Posted without comment, this is the camera angle of the shooting that Republicans are pointing to as suggesting the officer was hit by the car before opening fire.
Posted by the intrepid Tim Poole. Didn't he turn out to be a Russian asset?
He did a podcast for Tenet Media, who took funding from a subsidiary of RT.
The presenters were unaware of the funding, and were described as victims by Biden’s FBI.
Pool and others who presented for Tenet have all said that there was no attempt made to influence their content, which was middle-of-the-road and uncontroversial.
"Uncontroversial" things Pool has said include...
"Ukraine is the enemy of this country."
"One of the greatest enemies of our nation right now is Ukraine."
"We should apologize to Russia"
Sandpit, maybe you should get your head out of the sand?
With Trump's SA goons murdering that woman and people defending the SA, I do wonder if we're rapidly approaching the tipping point. "Get the fuck out of" our city vs SA goons literally shooting people in the head.
You know that 2nd Amendment? That it mentions militias? Now would be an opportune moment for militias to be formed, to defend themselves against the SA goons murdering people in the street.
The Mayor made a comment about mobilising the Minnesota National Guard to protect against ICE
The point where State and Federal police start fighting each other, is the point at which talk of C**** W** gets going.
Minnesota could well be the epicentre. There is fury about the fraud that’s been uncovered, much of it linked to immigrant communities. There’s also fury about the heavyhandedness of Federal police, and incidents such as we saw yesterday.
You also have a Governor who’s incredibly bitter at his deserved fall from grace and has little to lose really.
Trying to get to the truth of what is allegedly happening in Minnesota is far from easy given the mountains of propaganda and oceans of misinformation (why one is solid, the other liquid I don't know).
The alleged fraud needs to be investigated and interestingly there's not been much said about the huge levels of fraud arising from Sunak's initial furlough scheme here. Whether the American fraud is as systemic and endemic as Republicans claim is debatable and I'm sure, if it were so, it would be in Republican states as well.
I imagine the due diligence failed in Minnesota (as it did here) because of the sheer numbers of claims which overwhelmed the bureaucracy. As far as Walz is concerned, it does seem like a bit of a personal vendetta from Trump and Vance.
That is ongoing. There were over 90 prosecutions brought during the Biden administration.
Sandpit is suggesting that "investigative journalism" revealed the fraud; that's simply untrue. What happened in the last few weeks is that a MAGA broadcaster tried to gain access to children's daycare centres "let me see the children", was understandably refused, and the guy made a number of allegations which were unsubstantiated.
There is certainly fraud being investigated; the full extent of it is far from clear. What is certainly untrue is that "Somali fraud" amounts to billions of dollars. Some of the numbers claimed exceed the total federal grant to the state. And the administration has used it as an excuse to halt all funding.
Posted without comment, this is the camera angle of the shooting that Republicans are pointing to as suggesting the officer was hit by the car before opening fire.
Is that the best they can come up with? There's no justification there.
That footage is the second of two on Sky.
There can be no justification for the shooting though it may have been a panic reaction, notwithstanding those on official duty with a gun should be trained to the highest level of due diligence, especially when taking a life is a very real prospect
As I said the US is the Wild West once again
Oh it may be stating the obvious but both videos are excellent illustrations of what happens when you put on the streets officers who are overarmed and undertrained. Those responsible for this situation will go unpunished.
The officer is in deep shit, and the woman is dead.
With Trump's SA goons murdering that woman and people defending the SA, I do wonder if we're rapidly approaching the tipping point. "Get the fuck out of" our city vs SA goons literally shooting people in the head.
You know that 2nd Amendment? That it mentions militias? Now would be an opportune moment for militias to be formed, to defend themselves against the SA goons murdering people in the street.
The Mayor made a comment about mobilising the Minnesota National Guard to protect against ICE
The point where State and Federal police start fighting each other, is the point at which talk of C**** W** gets going.
Minnesota could well be the epicentre. There is fury about the fraud that’s been uncovered, much of it linked to immigrant communities. There’s also fury about the heavyhandedness of Federal police, and incidents such as we saw yesterday.
You also have a Governor who’s incredibly bitter at his deserved fall from grace and has little to lose really.
Trying to get to the truth of what is allegedly happening in Minnesota is far from easy given the mountains of propaganda and oceans of misinformation (why one is solid, the other liquid I don't know).
The alleged fraud needs to be investigated and interestingly there's not been much said about the huge levels of fraud arising from Sunak's initial furlough scheme here. Whether the American fraud is as systemic and endemic as Republicans claim is debatable and I'm sure, if it were so, it would be in Republican states as well.
I imagine the due diligence failed in Minnesota (as it did here) because of the sheer numbers of claims which overwhelmed the bureaucracy. As far as Walz is concerned, it does seem like a bit of a personal vendetta from Trump and Vance.
There is going to be a lot of fraud in many states (of both hues), but this doesn't excuse the Walz administration from having been slow to recognise it, and being exceptionally poor at prosecuting the guilty.
In contrast, the Trump administration are certainly very quick not just to identify fraud, but also potential new frauds, and are equally quick in implementing them.
There's been some misinterpretation of my comment last night.
Particularly since 2020, there's been a growing tendency in progressive circles to delegitimise law enforcement per se and to see it as virtuous to inhibit the operation. In some places the police can barely so much as arrest someone without an uninvolved member of the public intervening to take the 'victim's' side.
Politicians who encourage this behaviour while portentously warning that somebody is going to get killed only make that outcome more likely because it's inevitable that either a protester will take it too far or an officer will make the wrong snap decision when under pressure, as seems to have happened yesterday.
I haven't commented on the ICE shooting as I hadn't seen the footage but Sky have played the footage from two angles and I cannot understand how anyone can excuse the ICE officer
He may well have panicked, but his action was inexcusable
US really is the Wild West
Should the ICE officer have (repeatedly) shot the woman in the car? Probably not, but at the same time it's a confusing and difficult situation, and if he was hit by the vehicle, he may well have regarded his life as being in danger. A fuck up, but not necessarily a malicious one.
To my mind, the most serious issue is the deliberate withholding of medical aid after the shooting. That is inexcusable.
Confusing to Nicole? Confusing to the ICE agent on the left?
One ICE agent tells Nicole to leave. She reverses, she turns her wheels away, right hand down, and the ICE thug moves to the front of her car, weapon drawn, standing on the left hand side front of her car. He moves to the side. Was he even touched? I didn't see it. The second ICE agent moves away from the side of the car to get out of the line of fire from the shooter. One could argue once she has been shot in the face three times she fails to stop. That might be considered hostile whilst dying.
One could argue that an untrained immigration agent handling lethal weapons is a bad idea.
I suppose the ICE agent can claim he "felt" threatened which is a justified defence in the US. Here it would be most likely a murder charge and with an expensive barrister, he might get a manslaughter conviction.
OT - Hate to say it but the platform has this one right. The Venezuelan raid didn't even match up to the intervention in Grenada some years ago. It is rather telling regarding the decline of American real power that they have made such a hoo-ha about this. At least I assume that is the case because it's not as if there was anything the US regime was desperate to distract attention from. If that was true they's be stirring up a shitstorm about Greenland or even hinting at cancelling the mid-terms wouldn't they?
Posted without comment, this is the camera angle of the shooting that Republicans are pointing to as suggesting the officer was hit by the car before opening fire.
Is that the best they can come up with? There's no justification there.
That footage is the second of two on Sky.
There can be no justification for the shooting though it may have been a panic reaction, notwithstanding those on official duty with a gun should be trained to the highest level of due diligence, especially when taking a life is a very real prospect
As I said the US is the Wild West once again
Oh it may be stating the obvious but both videos are excellent illustrations of what happens when you put on the streets officers who are overarmed and undertrained. Those responsible for this situation will go unpunished.
The officer is in deep shit, and the woman is dead.
True, but it goes further than this. ICE is state thuggery. It isn't a case of an organisation doing a necessary job in the wrong way.
David Allen Green, exactly right. Especially concerning what you can infer about what happens when the cameras and videos are not present from what happens when they are:
'No slide towards barbarity and Fascism is inevitable: even in the 1930s some countries were able to steer their polities in a different direction. Little or nothing is bound to happen in human affairs. Things can change for better, and sometimes do. But nonetheless the sense of dread and doom that must have been a feature of the early 1930s is sometimes inescapable. The evidence from our virtual apartment window does not point in an encouraging direction.'
Those balmy days when various people said Trump II wouldn't be so bad seem very far way, the assertion that Trump I would sooner or later pivot to the normal position of a Republican president even farther.
FPT. Surprised the media are not currently even glancing at the unfolding uprising in Iran, and especially the future ramifications if the brutal Regime there finally falls for this country internally as well as the ending of State funded terrorism in at least three other middle countries as well as for the neighbouring country of Iraq where Iran's prescence has been a huge negative for the stability and progress of that country. The implications for change in the Middle East if this happens are huge.
In local news from Aberdeenshire, I see a major incident was finally declared here, too little and too bloody late after the biggest heaviest dump of snow over a week in my living memory since the late 70s when we were snowed in for a week throughout the whole Spey valley when I was growing up in Aviemore and they had to resort to bringing in essential food supplies by helicopter!
As with Storm Arwen four years ago, it finally took the media to suddenly notice the increasingly dire conditions for the North East in the days and weeks following it before the fecking SNP Government ever noticed or even acknowledged it never mind doing feck all to respond to it!! It should still be a badge of shame for the SNP Government at Holyrood that Boris Johnson in London was the first party Leader to acknowledge the hardship we were experiencing up here without power and who reached out to the people in the North East of Scotland at that time. Like then, we just feel utterly ignored by this central belt focussed SNP Government at Holyrood, and again like then they have failed us as the enormity of this unfolding week long emergency has left us in dire straights, and it should have had them reaching out to the Westminster Government for army back up to help the people of the North East. But the selfish sods would never dream of doing it because of their tribal politics and so they have simple chosen to ignore and leave us to it up here yet again.
There have been people trapped in their homes since New Year and unable to get to the shops even for food essentials, a friend told me about a serious emergency two streets down from them yesterday where a resident needed an ambulance and it took the whole neighbourhood to clear their street of snow enough for the ambulance to get nearby access to the patient and then they had to dig out the ambulance when it got stuck trying to leave to get them back onto the main route again so they could get the patient to Aberdeen!
We finally got out of our driveway yesterday after the brief overnight thaw and we grabbed the chance to get to the nearest 40 mile round trip to a supermarket despite the local roads remaining extemely difficult, needs must! And then only to find there was not even a loaf bread to be had, luckily we managed to get milk, but the shelves were empty of many other usual fresh essential foods. And then we got home and the temperatures dropped again, and then the heavy snow started until the early hours...
Fear not, tonight the snow moves from Scotland into England and Wales, even reaching the Midlands and possibly the Cotswolds; places that even London media folk might know.
I am so angry now, especially as I now have seen and heard of the severe difficulties of so many who have been literally snowed in and unable to get out of their homes since New Year, I did put a brief post up here last weekI highlighting the heavy snow we were experiencing up here and then tumbleweed. I cannot highlight enough what a severe snow event we have experienced up here in Aberdeenshire over the last week and how little outside help or support we have had!!
I have not experieced anything like it since the late 1970s when I was growing up in Aviemore and the whole Spey valley was cut off for a week and you could only manage to walk on the deeply snow impacted main road there to get anywhere because the snow drifts were so big and deep at either side of the road. We also lost power for days, and I still remember one morning waking up and the snow drifts up to our front door and neighbours were so deep we literally had to dig ourselves out of our own homes and we made tunnels in the snow to connect us with us our neighbours to help each other out.
But that was back before Devolution at Holyrood, and I am not exaggerating, there was not only far earlier acknowledgement but also practical help from the then Westminster Government than we have ever seen in recent years during storm Arwen and now this last week. Not going to lie, we have yet again been shocked at how we have been ignored by the SNP Goverment. The Shire was already on its knees with this winter storm on Monday, go google what the SNP Government and the Political lobby at Holyrood were foccusing on and reporting on Monday when people in Aberdeenshire were already trapped in their homes since New Year after a three day amber of heavy snow...
I went skiing in Aviemore in the 70s as a kid. None of us had skied before, and my cousin badly broke his leg within 30sec of first getting on his skis at the top of the slope. Pretty good holiday for the rest of us, though.
Trying to see the local GPs in Aviemore at their surgery during the ski season from when they opened usually meant your appointment was far too often delayed or bumped to another day if not an emergency due to them having to deal with the emergency incoming injuries from the Cairngorm ski slopes from the minute they opened in the morning. More often than not, these patients were then dispatched to Inverness to have an X-ray and be assessed there.
But a funny story, I arrived home for a holiday as a student just as I was was struggling with a severe chest infection and being asthmatic it made it harder and my Mum immediately made me an appointment to see my one of my childhood GPs on the day they finally got their own X-ray machine in the surgery as it went active and yes, I was the first person to use it as I had chest X-rays done in my local surgery as my GP was so desperate to try it out..
Cracking story.
Speaking of which, I can still clearly picture my cousin pointing his skis downhill, rapidly picking up speed, briefly disappearing, reappearing as he hit a mogul and went airborne, and disappearing again accompanied by an audible crack.
Oh god, that sounds horrific, I remember back when I was a student nurse watching an amateur football game and someone being tackled and breaking their leg and I ended on the pitch looking after the injured player until the ambulance arrived!
Back in primary school in Aviemore we spent a fews weeks every winter when the snow was good being taken up the Cairngorms and being taught to ski a full day every week, and by a couple of teachers who loved skiing.... But I was not a fan, and I quickly realised that if I fell over on the nursery slopes enough times and while putting in an Oscar winning performance everytime, they soon gave up and left me on the sidelines and left me chilling while they took everyone else down the main slope...
But I remember my teacher who was one of the skiing fanatics running into my Dad and telling him how hopeless I was and it was a shame I was not enjoying the experience and basically not getting anything out of it while my brother was a natural. Now my recently retired military Dad who thanks to the Regiment he served in was a very experienced cross country and down hill skier smelt a rat and I remember my Mum who came from Aviemore and was no more interested in skiing than I was saying to me don't plan anything this weekend end because your Dad is taking you and your brother up the Cairngorms on Saturday and Sunday and he is determined to teach you to ski and get you off that nursery slope.
I am not going to lie, he was a very good teacher who didn't fall for my shannigans and I left my teachers open mouthed at the way I flew down the main slope the next week like a pro. They were happy and so was my Dad, but I still to this day fecking hate skiing!
There's been some misinterpretation of my comment last night.
Particularly since 2020, there's been a growing tendency in progressive circles to delegitimise law enforcement per se and to see it as virtuous to inhibit the operation. In some places the police can barely so much as arrest someone without an uninvolved member of the public intervening to take the 'victim's' side.
Politicians who encourage this behaviour while portentously warning that somebody is going to get killed only make that outcome more likely because it's inevitable that either a protester will take it too far or an officer will make the wrong snap decision when under pressure, as seems to have happened yesterday.
Nope, no misinterpretation afaics, standard 'the woke libs are really to blame'.
Posted without comment, this is the camera angle of the shooting that Republicans are pointing to as suggesting the officer was hit by the car before opening fire.
Is that the best they can come up with? There's no justification there.
That footage is the second of two on Sky.
There can be no justification for the shooting though it may have been a panic reaction, notwithstanding those on official duty with a gun should be trained to the highest level of due diligence, especially when taking a life is a very real prospect
There's been some misinterpretation of my comment last night.
Particularly since 2020, there's been a growing tendency in progressive circles to delegitimise law enforcement per se and to see it as virtuous to inhibit the operation. In some places the police can barely so much as arrest someone without an uninvolved member of the public intervening to take the 'victim's' side.
Politicians who encourage this behaviour while portentously warning that somebody is going to get killed only make that outcome more likely because it's inevitable that either a protester will take it too far or an officer will make the wrong snap decision when under pressure, as seems to have happened yesterday.
Libtard woke PB posters are really, really thick aren't they? I'll read it again...
There's been some misinterpretation of my comment last night.
Particularly since 2020, there's been a growing tendency in progressive circles to delegitimise law enforcement per se and to see it as virtuous to inhibit the operation. In some places the police can barely so much as arrest someone without an uninvolved member of the public intervening to take the 'victim's' side.
Politicians who encourage this behaviour while portentously warning that somebody is going to get killed only make that outcome more likely because it's inevitable that either a protester will take it too far or an officer will make the wrong snap decision when under pressure, as seems to have happened yesterday.
Wait until you hear what Trump did to those criminals who tried to assault/murder law enforcement officers on the 6th of January 2021.
There's been some misinterpretation of my comment last night.
Particularly since 2020, there's been a growing tendency in progressive circles to delegitimise law enforcement per se and to see it as virtuous to inhibit the operation. In some places the police can barely so much as arrest someone without an uninvolved member of the public intervening to take the 'victim's' side.
Politicians who encourage this behaviour while portentously warning that somebody is going to get killed only make that outcome more likely because it's inevitable that either a protester will take it too far or an officer will make the wrong snap decision when under pressure, as seems to have happened yesterday.
I'm sure murdering mothers of small children is generally entirely capable of reasoned explanation but I feel this attempt can be (and I am sure will be) improved upon. You are not quite at the 'locked and loaded and ready to win an argument with James O'Brien' stage yet.
I haven't commented on the ICE shooting as I hadn't seen the footage but Sky have played the footage from two angles and I cannot understand how anyone can excuse the ICE officer
He may well have panicked, but his action was inexcusable
US really is the Wild West
Should the ICE officer have (repeatedly) shot the woman in the car? Probably not, but at the same time it's a confusing and difficult situation, and if he was hit by the vehicle, he may well have regarded his life as being in danger. A fuck up, but not necessarily a malicious one.
To my mind, the most serious issue is the deliberate withholding of medical aid after the shooting. That is inexcusable.
Confusing to Nicole? Confusing to the ICE agent on the left?
One ICE agent tells Nicole to leave. She reverses, she turns her wheels away, right hand down, and the ICE thug moves to the front of her car, weapon drawn, standing on the left hand side front of her car. He moves to the side. Was he even touched? I didn't see it. The second ICE agent moves away from the side of the car to get out of the line of fire from the shooter. One could argue once she has been shot in the face three times she fails to stop. That might be considered hostile whilst dying.
One could argue that an untrained immigration agent handling lethal weapons is a bad idea.
I suppose the ICE agent can claim he "felt" threatened which is a justified defence in the US. Here it would be most likely a murder charge and with an expensive barrister, he might get a manslaughter conviction.
Do we have evidence of an instruction to leave?
One channel I follow documents problems with US police, and one failure mode is when self-contradictory instructions are given, followed by the victim being abused or attacked.
Comments
But a funny story, I arrived home for a holiday as a student just as I was was struggling with a severe chest infection and being asthmatic it made it harder and my Mum immediately made me an appointment to see my one of my childhood GPs on the day they finally got their own X-ray machine in the surgery as it went active and yes, I was the first person to use it as I had chest X-rays done in my local surgery as my GP was so desperate to try it out..
"He was struck by a bouncer
who would not
allow him into a nightclub"
Poetry.
Adam Cochran (adamscochran.eth)
@adamscochran
·
5h
Spoke on background with two attorneys who have defended officer involved shootings.
Both have always taken their cases to trial.
After reviewing the events today, both said if it were their client they’d advise:
-Seek a plea deal
-Be willing to plead guilty to a lesser crime or a lower sentence
-Accept anything that isn’t de jure LWOP (life with out parole)
In other words, the guys who defend police officers shooting for a living, think this case is unwinnable.
They would try to defend his actions, they’d just try and lower the impact of the outcome.
Their main sticking point were:
-“I could argue shot number one and hope for an acquittal or a hung jury - but I can’t get there on shots 2 and 3”
-“A jury will not get passed the turning of the wheels”
-“Denying medics throws self defense out the window”
https://x.com/adamscochran/status/2009111755260060128?s=20
Speaking of which, I can still clearly picture my cousin pointing his skis downhill, rapidly picking up speed, briefly disappearing, reappearing as he hit a mogul and went airborne, and disappearing again accompanied by an audible crack.
“ PC Cliff Mitchell applied to join the Met in 2020, but the vetting process flagged up a previous allegation of raping a child in 2017, and his application was rejected.
However, a vetting panel, made up partly of senior officers, overturned the decision because the force wanted to improve the number of officers from ethnic minorities.
PC Mitchell went on to carry out a “campaign of rape” against two victims, including a child under the age of 13, while he was a serving officer.
He is one of 131 officers and staff at the Met who were not properly vetted and went on to commit criminal offences and misconduct.”
https://www.lbc.co.uk/article/serial-rapist-metropolitan-police-officer-allowed-join-force-5HjdQNh_2/?fbclid=IwdGRleAPMX1hleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA8xNzM4NDc2NDI2NzAzNzAAAR42aqrspTbsINx53E7raeRQfQ9nD0-yGT2CvgO7WHnBeFeI2znaqMPNlClfkw_aem_8gkB5ZdAHojcfuNHorx9Mw
He may well have panicked, but his action was inexcusable
US really is the Wild West
It appears to have totally lost its sense of purpose and be rotten to the core.
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor received millions of pounds from an oligarch using funds from a firm implicated in criminal corruption, a BBC investigation has found.
Kazakh billionaire Timur Kulibayev has told the BBC through his lawyers that he used a loan from a company called Enviro Pacific Investments to help him buy Andrew's former mansion.
Prosecutors in Italy concluded that the firm had received cash from a bribery scheme in 2007.
Weeks after the last of these payments was made, the oligarch bought Sunninghill Park in Berkshire from the then prince for £15m - with the help of funds from Enviro Pacific.
Kulibayev is the son-in-law of Kazakhstan's then-president and was one of the most influential officials in the central Asian country's oil and gas industry. The BBC has also learned that, in another case, an Italian businessman pleaded guilty to bribing the oligarch.
Kulibayev's lawyers told us he has never engaged in bribery or corruption, and the funds used to acquire Sunninghill Park were entirely legitimate.
The revelations raise questions about whether the then-prince may have inadvertently benefited from the proceeds of crime and whether he and his advisers conducted the proper checks required by law to avoid this.
Money laundering expert Tom Keatinge, director of the Centre for Finance and Security, said the deal had "blatant red flags" which should have prompted detailed checks to ensure it was not "helping to launder the proceeds of corruption".
Kulibayev reportedly paid £3m more than the asking price and an estimated £7m more than the property's market value.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8d09qd6zn2o
Somehow the situation needs to be defused, but it’s difficult to see how it doesn’t get worse before it gets better. Potentially a lot worse.
But but…..Reform.
The alleged fraud needs to be investigated and interestingly there's not been much said about the huge levels of fraud arising from Sunak's initial furlough scheme here. Whether the American fraud is as systemic and endemic as Republicans claim is debatable and I'm sure, if it were so, it would be in Republican states as well.
I imagine the due diligence failed in Minnesota (as it did here) because of the sheer numbers of claims which overwhelmed the bureaucracy. As far as Walz is concerned, it does seem like a bit of a personal vendetta from Trump and Vance.
It does look like a blatant example of money laundering.
Still, PB has now pivoted its mass expertise onto the US state and federal legal system, ably aided by Chat GPT.
It has already been deemed murder by people not even there, and there have been no charges laid yet.
I look forward to further informed, incisive, commentary on this incident which from some of the stuff I’ve seen on Twitter about traffic cops is rather common.
Remove the elections and remove the threat of losing. Simples.
I have little doubt that we are going to see angry protestors out on the streets being literally murdered in front of the cameras, and fascism fans will continue to justify it.
1. Raided another country to kidnap its president
2. Threatened to invade a fellow NATO country
3. Sent its vigilantes to a major city to murder random civilians
It's only the 8 January. Is their shit going to continue at the same pace for the rest of 2026?
US shale oil and gas operators: "WTF!!"
It's a ratings war with only one participant.
https://x.com/Glinner/status/2009032565341212768?s=20
Chaser
https://x.com/ChiuauaTeardrop/status/2009040918620606665?s=20
But those "main sticking points" are a bit weird.
"Shot one...[vs].. shots 2 and 3" What? If you are drawing your weapon you are using it to full effect. Or is this one of those "why didn't they shoot to wound the mad axeman he wasn't hurting anyone" type situations.
Also the turning of the wheels. The guy in front of the car couldn't see and arguably shouldn't have been looking at the wheels. He was looking at the vehicle approaching him in what he thought was the use of a vehicle as a lethal weapon.
No idea how denying medics adds anything to the act itself for the individual, although it would presumably make a difference on an institutional level.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8d09qd6zn2o
The SNP Government should have been embarrassed and pressured into some much needed focus and a useful practical response. But again, tumbleweed until the UK media finally really picked up on the severity of what is happening here, but still no useful practicable response from the SNP Government at Holyrood. One of the local SNP Ministers Gillian Martin literally trolled us having announced that she and others had been locked in 'resilience' meetings for three days and she finally came up with the statement that the local Tesco's would taking deliveries of food so that was okay and without any acknowledgement of the fact that so many people in the Shire could not get out of their driveways far less their streets/roads to even tackle the main routes to get to any supermarket!
And yesterday when we finally managed to get out and reach a Tesco we could not even source a loaf of bread although we did manage to get milk. We are still waiting for any serious practical imput from this SNP Government, far less any visit from the leaders to even recognise what is going on up here. Big shout out to WAK MP Andrew Bowie for his as usual proactive help, he was brilliant during Storm Arwen and we got a surprise phone call from him as we were on his gathered list of vulnerable constituents and from an SNP supporting family member no less who wanted to highlight the plight of covid sufferers as we had just been diagnosed with Covid on the day Storm Arwen hit so we could not go to family or the shops during the lengthy power cut and he wanted to know what help we might need. But luckily we had an incredible and very proactive and supportive family making fresh food deliveries every day.
Financial Times: US oil companies want “serious guarantees” from Washington before they make splashy investments in Venezuela… “No one wants to go in there when a random fucking tweet can change the entire foreign policy of the country.”
On the other hand, Americans in general live and die by “gas” (petrol) prices. the sight of some states now having $2 gallons is a massive win for Trump, and also a stick with which to beat Gavin Newsom in California, which has $6 and $7 gas because of local taxes and regulations.
It’s a difficult needle to thread.
“Well it’s good that our submarine wasn’t captured”
https://x.com/stratcomcentre/status/2009178530093969515
https://x.com/maks_nafo_fella/status/2009212342429507622
My wife has relatives in the Peterhead area; so far we've not heard from them, but, to be fair, we probably wouldn't!
I had Obstetrics & Gynaecology.
He could then move on to the more challenging stuff, like obeying the law and not taking bribes.
The much bigger issues are 1) wtf are ICE up to in general, concealing identities and snatching US citizens without a warrant 2) immediately labelling this poor woman a "domestic terrorist". She's an American mother of three young children who was repeatedly shot in the face.
BTW, re the header; the term 'invasion' is inherently imprecise. The whole basis of (sane) betting is that it is done on a basis in which what counts as an outcome is agreed, clear, independently arbitrated and uncorrupted. I shall stick to the 3.00 at Taunton (Bluegrass e/w?) and the like to burn money with.
For example, the USA mid terms would not count under that head.
@tsengputterman
What stage of capitalism is it when the White House is rigging betting markets on how long its press briefings denying war crimes will last
https://x.com/tsengputterman/status/2009084996578103483?s=20
https://x.com/timcast/status/2008975472391323896
Any guesses on who said this this morning?
The presenters were unaware of the funding, and were described as victims by Biden’s FBI.
Pool and others who presented for Tenet have all said that there was no attempt made to influence their content, which was middle-of-the-road and uncontroversial.
"Ukraine is the enemy of this country."
"One of the greatest enemies of our nation right now is Ukraine."
"We should apologize to Russia"
Sandpit, maybe you should get your head out of the sand?
To my mind, the most serious issue is the deliberate withholding of medical aid after the shooting. That is inexcusable.
There can be no justification for the shooting though it may have been a panic reaction, notwithstanding those on official duty with a gun should be trained to the highest level of due diligence, especially when taking a life is a very real prospect
As I said the US is the Wild West once again
https://davidallengreen.com/2026/01/we-are-christopher-isherwood-watching-the-scenes-in-the-berlin-street-below-from-our-apartment-window-above/
There were over 90 prosecutions brought during the Biden administration.
Sandpit is suggesting that "investigative journalism" revealed the fraud; that's simply untrue. What happened in the last few weeks is that a MAGA broadcaster tried to gain access to children's daycare centres "let me see the children", was understandably refused, and the guy made a number of allegations which were unsubstantiated.
There is certainly fraud being investigated; the full extent of it is far from clear.
What is certainly untrue is that "Somali fraud" amounts to billions of dollars. Some of the numbers claimed exceed the total federal grant to the state.
And the administration has used it as an excuse to halt all funding.
The officer is in deep shit, and the woman is dead.
Particularly since 2020, there's been a growing tendency in progressive circles to delegitimise law enforcement per se and to see it as virtuous to inhibit the operation. In some places the police can barely so much as arrest someone without an uninvolved member of the public intervening to take the 'victim's' side.
Politicians who encourage this behaviour while portentously warning that somebody is going to get killed only make that outcome more likely because it's inevitable that either a protester will take it too far or an officer will make the wrong snap decision when under pressure, as seems to have happened yesterday.
One ICE agent tells Nicole to leave. She reverses, she turns her wheels away, right hand down, and the ICE thug moves to the front of her car, weapon drawn, standing on the left hand side front of her car. He moves to the side. Was he even touched? I didn't see it. The second ICE agent moves away from the side of the car to get out of the line of fire from the shooter. One could argue once she has been shot in the face three times she fails to stop. That might be considered hostile whilst dying.
One could argue that an untrained immigration agent handling lethal weapons is a bad idea.
I suppose the ICE agent can claim he "felt" threatened which is a justified defence in the US. Here it would be most likely a murder charge and with an expensive barrister, he might get a manslaughter conviction.
Oh.
But nonetheless the sense of dread and doom that must have been a feature of the early 1930s is sometimes inescapable.
The evidence from our virtual apartment window does not point in an encouraging direction.'
Those balmy days when various people said Trump II wouldn't be so bad seem very far way, the assertion that Trump I would sooner or later pivot to the normal position of a Republican president even farther.
Back in primary school in Aviemore we spent a fews weeks every winter when the snow was good being taken up the Cairngorms and being taught to ski a full day every week, and by a couple of teachers who loved skiing.... But I was not a fan, and I quickly realised that if I fell over on the nursery slopes enough times and while putting in an Oscar winning performance everytime, they soon gave up and left me on the sidelines and left me chilling while they took everyone else down the main slope...
But I remember my teacher who was one of the skiing fanatics running into my Dad and telling him how hopeless I was and it was a shame I was not enjoying the experience and basically not getting anything out of it while my brother was a natural. Now my recently retired military Dad who thanks to the Regiment he served in was a very experienced cross country and down hill skier smelt a rat and I remember my Mum who came from Aviemore and was no more interested in skiing than I was saying to me don't plan anything this weekend end because your Dad is taking you and your brother up the Cairngorms on Saturday and Sunday and he is determined to teach you to ski and get you off that nursery slope.
I am not going to lie, he was a very good teacher who didn't fall for my shannigans and I left my teachers open mouthed at the way I flew down the main slope the next week like a pro. They were happy and so was my Dad, but I still to this day fecking hate skiing!
...no, you were very clear.
One channel I follow documents problems with US police, and one failure mode is when self-contradictory instructions are given, followed by the victim being abused or attacked.